5
1
A Comedy That Forgot It Was Funny
This drama is a perfect example of why mixing genres does not automatically make a story richer.
It starts as a genuinely funny comedy with a great premise, strong physical humor, excellent timing, and Ha Yoon-kyung practically stealing every scene. Episodes 3 and 4 were particularly good; for a moment, I thought I was watching one of the funniest Korean dramas of the year.
Then the series decided it needed to be something else.
The comedy gradually disappeared and was replaced by endless schemes involving 17 billion won, corrupt politicians, an increasingly cartoonish villain, confrontations, betrayals, and plans to recover the money. A lot happens, but very little of it is actually interesting. Many of these confrontations simply reinforce information and motivations that are already perfectly clear, making the story feel increasingly repetitive rather than more complex.
That is the real problem: **the drama increases the stakes while decreasing the audience's reason to care.**
There is a redemption arc for the protagonist, and it works well enough. There are also some nice moments showing how his fake relationships begin to affect him emotionally. But none of this required abandoning the comedy that originally gave the series its personality.
By the final episode, the villains lose, the protagonist reforms, we jump three years into the future, he runs a legitimate auditing business, and the female lead has become a lawyer and joins the firm. There isn't even a conventional romantic payoff between them—which isn't necessarily a problem—but there is also very little emotional impact left by that point.
The drama isn't terrible. That's almost what makes it more disappointing.
It begins as something distinctive and ends as something completely generic.
Mixing comedy, crime, drama, romance and redemption can work beautifully when those genres complement each other. Here, they mostly replace one another. The series keeps changing what it wants to be until eventually it doesn't feel particularly committed to anything.
Episodes 3 and 4 showed how good this drama could have been.
The remaining episodes mostly showed how much personality it had lost along the way.
It starts as a genuinely funny comedy with a great premise, strong physical humor, excellent timing, and Ha Yoon-kyung practically stealing every scene. Episodes 3 and 4 were particularly good; for a moment, I thought I was watching one of the funniest Korean dramas of the year.
Then the series decided it needed to be something else.
The comedy gradually disappeared and was replaced by endless schemes involving 17 billion won, corrupt politicians, an increasingly cartoonish villain, confrontations, betrayals, and plans to recover the money. A lot happens, but very little of it is actually interesting. Many of these confrontations simply reinforce information and motivations that are already perfectly clear, making the story feel increasingly repetitive rather than more complex.
That is the real problem: **the drama increases the stakes while decreasing the audience's reason to care.**
There is a redemption arc for the protagonist, and it works well enough. There are also some nice moments showing how his fake relationships begin to affect him emotionally. But none of this required abandoning the comedy that originally gave the series its personality.
By the final episode, the villains lose, the protagonist reforms, we jump three years into the future, he runs a legitimate auditing business, and the female lead has become a lawyer and joins the firm. There isn't even a conventional romantic payoff between them—which isn't necessarily a problem—but there is also very little emotional impact left by that point.
The drama isn't terrible. That's almost what makes it more disappointing.
It begins as something distinctive and ends as something completely generic.
Mixing comedy, crime, drama, romance and redemption can work beautifully when those genres complement each other. Here, they mostly replace one another. The series keeps changing what it wants to be until eventually it doesn't feel particularly committed to anything.
Episodes 3 and 4 showed how good this drama could have been.
The remaining episodes mostly showed how much personality it had lost along the way.
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