dtulipano

Realistic comfort drama

Realistic drama in which two people face the ups and downs of surviving the demands of the corporate world, the wounds of the past, family stories and beliefs, and the challenges of living together, balancing the realities of different ways of life and how much you can give while still being yourself.

The plot approach is realistic, without the excessive puritanism of Asian dramas, with the necessary intimacy to make it credible, without being a Western series exploiting sexuality in excess.

Except for the manager, portrayed with excessive exaggeration, all the characters were within proper limits for a drama.

The way both couples resolve their differences and overcome setbacks makes the drama very enjoyable.

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Entertained drama

Even when the plot is dramatic and leans toward an action drama, the episodes have a great rhythm; they are easy to watch, keeping the mood up throughout. For me, it was very easy to watch several episodes without losing track of time.
The plot with the main leads could be more realistic, since they kissed, broke the intimate space, and they were living together, with impeccable acting representing the tension between them; the concept of selling excessive purity is not convincing, and, as a Western, it makes the script look fake, beyond the usual dramatic license that appears too frequently in the episodes. The FL always arrived before the police and the firefighters.
The healing together was nice; the audit process was overly aggressive in its approach to police investigation, with very few editing mistakes.
The end seemed to miss more commitment in terms of marriage, which was being announced during the last episode,

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Nice drama to watch

This is a nice drama to watch, especially for the FL, who always delivers a great performance.
Even with the license of exaggeration about the corporate world, showing several secondary leads that are impossible to exist in the corporate world, closer to a comic book than to reality, the episodes were easy to watch.
For me, the most important part is the reflection on having a relationship in the company (no serious organization would allow your subordinate to be your partner), the difficulties of living together with a partner with the demands of the competitive corporate world, and the evolution of the female leader as she seeks to find and overcome her flaws to build a relationship.
Overall, I had a good time.

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Did the job

This drama reflects a mature entertainment industry that needs serial productions to keep the cash flowing, which, in my view, isn't a bad thing, since the drama did its job.
The main leads' chemistry was very good, and it was the backbone that helped the drama succeed. As support, they relied on simple physical scenes and exaggerated (almost comic-book) characters to entertain viewers.
As usual, they showed a world with plenty of bad people, extreme Asian puritanism, social-class differentiation, and successful people coming from humble origins. It seems that coming from the orphanage is a must to be successful.
Unfortunately, the opportunity to develop a good story of mature adults was lost in the need to make the show entertaining by relying on easy-to-achieve licenses such as exaggerated fights, extremely bad characters such as the gangster (it seems incredible to find people like him in Korea), and the village sisters who could beat armed gangsters.
They missed the chance to develop a strong second-lead story about overcoming social differences to stay with someone you love, beyond a Cinderella cliché.
Of course, to make all that fit, tons of potholes emerged in the script.
In the end, I had a good time and felt satisfied, since my expectations were very low for a smart script after seeing a good gangster fall in love with a very important prosecutor who disappeared after a near-death torture, as if the authorities were stupid.

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Mixed emotions

I ended up with mixed emotions after watching the drama.

On one side, I got a dopamine hit from the happy ending and enjoyed the main 'leads' performance, which convinced me of their true feelings, since, from my point of view, it is very difficult when you are framed in rom-coms. I personally like the no-dating-in-high-school campaign; I like this trend of the FL with great achievements complementing and even saving the ML, and the scenery and costumes, which made it worth going through 29 episodes.

On the other hand, the plot relied too much on main-character chemistry and soap-opera-typical drama, with exaggerated characters, and it lacked a consistent script, scene sequencing, and a credible story to identify with.

For example, when they eloped, they took a train with nothing but the clothes they were wearing, then suddenly appeared with a fully complete, neat wardrobe. Then two teenagers full of hormones living together, kissing each other, and nothing happened—too much asian drama style.

From my perspective, exploring the challenges of a rich ML suddenly exposed to poverty, doing low-level, hard-working jobs, and the challenge of daily life as a couple at such a young age will be very interesting, and even educational as a wake-up call.

The gangsters were also exaggerated, as was the grandfather, whose character could be deleted and nothing would happen, and no wonder the father almost looked like a silent-movie villain. The half-brother's performance was poor and unnecessary, with the same expression whether happy or sad, losing the opportunity to develop a good story about an illegitimate child born out of wedlock.

Then the ML's behavior after they found each other years later was like a maniacal, dominant psycho, and the independent FL suddenly became submissive, accepting the most outrageous situation.

The second leads’ story was very good and deserved more scenes, since it showed the challenges of a couple after getting married, as the female lead expressed in one scene. Still, it was left hanging because it seemed easier to rely too heavily on the main-character chemistry.

No wonder about scene mistakes, changing locations within the same scene, the typical wardrobe mistakes in Chinese dramas, sudden solutions without explanation, and characters living a great life without income.

In the end, I enjoyed it, but I regret not watching a better drama that wasted the great chemistry between the leads.

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Could be a better plot

It was a pleasant drama to watch. The episodes weren't boring; the acting of all the characters was good; they conveyed both the sad and happy situations; and the casting was good.
Sometimes the plot used exaggeration for humor, making unnecessary gestures that, really, as in the final scene or the third couple, supporting the mother of the supporting male, who was close to ridiculous, left the son as retarded, which seems very surreal even for Asian cultures, and suddenly she accepted the girl because of a dance, which couldn't be faker, making all their appearence unnecesary.
The FL and the ML wasted too much time solving the overly dramatic deeds of bad people, which detracted from the reality of the acceptable verbiage used.
For me, as a Westerner, it seems improbable for two grown adults living together and liking each other to waste too much time on a sometimes-lacking-credibility "pure behavior".
Overall, it was entertaining to watch the drama, and it brought good feelings.

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