This review may contain spoilers
Solid and Intense start, pointless middle and haphazard finish
OPENING:
Unfortunately, after a very strong start with the first 2 episodes, this drama went through a full-blown identity crisis and frivolous execution of the things that made the first 2 episodes great, things like anticipation, great chemistry between characters and emotional impact. The middle episodes (ep 3 to 8) has been largely a disappointment and pointless, while the last 4 were, let's call it "A lot of stretching".
This drama after episode 2, had trouble finding an identity. Dramas aren’t always bound by one singular genre, it’s usually a mix, where some characteristics are dominant and others, more or so peripheral. However, this drama just kept flirting with different genres and its focus got muddier with every new episode.
Just to clarify, this review contains major spoilers. I don’t think I can really convey my issues and frustrations with this drama after such a good start without giving away any spoiler. So, if you don’t like spoilers, my suggestion is to not read any further.
THE REVIEW:
• Episode 1-2 (Electric premise)
The opening act was really solid, intense and emotionally impactful. The premise—a poor FL marrying the rich old terminal Chaebol company chairman to get out of her shitty life, which is marked by intense financial struggles and a really horrendous family member, the mother to be precise, who is pretty much willing to sell her daughter if need be. The rich man, through this marriage, trying to execute a lethal game of revenge against his psychopathic stepdaughter, who had killed his own biological daughter in order to remove any chance of potential dispute over inheritance—established stakes as high as they come in the story. However, the terminal patient took his own life, not being able to deal with the pain during the last stage of the disease, trusting that the FL will faithfully execute the next steps of the revenge plan.
The point of this plot was, basically, a three-month countdown to a shareholder meeting to declare a new chairwoman or chairman of the company, and until then, the FL is supposed to survive in the remote village away from Seoul, with the gamble that the evil stepdaughter will send the assassin that she had used to kill the Chairman’s biological daughter, to kill the FL too. That way they will be able to get to the step daughter, hopefully putting her to jail and take the one thing she values the most, the company. Losing this company which her mother's family initially owned will be like the death of her.
The early 2 episodes were intense, emotionally resonant, and established the rich, high-stakes atmosphere that promised a relentless thriller, with romance along the way with the ML in the village. We were contemplating what would happen in the next 5-6 episodes, how intense the cat and mouse game will be and how will the chemistry between the ML and FL develop.
• Episode 3-8 (Marked by Myriad of plot-holes and identity crisis and lack of chemistry)
The plot structure began to crumble almost immediately upon the FL's arrival in the remote village. A critical flaw was the speed with which key plot points were resolved, which was such a contrast to the early 2 episodes, where they were slowly building up the foundation. The FL’s carefully crafted cover was blown by the nosy school principal by Episode 3, and by the end of episode 5, the ML also figured out the identity. These reveals, which should have been mid-series turning points used to heighten tension, were rushed through, immediately bleeding the mystery and suspense out of the plot.
Not to mention how the ML actually found out about the identity, all through one scar on the wrist of the FL. Like, does he have a photographic or eidetic memory or something? The way he made 2 and 2 together, was really over the top and really unnecessary. I just don’t understand why would the giveaway of her identity will be so easy, considering the initial plot. It’s not like this dude actually had even seen her face, yet, he figured her out just like that with the help of a scar and how she looks “from the back”.
On top of that, the other girl, let’s call her the 2nd FL, was introduced to the FL’s village life with, just forceful writing. Just think about it. The rich chairman used to spy on her housekeepers with hidden cameras to see if they were doing something problematic on the command of her stepdaughter, who obviously had a spy in the house. Okay, understandable. Now, after the chairman died, out of the 3 housekeepers, 2 were removed initially, 1 remained to take care of the house, who supposedly has some kind of psychological issue. Anyway, how she found out about that secret room from where the chairman used to spy on the housekeepers and as a result, found out where the FL was hiding, was full of plot-holes. After his death, his lawyer used to go to the chairman’s office-room, from there with the moving of a pen at the table, the secret door would open and he would go in. I guess his for doing this was to have a safe place to plan things and also spy on the remaining housekeeper, considering the possibility that the chairman's will is somewhere in the house.
Now, first of all, why is that pen so out in the open on the table? Did no housekeeper ever go to that room to clean, and accidentally touch that pen or something, when it’s so out in the open? I mean, such an important room, but the entering method is so out in the open? Like, couldn’t the process of that door opening have been something a bit more intricate and exclusive so that others can’t find it out so easily?
Anyway, let’s give that part the benefit of the doubt. However, if you are a lawyer who is trying to execute an intricate, dangerous and high-stake revenge plot, wouldn’t you be at least careful enough to actually LOCK the door of the office-room before you get into the secret room from there?
I mean, there’s another person beside you in the house. If you get into the office-room and then just disappear, wouldn’t that be suspicious to the other person? If you had locked the office-room to begin with, the other person would not know what you are doing inside and would think you are there. But he didn’t lock the room and just casually went inside the secret room and our 2nd FL just found out about it really casually.
Not to mention, inside the secret room, why did the lawyer had the file of Bu Se Mi (our FL), her new name and her new identity and pictures of where she is supposed to be hiding? Like, you know where she is, you are the one who made the plan and decided where she would live for the next 3 months, you don’t need to keep any copy of those documents, you can simply get rid of them, you should get rid of them, actually. But he just kept those documents lying there. And the 2nd FL just went about finding out her whereabouts so freaking casually. I know that they wanted the 2nd FL to be the friend of the FL, so it was inevitable that she would figure out where FL is living. However, the way the writers went about it is just ridiculously convenient.
The mother also found out about the FL’s whereabout really just quite nonchalantly, and really the point of the story, which is basically a woman hiding in the shadows, was pretty quickly dissipated, and not through intricate plot-magic, but through very convenient plotlines.
Another thing that bothered me is how it just kept going back and forth from one genre to another without any central focus, it just lost its initial identity. Without the foundational tension of the secret cover, the drama struggled to find a solid blend of genres. The middle episodes became a baffling blend of conflicting genres:
• Thriller: Reduced to over-the-top, almost makjang-style villain antics that lacked realism. The stepdaughter who is the villain, just kept doing unreal things. She is a professor, I don’t know how she got that much power to just casually blackmail the other powerful shareholders by kidnapping and beating their children in front of them, as if she is on a different level to that of those other super rich shareholders. Like, this part is super-makjang. Whereas, the lawyer of the late chairman couldn’t fire the 2 spies of the stepdaughter in the chairman's house and eventually had to take them in due to “Labor Laws”. Like talk about intense contrast between makjang and realism in one show.
• Family Drama and Romance: Lacked emotional impact, feeling boring and inconsequential. The ML’s life as a single dad didn’t show much substance and his character just felt like “We just need a ML for the romance plot, and any will do” from the writers’ POV. He didn’t have any real characteristics that really made me go, “Yeah, this is what this drama needs”. Not to mention, the way the ML decided to help out the FL out of nowhere, it all felt very sudden and forced. There was no real chemistry, any amount that was there was forced. The ML’s life as a single dad wasn’t really explored in a way where we could relate to him, like his character lacked any depth, and it really didn’t make any sense as to why he is helping out the FL out of nowhere. This just made his existence quite unnecessary. The writers basically slept on the ML’s character.
• Comedy: Felt forced and jarringly out of place given the initial deadly stakes. Humor can be a strong weapon for intense dramas like this if were used at the right junctures. However, they just kept introducing unnecessary characters and plots for this, and it just didn’t take. Every aspect of the comedy element felt forceful after episode 2.
This lack of focus left the core story muddled and the narrative completely flat. We were no longer on the edge of our seats anticipating what would happen; we were simply waiting for the inevitable end of the episodes. I had trouble feeling any of the initial emotions and tensions that I had felt in the first 2 episodes. The characters were bland and the ML had no noteworthy quality. It just felt like the drama was reborn into something else, something of no real substance.
The biggest casualty of this structural decline was the emotional core. The village life, meant to be a quiet respite or a new field of danger, felt boring and lacked any genuine emotional weight. Furthermore, the handling of the romance was severely mismanaged. Despite being an evident theme, the chemistry between the leads was frustratingly subpar, and the development of their relationship felt unconvincing. The intensity of the first two episodes was replaced by a sense of apathy and boredom; the drama simply stopped making us feel anything. There was no real mystery, anticipation, emotional depth explored in the last 5-6 episodes. There was hardly any character development or anything of real substance. I had hopes from the Female Villain’s character, that what she would do, how she would go about her evil plan. But her character was made to be a makjang-style villain without any legible constriction of realism.
Now, I’ll say that compared to ep 3 to 7, episode 8 was somewhat more “back on track”, considering the assassin was introduced and made his move, which is the gamble they FL and the Chairman took. But, again, the way everything went about really just didn’t do justice to the initial plot and just took the air out of the show’s initial promise.
• Episode 8 to 12 (Filled with convenient plotlines and desperation)
After wasting time and potential in the middle episodes, the last 4, didn't have much to offer, other than desperate attempt to make sense of everything it did wrong in the middle in a short period of time, which resulted in rushed plot and a lot of "Convenient" happenstances. The fact that the Chairman was alive, the fact that they had to go that route, just made it understandable that the writers had no real creativity to explore. The romance, I mean, was there any romance? I didn't feel it. It just felt like, "Man, just have them kiss each other at the end and we are all good on the romance side". There was so real buildup to it, no real charm in their relationship, nothing. No real emotional impact, no real chemistry between the leads.
The Villains actions were over the top. Her being a professor and without any real power in the company, having that much power to do all the things like controlling the media, controlling the prosecution and legal teams, just didn't make any sense in the middle episodes, and it made even less sense at the end. If they wanted to make a generic Makjang, then they should have done that, instead they just opted for all sorts of contradictions and "Anything Goes" method. At some point if felt like super makjang, at another point it felt like "Why isn't anything happening?". The villain's character could have been so much better, yet she was just made out to be someone with a lot of "Plot Armor" for everything just because she had money.
I just couldn't feel anything, other than boredom and the constant fear of seeing another convenient plotline for things to make sense forcefully. This drama just kept missing the beats on all important junctures, and just felt like it had no real understanding what viewers actually like. Overall, a very disappointing and hollow drama.
I could write at length about the issues and problems in these last 4 episodes, but I am at my limit and honestly feel it's not really worth it. I'll just say that if the middle episodes are poor, you will have trouble catching your breath in the later episodes to make sense of everything to the viewers, and the finish will be subpar, maybe even disastrous.
CONCLUSION:
In my initial review, I had written that at the time I was hoping the writers had a predetermined plot for the entirety of the show and not just had decided to keep plastering band-aids to a zig-zagging and pointless storyline and use the infamous model called “We’ll figure things out as we go”. However, I think, that’s exactly what they have done. It all just felt like a hodgepodge of story without any real conviction and any real plan for the middle to the end of the drama. And as I had thought, after wasting the middle episodes, this drama failed to clutch it up with the later episodes, which was very much expected.
Now, is this drama absolutely horrible? No. It has its moments, especially, the acting by JYB as the Female Lead. She is a great actress despite the drama being subpar. She has made the best out of this character with her great acting talent. The cinematography and the overall production quality is really good, the technical skills brought to the table is really solid. However, it has become a run-of-the-mill generic rom-com thriller, which is not what we were promised with the great first 2 episodes. And that’s such a waste considering we have JYB as the main character, I just feel so frustrated about the fact that her talent and great acting was wasted with this flat storyline in the middle. And unfortunately, for the most part, writing and directing is what makes or break a drama.
My suggestion is, if you wanna watch it for JYB and her great acting, go ahead. But otherwise, you can skip it and you won't be missing out anything substantive.
Unfortunately, after a very strong start with the first 2 episodes, this drama went through a full-blown identity crisis and frivolous execution of the things that made the first 2 episodes great, things like anticipation, great chemistry between characters and emotional impact. The middle episodes (ep 3 to 8) has been largely a disappointment and pointless, while the last 4 were, let's call it "A lot of stretching".
This drama after episode 2, had trouble finding an identity. Dramas aren’t always bound by one singular genre, it’s usually a mix, where some characteristics are dominant and others, more or so peripheral. However, this drama just kept flirting with different genres and its focus got muddier with every new episode.
Just to clarify, this review contains major spoilers. I don’t think I can really convey my issues and frustrations with this drama after such a good start without giving away any spoiler. So, if you don’t like spoilers, my suggestion is to not read any further.
THE REVIEW:
• Episode 1-2 (Electric premise)
The opening act was really solid, intense and emotionally impactful. The premise—a poor FL marrying the rich old terminal Chaebol company chairman to get out of her shitty life, which is marked by intense financial struggles and a really horrendous family member, the mother to be precise, who is pretty much willing to sell her daughter if need be. The rich man, through this marriage, trying to execute a lethal game of revenge against his psychopathic stepdaughter, who had killed his own biological daughter in order to remove any chance of potential dispute over inheritance—established stakes as high as they come in the story. However, the terminal patient took his own life, not being able to deal with the pain during the last stage of the disease, trusting that the FL will faithfully execute the next steps of the revenge plan.
The point of this plot was, basically, a three-month countdown to a shareholder meeting to declare a new chairwoman or chairman of the company, and until then, the FL is supposed to survive in the remote village away from Seoul, with the gamble that the evil stepdaughter will send the assassin that she had used to kill the Chairman’s biological daughter, to kill the FL too. That way they will be able to get to the step daughter, hopefully putting her to jail and take the one thing she values the most, the company. Losing this company which her mother's family initially owned will be like the death of her.
The early 2 episodes were intense, emotionally resonant, and established the rich, high-stakes atmosphere that promised a relentless thriller, with romance along the way with the ML in the village. We were contemplating what would happen in the next 5-6 episodes, how intense the cat and mouse game will be and how will the chemistry between the ML and FL develop.
• Episode 3-8 (Marked by Myriad of plot-holes and identity crisis and lack of chemistry)
The plot structure began to crumble almost immediately upon the FL's arrival in the remote village. A critical flaw was the speed with which key plot points were resolved, which was such a contrast to the early 2 episodes, where they were slowly building up the foundation. The FL’s carefully crafted cover was blown by the nosy school principal by Episode 3, and by the end of episode 5, the ML also figured out the identity. These reveals, which should have been mid-series turning points used to heighten tension, were rushed through, immediately bleeding the mystery and suspense out of the plot.
Not to mention how the ML actually found out about the identity, all through one scar on the wrist of the FL. Like, does he have a photographic or eidetic memory or something? The way he made 2 and 2 together, was really over the top and really unnecessary. I just don’t understand why would the giveaway of her identity will be so easy, considering the initial plot. It’s not like this dude actually had even seen her face, yet, he figured her out just like that with the help of a scar and how she looks “from the back”.
On top of that, the other girl, let’s call her the 2nd FL, was introduced to the FL’s village life with, just forceful writing. Just think about it. The rich chairman used to spy on her housekeepers with hidden cameras to see if they were doing something problematic on the command of her stepdaughter, who obviously had a spy in the house. Okay, understandable. Now, after the chairman died, out of the 3 housekeepers, 2 were removed initially, 1 remained to take care of the house, who supposedly has some kind of psychological issue. Anyway, how she found out about that secret room from where the chairman used to spy on the housekeepers and as a result, found out where the FL was hiding, was full of plot-holes. After his death, his lawyer used to go to the chairman’s office-room, from there with the moving of a pen at the table, the secret door would open and he would go in. I guess his for doing this was to have a safe place to plan things and also spy on the remaining housekeeper, considering the possibility that the chairman's will is somewhere in the house.
Now, first of all, why is that pen so out in the open on the table? Did no housekeeper ever go to that room to clean, and accidentally touch that pen or something, when it’s so out in the open? I mean, such an important room, but the entering method is so out in the open? Like, couldn’t the process of that door opening have been something a bit more intricate and exclusive so that others can’t find it out so easily?
Anyway, let’s give that part the benefit of the doubt. However, if you are a lawyer who is trying to execute an intricate, dangerous and high-stake revenge plot, wouldn’t you be at least careful enough to actually LOCK the door of the office-room before you get into the secret room from there?
I mean, there’s another person beside you in the house. If you get into the office-room and then just disappear, wouldn’t that be suspicious to the other person? If you had locked the office-room to begin with, the other person would not know what you are doing inside and would think you are there. But he didn’t lock the room and just casually went inside the secret room and our 2nd FL just found out about it really casually.
Not to mention, inside the secret room, why did the lawyer had the file of Bu Se Mi (our FL), her new name and her new identity and pictures of where she is supposed to be hiding? Like, you know where she is, you are the one who made the plan and decided where she would live for the next 3 months, you don’t need to keep any copy of those documents, you can simply get rid of them, you should get rid of them, actually. But he just kept those documents lying there. And the 2nd FL just went about finding out her whereabouts so freaking casually. I know that they wanted the 2nd FL to be the friend of the FL, so it was inevitable that she would figure out where FL is living. However, the way the writers went about it is just ridiculously convenient.
The mother also found out about the FL’s whereabout really just quite nonchalantly, and really the point of the story, which is basically a woman hiding in the shadows, was pretty quickly dissipated, and not through intricate plot-magic, but through very convenient plotlines.
Another thing that bothered me is how it just kept going back and forth from one genre to another without any central focus, it just lost its initial identity. Without the foundational tension of the secret cover, the drama struggled to find a solid blend of genres. The middle episodes became a baffling blend of conflicting genres:
• Thriller: Reduced to over-the-top, almost makjang-style villain antics that lacked realism. The stepdaughter who is the villain, just kept doing unreal things. She is a professor, I don’t know how she got that much power to just casually blackmail the other powerful shareholders by kidnapping and beating their children in front of them, as if she is on a different level to that of those other super rich shareholders. Like, this part is super-makjang. Whereas, the lawyer of the late chairman couldn’t fire the 2 spies of the stepdaughter in the chairman's house and eventually had to take them in due to “Labor Laws”. Like talk about intense contrast between makjang and realism in one show.
• Family Drama and Romance: Lacked emotional impact, feeling boring and inconsequential. The ML’s life as a single dad didn’t show much substance and his character just felt like “We just need a ML for the romance plot, and any will do” from the writers’ POV. He didn’t have any real characteristics that really made me go, “Yeah, this is what this drama needs”. Not to mention, the way the ML decided to help out the FL out of nowhere, it all felt very sudden and forced. There was no real chemistry, any amount that was there was forced. The ML’s life as a single dad wasn’t really explored in a way where we could relate to him, like his character lacked any depth, and it really didn’t make any sense as to why he is helping out the FL out of nowhere. This just made his existence quite unnecessary. The writers basically slept on the ML’s character.
• Comedy: Felt forced and jarringly out of place given the initial deadly stakes. Humor can be a strong weapon for intense dramas like this if were used at the right junctures. However, they just kept introducing unnecessary characters and plots for this, and it just didn’t take. Every aspect of the comedy element felt forceful after episode 2.
This lack of focus left the core story muddled and the narrative completely flat. We were no longer on the edge of our seats anticipating what would happen; we were simply waiting for the inevitable end of the episodes. I had trouble feeling any of the initial emotions and tensions that I had felt in the first 2 episodes. The characters were bland and the ML had no noteworthy quality. It just felt like the drama was reborn into something else, something of no real substance.
The biggest casualty of this structural decline was the emotional core. The village life, meant to be a quiet respite or a new field of danger, felt boring and lacked any genuine emotional weight. Furthermore, the handling of the romance was severely mismanaged. Despite being an evident theme, the chemistry between the leads was frustratingly subpar, and the development of their relationship felt unconvincing. The intensity of the first two episodes was replaced by a sense of apathy and boredom; the drama simply stopped making us feel anything. There was no real mystery, anticipation, emotional depth explored in the last 5-6 episodes. There was hardly any character development or anything of real substance. I had hopes from the Female Villain’s character, that what she would do, how she would go about her evil plan. But her character was made to be a makjang-style villain without any legible constriction of realism.
Now, I’ll say that compared to ep 3 to 7, episode 8 was somewhat more “back on track”, considering the assassin was introduced and made his move, which is the gamble they FL and the Chairman took. But, again, the way everything went about really just didn’t do justice to the initial plot and just took the air out of the show’s initial promise.
• Episode 8 to 12 (Filled with convenient plotlines and desperation)
After wasting time and potential in the middle episodes, the last 4, didn't have much to offer, other than desperate attempt to make sense of everything it did wrong in the middle in a short period of time, which resulted in rushed plot and a lot of "Convenient" happenstances. The fact that the Chairman was alive, the fact that they had to go that route, just made it understandable that the writers had no real creativity to explore. The romance, I mean, was there any romance? I didn't feel it. It just felt like, "Man, just have them kiss each other at the end and we are all good on the romance side". There was so real buildup to it, no real charm in their relationship, nothing. No real emotional impact, no real chemistry between the leads.
The Villains actions were over the top. Her being a professor and without any real power in the company, having that much power to do all the things like controlling the media, controlling the prosecution and legal teams, just didn't make any sense in the middle episodes, and it made even less sense at the end. If they wanted to make a generic Makjang, then they should have done that, instead they just opted for all sorts of contradictions and "Anything Goes" method. At some point if felt like super makjang, at another point it felt like "Why isn't anything happening?". The villain's character could have been so much better, yet she was just made out to be someone with a lot of "Plot Armor" for everything just because she had money.
I just couldn't feel anything, other than boredom and the constant fear of seeing another convenient plotline for things to make sense forcefully. This drama just kept missing the beats on all important junctures, and just felt like it had no real understanding what viewers actually like. Overall, a very disappointing and hollow drama.
I could write at length about the issues and problems in these last 4 episodes, but I am at my limit and honestly feel it's not really worth it. I'll just say that if the middle episodes are poor, you will have trouble catching your breath in the later episodes to make sense of everything to the viewers, and the finish will be subpar, maybe even disastrous.
CONCLUSION:
In my initial review, I had written that at the time I was hoping the writers had a predetermined plot for the entirety of the show and not just had decided to keep plastering band-aids to a zig-zagging and pointless storyline and use the infamous model called “We’ll figure things out as we go”. However, I think, that’s exactly what they have done. It all just felt like a hodgepodge of story without any real conviction and any real plan for the middle to the end of the drama. And as I had thought, after wasting the middle episodes, this drama failed to clutch it up with the later episodes, which was very much expected.
Now, is this drama absolutely horrible? No. It has its moments, especially, the acting by JYB as the Female Lead. She is a great actress despite the drama being subpar. She has made the best out of this character with her great acting talent. The cinematography and the overall production quality is really good, the technical skills brought to the table is really solid. However, it has become a run-of-the-mill generic rom-com thriller, which is not what we were promised with the great first 2 episodes. And that’s such a waste considering we have JYB as the main character, I just feel so frustrated about the fact that her talent and great acting was wasted with this flat storyline in the middle. And unfortunately, for the most part, writing and directing is what makes or break a drama.
My suggestion is, if you wanna watch it for JYB and her great acting, go ahead. But otherwise, you can skip it and you won't be missing out anything substantive.
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