This review may contain spoilers
So much potential but failed to stick the landing
This drama at a glance had everything going for it. Corporate and political drama, memory loss, family intrigue and scheming surrounding who gets to rule the company, and even a decent splash of romance between Dongju and Eunnam where you were always guessing if they would or wouldn't end up back together. But when going for a revenge plot, especially with so many morally grey or outright evil characters, you MUST stick the landing. The antagonists must face justice, the protagonists should emerge victorious with perhaps a better appreciation for what they had prior to the conflict, and the anti heros need justification and understanding for why they behaved the way they did.
But Buried Hearts totally fails to stick the landing, taking all that build up across 16 episodes and driving it directly into a brick wall. It almost feels like the writers got bored of the show around episode 12/13 and just felt like they had to wrap up the story by any means necessary, regardless of what it would mean for the characters. Almost none of the characters arrive at the end with a better understanding of the world or themselves, the only person who has any real character development is Seonu and he becomes a straight-up murderer out of nowhere in the final 20 minutes of the show when he offs his rival for heir of Daesan group Taeyun. Taeyun's mother never is shown to have any remorse for all the terrible events she caused trying to protect Taeyun, and his death seemingly out of the blue undercuts almost all tension resulting from those actions in the first place. We never really see Yeom Jangseon face any real justice for his crimes, Dongju makes this big show of how he will punish him and in the end all we get is a short conversation between the two and then get told about Dongju taking all of Jangseon's wealth and property but we never see it. Jongseon just ends up let back out on the street to wander back to his old home, no mention of his wife or how she will react to getting him back after a year of being presumed dead.
But i think the biggest two let-downs in terms of character arc are Dongju and Eunnam. Eunnam functionally does not change from start to finish, she feels like an NPC just dragged around by the plot so that Dongju has a reason beyond personal revenge to act the way he does. She never really seems to have much motivation on her own and the issue at the core of their relationship is never resolved in any meaningful way. As for Dongju, he makes this big show at the end about needing to "go find himself" since he feels he can't tell right from wrong anymore after all he has done but it feels wholly unearned. We never see him struggling with this moral question prior to episode 16 and feels like a cheap excuse from the writing team to have him out of the way for Taeyun's murder and to force in a surprise twist of him not actually ending up back with Eunnam.
It feels like the only character that was fully realized was Huh Ildo, and even then they managed to undercut a lot of the emotion and growth behind his character by having him change allegiances one too many times and then killing him immediately after he finally has a heart to heart with Dongju.
Overall, I'd say the show is only worth watching if you want to just see a standard revenge fantasy show as long as you are okay with none of the characters really changing or growing as a result of the events of the show. They feel very 2D and don't seem to exercise a lot of agency over their own lives outside of Dongju and Jangseon.
But Buried Hearts totally fails to stick the landing, taking all that build up across 16 episodes and driving it directly into a brick wall. It almost feels like the writers got bored of the show around episode 12/13 and just felt like they had to wrap up the story by any means necessary, regardless of what it would mean for the characters. Almost none of the characters arrive at the end with a better understanding of the world or themselves, the only person who has any real character development is Seonu and he becomes a straight-up murderer out of nowhere in the final 20 minutes of the show when he offs his rival for heir of Daesan group Taeyun. Taeyun's mother never is shown to have any remorse for all the terrible events she caused trying to protect Taeyun, and his death seemingly out of the blue undercuts almost all tension resulting from those actions in the first place. We never really see Yeom Jangseon face any real justice for his crimes, Dongju makes this big show of how he will punish him and in the end all we get is a short conversation between the two and then get told about Dongju taking all of Jangseon's wealth and property but we never see it. Jongseon just ends up let back out on the street to wander back to his old home, no mention of his wife or how she will react to getting him back after a year of being presumed dead.
But i think the biggest two let-downs in terms of character arc are Dongju and Eunnam. Eunnam functionally does not change from start to finish, she feels like an NPC just dragged around by the plot so that Dongju has a reason beyond personal revenge to act the way he does. She never really seems to have much motivation on her own and the issue at the core of their relationship is never resolved in any meaningful way. As for Dongju, he makes this big show at the end about needing to "go find himself" since he feels he can't tell right from wrong anymore after all he has done but it feels wholly unearned. We never see him struggling with this moral question prior to episode 16 and feels like a cheap excuse from the writing team to have him out of the way for Taeyun's murder and to force in a surprise twist of him not actually ending up back with Eunnam.
It feels like the only character that was fully realized was Huh Ildo, and even then they managed to undercut a lot of the emotion and growth behind his character by having him change allegiances one too many times and then killing him immediately after he finally has a heart to heart with Dongju.
Overall, I'd say the show is only worth watching if you want to just see a standard revenge fantasy show as long as you are okay with none of the characters really changing or growing as a result of the events of the show. They feel very 2D and don't seem to exercise a lot of agency over their own lives outside of Dongju and Jangseon.
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