lilili

I feel like I understand what they were going for in the first half of the drama. First off, it's a subversion of romcoms, not actually a romcom. They are sort of indicting the fantasies we have of the rich handsome man sweeping us off our feet (Hae Jin's OTT dates with Sang Eun) and instead showing us that the quiet heartfelt dinners at home are much more meaningful and valuable. It's also a character study of deeply traumatized people struggling to learn how to love and be loved (because none of them feel like they deserve love because they didn't get it as children, see the ex wife's comment about only people who've been loved know how to love). The setup is ridiculous but the emotions feel very real. I liked that it started out tonally weird going from funny to romantic to tragic to sexy all in one episode. And Go Kyung Pyo is absolute fire as Jiho. It's a hard role to pull off because sometimes he's ridiculous, sometimes he's tragic, sometimes he's sexy but GKP can do it all. And his chemistry with Park Min Young is incredible (which you'd expect since she's the queen of generating chemi with her costars)

But there were a few problems with the setup that are now dragging down the show and turning it into a straight melodrama. One is that Hae Jin was not well integrated into the plot. Unlike a lot of people I like the character even if I have not one tiny particle of SLS. But because it's crystal clear from the first episode that Sang Eun is in love with Jiho, Hae Jin's character is eating up too much screentime given he's not ever in the running to be with Sang Eun.

Another problem with the setup is the whole chaebol plot and Madame Yoo. I actually love the idea of a weird surrogate mother who is toxic but also the only parent the FL has ever known so they are tangled up with each other in bad ways. But you didn't need the whole Eena group mess to get there. Or at least it didn't need to be this complicated. The chaebol shenanigans are taking away attention from the leads and also from Gwangnam who is a wonderful character and deserves to be better developed with his own romance.

Despite all the second half problems I still love this show because somehow the core romance is poignant. I just love them both so much and I'm rooting so hard for them to heal together. When Jiho went to the birthday dinner it was a fantastic moment for him because it showed his character growth thanks to Sang Eun's influence and I just want more of that and way less Eena group bullshit.

I love what you wrote here 🥹🥹🥹

It's a polarizing drama. People either love it or hate it. You should watch the first couple of episodes and decide for yourself. I'm in the love camp along with one of my podcast partners but one is hate watching and one dropped after the first two eps.

Because Yoo Madame is the closest thing she has to a mother and it's hard to toss out your mother.

I loved the drama to ep 10. It's gotten too melo for me the past two eps but I'm still enjoying parts of it. And I love Jiho and Sang Eun and I'm invested in Hae Jin even if he's an immature mess.

https://twitter.com/beanyon21/status/1585652626439294976

The one tiny moment I loved but that got lost in all the plot machinations was when Jiho went on his own to the staffer's birthday party and was able to be polite as he sat there and sipped his juice (d'aw). It represented huge character growth for Jiho and showed the positive influence Sang Eun has had on his life despite the craziness with the marriages being revealed.

It was never a love triangle regardless of how he feels. I think the writers are messing with our expectations around love triangles

I'm pissed we're not getting that and instead spending time on chaebols we don't care about

😭😭😭

I feel like I could understand her though, because she grew up so poor and unloved that in her mind financial security and social status will protect her and make up for what she lacked. But the way she's written makes her a straight a villain and I hate that.

I'm with you. Ep 11 is the first episode that I deeply disliked. 100% agree on too much unnecessary crap going on.

My favorite scene was when Jiho tried to ask Sang Eun 500 questions (lolol) and the kiss which was extremely sexy but far too short.

I've been a Hae Jin defender but wow he was terrible in this episode, immature, weak willed and unwilling to just step the hell out of Sang Eun's life like she's asked him to. And I hate that Sang Eun keeps getting manipulated because she's still emotionally immature and trained to please people instead of setting appropriate boundaries with Hae Jin (and Yoo Madame too).

One thing in particular I want to call out is Jiho's awful ex. Why make his ex a villain? She should be a sympathetic character given how she grew up and her time with Jiho when they were teenagers and instead she's doing all of this unethical crap, screwing over her client and trying to destroy Sang Eun, it's ridiculous.

I'm pretty sure she's violating multiple laws about ethical conduct and client-attorney privilege

His mother has a substance abuse problem and he spent his childhood seeing her passed out in bed after drinking and taking pills. Also he was bullied by his older brothers and they threatened to harm his mother if he fought back. So as an adult he has trauma from his experiences that manifests in insomnia, flashbacks and substance abuse (the scene where he drinks and takes pills and then his manager says you haven't done this in awhile, meaning he does this regularly). He's also still dealing with feeling unloved as shown in the scene where his mother describes him as collateral and that's why the family wants him to get married to a chaebol daughter.

I'm with you, I feel bad for him too. He has done some really crappy things but his motivations are understandable and he's obviously emotionally damaged from how he grew up just like Jiho and Sang Eun

This is a good recap of eps 9 and 10 https://www.soompi.com/article/1545118wpp/4-aggravating-moments-2-high-points-in-episodes-9-10-of-love-in-contract

"she tries not to be objectified but then she also somehow allowed it.." this is what you would see with someone who grew up in an emotionally abusive situation like she did. She's strong in some ways but she hasn't learned how to stop trying to please people when that's what she was literally trained to do.

I think he's had the appropriate amount of screen time given he's not one of the main leads but having said that he's about to get his own romance which is fantastic

You and I are watching the same drama. This in particular: "But, damn the way he treats Sang Eun. No wonder she likes him, because unlike anyone else (expect Gwang Nam of course) he puts her first." 😭😭😭 He is best boy

I agree with almost everything you said but Gwangnam is the best gay character in a mainstream k-drama I've ever seen. And the way the show depicts homophobia is really well done.