oceanstate

I went into this drama with no expectations, knowing nothing about the show or the cast - and i began watching it a little after it finished airing. I actually quite liked the plot, contrary to what quite a few of these reviews are saying, I felt (generally speaking) it was a fresh and interesting plot with themes largely unexplored in the K-Dramas I have watched so far. Although the tradgedy set up is typically for a K-drama, the plot they went with here was quite unexpected - taking a pre-established romance, with all their initial butterflies already gone, and placing us in the middle of a marriage that is falling apart. I felt like themes around family, divorce, money and love in a long term 'adult' relationship were really unique to this drama, even if they were left a touch underdeveloped, i still felt like this drama gave something new and fresh for me as a viewer to enjoy, even if it was riddled with many k-drama cliches throughout. AT THE START.

Cause omg after the first 5 episodes or so i found this drama to be highkey so annoying and unwatchable and could not finish it. I am the biggest hater in the world of love triangles, but since they appear in literally every k-drama ever i have had to try and get over it but this was probably one of the most frustrating love triangles i've ever seen fr. The second male lead was giving no reason at all for any single person in the drama to like him (except for the mum ig cause after reading other peoples reviews turns out hes her son or smth??) yet every single person was acting like he was such a baddie and he fit so perfect into their family? It also made actually 0 sense for the female lead to like him at all even if they had a past and i found every scene with hi so frustrating and unwatchable. I understand he's meant to be the villain but a good piece of media makes the villain intruiging and at very least cool.

This was around the point where the cliches that were settled throughout began to really annoy me, it felt really messy and because it was all something i'd seen before, as the unique main plotlines began to fade away, i felt like i was almost forcing myself to watch a show that i didn't want to watch anymore. The final straw for me was that when i was at my most frustrated with the show, the allegations about Kim Soo Hyun came out and i rlly hate him now, aside from all the things he did, he also showed a very pathetic side of himself whilst trying to make himself look better - so i found his character (who i already didnt really like) unwatchable and easily turned off the drama for good.

I did really enjoy Kim Jiwon's performance though, i felt like her acting was the saviour of the show and added lots of nuance and intriugue to a character who I otherwise likely would've found highly unlikable.

I can definitely see why people would like this drama and if you are someone who likes typical K-Drama cliches i think this will be solid watch for you, it just wasn't for me!