porkman

Came across a trailer for this and thought it was an ad for some phone app lmao.

My main issue is how the leads' relationship is written, but I did like some of the humour at work and the vibes of the families living together in the middle episodes. I think this writer does humour pretty well. But we're past that stage now. The show is definitely much better off without the cartoonish villain too.

My apologies, I got too carried away with the rant.

Something about this show just feels... intentional. Or artificial. It's like the writer is ticking off boxes instead of laying the groundwork of the story. Why is this couple not getting a divorce despite being miserable? Because she has a terminal illness now and he needs to take care of her. Wait, why were they so in love in the first place? They met as students and she liked him. Then they fell in love. Oh, okay. Why did the marriage fall apart then? Because he was mistreated, and she suffered a miscarriage and they handled it poorly. That was actually a valid reason and I wanted to know more, so I waited for this to be fleshed out. But the writer said, watch them cry about her illness and amnesia instead.

All the cliches were okay, they're in many other shows after all. What really makes me scratch my head is this terminal illness plot. It in fact just feels like a convenient plot device to skip the complexities in their relationship. But isn't that what makes a good romantic story -- the complexities in the relationship?? Instead of using the screentime to make them work out what went wrong before, it's work, family politics, chaebol drama, guy scheming to get the girl etc. When it comes to a point where they're finally going to confront their past problems head on -- memory loss, where am I, what happened Hyunwoo? Crying, it was my fault, I'm sorry for wanting to leave you... We're back to square one? Whatever happened to communication? It's like the illness is an excuse to take shortcuts. Everything stops at surface level, I'm not emotionally connected to this story. The leads are here crying their hearts out, but I'm just thinking, y'all probably are getting that divorce sooner or later anyways. Lol. Is it just the skeptic in me that's stopping me from enjoying this?

Frankly, I already was not that fond of the first episodes and put this on hold long ago, but I came back because of the social media hype. I have to say it's my own fault for succumbing to the FOMO. Well, the leads are nice to look at and the production values are high. I guess I'll just stick around for the ending. I apologise for my yapping.

The first episode was a bit dry despite the unique subject matter, but I'll watch a few more episodes to judge.

I meant the characters are in a reality/variety show as it says in the synopsis. It's still a fictional drama.

Interesting. The webtoon was very morbid and greyish in colour but here they decided to add a lot of colourful elements and make it a variety show setting. Hopefully they pull it off.

That poster somehow looks very Japanese-esque.

The story seems pretty standard but so far it is charming and cheesy in a good way.

I watched this when it aired and just did a rewatch, and it is still as funny as I remembered. I would say it's totally deserving of the 9.0 rating if you watch it with the right expectations. That is, knowing it's based on a low budget and pretty nonsensical Cdrama. Mr Queen basically took the basic story outline and upgraded everything else. It's not perfect, and the palace politics are not as legitimate as those serious sageuks, but it managed to mix very different ingredients together and somehow maintain a nice balance. The relationship between the leads was done very well. It developed with a logical narrative and they really complemented each other (basically they were very funny together). Also, the scenes with the FL and her maids/chef were comedic gold.

The visuals in this show are great and all, but I'm unfortunately not connecting to the story. The terminal illness is looking like a plot device to get two people, who are not compatible or fit to be a couple, to be together. Is this a rekindling of love, or is it really just guilt/sympathy on the ML's end? I honestly don't know. Moreover, the miscommunication in their relationship is at such an absurd level, I wonder how much they even knew each other before getting married.

And being not a fan of chaebol stories in general, the supporting characters and subplots are also not grabbing me much. I'll be putting it on hold for now.

I don't know, I found the 'dark comedy' in the 2nd episode to be off-putting. It isn't funny to be happy over anyone, much less someone you used to love, only having 3 months left to live. Even if you're on bad terms now, that's just being heartless. Yes, the panic/grief will probably settle in later. But it didn't feel right for such a topic to be taken so lightly. Admittedly I'm a bit sensitive to plots with terminal illness, but I can't be the only one who felt this way. Right...?

I think the show is going into a slump (pun intended). After moving past the premise, it's clearly running out of substantial plot and getting repetitive. I don't mind drunk scenes if their conversations served a purpose, but they're too often used as filler. Sometimes the humour falls flat, and the romantic scenes are going overboard with the aegyo. The writer also has a bad habit of making characters do something frustrating or including a silly/unrealistic scene to move the plot forward (Yes, I am talking about the ending of episode 12). The past couple of episodes were serviceable at best, hopefully this picks up.

Would have been much better without the romance. I liked the first part of the movie as it was. In fact both characters and their subplots seem like they shouldn't belong to the same movie, switching between both characters' stories was incredibly jarring and the love felt like it blossomed out of nowhere. And to make things worse the logic went haywire towards the end...

Went in with no prior information and fell in love with it. It's been a long time since I felt genuinely impressed by a movie.

I can have my standards when watching dramas. Also that isn't my only issue with the show. For example, the whole subplot of ML's scandal was nonsensical and carelessly written, but I gave it a pass. I just thought the therapy scene was so ridiculous that I had to rant about it. But as I said it still has good moments, like the humour. Unlike some others, I like the FL's character.

The show has its good moments. But I'm having issues with the writing. The biggest fail was when they made the ML (unintentionally) eavesdrop on FL's therapy session. I almost facepalmed. That was so out of touch and unrealistic! Why does a therapy room have non-soundproof walls and a transparent door? It's plain unprofessional, a huge breach of privacy and the entire scene is just uncalled for. Seriously, there are many less stupid ways for him to find out about her struggles. I for one would ditch a therapist centre instantly if I found out they couldn't even ensure the basic confidentiality that I should be entitled to as a patient.

They weren't all "super" successful though, they were just doing better. Eunwoo simply gathered a team and managed to launch a webtoon, it wasn't really shown if it was a success. Gyeongtae's was a bit out of nowhere but it looked like a small-ish food business looking to expand. Sangdo launched a new branch of his family's already successful restaurant. It was more of a second chance moment to show you can still pursue your aspirations/new ventures in your late thirties.

1) She's more than qualified for all her roles
2) A lot of people tune in just for her
3) She deserves her success because she worked for it.
If you don't like her, just skip her shows. Who are you to demand her to do supporting roles again.

For me, the show took off around episode 5-6. I liked that the narrative was peeling layers off the characters and it got me slowly invested in their stories. This resulted in a significant improvement and a much more compelling second half, when it tends to be the other way round for most shows. It's not perfect and the pacing could have been more consistent, but it conveyed a lot of emotions to me and got me on the brink of tears at times. The ending could have been less rushed but it still wrapped up nicely. I'll rate it a solid 8.7/10.