This review may contain spoilers
Give up on giving up!! Hilarious and refreshing drama
No spoiler summaryI found myself rewatching this drama while it was still airing that's how good it was. I enjoy how it is mainly a comedic drama with some romantic and serious aspects written in. The plot is not too heavy and is easy to understand. It does not contain too many tropes and when it does, it makes fun of them. It feels like the cast were having fun and doing a lot of ad libs. As a gym goer myself the way they played around with common "gym community" tropes was hilarious and how they explored different ways in which exercise can be the foundation to improving other aspects of your own life. "Ones body reflects ones life"
Spoiler area
The best parts come from Do Hyun Joong's arc from a typical gym bro who starts off being insufferable, making them do heavy reps until failure and forcing chicken breast upon them to someone who is able to understand people's mental wellbeing, guilty pleasures and that not everyone's life revolves around exercise. At the start he would bail on dates and refuse to eat cake just because it would ruin his gains but by the end, is able to appreciate his partners favourite foods even if they are high calories. The drama has romantic aspects woven throughout but they are mainly stopped by comedic timing which may throw a lot of people off who wanted a normal rom com. I have never seen a drama where the kiss happens in epsiode 11/12 but I didn't go into this drama with heavy romance expected as I had seen only funny clips of it at first.
Mi Ran's arc is great because she mainly exercises to escape from being unloved but is able to finally start to exercise because she wants to and to start loving herself more. For example she is often saying that manager Do believes in her more than she believes in herself. Then she is able to stand up without falling when the bus stops she realises how her body has been slowly changing even when she doesn't realise it. The turning point is when she realises she has just been exercising in order to get over her ex and takes a break to reflect on her own reasons.
A highlight episode is where both Hyun Joong and Mi Ran realise going all out and forcing willpower and can hurt one's lifestyle and maintaing a balance is key. This is where Mi Ran stops eating flour and starts hallucinating and going insane, even affecting her work life which is referencing many of the extreme diet culture that goes on in social media and various fad dients influencers are trying to push. Hyun Joong's moment is where he tries to look after the baby using only his strength and willpower and realises how difficult it is to be a mother with greater priorities than the gym.
The side characters are really great and each have their own side story which weaves their personal struggles with connection to the gym. Kang Seol's story was really sad but it did break the drama's flow which was comedic the majority of the time. They could also add to Alex's story as well as I wanted more from the short backstory they gave him. However these were introduced late and given the episode constraints it would shift the story too much away from Mi Ran and Hyun Joong.
Was this review helpful to you?
