It's exactly as bad as the synopsis made it sound and its execution was 10 folds worse. I feel sorry for older cast such as Ahn Nae Sang and Kim Hee Jung to have this drama in their resume. The entire drama was disastrous enough but the leading cast was the worst part of it. The actors/actresses themselves and their respective characters were failing and stumbling every step of the way with no chance of recovery.
The story was outright bad in the first place but its execution was even worse. Incoherent disjointed narrative, more often than note there was no clear direction or goal. It's impressive how it managed to continue for 16 episodes. The first 4 episodes were completely empty and could have been cut down to 30 minutes at most. Other slice of life dramas are more eventful than this one. As per usual the trend seems to be to over-saturate everything and turn a blind eye to anything else. This is Go Ah Ra's weakest project and the shallow character itself was tiring to watch.
Just like any other drama where two brothers have an intense love triangle over a girl, except this one falls on the lower end of the spectrum. So you better off tune your expectations accordingly before going into it or just avoid it altogether.
It seems impossible for writers to do a decent reverse harem drama without relying on awful tropes and this drama was no exception. Well, at least I didn't have any expectations going into it so that definitely helped. The entire story was built around a single misunderstanding which is nothing but lazy writing, instead of building a proper story. Out of the four men, Yun Woo was the worst addition, he always felt out of place and doesn't contribute much. None of the pairings were appealing, not even the non-romantic ones. The drama was so dry and empty that they didn't know what to do for the last episode so made up something just for the last episode. The cast members may be decent individually elsewhere but not here. This drama was as bad as "Three Dads One Mom (2008)" and "To All The Guys Who Loved Me (2020)", they even share the same flaws!
This drama was a one big exhibition of petty fights with a lot of noise and little to no substance. These arguments and fights were the main driving element of the drama and it's important for it to be supported by a good dialogue. Unfortunately, nothing profound came out of any of them. Most of them were "fixed" by clearing misunderstandings from the past. It didn't feel it provided a real development and growth for these characters. Especially for repeated offenders. None of the characters/relationships were appealing. There was no place for romance but they insisted on shoving it in for the last 1/3 to pair everyone. They should've kept it about the family only. I didn't like how they ended most episodes with a scene that wasn't resumed until 15 minutes of the next episode.
I was expecting a proper "life" drama grounded to reality but shoving too many tropes ruined it (miscarriage, misunderstandings, amnesia, birth secret, illness, cheating, friends to lovers, hidden past, ex-spouse comes back ..etc). This is a melodrama in disguise!! There was one particular really stupid misunderstanding that lasted over 30 years. The writers weren't even trying! However, the worst part of the drama has to be all the scenes of Eun Hee talking about her love life with Chan Hyuk, these were mind numbing. This drama doesn't have much to offer other than some pretty visuals.
The drama main goal was to hit as many makjang tropes as possible even repeating some of them across multiple characters. Almost every single character has a hidden past/birth secret, even the support characters. The revenge was bad, there wasn't actually a revenge. The romance/relationship of the leads was as childish as you can imagine. The actress Jung Young Joo who played the mother as the main antagonist did a truly awful job. Her reactions/interactions were laughably bad. The four leads' performance was fine but nothing note worthy, they've done better elsewhere. There's nothing appealing about the story either since they don't even try. Also, I didn't like the ending or the entire last episode in general.
The female lead swore on taking revenge 100 times over and over but in the end she forgave everyone and even befriended…
The nephew obviously. It was clear that FL chose the uncle initially due to the circumstances. You know, to initiate the revenge arc. But for some reason the drama made the uncle more obsessive at the end before making the switch to the nephew despite everyone knowing what everyone was involved into. Kinda unclassy move.
I'm kinda disappointed, maybe I expected too much judging by who's behind it. It started off heading in one direction then ended up in a different direction. They took away the focus from the relationship/affair and brought the company issues in its place. The relationship already lacked depth and development but neglecting it in the later episodes harmed the drama even more. Speaking of which, I didn't like how they laid out the story with any of the characters outside the 2 main ones. There was also no real tension or consequences to the affair. The husband failed to play any meaningful role in the story. The main leads brought a good performance but the same can't be said about the rest. Although, whenever there was a moment that required the leads to act "feeling guilty" it came across as artificial, they could have done better with these scenes. Which brings me to my last point that is the production, it was kinda a hit or miss, sometimes it was wonderful while other times was totally distasteful and experimental. Some transitions were off, as if some scenes were cut short and abruptly. At least the music bits were good. It's still a decent drama but not a one that I would recommend from this genre.
What was the ML's reaction after discovering her ulterior motive?
Yeah she developed feelings for him and wanted to make it work before the lies started to surface. She doesn't dare to win him back after all the lies, she was even about to leave quietly to not hurt anyone but, eventually, after waiting for everything to settle down, it worked out. Although the ending was a bit short.
The revenge didn't quench my thirst. While the first episode brilliantly set up the story and introduced compelling characters, the subsequent episodes veered off course and fell short of expectations. The drama started to show its cracks as early as the first third. It was no longer as engaging as its start. It continued heading in a downward spiral shortly after midway point where it started to get stupid and pointless. Stupid isn't good. At that point, any interesting elements it had were gone and it deviated from its original promise. For a drama themed around adults relationships you would expect a better and more profound dialogue but, unfortunately, it always favored the more melodramatic and senseless route. Even then, it wasn't spicy enough to keep me stimulated. One more thing, the last episode was bad. I'm not sure why they had to slap the +18 rating on it when the explicit scenes were tame and scarce anyway. Kim Hee Ae is an underrated actress and I'm glad she's getting more recognition but I've see better from her than this one. Overall, it's an okay drama that ended up being disappointing.
The drama biggest problem is its both male leads. Both were incompatible, had zero chemistry and looked way older than their real age and compared to female lead. Regardless of anything else, the drama failed to nail the most basic elements of any romance. The romance itself was poor, awkward, emotionless and dull. Again, the lack of chemistry/connection isn't helping either. More or less, the comedy/entertainment value was equally problematic. This drama was a disastrous romcom from the very beginning and there was no saving it. Almost any other Choi Ji Woo drama from that era was better than this one.
It's okay. Hyun Woo was unbelievably stiff. I wonder if he can show more than two emotions even under some laxatives. If you really want to force a break up there are plenty of easier and quicker ways but I guess it's a drama and they can't do that ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
It had a decent start setting up the atmosphere. The drama was shot nicely too, try to grab the UXN 4K version if you can. The action was good although it was scarce. There was a lot of downtime between each event which almost ruined the drama. It was clear they had an abundance of free time that they started supplementing it with slice of life/comedic moments which were straight up bad and unfitting. The story wasn't as engaging as it was at the start, it somehow lost its direction midway through. Too many plot holes to count even when excluding the supernatural elements. The drama lacked a meaningful connection between characters. The least you would expect from a military themed drama is some comradeship which this drama failed to show. It's a hard watch since the drama doesn't have much to offer other than a good cast.
It started off with an abundance of cheese and cringe but once they added tension the whole drama began to crumble down hard and fast. They took the fastest and cheapest shortcut to make a problematic relationship. Its short runtime isn't a valid excuse for that.
6 
I was expecting a proper "life" drama grounded to reality but shoving too many tropes ruined it (miscarriage, misunderstandings, amnesia, birth secret, illness, cheating, friends to lovers, hidden past, ex-spouse comes back ..etc). This is a melodrama in disguise!! There was one particular really stupid misunderstanding that lasted over 30 years. The writers weren't even trying! However, the worst part of the drama has to be all the scenes of Eun Hee talking about her love life with Chan Hyuk, these were mind numbing. This drama doesn't have much to offer other than some pretty visuals.