For the first 1/3, the drama was nauseating and almost unbearable at times. They were Jumping between too many characters in a single episode every episode and there were too many short quick cut scenes in a single episode. Doing so doesn't allow the viewer to have a breather or to get to familiarize with the characters. The problem solved itself for 10 episodes or so then returned to the same editing style and kept switching between both styles until the end.
Usually for family drama there is one major story that you see it develop till the end but not in this drama, there's no major story only a collection of side stories some end and start at different times. The synopsis may allude you to believe it's about the "meaning" of family, although it's true to some extent, but that was hardly given any focus or attention. The individual stories of the younger generation took the biggest cut. There a far more superior family drama that tackle the multiple generation dynamic much better.
Not a single story of these younger generation were interesting, all were underdeveloped, they either started too late or ended too soon or both. Se Hee and Na Yeong stories had potential but they never gone anywhere and concluded too early, they deserved a better writing. The female cast in general was strong but male counterparts were generally weak. One more thing, why did they had to bring the mood down with that ending?
Extremely slow and full of endlessly recycled events, 64 episodes for two main stories that is Ji Young shenanigans and the search of that brain-dead father. At least it was heartwarming smooth sailing for the leads, not much conflict you only see them love each other for the 100th time. I didn't like how the drama made the female lead as if she came from an alien planet and just started to learn about the human race. On the other hand, the ending left many things unfinished despite this long run, the last episode was dedicated to a 4-years time skip and yet that didn't accomplish much. Why have it then? The drama is fine but it felt empty for a 64 episodes drama. P.S. the leads' kid doesn't resemble them at all!
I'm a huge fan of older drama but this one missed the mark for me. It was unnecessarily over-complicated for every relationship in the show. For every character and relationship the writing was good enough just to fall flat and flop around episode 11 without being able to recover at all. You may think the reunion plot-line of the sisters is the main focus but unfortunately it was given the bare minimum of attention, even the climax of their reunion was underwhelming. If and only if the ending was slightly tiny bit better. It just felt like this type of ending that they went for was unwarranted. At the end, it was too big of a let down, not a single thing went as I hoped for. At least let the bad guys win just to spike some interest in the drama.
I asked my friend, who is an anthropologist, and he confirmed to me that Lee Seon Woo is a newly undiscovered human species; they may resemble conventional modern humans but they differ with one particular characteristic that is their empty cranial cavity. Truly a spectacular discovery, how could they function? A mystery that would never be solved.
Once Young Woo turned up his pathetic acts to the extreme that completely erased anything good the drama had going on. It's not like there was a lot of "good" anyway, I will probably only remember Jeon Do Yeon from it. Only recently she started coming back to the drama scenes, she and Hwang Jung Min are one of the most underrated actors that drama watchers don't know about because you rarely see them starring in a drama.
You can clearly see that "It's Okay, That's Love" was inspired by this, they feel too similar except this one is better than "It's Okay, That's Love". I much prefer the writer's projects pre-2010, this drama felt a bit on the weaker side in comparison. It's unnecessary long and doesn't do much with its length. My initial thoughts were that there were going to be revenge, courts, justice, chase, prosecutors and detectives but what we got is a very slimmed down version of all of that. I assume the romances, especially kissing scenes, were awkward because of the male lead spent his whole life in prison? It's still good but my expectations were too high.
I was like why this got similar vibes to "The World That They Live In" and it turns out it's from the same writer. The dialogue exchange is pure gold and the cast absolutely deliver. The drama is great but not as much as "The World That They Live In". I have one major complaint, Yoo Ji An character totally ruined the vibe with his "request" around the last 2 episodes. His decades of friendship with the leads meant nothing, going around hurting every around him shamelessly without any regard to anyone. The narrator said it best "He always gives hurt and receives hurt". He is a serial liar and always play the pity card to the extreme. I'm not a fan of how the events played out upon of the "request". Although the drama is great but it left me with a slight sour taste.
Checked it again after many years. Noh Hee Kyung's weakest writing project. Zo In Sung is unbearable, obnoxious and is the weakest part about the drama, I still can't stand his face.
I swear these four characters were trying their absolute hardest to not be likeable and they succeed. A wises man once told me "confessions are like farts, the more you hold them the stinkier they get" and this one is a big stinker. The Japan thing for the last episode was just pure ass (no pun intended).
Kim Jung Hwa used to have main roles and bigger support roles pre-2010 but nowadays she's barely on screen. I wonder why, might be because of marriage and kids.
We need more "Ajumma" dramas! The drama was fine but they should have ended things with ex-husband much earlier to focus more on other plots. By episodes 10 things kept going in circles and my interest dropped to its lowest. This was the last project for Choi Jin Shil truly heartbreaking to bid farewell to an amazing talent. Rest in piece.
I usually like Sung Joon but this is by far his worst project to date. At this stage of his career he shouldn't accept such projects. There's almost no story, just a very long sequence of plane clips. Who ever edited this turned up the saturation to a disgusting level. No wonder this was delayed for years because it's a failed project, dead on arrival. Absolutely a waste for the cast time and talent.
The story is too scattered in every direction, the pacing is odd and both antagonist/conflict and ending were weak. Right of the bat we were introduced to this awfully tedious love triangle, one of the worst out there. The story was bloated enough that it didn't need any triangles, better off re-write Eun Sup character to be a great friend instead of being nothing but an intervention in the lives of those around him. He only added to their all miserable life. It's a tough watch even for hardcore fans of Song Hye Kyo.
This had 3 sets of twins, two of which identical, the highest number I've seen in a drama. Bae Doo Na solo carried the entire show meanwhile the remainder of the cast were dead corpses re-animated to life. The story cycles through the following sequence: Geum Hee does bad and promises to treat Eun Hee better just to backstab her few minutes later, rinse and repeat 10 more times until the last episode. I wish there was more variations. The romance was one of the driest, it didn't amount to anything, minimum affection and absolutely not a single kiss. The drama was somewhat fine until episode 15 started and it just couldn't recover after that. One last very important thing, there wasn't enough justice/karma or payoff at the end.
By the way, the poster is totally irrelevant to the content maybe slightly relevant for one scene only.
This is the most boring "hotel" themed drama I've seen so far, neither the staff nor the guests were interesting to follow. The character Kim Yun Hee is simply the worst part about the drama. The romances, relationships, pace, characters' writing, hotel management and the individual guest cases, all of which were hovering between bad and unwatchable. I don't even wanna bother elaborating any further. Not recommended!
All males force themselves physically on females which is kinda repulsive, even one of them attempted rape. Lee Seung Ha was 100% pure scum the scummiest of all scums unmatched scumminess from start to end. The last 1/3 was intolerably stupid and the drama became irredeemable. The culprit/antagonist was left uncharged for murder or malpractice.
Unfortunately one of the most deadliest diseases in K-drama world has infiltrated this drama too, the Korean brain worms that only affect female leads and female characters in general. She knew he was a serial liar and she was previously scarred when he attempted to rape her and physically assaulted her YET she proceeded to marry him, go figure!
It doesn't utilize its 20 episodes length in a constructive way for a relationship driven drama. There's a huge dent of inconsistency in the writing, sometime it's coherent and well thought out and other times it's as if it was written by someone who just started using a keyboard. A lot of things change and progress in the background without showing or reasoning with it and we are left to accept them and fill the gaps ourselves. For example, how the characters' relationships to one another turned out in the last 2 episodes. Anyway, the drama ended up feeling incomplete in many ways.
What's up with the heavy inclusion of infidelity? All the characters surrounding FL are cheating: her mother, her husband, her dead father-in-law, the husband's mistress, the husband's brother-in-law, her sister, the lover and that one friend. For the main "sad" theme they overdone the sadness by incorporating an endless sequence of miserable events that at one point all the sadness became too forced. I would rather prefer a better build up and writing with the only misery/sadness is the terminal illness plot. Choi Jin Shil did most of the heavy lifting in the drama.
The order of which the husband knew about the cancer and him being with his mistress was misaligned it should have been the other way around. The sister love life should have started earlier to give more focus/screen-time for her dying sister, the late intrusion of Dr Ji was unfortunate. One thing really bothered me is the amount of negligence from FL and everyone around her, if you feel sick with physical symptoms or see someone sick repeatedly over extended period of time then it's not normal you moron!!!! Anyway, it's sad but leaves a lot to be desired.
6 
Usually for family drama there is one major story that you see it develop till the end but not in this drama, there's no major story only a collection of side stories some end and start at different times. The synopsis may allude you to believe it's about the "meaning" of family, although it's true to some extent, but that was hardly given any focus or attention. The individual stories of the younger generation took the biggest cut. There a far more superior family drama that tackle the multiple generation dynamic much better.
Not a single story of these younger generation were interesting, all were underdeveloped, they either started too late or ended too soon or both. Se Hee and Na Yeong stories had potential but they never gone anywhere and concluded too early, they deserved a better writing. The female cast in general was strong but male counterparts were generally weak. One more thing, why did they had to bring the mood down with that ending?
I asked my friend, who is an anthropologist, and he confirmed to me that Lee Seon Woo is a newly undiscovered human species; they may resemble conventional modern humans but they differ with one particular characteristic that is their empty cranial cavity. Truly a spectacular discovery, how could they function? A mystery that would never be solved.
By the way, the poster is totally irrelevant to the content maybe slightly relevant for one scene only.
Unfortunately one of the most deadliest diseases in K-drama world has infiltrated this drama too, the Korean brain worms that only affect female leads and female characters in general. She knew he was a serial liar and she was previously scarred when he attempted to rape her and physically assaulted her YET she proceeded to marry him, go figure!
The order of which the husband knew about the cancer and him being with his mistress was misaligned it should have been the other way around. The sister love life should have started earlier to give more focus/screen-time for her dying sister, the late intrusion of Dr Ji was unfortunate. One thing really bothered me is the amount of negligence from FL and everyone around her, if you feel sick with physical symptoms or see someone sick repeatedly over extended period of time then it's not normal you moron!!!! Anyway, it's sad but leaves a lot to be desired.
RIP Choi Jin Shil.