This review may contain spoilers
Good but too, too long
I'll start with the headline - it was a good drama but the episodes were far too long. Most were an hour and 20 minutes, quite a bit longer than most K-dramas. It seemed endless. Most of this was due to all the story arcs - SFL/SML, the parents, the friendship between the older women, the brother, the exes...on and on. Rather than being supporting cast, everyone seemed to be leads because they all had their own stories.
FL/ML were great although ML was a dope to keep missing his opportunity to tell FL he liked her. I enjoyed their chemistry and their story. My second favorite match up - friends to lovers. My favorite is enemies/rivals to lovers - yeah, I like the bickering if it's witty and not just bitchy, if you know what I mean. I like couples that one up each other, not just bicker because one or both are disagreeable. Well, FL/ML isn't that way. Yeah, she's pretty bossy and aggressive while ML is sensitive, but it works with these two. However, I would have liked to see them get married and have kids. Here they are 34 years old and FL wants to wait a year to get her restaurant off the ground. That will make her 35. It's getting a little late to produce more than 1-2 kids. That's why we have a population crisis in developed countries. Then as a viewer we - like ML - have the cancer threat handing over our heads. Will they make it to old age together? Who knows.
I wasn't really interested in the 2nd couple. That's common for me. I don't care for 2nd or 3rd couples in C-dramas so I'm probably not going to be interested in them in K-dramas. I don't mind a 2nd or 3rd couple getting together but don't spend so much time on them that it takes away from the main couple's romance. SML is a reporter yet we never see him writing. He's also a perpetual do-gooder, and like ML, he's the sensitive one. There is a slight twist in regards to the kid. I won't spoil it for you.
Now the parents - I can truthfully say I detested FL's mom. She was overly sensitive to how people saw her and her family, she had an inferiority complex because she ran a snack shop and therefore unsuccessful in her mind, and she was always trying to tell FL what to do with her life. Fortunately, FL was as strong willed as her mother and wasn't having any of it. Even though ML's mom was rather cold, I preferred his family to FL's because it was calmer and quieter. At the end, I was beginning to think the dads were becoming alcoholics because they were constantly getting drunk together. I supposed when you're married to women like these two, you could be drive to it. Also, WHERE THE HECK DID THEY GET THE MONEY TO RETIRE? Supposedly, they weren't as well off as ML's family but they could retire from the snack shop business at the end. And what the heck were they going to do in retirement? Neither one had a hobby. And while we're on the subject, who was supporting FL after she came home? Did she have savings from when she worked? Wouldn't medical expenses have depleted that? Nobody was in dad's shop so how were the parents supporting FL & her brother? Sorry, these are questions that I asked myself about this family.
The exes - ML's ex was reasonable and quickly realized that getting back together with ML wasn't on the cards. Thank goodness! I hate the clingy ex-girlfriend trope who is a borderline psycho. FL's ex turned out to be the clingy one, but actually, I think the dude got a raw deal. He went through the cancer with FL, taking care of her, etc., yet because he needed a break while she was going through depression, he got disqualified and cast aside like a worn out shoe. I felt sorry for him. Who doesn't need a break after caring for a sick person - that's why they have respite care services. I just don't think he did anything worthy of being rejected. It would have been better for the writer to make him a cheater since FL was always intended for ML.
The cancer arc - if you're going to use cancer as a story arc for one of the leads, please use a cancer that's curable or has a higher survival rate than stomach cancer. Yeah, it was stage 2, but still, it's stomach cancer. For a FL, use breast cancer or thyroid cancer or even Hodgkin's Lymphoma. I really hate when the writer uses cancer for a young person. There was other serious illnesses out there that aren't death sentences yet still needs attention and management throughout life if they needed that 'curse' to bring about angst and resistance to marriage.
Finally, the music was utterly forgettable except for when we got a warm moment between ML/FL. It sounded like the beginning of a Disney princess animation movie. I expected woodland creatures to gather or Sleeping Beauty to float by while dancing with Prince Philip.
Overall, it was a good drama and worth watching (if you have the time), but beware of 1) FL's mother and 2) the episodes were too darn long.
FL/ML were great although ML was a dope to keep missing his opportunity to tell FL he liked her. I enjoyed their chemistry and their story. My second favorite match up - friends to lovers. My favorite is enemies/rivals to lovers - yeah, I like the bickering if it's witty and not just bitchy, if you know what I mean. I like couples that one up each other, not just bicker because one or both are disagreeable. Well, FL/ML isn't that way. Yeah, she's pretty bossy and aggressive while ML is sensitive, but it works with these two. However, I would have liked to see them get married and have kids. Here they are 34 years old and FL wants to wait a year to get her restaurant off the ground. That will make her 35. It's getting a little late to produce more than 1-2 kids. That's why we have a population crisis in developed countries. Then as a viewer we - like ML - have the cancer threat handing over our heads. Will they make it to old age together? Who knows.
I wasn't really interested in the 2nd couple. That's common for me. I don't care for 2nd or 3rd couples in C-dramas so I'm probably not going to be interested in them in K-dramas. I don't mind a 2nd or 3rd couple getting together but don't spend so much time on them that it takes away from the main couple's romance. SML is a reporter yet we never see him writing. He's also a perpetual do-gooder, and like ML, he's the sensitive one. There is a slight twist in regards to the kid. I won't spoil it for you.
Now the parents - I can truthfully say I detested FL's mom. She was overly sensitive to how people saw her and her family, she had an inferiority complex because she ran a snack shop and therefore unsuccessful in her mind, and she was always trying to tell FL what to do with her life. Fortunately, FL was as strong willed as her mother and wasn't having any of it. Even though ML's mom was rather cold, I preferred his family to FL's because it was calmer and quieter. At the end, I was beginning to think the dads were becoming alcoholics because they were constantly getting drunk together. I supposed when you're married to women like these two, you could be drive to it. Also, WHERE THE HECK DID THEY GET THE MONEY TO RETIRE? Supposedly, they weren't as well off as ML's family but they could retire from the snack shop business at the end. And what the heck were they going to do in retirement? Neither one had a hobby. And while we're on the subject, who was supporting FL after she came home? Did she have savings from when she worked? Wouldn't medical expenses have depleted that? Nobody was in dad's shop so how were the parents supporting FL & her brother? Sorry, these are questions that I asked myself about this family.
The exes - ML's ex was reasonable and quickly realized that getting back together with ML wasn't on the cards. Thank goodness! I hate the clingy ex-girlfriend trope who is a borderline psycho. FL's ex turned out to be the clingy one, but actually, I think the dude got a raw deal. He went through the cancer with FL, taking care of her, etc., yet because he needed a break while she was going through depression, he got disqualified and cast aside like a worn out shoe. I felt sorry for him. Who doesn't need a break after caring for a sick person - that's why they have respite care services. I just don't think he did anything worthy of being rejected. It would have been better for the writer to make him a cheater since FL was always intended for ML.
The cancer arc - if you're going to use cancer as a story arc for one of the leads, please use a cancer that's curable or has a higher survival rate than stomach cancer. Yeah, it was stage 2, but still, it's stomach cancer. For a FL, use breast cancer or thyroid cancer or even Hodgkin's Lymphoma. I really hate when the writer uses cancer for a young person. There was other serious illnesses out there that aren't death sentences yet still needs attention and management throughout life if they needed that 'curse' to bring about angst and resistance to marriage.
Finally, the music was utterly forgettable except for when we got a warm moment between ML/FL. It sounded like the beginning of a Disney princess animation movie. I expected woodland creatures to gather or Sleeping Beauty to float by while dancing with Prince Philip.
Overall, it was a good drama and worth watching (if you have the time), but beware of 1) FL's mother and 2) the episodes were too darn long.
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