There's nothing these writers can do to make me hate Mido
Here's my two cents on this drama. First off, people do not know how to handle complex FEMALE characters, from the start i think a lot of people already did not like Mido (before the kiss with the lawyer) because she was unconventional. Her boyfriend was doing the cooking, cleaning, and nurturing that you would typically see the female character do, cuing the comments "she's so annoying". I do not think people set out to hate unconventional female characters, i think the media for ages has wired our brains to accept certain stereotypes. The man can be as complex as possible, even be a literal beast, and an understanding beauty with a heart of gold will be by his side. All characters have been deeply explored now, so let's get into it.
Namgung feels a certain responsibility and loyalty to Mido, because of his trauma, this is intertwined with the love he has for her (cause they do love each other) and i think honest conversations and therapy could have separated these factors to make their relationship better. But he is not the type to try and change anything, he said it himself, he likes a predictable life, does not mind staying at the same job in the same position till he retires, basically does not mind a bland life and would not shake tables, and that's why when Mido breaks up with him early on (cause she saw problems in their relationship) he fought hard for it saying that he does not care how they turn out and if they hate each other in the end, he would still go through it with her. And while this might sound romantic, it's not. It's highlighting the very core of who Namgung is. Now anyone actually watching this drama properly knows he cheated first, he never established boundaries with sua, was overly playful with her, never brought up Mido once and began getting emotionally attached to her, but kept lying to himself. It's easy to say he "never did anything" but he was slowly building, brick by brick a place for sua in his heart, and the moment that really highlighted this was when he saved sua from the attacker and then starts drawing the criminal for her, when we literally see how he swore to never draw again, and burned what he had drawn for Mido, and never drew again. Cause think about it, he made that decision when they were in high school, and all through their lives together up until that point, he draws for the first time in decades for sua. Not only that, but in that moment, it starts to snow (the first snow symbolic to their relationship), and while Mido is about to push the lawyer over the bridge, sees the snow and immediately thinks of Namgung, he had zero thoughts of Mido, and was instead staring at sua lovingly. When he found the recording of Mido and the lawyer, as much as his hurt and anger were valid, it also gave him this secret sense of relief and permission to walk away from her. And it also gave the viewers the perfect reason to full on hate Mido.
Mido's character is very complex, and i think the writers fell short in exploring her complexity which just makes her come across as annoying to so many people. I think people would have preferred if she was like Yumi in Yumi's cells, just a poor girl getting cheated on. Unlike Namgung, she's very cutthroat, upfront and direct. The dynamic with Teasung in the beginning with trying to get her to sign the settlement is very reflective of who she is, she did not back down, stood her ground, and handled it. With Mido, everything is very "BAM! to your face" and so it made sense why her version of cheating was a kiss. It's very easy to point out, very direct, no explaining it, unlike Namgungs' which was slow and steady and takes an amount of lying to oneself. Personally, I do not think Mido's was as bad as Namgung's. She was drunk, not clear headed and was in a very vulnerable position when taesung kissed he. Namgung was doing his daily, with a clear head, and clear mind. And this also highlights why when they eventually start dating their side pieces, namgung and sua are steady, while Mido and taesung are so chaotic, because the emotional foundation was already there for Nam and sua. But as for Mido and Tae, it was never there. Mido is VERY CLEARLY depressed and suicidal, but somehow this is also not explored, the episodes just seem to spend all the time exploring Namgung's trauma, patronizing to the concept that he's blameless in this and Mido is the only problematic one. When Mido said to him "Sua likes you" his immediate response was "I did nothing wrong" because deep down he knows he did.
A lot of things are also looked over on his part, cause what do you mean you see that your girlfriend of 10 years try to kill herself, and the next thing you tell her is to go be with some other guy. He says this first, he brings up dating other people first, but somehow because Mido says he should do it too, suddenly it looks like it was all her idea and they are both doing it because SHE said so.
Sua, I do not like her, I think she's a very calculative person that comes off as innocent, but she's weird. I do not fault her for liking Namgung, essentially, he led her on, i do not think she's imagining things there. But there are just a couple things that she's done that rubs me the wrong way. First off, i do not see any chemistry between sua and nam, so their scenes (while i know whats going on) does nothing for me. But let's start with her determination to get namgung. Even when she eventually finds out he's in a relationship, she does not back down, instead she goes harder on her "im just a cute subordinate that wants the best for you" and that scene where she's crying about him going to France is all so calculated. Also, can we talk about how she literally stalked him and then saw the interaction with his mum. Now, any self-respecting human being with no context of what was going on, seeing Namgung choke his mum out should have turned around, went home, questioned your choices in men and just let whatever feelings you had instantly fizzle out. Cause yes, Namgung's mum is a horrible person, but she does not know that! Also, the writers keep putting her in this position where she always needs saving and Namgung is always there to do just that, play hero, which clearly feels good to him because he's been on the receiving end of a "hero" which is what he sees mido as, because she does show up to fight for him and defend him. He gets to do that now for someone else without this person knowing his past and seeing him as just that. Additionally, i do not know why it is a must for every character to have some traumatic past, but i could not understand for the life of me what i was supposed to feel when they revealed her own past. Your daddy is gay and had an affair. Which she was really disgusted by mind you, but ended up pining after an engaged man.
Taesung. Say this whole script was flipped, and he was a woman, and namgung was Mido, Taesung's character would be hated more than he is now, and mido (being namgung) would be more understood. People would be screaming at the top of their lungs about how mido was taken advantage of, and there would be no redemption or forgiving taesung. But it's a man so of course, it does not matter. I don't really care for taesung to be honest, i do not have strong opinions about him. I do find his scenes with mido a lot more tolerable than Nam and sua. But i do think there was a character assassination during that restaurant scene, it was weird, uncalled for, and i think the writers just wanted to put mido through some humiliation ritual, and uplift Nam and sua. Another character assassination is how they have just made him some idiot in front of Namgung that gets thrown around, it's humiliating, and again, very unlike his character to be subjected to such.
The rest of the family – I think they are all super hard on Mido, they talk down on her, do not believe in her, Namgung has had to be the one to stand up for mido to HER family on multiple occassions, I understand sibling banter but this is not it. They have more love and sibling kind of bond with Namgung than they do with her, makes me wish mido at least had a sister or something.
Also, after Namgung finds out about the kiss, and mido is trying to talk to him, he yells at her and says she's just trying to get pity, i think this is because that's his projection of what love is, and he has always felt that the entire family loves him out of pity. So the moment Mido is trying to open up and scratch the surface of her depression he misses the entire point and says she's trying to get pity from him. She goes on to say Tae gave her butterflies but at this point none if this is believable, the way things happened between them (mido and tae) gave no sign of butterflies, i remember being shocked hearing it like "what is going on in this writer's room" if a confession like this was coming from namgung about sua, it would have been more believable because like i said his was slow and steady and brick by brick, mido and tae had NONE of that, just a drunken kiss and banter. It was at that moment i knew this show was full of shit lol. Also there's just been absolutely no character development on the FL and the ML sides. It's been the same things happening since the beginning.
Overall i think everyone just has too much trauma, not everyone needed a traumatic past. The mother loosing her husband, the divorced brother, the brother with the dead girlfriend, taesung's orphanage story, sua's gay daddy, mido and namgung's entire life, it's all overly done. An interesting concept would have been them swaying for people that are pretty regular and had a normal happy upbringing, serving as a shock to the dynamic they live by, and liking the normalcy, but what do i know. And this might be an unpopular opinion, but i would like for the ML and FL to get back together. I think more honest conversations and therapy would work in their favor, it's clearly unfair to put other people in their mess. They've known each other for too long and are too embedded in their lives, i cant even date someone that has been in a 5 year relationship not to talk of all their lives lol. They need to figure it out
I think it started of pretty good, but it really has just fallen off, the writing is lackluster, and lazy. Before getting into it the description i got was pretty simple "After 10 long years together, the man starts to sway for someone else". I thought it was a pretty cool concept, like an entire extended Babi x Yumi dynamic, but i have been thoroughly let down. It just feels like one big rage-baiting show.
News 
Here's my two cents on this drama. First off, people do not know how to handle complex FEMALE characters, from the start i think a lot of people already did not like Mido (before the kiss with the lawyer) because she was unconventional. Her boyfriend was doing the cooking, cleaning, and nurturing that you would typically see the female character do, cuing the comments "she's so annoying". I do not think people set out to hate unconventional female characters, i think the media for ages has wired our brains to accept certain stereotypes. The man can be as complex as possible, even be a literal beast, and an understanding beauty with a heart of gold will be by his side. All characters have been deeply explored now, so let's get into it.
Namgung feels a certain responsibility and loyalty to Mido, because of his trauma, this is intertwined with the love he has for her (cause they do love each other) and i think honest conversations and therapy could have separated these factors to make their relationship better. But he is not the type to try and change anything, he said it himself, he likes a predictable life, does not mind staying at the same job in the same position till he retires, basically does not mind a bland life and would not shake tables, and that's why when Mido breaks up with him early on (cause she saw problems in their relationship) he fought hard for it saying that he does not care how they turn out and if they hate each other in the end, he would still go through it with her. And while this might sound romantic, it's not. It's highlighting the very core of who Namgung is. Now anyone actually watching this drama properly knows he cheated first, he never established boundaries with sua, was overly playful with her, never brought up Mido once and began getting emotionally attached to her, but kept lying to himself. It's easy to say he "never did anything" but he was slowly building, brick by brick a place for sua in his heart, and the moment that really highlighted this was when he saved sua from the attacker and then starts drawing the criminal for her, when we literally see how he swore to never draw again, and burned what he had drawn for Mido, and never drew again. Cause think about it, he made that decision when they were in high school, and all through their lives together up until that point, he draws for the first time in decades for sua. Not only that, but in that moment, it starts to snow (the first snow symbolic to their relationship), and while Mido is about to push the lawyer over the bridge, sees the snow and immediately thinks of Namgung, he had zero thoughts of Mido, and was instead staring at sua lovingly. When he found the recording of Mido and the lawyer, as much as his hurt and anger were valid, it also gave him this secret sense of relief and permission to walk away from her. And it also gave the viewers the perfect reason to full on hate Mido.
Mido's character is very complex, and i think the writers fell short in exploring her complexity which just makes her come across as annoying to so many people. I think people would have preferred if she was like Yumi in Yumi's cells, just a poor girl getting cheated on. Unlike Namgung, she's very cutthroat, upfront and direct. The dynamic with Teasung in the beginning with trying to get her to sign the settlement is very reflective of who she is, she did not back down, stood her ground, and handled it. With Mido, everything is very "BAM! to your face" and so it made sense why her version of cheating was a kiss. It's very easy to point out, very direct, no explaining it, unlike Namgungs' which was slow and steady and takes an amount of lying to oneself. Personally, I do not think Mido's was as bad as Namgung's. She was drunk, not clear headed and was in a very vulnerable position when taesung kissed he. Namgung was doing his daily, with a clear head, and clear mind. And this also highlights why when they eventually start dating their side pieces, namgung and sua are steady, while Mido and taesung are so chaotic, because the emotional foundation was already there for Nam and sua. But as for Mido and Tae, it was never there. Mido is VERY CLEARLY depressed and suicidal, but somehow this is also not explored, the episodes just seem to spend all the time exploring Namgung's trauma, patronizing to the concept that he's blameless in this and Mido is the only problematic one. When Mido said to him "Sua likes you" his immediate response was "I did nothing wrong" because deep down he knows he did.
A lot of things are also looked over on his part, cause what do you mean you see that your girlfriend of 10 years try to kill herself, and the next thing you tell her is to go be with some other guy. He says this first, he brings up dating other people first, but somehow because Mido says he should do it too, suddenly it looks like it was all her idea and they are both doing it because SHE said so.
Sua, I do not like her, I think she's a very calculative person that comes off as innocent, but she's weird. I do not fault her for liking Namgung, essentially, he led her on, i do not think she's imagining things there. But there are just a couple things that she's done that rubs me the wrong way. First off, i do not see any chemistry between sua and nam, so their scenes (while i know whats going on) does nothing for me. But let's start with her determination to get namgung. Even when she eventually finds out he's in a relationship, she does not back down, instead she goes harder on her "im just a cute subordinate that wants the best for you" and that scene where she's crying about him going to France is all so calculated. Also, can we talk about how she literally stalked him and then saw the interaction with his mum. Now, any self-respecting human being with no context of what was going on, seeing Namgung choke his mum out should have turned around, went home, questioned your choices in men and just let whatever feelings you had instantly fizzle out. Cause yes, Namgung's mum is a horrible person, but she does not know that! Also, the writers keep putting her in this position where she always needs saving and Namgung is always there to do just that, play hero, which clearly feels good to him because he's been on the receiving end of a "hero" which is what he sees mido as, because she does show up to fight for him and defend him. He gets to do that now for someone else without this person knowing his past and seeing him as just that. Additionally, i do not know why it is a must for every character to have some traumatic past, but i could not understand for the life of me what i was supposed to feel when they revealed her own past. Your daddy is gay and had an affair. Which she was really disgusted by mind you, but ended up pining after an engaged man.
Taesung. Say this whole script was flipped, and he was a woman, and namgung was Mido, Taesung's character would be hated more than he is now, and mido (being namgung) would be more understood. People would be screaming at the top of their lungs about how mido was taken advantage of, and there would be no redemption or forgiving taesung. But it's a man so of course, it does not matter. I don't really care for taesung to be honest, i do not have strong opinions about him. I do find his scenes with mido a lot more tolerable than Nam and sua. But i do think there was a character assassination during that restaurant scene, it was weird, uncalled for, and i think the writers just wanted to put mido through some humiliation ritual, and uplift Nam and sua. Another character assassination is how they have just made him some idiot in front of Namgung that gets thrown around, it's humiliating, and again, very unlike his character to be subjected to such.
The rest of the family – I think they are all super hard on Mido, they talk down on her, do not believe in her, Namgung has had to be the one to stand up for mido to HER family on multiple occassions, I understand sibling banter but this is not it. They have more love and sibling kind of bond with Namgung than they do with her, makes me wish mido at least had a sister or something.
Also, after Namgung finds out about the kiss, and mido is trying to talk to him, he yells at her and says she's just trying to get pity, i think this is because that's his projection of what love is, and he has always felt that the entire family loves him out of pity. So the moment Mido is trying to open up and scratch the surface of her depression he misses the entire point and says she's trying to get pity from him. She goes on to say Tae gave her butterflies but at this point none if this is believable, the way things happened between them (mido and tae) gave no sign of butterflies, i remember being shocked hearing it like "what is going on in this writer's room" if a confession like this was coming from namgung about sua, it would have been more believable because like i said his was slow and steady and brick by brick, mido and tae had NONE of that, just a drunken kiss and banter. It was at that moment i knew this show was full of shit lol. Also there's just been absolutely no character development on the FL and the ML sides. It's been the same things happening since the beginning.
Overall i think everyone just has too much trauma, not everyone needed a traumatic past. The mother loosing her husband, the divorced brother, the brother with the dead girlfriend, taesung's orphanage story, sua's gay daddy, mido and namgung's entire life, it's all overly done. An interesting concept would have been them swaying for people that are pretty regular and had a normal happy upbringing, serving as a shock to the dynamic they live by, and liking the normalcy, but what do i know. And this might be an unpopular opinion, but i would like for the ML and FL to get back together. I think more honest conversations and therapy would work in their favor, it's clearly unfair to put other people in their mess. They've known each other for too long and are too embedded in their lives, i cant even date someone that has been in a 5 year relationship not to talk of all their lives lol. They need to figure it out
I think it started of pretty good, but it really has just fallen off, the writing is lackluster, and lazy. Before getting into it the description i got was pretty simple "After 10 long years together, the man starts to sway for someone else". I thought it was a pretty cool concept, like an entire extended Babi x Yumi dynamic, but i have been thoroughly let down. It just feels like one big rage-baiting show.