Geumbokhee forever
I was worried this would spoil some of the magic at the end, like a lot of series can, but nope. Geumbokhee is canon, and you can't prove otherwise. Period setting is really fun and while I was worried it would be just slightly too quirky and manic, it strikes a really good balance between comedy and drama without feeling jarring in either sense, even if the comedy is really screwball and the plot can get quite surprisingly serious (though not too melodramatic) at times. It's all very natural feeling.
Love the performances from all the women, and this might be the first time a random kid has sprung up in a show's plot and not just not ruined things, but actually improved things. The Korean birth rate propaganda works if the child is being raised by two lesbian couples living together it turns out. I will admit to not liking Nora at first, and I never quite fully came around on her much sillier and less developed character, even if she has way more screen time than Mi-sook, I feel Mi-sook was just a better character and we just saw more of her. I did end up liking more than I disliked her at the end though, she just feels like a character from something a little more focused on pure comedy than a comedy-drama. I'm also going to be real, the Risk Management guys and Cha Jung-il are the only interesting men. Shin Jung-woo and President Kang are devastatingly boring, thankfully Song Ju-ran is a much better secondary villain to Kang. Also love Choi In-ja and the way she mirrors characters like Bok-hee. So many fun to watch female characters to more than make up for the boring men, and yet CERTAIN PEOPLE have spent the entire drama's run speculating about M/F relationships instead.
More importantly, there's several Hong Kong cinema references here that aren't obscure or anything but I just find it really funny that Google translates Hong Geum-bo's name to Sammo Hung, and then you start to realise that was a totally on purpose similarity. The A Better Tomorrow reference here isn't as good as Extreme Job's though, the gold standard for jarringly random HK cinema references in Korean entertainment. Speaking of, I love Director Yun so much.
I want a season 2 but I also think they captured lightning in a bottle with the cast chemistry among the women of Room 301 and I'm not sure they can do it a second time without something being missing or having them come together as a group and have it not feel forced. I will at the very least take Geumbokhee as a FSS agent/PI buddy cop duo though.
Love the performances from all the women, and this might be the first time a random kid has sprung up in a show's plot and not just not ruined things, but actually improved things. The Korean birth rate propaganda works if the child is being raised by two lesbian couples living together it turns out. I will admit to not liking Nora at first, and I never quite fully came around on her much sillier and less developed character, even if she has way more screen time than Mi-sook, I feel Mi-sook was just a better character and we just saw more of her. I did end up liking more than I disliked her at the end though, she just feels like a character from something a little more focused on pure comedy than a comedy-drama. I'm also going to be real, the Risk Management guys and Cha Jung-il are the only interesting men. Shin Jung-woo and President Kang are devastatingly boring, thankfully Song Ju-ran is a much better secondary villain to Kang. Also love Choi In-ja and the way she mirrors characters like Bok-hee. So many fun to watch female characters to more than make up for the boring men, and yet CERTAIN PEOPLE have spent the entire drama's run speculating about M/F relationships instead.
More importantly, there's several Hong Kong cinema references here that aren't obscure or anything but I just find it really funny that Google translates Hong Geum-bo's name to Sammo Hung, and then you start to realise that was a totally on purpose similarity. The A Better Tomorrow reference here isn't as good as Extreme Job's though, the gold standard for jarringly random HK cinema references in Korean entertainment. Speaking of, I love Director Yun so much.
I want a season 2 but I also think they captured lightning in a bottle with the cast chemistry among the women of Room 301 and I'm not sure they can do it a second time without something being missing or having them come together as a group and have it not feel forced. I will at the very least take Geumbokhee as a FSS agent/PI buddy cop duo though.
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