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.
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So much stronger of a show when it's about the rise to power Sarah Kim had and all the enemies she made along the way, a really well written character played magnificently.
Sometimes you ought to just know when to stop when writing a script and I'm not sure this knew when to stop, especially when you only have eight episodes at your disposal. Basically a far better drama about fashion and the desire to be viewed as wealthy, even among the wealthy, and a really whatever detective procedural. I can suspend my disbelief if I think it's a fun time to watch, and there are moments where I'm willing to do so even as things get a little too ridiculous, but overall it's just not enough of a balance. Especially since Sarah Kim becomes a little too passive in the closing act, rather a contrast considering her role in the first and second acts of the drama.
Also wish the yuribait wasn't confined to just episode one but maybe that's just me, or blamed on people posting clips of the first episode online to draw me in.
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Really, these characters deserved a better plot overall, obviously Chun Woohee is a real treat to watch no matter if she's a con artist or a vulnerable girl who never really got the chance to either grow up or have a childhood, but the side characters on the protagonist's side are also quite well defined and feel like actual people, which isn't always something that's easy to achieve. I really like the way characters like Nasa and Dajung are developed, Lee Yeon specifically needs a lot more roles, she definitely brings out a vulnerable and sympathetic side to a character that so easily could've just been some awful one note cool girl hacker. I can't say I liked Ringgo though, he starts annoying, he remains annoying. I do wish, however, despite liking how his character ending up, that Mooyoung started in a less wooden place. Kim Dongwook is a good actor and brings a lot of nuance, but it's brought eventually, and the character just isn't interesting enough to care about his scenes at first, which is a stark contrast to Ro Um.
Definitely echo the criticisms though specifically about pacing and product placement, the two most glaring flaws in the drama. Like, you just got done with one of the most emotionally resonant scenes and it just cuts to a Chilsung ad with absolutely no self awareness. It gets really bad in the otherwise really good finale, I'm guessing because they knew that people would be paying attention to other things. There's probably about a dozen worthwhile episodes of content stretched out into sixteen, given my criticisms about some of the villains, you can probably infer what parts I thought were worth keeping and which were worth getting of.
The romance is a surprisingly tender slow burn, which I appreciated. It's in the background the whole time and it doesn't feel rushed like it sometimes can, like they just shoehorned it in because audiences want two characters to get together. "Turn your brain off" is such a dumb thing to say about any media but the sentiment is probably there when I recommend this to others, though not literally, because you definitely need to pay attention at basically every moment. It's an okay to mediocre drama elevated by good performances and honestly some pretty fun plot beats here and there. Worth a watch if you like that sort of thing, but not worth your absolute love and devotion, unless you do love it in which case throw away everything I've said.
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