Not Your Typical Kdrama
Kdramas have made a name for themselves by using tried and true tropes and cliches to do an amazing job telling fairly formulaic stories. And they're fun, and I like a lot of them. But this is not that kind of show.
I would come close to putting this show into the same category as the film Parasite - not quite on that level of pure art in filmmaking, but carrying similar complexity in the writing and in taking a deep dive into human psychology. Though I would asterisk this by saying that most of the characters in Parasite are actually not as mentally damaged as the characters in Dear X. (Parasite zooms out a bit and looks at damage on a social level, whereas Dear X, though it touches on that, is more deeply focused on the characters' mental and emotional interior lives.)
I'm also not interested in talking about whether or not the female lead is being correctly identified by the term "sociopath" or ASPD (though I don't think she is) - the important thing is she's utterly damaged, selfish, brilliant - a real villain protagonist.
Mainly, I want to say, as a 20-year professional in the writing and publishing industry - the writing in this show is fantastic. The characters are deeply thought-out and realized, and the actors, of course, do a brilliant job portraying them. (I hope they win awards, seriously. They deserve them.)
I was particularly impressed by the overall story structure. The show breaks the story into 3 mini-arcs, neatly divided up into 4 episodes each: high school (and right after graduation), early acting career, and full stardom. The supporting cast shifts each time, and the immediate problem facing Baek Ah Jin (Kim You Jung) also shifts, keeping things fresh rather than lingering too long in one stage of her life.
For my personal take, the final arc was slightly weaker, just because my favorite parts of the show were when Baek Ah Jin was displaying her brilliance and taking action against her current "X" - I have a competency kink, I think. I love watching characters be awesome at what they are doing, and I loved watching this mentally damaged female lead take agency and make things happen the way she wanted. That gets a little lost in the last 4 episodes, and she feels like she has much less agency, which was a bit disappointing to me. Without spoiling, I would have liked Ah Jin's ending to go a little differently.
By contrast, Jun Seo (Kim Young Dae) and Jae O (Kim Do Hoon) both come to the point where their characters are fully realized, expressing what has been building inside them over the years. For them, their endings are exactly right - sad, but true to who they are.
If you don't like watching shows in which you can't approve of or relate to the characters, this show will probably not be for you. If you, like me, just want a solid story regardless of subject matter, give it a shot. For me, this is going straight into my "best of Kdrama" collection - and that's a short list.
I would come close to putting this show into the same category as the film Parasite - not quite on that level of pure art in filmmaking, but carrying similar complexity in the writing and in taking a deep dive into human psychology. Though I would asterisk this by saying that most of the characters in Parasite are actually not as mentally damaged as the characters in Dear X. (Parasite zooms out a bit and looks at damage on a social level, whereas Dear X, though it touches on that, is more deeply focused on the characters' mental and emotional interior lives.)
I'm also not interested in talking about whether or not the female lead is being correctly identified by the term "sociopath" or ASPD (though I don't think she is) - the important thing is she's utterly damaged, selfish, brilliant - a real villain protagonist.
Mainly, I want to say, as a 20-year professional in the writing and publishing industry - the writing in this show is fantastic. The characters are deeply thought-out and realized, and the actors, of course, do a brilliant job portraying them. (I hope they win awards, seriously. They deserve them.)
I was particularly impressed by the overall story structure. The show breaks the story into 3 mini-arcs, neatly divided up into 4 episodes each: high school (and right after graduation), early acting career, and full stardom. The supporting cast shifts each time, and the immediate problem facing Baek Ah Jin (Kim You Jung) also shifts, keeping things fresh rather than lingering too long in one stage of her life.
For my personal take, the final arc was slightly weaker, just because my favorite parts of the show were when Baek Ah Jin was displaying her brilliance and taking action against her current "X" - I have a competency kink, I think. I love watching characters be awesome at what they are doing, and I loved watching this mentally damaged female lead take agency and make things happen the way she wanted. That gets a little lost in the last 4 episodes, and she feels like she has much less agency, which was a bit disappointing to me. Without spoiling, I would have liked Ah Jin's ending to go a little differently.
By contrast, Jun Seo (Kim Young Dae) and Jae O (Kim Do Hoon) both come to the point where their characters are fully realized, expressing what has been building inside them over the years. For them, their endings are exactly right - sad, but true to who they are.
If you don't like watching shows in which you can't approve of or relate to the characters, this show will probably not be for you. If you, like me, just want a solid story regardless of subject matter, give it a shot. For me, this is going straight into my "best of Kdrama" collection - and that's a short list.
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