STORY
The drama is equivalent to all the dramas that center women, namely Sex and the City, Mistresses, Gossip Girl, Girls, I Need Romance ect. The show revolves around a pack of 4 girlfriends, depicting their lives, the problems, the difficulties and implications of dating and other relationships for people in their 30s. The main premise of the show is that everyone, no matter what has happened in their lives or what mistakes they have done, deserve a happy ending, and if they fight hard enough, they will get it! Secondly, the show presents a very realistic -if you ask me- image of the dating scene nowadays -not only in Korea per se-, how unrealistically high people's standards are, and how picky they are, being materialistic, searching for, money, visuals, other than character in their potential partner.
We get to see the life of each woman, and each story makes a point about relationships. Even if all the characters are in their early/mid 30s, i think it is safe to say that everyone can somehow relate to the problems they depict as they are universal.
Story 1: A divorcee who is afraid that she will end up forever alone, kind of scared to let herself be free and enter a relationship, and deep inside feels she doesn't deserve to be happy because of her divorce. This story is the main story of the drama, like 70% of it. It features a love triagle, that you will hate, believe me, but in the very end, it was the most essential love triangle i have ever watched in a kdrama. It wasn't introduced just for the ships, but it depicted serious realistic facts like love vs friendship, which love is valid and which isn't ect. At the same time this story presents several realistic questions a person in a new relationship may have, they can be stupid like 'why doesn't he/she want to kiss me - Is he/she the right person for me?', or more important like 'does he/she have money issues? Does he/she want to scam me?'.
Story 2: Forever single. A girl in her mid 30s having been single in like... forever. I believe many people could relate to her, she was introduced as the 'funny' one of the quartet. We get to see all her struggles to find true love, along with several questions (and reminders) that i could sum up in this proverb 'Whatever shines, isn't gold!'- and vice versa.
Story 3: The more serious, borderline melo, sub-story. A married woman who goes through a divorce and faces serious health issues. Her story is touching, and moving and could have been a great stand-along/spin off show. Her story poses ideas like 'Don't give up on yourself, on your marriage and generally on happiness. Problems are there, pain will always be there, but we have people around to rely on, don't give up on them or yourself, pain will pass!'
Story 4: The (Wanna-be) femme fatale of the quartet. She was also supposed to be funny along with story 2. A woman with attachement issues, but what happens when she meets her match? This story was left on the sidelines, but yet it managed to make some worthy points like 'no relationship will work without trust and letting your guard down. You should know which person is worthy for you to do that, and you should take on the responsibility of getting hurt and of hurting that person'. This story had the potential to hit issues like career problems for people in their 30s, but it didn't which was a waste.
I, generally, don't have any drawbacks to point out, other than the fact that the drama spent too much of its time overanalyzing the first story, hence the rest of the stories being somewhat underdeveloped/underapprecciated. It is arguable to say that stories 2-3-4 were more interesting than the main one.
ACTING
Exquisite acting, as expected by such a talented ensemble cast!
Jang Nara was a worthy leading actress, her character was superficial and fluffy, maybe too much at some points. I loved her more emotional scenes and i wished she had more, she has more to offer than this.
Yoo In Na, was lovely and adorable, expressing the mindset complexity of such a person perfectly. Yet she was cute and only a teeny tiny bit stupid and just too good of a person for her own good. Great acting, for a character and a side story that needed more screen time.
Yoo Da In. My personal favourite, as a melo lover, her story moved and touched me. She expressed difficult and unique feelings perfectly, she was luscious and easy to understand and relate even when she didn't have as much screen time as she deserved.
Seo In Young. Her story was pushed to the sidelines, it comes, therefore, as no surpise how her character was kind of forgettable as well. She was good and i have nothing bad to say, other than she was kind of overshadowed by Yoo In Na, as they were both the 'funny' characters.
Kwon Yool, was very good, his acting could be described as emotionless or/and cold, but i do believe it was his character being like that. I cannot say i loved him, but i had no problems with his acting.
Jung Kyung Ho. And we finally get to the king of the show. You know what is amazing? How he managed, in a show that focuses on women, and had 4(!) female leads, to rise above everyone and have the most important, interesting, touching, funny and adorable character of everyone. His acting could have been as forgettable as KY's but he managed to own the show! True king!
RECOMMEND/REWATCH
Many people argued how this was boring, i disagree, this actually had so much more to offer than other soulless rom coms, it actually had something to say other than just cheesy romance or insignificant comedy. However, this is not a show for everyone. People who know and like the shows that i mentioned above, or/and like rom coms in general, will, probably, like this one. Other people don't spend your time meaninglessly, move on. As for me, someone who generally dislikes rom coms, i loved this one, i don't know if this says something about me or the show...
I loved it, but would i rewatch it? Not really, it was great for the 16 hours i spent on this, and i will savour it for what it was.
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It starts off with a really ridiculous situation, in my opinion but soon it starts to get better. I love how the story brings light to a lot of things especially the hardships of being a single parent and the love that's lost in your married life.
Everyone in this drama did a good job in portraying their characters especially to the kid who played Min Woo, he did a good job.
Surely, as someone who has never been in a relationship nor marriage, this drama gave me life lessons. This drama is very heart-warming and it's really funny too. If you want a good laugh, you should definitely watch this show.
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this is one drama I would have loved to say I liked, and while I enjoyed some parts of it and found it overall entertaining, I still dreaded a lot of other things about it.
I went into this drama because I am a bit of a Jung Kyung Ho fan myself, and also because I felt like watching a light romcom after my long hiatus from Kdrama watching.
well, I am not necessarily disappointed and definitely can't say it was a waste of time, but this drama failed to thrill me, or make me enthusiastic watching it.
# First and foremost, the story
It is a very common old-school romance comedy with a touch of angst, and by old-school I mean....well I'll get to the point; cilched.
It had the childhood friends which were separated and reunited as adults, and the one-sided love from the hero reigniting towards the pure and kind-hearted heroin.
We also have the love triangle, and as angsty as it can get with the two males being best friends.
The only new twist about the story might be in the fact that all of the sides of the love triangle (well, most of the characters in the drama!) are divorced (thereby the title of the drama), and the hero has a kid which he brought up himself. Oh, and also maybe that the heroine is an ex-idol.
So overall, there's nothing super special or unexpected going about in the story, you're kind of watching waiting for the next expected step to happen while enjoying some fun interactions between the leads. Also towards the end the drama felt so dragging with not much going on for any of the characters. It made me always eager to find out how they will fill up or the remaining episodes, and why don't they just cut the thing shorter.
# The characterization
This drama has a huge amount of characters, main characters, side characters and in-between them a bunch of filler characters. We have the main 4 ex-idols/old-time BFFs (hereinafter "the quartet"), we also have our main lead and his best friend (and also the third angle in the love triangle, hereinafter referred to as"3rd angle" ) and his ex-wife.
The main male lead was by far my favorite character, maybe thanks to Jung Kyung Ho (heheheh) or simply because he was very well-written realistic character which Jung Kyung Ho helped to bring it to live as a relatable and lovable single-father. The main female character is also nicely written and brought to life by the hands of the ever cute baby-faced beauty Jang Na Ra. She's a woman who has been through many tough challenges in her life making her a strong and independent person. The two's chemistry and the zing you felt in the way they talked and looked to each other was so lovable and irresistible, you can not help but cheer for them.
The story being the kind of simple one that it is, it was only normal that the writers felt obliged to create a story-line for each character or a couple of them. In doing that they had to stretch all these story-lines in order for each to develop parallel to the main story. The problem is not in the large variety of characters and their consequent story-lines, but rather in the fact that out of all the characters only one or two felt believable and their stories ones that you could relate to and care about, with the rest of the characters being either odd-balls that downright drove you mad, mediocre with uninteresting stories, filling the drama with scenes that were meh making you feel the urge to fast foreword.
As for the other 4 side characters; the 3 ex-idols and the 3rd angle, only one of them made me care about her and that was Da Joeng and the rest of them were just there to add either a spice of comedy or angst but were never quite convincing . Regarding the quartet, I have to add that I couldn't help feeling that not only was Dong Mi and Ae Ran's characters lacking and mediocre and there scenes sometimes boring, but I also felt that the actresses were ill-chosen, both not really fitting their respective characters...one didn't give that ajumma or lacking-on-the-looks-side feel that she was supposed to give, and the other was the other way around, never feeling that hot or sexy like she was supposed to be, but rather looking older than everyone else around her.
As for the remaining character of the quartet, Dajoeng, as I previously mentioned her story was the only one I found interesting, with an idea I believe has not been introduced many times before in Kdramas. I have to sadly admit that at a certain point when the main lead's story was relatively settled with not many developments, I was more curious to find out how her story will progress even more than their's ( I also believe I read in several other reviews people saying they were watching eager to know how her story ends), it might be a good thing,but I also believe we have to admit it should be considered as a flaw in the writing.
I don't want to go into details not to make this any longer, but I hated a certain character so badly I could barely hold myself from throwing something at my PC screen, and that is the 3rd angle aka. Dr. Goo Hae Jun. I couldn't quite understand what the writers were trying to tell through his strange admiration towards the main female lead, but if they were trying to sell it as love or even attraction they failed, at least for me. To me it only felt as a strange obsession and a wish to relive his sad past differently on other people's cost. He always gave that bad-loser aura, a guy which doesn't know when to stop and simply give up....AND I HATE THAT KIND OF CHARACTERS. There were many moments in which I sincerely wished he would act in a certain way and salvage his horrible character putting an end to all the meaningless angst he was causing, but no NEVER...he always disappointed me right until the end...there was no salvation to this guy.
# Directing
The editing between the scenes was sometimes odd. I know there are many side stories going on, but you don't have to show me someone receiving an urgent call telling them to rush over because something bad has happened, and the next thng a totally unncessary and boring scene of two people chatting over a cup of coffee, that could wait believe me.
# Music
Overall a fine OST, liked some vocal tracks that started playing towards the end when the angst arch was at its peak.
I'm gonna try to sum things up:
If you're looking for a fun & light rom-com + you're either a Jung Kyung Ho or a Jang Na Ra fan, you can go ahead and give this drama a try, it's a fun watch.
But if you're looking for a rom-com with a bit of a new touch, that would make you thrilled and on the edge of your seat waiting for the next episode, then I would advise you to look elsewhere.
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There were laugh-out-loud times and some stupid cute scenes but the love-triangle just didn't make any sense to me. The friendship between the girls and their individual story-lines were all great as well but just...nothing special. I don't know. It seemed a little immature in it's writing and in the end I was mostly bored or rolling my eyes.
Having said all that, I do still think it's worth a watch if you just need an easy rom-com and want to bask in Jung Kyung Ho's glory. God, I miss him already.
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This story follows the lives of four women at different stages of their relationships. Let me warn you again, the plot was NOT original, but that was my only complaint, if you can even call it a complaint. However, the simple story line was well directed with the right amount of fan service and comedy. It was funny, but not over the top, and the characters were lovable. There were also little to no plot holes (and honestly, if there had been even one, I would've ranked it down one or two points. The plot was so simple that a plot hole would've been the stupidest thing. But there honestly weren't any, thank god.) There was no overarching nemesis or evil - the evil was ones self. Because of this, the characters were a bit annoying at times, but aren't we all? It's about learning from your mistakes so you can be happier in the future. Nobody comes out of the womb knowing what's right all the time. That was the whole point of the show, anyway. My personal favorite couple was Da Jeong and her husband. Their romance was the sweetest, because they were together for so long but still managed to survive and thrive. She was also the most mature, which I admired. Since this show was so big on character development, it would've been disappointing if the characters didn't develop well. Thankfully, they all met a peaceful resolution, which was definitely worth the few slow moments. I especially loved Mi Mo's development. She irked me at the beginning, because she didn't think things through. I liked her more and more as the story progressed, and while she won't ever be my favorite character, she's definitely relatable. Another aspect to look forward to was the sweet father and son relationship between Song Soo Hyuk and Min Woo. They definitely made me smile~
The acting was spot on in ever category. I have nothing else to add lol. The music was also great~ (I downloaded the song by Hong Dae Kwang)
I will not be rewatching this, honestly. It was sweet but I was never sitting at the edge of my seat. It was more like a ferris wheel than a roller coaster ride (which isn't a bad thing, mind you!)
Overall, I liked this show. It was like a vitamin amongst all the angsty melo and action dramas I've been watching recently~ You may have to a skip around a bit when it gets slow, but the ending is worth it~
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I enjoyed this for a one time watch, but will probably not watch again.
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That brings us on to the flawless acting. Our leads had so much chemistry I often forgot they were just a fictional couple. Jung Kyung Ho played such a loveable man that it was practically impossible not to fall for him. His charm and commanding presence on screen, the way he and Jang Na Ra bounced off each other in their scenes their energy contagious, any viewer could feel the budding romance. However this drama is also great at focusing on the more complicated relationships too. Our married couple who are on the brink of divorce who may well have well been the couple that truly all us viewers were rooting for had such a ride and great storyline it can make even those who doubt love crave it. Each of the girls had such different relationships, each one of them entertaining in their own way making this drama is a must watch for any romance drama addict.
The finale of this episode was also so perfect, something quite rare these days in dramaland as there are so many great dramas that lose steam by the end leaving us with a mess however here we get the ending that all viewers are satisfied with and seeing all of our characters happy. I do warn this drama will probably leave us all walking away wanting to find ourselves our own Song Soo Hyuk and unfortunately in reality that may be hard!
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Honestly, I only started watching this for Jung Kyung Ho. He is an excellent actor and he did not fail to achieve as Song Soo Hyuk. He was funny with out being goofy, he was corny and sincere. I enjoyed his character the most.
What I liked most about Jang Na Ra's character, Han Mi Mo is that she was honest with herself about her feelings. Even if it wasn't comfortable for her, she still tried her best to face reality. Some people don't even try. Some people hide from their feelings and bury everything until a situation has gone from bad to worse.
The other women actors were good also. Yoo In Na is so cute. It really is hard to believe that she is 33. She looks so young. She is a good actress too, because I totally forgot the other dramas that I had seen her in up to this point.
Kwon Yool is the equivalent of Shin Se Kyung and I didn't enjoy his acting at all. I haven't seen him in anything else that I know of so maybe it is his character. I didn't really like his character that much either. So,,,
I really like the music.
If I ever rewatch this, then it will be to get a JKH fix.
If you like romantic comedies, then this is definitely one to watch.
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For me the drama is especially so good because of the cast. The cast did it just INCREDIBLE good. They're so charming and I really loved every role. I wanted to watch it at the first bc of In Na and I loved especially her role with and her relationship with Ahn Jung Woo (Ahn Hyo Seob). They're so cute like omg.
This drama is a must for anyone who want to watch a drama which lift your mood up.
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Acting: The two main leads both have very natural acting talents. The second male lead's acting is too stiff and thus made for a pretty boring love triangle storyline. Surprise cameo was a riot!
Story: I enjoyed watching the various versions of marriage/dating throughout the drama. I also really liked Jung Kyung Ho's character as a single dad. If only all single dads were this perfect! Unfortunately, the story dragged, especially in the middle of the drama. If this drama was shortened to 8 episodes with 2 focused on each couple, it would have been ideal.
Overall, a good watch for when you are bored and want some cute romance but don't expect your socks to be knocked off. The entire cast is as good looking as they come so it's worth it for just watching all the handsome men and women in this drama!
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The story itself was interesting enough, but looking back on it, it was not exceptional. That said, it was able to keep me waiting for my weekly episodes so props to the writers. I admit I was initially drawn to the fact that the male lead has a son. I thought that was a unique aspect you don't quite see in a lot of dramas, and I don't know if it's just me, but guys with kids are so cute. Our main leads take up around 2/3 of the screen time, while the rest of the time is focused on the other members of Angels. Personally, I was only drawn to the side story of Baek Da Jung, but the other stories are pretty interesting as well.
The cast was wonderful. Jang Nara and Jung Kyung Ho deliver their roles perfectly, and really kept me interested in the show.
The music wasn't anything exceptional but I did really like 2 of the songs on the OST so much that I spent a couple days replaying them over and over again.
Overall, it was a well made drama that is sure to make you smile, as all rom-coms should do. There's nothing too dramatic, and although I cringed at some of the cheesiness, I still thought it was adorable. Definitely give it a try if you're looking for something light and fluffy (which sounds like a smoothie or something .-.)
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