When your trunk get heavy, let it go

My overall positive verdict is that it's no masterpiece. I feel like it falls a bit victim to its glossy cinematography - you sort of expect the story to be just as polished. Unfortunately every character apart apart of fl, ml and 2fl feels undercooked, especially 2fl's husband - frankly a noticeably weaker actor, and him being the killer in a tackled on mystery which feels like was just thrown in to hook the viewers in what is a pretty thin in plot drama wasn't really satisfying with his 2d past trauma motive . I think focusing on the underexplored wealth disparity between the nm employees and Jeong Won and Seo Yeon could have been more interesting - it only really came up during the leads' argument in episode 7 - or entirely centering on the leads' emotional development as a couple. Speaking of their relationship - while I did find it very interesting with all the contradictions and nuances, I was a bit lukewarm on the chemistry. It made sense in the first half, but by the ending episodes I would have liked to see less poised therapy speak and more relaxed body language (hats off to Seo Hyun Jin for portraying her character's aloofness while maintaining a very caring facade as a wife, but her stiff body language by the time she has fallen in love felt odd ).
For a more "mature" product (ugh don't care for that word, since here in mdl there is a mini civil war going on in the comments about any people daring to criticize the show obviously not having enough of a high iq or precious life experiences lol) I actually really liked how some of the recent trendy kdrama tropes were mixed in. We've seen a lot of childhood love and and reconnection romantic stories the past year, and having Seo Yeon be his childhood sweetheart made her all the more twisted and pitiful. In Ji and Jeong Won's previous meetings were also quite realistic, without any of that "they were actually really close as children but simultaneously forgot about it yet remembered enough to think of each other as long lost loves" nonsense. I think a lot of us had some brief moments were we really felt a connection to a stranger, so I found the flashbacks oddly moving. Frankly would have liked for them to actually discuss their brief encounters in length and earlier - "are we kind-of sort-of fated to be together?" worked here yet really came up in the end to make things ~poetic~ .
On a separate note, the series should've either went easier with the 2fl's nudity or made the sex scenes before the leads more explicit (or at least not have them be so vanilla, Jeong Won expressing his attraction to In Ji felt like he was reciting a legal document). Her getting the passionate slightly "edgier" scenes felt like the evil = intense sex trope.
Overall, the series was advertised as a mystery melodrama, but seemed to be too scared to indulge in its pulpiness and too dour to justify its length. Still, it's been on my mind for a bit after finishing, which is always a positive. I'm also blaming my heightened expectations.

Read More