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LilMeggs

San Jose, CA

LilMeggs

San Jose, CA
The Secret Life of My Secretary korean drama review
Completed
The Secret Life of My Secretary
0 people found this review helpful
by LilMeggs
Nov 25, 2019
32 of 32 episodes seen
Completed
Overall 8.5
Story 8.0
Acting/Cast 8.5
Music 10.0
Rewatch Value 8.0
This review may contain spoilers
I've been dying to see this drama ever since I watched the trailer, and thought that maybe Viki would release the drama maybe a few months after it's release for standard members as the drama was only for premium...and I refused to upgrade my plan. But more and more dramas started to pile up that I wanted to watch, but I didn't have the right sub and they weren't releasing it for everyone. So I finally caved in for the holidays as there will be a second anniversary major 2 week binge session coming up for me.

Unfortunately, I follow a few korean drama instagram handles that will give major spoilers for each episode of dramas. I've been getting better at avoiding them, but unfortunately for this drama, I knew the major plot points. I knew how Do Min Ik would react when he found out that his secretary had been lying to him and secretly dating him as Veronica Park. It was almost like watching Nice to Meet You - how they played the wedding/leaving at the alter scene in the first few minutes, and then started the drama 6 months before as the wedding. It made it painful to watch as you knew the first 30 something episodes were of how they met and fell in love, but in the back of your mind, you knew that something huge happened for the main guy to break off the wedding, during the wedding. So during those those 30 something episodes...it was hard for me to believe the main guy when he said he loved her and nothing she could do would make him want to leave her. Luckily, in this drama...it wasn't as painful as the other drama. But unfortunately, I didn't understand Jung Gal Hee reasoning for doing what she did unlike the main girl in Nice to Meet You. I think since the start of the drama, Jung Gal Hee was playing an innocent trick on Do Min Ik, her boss, because he couldn't recognize faces and expected to have the worst possible date and he would never call her again. And yes, as she kept meeting him because he had fallen for her version of Veronica Park, she felt worse and worse about leading him on and eventually wanted to tell him the truth, but that was after like 4 dates. All I could think about is...how the hell is she going to get herself out of this one. I felt like Do Min Ik's reaction was fair as his prosopagnosia was fresh and emotionally he hadn't come to accept it completely and Jung Gal Hee knew that. He felt as if it was a crutch in his life as well as his work, so it doesn't help that the one person who he trusted the most basically made him fall in love with her saying she was someone else. Given he is a man in his mid 30's and has no reason to be a child, but yes...Jung Gal Hee did not have a justified reason for what she did and she is lucky that he forgave her and decided he wanted to be with her only an episode (2 half eps) later. I also personally think it also hurt cause all Do Min Ik wanted was a normal family life, and he wanted to love of his step mother who had raised him after his father's death. He knew that their relationship was manipulative, but he still became the perfect son so one day she would say that he was her son and not step son. In this timeline, his mother wanted him to became head chairman of his father's company (take it away from his uncle) as well as marry into a family with high status, and decided to set up an arranged marriage with Veronica Park (CEO of biggest film company in Korea). Even though he knew about Veronica Park's demeanor, he still gave her a shot because he so badly wanted to please his mother. I think that is maybe why he fell for her so hard and so quick, he so badly wanted it to work out, so when Jung Gal Hee decided to act in the place of Veronica Park (while the real one was on a date with Ki Dae Joo) and he sensed a speck niceness (something that he lacks in his family life, but craves for), he was like, "this is my wifey."

I believe this was Do Min Ik's only flaw though...for me at least. I loved every character in this drama, Do Min Ik's especially. But there were a few flaws or character development holes that I didn't understand. For Do Mink Ik, I loved his loving and bubbly attitude, and went through his little character development - after a secretary he trusted for many years betrayed him, he had a hard time trusting secretaries, and only signed a one year contract with each. Normal stuff. I loved his goofy smile and cute personality that he always had towards his best friend Ki Dae Joo and once he got prosopagnosia, he started to lean and trust more on Jung Gal Hee and showed her this side as well. He was basically a puppy who wanted to be loved. He did throw little tantrums here and there, which wasn't my favorite, but he got better at them. I also think another thing I wasn't very fond of was his stance on the whole secretary unfairness issue towards the end. He only really helped out because he saw his girl suffering in the protest. Yes, that is very sweet, but nowhere did he mention that he did what he did to help her as well as all the other secretaries because it was wrong. Yes, what he did created a domino effect that helped all the other secretaries...but it was a domino effect, not the sole reason why he did it. Maybe he did do it for both reasons and I am reading the signs wrong, but Min Ik wore his feelings on his sleeve so the fact that he didn't come out and say it was also for the secretaries, makes me think it was a side note.

I liked Gal Hee's can-do and quirky attitude. She always wanted to help and she was great at it. She saved Min Ik's ass on many occasions. I just didn't like how her "reason" for pretending to be Veronica Park was so she could experience just once , what it was like to be on the receiving end of her boss's good side. Instead of her pulling out his chair, he pulled out hers. Instead of her making reservations and picking out the fanciest wines for him and a quest, she would drink a fancy wine. Not...really...the best reason so I wasn't super into their fake romance plot. Min Ik was being hella cute...but I couldn't get past it. It's wild if you think about it - if Gal Hee went that day and said that Veronica Park couldn't make it, I know that Gal Hee and Min Ik's romance would have still happened and it would have been cleaner and sweeter as he started to fall for her when she told him she would help him becoming head chairman. Plus Gal Hee's heart would have broken less because she wouldn't see her boss falling in love with someone else. But...I guess...if we want to think about it in a positive way, her pretending to be Veronica Park made her gain confidence in herself that she was lacking? But a counterpoint would be that she gained a lot of that confidence when she was helping him strategize how to maneuver the chairman meetings.

Veronica Park was annoying the beginning, she she went through a lot of development as she started to get a clue when she met Ki Dae Joo. I didn't really believe their romance in the beginning. For Veronica, it seemed like the very basic troupe, I can get any man I want, but you keep rejecting me so I want you. So she kept pestering him while he only wanted to talk business with her. Eventually, we find out that Dae Joo actually likes her because he thinks she is the "coolest woman he has ever met," he he wanted something serious with her and not to be her "play thing." After they decided to be "serious" they became actually really cute, but also their conversations turned suggestive and they became rabbits. Ki Dae Joo was just a homie to Min Ik and I loved everything about their bromance and how they called each other wifey. It was unfortunate that Min Ik started to distrust Dae Joo, as we all did, but to be fair, Dae Joo was being extremely suspect when he didn't need to be. Yes, that added drama to the drama...but we could have saved a lot more time if he just said exactly what happened from the get go. Plus, it would have helped if Lee Eul Wang would have told most of the truth form the get go because she seemed hella suspect from the get go, making us think that she was out here murdering people left and right.

This drama was very interesting in that; it made you think that there was this huge plot in which a lot of people from the company were a part of, with the main goal of getting rid of Min Ik. But in reality, there was only one bad guy who was an asshole, but that was his only crime, while everything else ended up being a huge misunderstanding, but no one wanted to come out and say anything because they wanted to protect one another. That's what this whole drama was about...a HUGE misunderstanding that created this chain reaction because no one wanted to say anything and Min Ik ended up getting the worst of it. For that 8.5/10. Still a great drama; it got me in the feels whenever Gal Hee needed advice and the ghost of her mother would come back and comfort her. I nearly teared up every time, especially towards the end when it seemed like Min Ik imagined Gal Hee's mother giving him advice (when it was really Gal Hee's older brother) about how you shouldn't concentrate on the things you have lost, but be thankful for the things you still have. I believe that was a huge revelation to Min Ik. He was always trying to chase love from people who didn't give it to him, that he didn't see the people who already did love him. The love of his best friend and the love from Gal Hee as well as the newfound love and acceptance he found in her family. Definitely will watch this drama again in the future as I need more Kim Young Kwang and his goofy smiles in my life <3

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