A beautiful drama about family that failed to deliver what it should.

This is my first review ever, so if you are reading this, I hope this review is helpful to you in any way.

"Family by choice" is a drama about 3 families that face different hardships but find a way to face them and solve them together, by forming a family of their own. I am well aware that this drama is a remake, however I haven't watched the original, so this review will be based solely on the Korean version.

I think the most beautiful thing about this drama is the portrayal of a family formed from scratches. We have 3 families facing completely different situations, but somehow they all come together, form a new family and help each other. For the family dynamic alone I think this drama is worth watching. It was beautiful and comforting seeing how, even tho they were not all bonded by blood, they cared very deeply about each other. This was what enchanted me.
The acting was phenomenal, everyone did a really good job portraying their characters and their emotions.

But, of course, there are a lot of problems with this drama that took value from it.
I watched the first 10 episodes quite fast, since I was hooked and wanted to see more and more. Nonetheless, it took me more than a week to watch the last 6 episodes. With the pass of time, I started realising a lot of different problems with the way this show was written, and those problems made it difficult for me to fully enjoy the last episodes. .

1. Sanha's mom.
At the beginning, I could understand what was her purpose on the show and what her stance was. But, even after 20 years passed, she was spitting the same things over and over again, causing more problems without actually having any character development and without contributing to the show at all.
She was purely there to cause the viewer rage for her character, that's it. After 20 years, she never onces changed her speech, never once had any other actual reason for being the way she was, and this became too annoying to watch in the later episodes. Her characters had no depth. She was making her son's life miserable without once having any kind of development or purpose on the series.
Also, are you seriously telling me that in 20 years you never once thought you were literally torturing your son? Sanha begged in front of a close door, crying on his knees and that was what did it for you? Her "redemption" made no sense and lacked sense. She just decided to leave the country, without ever saying sorry or showing an ounce of remorse or guilt for having mistreated his innocent son for two decades. I hated the "closure" they gave to Sanha and his mom.

2. Sanha's dad.
The mom was trash, but the dad was useless. He never once did anything to help his son. He was a grown adult that couldn't even stop his ex-wife from making his son's life absolutely miserable. Every time he had a talk with his ex-wife, he never actually contributed to solving anything and couldn't even protect his son from his clearly sick mother.
He lacked purpose as well. He was there only to complete the family and to serve as another adult in this scenario, but he had no goal and never did anything. His son spent 10 years living a trashy life with his mom and he just let that happen. He never once visited his son, never once tried to help him.
He felt more like a friend of Jeongjae, than like Sanha's dad.

3. Haejoon and his mom.
So, she abandons her son for 20 years, refusing to see him despite actually being able to, and after ONE chat, it was all resolved? Haejoon's mom issue was dragged during the entire serie, but somehow one chat was enough to solve It all and bring his mom back to his life again.
The whole murder and prison thing felt forced. They didnt give us enough details, despite being literally the main reason behind Haejoon's problems during the entire drama. This was such an important event in the drama, yet it felt brushed and ignored. They all made such huge fuss about Haejoon and his mom, only for them to have ONE talk and suddenly be perfectly fine and happy. Sanha's mom and Haejoon's mom issues were the main reason for their misery, yet the closure it was given to both was fast paced and it lacked depth.
This point brings me to the 4th problem.

4. Haejoon's mom and Juwon's dad relationship.
This just came out of nowhere. They saw each other like what? 5 times? And the next thing you know is they are getting married. This relationship made no sense.

5. Sanha and Juwon's romance.
Contrary to a lot of people, I was really looking forward to this romance. It never felt like incest to me, because the writers made it clear the difference between Sanha and Haejoon. Haejoon always had this sibling vide, while Sanha was different.
The thing that bother me the most about the romance was how fast peaced it was.
In the first episodes, you get glimpses of Sanha's feelings towards Juwon, but it's not the main focused and Juwon always thought of him as a brother. Having this in mind, I thought that, for this romance to actually happen, we would get Sanha trying and winning Juwon's heart and seducing her, but that never happened.
In one episode, Sanha confessed to Juwon, she rejected him 2 or 3 times, and then all of a sudden we got a kiss and the start of a relationship. Juwon never thought of him as anything more than a brother, so the fact that it took too little time for her to suddenly change her view of him ruined their romance for me.
I was expecting at least 3 episodes of Sanha flirting with her and she realising slowly that she doesn't hate the idea of dating him and slowly changing the way she saw him. The romance was too rushed, and it started without previous setup.

6. Haejoon's view of his family.
Last but not least, this was something that bothered me a lot while watching the drama. Haejoon never really seemed to consider Jeongjae, Sanha's dad, Sanha and Juwon as his family. He was always looking for more, always wanting his blood-bond relatives.
And of course, this makes sense in his teenage years, since during adolescence one is on their path to discovering themselves. But even after 20 years, he was still saying things like "being the odd one", "being the one left out", even tho he was NEVER considered something other than a member of the family. He never really seemed to actually think "this people, even tho we are not related by blood, is my family and they are enough for me". He was always separating himself from them.
For me, the fact that he never came into terms with his situation kinda ruined the whole message of the show. This was supposed to portray that family Is not only the people related to you, but those who love you and care for you unconditionally, but Haejoon failed to deliver this.
One thing was Sanha, since he had his father with him. But Haejoon was literally adopted by Jeongjae, but he didnt seem to be satisfied with this family.
Also, the fact that Jeongjae and Haejoon's mom married and they became a legal family took away the whole "family by choice" concept.

I enjoyed this show during the first episodes, but I found myself skipping a lot of parts in the later episodes.
Even after saying all of this, I still think this show is worth watching. However, it pains me the poor job of the writers at some moments.

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