It should be noted firstly that I am not the biggest rom-com fan, secondly that I usually refrain from writing reviews for dramas I didn’t like –one man’s trash is another man’s treasure- while, for the most part, I drop dramas I see myself rating lower than 6. All that being said, Introverted Boss somehow is the exception to my rules.
Introverted boss is the story of a girl whose sister died a tragic death and now wants to take revenge on those who wronged her making her commit suicide. To her surprise, she finds herself caring eventually for the person she was originally set out to destroy. The drama is an aspiring melo comedy romance set in a business PR company centering around 2 polar opposite characters, an introvert and an extrovert. Sounds pretty watchable doesn’t it? Well, I had so many issues with Introverted Boss that I somehow believe they wouldn't bother me but at the end, I’m so infuriated by them they need to be phrased.
However benevolent the show’s meaning is, essentially expressing that everyone should be accepted and we should not judge others merely based on their looks, as a whole the drama just didn’t work. Trying to piece everything together I think I can pinpoint what went wrong. Overall it seems that the drama didn’t know how to draw a line between serious situations and comedy therefore ridiculing things in a bad way.
First and foremost, although I enjoyed how complicated the story was and how (unnecessarily) interconnected the characters were, the backstory which is the base of the whole thing is the weakest backstory I’ve ever witnessed in the almost 100 dramas I’ve watched thus far. The whole thing relies on a girl committing suicide. It’s the first scene of the drama, the driving plot device. It then continues developing this into a mystery “what happened to that girl, why” ect; it is only logical I’d expect an exceptional backstory there to wow me since kdramas specialize in such.
To my disappointment the reasons the girl commits suicide were utter garbage. Not only unimaginably exaggerated, but also utterly stupid – weak writing is the main fault of the drama and I cannot forgive it. However, what made me really angry was that as a plotline it puts women in such, such a bad, naïve, gullible, stupid, weak spot that made me sick to my stomach! Suicide is not a plotline to play with. Either do it right or don’t do it at all. Making a woman commit suicide in 2017 because of… men basically, just feels wrong, doesn’t it?
Moreover, to top it all off, during the last episodes they pulled a complete 180 on those already severely stupid reasons and made it even worse! Was that their idea of a plot twist? The “twist” pretty much disregarded everything that had happened up to that point, and made the backstory not only disappointing but also completely laughable.
Continuing the drama apparently has a thing against women in general, or at least this is my take. I never have a problem with bitchy 2nd female leads, I rather enjoy watching them spiral. However what was that here? The 2nd female lead isn’t bitchy, she is mental. I’ve never witnessed, EVER, such a weak, penis-slave female character before. This the best way I can describe her. I seriously don’t want to even think that in 2017 there are women that act like that, let alone 20something girls who are as excessively beautiful as this young woman here.
Are we really going to accept tv shows that put women in such a bad light nowadays, or even sympathize with one? No, if a bastard doesn’t want you, you don’t forgive his sleeping around and neglecting you because “you can’t live without him”, you kick him in the nuts, you do a hair flip and you move on! This is not the 1800s! Unacceptable writing!
What’s more, another thing that seriously bothered me was the misuse of the terms “introvert” and “extrovert”.
Introverts aren’t people who hide in black hoodies, can barely talk to others, never leave their houses and don’t have any friends acting like creeps. What is this? So an introvert has no fashion sense and only wears black hoodies to cover his face, not being able to cater for himself. He can’t strike a normal conversation with a person to save his life and he overthinks to the point he hurts himself. As I said, over-exaggeration killed this drama.
Somehow this was supposed to be funny but it wasn’t! I agree introverts have difficulty in socializing, but there is a huge difference between an introvert and an anti-social person, which is what the male lead in this drama is.
In the same sense, an extrovert isn’t a crazy person who screams and violates people’s proximity levels. Over-exaggeration made me role my eyes so hard, they were stuck at the back of my head.
Since I mentioned the extrovert part, the female lead, let’s talk about that. Yes, the female lead was awfully annoying in the first 3-4 episodes, but during those episodes the drama had something different to offer, it was somehow original. I was actually enjoying her quirky character giving a unique vibe to the drama. Not every female lead needs to be nice and innocent so as to eventually “change” the male lead. So boring and unreal! After the script changes, yes she became conventional and likeable but also super boring, and along with her the drama reduced itself to a very, very classic and boring rom-com.
Additionally, I would like to mention what was a failed romance for me. No one in this drama had chemistry with one another. Park Hye Soo and Yeon Woo Jin seemed to be having fun in their scenes, but I won’t ship 2 people who just look good together. Everything felt too forced to go down a romantic lane making their scenes cute but also non-inspiring and boring.
Furthermore, broadening my rant to the supporting characters, I’ve never witnessed such uninspired, superficial and machine-like secondary characters. They all had nothing to offer other than comedy which, on the whole, fell completely short in my eyes. I was mainly annoyed at the misuse of Ye Ji Won who is just too good to be treated like that.
All this in combination with the thoroughly tedious and long episodes contributed to the drama’s complete failure. I could have overlooked everything to be honest if it wasn’t for the exceptionally weak backstory. I know this is a drama and i should just relax and enjoy, but when they put serious plot lines and issues in the middle like suicide and emotional abuse, there are lines that should be respected. Not everything can be comedy!
As far as the acting is concerned all the actors did a good enough job but I think all of them were miscasted.
Park Hye Soo was borderline unpleasant to watch and completely forgettable, no charm in this role. I am all for actors trying different roles and testing their limits. She did not do a bad job in this role, she was directed to act like that after all, it is just that the role didn’t suit her at all. Maybe it would be better for some actors to just stay in what they can excel at. I could totally picture Lee Sung Kyung in this role.
Yoon Park is too cute to be playing ungrateful bastards. Good job but I couldn’t dislike him enough to consider him an antagonist or sympathize with him at all to care or root for a character development which left me with a lukewarm taste throughout the drama.
Gong Seung Yeon. Oh my god! This woman is too beautiful to be playing such roles. I understand the directors’ thoughts behind hers and Yoon Park’s casts but it just didn’t work out. When you are beyond beautiful like Seung yeon you know it and you don’t run behind any bastard, and if there are girls like her, no reason to beautify it by presenting it in a tv show!
Yeon Woo Jin was the only actor I actually enjoying watching, still his performance wasn’t memorable to save this thing.
Overall, I wouldn’t recommend this drama to anyone to be honest, but considering the positive reaction it is getting I think my personal views, principles and values got the best of me. Apparently rom-com lovers, business drama followers and comedy fans will enjoy this but I’m positive there are far better dramas out there.
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