Producer Ahn Pan Seok is considered one of Korea's finest PDs for three main reasons: his shows are beautiful works of art defined as much by what he doesn't choose to show as much as by what he does; his use of music is poignant, artful and powerful; and he's a strong feminist, creating female victims of a sexist and misogynistic culture and then freeing them in ways that can be brutal but are no less cathartic.

So it seems strange to write a review about his latest work and say that, while it no less beautiful or artful or well-framed, it's use of music is ear-screechingly bad and its portrayal of women's lives depressing. In fact, this is the most depressing Korean drama I've seen since Misty told us a woman can only have success if she destroys men - and she won't be happy anyway when she does it.

Which is not to say that there is anything wrong with the writing, acting or cinematography of this show. It is, in fact, a warm and often-visually beautiful representation of the ordinary life of a very ordinary noona and her very ordinary romance with her friend's dongsaeng. But it is in the show's realism that it fails.

Jin-ah (Son Ye-jin) is the most everywoman portrayed on TV: told her job is to compromise, to keep the peace, to slide through without conflict. Basically raised to be this way and then simultaneously judged for being this way. Forced to be a participant, essentially, in her own mistreatment. In the end, Jin-ah will only be happy, and the people around her will only be happy, if she stops trying to make everyone happy. She's such an everywoman that I don't know why the writers and the PD told the story at all - unless it's to completely depress us as to the current state of feminism.

For those who want a fluffy, happy romance this is the wrong show, even if there's a lot of that in the first half. Love it seems can survive in a bubble but can't survive the real world, even if the two people in the romance are not doing anything wrong.

In the end, this show gets a seven because it was a very good piece of television despite the depressing overall theme. The one true flaw was the OST, which was so awful it had me muting the soundtrack throughout. If you told me a few weeks ago that I'd be muting the soundtrack in a PD Ahn drama, I wouldn't have believed you. But here I am. And if I have to hear 'Stand By Your Man' one more time, it will be one time too many.

Sometimes it is hard to be a woman. But only if you are brought up to embrace noble martyrdom as a woman's main role. It is ironic perhaps that the people who will truly hate this show are the ones who love shows that promote woman's noble martyrdom as a virtue to be rewarded - like Mischievous Kiss. And while there is a lesson in that for women, it's not a particularly uplifting one.