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Romance in the House korean drama review
Completed
Romance in the House
0 people found this review helpful
by Pokor
Sep 20, 2024
12 of 12 episodes seen
Completed
Overall 8.0
Story 9.0
Acting/Cast 8.0
Music 7.5
Rewatch Value 5.0
This review may contain spoilers

Mellow Family Melodrama

Its a very mellow melodrama where nothing too drastic happens. Was watching some pretty dark series and I picked this to live watch weekly. Its hard to think of how to rate this because in a way its not something to compare to the usual ambitious KDramas as the concept has become. It was a nice weekly SoL TV show on netflix that was relaxing, had enough to keep me waiting for the next week. Almost each character by the end is in a better phase of their lives over the short time and it was really relaxing to watch.

The hidden star of the drama is undoubtedly CEO Nam(Jung Woong-in). Every scene with him is great. The Abeoji versus Abeonim scuffle was the best!

One issue I found particularly jarring is the occasional absurd leaps of logic that make it hard to suspend disbelief(the overall tone is grounded+humor, so somethings just don't...make sense?). Every single situation using bait and switch is a another issue storywise but sometimes it pleasantly surprises like the "boomer" boss's talk and the high heel scene. I also love how none of the regular tropes are ever used to give this show a punch because they'd have ruined the consistency(No unnecessary love triangles and no noble idiocy breakup- both of which are so common in kdramas its abnormal and weird I felt relieved simply because it didn't exist). Overall the drama stayed true to its family melodrama theme and a simple personal growth tale for all that didn't stray beyond its premise and resolved all main points. One of the other good points is making each of its main characters a complete individual even if flawed and not conforming to expectations everyone has(but not going overboard; relatable and not changing drastically from their core self) which makes the overall theme a deconstruction of the societal expectations of what families should be like and also of a person's "obligation/duty"(CEO Nam being the best example of someone who was beyond the concept of 'duty' as his family assumes him to be restricted to). Instead of any major messages highlighted or epiphany inducer however its all just, there. Mellow melodrama.

Issue no.3- most characters lack impact. None of the secondary characters(outside CEO Nam and dad's friend Oh Jae-geol) had any real presence. Aunty and dad's friend had a ton of chemistry and could have been given more stories as another middle aged couple navigating life. Jae-geol and landlord's daughter were shown to be separately each in the same hard times as the mom and dad had in the past but their stories were barely there otherwise(Jae-geol's still has some arc with his issues and moving forward) but the landlord and daughter's story resolution was anticlimactic. The younger brother was a non-entity as compared to the family's pet maknae Byeon Medal. His final proclamation about how nobody ever told him anything did resonate with me. However his character was poorly done overall. His character should have brought up situations earlier, issues that only came towards the end and even then barely- the topic of how nobody told him anything was a significant issue(in the beginning they have him say nobody 'asked' his opinion which doesn't point to his issues at all). And it upends the upset when the romanticization of the absent parent stops(he just sounded spoiled because his reaction was to how dad said no and his character wasn't clear at that time at all). Also personally, him and his sister needed to have a proper talk about the issue of college degree and expenses or at least clarify the situation for the audience.
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