Mostly well written, beautifully acted, but the ending draaaaaged for me.

I mostly loved this show. It touches on a specific time in Korean history, starting in relative chaos and through considerable struggle and pain, settling into a time of peace, and one hopes relative prosperity under a king who it seems was certainly "enlightened". I don't know this history really, but many Korean people probably have strong opinions on the drama. My own opinions are mostly constrained to the frame of the drama itself, with some tiny reflection from a little bit of reading.
It is beautifully written (mostly) and extremely well made, well paced and of course the acting is universally wonderful. The show is heavily focussed on the relationship between the two leads, and this was well delineated ... most of the time.
The FL was believably feisty - or was it unrealistic for a girl in her position, whatever her gifts? Never mind - I loved that about her - she had guts, but was never rash - though accused of this often. The ML was also excellent, but I felt that mostly this drama was owned by the FL. Both actors were fittingly beautiful in their roles.
In regards to other relationships in the drama - all were wonderful, most were tragic, and some were a bit toxic. But mostly this film centred on the main relationship, and the couple's satellites - thankfully, the sometimes excessive court intrigues were kept relatively under control. I lose interest in those very quickly.
Well, all of the above was great, so ... I felt after the death of Uibin this drama lost any impetus and all dramatic tension - it was an essay in restrained grief, which was set against a lot of quite decent emoting riding on a pretty soupy musical track.
On that note (pun intended), while there was little really wrong with the soundtrack in itself, it was set at a level which was far too intrusive for me. Considering that at this time most of life would be lived among sounds of nature, or of labour, or of silence if you were very privileged, I find these grand orchestral soundtracks overwhelming and sometimes completely inappropriate. Most of the action was backed with such intrusive noise and that spoiled the drama for me - at times it was just awful. It was much more watchable when there was silence.
The last few episodes clearly showed how Deok Im's life was almost totally stultified by being obliged to "serve" the king, but ironically also truncated Uibin's life as a concubine (never mentioning the child who survived her to be crowned). After her accelerated demise, King San's remaining years were sketched in with a very light hand indeed - and a lot of soupy music. Little was said of his actual achievements other than that he was the first benevolent monarch of Joseon. Unless I'm missing a LOT - and if I am it's because this exposition failed to keep my attention!
These last episodes were overly sentimental and a great disappointment to me. Really the series should have ended with the death of Uibin and some exposition of the King's somewhat distorted grief. Surely her funeral would have made a sensible ending.
In many ways, this was an excellent series with many fantastic characteristics, marred by an intrusive soundtrack and (perhaps) a somewhat indulgent ending.
All of the above said, I would still recommend it to others, but, yes, might attach a hazard warning ....

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A weepy with some great characters, but also a few flaws

I enjoyed this drama very much. For me it was flawed but heartwarming ... up to a point.
This is obviously based o a 2 hour American film, and they make it cover 16 episodes - not always successfully.
The premis is OK. our jaded middle aged dad has a chance to re-evaluate his life, and learns he has been doing nearly everything wrong, but learns this without bitterness, and in fact with gratitude.
Most of the plot and sub-plots are engaging and heart-warming, with problems being resolved and wrings righted, sometimes in unexpected ways. Very engaging.
Characters grow and develop sometimes quite subtly, and this is usually handled extremely well. The acting is nearly always outstanding.
I loved many of the characters, often abrasive at the start, but latterly more confident in themselves and their position and aims. The interactions between the generations were a delight, the exposition of friendships were beautiful and full of laughter as well as many very moving moments. Moments when the real nature of a character's care was revealed were deeply emotional and pretty overpowering.
There were two main weaknesses for me.
The role of Jung Da Jung began very strongly: here was an incredibly strong woman who has come through fierce difficulties, and is now brave enough to shoot for her dream career, and can take all the blows offered her and turn them into success. She knows she is facing ridiculous prejudice, but she sweeps all of it away. But somehow part way through the drama she becomes wishy washy, and, just as she is supposedly blossoming as a woman in the gaze of a new man, she becomes the c;iched Korean "mum" who is sexless and strangely clueless. Kim Ha Neul is a beautiful woman, but she fades and fades exponentially, for some reason. Perhaps the complete lack of chemistry between her and Lee Do Hyun in the role of the teenage boy was the source of this - maybe a conservative public was thought unable to accept a middle-aged woman really being turned on by a teenager, so it may have been played down until it was completely absent. It ruined the relationship for me, and made her (and the relationship) quite unbelievable.
And perhaps partly as a result of that, the later episodes were undeniably tedious - with too much dithering and soupy plot-filling with "thoughtful" gazes and repeated flashbacks to the same events, and the two final episodes were really an exercise in extended I-dotting and T-crossing. Sadly the conventional message of "stay together through everything, no matter what" is ladled on heavily, without any real reflection on why the couple are able to come together again ... namely, they have both changed, re-evaluated themselves and their family, and reset their priorities, and they are no longer the same tired and jaded people they were. The end of the marriage was necessary to allow them to grow and come together again

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A verrrrry slow starter for me, but in the end, very enjoyable

I watched about 4 episodes of this months ago - maybe a year - and abandoned it. I could not get into the story of a cold and mildly nutty bloke living next to a recently widowed mother of twins, who were sweet but annoyingly shouty and up to mischief, and she herself was apparently irritatingly naive and a bit hopeless. I struggled through 3 or 4 eps and then jumped ship.
I returned despite a few reservations, and didn't bother trying to rewatch the start. Quite frankly I would not have been surprised if I still found it unwatchable. However, it seems that it was pretty much just at THIS point that things actually started happening and some of the earlier irritations were at least partially explained, or faded more or less completely.
This time around, a few things fell into place and I found it fanciful but enjoyable. I began to get to know each of the varied characters slightly better and some of the irritating things stopped happening or became understandable. The nosey neighbours who appeared so intrusive and judgemental were revealed as real friends, willing to be vulnerable and reveal their secrets or follies to console each other, but also to take real risks for each other.
I can't say the denouement and the revelation of the real dark master behind all the horrid stuff came as any surprise, but that really did not matter at all, and I admit that the identity of the other "man in the shadows" was no surprise either. Well, what I MEAN is that I recognised the actor from his vice, his hands, and a very dark and shadowy quarter silhouette of him that read more like a line drawing of simply the edge of his face simply confirmed it. Smug little me. On both counts.
The FL continued to be a bit irritating at times, a bit clueless even though she proves herself to be full of courage and determination, and much more capable than she at first seems. It is a dislike of mine in dramas, to see women who are home-makers and mothers portrayed as inept in the wider world, and needing a man in order to function. And yet, despite the growth of this character, her normal demeanour remains much as it was early in the series. She did, thankfully, become more likable , most of the time.
The ML is, well, lovely. He thaws completely, and warms those around him, becoming friends even with the King's Castle Mafia - such is how I think of them. The way that all his relationships develop is delightful, mostly conveyed in very few lines. It's very clever acting and extremely well played. I loved the growing man-crush, too, especially that nose-nose moment. Beautiful and confident work from the writers and cast.
Speaking of relationships, however, I did not get much chemistry between ML and FL. In earlier episodes she was still too close to her husband's death for that to be appropriate, but even though you could see moments when it should have been developing, later on, ... nah. There was much more chemistry between ML and the kids - beautifully written and played by all three of those actors.
Personally, I suspect that the FL in this case was perhaps the victim of some sort of reconstituted virginity myth in Korean culture. Mums are never seen as fully functioning women, they seem only to exist only as carers and feeders for their families - it seemed that this was in play here, and the drama is much weaker for it, as indeed is the personality of the FL.
Overall, there were niggles throughout this drama, but it was still enjoyable enough to keep my attention.
The plot - well, it's full of holes, and a lot of nonsense, none of the numbers in my head made sense (how is ANY of this secret "government work! funded or reported on? what is Terrius actually LIVING ON in that apartment in the incredibly unaffordable Seoul? Does anybody actually do ANY work?) but that's OK. Let that nonsense go, and you should have a pleasant enough time looking at pretty men doing "thinky" acting or fighting each other, or have a blast laughing at the angst and struggles of some of the other characters going through the circus of life and keeping up the appearances they feel they need - until they don't.
That reminds me, there are moments of light comedy, some of which are actually funny, and they leave quite a warmandfuzzy feeling. Early examples, like when we are supposed to find the FL ridiculous (I think) are not funny for me, but the other residents do offer many mild moments of fun, as well as some quite moving instances of real understanding. They remind me a bit of Shakespeare's "chorus", minor, often stupid or ridiculous characters who actually can hold the key to what is important.
The music - never important for me ... the best film music is such that you should not really notice it, unless it is evoking some internal processing on the part of a character. Here, it wasn't bad, but I did find it intrusive at times, which is not a good thing. In the end, apart from the worst of it, it was mostly pretty meh for me.
Well worth watching this series, but you may need more patience than you expect in the early episodes. I hope you enjoy it.

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Chaotic plotting, some interesting ideas, a few engaging characters - many that you will just hate.

Enjoyable.
That said, first - the irritations with this drama
I found the pacing too slow. This should have been absolutely no more than 16 episodes at most. I think it actively spoils a good drama when they spin it out with unnecessary pauses in dialogue. No body speaks that slowly! Perhaps they "think" that it heightens tension, but it ruins it.
The music was heavy handed to say the least. It's not BAD music. It simply tries to maximise tension or convey emotions which should rest in the writing, or the production - it's a real indicator of laziness or poor work when this happens. I suppose there may be times when it is used to supplement poor acting, but never have I ever seen that!
The plotting is pretty loose, with plot holes and poor depiction of - for example - realistic procedures to take down a conglomerate; recover from a coma; complete a medical degree; kidnap someone; arrest the entire board of a multi million company; and so many more!
The ML here doesn't do it for me. He's believable up to a point - especially in his role as underdog but brilliant surgeon moonlighting on the shady side of the tracks, but I don't believe him as a romantic lead. For some reason his screen presence in those moments just isn't strong enough, and - even though he pities the FL - I just do not see any chemistry.
The FL here also has little to work with, but perhaps does her best. Unfortunately she spends most of the time immobile and expressionless, and then when she is recovered and has her own agency is revealed as a very unlikeable person. I didn't believe she deserved anyone's affection. Pity, yes, but warmth, not so much. When she was with Tae Hyun, she seemed like a different person, but she was unfortunately not someone I would trust for a moment - her first instinct would always be brutal revenge. TH was absolutely right to get out when he did, but when they get back together, would I trust her to be changed? not much. Her vengeful patterns are rooted in her background and her anger, but we hear about incidents when she was incredibly young and that adults around her feared her revenge - that's never going to change. She might never take out her anger on TH - but she will in a heartbeat hurt anyone else around him - and that would break his heart. Also - is the fault with the writing or the actor - I find it hard to say that another actress could have presented a less imbalanced personality - I think the writer failed to get the balance right.
All that being understood - what's to like
I was engaged by some of the relationships as they developed, especially between Tae Hyun and ... nearly everybody else. He starts off being someone who seems to have very questionable morals, but little by little that gloss is peeled away and we see him as someone prepared to take risks to protect anyone he loves: not perfect, but an enormously high achiever; bruised by life, but not yet beaten down; possessing a drive for excellence wherever he places his hand; increasingly able to empathise and very quickly form alliances wherever he finds himself, with the most unlikely people.
There are several moments of satisfying victory - both in the hospital settings, the mansion, and the company world. Each are pretty unrealistic, but still enjoyable.
There are a number of thought provoking issues, moral dilemmas, real risks, psychological struggles and personal conflicts, as well as genuinely heart-breaking moments. Many of the last are (for me) ruined by very heavy handling from the director, and the liberal serving of heavy strings in what I can only refer to as foreground music, but if I were reading it on a page, they would be very moving indeed.
The plotting is not well balanced. There's a massive shift in focus from hospital settings to conglomerates, with huge focus on indicators of status and power, and ways in which those both affect the world but can also be undermined. It's a roller-coaster -and sometimes annoying, but some of those elements are very interesting.= and make the rather chaotic plotline bearable.
The acting was competent all round, with some very familiar faces which always mean good things - notably Jung Woong In, Kim Mi Kyung and Oh Na Ra in minor roles - not much screen time but always a lot of dramatic punch. Chae Jung An was excellent as the female airhead who hides a knife-like mind and enormous determination - and a very dark and vengeful personality. Her husband, the main villain was serviceably presented by Jo Hyun Jae - handsome and affable in appearance, a certain amount of charisma, but perhaps not quite enough, but believable as the boss with murderous capacity. He did a very good job in making the character, apparently strong, but in reality easily manipulated by his Secretary, very believable. The secretary, played by Choi Byung Mo, was (for me) always very obviously the real villain, so I had no surprises when his conspiracy with all the other baddies was revealed. That could have been handled better, but it was all flagged so desperately obviously in the script and direction that I can't for a minute blame the actor.
I apologise for this long and rambling "review". It was hard to get to grips with my thoughts. This somewhat reflects the pretty chaotic plotting of the drama though, so perhaps not so inappropriate!

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Rewatched, and flaws were suddenly glaring!

First time I watched this I really enjoyed it. Attracted by the premise of a mature woman finding herself and her feet, while renewing older relationships, and moving through divorcing her cold and unloving narcissistic husband I thought rewatching this might be like visiting an old friend.
This time, there were too many weaknesses for me to ignore them. FL is rather pathetic, supposedly is 37, but due to her few, rigid facial expressions usually looks nearer 50 to me. Very stiff and instead of "feeling" emotions and trusting the camera, too much mugging and telegraphing crude emotions. Most of her reactions are quite immature - and any hint of "romance" or physical attraction and she's as shocked as an outright virgin - but this woman has a nearly-adult son, so why is she startled when a man catches her to prevent her falling? She does show us a woman changing and becoming more confident and assertive, but at any point where she needs to show us a complicated, ambivalent, or confused emotion, she fails, and presents the same rather grumpy face. I think this is the main reason why she looks so much older to me - in shots where her face is relaxed (sleeping for example) she looks much more normal, and more like the age of the character. This problem made the character less believable to me, and fake.
ML is similarly ridiculously immature - behaves like a teenager who fancies a girl so is rude to her to get her attention.. Flip flops between cold, rude and humiliating and warm and supportive. And he's the "better" option.
"Ex"-husband who has been badgering her to divorce him for 2 years, is a blustering manipulative liar, who will say anything to get what he wants, and consistently gas-lights everyone. He is very narcissistic but appears to mellow later in the plot. Narcissists don't do that. This role is the best acted of the three - even though the character is sooo annoying. Choi Won Yung managed a fine balance which made this character more real.
Both men have a bad habit of grabbing her wrist and dragging her off to Talk, and demanding she answer questions she has clearly told them are none of their business. And it's always Urgent when they want to talk - not so much when she has something to say.
Other characters, while attractive, are little more than cyphers. place-holders or plot devices. This is a shame, because this time around the relationships with minor characters and the way in which their early distrust of the FL changes as the get to know her - including her son - are actually the best feature of this drama. Those are increasingly less important to the drama though, and the last ... half (?) dragged as a result. Sad.
I re-watched this with an optimistic heart, but sadly, it did not deliver. This time I could see the regular Kdrama plot devices, plot twists, tired conventions, cliches and tropes to such an extent that I found little originality in the story. Instead of a character-driven consideration of late blossoming personality and autonomy, this was simply a wander down familiar paths with the same micro-aggressions masquerading as feelings that we see too often. It is not as well written as I had thought (re-watching is always a test of this) and the pacing was not consistent throughout. Plot was driven not y the people but by the artificial arc of events planned out.
Many, like me initially, seemed to like this story.
Very disappointed this time around.

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Engaging and unusual romance with techy rivalry background

Overall - one of the best romantic dramas I've seen
Set against a context of a competition between two web companies for market share, each having a markedly different philosophy and ethos. One is very capitalist, managed by those who prioritise only profit and are happy to victimise their own staff to protect themselves, and the other run on more ethical lines.
Easy to vilify the capitalist teams, but this is slightly subtler, and there are always suggestions that the main manager in that company has other more complex motives
Set against this, we have three women, who are linked in a number of ways, which are revealed as the drama unfolds. Each is a complex character, and - unusual in Kdrama - each is both strong, and develops and grows over the course of the series
And for each there is a romance which also develops over the series. The main romance is between an older woman and younger man - a detail which she struggles with much more than he does. It's very engaging, but while it is well acted and fairly well written, is not really all that substantial : we understand that they love each other, and the issues for each of them - but we don;t actually see all that much of WHY they have these feelings, which appear to be largely based on appearances and - well - good sex. That said, even if the sex is good, for an inordinately long period (after their first encounter) they don;t actually have sex at all, so, yes, that's not very credible.
However, I would say that may be the biggest weakness here, and it didn't much bother me. The premis of an older woman/younger man romance can be difficult to pull off, but - frankly - the completely unrealistic beauty of these actors made it very effective. If they had been more normal looking, it would have needed a lot more depth though. However - spoiler alert - I was very struck by the way in which the (male) directors managed to capture the erotic nature of the female gaze, and also showed at times a different, gentler angle on male sexual attraction. Sweet. ... there is no even vaguely explicit sexual "action" though - not necessary.
Pacing - was mostly good. I often hate the pauses in Kd and liberally apply the FF button. Here, this was pretty lightly used. It's telling that most of those instances were during lengthy patches meant (I think) to be reflections on the romance/feely goings on, and I think this is probably an indicator that the romance between the M and FL could be much stronger.
The techy context was very glamorised (computer work is NOT this pretty) even though they were shown working long hours. For some reason, even though we were supposed to see them working 12-18 hour days, they still had lots of time for faffing about with their personal lives. My own experience of that is ... you go straight home, eat and sleep, and any other interactions (including hygene) are conducted at high speed using minimum of energy. You can't make a drama out of that!
The acting is wonderful, even more enjoyable because this is an ensemble piece, with a number of characters shown in the round. Of course, most of them are fairly snap-shotty, but many of those have evidence of more than one aspect of their personality and behaviour. Lots of strong female characters - even the b****ds. YAY! Males are good too. Nice. Very good writing
Much of the drama looks at commercial ethics and sketches in some dilemmas. A lot of that is simplified, but still thought-provoking. There are also issues of abuse and exploitation - including in a chaebol setting - some of it dark and stifling, but handled in quite a satisfying way, with it being resolved in an unexpected conclusion. Clever.
I must say something about the music. I confess I FFd a fair bit of it, when we were supposed to infer characters were reflecting on stuff. It is a pleasant OST, though. Latterly, however, after I was struck by something I saw / heard, I started to listen to more of the tracks. I found that - more than at any other series I've watched including Itaewon Class - the music added to the drama, actually reflecting the events, sometimes with gentle humour. Some of the music is really beautiful, with absolute poetry for lyrics. Don't be like me - give this a fair crack of the whip.
[It reminded me of Possession by AS Byatt - a brilliant novel about literature, with the narrative switching between times, and interspersed with poetry. I skipped the poetry on my first reading, but re-read it on a recommendation from a friend - and when I did so read the poetry too: it was stunning, that it so deeply added to the narrative and showed incredibly clearly and deeply the internal world of characters, set against their environments, and revealed insights into the central mystery of the plot. This drama is not working at that level, but there are similarities for me.]
Overall, yes, I loved this, and it's unusual for me to experience such an unmixed pleasure with a drama. Highly recommend.

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Loved it the first time. Sadly, the second time I was actually paying attention! Hated it.

I first watched this several years ago, one of the first Kdramas on my route to explore this genre. My impressions then were that it was very romantic and rather full of beautiful people and locations. Oh, the shame!
I now decided to revisit it, and …. well – oh the shame
First – the positives
- Pretty nearly all the males (including the minions) are perfectly acceptable eye-candy – that never hurts. Lee MinHo was pretty dashing because – as he so humbly says himself in one interview I read – is pretty good at anything physical. So that was fun.
- The locations were mostly rather pretty,
- Jan-di's family, even though they were written and played for cheap laughs, were none-the-less an oasis of warmth and humanity in a desert of selfishness. Ga-Eul, JoonGi, and the porridge shop owner were also both fine people. These skilled actors gave very likeable and serviceable performances.

Now – the bad – hope you have a lot of time
- The writing/plot – this was a display of emotional abusiveness masquerading as feelings. Each of F4, with the possible exception of JiHoo, were apparently unable to have any relationship with anyone outside of F4 without bullying or plain using and abusing – they are introduced from the very start as bullies who lack even the moral fibre to do it themselves and instead set the other kids on the weak rather than exerting themselves.
The basis for the romance starts off as game to torment JanDi – and frankly it continues on the same track, even though the ML's feelings are now benevolent to her. However, I struggle to find a single instance of his thinking or caring about what she wants or needs, though he does pay lip service to the idea.
Why is she stuck on him? – you hardly never see them simply having fun together.
The quality of this writing is less even than adolescent standard. Cardboard characters, given a poor-me back story, but no real life in the now.
- The eye candy. The F4 are supposed to be swoonable, but for most of the time they are badly dressed, poorly coiffed, over-made-up, and far too old for the roles. However, if you calm that down a bit, they're not bad. I'd have to say that the swimming and wet suit scene was pretty disappointing, though, but some of the island scenes were pretty – in the man-candy sense. The island was of course gorgeous – sea, sun and sand ... what's not to love about that
- the “luxury” - well tbh, for most of this series we are supposed to be smacked in the eyeballs by the opulence, and the insane consumption. Failed. The interiors do a better job than many in other dramas, with less evidence of an insane designer being allowed to rampage their bi-polar disorder all over the shop, but still no more than middle-class opulence in my (admittedly limited) experience. That experience, however, does include some extremely beautiful locations, with mind-bendingly pricey finishes and furniture. You would expect the Go residence to be replete with custom-designed pieces amd original art - not MDF panelling and paint finishes. However – other give-aways that all this is deeply fake included ...
= insane amount of staff hovering everywhere. The very best staff are ALWAYS invisible
= staff dressed in ridiculous uniforms which make them both pathetic and conspicuous – see above, ref invisible. In addition, the uniforms make it impossible to do a decent job of work.
= security staff all over the place in your face, but unable to straightforwardly control a supposedly adolescent boy. The best security – as with servants – is invisible. In addition, if they decide to lay hands on you – even if careful to avoid actual harm to your person – they do, and you don't have any choice about it. Being unable to efficiently subdue your principal is - in security circles - dangerous, and cause for dismissal.
= the clothes – too often clothes looked cheap and did not fit properly. Awful. If you are going to have beautiful young men, dress them so that we can enjoy their bodies, with things that fit. The styling for the girls was not supposed to be as fancy, and they were much better dressed – until they were supposed to be in posh clothes : then they were shown mincing around in baby-doll nighties, almost.
- The acting. Oh GOD. The pregnant pauses. The mugging. The face-pulling in place of actual emotion – or (god forbid) thought. The laboured “surprise” when someone notices something that has been in plain sight for 10 minutes. LMH was very angry and he did it well enough. He was at times thoughtful and that went OK too. But other actors were less well directed. The F4 were almost universally smug and vacuous. Their idea of “fun” seemed to be hanging around pretending to be interested in girls – never convincingly, sadly. There was damn all character development, even for LMH who is supposed to learn how to love someone in the course of this drama – but his first instinct always remains to lash out emotionally or physically and to wound. Very bad writing or direction or both.
- the plot – was INTERMINABLE as well as implausible, but it amounts to little more than la series of different locations and circumstances for JanDi to be belittled and emotionally abused in
- The music – aural soup. Repetitive, sickly, seldom written to enhance the acting, but just audible wallpaper masquerading as posh – cod “classical” horror. It would have done ab-so-lutely NO HARM to have some scenes play out in silence. In fact – a relief.

I can't bear to think about this any more,
This drama is the sort of thing to which young minds should never be exposed. It is potentially more dangerous than pornography, especially for young girls who might think that this is what you should consider an ideal romance.
Heaven forfend! It's amazing that it has good scores – but then, the first time I watched it I mindlessly failed to engage brain and just watched the visual feast such as it was. As far as that goes (I don't think far enough) – it's OK I guess.
But after a considered viewing, even though I wanted something easy to digest, instead it make me pretty ill.

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Not perfect, but interesting

I'm going to be honest here and very clear: this drama annoyed the pants off me! I love Kdramas, but I am finding again and again the same cliches dressed up as new, but in fact they are fundamentally unoriginal. It's a shame because other excellent qualities in the performances and production can be so deeply undermined.
The good points : excellent ensemble acting from all the cast; creation of a believable small community, imperfect, but perhaps unusually accepting and supportive; some believable character development for several individuals (though this is not consistent); creation of some complex characters where motives as well as thought processes are not transparent.
Irritations : the plot relies too much on flashbacks to reveal events instead of the discovery of evidence that can be used in court; flashbacks are used too liberally to manipulate the viewer and artificially create suspense - in fact they are the main medium for suspense as I recall it; the plot is made unnecessarily complex by revealing information out of sequence for no reason; some individuals at times respond in ways completely psychologically wrong for their character, even though they are under severe stress - I could not believe these would react in these ways, and these reactions seemed to me to be present only for effect; creation of suspense in the drama was also too dependent on heavy handed music; yet again we find every character with any substantial level of money, influence or power is entirely corrupt. This should not really count as a "spoiler" because it seems to be normal n Korean society, but I am tired of this cliche.
Would it be SO HARD to write a drama where the people who actually could help are in fact competent and HELPFUL? or at the very least well-meaning or even benign? Could we not see a drama where the villains are, in fact, villains? Why is it that only corruption is supposed to be interesting or believable? - it quickly becomes boring. Ordinary people are, I believe, far more interesting than these people who from the very start we can feel are deeply questionable: and professional villains, acting in their alternative society, can indeed be just as difficult to convict - more believable and thus more interesting than these tropes.
Come on Korea - give us some different flavours instead of the same old spicing. You are doing a disservice to your actors and directors.

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Well, I tried.

Sorry. I really wanted t like this - I mean, Rain, Korean scenery, motorbikes, and exquisite food ... what's not to love?
Well, for me, RAIN's companion, Hong Chul. He must be the most vacuous, irritating, mindless, attention-seeking companion on the planet, and (sadly) I found his interventions did nothing but distract from things which could have been more interesting. He spent his journey "waaaaaaaaaaaah"ing at everything while seldom making any coherent comment or adding anything of value, and "Netflix, Netflix, Netflix"ing all over the shop - as if any of us actually care how a programme is being delivered to us. It was the running "joke" of the show, but, frankly, not funny even a little bit. Perhaps he was hoping that Netflix "magic" would turn this series into the next Squid Game.... well, it did not.
He was at his most engaging when (rarely) he was so mesmerised by the scenery that he shut up and LOOKed! THAT was much more powerful than any of his fake enthusiasm. And he repeatedly laughed at nothings, with a crazed and humourless expression in his eyes - never went so far as sinister, but very off-putting and, well, very very very fake.
To be fair to Hong-Chul, I believe he's very experienced in entertainment shows, and am certain he has great skills. He was determined to demonstrate that a Korean male CAN wear unisex clothing anywhere. Good for him. He's also a very good swimmer. I imagine he is also pretty bright.
I suspect he and Rain were meant to be foils for each other, perhaps each bringing something out in the other - they are indeed very different. Rain isn't perfect - and much humour was made of the fact that his wife in the past said her ideal man is humorous and has double eyelids - well we all know Rain has mono-lids, and he's described here as unfunny and dull. Perhaps they thought that he on his own would be too serious or too boring. But I found him a million times more interesting than Hong Chul, who sadly just got in the way.
Rain is clearly meticulous, can perhaps be controlling (from little things he said - usually eats only one meal a day, wouldn't allow his wife to go clubbing with one of the "visiting" celebrities - half a joke, but was it?), hard-training, loves and is very skilled about food, and may be a bit straight-laced. However, he can laugh at himself, treats everyone with respect (actually, so does Hong Chul), and is very honest.
The moments in this series where I wanted to pay attention were those where the landscape and scenery dominated (and that wasn't really the case in the biking shots, when we were looking at Rain and Hong Chul who was mainly just screaming) and when Rain was ... well, doing anything. His abs were out there in episode one, and no hardship was imposed on the viewer, though I had thought it not likely to continue. I was wrong - they were in fact all over the place, and several viewings of him doing his daily work-out, in which he regularly loses count and starts again. Hong Chul says, good naturedly, that he's a bit dumb. But those abs could sharpen a knife.
I tend to feel this kind of programme is most effective when the viewer can imagine themselves on the trip. I almost made it, but I kept getting kicked out of that perspective, not only by my fantasies of murdering Hong Chul (apologies) but also by the regular invisible intervention of "crew" or others, who organised several things which appeared without explanation. Bikes got changed, there was a train trip in the middle of the bike trip, a night camping where the kit (and Rain's immaculately groomed standard poodle) has arrived before our intrepid pair, and then the (very posh) camping kit magically erects itself. Of COURSE we know there has to be organisation behind the scenes of this kind of programme, but I think they got the balance a bit wrong. I wonder just how much fun would we have had (for example) watching Rain and Hong Chul working out together how to erect that tent? Maybe they tried that and it did not show them at their best! Or maybe it was just (another) opportunity missed.
I forced myself to persist but had to abandon at the start of Ep 6.
A nice idea for a series, but sadly failed by - I felt - poor casting.

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Compelling plot and execution (litteraly) with lots of laughs

This drama's stars are without doubt the Writer and Director, without whom this sterling cast could not have so well displayed their mettle.
And to say that the behind the scenes 'actors' nearly outshine those on the screen is no small accolade. The performances are without exception outstanding, from the main stars, to each minor character. However, the quality of plotting and slick production allow them to shine.
Vincenzo himself is a dark and disgusting character, but the writers along with Song Joon Ki manage to present him only as a reasonable and skilled man using extreme measures to achieve natural justice, or to simply do business with brutal men. Somehow they manage to conceal his brutality behind that beautiful face, elegant frame, great clothes and impeccable manners. And while doing this build in many moments of pure comedy.
A man embittered by his youth, and out only for his own gain, he comes to Korea to collect a massive cache of gold, intending to make a surgical strike and leave pronto to return to Italy. But, as soon as he lands in Korea, the whole eccentric timbre of the film sets in, and he finds himself in a ridiculous situation of immense comedic punch. He was lucky he was left with his designer suit on - I'd have left him in his underwear ... or swapped it for my own clothes, and sold it! But, then, given the visual potential I might have opted for just the underwear...
He's faced with a deeper dilemma than simply sorting out his wardrobe though - nothing goes as he planned. He has to deal with threats from developers, a collection of hapless and helpless tenants who consistently frustrate his plans, and of course, the benevolent lawyer devoted to helping the underdog (who we all know pays peanuts) against their chaebol aggressors, while facing determined criticism from his lawyer daughter who acts for those very oppressors. And then there's that damn pigeon stopping him from getting a night's sleep!
The Mafioso and the Lawyer strike up a friendship, a death leads to an alliance between Consigliere and the daughter, and the plot hits its stride. And the pigeon comes in surprisingly handy at a crucial moment, too.
The brutality is brutal, and made more so by the elements of psychopathy in the main villains - each of whom has their own well developed personalities - which also at time make them the butt of humour. But most of the violence is suggested rather than painted bloody in your face. Most of the victims are the bad guys - though the good guys do get hurt. The threat and violence are extremely finely judged. Somehow the writers and actors manage to provide a "hero" who is a murderer but remains a sympathetic character.
Our female lead is elegant and beautiful, able to look after herself and brave in the face of real risk to her life. She is also mildly insane - a complete clown, throwing herself into extravagant gestures and bodily contortions to cast contempt or humour at her opposition. She uses her body like a wild child dancing in the rain - but at some quite inappropriate moments, which is hilarious to watch. But fiercely intelligent, supposedly making the courtroom her playroom as she defeats villainous lawyers with virtually no material to work with. I'd say that every courtoom scene is simply played for laughs. I can;t think of any actres who could have carried this off so well as Jeon Yeo Bin.
Other characters in the new Korean "Cassano family" slowly reveal their true natures as gifted fighters, organisers, and including a computer hacker who could not be more serendipitously placed, nor more essential. They blossom and realise that they had not formerly known their own strength. They appear to become a warm and supportive family. This was rather lovely, not because of the family metaphor, but because drooping, trembling, weak people grew into themselves - and that permitted their relationships to deepen.
Thank goodness the predictable romance developing between Vincenzo and Cha Young was muted, and remained so to the end. They are a beautiful pair, but their roles in the plot remained unencumbered by neediness between them. He respected her autonomy and she somehow accepted him as he was, a mafia thug, using his skills for his own ends, but in the process working for a good cause in Korea. That tolerance of each other's autonomy is pretty rare in Korean Dramas - the trope being that a man shows his developing feelings by being possessive, demanding and bossy and the woman starts being huffy and jealous. A nice relief!
Yes, there were some clichés, but they were minimal. There are many plot twists and setbacks, and many dark moments amid the bonhomie of the tenants association and the wacky humour. You might think the humour in such a drama would be dark Well, I didn't find it so. Sometimes it was defiant, sometimes ridiculous, but I never thought it was just plastered onto a situation either. The greatest originality in this drama is its use of humour which always comes as a surprise and a joy.
At a time in which Korea is releasing a particularly rich crop of dramas, this one seems to be, rightly, dominating the screens. I don't think I have ever awarded marks as high as this for any other drama. It deserves every accolade.

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Mostly strong, but fizzles from ep14 on

This is a very strong drama but had several flaws which really undermined the quality and – most damning of all – the writing of certain characters. Based on the experiences of children studying to prepare for college entrance, their teachers, and their parents. The romance is enjoyed by an elite maths teacher with an apparent inability to tolerate food, and the humble mother of one of his students: after he realises that the food from her side dish shop does not make him vomit he wants to know her better. Understandable.
Let me talk first about some of all the things that were good. Of course the acting was wonderful. It is beautifully shot in attractive locations. Characters are for the most part well rounded, and mostly the plot is character driven. The plot is engaging and charismatic, and some of the people are just lovely.
The pushy mum's are all witches though which is a bit lazy. Dads are almost universally invisible.
School work and pressures seem mostly realistic, and teachers are shown as genuinely caring – though the schools' administration and leaders are much less so.
The murder sub-plot was OK : well presented, and an interesting concept. We start to catch onto it though, and once that happens, the culprit and motive are fairly quickly identified, though the way it is resolved is rather sad.
The relationship between ML and FL is fine – I enjoyed it, but sadly the excellent writing of both characters was hugely undermined by the absymal styling for the FL. This was a major flaw and it persistently spoiled most of the drama.
It's by no means the case that a hot teacher like him could not have fallen for a frumpy, badly dressed, badly aged wee woman from a food shop, but I could not believe that, even with the responsibility of raising a child perhaps ten years younger than her, an elite athlete from a national team would have resented herself to the world like this - none of the other mums did that.
That was absolutely and damningly confirmed by the fact that once a certain part of the plot is reached, she tidies herself up, gets some decent clothes, sorts out her hair and looks hot!
Good for her, and at LAST, but pathetic styling. Shoddy. And don't blame the stylists - they are following Directors' demands.
And I think the other main failing here is that the drama could easily have ended a couple of episodes earlier.
The FL's sister turns up out of the blue. Expecting open arms. Despite the fact that ten years ago she abandoned her daughter with her "mum", and has never been in contact since. The reason for her appearing is never made fully clear, but when her daughter made a fuss saying she will return with her to Japan ... she promptly absconds again. So that worked!
I found this whole sub-plot entirely unnecessary. I make no apology for mentioning it here, because it is SO OBVIOUS from the very start. I expected it from the point at which she dumps the child in ep1.
The only reason I could see for these 2 redundant episodes was the chance to tie up the few remaining 'loose ends' for some of the characters – with better writing, that could have been done by ep14.
Overall, I expected to give this drama at least a 9 but it limps in at a mildly weak 7.5 /10 for me ... especially since waiting for new episodes was torture! Disappointing

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Cliched Writing failed to live up to my hopes

I could not MAKE myself like the FL – despite having certain "strengths" (damn good in a fist fight, good at interrogation – so long as she can use illegal tactics, successful prosecutor working on her wits – but merrily taking bribes), she is crude, insensitive, corrupt and I can't particularly see how she is supposed to be 'elite'. Even though she is beautiful, I started to even find her face annoying because she used a lot of overly animated expressions – but repeated the same ones all the time. Frankly she was a bit of a slapstick character for me. And unfunny. She has friends who have been nothing but loyal, but – without being abusive – she mostly just uses them, including her colleague and old college pal and her 'uncles' from her dad's old gang.
ML was engaging enough, but a bit dull. We know he is here (from the states) to try to clear up his doubts about his father's death, and that he has some business nouse (and money), but we don't really get to see much personality. In fact perhaps that's the crux of this drama's weakness for me: if a character can't be played really broad almost like a panto character, they seem to be very bland. It's too much focussed on the FL who is herself rather one-dimensional. Even though we get her backstory and motivation, there's not much to her character except self-interest and a pretty hefty dose of selfishness as well.
The writing is full of cliches and thus pretty poor. Poor-but-driven (and deeply smug) prosecutor, conglomerate exile back-to-make-good, toxic family and in-laws, thug gangs running round in crap clothes beating people up with big sticks, underlings either passively allowing or actively supporting wrongdoing, Hanju using underlings' family to keep them in line, police routinely arresting no one or the wrong one, and either making no investigation or total incompetence, corrupt officials openly accepting bribes and doing no work in the pay of the super rich. Also too many apparent debacles for the 'good guys' later revealed as actually strategies they have set up so that the 'triumph' is overturned ... but even after that the Hanju group drop another bombshell, etc etc etc.
I managed to finish this, but the ending was a bit odd. The FL, at first feisty, has to modify her feisty half way through in order to seem to conform a bit, but at around that point (which is also when she and ML start to get closer) the plot gets a little odd, with lots of what I can only call filler because it doesn't move things forward very much. And it's a bit boring. Eventually everything comes more or less right, but the decision of ML to go back to the states, and the FL to follow him leaves me a bit flat. And the final scene of the whole shebang quite frankly confused my last brain cell quite a lot. But also I didn't really care by that point.
By half way through I had to use the Netflix speedup button to take me through this – still, that is a better result than having to abandon it outright.
Most of the cast acted very competently, with some tried and trusted familiar faces doing sterling work. Sadly I was disappointed with the FL though I suspect she was doing what she could with the material and the direction
Sadly, for me, only a 6.5 out f 10

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Third rewatch - perceptions change.

Well, I've been holding this back for a while.
The first time I watched this I was early in my Kdrama immersion and I loved it. Lots of eye candy and many quite engaging characters, some of whom I hated, some of whom I whole-heartedly rooted for. I found the acting for the most part excellent and enjoyed the simple but at times sad plot lines as well as the horrid and toxic manipulations of the powerful. Even that first viewing made me feel that most of the problem I had with this drama was centred in the tragic miscasting of the female lead. More later.
The second viewing was less satisfying but still engaging. This time the FL was even more misplaced, but I thought that the writing of her part and possibly the way she was directed sadly affected how she portrayed her character. One-dimensional, pathetic and gurny.
In this, my third viewing I find that Go Ara's role rendered it all almost unwatchable.
Please don't misconstrue this - GAR has been excellent in other roles I have seen her in, so I don't altogether blame her. She is a very skilled actress - when properly cast and directed
However I always felt that in this drama her acting was lamentably one-dimensional: she is always to some extent angry or scared or worried. Her method for conveying all these different states is centred on what I called "grumpy chin". It's almost laughable - even when she is experiencing the first stirrings of confused romantic love, she is Miss Grumpy Chin. Sometimes her chin calms down and is almost normal, but if so then her forehead becomes loomy.
Now, I think there is good reason for her character to be worried, vulnerable, scared, given her station in life, but even in the early stages of the drama when she plays a young woman about town making an unexpected success and good money by telling romantic stories for small crowds, she conveys every excitement of those romantic tales with her grumpy chin or sour forehead. When she drinks the wages that she is owed, she conveys her "relaxation" by means of her grumpy chin. Even in those warmer lighter moments with her best pal, she is Miss Grumpy Chin. She is a gifted if partially trained doctor having learned by watching her father, but invariably her interactions with every patient is dominated by Grumpy Chin and perhaps Loomy Eyebrows as well.
The character she plays - a young unmarried daughter of a one-time aristocrat - should have been married off by the age of perhaps even 13, certainly by 16, but most of her styling convinces me she is in her late 20s or even mid 30s. In fact all the young male characters should be in their late teens or early 20s and they also look much older - late 20s/ or 30s. Sadly GAR looks about twice the age she should be, and that's how she behaves too. In addition, the acting has none of the charm the character should have and mostly none of the spirit.
She spends elaborate amounts of time dawdling around being grumpy, or actively whining and weeping - she is transformed from a girl with agency and creativity to a wet rag. These more attractive characteristics do emerge later but only ever very briefly. Most of the time they are invisible, dominated by a passivity and that ever-present grump.
For me, one result is that, with the best will in the world, I fail to find any chemistry between her and the ML or 2ML. I find that deeply annoying, and a huge wasted opportunity : two of the most beautiful males on the planet, both doing a damn fine job of being sexy with a sword or a horse, and demonstrably trying to fall for her, but nearly every interaction is ...limp. Even in the context of conservative Korean standards, this is pathetic.
This is a drama sadly let down by poor directing and the pathetic miscasting of the monochrome and miserable role of A-Ro.
There are other flaws, of course, other reviewers have responded to those, and up to a point I agree at least with some of those. However, all of those weaknesses have been bearable. None has made the drama as nearly unwatchable as has poor old (and old is the right word for it) A-Ro, as caricatured by Go Ara.
My Stars/Scores are awarded mostly for every other actor or aspect of this drama - if I focussed only on the real issue here, I'd only find 2 stars at most.
Clearly she was doing what the writer/director wanted from the role. They should be shot by one of the used arrows that they wasted on Dog Bird,

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Loved this, loved everyone by the end

I loved this drama. It's overtly feminist in its message, but manages to be so without obliterating or being unfair to men. There are a LOT of hunky blokes in this, and many lovely personalities. There are many men behaving badly, certainly, that's almost unavoidable, and they are common in any drama. But even the cheating ex-boyfriend redeems himself by the end.
There are annoying women, too, but no one is treated cruelly by this drama and we learn about the human side of even the rotters.
I found this drama predictably annoying in parts. That was inevitable because it is - as well as being engaging and witty and well made - something of an expose of the double standards applied to men and women in Korea (though it's just as true elsewhere). Some of that was hard for me to watch.
Despite all of that, this was a very satisfying watch. It's extremely well written ,with snappy dialogue and great chemistry between pretty much all the actors. Love that sort of thing.
This was as near as I can recall to giving a 10/10 for me.

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This is an engaging short series exploring the experiences of a young woman who has failed in her dream to become a teacher in circumstances which seem to have resulted in her having a breakdown. As a teacher she was excellent with the pupils and supported them strongly but had to leave the profession and stayed with her sister for a time. When she felt stronger she secured a position as a live-in house mother for a struggling idol group who were facing losing their contract in six months. She commits herself to supporting them to become successful. One of the trainees is an old pupil of hers and they develop a close relationship which never actually oversteps boundaries.
This is genuinely feel-good series. There is conflict and people fight, there are jealousies and malice at times, but issues are usually resolved very easily and quite quickly. For me, they young ML, supposed to be something of a romantic lead did not work as such: he was very moody and crap at communicating - with anyone - but was supposed to be a great songwriter. Well, that happens sometimes. The House mother was efficient and cheerful - in fact she was determined to be cheerful and supportive at all times. People would downright insult her, or try to, and she accepted their words and promised to do better. A little hard to stomach, but it was well handled.
I enjoyed this series. Most of the characters were well written and pretty well-rounded, even f a lot of the writing seemed saccharine sometimes. The storyline did a good job of approximating a believable idol experience, though it was a little too smooth sailing in my view. But it made an enjoyable easy watch.
One disappointment was the music and performance levels of the band. They didn't work for me - the music production values were much too soft and lacked any impact and as a result, the choreo and dance skills (which were a bit stronger) didn't match the songs.

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