An unforgettable watching experience—depicting the most beautiful angst imaginable.

Every drama fan wants to escape into a drama, but we all have different criteria for the kind of escape we want (or perhaps your mood changes it). My criteria is always the same: I want an escape that moves me, makes me examine myself or society at large, or creates intense emotional turmoil within me. 'My Dearest' perfectly bottled that escape and spoon-fed me enough of it each week to create such intense obsession levels within my very soul. I personally land on the side that it's a drama worthy of its hype-level bombardment. If you're someone that wants a similar kind of escape as me, this drama will certainly sate that addiction.

Gil Chae and Jang Hyun are put through A LOT. Their initial silliness, selfishness, and immaturity take an intensely dramatic turn—the potent need for survival and the protection of those they hold most dear take the reigns (nothing could be more important). Through the course of the drama, they evolve into their strongest and best versions of themselves. Their character arcs are largely absent from each other. But in those moments where they happen to converge, it's beautiful sparks of devotion—pieces laid on the ground between them that they can't quite trust or merge into a full picture (but that they intensely look forward to nevertheless). It's angst in its most beautiful and pure form, and I consumed every second of it STRAIGHT into my angst-loving veins.

This drama ensnared and stamped an indelible mark on ALL my emotions. The journey was hard wrought, but intensely beautiful. The depiction of wartime: unparalleled. The focus on this specific time period: unique. The evolution of the FL from an immature young woman, to a responsible and enduring survivalist: satisfying. The characterization of our male lead Jang Hyun—brought to life by Namkoong Min: career definingly brilliant.

May the wait for Part 2 in October be short.
May we all find other dramas in the meantime to feed our addiction.

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Look, there is a certain market for this type of drama/lakorn: fulfilling the niche of a psychotic guy trying to control a super humble and sweet girl. This lakorn falls into that category. I know not all Lakorns are like this (thank goodness), but this is the first slap/kiss Lakorn I've encountered and I'm not quite sure how to proceed from here in my selection of different Lakorns to watch next.

I'd only recommend this Lakorn under very specific circumstances:

1. You aren't sensitive to very triggering themes (rape, mainly)
2. You like watching endless cat fights
3. You're in the mood for something very angst inducing with a couple that gives each other a lot of long looks of despair
4. You are okay with endless misunderstandings
5. You are okay with suuuuuuuuper annoying side characters

I guess it was entertaining (if you FF through all the side stuff)? I don't know, I feel like you have to be in a certain mood to enjoy this. And you also have to suspend your disbelief at how HORRIBLE the male guy is to the lead female.

I just don't think this Lakorn can ever be accused of having "quality" -- it was pretty poorly constructed: not very well fleshed out characters, the character roles basically being caricatures of themselves, no flowing story where the guy earns the love of the female, and really outdated drama tropes that were annoying to see repeated over and over again.

I don't want to give any spoilers, but I was completely unsatisfied with the end and how he "won" the girl. I was hoping for more character improvement and growth.

So....watch this I guess if you're a fan of slap/kiss lakorns? .....I on the other hand will be lamenting over how I gave 14 episodes of my life over to this show, and in the end....I'm not entirely sure it was worth it. I'm an angst addict, so I certainly enjoyed parts of it, but the main guy was waaaay too horrible for me to say I'm glad I watched it.

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*Warning, this review has very vague spoilers.....but I thought I'd warn regardless.*

I decided to watch this drama because I absolutely adore Shin Min Ah and So Ji Sub. They are two of my very favorite Korean actors--I'd watch anything that includes them. Even though this drama wasn't really my cup of tea (for reasons I'll get to in a second), that still stands true. I'll watch them in anything--they're great.

Before I get to my problems with the show, I'll first touch on what I liked:

1. A slightly unique k-drama ending. Without giving anything away, the drama pretty much wraps itself up by episode 14. Cue the horror I felt that the next two episodes were just going to be one angst ride of a cliche after another (just to fill the quota of 16 episodes). It builds up to a point where you think it will go in a normal kdrama cliche, but instead veers to a sharp left, avoiding it. It was surprising and appreciated. It made the next two episodes more fun, sweet (ie a certain scarf scene), and cute. I really felt that was needed (because of the previous episodes). So definitely a kudos on that aspect.

2. The mementos and theme. While normally the idea of keeping a band-aid REALLY grosses me out, I thought it was an endearing touch on the theme of 'injured people need time to heal wounds that are sometimes really hard to see.' That theme is brought up often, especially as a personality trait that the main-lead has a weakness for in others. Various people in this show are injured in some way or another and I liked seeing how the show dealt with them overcoming that. Having a band-aid be kind of the OTP's 'thing' was nice, especially with how it all tied in at the end.

3. More realistic(ish) kisses and an actual sexual relationship. It's pretty common place that in a k-drama you're going to get those dead fish kisses (which this drama is not devoid of) and just no mention of sex at all. That's just Korean dramas for you. So whenever a drama breaks that mold, like this one does (slightly) it's a big deal in my book. The side characters got some REAL actual kisses and the show made it clear that the OTP had sex (and there were even some scenes that were really playful with this concept). So that DEFINITELY gets a huge thumbs up for me.

Now onto the problems/things I didn't like about this drama:

1. The BIGGEST problem was the family dynamics across the board. Family dynamics were underutilized and not played to their full potential. They were also SUPER confusing. Especially So Ji Sub's family. He rarely interacted with his father or grandmother--so it was super hard to connect with them or get their impact on what the story was supposed to be. He only interacted with his half-brother ONCE (the end episode)! I also just didn't understand his relationship with his uncle or step-mother--they just never interacted. I just didn't understand why....there was huge potential missed there. You barely get a feel for Shin Min Ah's mother and certainly not her brother, nor do you truly understand the pain she had of losing her father. I just....I don't know, felt hugely let-down by the family dynamics, they just didn't play a role in this drama and I felt that left gaping holes in the plot, storyline, and cohesion/flow of the story. It was sooooo confusing, to the point where at various points it HURT my brain trying to figure out why the writers were purposefully skirting around all the normal issues that would involve family scenes. It was almost as if they were working hard trying to prevent any family scenes from taking place, it was weird. Everything felt really disconnected in that regard.

2. Maybe this is just my own weird thing, but.....I thought all the fat jokes/cliches were, ugh...annoying. They continued, right up to the end. Sure, they were trying to make it a "Oh, being healthy (also on the inside) is a good thing, not just losing weight!" But it was essentially just a story of a girl losing weight and gaining a guy. Sometimes I felt like they went a little overboard to the point where it got a little cheesy and cliched (not to mention annoying). But again, that may just be a preference thing. At least this drama only had one instance of weird K-drama bathroom humor. So I'll count my blessings with that.

3. The convoluted angst. It's true that for the most part, this drama is pretty bubbly and comedic. BUT when it does do angst (particularly the antics that break up the OTP) it did not work for me, at all. This may be a slight spoiler, so *WARNING* but at one point, the So Ji Sub leaves her (for in my opinion, a dumb reason).....and for some reason won't allow her to see him, at all. Also, no texting/calling....nothing. Just a complete up and leaves with no trace. He's supposedly supposed to come back to her at some point, but I just felt it was stupid. I didn't understand why it was so important that he had to cut her off, it made no sense. It felt like they were creating angst for no reason and brought me out of the story. It was just dumb. Also, anything angsty like that, just wasn't handled very well. It didn't flow with the story well.

4. Overuse of flashbacks. When a drama is using enough flashbacks to the point where you say to yourself: "Dang, that's a lot of flashbacks." It's overused. It became a crutch and a pointless time-filler. It was fairly annoying, because these flashbacks weren't just of the far past of these characters (which is fine), but things that happened JUST barely. It became really apparent that they were using it to fill time for episodes, which made it just seem sloppy and overused. It to be honest was a little off-putting.

So overall, just not my cup of tea. Not completely horrible. There are some good reasons to watch this drama, but I fear it's a little overrated because of the actors in it. Just be prepared for some confusion and a little bit of frustration if you decide to watch this drama. I hope your experience will be better than mine was.

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Riddled With Stereotypes & Misrepresentations

Before I delve into this super long diatribe about Extraordinary Attorney Woo, it’s important to note that I myself am not autistic. Also, I normally hesitate to watch media portrayals depicting the autistic experience because most of my family members are autistic. While I don't have an insider perspective as an autistic individual, I am tangentially familiar enough that the inaccuracies either exhaust me with how potentially damaging they are or I just cannot relate to the characters and the experiences they portray.

TV has so much power in shaping worldviews and perspectives. It's easy to brush a drama off and say it's just a fantasy, but television is instrumental for visualizing/introducing things that are unfamiliar to us—there's a ton of potential power and responsibility residing within that fact. You could read about a topic or examine a picture, but a video (i.e. movies/tv) will always be the most immersive way to be introduced to unfamiliar concepts you haven't experienced or personally witnessed. Just throwing out a small example: it is now on my bucket-list to visit Slovenia. Why? ...Dear My Friends (one of my all-time favorite dramas) was partially filmed there and it looked absolutely stunning. I live nearly 6,000 miles (about 9,500 km) away from Slovenia and no one in my social circle has ever mentioned wanting to go—watching a drama changed that for me.

The same concept of visualization/understanding can be applied to communities of people. Watching a lot of kdramas has made me more aware of certain aspects of Korean culture than the average person in my country—from birthday customs to drinking etiquette, to even recognizing the language being spoken around me. I'm more aware and my worldview has expanded because I regularly watch dramas. A broader example of introductions to a community (or shifts in perspective) is the greater influx in the past couple decades of media portrayals depicting LGBTQ+ people. It's easier to empathize and understand a community's experiences when you can either relate to or visualize their life—TV has the power to reel you in with all of your emotions and world-build something completely different from what you experience in your everyday life.

This is why misrepresentations in media depictions of a community can potentially be harmful, or at the very least, exhausting/not fun to watch for people belonging to or people familiar with that community. If we don't have ongoing experiences with that community in our real life, there's a lot of flexibility in what we might think is accurate/realistic—whereas if we're extremely familiar with or if we belong to that community, each misrepresentation/inaccuracy is like a blaring horn. Depending on the severity of the misrepresentation, sometimes it's possible to ignore those horn blasts and enjoy all the other aspects of the drama. I unfortunately cannot do that with Extraordinary Attorney Woo—it was too damn exhausting to sit happily through.

Media portrayals always seem to limit the autistic experience to either oscillating between a portrayal of nonverbal/uncommunicative isolation, or they're an amazing genius-like savant that is used as a problem-solving tool. These two archetypes of the autistic experience are not reflective of the community at large. My entire family speaks and expresses their thoughts; they're also nowhere close to qualifying as savant geniuses. I understand why these minority autistic experiences are used in TV shows—it can propel plot (i.e. be a unique problem-solving tool) and/or tug on the emotions of viewers (a parent failing to get their child to speak to them). It's just exhausting when NONE of the portrayals reflect reality back at you, and then out in the real world people are surprised if an autistic individual speaks or lives independently, can't quickly calculate math, and/or doesn't memorize entire books in their free time. Even worse, they might try to deny the autistic individual disability services/accommodations or question the legitimacy of their diagnosis because their disability doesn't match common media portrayals of autistic life.

Woo Young Woo is an amalgamation of every autistic stereotype, but the actress (and likely the directing team behind her) chose to cutesify her voice, mannerisms, and her colleagues’ and clients' reactions to her autistic traits—she was infantilized to the max and always had an 'innocent' outward expression attached to the character. This is an inaccurate and harmful misrepresentation of autism, and my suspicion is it was done for a 'heartwarming' effect and to sanitize the autistic experience (without rocking the boat too much). There was no growth in WYW learning her limitations and implementing strategies/coping mechanisms (aside from I guess that rhythm can be hard for her with revolving doors). There was a brief interlude about independence and living on her own, but it was quickly shut down and not explored. There was no philosophizing about how much she might have to rely on neurotypicals to exist in a neurotypical world and how exhausting/frustrating that can be. Instead, everyone encircled her and coddled her as if she was the office mascot or pet. It’s worth emphasizing that the infantilization with this portrayal of autism was STRONG. There were no discussions about masking or coping mechanisms, and her only feelings of overwhelm seemed to come from loud noises. There's bits and pieces of her characterization that you could attach to a large portion of autistic people: a tendency to over-explain, an inability to stray too far from literal meanings, and failing to accurately navigate social situations. But again, none of it was too disruptive or alarming to the neurotypical people around her. The drama stayed in its super cutesy and unrealistic realm. The assertion seemed to be that WYW’s sheer presence (full of stereotypes and what can only be described as cutesy quirks) was their ‘we’ve arrived’ moment deserving of heaps of praise. Which I guess they got, this is a super popular drama.

I like that the drama utilized a female character—autistic stories are usually limited solely to men. But a more accurate characterization might have been showing how difficult it is for women to even receive an autism diagnosis, or the unfortunate likelihood of a woman not receiving one until much later in her life (compared to young boys). Also, I don’t have any set opinions about WYW’s love interest. Though it is quite rare to see an autistic character get a love story, so perhaps that’s something I can place in the positive column? I really struggled with this drama; I understand why it’s popular, but I honestly think its overall impact will be harmful.

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Even though my rating for this web-drama is fairly low, I still think you should watch it (for a singular reason I'll get to in a second), but first I want to touch on the things I didn't like:

1. The characters were very wooden and one-dimensional. The acting wasn't very good--I honestly was cringing a lot of the time. I'm a person that loves to be swept away in a drama and feel EVERYTHING that our characters are feeling, but it was impossible with this drama. Perhaps because it is borderline parody and they're trying to wink to the audience quite a bit (the sole component I liked). But these characters never really came together to the point where you believed the emotions they were feeling, which was kinda disappointing.

2. Our main male lead was....awkward. I mean obviously he's supposed to be this super-character. He's the LEADING MAN and they try to portray him in that way. But his shifts between Korean/English were off-putting and just how he interacted with Claire....he was where most of the cringing took place. His lines were just not delivered very well.

3. The writing. Some of the lines they had these characters say....just shouldn't have been said. I liked their plot-twists, but I didn't like how the scenes all came together. Sometimes things got just a bit too ridiculous and over-the-top.

Now, here comes the part of my review where I say you should watch it anyway:

1. THE META. Oh my goodness, they covered SOOO many tropes within dramas and managed to play off of them and it gave some REALLY good laughs. The touched on giving drunk girls piggy back rides, karaoke, product placements, dangerous briefcases, brand names being blurred, etc. And they were SUPER-DUPER smart about all of that.

2. The episodes are only 12-ish minutes. And there's only 10 episodes, so just give it a whirl to see what you think. Like I said, while I think it really deserves the rating I gave it as a whole, those meta moments were just spectacular. Spectacular and funny enough that I'd say it's worth the watch. <3

Watch this in one sitting when you have the time, it'll be more enjoyable that way. Also, just don't take it too seriously and try not to think too hard about how horribly the lines are being delivered. xD

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It's certainly the best drama I've watched this month. I'm a little sad to bid it adieu--it had everything you could want from a drama: amazing actors, heartwarming moments, an adorable little kid, and a BEAUTIFUL love story that immersed you completely in the lives of these characters. Everything they felt, you felt. This drama grasped onto my heart and refused to let go. These actors really did a phenomenal job; I definitely want to check out some of their other dramas.

I think whether you are a fan of melodramas or not, this is definitely worth your time. While the subject matter of having a terminal illness is sad, rather than being this forlorn, sappy pit of one depressing scene after the other, it instead had a nostalgic, hopeful, and just plain beautiful feel to it. <33

It was about family and friendships--the important people in our lives and what we're willing to do for them. Appreciating them full-heartily and embracing our present happy moments. The OST is stunning, SO SO beautiful. It really added to all the moments in this drama.

If you're on the fence about whether to start this drama, I say barrel through that fence and just take a chance. It really doesn't disappoint: it's about life, family, love, and happiness. It's just so dang beautiful. I applaud everyone involved in it making it. <333

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This drama is an interesting examination into the question: "What if a drama was created purely for the purpose of trolling its audience?" Let me just say, regardless of my general distaste for it (more on that later), I'm actually grateful it exists and was attempted. Do I think it was a successful attempt? ....Uhhh no. But there's enough brilliance in here that I think if someone was to know what they were getting into and had ZERO expectations (also if they were a forgiving drama-watcher), they *might* like the journey.

It starts off with EXTREMELY stereotypical characters that have no real depth to them, plus there's so many people in the cast that at times its a bit discombobulating. But probably its greatest strength is evolving these stereotypical characters into really well-rounded and likable characters--especially the leads. Their group connection as the drama progressed really rang true. The female lead is such a strong character throughout and it was brought to life brilliantly by Baek Jin Hee, her dynamic with Jung Kyung Ho's character felt EARNED and was a wonderful portrayal of pure friendship. Jung Kyung Ho in particular really impressed me; his insistence on seeing the best in people, his dedication to the group, and just how he executed this character was great. He also had some really great moments with Oh Jung Se's character. I loved how their connection/friendship manifested in some extremely funny and laugh out loud moments throughout the drama's entire run.

I actually REALLY loved the comedy and parody on drama cliches that were sprinkled in throughout this drama (aka the slight trolling). I honestly wish it focused MORE on that because that's when this drama went to really interesting, human, and heart-felt moments oddly enough. When it wasn't taking itself so seriously, those were the moments where I sat up and thought, "Huh, that was actually quite clever." Unfortunately, most of the time it focused on REALLY serious and scary stuff with the approach of absolutely NO logic whatsoever--it's biggest (and fatal) flaw.

It felt like you were CONSTANTLY waiting for the shoe to drop on these characters with really predictable outcomes. I would have been fine with no logic if it was interesting and also unpredictable throughout, but it wasn't. You could easily tell when something was going to go the survivors way and when it wasn't--I also saw all the twists that happened about a mile away. It was never surprising, but ALWAYS frustrating. Frustrating in that they kept siding with and forcing these characters to be around a character that was an absolutely TERRIBLE and UNFORGIVABLE human being. I give MAJOR props to Choi Tae Joon; he really shined as the villain in this drama in a role I'm never-ever going to forget. But it's MADDENING how his character was handled and I completely understand the people that down-rated this to a 1 or 2 for simply that reason. I understand that the drama was trying to play off the bond between Tae Ho and Joon Oh's characters, but it crossed too many lines to be believable. Delving into details would go into spoiler territory, but I'll just say that the ending is a pure WTF moment. I legitimately thought for about 15 seconds that the characters were all in a psych ward and that the entire drama that came before it was just their made-up 'story.' O_O ....THAT would have been brilliant and understandable. ....Unfortunately, that's not how it ended.

This is truly and honestly the weirdest kdrama I've ever watched. I ended up rating it higher than I thought I would (I gave it a 5.5 rating), but unfortunately its uniqueness and great leads couldn't save the script from the individual(s) responsible for......this. o_O

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