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Business Proposal korean drama review
Completed
Business Proposal
1 people found this review helpful
by kavka
May 27, 2022
12 of 12 episodes seen
Completed
Overall 5.0
Story 3.0
Acting/Cast 8.0
Music 8.0
Rewatch Value 1.0
This review may contain spoilers

Lighthearted, comedic, rushed?

While the ending is rushed (side storylines deserved better resolutions), most of the season has decent pacing. Many romantic cliches are turned into awkward moments/jokes and they go all in with over-acting, editing and sound effects to play up the comedy. (As a heads up there is A LOT of second hand embarrassment, it is their main comedy device.)

Most of the actors are selling it. The friendships are definitely one of its strengths & the family and workspace dynamics are usually fairly entertaining.

--- spoilers below ---

My list of highlights would be:

* Young Seo and Shin Hari's friendship! It feels most solid and fleshed out – they genuinely feel like close friends. They bicker, they are supportive whenever they need it & call each other out without reservations.
* Young Seo's acting overall is just so fun to watch.
* Shin Hari's appearance & acting actually changes with her roles.
* The work team dynamic is mostly entertaining and has a few touching moments.
* Shin Hari & Tae-moo have a few very lovely bonding moments.
* The second love interest wasn't really a doable love interest at any point. They part ways on good terms.
* The guys are mostly respectful when it matters the most?
* The editing and sound effects are great.

But some things were really dragging it down, too:
* Most characters are exactly the same in the beginning and at the end.
* Too many characters only exist for comedic purposes, but are used in serious plots. (Like Young Seo's cousin ruining her meeting with Sung Hoon's parent figure.)
* Most plots don't actually have consequences. For example, no one ever did anything after Shin Hari's defamation. She was supposed to be forced to resign/move away, she said no, and the editing specifically hid the response to that. Then they move on as if it never happened.
* I also really, really hoped for defamation lawsuit. When your entire career and reputation is ruined after the same person broke your friend's heart, you don't just shrug it off. On that note–
* The show's morals are very confusing and inconsistent. Min-woo thought his friend is in an abusive relationship and punched the assumed abuser, then got scolded. He found out he got cheated on & got scolded for being upset about it. I have no idea what moral stance the show was trying to take there??
* Or like when Young Sae's cousin does almost the same thing she did (pine after Sung Hoon that rejects her and make scenes about it), but it's framed as pathetic instead of funny/romantic.
* Young Seo mentions being in heavy debt, but that's just one-off comment again.
* The families never meet. Shin Hari's parents could get along with Tae-moo's grandpa, but they are never even in the same room. The show completely forgot Tae-moo's grandpa complains about living alone and having meals alone. Extended family dinners when?
* Hitting people is still supposed to be funny when it's the mother doing it.
* Last few episodes have very confusing flashbacks.
* Tae-moo doesn't appear traumatized from having a car accident when rushing over to Shin Hari, even though the theme of the episode is dealing with his trauma from his parents' car accident. It's just not even addressed.
* Last minute sickness for drama, yet easily curable off-screen. Come on.
* Forced separation/time skip. Really thought we avoided that one, but no.
* We never even learn what Young Seo's new business plan is?

I'll stop here as the review is getting too long, but yeah, tl;dr don't think about the plot too much and then it can be fun!
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