I found this drama randomly, read the synopsis and decided to watch it. It has such great potential, but ultimately failed.

Let’s start with the positives - since there aren’t that many.
Kim Nam Joon play this role brilliantly - the character itself is a whole other issue and will get to later
Lee Kyung Young is fantastic as the newsroom director
Newsroom cast is mostly good

Now to the failures
When storytelling - there should be a main character that you have empathy with in order to be invested in the story - this is where this fails the most.
Lest start with the FL . You want to like this character - she is a bad-ass news anchor woman who has risen to the top. We are supposed to admire her determination and ambition. I would normally admire these traits - especially in a culture that is horrible mysogynistic - unfortunately, she is also self-centered, has no thought for those around her or how her actions impact them, is quite manipulative, mean to the point of cruelty. They try to redeem her in the end - even try to make her the victim - but it just doesn’t work.
She lies about knowing Kevin and Myongsuk-Woo and only comes clean when backed into a corner. She cheats on her husband - not once, but twice (and then tries to play victim on both accounts). And then there is the abortion story - I am all for any person making this decision and having control over their own reproductive life - but that she goes and does it without telling him and only just informs after the fact, when he was clearly showing up to celebrate the pregnancy - it was just cruel. There are just instance after instance of her showing she has no concern for her husband and is just mean to him.
I honestly do not get the appeal of this woman and why two men were willing to throw their lives away for her.

Now to the ML - again, you want to be sympathetic towards him - but you just can’t in the end. She is very clear when she marries him that its not out of love, but convenience. He chooses to ignore that and thinks she will change. He lives in that marriage as if its a traditional/real marriage, when its not. Then feels sorry for himself. Then they turn him into the simpering puppy asking her for forgiveness for not being a good enough husband. He has literally spent 7 years with her and has NO idea who she is actually is - he has a dream of who he wants her to be - but not who she is actually is. And, to top it all, he is a really bad lawyer. Their whole relationship, except for a brief moment after the trial is just the two of them constantly lying to each other

Eun-joo - just, come on lady - your husband repeatedly cheated on you, you lie about that fact and for some reason its Hye Ran’s fault?? I hate the trope of women blaming other women for their husbands cheating. And, the person who actually slept with him isn’t even Hye Ran - but the other news anchor lady - which is conveniently ignored after a couple of episodes.

Myongsuk-woo - really dude - you spend 19 years in prison for this person and somehow think you are the only person in the world who gets decide if she is happy or not or if someone loves her properly or not. This weird sense of possession of other people in S.Korea is just so weird to me.

And dont get me started on the parents with no sense of boundaries - seriously - letting yourself into your grown-ass, married son’s house without permission and being waaay too involved in their reproductive life is just gross.

And then there is the detective - seriously, would not the spouses have been two of the first people you looked in to? How was the ML not even looked at until the end of the trial - this is just absurd.

And, can we talk about the ‘accidental’ meeting at the airport - they try to play this as if she doesn’t know who Kevin is or what he looks like. It’s not like there weren’t pictures of him on the tour - so this scenario just doesn’t work for me.