1
manicmuse
NYC!
At least it was short
"Mad for Each Other" is a classic-style romcom about 2 people with issues falling for each other. It's not hard for me to like a drama like this as long as there is great chemistry, but this drama was very hard for me to really like. Thankfully it was short, which made it much easier to watch even during its cringiest moments. There were many moments in this drama that made me cringe and made me frustrated instead of falling for and sympathizing with the main couple. I also think there may have been too many cultural differences for me (as an American) to consider a lot of this funny, or maybe it's just not my style of comedy. Do you find irrational misunderstandings hilarious? Then you will love this drama way more than I did. Irrational Misunderstandings would actually be a good alternative title for this drama!
"Mad for Each Other" stars Jung Woo as Noh Hwi Oh, a suspended cop with lots of empathy and sensitivity and a quick temper. He is matched with Oh Yeon Seo as Lee Min Kyung, a woman whose trauma makes her extremely distrustful of... well... everyone. Both of these characters are way over the top on purpose but as much as I grew to love the male lead I honestly couldn't stand the female lead for most of this drama. Hwi Oh has big angry teddy bear energy which makes him easy to like. I also liked that he had average guy swag, which was nice to see for a change. Min Kyung on the other hand is a mess of a character. She wears a flower proudly in her hair so people know she's the kind of crazy you should probably avoid, but her baby-talk voice and constant accusations were honestly annoying enough on their own. I like weird female leads, but I lost patience watching her, and I think that was an issue with how she was written as well as the performance. Of course, the setup for the drama is that the caring mad dog will become a protector for the woman too scared to trust, but how do they get past their issues? That also means a lot of scenes with the female lead being selfish and irrational in THE MOST ridiculous ways...for the sake of comedy and drama... but it just wasn't funny to me.
The rest of the cast is hit or miss. There are annoying gossipy neighbors who were great, and old fellow cops who are fine, a forgettable therapist, a psycho, and two random characters that just felt like weird filler... a girl with too many part-time jobs and "Samantha" which I guess was an attempt at adding some LGBTQ "understanding" to the story... but those "comedic" scenes felt very dated. I think this drama tried to bring up some heavy topics like abuse, cyberbullying, transphobia but still keep the story super light and silly which made it hard to take seriously.
Would I watch this again. I doubt it, but it is short, and the cute moments between the leads when they are not screaming at each other or chasing each other are pretty good. I admit by episode 12 I disliked this drama A LOT (too much of the same frustrating tropes) but in the last episode, they did manage to cram everything in and make sure all was resolved, which gave me some peace. I mean the OST did imply that they would make the ending happy, I guess. lol.
Overall, other romance fans may be way more forgiving of this drama than I. There was a nice overarching theme about finding allies, but it didn't connect with me very deeply because of the style of the drama, or maybe the writing. If you like really silly comedy maybe you will find this funny and more endearing. I also hated "Love with Flaws", starring the same actress, for similar reasons. The more I think about it, what I disliked about that drama does overlap with this one except this drama has a much better male lead. Awkwardness, misunderstandings, LGBTQ awareness attempts, of course poop jokes, and wide-eyed Yeon Seo... once again, none of these things worked for me. It didn't make me emotional or make me laugh, but it did make me a little curious and a little invested in how their relationship would evolve, and it did obviously work enough for me to keep watching. The main thing I'd recommend about this drama is that it's the perfect binge length (13x30 min episodes), so I regret watching it while it was airing. I've just seen a similar dynamic in rom-coms done so much better so many times that this one felt like watching a placeholder until a better drama comes along. In the end, I'm not mad at or for this drama.
"Mad for Each Other" stars Jung Woo as Noh Hwi Oh, a suspended cop with lots of empathy and sensitivity and a quick temper. He is matched with Oh Yeon Seo as Lee Min Kyung, a woman whose trauma makes her extremely distrustful of... well... everyone. Both of these characters are way over the top on purpose but as much as I grew to love the male lead I honestly couldn't stand the female lead for most of this drama. Hwi Oh has big angry teddy bear energy which makes him easy to like. I also liked that he had average guy swag, which was nice to see for a change. Min Kyung on the other hand is a mess of a character. She wears a flower proudly in her hair so people know she's the kind of crazy you should probably avoid, but her baby-talk voice and constant accusations were honestly annoying enough on their own. I like weird female leads, but I lost patience watching her, and I think that was an issue with how she was written as well as the performance. Of course, the setup for the drama is that the caring mad dog will become a protector for the woman too scared to trust, but how do they get past their issues? That also means a lot of scenes with the female lead being selfish and irrational in THE MOST ridiculous ways...for the sake of comedy and drama... but it just wasn't funny to me.
The rest of the cast is hit or miss. There are annoying gossipy neighbors who were great, and old fellow cops who are fine, a forgettable therapist, a psycho, and two random characters that just felt like weird filler... a girl with too many part-time jobs and "Samantha" which I guess was an attempt at adding some LGBTQ "understanding" to the story... but those "comedic" scenes felt very dated. I think this drama tried to bring up some heavy topics like abuse, cyberbullying, transphobia but still keep the story super light and silly which made it hard to take seriously.
Would I watch this again. I doubt it, but it is short, and the cute moments between the leads when they are not screaming at each other or chasing each other are pretty good. I admit by episode 12 I disliked this drama A LOT (too much of the same frustrating tropes) but in the last episode, they did manage to cram everything in and make sure all was resolved, which gave me some peace. I mean the OST did imply that they would make the ending happy, I guess. lol.
Overall, other romance fans may be way more forgiving of this drama than I. There was a nice overarching theme about finding allies, but it didn't connect with me very deeply because of the style of the drama, or maybe the writing. If you like really silly comedy maybe you will find this funny and more endearing. I also hated "Love with Flaws", starring the same actress, for similar reasons. The more I think about it, what I disliked about that drama does overlap with this one except this drama has a much better male lead. Awkwardness, misunderstandings, LGBTQ awareness attempts, of course poop jokes, and wide-eyed Yeon Seo... once again, none of these things worked for me. It didn't make me emotional or make me laugh, but it did make me a little curious and a little invested in how their relationship would evolve, and it did obviously work enough for me to keep watching. The main thing I'd recommend about this drama is that it's the perfect binge length (13x30 min episodes), so I regret watching it while it was airing. I've just seen a similar dynamic in rom-coms done so much better so many times that this one felt like watching a placeholder until a better drama comes along. In the end, I'm not mad at or for this drama.
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