Peony
This review may contain spoilers
Despite all its faults, loved this with all my heart till ep 26
*Contains major spoilers, don't read unless you've finished seeing this*
What I loved about Please Be My Family compared to other popular idol dramas with little kids (such as The Love You Give Me) was that despite having all sorts of tropey sweet moments and over the top dramatics and hidden agendas, such as the kid having terminal illness, mysterious backstories about the characters' identity, the Exes returning, etc etc, keeping crucial secrets from each other ;
1. The couple were almost never unnecessarily cruel towars each other, even when they both had misconceptions about the other's feelings and believed they were pretending for the sake of their contract etc, they still treated each other with basic courtesy, didn’t force themselves on the other, had mutual respect and support for each other.
2. They both always loved the two kids from get go like their own, even before they themselves became a proper couple, they already considered themselves to be the parents of both children. And they never incorporated the kids into their personal antics and used them for psychological manipulation of the other. That they always put the kids first was honestly one of my favourite things about this show.
And these two factors kept me going despite all the ridiculous hurdles that kept coming on this family's way, and the less than ideal ways the story handled them. But they crossed my bottom line in ep 26, by having the FL discover the ML's original purpose for marrying her, and instantly decide she'd divorce, and leave with her daughter.
Like, her severe disappointment with the ML and desire to divorce? Fair. Totally valid.
But I HATED how she unanimously picked her original child and ran away, RIGHT in front of her baby step-son who ALREADY was suffering from serious mom-loss issues, traumatising both kids. I was like oh wow so suddenly you don't love him enough to be your own child. No matter how serious your family problems are, once you have kids, and especially impressionable little children, you should’ve acted in a more mature, discreet and responsible way. That scene added absolutely nothing to the story but reinforce the social bias that "a stepmom will never love you as much as her own child" which was fucking awful. And it was especially jarring considering how it wasn’t really consistent with the FL's character that she'd do something so rash just like that, especially when it came to kids.
Four eps left to the end, I hated that the showmakers employed this cheap tactic to get more audience sympathy at the wailing babies. I was furious and disgusted, however.
A story doesn’t need to have morally upright and perfect main leads all the time. They can make mistakes but the show needs to frame them as such, not downplay seriousness of scenes like this just for the heartstrings and cuteness or whatever.
What I loved about Please Be My Family compared to other popular idol dramas with little kids (such as The Love You Give Me) was that despite having all sorts of tropey sweet moments and over the top dramatics and hidden agendas, such as the kid having terminal illness, mysterious backstories about the characters' identity, the Exes returning, etc etc, keeping crucial secrets from each other ;
1. The couple were almost never unnecessarily cruel towars each other, even when they both had misconceptions about the other's feelings and believed they were pretending for the sake of their contract etc, they still treated each other with basic courtesy, didn’t force themselves on the other, had mutual respect and support for each other.
2. They both always loved the two kids from get go like their own, even before they themselves became a proper couple, they already considered themselves to be the parents of both children. And they never incorporated the kids into their personal antics and used them for psychological manipulation of the other. That they always put the kids first was honestly one of my favourite things about this show.
And these two factors kept me going despite all the ridiculous hurdles that kept coming on this family's way, and the less than ideal ways the story handled them. But they crossed my bottom line in ep 26, by having the FL discover the ML's original purpose for marrying her, and instantly decide she'd divorce, and leave with her daughter.
Like, her severe disappointment with the ML and desire to divorce? Fair. Totally valid.
But I HATED how she unanimously picked her original child and ran away, RIGHT in front of her baby step-son who ALREADY was suffering from serious mom-loss issues, traumatising both kids. I was like oh wow so suddenly you don't love him enough to be your own child. No matter how serious your family problems are, once you have kids, and especially impressionable little children, you should’ve acted in a more mature, discreet and responsible way. That scene added absolutely nothing to the story but reinforce the social bias that "a stepmom will never love you as much as her own child" which was fucking awful. And it was especially jarring considering how it wasn’t really consistent with the FL's character that she'd do something so rash just like that, especially when it came to kids.
Four eps left to the end, I hated that the showmakers employed this cheap tactic to get more audience sympathy at the wailing babies. I was furious and disgusted, however.
A story doesn’t need to have morally upright and perfect main leads all the time. They can make mistakes but the show needs to frame them as such, not downplay seriousness of scenes like this just for the heartstrings and cuteness or whatever.
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