catherine
This review may contain spoilers
It pains me to rate this so low because if the entire drama had been more like episodes 1-8, it might’ve gone into my all time favorites. But it has what you call car crash writing, when you’re in the car and the wind in your hair feels great and then you realize the breaks are broken and then things just SPIRAL.
I’m going to start with things I loved:
The entire mood of the show is really nice, and that includes the OST. I know a lot of people hated on repetitive music, but the songs fit the scenes perfectly and I loved the mellow atmosphere of the entire drama.
The chemistry is so good. There were so many scenes where I had to pause and just SQUEAL because they were so cute together.
But this show proves that chemistry isn’t everything. In fact, story probably is.
Nothing feels wrapped up at the end. So much of the drama hinged on Jin-ah needing someone to provide for her future, and that question was never really answered, especially with how annoying and haphazard the ending was.
With that being said, the plot entirely got very repetitive and it essentially ruined Jin Ah’s character. Every conflict was about someone hiding something from the other, and for Jin Ah they felt like nonsensical, selfish decisions.
That’s not to let Joon Hee off the hook — his decision to run away to America without discussing it with Jin Ah first was annoying, and it just felt like another avoidable miscommunication.
The sexual harassment plot was super real and I really enjoyed the heaviness of it. I kept waiting for the cathartic ending and the sismance where they all worked together to defeat the executives…but no, we never got it. It felt very open-ended and almost discouraging with the way everything played out — and though there might be an aspect of realism to that, it added to the feeling that we had watched 16 episodes and gotten hope, just to be told “why bother?”.
The sismance thus had so much potential, but because of the office plot, I never got what I wanted from it. The same could kind of go for Jin Ah and her bestie, who started off adorable and then became victims of the melodrama and had over ten years of friendship dissipate into thin air.
And lastly, the worst part: Mom. I’m already a hater of Disapproving!Parent trope, and I had braced myself for overbearing parents, but nothing like this. It honestly pissed me off that the drama treated it as parental love from beginning to end. At some point a middle-age woman should be able to make her own decisions and recognize the toxic people in her life. Every line out of the mom’s mouth was about marrying into a high-status family or about how worthless Joon Hee was…and honestly she just never got better. Her ending was out of the blue and by then she had gone too far for any redemption. She could’ve dropped dead and I would’ve thrown a party.
So. Long review, I know, but I had a lot of thoughts watching this.
I’m going to start with things I loved:
The entire mood of the show is really nice, and that includes the OST. I know a lot of people hated on repetitive music, but the songs fit the scenes perfectly and I loved the mellow atmosphere of the entire drama.
The chemistry is so good. There were so many scenes where I had to pause and just SQUEAL because they were so cute together.
But this show proves that chemistry isn’t everything. In fact, story probably is.
Nothing feels wrapped up at the end. So much of the drama hinged on Jin-ah needing someone to provide for her future, and that question was never really answered, especially with how annoying and haphazard the ending was.
With that being said, the plot entirely got very repetitive and it essentially ruined Jin Ah’s character. Every conflict was about someone hiding something from the other, and for Jin Ah they felt like nonsensical, selfish decisions.
That’s not to let Joon Hee off the hook — his decision to run away to America without discussing it with Jin Ah first was annoying, and it just felt like another avoidable miscommunication.
The sexual harassment plot was super real and I really enjoyed the heaviness of it. I kept waiting for the cathartic ending and the sismance where they all worked together to defeat the executives…but no, we never got it. It felt very open-ended and almost discouraging with the way everything played out — and though there might be an aspect of realism to that, it added to the feeling that we had watched 16 episodes and gotten hope, just to be told “why bother?”.
The sismance thus had so much potential, but because of the office plot, I never got what I wanted from it. The same could kind of go for Jin Ah and her bestie, who started off adorable and then became victims of the melodrama and had over ten years of friendship dissipate into thin air.
And lastly, the worst part: Mom. I’m already a hater of Disapproving!Parent trope, and I had braced myself for overbearing parents, but nothing like this. It honestly pissed me off that the drama treated it as parental love from beginning to end. At some point a middle-age woman should be able to make her own decisions and recognize the toxic people in her life. Every line out of the mom’s mouth was about marrying into a high-status family or about how worthless Joon Hee was…and honestly she just never got better. Her ending was out of the blue and by then she had gone too far for any redemption. She could’ve dropped dead and I would’ve thrown a party.
So. Long review, I know, but I had a lot of thoughts watching this.
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