Alex
This review may contain spoilers
The hold this drama has on me needs to be studied.
This drama got to me, okay. To demonstrate how much it Got Me, I can tell you that when I finished watching it I immediately started rewatching.
There are two pivotal, wrenching moments in this drama that illustrate the magic of this story and the emotional impact it had for me:
- The end of episode 5, when Gwiju finds Dahae locked in the room and she thinks: “a hope I didn’t deserve quietly emerged in my heart.”
- The climax of the finale, when he finally saves her from the fire and tells her: “This isn’t the end, it’s the beginning” — knowing he will die in the next moment.
These two moments, besides being traumatically romantic, encapsulate what this story is about — healing and transformation. In just 12 episodes The Atypical Family delivers satisfying character arcs for virtually its whole ensemble, and it says that redemption and healing from your past traumas is possible. This is exemplified perhaps by Gwi-ju’s character: a man who starts the series shutting himself off from the world because he is unable to cope with his failures; only after letting go of his endless grief, repairing his relationship with his family and daughter, and making the choice to love again, does he reach self-actualisation and becomes the person he longed to be since he was a boy — a hero who can save someone’s life. This is a masterclass of a character arc.
I can say the same for Dahae, an actually complex female lead who in any other kdrama would be portrayed as a conniving bitch villain; this drama actually says that in spite of her crimes, she deserves to find a family who loves her, and she deserves to be saved.
That is in essence the message of the drama — we do deserve to be saved from a burning building, and start again.
My one and only beef with this drama is the fat suit — as other reviewers have expressed, it is disappointing that kdramas still won’t cast plus-size actors. This arguably diminishes what is otherwise a beautiful character arc about Donghee finding self-acceptance and learning to fly again.
Still, on the whole, this drama left an indelible imprint; there are moments from this that I will probably remember forever.
There are two pivotal, wrenching moments in this drama that illustrate the magic of this story and the emotional impact it had for me:
- The end of episode 5, when Gwiju finds Dahae locked in the room and she thinks: “a hope I didn’t deserve quietly emerged in my heart.”
- The climax of the finale, when he finally saves her from the fire and tells her: “This isn’t the end, it’s the beginning” — knowing he will die in the next moment.
These two moments, besides being traumatically romantic, encapsulate what this story is about — healing and transformation. In just 12 episodes The Atypical Family delivers satisfying character arcs for virtually its whole ensemble, and it says that redemption and healing from your past traumas is possible. This is exemplified perhaps by Gwi-ju’s character: a man who starts the series shutting himself off from the world because he is unable to cope with his failures; only after letting go of his endless grief, repairing his relationship with his family and daughter, and making the choice to love again, does he reach self-actualisation and becomes the person he longed to be since he was a boy — a hero who can save someone’s life. This is a masterclass of a character arc.
I can say the same for Dahae, an actually complex female lead who in any other kdrama would be portrayed as a conniving bitch villain; this drama actually says that in spite of her crimes, she deserves to find a family who loves her, and she deserves to be saved.
That is in essence the message of the drama — we do deserve to be saved from a burning building, and start again.
My one and only beef with this drama is the fat suit — as other reviewers have expressed, it is disappointing that kdramas still won’t cast plus-size actors. This arguably diminishes what is otherwise a beautiful character arc about Donghee finding self-acceptance and learning to fly again.
Still, on the whole, this drama left an indelible imprint; there are moments from this that I will probably remember forever.
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