How to NOT do a daily drama

Don't bother.
At one point I was going to suggest watching the first 20 episodes then skipping to about 70 and picking up from there. But the series fell apart in the last few weeks and it's not worth bothering.

I can't believe that a writing team that HAS done a 120 ep daily before did not plan out the plot better. They could have easily fit in all the plot lines they wanted to, but instead wasted 50+ episodes with nothing happening and then tried to cram everything in at the last 3 weeks. CRAZY!!! They left plot-holes galore, undeveloped characters, no chemistry, ridiculous premises, unpunished villains, and the list goes on.

The could have saved it (Kinda) if they had the guts to make the ending sad or even bittersweet. It would at least have given the series a point. But instead they pulled a monkey out of a hat (not the metaphor I wanted to use) and came up with A HAPPY ENDING. Good Grief.

All this in addition to the worst ML character I've ever seen. I feel sorry for the actor playing this loser and I hope that he does not get typecast in the future.

The only redeeming thing in this mess was the acting of the daughter by Kim SiEun. Her growth as an actress thru this was amazing and if she doesn't get Young Actress of the year at the KBS Awards in December, it will be a crime. She could easily compete for Best Actress, period. As much as I disliked her character, it was her performance that stole the show.

So again, don't bother watching this. It's not worth it. And a curse on the writers and producers for wasting an interesting concept with undisciplined writing and poor oversight. And toss the Director in the Fiery Pit as well...

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What Could Have Been, but wasn't

I want you to imagine a situation where Writer A gets his concept for a series green-lighted by KBS. Except he learns the network wants to stretch his 16-episode concept to a 50 episode weekender. UGH! He can’t handle that! So he reaches out to his college buddy, Writer B. “Bro, I can’t handle 50 eps! How about I do the first half and you take over the 2nd? I’ll pay you as long as we keep my name on the credits?” “Sure, dude, can do! I can use the cash! Just let me know when I should start, bud.”.

And we’re off and running….
Writer A’s first part of the series is fun, clever, and sweet. And so fast-paced that it was praised by all! We watch our leads progress quickly from enemies to friends to almost-lovers. Our leading man is doing great in his comeback role. Even those bitchy fans on MDL are cheering them on! We’ve got co-parenting while bringing in potential love interests, one couple trying to get back to their glory days of youth, and a growing love plot between 2 unlikely characters! The 2FL's plots to break them up all fail hilariously! And a Shaman giving us crazy scenes of the future!

Except the problem is Writer B isn’t paying that much attention to the first half (Writer A’s work) and has his OWN ideas for the 2nd half. So he begins writing his scripts to fit the show's loose outline he’s been given. He follows his own agenda, anyways, plus, he notices some things in the show so far, that need to be addressed:
• KJH actor is a really good-looking guy with high approval rate among women. Need to emphasize him!
• The lead couple has poor chemistry. Need to reduce situations that exacerbate this.
• The lead actress seems increasingly distracted and cold. Need to minimize her lines.
• There are too many secondary couples. Need to minimize some of these characters.

So writer A taps out…either voluntarily or under pressure from KBS seeking a re-vamp; take your pick of conspiracy theories. And here comes Writer B. He looks at the arcs for the characters he's left with and says, “NAH! This doesn’t fit my vision, so I’ll just write out some of these characters, or simply pretend meaningful events in the first half didn’t happen.” This is HIS show now and he’s going to appeal to the fans by making the 2ML a prime character and bringing some DRAMA to this series, because ratings will spike for sure!!! And he’s got about 20 episodes left to go, so he can take his time, and stop all this fast-paced stuff.

And this, my friends is what we are left with. Two completely different shows featuring the same(ish) characters which are grafted onto each other. The first half is GOLD: A bright new series that promised to make us forget the previous 2 weekenders that ended up failing. And it’s a comeback vehicle for both ML & FL. For 30-ish episodes we bask in the fun we’re having here. The second half unfortunately is MANURE. Slow-paced, filled with a conveyor-belt of angst for the leads, who grow increasingly awkward and characters who suddenly disappear. And the new series revolves around the 2ML – he is the catalyst that moves the script.

It’s almost as if the 2nd half was a spinoff of the first half, which would have been OK, if they had actually made it a separate show that we’d have the option to ignore. Also, if the first half had been given a logical conclusion. But no, we got this hodgepodge.

In prior k-dramas, I’ve loved to go back and watch old episodes and relive some past meaningful scenes. We’ve all done it….it’s FUN. But I can’t do that here. Because every time I try to watch something in Episodes 1-30 I get sad and think ‘what could have been”.

That’s the theme of this show: “What could have been”. This could have been a great series that lived up to its hype of resurrecting the weekend family drama. That could have made the most of its strong cast. That could have held us through 50 episodes, from the beginning of Spring thru the end of Summer. That could have kept us laughing and cheering on our leads as they try to keep up their farce of a fake marriage and the pitfalls of continuously lying to their parents.

So, for the new viewers asking if this show is worth watching, be forewarned. You can approach it as a limited edition series and watch from 1-32. But you’ll have to accept the fact that the show is essentially unfinished. 33-49 is basically No Mans Land: DO NOT WATCH. If you wish, you can watch Ep 50 for the finale. But be warned that the FL does not act as you expected her to from the first 20 episodes or so. And that some characters are missing.

But really, there are better options for you. If you’re looking for a romantic series, this ain’t it. And it loses it on the comedy front at Ep 33. Sure, there are some funny moments, but they are awkwardly placed amongst the angst prevalent in the balance of each episode. There really isn’t a niche the entire series fits into, because it’s 2 series back to back.

Finally, there is a reason there are over 17,000 comments here. YLAG, one of the most polarizing weekenders that REALLY pissed off its audience generated 8,800 comments. Think about that for TRHC: Seventeen THOUSAND! Since a high comment counts equals an aggrieved audience, this series 17K can give you an idea of what’s going on with the fans here.

When you clicked on this page, you saw the comment count. It stands as a silent warning: BEWARE TO ALL WHO WATCH THIS.

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Definition of Chemistry will never be the same

I have not one complaint about this show. I can't even believe I'm saying that.

Look, it's not Dr. Zhivago, Gone with the Wind, or the Godfather. It's a rom-com that hits every point for me. Sometimes you don't want a full, heavy meal. You just want something light to eat and relax. Is the plot thin? Well, KTL is a magazine, not a novel. And magazines have their place too. KTL is light, funny, sexy, romantic and sweet, with two stars that know how to play off each other. It's perfect escapism. And it avoids all the Kdrama tropes: No birth secrets, no secret adoptions, no amnesia, no White Truck of Doom, no relative killing another's family member, etc.

Product placement? In spades. Find me a Kdrama (especially on KBS) that doesn't. But it's beautifully lit, staged, filmed, and the locations are surreal - think how beautiful the Thailand and England scenes were. And Yoona & Junho have re-written the concept of chemistry. We know their history IRL, which makes it even more special. Their scenes are so electric at times it could power Downtown Seoul. For me, nothing will ever come close to them as a couple. They are the new Gold Standard.

There's just enough villain to go around, but, and this is something that the current KBS series could learn from (I'm looking at you, TRHC & AOME writers) the biggest point to me is how well our leads COMMUNICATE. No deep secrets held for long, they talk out their problems, and nothing is held back.

This series is my Happy Place I've run to during the angst of TRHC. I can't even count how many times I've seen the last 2 episodes. It's ENTERTAINMENT, folks. That's all. And it's 10/10 on that aspect for me.

Count me in on those wanting a Season 2. I want to see how these 2 and their supporting cast tackle the challenges ahead (her running Hotel Amor while balancing being his wife, future family life, etc). I think they can come up with one more season of things for all of them to do. Hell, I could watch them playing Monopoly, frankly, and be pleased.

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WATCH THIS LITTLE GEM!!!

Stop what you're doin'
Cuz I'm about to ruin
The kind of Asian Drama that you're used to....
(RIP, Shock-G)

This little series is the sweetest, funniest, silliest thing I've ever seen. At only 15 mins per episode, it's like someone placed a bowl of candy in front of me and said, "Eat all you want...."

Seriously, make the time (only 3 hours total) to watch this. Binge it, or whatever, it won't take that much of your life, and you'll be happier for it. Just don't think about how silly the concept is, and go with the wild ride that the cast and crew give us: Great ML and FL with terrific chemistry, no secondary couples to confuse things, great acting (the ML is terrific in his disposition in the scenes where he's a pig), and we know that the whole team is winking at us while they are filming it. Photography, sound, background music is all on point. Great visuals of the skylines.

I stumbled on it by accident, and my first thought was "You've GOT to be kidding me", but after the first episode, I was hooked. And be sure to watch until the last minute! The ending had me in stitches. Wake up KBS: remake this show as a full-length drama and give us a break from the garbage series you've been pushing at us lately.

That's it. A short, sweet little gift from China. Watch it, you'll thank me later.

Oh, and don't believe the low ratings here for it. This is an 8.5+ show.

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Who do you love more? Me or your company?

I found this series as it was being heavily pushed on my YouTube timeline. Which is funny as I really don't watch C-dramas that much. I was intrigued by the clips they showed and Ms. Song is quite striking.

After 36 episodes, these are the things I thought were interesting/odd:
I agree with those saying that ShaSha seems to have had a cloistered upbringing, especially considering her Mom's personality. However, she studied abroad for years, so how did THAT work out? Seems inconsistent? It was nice to see her grow up and stand up to her Mom prior to her leaving for Africa.

The fact that Huasheng agreed to help Yuyi to do its IPO was interesting. Huasheng had to realize that Yuyi's stated purpose was to create a product to directly compete with and ultimately replace Huasheng. Other than being a lucrative contract, what incentive would there have been for Huasheng to assist Yuyi? And letting one of your lead staff (FL) date and have a relationship with this rival's CEO is a headache I'd kick over to HR to figure out. Xixi was right to complain to her boss that she needed to be out of the loop to avoid conflict-of-interest.

I think they really dropped the ball with the last episode: After all this, Ms. Tong misses the wedding ceremony? And XiXi's mom bails on it too? When I first saw that, I thought, "Oh sheesh, they're back with the sisters dissing each other?" The excuse of her not attending due to a class trip was lame. Just pay the actress and write her in for that one last ep, for gosh sakes! And the end scene: Where were they? The UK? European continent? The fact that they did not marry was odd, and definitely against the cliche-mode for the rest of the show.

Did the ML love the FL? I think so, very much so. But he's the typical techie: arrogant, smart, and clueless all at the same time. So he loves his company and the possibility of AI too. I would have rather they forced the ML have to choose between his company and her. They both are trying to have it both ways. And the FL does love him, but she has too much baggage in her life that she's only started to deal with. Her loyalty to her company is undeserved in this day and age (at least here in the US) especially considering they demoted her TWICE. She should have bolted and went to Yuyi as a consultant in translation services.

It was gratifying to see them have the ML eat humble pie at the end of the expo: that machines cannot replace the human touch, AI be damned. He just couldn't seem to grasp the difference between 'translation' and 'interpretation'. The former can be done by a device. The latter? Not so much.

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It may not be perfect, but it was perfect for me

I don't get the negative reviews here, but to each their own.

This show was recommended to me after I watched King the Land, which I absolutely adore. I've come to need good rom-coms in my life; I've had it with hackneyed dramas with their manufactured angst and cliche story-lines. This show, for me, filled in all the blanks. ALL OF THEM.

I came to fall in love with the cast, their stories, the direction, photography, locations, etc. The OST was not quite as good as KtL, but it's background score was better, especially her theme (available on YouTube). The show correctly and perfectly developed not only the leads, but the supporting cast as well and included them in the leads story so well and logically. We came to care about them TOO.

I don't feel the story let down after the background mystery was resolved - in fact, how it was finally resolved and confessed brought tears to my eyes. And the lead's journey after that, was no less compelling. His love for her, that had been so long in coming, that he dare not reveal, was at time heart-rending for him. Her confusion about the past and her deep feelings for him kept us coming back for more and more.

Everybody talks about "chemistry". Not only did the leads have great chemistry, but this extended to the supporting cast as well. The scenes between the VC & President were not only funny, but touching and realistic. Everyone played off each other so well; I've never seen a show like this before. Kudos to the casting director!

Their fumbling and stumbling thru their relationship (the first one for each, despite their ages) was relatable. Was he a "toxic" person? No, he's just a dork. He's a clueless rich guy, whose intelligence is matched by his social awkwardness. And he was traumatized by events in his past that would have shattered lesser personalities. Is she a cold-hearted, selfish woman? Seriously? She is trying to deal with her long-time boss being someone who is more than he seems and trying to balance her affection for him with her sense of duty and uncertainty in falling in love for the first time.

The webtoon goes well past their marriage, and tells us their story in the future. I still hope that maybe, someone, will pick up on this and give us a Season 2.

I only wish KBS would give us something more like this instead of what passes for K-dramas on their network these days. I eagerly await the Filipino Version!

PS - I liked it so much I bought the DVD (tip: the translations on the DVD are OK, but not as good as those on the online streaming sites).

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Came pretty close to being great.

I've needed a few months to think about this series before writing a review. I feel that, with some fixing of the script, this show deserves a shot at being re-done. It came so close to being great, but the script let down the cast. As in "It's Beautiful Now", the show tended to divide the fan base here along the lines of the 3 couples (disclaimer, I liked the Son and the older woman...I thought they were a great couple, but I like Bit Na anyways, so I'm biased).

The show started off "OK" and started to gather steam, but the lack of chemistry among the leads as a couple held the show back. Then odd things started to happen: The middle couple (younger daughter/older CEO) took off like crazy, with a weird chemistry between them that really worked, in spite of their differences. I think this spiraled out of control for the production team and things got away from them. Realizing that the second couple was waaay more popular than the leads, they directed the story towards them instead. KBS even ran a special episode dedicated to their romance! All this, without a single kiss between them!

In the mean time, the leads were sort of reduced to a husband/wife team of detectives, almost. And oddly enough....THAT worked for them. The 3rd couple, that I liked had their challenges as well and I looked forward to the friction between them. The second couple stole the show all the way to the KBS awards where they got Couple of the Year award. (If you get a chance to see their red-carpet talk after the awards, it's hilarious - I think it may still be on YouTube. Their difference in ages was a factor in real-life for them - especially him).

Unfortunately, there were a lot of stumbling blocks in the plot, which could have been addressed by the aforementioned re-write above: a useless amnesia arc (which essentially was used to hide the leads lackluster chemistry). The other problem was an endless loop of paternity tests that became laughable by the end of the series. The 'bones' of a great series are there - with a revised cast that DOES have the chemistry needed and cleaned-up script, this series, which actually is about how love progresses between age-gaped couples, could have lived up to its potential.

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The tyrannical nutcase we've come to know and love

Instead of the "different version of Bangwon" touted back in the hype leading up to the series (mentioned in the intro thread here, and teased in the opening scene), I saw the Bangwon I've come to know via KHDs. The cold-hearted ruthless killer and "tyrant" (IMO) that has ruled the KBS dramas I've seen. I was glad to see his Queen call out his hypocrisy for claiming that was how a King was supposed to rule. It was good to see that, because this Bangwon really seemed full of it to me. He spent a lot of time making sure that the tools he used to ascend to power (powerful clans & private armies) couldn't be used against him, all while claiming that it was for the good of the Country. Yeah, right. Paranoid much?

I got the impression that there was a change in the writing of the characters after the6 week series suspension. It seemed to create a colder Bangwon than we'd seen to date, and the pace of the scenes picked up. The last 2 episodes could have been 4 easily, and they wouldn't have been so rushed.

The lead actor got better as the series went on, and once crowned King, he seemed to be more comfortable in his role. As usual, KBS's has an excellent supporting cast. I've lost count how many times I've said that in the past to seemingly mediocre series' leads. Of note: the actor playing Sejong did bear a resemblance to Kim Sang-Kyung from Great King Sejong (GKS); the performances given by Kim Yung-Choul, Im Ho (what a treat to see him included), Kim Myung-Soo, and Sun Dong-Hyuk were very enjoyable and solid as ever.

KUDOS to the director of photography. And although I didn't mind the background music, it needed to be padded down...the levels were too high.

A demerit to the translation team: they forgot to include translations of captions, especially the names of characters introduced for the first time.

And I'm disappointed in the omission of Jo Mal-Seng from this series. He was the living embodiment of Bangwon's mistrust of Sejong: LBW's plant inside the ministerial cabinet who was both an informant to Bangwon who then became the Minister of Military after Bangwon released his own hold on the position. This character was so unforgettable in GKS that it's omission here is odd. If you're going to include Hwang Hee, then Mal-seng should have been written in too (again, they needed at least another episode).

And finally, if this isn't TLDR enough for you: The opening scene. After watching the last episode, I went back and saw Ep 1 again. I think the scene still deserved to be included at the end, as the show was actually still written in that direction. Omitting it was wrong, although the Bangwon as-written towards the end couldn't fully confront the guilt for his actions, I think it would have fit in as a warning to Sejong, maybe it could have been a nightmare sequence right after Bangwon announces his abdication - to let Sejong realize the horrors the throne is capable of. I think the writers should have at least tried. It seemed high-handed to simply dismiss it the way they did, leaving us with a truly unrepentant LBW, despite his few minor "I've sinned" scenes here and there.

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The G.O.A.T of all TV series.

The best Television show from any country, at any time , in any genre. Amazingly written and directed, superbly acted by a terrific cast (1 exception) and done in a way that makes 86 episodes fly by. I was saddened when the series ended.

You won't regret watching it, and will learn a lot of history as well. The one casting error (actor playing Young-Sil was a bit wooden and seemed out of place) would be corrected in the follow-on "Jang Young-Sil" series, featuring some of the original cast of GKS.

I only wish they would have made something as worthy since.

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Not Perfect, but Fun Anyways

This was a nice diversion from a cold & windy day. Some of it was a bit "inside" and I wish it wasn't so frantic - it seemed like they were rushed to fit it into the 2 Hr time window. I'd like to have added at least 15 mins to it - so we can see what happens when she regains HER memory. That would be the telling part of their future together as she seemed much angrier with him, hence her excessive drinking. A nice twist would have been for her to tell him at the airport that she never lost her memories, and was pretending to see what happened. (The thing with the earbuds was funny but so frustrating!)

I too would like to see them cast together in something where they can develop a relationship in a more coherent way.

I'd give it about 8.8? It was fun and enjoyable. I'd watch it again.

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36 out of 50 ain't bad

This review is a little late in coming. In retrospect, this was better than any of the follow-on weekenders on KBS, so there's that. The show seemed to divide the fans along the lines of who shipped which couple: There was the youngest couple camp, the middle, and the oldest ("the dolts"). I was in the latter. SDM & OMS had terrific chemistry in this series and really played well off each other. She was center of the series for a good portion of it, as we heard her thoughts and fears in voice-over. Each of the couples had their time in the sun, and had their share of obstacles to overcome. I won't spoil it, there are some really terriific scenes for each, and as a whole family too, of the Lees with Mom, Dad and their three sons. The actors were great: Kim HyeOk seems to touch gold wherever she goes and is one of my favorite 'Mom' characters. YSY did his usual great job, his character didn't get much of a stretch until the latter part of the show. For me, the show stopped being interesting once they refocused the show on Park JiYoung, and it became essentially a star-vehicle for her. I think this was per-ordained as why would such an accomplished actress be in this family drama, especially as a background character in the first 2/3rds? Oh well, once that arc began, around Ep 37, the show falls apart. The final episode couldn't even give us a full wind-down because the first half of it was STILL about her. So, the wrap-up was hastily done and poorly so.

This could have been a GREAT series, had they stuck to the original story arcs and used the last 10 or so episodes on bringing each couple to a logical conclusion. But, unfortunately not. Watch up to 36, and if you're curious, skip to 50, but really, you don't need to as it doesn't give much closure. At one time, I wished for a follow-up (season 2) to the series, or even a spinoff of how the oldest couple's life turned out, focusing on the challenges an older couple face. But I'm not sure if the writers could pull it off. Better to leave this one be, and just appreciate the first 2/3s.

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A Premise, A Promise, A Problem

I'll make it short - don't waste your time with this one.

In the wake of the last 2 dailies being back-to-back disasters (TLIYE & AOME), and a just concluded weekend drama that crashed & burned (TRHC), KBS tried to switch gears and tell us that the new daily was going to be full of fun and surprises: a wild and crazy ride was the promise. And on it surface, it sounded interesting as the premise of the show where exes become in-laws sounded potentially very funny.

But alas, there's the problem: The writers had no idea how to apply that premise to a script. The premise was nothing more than a talking point for KBS to try to lure back weary viewers, tired of mediocre & uninspired dramas.

This series SHOULD have worked. The female lead was the star of the last successful daily (BML, 2022) and was capable of playing an assertive, smart, tenacious woman. The supporting cast was full of veteran actors, all well-schooled in their craft. But something went horribly wrong here and we wound up with a series that once in every few weeks, would gift us with a clever funny scene, but otherwise just plodded along with nothing resembling the hilarity that was supposed to be presented. We got, instead, a dismal plot, full of holes and untapped potential, a story-line that made no sense time-wise, important events in the past that are barely mentioned, and an equally uninspired performance from the cast.

You can't fool veteran actors - they will perform up to the task as needed, but how can they make a silk purse out of the proverbial sow's ear? It became pretty evident that they were going thru the motions in the last third of the series. How they could screw up Nam SangJi's abilities as a FL boggles my mind. Ironically, the 2 best performances in the series are by the actresses that portrayed the supporting FLs - Lee HyoNa as HaYoung and Joo SaeByuk as EunAh. They were as terrific as SangJi was pedestrian.

This series COULD have been better, as the writers clearly had the potential to give us funny, touching, sweet scenes. But I can only attribute the lack of them on laziness on their part. This show needed a veteran, accomplished writer to go over the storyboard and rearrange the series correctly - focus the beginning of the show on the events of the past that dictated the actions of the elders later on. THEN, time-jump to the present, as was done successfully in BML. Then go back and figure out how to develop a comedic theme to the series - and eliminate the nonstop harpiness of the two mothers and their twisted characters. There was NOTHING funny about them.

Don't watch this show. You have better things to do with your time. And believe me, the cast and crew won't be using this pile of crap as a resume highlight anytime soon.

Shame on KBS for not only foisting this on us, but for adding salt to the wound by extending it for 10 more crappy episodes.

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Make the time to watch it - it's worth it

My only regret with HCCC is that I didn't see it when it was broadcast live. It's healing theme, especially during the pandemic would have been more therapeutic than any medication offered.

This show has everything a viewer could want - Terrific cast; Great chemistry between all characters; Well-developed supporting cast characters who blend into the story seamlessly; great visuals; believable story-line, etc...
Our leads really play well off each other and their wariness of their feelings was so realistic and well depicted. She is a handful, and quite the opposite of him, something they both acknowledged. And his issues and baggage did not bring the story down but created the challenges for her to respond to.
I'm sure this theme has been done before, and will be in the future (Welcome to Samdal-ri?) but I can't imagine another show doing it better.

Rewatchable? HELL, YES!

Thanks TvN & Netflix for giving us such a beautiful and funny story.

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