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bumblethunderbeast

USA

bumblethunderbeast

USA
My Husband in Law thai drama review
Completed
My Husband in Law
6 people found this review helpful
by bumblethunderbeast
Sep 30, 2020
15 of 15 episodes seen
Completed 2
Overall 8.0
Story 7.5
Acting/Cast 9.0
Music 8.0
Rewatch Value 7.0
This review may contain spoilers

schizophrenic roller coaster - but WOW what a ride

Watching this felt like getting to know someone going through an identity crisis. At its foundational level, this is a romance with some comedic elements. But over the course of the drama the surface elements and the tropes shifted multiple times. I felt like I was getting whiplash as everything kept changing.

1 - melodrama with criminal element [FL's school crush, the gangster's wife abuse, the murder attempt, the forced wedding and cohabitation]
2 - industrial espionage [corporate takeover places ML & FL in same workplace with him as supervisor, a bidding war for a project and multiple hacking incidents]
3 - melodrama in another country with criminal element and workplace context [Burmese building project, gangster's revenge, the legal wife seeking romantic moments with her husband before their separation, ML late revelation that he loves FL then taking a bullet for her]
4 - medical melodrama [disappearance, hidden pregnancy, ML pursuit of FL to prove love, pre-eclampsia, kidney failure and transplant]
5 - happily ever after

So you're probably wondering why I kept watching if this was so inconsistent. There are a few reasons, but the strongest is the chemistry between the leads and serious affinity/admiration/pity for the FL. Frankly it was fun to watch. The ML's best friends were a sort of bumbling three stooges who occasionally showed a tender side but mostly kept me laughing. The 2ML was a good man who created tension but didn't overstep. He honored the FL's wishes even when it saddened him. And the side romances were exactly that--not overwhelming the central relationship but fun to watch.

At a time when I've been oddly disaffected by a lot of recent dramas, I blazed through this one. It kept my attention, made me laugh and piqued my curiosity to find out what would happen next. After thinking the FL was something of a masochist, I began to admire her audacity. And at the moment when she could have "had her man," she showed the most maturity. She gently distinguished between his selfish "love" that didn't truly know her and her love for him. She pointed out the imbalance and refused to capitulate for an uneven relationship that left her constantly doing whatever he wanted. There was some genuine exploration of what it means to love someone.

I didn't mind the craziness of this drama, in fact I liked it. Beyond the usual disgust with assault and rape (attempted or referenced) in lakorns, I only had 2 minor annoyances at the end. 1st: after the transplant operation, they deliberately and coyly made it appear that the ML died with references to a cremation and not showing him at all. 2nd: the ML confessing that he had a crush on the FL in school. It just didn't feel viable at all. I love moments that show multiple perspectives and misunderstandings but I had a lot of trouble swallowing this one. For a guy so direct, popular and aggressive, hiding a crush felt very antithetical.

Just let me emphasize, these were minor annoyances in an improbably delightful and engrossing drama that is well worth watching.
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