What's Wrong with Secretary Kim (2018)

I was infatuated with Park Seo Joon after watching him become Mr. Ugly on a variety show (2 days and 1 night). He was so adorable and funny! I also saw that this show was on the list of highest rated show on cable tv so I thought I’d give it a try.

I admit the first ~4 episodes were difficult to watch. A lot of scenes were cringey that I had to walk out in disbelief a few times (Young Joon’s narcissism was over the top and I was wondering how they could possibly develop his character to show that he truly loved Kim Mi So with that kind of personality) ... BUT I had to keep going, thinking “theres a reason its highly rated”.

After the first few episodes, I realized that all those cringey moments were a part of the character development process and for comical relief in the later episodes.

All the actors and actresses were so beautiful and handsome. The chemistry was amazing! I was swooning so much my cheeks hurt! The side romances were also cuuuute!

Trust! This show is worth watching if you’re looking for something light, cute, and fluffy!

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Typical rom-com office drama

Basically, there is nothing special or super interesting in this drama. It was so popular when this drama aired. What makes this drama well-liked? I believe it is because of Park Seo Joon (Lee Young Joon). But sadly, I didn't like his character in this story. I believe that he suits a funny and unserious type of character more.

The first episode was great, but it didn't even last long. I was excited to see Kim Miso (Park Minyoung) out of that company and see her live her life to the fullest, but there is not one episode where she is not in that company. It just gets boring seeing them act like a secretary-boss duo when they are already in a relationship, and because of this I don't feel any chemistry to both of them as a couple. The family of Miso just randomly pops out of nowhere that they don't seem like a family.

What makes this drama a typical rom-com office drama? You know those overly successful narcissistic male leads with the girl he likes who is always beside him and keeps telling her what she should and should not do? A traumatic past experience? The family of the male lead is always awkward with each other because they don't have a good bond either with the parents or one of the siblings, and the list goes on. I could literally enumerate the K-dramas with the same plot.

Overall, I'll just give it a 6/10. Not bad, but not good. The only thing I loved in this drama was Kim Miso's outfits.

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This was my 4th kdrama and honestly it raised my spirits after the disappointing Bride of Habaek. The story may have not been a crazily amazing one but honestly it was done well enough to keep me completely interested for a solid 16 episode and wasn't at all a chore to finish. I enjoyed it a lot.

The acting was an A+ from me- an almost star studded cast (of which I didn't know of at the time) and the chemistry between PMY and PSJ was absolutely solid. It made the story become more enjoyable and easier watch although some of it was very cliché.

The side characters and stories were all very cute and didn't feel burdening enough to skip so that was well done.

This was the first I had seen of the main leads and it defo gave me a solid idea of what they could do when I decide to watch any of their future dramas.

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A light hearted drama, with a simple story and great couple chemistry.

After almost two years in my 'on hold' list I finally decided to give "What's Wrong With Secretary Kim" a second chance, as I was looking for a light hearted romcom to fill my heart with fluff after having finish an intense drama.

If you expect a deep story with complex characters, you are in the wrong place, as this drama is 99% cute romance, with little to no actual drama. This drama follows narcissistic vice-chairman Lee Young-Joon and Secretary Kim Mi-So, as they fall in love with each other. It's a easy straight forward plot, with some mystery sprinkled in for some light conflict. We also have some cute secondary couples, that filled in the episodes just fine, I saw myself root for them more, than sometimes the main couple.

There's not much to this drama to talk about without going into spoilers, but I can say that the story for the most part it's pretty predictable, even if they tried to had some kind of plot twist toward the end.

With all I've been saying so far, you probably thinking that this drama it's not worth watching, but actually I really liked it. Yes, it was cliche. Yes, it was cringy at times. And yes I think everything moved way to fast. But that's basically what makes this drama so great, it was a easy watch, I just had to turn on the tv and enjoy two people falling in love, with no much complications, and sometimes that's all you need. This drama isn't groundbreaking but it's very entertaining and enjoyable to watch. The couples have chemistry, there's some great kiss scenes (the people who've already watched it, knows what I'm talking about) and overall I had a great time with it.

I think this drama really works thanks to the cast who all did a great job bringing the characters to life. I already knew Park Seo-Joon from other dramas and he didn't disappoint me in this one, the way he portrayed the vice-chairman made him likable even if he didn't have a lot of likeable qualities in the first place. This is the first work I watched of Park Min-Young and I really liked her, I think she completely pulled off Secretary Kim's nice but strong personality.

The OST ain't nothing out of this world as well as the cinematography, but it still was a very visually pleasant drama to watch.

Will I watch this drama again? Well, in a way I've already watched this drama twice, as I started to watched when it first came out, and now after two years I finally watched from beginning to end. I think to enjoy this drama you really need to be in the mood for something light, or otherwise you'll just find this drama boring. Do I recommend it? Yes, I think if you like light hearted dramas, with a easy to follow plot, without many twist and turns and great couple chemistry, I think this is the drama for you!

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Well, I love Park Min Young and Park Seo Joon that's why I watched the drama. I love Park Seo Joon's cheekiness here. He's so arrogantly handsome. Of course, in kdramaland we cannot omit the dark past, cliche storylines like childhood connections which are "the usual" for most plot. But, the story behind the childhood connection between Secretary Kim and Young Joon is necessary to the plot so I endure the storyline. I watched this just because I love the romance between Secretary Kim and Young Joon. Funny, Romantic and Sweet at the same time. Definitely worth my watch. ????

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Overall, this show is pure PERFECTION! Park Seo Joon and Park Min Young are fantastic actors.
Their chemistry is off the charts and you can't help but love their characters, rooting for them and finding them incredibly funny. Yes, because this show will make you laugh out loud (this show is funny in a way that reminded me a bit Marriage, Not Dating), in spite of the dramatic experience the lead characters shared as children. It's very well written (comedy and drama are perfectly balanced, and there are no filler episodes) and extremely well acted, even by the children actors (seriously, how good are those little kids???)
I also need to reserve a very special mention to the supporting cast. I confess that, on many shows, I skipped the scenes with the secondary characters because most of the time they were not interesting enough and were basically "sucking" the screen time of the main leads. This is NOT what happens here. ALL the secondary characters, ALL of them, are so well written that even their storylines are engaging. They're three dimensional, not just there as fillers. Kudos to all the actors and characters (particularly the adorable President Park and his amazing bromance with Lee Yeong Joon).
Finally, this k-drama has the most beautiful kisses/love scenes I've ever seen in a Korean show, yay!!!
It's officially one of my favourite shows ever that I need to watch all over again! 100% recommended!

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I just...I have no words, I have loved EVERY SECOND of this drama! And it's pretty unusual for me to like almost every aspect of a drama, especially since this was a rom-com, with the pretty usual plot and romance and back story.

Have I seen dramas with the same structure, same typology of characters and same ending before? Absolutely!
Have I LOVED all of them? I barely liked a few! But what makes this drama different? Well...everything!
From the characters, to the chemistry between characters, to the great acting, to the funny moments, character development and...yeah, everything! The cast was chosen SO WELL, that there's really almost nothing I could be complaining about!

Park Seo Joon keeps making me fall more and more in love with him, huh? His character was truly great, from the way he looked (he's absolutely GORGEOUS), to his traits, flaws, back-story and way of being! I couldn't help but be drawn to him.

I don't remember seeing Park Min Young in something before, but she was a good actress. Her chemistry with Park Seo Joon really is...wow, I have no words! It's extremely rare for me to find a pairing in a drama with this level of chemistry, but I'm glad I did!

I also really loved the supporting characters as well, they were funny and had great personalities!

All in all, it's a great drama for when you want to just relax! I really recommend it, it's now one of my favorites!

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what IS wrong with WWWSK???

i've marked where the spoilers start, so most of this should be okay to read without having watched it yet

the only good part about this romcom is the side characters and the mystery sideplot!

well, i liked this show because the characters can be pretty fun, especially the side characters, they had some really fun moments, its a light watch and its something you dont have to pay too much attention to to understand

i dislike this show for a few reasons!

1. the main couples romance isnt actually the interesting part of the story. for the entire series, my interest was only held up by the fact that i really wanted to know what happened to miso, youngjoon and youngjoons brother in their childhood -- with their fucked up family dynamics and trauma, i wanted to know how the brothers got mixed up... i dont think the reveal was great, but to me, it was satisfying enough because they made up for the weird reasonings regarding the brothers' memory mixups by having the family actually acknowledge their mistake for like half an episode or so LMAO (the bar is THAT low)

2. after the infamous episode 12, the only interesting thing about this show is the side characters, we already know what will happen with miso and youngjoon
youngjoon as a character is pretty endearing sometimes, but misos character is literally a joke, which brings me to -

3. misos character never actually gets any development, she is so static... she wasnt written very well in general
they just didnt let her have any opinions/boundaries at all! and every time she DID have an opinion/boundary, they would make her regret saying it out loud and just go back to being her usual peoplepleasing self. this WHOLE series just goes like this:
> miso has a boundary
> miso expresses boundary
> youngjoon is confused because miso doesnt explain anything
> youngjoon goes to mr park to talk it out instead of talking to miso about it
> mr park somehow explains exactly whats going on in a way youngjoon understands
> youngjoon accepts misos boundaries
>but MISO now feels BAD about having boundaries, either because she feels bad that youngjoon is doing the bare fucking minimum when it comes to taking care of her, or because someone else makes her feel bad for having a boundary
> miso apologizes and tells youngjoon to go right back to treating her how he's always treated her
they repeat this same plot over and over and over again -- this way, youngjoon gets development, but miso always stays RIGHT in the same place she always is at, she NEVER develops, or if she does, she doesnt stay there for long before she regresses right back into how she was before they got into a relationship again, she never changes

[spoilers start here]
one thing i will never get over is how they literally made her feel bad. about not being ready to have sex yet. even doe youngjoon came to understand that he needed to slow down. everything about that plotline wouldve been perfectly reasonable if it had just been miso and youngjoon communicating and if the writers had stopped before they made miso feel bad about not being ready to have sex yet, if they had juuuust left it at "shes not ready to have sex yet and this is how you have a healthy relationship with boundaries". i literally cannot believe they did that to her lol

and even the way this series started is just totally meaningless in the end. she NEVER goes on to leave her job!! NEVER!! even THAT, which was set up from the fucking beginning, she goes back on! she doesnt get ANYTHING for herself ever... i really cant even make the excuse of "well she chose it for herself because she realized she was happier working with youngjoon" here, just because theres this pattern throughout the entire series of her peoplepleasing and being insecure in whatever she does, not being able to stand up for herself without feeling like shit about it later and then going back on her boundaries. i just wish the show would have let her at least have that freedom

4. the fact that this story is not about mr. go...
i fucking DESPISED mr. go in the beginning but he went on to have such AMAZING character development throughout the show, his story absolutely wrecked my heart and i wish this entire series was just about him and jiah, that would have made a MUUUUCH better series in my opinion
their plot, just with the very limited screentime they got, was genuinely heartwrenching to me, and i cant help but feel they wasted so much potential in just keeping their entire plotline to those last 4 episodes...

i could probably nitpick more i disliked but yeah, basically, this show was good at building up the mystery, the reveal wasnt the best but its whatever, it was satisfying enough i guess, and then after the mystery trauma magically got resolved, you can just focus on the side characters you like!
i think they just went with a plan of "lets keep them watching to at least episode 12, and after that that they will have to watch the rest because theyre in too deep now"

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STORY: Well, this wasn't a unique story whatsoever but the writing of the plot as well as the development of the characters we're very well written. It's about a vice chairman who has narcissistic personality and his secretary for nine years. I like that there were other stories from other couple and that there's a deep backstory about the main couple.
ACTING/CAST: Well, I honestly watched any drama with Park Seo Joon in it. That's how I love him, haaha! also, Park Min Young is really pretty (I also liked her in Healer and Sungkyunkwan Scandal) the other supporting characters were super fun too! especially Ms Bong and Mr Yang hahaha they were so cute!
MUSIC: The music is not bad too!
REWATCH VALUE: So far, I've finished the drama just yesterday but I haven't the urge to rewatch it, but I am pretty sure I would have the urge to rewatch it in a few months time. HHAHAHAHA
OVERALL: 9/10 (I basically watched it at first because of PSJ but stayed because I actually kind of like the plot, it was a bit cliche but not too heavy on the drama)

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Overall, What's Wrong With Secretary Kim was an enjoyable show. At first I cringed because the CEO said that he has an impeccable aura however, after watching the entire series, he really does have a strong aura of success and confidence. The plot was unpredictable at times which gave the show a really nice spark. The writers managed to integrate mystery, comedy and romance into the show.
Personally, I prefer historical shows, like Empress Ki or Queen Seondoek however, I did enjoy watching What's Wrong With Secretary Kim. The cast is attractive and the plot is surprisingly good. I think that I binged watched this in about a week with a friend.
Overall, I would recommend this show to a friend... 8.5/10

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