Cheat On Me, if You Can (2020)

A crime novel read!

TWO things have happened: an affair and a murder. The entire story is about answering TWO questions: did he caught? who is the culprit? The narration style is typical of crime novels, often reminding me of Agathe Christie's novel style. All the clues were shown to us and drama tempts us to pick pretences as clues misdirecting us, then showing the truth with right clues making us think "I saw these, why didn't I think in this perspective?" "Ah, Brillant, you outwitted me". And this aspect can come off as hit or miss for many. Taking a look at comments would prove that.

The pacing was in an exponential fashion with initial episodes setting the "mood" very slowly and deliberately with even minor characters given screen space. (It has a mix of all the genres: romance, comedy, drama, mystery, investigation, political, action, thriller. It might have well been a makjang.) The ending was rapid with putting closure to several substories halfheartedly or even open (It reminds me of "Absent in the Spring" novel of Agathe Christie which too has vague ending). I am still wondering if what I had watched was just a big drama adaptation of Kang Yeo Joo's novel (As she says "that's what the audience want" to her assistant) or actual story of Kang Yeo Joo. Yes, even with incomprehensible last 5 minutes the final episode was brilliant. The brilliant narration style and suspense building ( note, it is not the story I'm praising because when all the layers of mystery are removed, it just felt yet another ***-*** character story) has quashed the ambiguous ending. (Now that I look back, the ending was so finely crafted putting all puzzle pieces together that you can't even skip the last episode.)

I can't imagine anyone else other than Cho Yeo Jung playing the Kang Yeo Joo. The aura, the eyeliner, the elegant dresses everything made the character all the more legendary (You would feel she isn't worthy of that legendariness but wait for it patiently.). First things first, I too was initially annoyed by shenanigans of Kang Yeo Joo, and I almost felt like dropping it. But I really stuck around and found she was the most complex character. If the Parasite's Choe Yeon Gyo was "simple" then Kang Yeo Joo is super ultra-complex. There is this scene in episode 6 when Han Woo Sung says he will take her gift to his grave the reaction KYJ gives is golden. That was one of the few moments in early episodes when the poker face of KYJ falters. There are only a few people who can truly understand her and one has to wait till later episodes to know the reason.

Other characters were equally interesting. Go Joon (why late-blooming) did a great job in portraying HWS, I can truly understand why every woman falls for HWS. HWS is truly worthy of his reputation of Nation's Husband. (Even when he is cheating he is thinking about his wife and I didn't bother myself with judging him. We never get to know more about his motives.) Mirae is yet another flawed character in this drama. She can come off as homewrecker but truly her transformation and her past are awe-worthy. I am one of the few people who wasn't shipping Cha Soo Ho with KYJ but the way he looks at her wow! The Umbrella scene reminded me of K2 and how he protects her. I want to see more of Kim Young Dae in future projects. As for all other characters, they added funny elements and depth to stories. But a few didn't have proper closure/development but I'm not complaining. (It would be humanly impossible to deliver both mystery narration and character development perfectly)

Music was good and suited for scenes. Sometimes there was opera style music for hyped/dramatic scenes which I liked. As for OST, OVER by Suran shines out. Rewatch, to make sense of certain things it might require to rewatch. I too wanna rewatch it but it is kinda sad it ended so I can't bring myself to watch it again.

A crime novel: keeps hooked and makes you say "ahh!" and keeps you thinking about it even after it ended.

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BEFORE YOU CONSIDER THE MDL's RATING...

I liked it. You might like it too. It's a hit or miss.

The major let down for most people who didn't enjoy this was the pacing of the story. The answers to the snowballing mystery were initially given too slow. And when this happens, the audience are bound to lose their attention and forget what the original suspense was about.

I personally did not mind this. The writer still managed to hook me into the mystery. and as each week passed, I found myself growing more and more ravenous for answers. For some, this will deter them from coming back to watch it due to the lack of trust in the plot as the answers to the mystery weren't delivered in a timely manner. But for myself and others alike, this will compel us to drop all our work and chores to stream it the second it the episode is available.

This show is definitely a hit or miss. It is one that requires patience to be enjoyed. The story slowly builds up with suspence and only rewards the audience with answers until the last remaining episodes. It is really down to preference, but for me, when the answers to the main mysteries were rewarded (after sitting through 10 episodes of confusion, frustration and having absolutely no idea to what is going on in this unpredictable plot) it felt very liberating.

The acting was decent. I liked it. This wasn't a surprise as I was familiar with Cho Yeo Jung from Parasite and Kim Young Dae from Extraordinary You. I haven't heard of the other lead actors until now, but they did a good job.

The show didn't have a particularly wide range of music scores, but regardless I found the OST enjoyable, especially the ending theme 'O.V.E.R.' by Suran. The song gave me a lot of sweet psycho vibes, which suited this drama very well.

I'd say give this show a chance. As I said, you'd either really like it if you have patience, or drop it. I mean, the worst possible outcome is that it's not your cup of tea, and that's okay, at least you gave it a shot.

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Wasn't great.. but a wholesome journey!

It's not like those crime thrillers which will keep you edge of the seat. But yeah it does have thrill and will make you wonder what's going to happen next. To be honest for me it was strong start I was hooked from first two episodes but for me it later lost track for a while but I enjoyed at very last .... so yeah it was good journey for me. But sure been great show coz it had a lots of potential.

You need a lot of patience to watch this, it's slow paced thriller in which in many episodes you'll get literally nothing. But it's really good ride to found out the truth. Like you suspect everyone and in the last the you'll get shock. For me some characters were unnecessary and there's no need of them and the side stories of them it made this draggy.

Mystery was one and only fact that kept me watching this I was curious to know what's going happen next. Yeah some thinigs were big shock for me while other predictable. To be honest I'm not big fan of the shows where from the start we get to see leads having grey shade or dark past and make us assume that ahh they can be culprit and in the end it turns 180 degree yep that thing was really predictable here.

Well well well talking about the title of the show it never actually revolves around cheating but yeah cheating plays important role in some aspects. And don't start to hate any character from the start coz there're chances that eventually you'll end up liking them. If you're expecting a wholesome ending it's not right place to find it, it's open ending. Nah I'm not disappointed coz I expected from the beginning that I'm not getting happy ending and as I assumed it left hanging with many unanswered questions.

Overall it was okay not must watch.... but definitely where you wanna know what's gonna happen next.

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don't let MDL's rating fool you...

VERY light spoilers, mostly near the end where i talk about characters. skip that if u haven't watched (the rest is safe). it's also lengthy, but i promise you'll want to consider what i talk about before jumping in

during this drama's airing, the discussion was either filled with two types of viewers: people who were growing annoyed with it (or hated it) and people who enjoyed it. this drama is very much a love-or-hate drama. personally, i loved it.

does it have its flaws? yes, because every drama does! however, i don't think it deserves the reputation some viewers have given it. before i talk about what i viewed as the drama's flaws, i'll focus on the things i really enjoyed.

people have called it bad, or messy, or manipulative... i don't think that's fair to say. the thing is, it's a mystery drama. suspense is its biggest weapon. what some viewers have labelled as "manipulation" or "messy storytelling" has been.... suspense. this drama plays HEAVY on intentionally misleading the audience - don't go into this drama thinking you'll have answers halfway. you won't know even a smidge of what's going on until past the halfway point... i personally enjoyed that. iit requires patience to watch this drama, which is why i encourage potential watches to consider if they enjoy waiting for answers or rather something fast-paced. the suspense builds up slowly at times, but it kept me on the edge of my seat.

had we gotten answers halfway in, the story could have potentially grew boring. yes, there were some questions left unanswered and things i wish the writers would have elaborated on - but i don't think the solution to that would have been solving the mystery sooner. solving the big mysteries right away would have taken away from the drama. i enjoyed the fact that we only got answers in the finale. every episode left you wanting more. the intentional misleading was VERY well-done, and it was fun to try and figure out if you had actually gotten answers or if the writers were trying to trick you into thinking you had figured something out. it made you think... so if you don't like to think about what you're watching and solve the mystery based on little clues left behind, you probably won't enjoy this.

i didn't mind the pacing, either or the focus on support characters. as i said above - i think the pacing was necessary to keep it interesting and the support characters had their purpose. some had more screentime than the second leads, which i found weird and bothersome. but they had a purpose, and overall were entertaining.

the ACTING... i'm going to give it a 10. all things considered, the acting by the cast (including supporting and guest stars) was REALLY strong. no one could have played kang yeo joo as could as cho ye jeong! she is a seamless actress.

i was not familiar with ko jun before this drama, but he did an amazing job as woo sung... how can someone be so disgusting yet still make you laugh? ko jun had all the right charms to effectively play woo sung. he was funny and had moments that ALMOST made you like him... until you remembered he was disgusting.

the second leads: yeonwoo and youngdae! i was very familiar with both of them prior to this drama and was super excited to see them both. they are both "new"/rising actors that i really love. yeonwoo really impressed me with her role as ko mi rae. i'm going to speak on her character later but - yeonwoo blew me away. if you're not familiar with her, she's mostly been cast as energetic characters. some have been whiney and some have been combative, but in the end - they all were loud and had a lot of energy. this was the first time she played someone quiet and mysterious - and the first time she was given a role where she could TRULY shine. her emotional scenes were truly impressive. she is one to watch.

as for youngdae - again, input on his character will come later. but youngdae's acting was strong. he wasn't given a lot to work with, if i'm being honest. but, as one of the few who didn't *particularly* root or ship soo ho and yeo joo, he managed to give me butterflies with how he interacted with yeo joo. the action scenes were impressive, too. another solid role from youngdae.

soundtrack was amazing. OVER by suran might be one of the best OSTs i've heard in a while! i loved the opening credits and the score that went along with it. the scores in the drama reminded me of a grimms brothers fairytale.

let's talk the flaws.

the BIGGEST flaw to me was the characterization. the best character, when speaking about development and backstory, was kang yeo joo. she was fleshed out and it was easy to understand who she was and why she thought/did certain things - even if it took a while to get there.

however, every other character fell short. we understood woo sung was a cheater, a player - but we didn't know anything else about him. his backstory wasn't fleshed out and we barely knew why or when he started cheating. not that that would EXCUSE his cheating (because there's no excuse for it!), but i just didn't understand who he was? maybe that was intentional, so you didn't like him. if so, that was a smart choice.

for the secondary leads... the writers really didn't give them enough justice. the detectives seemed to have more screentime than the second leads. i understood the detectives better than the second leads, at some points.

ko mi rae: a lot of viewers seemed to hate her character, but i didn't feel that way. i didn't particularly love ko mi rae, but i didn't hate her. she was clearly a very damaged character and, in the end, she didn't act on her temptation. one could argue her calling at the end was to act on her temptation, but she was in the middle of a lawsuit that woo sung was helping her with. her biggest desire seemed to be divorcing her abusive husband, taking his money, and locking him up.
she was a damaged character desperate for love - which i think explains why she attached herself to woo sung so quickly, and was unable to let him go. do i think this excuses her going after a married man? no, of course not. but i don't think she was an innately BAD person. she was damaged... which i think the writers could have expanded more on. they clearly tried to make the audience understand why she was so attached, but they didn't do a good job with it. her husband and the abuse she suffered was introduced too late. if there had been more expansion on her story, i think it would be easier to understand her and less people would consider her to be "bad". yes, she was wrong to go after him but in the end, she just wanted justice for herself. not woo sung.

cha soo ho: we knew NOTHING about him other than the fact he was an agent. i love youngdae and he did a great job with what he was given in this drama, but his character fell short. yes, he was funny and charming. but we didn't KNOW him as a person. i found it difficult to like him and yeo joo together because... his feelings came out of nowhere? when did he start liking her? episodes prior to him liking her, he was annoyed with her and wanted to spray her with beer and he also suspected her of murder. his development was poor. he wasn't a bad character, but he had no development and no backstory. i understood the male detective and the dead baek soo jung more than i understood soo ho. it's a shame.

and finally... the ending. i won't say anything as i don't want to put any major spoilers here, but it didn't disappoint me as it did for some others. remember what yeo joo says in the beginning. it makes sense once you think about it.

overall... it had its flaws. but it was not nearly as bad as some people think it was. rewatch value, i've ranked it 6.5 because it could potentially be fun to rewatch to catch clues you might've missed.

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Misleading, slow, Manipulative, Out of context. Don't waste time on this series.

Had written review before. When I was at episode 13, being attacked just because I didn't watch whole series and gave a review. I finished yesterday, so here it is.
I will keep this in points. Loopholes. Deserved better.
1. Tried to portray Main lead as very intelligent, charming mystery novelist, who single handedly solved the murder of the Actress Baek soo jung even figured out in the first meeting that her assistant is an NIS agent, just because he caught eggs with his bare hands. But she could not figure out her husband was cheating on her, there were so many clues, so many evidences.
2. Title's not justified at all. Cheat on me if you can. Her husband cheated on her, her father cheated on her mother. Neither of the contexts were covered. Instead, another political dimension came into the picture, irrelevant to the plot. And in the end, the activist that was made to have an ulterior motive in order to have Lawyer made as assemblyman, I mean, was also made a mere waste of time including it the the story. That content has nothing to do with storyline at all.
3. Development of characters at worst. NIS involvement proved nothing in the end, just for a novel, secret prayer room, whose entire mystery wasn't unfolded either. I guess writer thought, audience would figure it out themselves .
4. Flaws of characters is understood. Not the way they just flipped the behaviour of the main leads out of the blue during last few episodes, where the clever Kang yeo joo, was now just a traumatised little girl, with little knowledge of what is going on around her in her own house.
5. Dull ending. Slow process of unfolding if storyline, lost track of the main motive, and finished the series like the writer's are in so much rush. I really want these writers to come forward and resign.

6. How a drunk husband paying to kill her wife in the beginning was made as the most powerful weapon to make audience stick till the end. And it turned out the HUGE DRAWBACK of the whole series. Like a rat coming out after digging a whole mountain.

7. the way kang yeo joo, the most inquisitive person in the whole show, just let's go the Biggest question as to why she's being misunderstood as the culprit of actress's murder is most misleading to the portrayal of her character. And even though she doesn't knows the reason, she did mention about affair of the actress and the lawyer in her novel in the show. And in the end, including real names of the characters makes it more contradicting, as to how is she playing dumb or blind to her husband's cheating while she writes her novel exactly the way it happened .
Misleading in every way possible, not justifiable.

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One of the best drama ever I saw
Everything was unpredictable
I love kang yep Joo and soo ho 's character💕💕
I shipped them so hard but 😭😭 failed
I'm looking forward for season 2
Many drama I dropped after watching ep12/23
Bcz they become kinda boring to watch
But this drama was on another level that made me so impatient to watch next episodes 😁😁
I found a little bit boring in ep 7/8 but it was great.
I saw many people hate mi rae idk why
I liked her character also
Many people thought mi rae's character was unnecessary
But I think it was not
Mi rae 's character showed us if you live as a timid person people gonna dominates you
When you start raising your voice you can overcome any situation
Woo sung is a cheater thats it
I don't have anything to say about him

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Good enough...

This was an enjoyable mystery-comedy drama full of character and style. The main leading actor and actress Cho Yeo Jung & Go Jun were the perfect cast for their character, completely embodying the character to bring it to its full potential. The mystery element was good and kept going for its entire runtime but this delayed a lot of things to the last episode which made it feel cramped. This also resulted in slow pacing which almost turned it stale. The last episode could've been done better, the 2nd half of the last episode was going all over the place and a bit too unfocused. Meanwhile, the ending was purely done that way to leave a stronger impression, so it's not meant to be taken serious or to be over analyzed.

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Great "Who Dun It" Mystery

I was quickly caught up in this drama. The writers created a whole mood. They set up their tale very well, sometimes I wondered if we were watching a tale woven by the main character, novelist Kang Yeo Joo, rather than a narrative about her...and I'll let you wonder as well. This is the kind of thriller I like most - it had mystery, drama, romance, and a touch of comedy as well. There was nothing lacking in this drama of suspense. The writers kept you guessing until almost the end when they finally unpacked all the secrets. It had some flaws, which affected my rating, but overall I was pretty pleased with the show.

Cho Yeo Jung was perfect as Kang Yeo Joo. I wasn't as big a fan of Go Joon in this as in other things I've seen him, but he didn't do a *bad* job, there were just certain traits this character had that I wasn't fond of. I enjoyed all the supporting characters also, and the major ones did a wonderful job.

I thought the music was pretty great, actually, though! My favorite track was the theme song, O.V.E.R. by SURAN. It was really catchy and I definitely added it to my drama playlist. :)

Normally, I wouldn't re-watch a show like this as the suspense and mystery is gone after the first watch, but I honestly wouldn't mind seeing this one again. I'd love to search for the clues on the second go and see how well it really fit.

Final verdict - if you like this genre, or even if you're curious, it's definitely worth a go!

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WE WERE ALL ROOTING FOR YOU!!!

One thing I will say about the show is that, I think it was acted well and each actor did an amazing job playing their roles and making me believe them. Beyond that I genuinely need to speak to everyone who was involved in the writing process of the entire show. From the beginning of the show they make Kang Yeo Joo out to be this insane but intelligent villain, when really she’s not. On the other hand they seem to try to make her husband seem to be a cheater with redeemable qualities and he is not. From the very beginning of their relationship he is a cheater who occasionally does really sweet things for her, which really makes him a manipulative asshole. At every chance and with anyone, this man constantly chooses to risk his life. Besides the main conflict of the show, they do a wonderful job dragging out how long it takes for this woman, who literally solves a murder case, to find out her husband is cheating on her. She definitely deserved better than the obscure at best ending she got. The writer should not have dragged everything out till the last episode, and they definitely could have written a better ending. After following along with this show religiously for 8 weeks, I feel cheated. Very unsatisfactory ending.

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MDL ratings can be decieving!!

I love mystery books, movies, dramas, etc. and I loved this drama. I think the writers did an amazing job in creating a compelling mystery where clues are hidden everywhere but we only realize it much later.
I am writing this review as I feel the MDL rating is too low and I wanted to present my opinion on a few topics. So, I won’t be talking about story , acting and ost which are all really good.

*Minor Spoilers for Episode 6 and 7*
1. To everyone saying, how could Kang Yeo Joo not realize that her husband was having an affair?
I think she knows but is just feigning ignorance. We can see this many times, such as during the confession in episode 6, she stopped him midway and diverted it towards politics. We can also see this during the piano scene in episode 7, when she said that pretended not to know about his piano lessons and could see through him. We can find many more such instances, where she ignores or seems oblivious.
Also, the drama presents the viewers with many alternate narratives whenever she suspects her husband of having an affair which are there to create an element of mystery but will lead to nowhere. They are there to keep the viewers guessing.

*Minor spoiler for ending*
2. I also think that the ending was very well done completing the whole puzzle. If we revisit the conversation in the final episode between Kang and her assistant regarding her novel where she asks if the actress succeeded in seducing the lawyer, both presented different perspective, just like how it happened in the ending.

*Minor spoiler for episode 11 and ending*
3. I don’t think that the drama’s title is misleading or out of context as if we see the conversation in episode 11 between Mr.Ma and Kang, she says, “she is writes fictional novels and that the criminal sometimes changes as she writes.” Also, in the last episode in the conversation between Kang and her assistant regarding her novel, she tells him that her readers want gruesome revenge but doesn’t tell what she wants.
I also don’t think that it is misleading as the whole drama is set on finding out about Kang and how much of her is true, like in Episode15* after listening to the recorder Cha Soo Ho(Assistant) realized that he didn’t know how much he knew her and that’s why she is being deemed dangerous. Just like him the viewers are also put in the dilemma, whether she will kill her husband or not. Which is left for the viewers to find out.

REWATCH value is high as during my 2nd run, I found many clues and dialogues scattered randomly, which answered a lot of questions that seemed unanswered at the ending. It was also fun to find minor hints which were presented before unraveling of the mysteries.

CONS (not many but still)
1. I didn't like all the political angle (NIS and opposite parties within NIS), especially since it didn't lead to anything.
2. A lot of subplots were introduced to create suspense but just disappeared and never came back. (Activist Consultant dead set on making Han Woo Sung run in the election and his intensions, Political drama in NIS, etc.)

The drama is not without it’s flaws but it’s easy to look beyond them and what we get is a good example of a slow paced mystery drama done right, keeping the viewers curious, engaged and guessing at the same time.

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Wasted potential - could have done better

With this kind of Neo-noir plot, the drama had so much potential. But they wasted it with other irrelevant sub-plots. It felt like ep 7 - 14 were just fillers and the action only picked up from episode 15, the one before the final episode. If the writers had just stuck to the original plot about Yeo Joo's blood thirst for cheating men, Woo Sung, his affairs, the rich girl and Yeo Joo's spy assistant; the drama would have being so much more satisfying because the viewers would have got what they promised. Instead they inserted some ridiculous political plot and wasted half the time with that. The sub-plot was interesting but still irrelevant to the main purpose of this drama. The fact that they just created more and more suspicions about everyone and did not give a single clue about anything until the final episodes made it all the more infuriating. The writers really didn't make things better with that cliff hanger ending. This show started off with a good outline for the plot, but the take away from this drama would be to be weary of the writers and their next projects. Plus the acting was great from everyone which was expected. However Yeon Woo needs more practise as she was lacking in expressions.

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