It started so good..
Whoever made the trailer, I commend you. You made it seem that the series will be full of energy.many cringe and embarrassing moments. Actors can deliver so its okay. THE CASTS ARE GOOD.
Just watch until Episode 15. This series failed to leave me an impression. Its good to kill some time. Its light. Just don't watch the last episode (Ep. 16).
If they want the main lead role to be successful, they should have worked it in the first 15 episodes. They're so focused on the romance, they forgot how to insert how she became successful. They just forced it on the last episode.
To correct that, I think the director does not have any romance at all in his life. Is this the first time he directed a romance?
I WARN YOU DO NOT WATCH EPISODE 16. You can drop it, its completely fine.
When I watch Ep. 16, it drained all my energy and left me with this melancholy. Unreasonable and immature break up reasons that does not happen in real life. Unless of course, if you're really trying to break up BECAUSE YOU DON'T LIKE THE PERSON you gave all the lame reasons possible. Its not you, Its me.
Can't you think of better conflicts in life?
Failed in execution (lame director), failed in story (lame screenwriters). Music, effects not worth mentioning.
Just another series you've watched and will forget in a day or two. THE CASTS ARE GOOD. That's the only thing you can count on.
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Light, Fun and Cliche
there are cringey moments and many skippable scenes. At first, it is good but for the latter part, it is nice to end it all. The problems are quite unrealistic. The story plot is being on circles. The resolutions are not clear. It's fun at some point but it is not that good. On the other hand, the soundtrack is good.There's also a realization that I had while watching the series. Every person has their own reasons on making a decision, we can always ask and not conclude things. that's nice and true actually
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Very enjoyable, well-acted, light drama
I did not think I would enjoy watching this drama. In fact, I kept postponing it and binge-watched 6 episodes. Now I find myself waiting for the next episode. I love both leads, in what I have seen them already, they have always given their best to their roles. Although this drama is nothing out of the ordinary in terms of the storyline, it is still nonetheless very refreshing. If you are looking for a sweet drama that does not want to make you think, cry, or be at the edge of your seat then this will do very well indeed. Personally, it is exactly what I need to watch at the moment. The drama delivers what it promises to, it is what it is and does not pretend to be something else.Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
I wasn't going to write a review for this drama, because I didn't have a lot to say. I dropped it two episodes before the end, because I wasn't enjoying it anymore and it's the kind of generic that if you aren't enjoying it, there's no point in watching it. So I figured I would just leave everyone else to their gleeful enjoyment since the comment section on MDL was overwhelmingly positive and g find something else to watch.Then I was struck with a sudden craving to finish it, so I pulled it back up on MDL to look through the comments again and maybe get myself a little hyped up, and Wow. It's a good thing I did that, because now my decision to drop it seems like a wise one. I'm also fired up now to write that review I wasn't going to write before, lol.
Upfront, before we get any farther into this review, no, this is not a good drama. It is extremely cliché, and I don't think it necessarily does all of the clichés well. But! It was entertaining for much of it's run, so that kept me around. The thing, the Two things, that ultimately made me stop watching are the male leads behavior and some second lead nonsense that was far more dramatic than it deserved to be.
First things first, I found the male lead to be just way too mean. It starts out fine. He's rude but you can look past it, because there's room for growth in his character. Then it just goes a step too far for me, and I had a hard time not being frustrated with him. And even when our leads get together, the writers still manage to engineer the situation so he Has to continue to be mean or else everyone else in the office will know that they're dating.
Now, It's funny for two characters trying to pretend in front of others that they don't have a relationship to be mildly (or maybe even a little more aggressively than that) rude towards each other as a cover.
It's not funny when one of those characters is really only being their normal self.
So I didn't enjoy that, and if you can't enjoy the main couple, what really Can you enjoy that will make you want to stick around?
This is where the second thing comes in. The second male lead has been nursing a crush on the female lead the entire drama, but he hasn't managed to work up the guts to tell her. This is all pretty sweet and endearing and likable for the most part, even if it is hard at times to feel totally sympathetic for him when he continuously passes up his chances to tell her how he feels. But then he finds out that she's dating the male lead, and instead of the writers treating this like the unrequited Crush that it is where he would have a good sulk for a few days and then move on, instead...
They Hit Him With A Car!
Now, this isn't really your Kdrama truck of doom as we don't see the accident happen, and he has only minor injuries, but good Lord in heaven is this a level of drama that this boy's crush did not deserve. And it ended up being the catalyst for the leads breaking up for no gosh darn good reason too! And this is why I dropped the drama. Because I don't care about this. I was ready for our leads to start just being together for a bit without having to pretend they aren't dating or having one of them talk down to the other. I was ready for some cute romance!
Knowing now how they ended this drama which is a whole thing in and of itself, I don't think I'm going to bother watching the last two episodes. I've got other dramas to watch and not enough time to worry about this one. So goodbye, Monthly Magazine Home! May you find your home elsewhere.
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I loved it a lot
I have started this drama because I love Kim Ji Seok's work a lot. So I couldn't let this go on without watching. This a story of superation and fight for finding a place in the world. The both protagonists are people looking for their places in the world and this way, also finding love and happiness. I loved the story. And the original soundtrack is also a special gift that i carry with me. Loved all songs and I think they were perfect for the drama and the characters.Despite some things aren't finished as I expected, this fact didn't take the shine off the story after all.
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Very Well-Done Character-Driven Plot - But Disappointing ML
I must say, this series surprised me immensely. I started watching this drama because I needed a breath of fresh air between episodes in my other series. However, I soon began watching this drama 'full-time,' and for a good reason too. Where do I begin? The first episode introduces us to a female lead (Young Won) who quickly establishes herself as a well-written character. She's driven, energetic, and sweet - but also has her doubts, which fleshes her out pretty nicely for the viewer. The drama also introduces us to the rest of the cast, who have their quirks and backstories. Then, we meet the ML (Ja Sung), and boy, is he something.Ja Sung starts with all the boxes in the 'make-a-prick' list checked. He's inconsiderate, rude, manipulative, and a millionaire landlord on top of it too. This drama does take the route of 'FL does all the emotional labor,' so beware. The writers try to make him grow as a person and brush his miserly personality off with a below-average childhood (who could have seen that coming.) Sorry, but in my eyes, Ja Sung's circumstances do not justify him being such a nasty person to those around him.
The supporting characters make this story. They're entertaining and drive several b-plots, which are almost better stories in their own right. Although rational thinking would have prevented some of these situations, everything goes well together, but this is a romantic comedy, so something should happen. Most of them are also absolute dinguses initially, but we see them grow as people through the episodes. This character growth works for the supporting characters, not Ja Sung, because they're way more relatable. You will never convince me to have any sympathy for a man who is that rich. I will not apologize for this.
And then there's the ending, which seems to have split the reviewers. Without spoiling anything, I think it was very mature. We got to see where everyone ended up, for better or for worse. In my honest opinion, everyone got an ending that they deserved.
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Okay But Nothing Special
This is a standard kdrama Rom-Com. There is no real depth of characters... no twists in the storytelling... nothing out of the ordinary. It has the cutesy Rom moments, and the Com isn't so annoying that I fast-forwarded it (which I do if it makes the difference of enjoying the show or abandoning it).Pros:
*The opposites attract kdrama trope, which I personally think is cute.
*Beautiful buildings, set designs, etc.
*High quality filming, cinematography, lighting, music, etc.
*Decent acting for the main leads. Both are fine and their chemistry is okay.
*The comedic-relief characters are annoying, but not so annoying I want to stab them.
Cons:
*There are some tropes (especially near the very end) that I'm not a fan of at all.
*100% predictable in every single way (I knew those tropes were coming--very obvious)
In short, it was watchable af. I cruised right through in no time at all. The cons for me were just "meh" rather than deal breakers. They were manageable because 1. They happened late (didn't have to suffer through 4-5 trash episodes) and 2. I knew they were obvious, so I wasn't as irritated when they popped up.
If you're looking for a rainy-day watch of something mindless and fairly cute, this could work.
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This review may contain spoilers
The comedy in the series is sweet
In the beginning, it was a great series, but I mean, as it neared the end of the series, it became boringAnd without meaning they broke up at the end for stupid reasons But the comedy and the beautiful songs remain special in the series The characters are also beautiful. The story was also wonderful and had a great meaning But whoever loves comedy and wants a change in the series, this series deserves comedy with something strange but romantic no He misses this aspect a lot The music is sweet and the story has a beautiful meaning, and in this series he wanted to convey the meaning to you,
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After Eps 8, so Eps 9-12 were fine; I'm fine with Ja Sung becoming a simp, but it causes Young Won to lose sight of her life goals, and this drama feels like an ordinary romance drama around those episodes.
Worse, after Ep. 12 or when Ja Sung decided to break up with Young Won, this is really too much, just like when Young Won was drunk and said, "I couldn't understand all of this," which I also thought with frustration. It's just dumb. I'm glad that Choi Go, Sang Soon, and Ui Joo came to the rescue, as they have since the first episode.
At this point, I only hope that K-drama can be self-aware like Business Proposal (2022), which had only 12 episodes but was solid.
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Good Enough
Korean Drama "Monthly Magazine Home" is a slice of life drama with a fun couple as the main focus.The drama offers enough cute moments, like the colourful tips on how to save money in order to buy a house. The main couple was, in addition, the biggest provider of these moments as well, especially the male lead, who was frustrating at times, but funny and enjoyable overall. The romance was also pretty sweet, but the progress was messy and close to a slow burn. The love triangle was not well handled either. Still, the side characters were interesting enough to keep things aloof and entertaining when the romance was failing to live up to its potentials.
However, what makes this drama not as good as it should have been, even though it checked all the boxes of an enemies to lovers trop, is that it is forgettable, as it didn't offer anything special, and the ending was bad. The latter was open, confused things for no real reason and it was just ridiculous. Plus, looking back, the drama didn't really leave any impression, nor had anything to say. It was just an office rom com with no sufficient plot.
To boot, the characters weren't well explored, as the story offered a few clues only when it came to their past life. However, the performances were great.
So, overall, 6 out of 10.
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Lesser than the sum of its parts
This may not be al all-star team, but "Monthly Magazine Home" has a high caliber of talent at the top of the credits. Kim Ji Suk may not have a history as a lead but he's been a standout as a supporting cast member. Kim Won Hae has an incredible resume'. Jung So Min is unquestionably a quality lead actor. Chae Jung An has stolen more than her share of scenes in previous work. And for a good chunk of of this series, they play a terrific melody together. But it doesn't last and, while it remains an entertaining show, "Monthly Magazine Home" falls short of making the memorable performance that this cast is capable of making.Kim Ji Suk's Yoo Ja Sung is the character with the most significant growth, but while the character matures and grows, his charm vanishes. Ahn Chang Hwan has a series of episodes where he is scintillating but his tendency to overdo comedic scenes is unfortunate. Kim Won Hae, similarly, bright moments mixed with less than his finest work. Jung So Min is terrific where her character has material for her to use. But Na Young Won just winds up being rather bland.
There's plenty of criticism for the storyline in later episodes and there's merit to it, but things started to go awry much sooner. It really begins with some clunky direction at the halfway mark. Kim Ji Suk, in particular, has some extremely awkward blocking in what should be touching moments with Jung So Min. All the supporting characters are asked to recycle the same lines for rapidly declining comedic returns. And there's quite a bit of extraneous cast that are present for a large amount of the show but are given almost nothing to do. What's more disappointing is that there are multiple devices that work well for much of the series that completely vanish shortly after the halfway mark.
Credit to the wardrobe people for an incredible collection of sweaters. The Jo Yuri track "Story of Us" is terrific and one of the best soundtrack entries of 2021. The houses featured are absolutely stunning.
Overall, "Monthly Magazine Home" is a nice show. It has flaws and some are noticeable. It also has a nice collection of positives and quality moments. It's not strongly recommended, but recommended nevertheless.
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This review may contain spoilers
A woman who owns a house and a man who owns a home; nice drama but anti-climatic ending!
Monthly Magazine Home is a nice drama, it is filled with lots of simple things that make you laugh and smile a lot. It was a comfort drama. Sometimes, it was weird and over the top, while there were also times where I didn't know if I would cringe because it was funny or just feel butterflies in my stomach. It was good until—it wasn't able to sustain its sincerity until the end.It is the drama of a man who buys a house and a woman who wants to own a home. It has an office romance, funny relationships with office co-workers and friends, and a love triangle that might introduce a conflict but still not a strong one, thank goodness. The main highlights of the drama for me are the incredibly funny moments of the side characters but still heart warming at the same time. I also loved the sincere and romantic moments of Young Won and Ja-sung. The drama was also lovely with its monologues at the end of every episode plus it has good OSTs!
At its core, the drama was simple and honest and I would've preferred if the writing could've pulled that sincerity until the end, because other than the laughs and the good things, you will realize that it is just plain. But it wasn't bad because you are enjoying this vanilla ice cream with your friends and loved ones. It is so sweet and that it has become the charm of the drama even passing clichés and its weak writing—not until you realized it is a 16 episode drama not a 12 episode one. And, this, I believe, pressured the writer in creating conflicts and challenges because this vanilla writing with lots of good moments could not just sustain a 16 episode drama.
When the writer could have focused on its sincerity and the reality of the hardships of becoming a homeowner in every episode, she opted for cliché plot devices that could invoke long-range conflicts in romance department. But, since the writer is also not yet mature in handling long-range conflicts nor the directing was suave in its execution. Sometimes the emotions were there, sometimes it was missed.
.
The two main lead couple had an early romance, however, after that, I think the writing started to become misguided with its original concept and main intention. It lost some of its sincerity and instead had the sitcom vibe; I didn’t complain because it was funny for its short span. And, thank you to the story and craziness of the side characters, the drama lasted up to episode 11. Episodes 12-14 is where the major conflict happened. We had a break-up and a love triangle, but the writer proved that she could still make it work. As she tried once again to show her sincerity, the drama became warm and charming again. I remember loving the emotions felt through the end of episode 14. The writing was at its best when it is not trying to be too ambitious, when it was just honest and raw and when the directing is opting for honest and sincere direction.
In a way, episodes 1-14 were delivered well. It had good moments, there were hits and misses, but it was STILL balanced. Then episode 15 came—it was sweet, crazy, funny and for its content, I believe the main message of the drama was already delivered well—“home is a container that holds life”.
But, of course, we still need to complete the 16 episodes and one thing was missing—the resolution that it promised from its original concept—becoming a homeowner. However, it was already too late and the weakness of the writing started to become evident as the writer probably did not know how she could produce that kind of outcome. The last episodes, although delivered well, failed to provide the progress of its major concept, therefore, with an hour left, they needed a diversion that could fast forward the concept they promised at the start and finally show the female lead owning a house on her own. And this became the main problem and probably the weakest link that drove the drama to its anti-climatic and disappointing ending.
She pulled off a last-minute "plot twist" that you are very tired of because that conflict already happened in episodes before and what's amusing is, she used that unnecessary conflict to give back to its major concept, pulling every kind of cliché that it can and creating unnecessary suffering for the main leads and covering it with a bad aid saying “starting over again”. You know I am not picky, I don’t really mind if they wanted that one last “plot twist” but we still got a cliché trope of misunderstanding, so yeah. The ending was bad because it failed to invoke the right emotions to the viewers, it was bad because the writing was weak from the very first start, it was in many ways bad because it erased all its sincerity and tried to be ambitious when it couldn't.
In the end, the drama still failed to deliver its main concept of becoming a homeowner; while Ja-sung finally owns a home now, Young-won only owns a house. Isn’t it sad? Yeah. But, of course, you still have an open-ending and while I interpreted the ending as anti-climatic and bad writing, you could be hopeful that as they found another one in the end and just as they are starting to rebuild their relationship step by step by being friends, someday, together, they will find themselves building a house that will eventually become their own home. Have a good day!
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