The Atypical Family (2024)

The hold this drama has on me needs to be studied.

This drama got to me, okay. To demonstrate how much it Got Me, I can tell you that when I finished watching it I immediately started rewatching.

There are two pivotal, wrenching moments in this drama that illustrate the magic of this story and the emotional impact it had for me:
- The end of episode 5, when Gwiju finds Dahae locked in the room and she thinks: “a hope I didn’t deserve quietly emerged in my heart.”
- The climax of the finale, when he finally saves her from the fire and tells her: “This isn’t the end, it’s the beginning” — knowing he will die in the next moment.

These two moments, besides being traumatically romantic, encapsulate what this story is about — healing and transformation. In just 12 episodes The Atypical Family delivers satisfying character arcs for virtually its whole ensemble, and it says that redemption and healing from your past traumas is possible. This is exemplified perhaps by Gwi-ju’s character: a man who starts the series shutting himself off from the world because he is unable to cope with his failures; only after letting go of his endless grief, repairing his relationship with his family and daughter, and making the choice to love again, does he reach self-actualisation and becomes the person he longed to be since he was a boy — a hero who can save someone’s life. This is a masterclass of a character arc.

I can say the same for Dahae, an actually complex female lead who in any other kdrama would be portrayed as a conniving bitch villain; this drama actually says that in spite of her crimes, she deserves to find a family who loves her, and she deserves to be saved.

That is in essence the message of the drama — we do deserve to be saved from a burning building, and start again.

My one and only beef with this drama is the fat suit — as other reviewers have expressed, it is disappointing that kdramas still won’t cast plus-size actors. This arguably diminishes what is otherwise a beautiful character arc about Donghee finding self-acceptance and learning to fly again.

Still, on the whole, this drama left an indelible imprint; there are moments from this that I will probably remember forever.

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O final é feliz, mas bem corrido

Amei esse dorama, pra qm não entendeu na apresentação ela já estava grávida mas provavelmente era o início da gestação então a mesma poderia não saber. Como teve um salto de 5 anos não mostrou a gestação. Mas ali deu pra entender que não teve corpo no presente pq o filho deles buscou ele no passado a 18 anos atrás e levou ele direto para o futuro. Quando o filho já tinha 5 anos.
A única coisa que não gostei foi não ter mostrado o encontro dele com a filha, ela precisava disso e ele também. Fora isso achei muito bom.
Gostei muito do desenvolvimento dos personagens, principalmente da família. A prota foi essencial, ela devolver a vontade de viver da família, uniu todos. Vou sentir saudades.

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One time watch worthy

What I liked:
-Interesting Plot:"Aytical Family" weaves a captivating storyline that keeps viewers engaged from start to finish. The narrative intricacies are compelling and draw you into the characters' lives.

- **Second Couple (Teen Couple):** The dynamics of the teen couple were particularly enjoyable. Their youthful romance brought a refreshing contrast to the more serious main plot.

- **No Excessive Twists:** Unlike many dramas that rely heavily on convoluted twists and turns, "Aytical Family" maintained a straightforward storyline. This approach kept the drama believable and easy to follow, enhancing the viewing experience.

**What I Didn't Like:**

- **Bit Slow:** At times, the pacing felt a little sluggish. Certain scenes dragged on longer than necessary, which occasionally affected the overall momentum of the drama.

Overall, "Aytical Family" is a solid drama with an engaging plot and charming characters. Despite its slower pace at times, it remains an enjoyable watch, particularly for those who appreciate a balance between drama and romance without an overabundance of plot twists.

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What the actual fuck did I watch

I watched this whole drama in one sitting and hated every single episode. I mean the first couple was lowkey cute but what do you mean he cured his depression cause he fell in love... They took mental health very lightly and made him love driven which was weird cause he was depressed from losing his lover. Also I think the female character was used as a pity character that out male lead fell for because of her 'hardship' aka forced to be a gold digger. I feel like the writer inflicted every trauma to this female lead which just made her boring. And this whole loop thing was pretty cool, him being able to back in time is pretty cool as well. And honestly their romance felt forced so yeah... didn't like this. + the daughter and the male lead needs therapy!!! Please ????

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In general I liked it a lot.

At first I thought it was just going to be a fantasy drama but it's more than that.

I liked that it was short and that it told you a very concise story. It is well written in such a way that time travel does not become a difficult knot to understand, the other powers are well explained so that you do not get lost with them.

I liked everyone's acting, the side stories were developed well and also had a purpose and a happy ending.

I liked that the characters grew a lot and you identify with them a little, they warm your heart.
What I didn't like so much was the "mom" who owned the sauna, I feel that she left her role as antagonist very quickly, she changed her mind and sides very quickly, I felt that the efforts of the other characters were in vain

The ending was a bit bold but they pulled it off well, it's a good ending.

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Atypical Storytelling in a Typical K-Drama Setting

Unlike typical K-dramas, this story takes a unique approach by focusing on a superpowered family dealing with everyday issues that impact their abilities. With the addition of a found family of swindlers, they navigate challenges and save each other.

Initially, it took me a while to fully engage with this drama due to its slow pacing. The setup for each character was unusually lengthy, with excessive flashbacks. What kept me invested was the exceptional cast, as everyone acted well and none of the characters were annoying. I especially liked Park So Yi, who played Bok I-na. This young actress is full of potential and truly shined in this role.

The last three episodes were incredibly satisfying, tying everything together with an expected yet fitting ending. My only wish is that they had spent a bit more time on the finale. All characters had strong development and conveyed meaningful morals. Overall, this was a good and decent watch for me.

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Not your typical time travel story

The Atypical Family is incredibly well written with complex characters who change and grow in surprising ways. Though many of the characters are morally gray the show's lens is deeply humanistic and you'll grow to care for these very flawed human beings. The show's central message is don't regret the past or worry about the future, live in the present and love the people close to you.

Time travel is handled very differently in this show than in dramas like Lovely Runner and Twinkling Watermelon. In those shows, time travel creates different timelines and it is possible to change the past and the future. But The Atypical Family is more like the film 12 Monkeys, which has a single closed time loop. It's not possible for the time traveler to change the past or the future because their actions simply cause events that were going to happen anyway.

The closed time loop turns this into a very Buddhist story. Buddhism puts a huge emphasis on the idea of non-attachment, which means letting go of what you can't control and focusing on the present moment. There is also the central idea of loving-kindness, viewing yourself and those around you with compassion, generosity and empathy.

Gwiju starts out from a place of: I need more control, I need to control my own destiny. He wants to change his past and future and it's his repeated failures to do so that turn him into a depressed alcoholic. But after Dahae enters his life, he gradually realizes that he can't change his fate but he can change how he reacts to that fate. He can become a more loving and responsible person no matter what has happened in the past or what will happen in the future.

Gwiju isn't the only person who has to learn this lesson. Dahae needs to detach from the idea that she can avoid the pain of her traumatic past by manipulating and controlling the men she scams and instead embrace her found families. Dong Hee needs to detach from the idea that her weight has anything to do with whether or not she can fly and instead allow herself to eat joyfully and be happy. Bok Eomma needs to detach from the idea that her prescient dreams will keep her and her family safe and stop using them to control people. And even Ina needs to detach from both her fear of her mind reading powers and her belief that those powers can be used to manipulate people into giving her friendship and understand that she is a loveable and worthwhile person.

I think it's this emphasis on detachment and acceptance that truly sets Atypical Family apart from other time travel stories. What's amazing is that despite a philosophy that sounds like it would lead to stagnant, boring storytelling, the drama is absolutely gripping and the last half hour is hugely cathartic. I cried buckets at the end.

In addition to the amazing writing and the interesting philosophy of the drama, I have to shout out the acting performances which are uniformly great. Special mentions for Jang Ki Yong in his first post-military drama; Chun Woo Hee for portraying a morally ambiguous female lead and making us care about her; Park So Yi for more than holding her own with the adult actors; and Claudia Kim for humanizing a character who could've been an offensive caricature.

I also have to mention the amazing cinematography and the OST which is phenomenal, probably the most sophisticated OST I've ever heard in a drama.

There are very few things I disliked about this drama but many people struggle with the FL's behavior in the early episodes, as well as the ML's neglect of his daughter due to alcoholism and trauma. There are also a lot of people who don't understand the time travel rules in this universe and had trouble understanding the ending. I even made graphics to explain it: https://x.com/daebakpodcast1/status/1800000910699147378

Verdict: So far this is my favorite drama of the year and one of my favorite dramas ever.

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It was good, different but draggy

This is kinda metaphorical, depression that he can’t remember his happy moments
Can’t sleep so she can’t gain money cuz of stress
Shy that can’t look at people cuz the eyes are the window of the soul
And I guess she was so full of herself that she put herself down

but the execution is a bit too slow, it took me three months to finish, I mean it wasn’t frustrating or bad, but it wasn’t amazing either


So like what I said before, it was symbolic but they could’ve done it so much better

For exam the sister’s story should’ve moved faster, especially since it took her one ep to fully shed the remaining weight, and her whole story was about self love so going back to the cheater was the worst part
and her cuteness with "the uncle" would've been a better focus, she never had to let go of her love or what her ex represented.. so it was a waste of time, instead, they should've shown her falling for "the uncle" , and realizing self love and a good relationship can heal


He was never supposed to save his wife, or his hyung, which is annoyingly sad as it was what controlled years of his life.. so his wife did die because of him, when he was always meant to move on with someone else

everything was “set in stone” even every time he went back it was never a choice


That’s why the end sucked, the thing that hurt the dad all this time was going back in time and getting stuck, and we have the mom go and say “I lost something 5 or welp 18 years ago” and the kid poofs and saves him?
Like how risky was it to have a 5 year old go into that fire for his dad?????

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Atypical Kdrama

Right off the bat I enjoy the casting of the main leads for Gwi Ju and Da Hae. I like how Jang Ki Yong is playing against his usual cool guy role, being a dorky regular Joe Gwi Ju who has the mushroom/coconut hair. Chun Woo Hee is effervescent as Da Hae who gives off this endearing charm where it's understandable how people are drawn to and trust her. I love how both of the actors ground even a silly funny reactions so that they aren't cringey, which includes the bickering which is usually a fast forward moment in other dramas. I love the scene where Da Hae goes off to con a fourth husband in order to shake of Gwi Ju. She shows off her full con mode, she's very effective but Gwi Ju doesn't have any jealousy or anger or is even phased. Which was a preview version of later when he finds out she faked her death in an attempt to save him. He was angry and confused, but he just embraces her as soon as he realizes why she did what she did. Their chemistry is so good! Of the extended cast, Kim Geum Soon is really impressive as Baek Il Hong, Da Hae's loan shark turned adopted mom. She's fantastic at keeping her motives ambiguous as to whether she's sincere or a plot, whether she loves Da Hae or she's a cold hearted crime boss who will collect on Da Hae's due.

The writing for the most part is really good. The writing for this show actually understands how to withhold and reveal information with impact. They play with the expectations of the powers really well from the evolution of Gwi Ju being able interact with past Da Hae, to her revealing to him things his future self did but the audience aren't sure if she's lying or not and she's able to use this in a actual lie as well, to her simultaneously interacting with both past and future him, and how he's saved. The flower scene is probably the most trippy time travel event of the whole series, because she didn't lie but he also didn't buy the flowers until his future self gave them to her. Ina's friend/bully doesn't even know that Ina has the power to read minds when she looks into people's eyes but was unknowingly able to use it to mentally bully Ina. Da Hae is able able to flip Man Huem's fatalist viewing of her negative dreams into a reinterpretation of the events into a positive outcome, building on what her fellow regular human father in law Man Seok has been doing to make the positive dreams come true. Man Seok seeming like she was tricking Il Hong about a vision about seeing the daughter she lost (the one that died while she was in prison) grown and alive but actually was about embracing Da Hae who faked her death hit me so hard in the heart.

The weakest part of the writing is Dong Hee's storyline and struggle with eating and body image. Dong Hee was used a comic relief character when she was heavyset and then suddenly she's just all serious when she's lost the weight again. The optics of that is really suspect to say the least. I could see there was the intention of wanting to convey the reasoning behind Dong Hee not being able to fly was not actually her physical weight, but the crushing mental insecurity and regret, but I don't think the story conveyed that as well as it can be. Then the other weak parts was the unnecessary teasing of the scumbag doctor by Da Hae and Grace that causes him to push her out the window and then him being the one to cause the foreseen school ire that forces Gwi Ju to time travel to the past feels forced. It's like they just transferred all of Dong Hee's cartoony nature into him just to move certain plots along.

The conclusion is lovely though. It turns out Da Hae and Gwi Ju definitely got frisky at least once at some point because they have a son at the end and it's so beautiful that her child is who brought Gwi Ju back to the safety of the future. I thought it was funny that they didn't show Ina's face in the future, only that she has long hair. Her actress was probably actually around 11 at the time playing a 13 year old while all the class mates were played by 14 or 15 year olds which makes her look as small as possible, so I understand how it would be hard to age her up. They should have cast an older kid so she could reunite with her dad too. Overall the drama was very enjoyable to watch and it's always great to see kdrama try to do something different and mostly succeeding.

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Just....

I want a season 2 just to see how rge kids have grown up ik not everything about the serie was good but still you should watch it. the cast wad good also and I want to see the relationship with Ina and the dancing dude don't mind me I always forget the names oops like their life is so interesting also the couple and their 5y old I wanna see them get married after he came back after literally 5 years the end was hard breaking but also filled with love I also wanna see if ook don't eat will marry the sauna dude I just need to know ok GIVE ME A SEAZON 2!!!

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