Motel California (2025)

Can love heal your childhood traumas ?

PLOT: The "gangsters", a group of different children, harassed in their small town, grew up very united. The FL (mixed race child - Dead mother - living in her father's motel) fleed at the age of 20 to go to Seoul. She experienced very difficult times, poverty, but ended up becoming an interior decorator. Years later, she returns to her hometown to renovate a motel, and meets again her "gangsters" including her "soul mate", the ML who became a veterinarian (dead father, lives with a psycho mother married 4 times). Will this difficult return allow the FL to confront her traumas?

+++ Great actors: beautiful and talented Lee Se Young & Na In Woo as CL, Choi Min Soo (adorable father), etc.
+++ Excellent OST
+++ Happy and satisfying ending.

### Heavy story, with an unbearable & immature FL (she has trauma, OK, but even so !!!), the ML's mother who really needs therapy but whom everyone puts up with, contrived coincidences, the unexplained change of heart of the harassers, etc.

=> The bad writing spoils a great cast and a good plot :(
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Can love heal your childhood traumas ?

PLOT: Les "gangsters", gpe d'enfants différents, harcelés dans leur petite ville, ont grandi très unis. La FL (enfant métis - mère DCD - habitant ds le motel de son père) a tt quitté à 20 ans pr partir à Séoul. Elle a vécu des moments très difficiles, la pauvreté, mais finit par devenir décoratrice d'intérieur. Elle revient ds sa ville natale pr rénover un motel, et retrouve son "âme sœur", le ML devenu vétérinaire (père DCD, mère psycho mariée 4 fois) et ses amis. Ce retour difficile permettra-t-il à la FL d'affronter ses traumas ?

+++ Super acteurs : Lee Se Young & Na In Woo en CL, Choi Min Soo (père adorable), etc.
+++ Excellentes OST
+++ Happy ending satisfaisante.

### Story pesante, avec une FL insupportable & immature (traumas OK, mais qd même), la mère du ML qui devrait se faire soigner mais que tt le monde supporte, des coïncidences grossières, le revirement des harceleurs inexpliqué, etc.

=> L'écriture gâche un super cast et un bon plot :(

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If frustration had a name, it would be "Motel California"

This was a one-woman show, all other characters are pretty irrelevant. Lee Se Young was stellar as the cinematography was, too bad her character was an understandable frustrating mess not helped by a shitty script.
Pace is draggy and all over the place. Drama sucked my energy dry.

#I've_got_melo_trauma
#Not_watching_ANY_melo_for_6_months
#Gimme_Back_My_HOURS

I was wondering how they were going to wrap up this thing up given how everything remained messy up to the middle of episode 11...

Turns out, THEY DIDN'T DO SH***

They didnt' resolve anything, they just used a magic wand and all the shitty villagers and classmates did a 180 in the last ep and everything is ok and let's laugh under the (grey) sky after years of bullying? ARE. YOU.KIDDING.ME ? ? ? As somebody who has had experience with some of the issues faced by Kang Hee I can tell you this :

1. Racists gonna remain racists, it's not because they do good things on the side that it changes the fact that they're filthy racists.

2. Even if they did a turnaround, I won't forget and I won't forgive, but in this drama, all these prejudices are treated like it's nothing.

3. It takes a lot of courage to apologize to your former victims. Most bullies would rather die than admit their wrongs that leaves (most of) them with two options: 1. Make up excuses to justify their past behaviors, usually by victim blaming 2. Just ignore the victim and act like they don't exist since these bullies are cowards who can't even look their victims in the eye.
And we're not going to have a "party" together UNLESS they PAY the whole bill!

Didn't care about the Esther story line. From the moment they showed the cheating it was either she aborts or she gets with glass-guy : they also swept under the rug that he's filthy rich hence it's very likely Esther and him are being pressured to abort the baby by their respective families. They have the same background so it makes sense they're allowed to be together, but even if glass-guy's family is ok with him getting with Esther the divorcee they definitely are not for her to keep the baby. BUT this show is doing a Love Next Door thingy so screw these issues I guess. She's gonna keep the baby and get her first love and not be outed by her family because they're not living in South Korea, they're living in Lalaland where genealogy and tracing one's ancestors have no importance whatsover.

Yeon Soo's mother got a new beau... but I haven't forgotten what two women said about him loosing most of his money gambling BUT the show sure did. Another Problem Non-Problem.

Ah Reum left her house and that was it. If it was THAT EASY why didn't you do it from the start? Another Non-Problem.

We never got to learn why Seung Eon didn't even get a Middle School degree given he's been raised by Jung Pil (Chung Pil whatever) since he was 7. But Whatever again I guess. He would have made an interesting character given his backstory but since this was a one woman show, he faded unfairly in the background.

Han U also faded in the background... But he also had an interesting story. It's not everyday you meet someone who gives up everything to restart from scratch in my home country, I can't even imagine what it is in South Korea... But I guess dragging Kang Hee's storyline was more important.

Kang Hee and her father's relationship problem has been solved by the power of his incoming death by the cancer of doom. I guess. Still she doesn't call her father "Father" by the end of the show and she says that "He raised her well"... When the show spent a whole lot of time to show she had to raise HERSELF since her father was always busy taking care of the villagers in particular Yeon Soo's mum but WHATEVER I guess.

And Yeon Soo... Well. Basically a doormat from start to finish. He did get some b*** by the end of the show but not that much. I get it, in recent months the faithful male lead with puppy love - Seon Jae in Lovely Runner, Sa Eon in When the Phone Rings, Ji Hyuk in Marry my Husband, Ji Hwan in My Sweet Mobster, Ji Uk in No Gain no Love and so on... - enamored with the ONE AND ONLY girl has made lots of women - me included - swoon. So it seems we're in for a lot of this type of male leads coming onto our screens...

HOWEVER, you do need to make your ML 3 dimensional if a guy is only defined by "I love Kang Hee", well that's not a person let alone a character. Your "character" is just and empty shell.

We never even got to know if Yeon Soo the doormat ends up going to Seoul to live with Kang Hee. BUT I guess he doesn't need to because from what we've seen, Seoul isn't that far from this village and "everything is forgotten and forgiven" by the power of K drama so Kang Hee doesn't mind coming to this shitty village by the end of the show.

Overall a happy ending that only works if you decide to play the amnesia card.

Well I'm sorry I CAN'T.

Suggested Rating based on the different criteria: 5

Personal rating: 3 Too must frustration, no satisfying conclusion... I loathe this drama even more than "Love Next Door" and that's saying something.

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