I generally enjoy daily dramas and I'm enjoying this one a lot. I talk about it a bit on my blog, so I thought I'd share my thoughts here for anyone else who's also having a good time with the show. Today I'll be sharing thoughts on episodes 22-23 (I've not yet watched ep23 with subs at the time of this writing), and in the future I may just share my thoughts each Friday at the end of the week of airing. Here goes!
I kind of love that Dansoo's in love with Gonghee cause she stood up for him when he was a kid; he no longer needs that kind of protection and can stand up for and defend himself, as evidenced when he punched the guy who insulted Jina, but I love that just cause he doesn't need that from Gonghee anymore, doesn't mean he doesn't care about her.
I know I've been whining about Gonghee and Dansoo not getting together yet (on episode 23 of a 120 episode drama asdfghjkl) but the thing is...Dansoo and Jina are kind of cute together, and Gonghee and Mingi are definitely cute together. Like, both those couplings *work*. Right now, they work. So if Gonghee really does end up with Dansoo, how will that happen? What will the show tell us about why Gonghee-Mingi and Dansoo-Jina don't work?
I think it's interesting that out of the 4, Gonghee is the only person right now who's being 100% transparent with both herself and her crush. Jina's still in love with Mingi, Mingi still has very strong feelings for Jina and would marry her at the drop of a hat if she agreed, and Dansoo's still holding onto the toy ring he proposed to Gonghee with when they were kids. But all three of them decide instead to pursue romantic relationships with people they like, who they empathize with, and who fit more easily into their socioeconomic circles than with the people who occupy their minds and make them feel something deep (though not always good) and lasting.
Now, Jina has a problem. She's a bully who terrorizes an intern, she steals her subordinate's work, she isn't able to place clear and established boundaries with her awful mother, she lashes out in anger to the person she loves instead of explaining her standpoint to him, and she's just plain mean. Like, every one of her colleagues hates working with her, and with reason, and she doesn't even seem good at her job! Oh, and she's a nepo baby. But (a veeeeeeery small but) the scene from yesterday's episode (22) where she brings Dansoo to meet the people in her social circle was so revealing—they're all as callous and vicious as she is. They're awful to her, and *they* bully *her*, even as she gives them as good as she gets. And suddenly you understand why she never brought Mingi to see them, why their relationship was kept a secret, and why she's so adamant about not marrying him. Cause he wouldn't survive a second around the people Jina's grown up with, the people that come with her being a chaebol's daughter. He already has these ingrained feelings of unworthiness/an inferiority complex having to do with class cause of his father's job and how he grew up being Dansoo's pseudo big bro guardian, and being faced with the cruelty of Jina's social circle would just destroy him, and destroy their relationship. But Jina never explains any of this to him—how can she, really? If she tried to he'd likely say she's ashamed of him, and if she didn't and instead just had him experience it it'd be feeding him to the wolves.
So the drama's setting up 2 kinds of relationships: the kind that make sense (mostly cause of class) and are sweet and friendly and have their merits but aren't especially passionate, and the kind that have deep rooted, long lasting feelings, but are messy and face social obstacles. This juxtaposition reminds me a bit of Can We Get Married, though that drama (being a 20 episode cable drama from JTBC) was a lot sharper in all the choices it made and had no sitcom elements at all.
