AllisonRobinson

Yumi Deserved a Happy Ending. Instead, She Became a Stereotype.

It absolutely destroys my heart to share this review, because the first two seasons of Yumi's Cells were some of the best K dramas I've ever seen. As a longtime fan of Sex and the City, and a writer myself, this show tugged at my heartstrings in all the ways. (It's basically Sex and the City, without the sex, both shows of which center around a female writer as their protagonists.) However, this season turned Yumi into a version of a woman that I struggled greatly to relate to.

In season three, we meet Yumi as a more mature woman, someone who's becoming more established in her career and is grateful to leave the ups and downs of emotional romances behind her. However, the love interest that the writers of the show positioned for Yumi is, not just another co-worker as with Yu Ba Bi, but a subordinate. He's someone she has power over, which is very important to remember. So, for the first six episodes, Yumi realizes she has a crush on Shin Soon Rok and continually puts him in situations where he has to be around her purely for her own desires to see if he catches on to her attraction to him. Unfortunately, he displays absolutely zero interest in Yumi. Even when he finally has his eyes opened in episode seven (too long to wait, especially for an eight-episode season!), none of it is believable. There were no subtle signs that he was struggling with his emotions, no small gestures, just a lot of younger male indifference. The danger with this is that it makes Yumi inadvertently appear as a predator, with the power to move him off her team if he doesn't behave warmly towards her (and she does!).

The love was entirely unbelievable, nor was I, as a viewer, rooting for it. I was not invested, and mostly turned off and saddened that this is what Yumi had been reduced to: a mature woman pining after a much younger man who is showing no interest in her and can't relate to her in the way a love interest should, regardless of age. And when he finally does come around, neither of them still can't communicate their affection clearly. They are literally from two different generations, and that's never more apparent than when they try share their feelings for each other. It's awkward, uncomfortable, and disappointing. They just don't behave in the way the other expects, and yet they still wind up together?

I'm so heartbrokenly disappointed with the direction the writers chose to take this season and how they chose to give Yumi her happily ever after. She, we, and her beloved cells, all deserved better.

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What's Wrong With Secretary Kim? The Answer Is Nothing, and That's the Problem.

I fear I'm in the minority in this, but I watched it with such high expectations and it took some time for me to put into words what bothered me about this show. I think it comes down to character arc and growth (or lack there of). We watch Kim Mi So start off the show with a desire to quit her job because she wants more out of life. Understandable, given her narcissist boss who has come to rely on her in the way a child relies on a parent.

However, and this is where I got so angry with the show, the characters never changed. No lessons were ever learned. In the end, she still keeps her job as his secretary (only this time he gets to sleep with her under the guise of a relationship, so bonus for him, I guess), he's still in his position of power over her as her employer, and neither character has learned anything. It felt like he got everything he wanted, and she was content to go along with it. I truly didn't understand the writing, and why the characters went through what they did only to end up in the same place. It's also incredibly frustrating to see a woman so business-minded who clearly has unmet professional desires just abandon it all. Park Min-Young was phenomenal, as always, and I know this is one of her iconic roles, but, as a viewer, I can't escape the resentment I feel for how her character was treated. The love was always going to be one-sided given the power/work imbalance, and that makes me sad as a deeply devoted lover of K drama romances. That's not true love. It's poor character development and a broken promise to the viewers.

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