Erika Song
Pilipinas
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!
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!
Was this review helpful to you?
