L13

That's every jdrama ever. "Our society is stifling and hidebound and it oppresses women, who are all beautiful flowers that just need to love themselves and stop caring about other people's expectations to bloom. That's why you, the single 30-something female viewer, need a hot younger boyfriend who won't ask you to quit job when you get married." There's always a dream career opportunity in the last episode too that the woman chooses to take with her man's support even if it will mean a long-distance relationship.

Jdramas all have the same message about putting yourself first and learning to live the kind of life that makes you happy even if other people don't approve. It actually leads to pretty clichéd and hamfisted storytelling sometimes.

Do we know if this is getting a fansub?

I don't think she was even conscious of the fact she was doing the same thing to WJ that had been done to her? That was part of the irony of the situation, and contributed to her obvious pattern of hypocrisy in this week's episodes? Plus we have no reason to assume she immediately dissociates any time the topic of dating a married man, which she has had to think about for 15 years, comes up? Her trauma seems to be centred on being publicly humiliated and not on the specific backstory. Also in general if everyone always reacted to situations in real life according to a psychiatry textbook, there would be no unique personalities in the world.

Sorry, I just don't think this is a particularly valid point.

It's not like she literally disowned her children or anything, she was overdramatic for one evening and was fine from then on out. My parents would be far more unbearable if they learned our family home was gone and I hadn't told them for months. I think you're being unreasonable here, not the mother.

You could have looked up more photos of him before asking the question.

Expected what, a separation or the threat of separation at the beginning of the last episode? Yeah, that’s every romantic kdrama ever. You people sound like goldfish watching their first human show when you convince yourselves Call It Love will have a sad ending despite all signs pointing to the contrary.

The setting is late 2021-early 2022, not 2019

It's not noble idiocy when the obstacles are real, though. To me noble idiocy refers to one party deciding to leave the other unilaterally because they think it's for the best even though from the viewer's perspective they could just commit to their love and talk it out together.

But WJ has always known her mother would disapprove of WJ being with the child of her cheating husband's new wife, and I'm sure when DJ learns who WJ is he'll see her point. This isn't something that can be resolved by the two of them just being more determined, at least not without them cutting off their families, which WJ would never do. For their relationship to flourish, the people around them will also have to become more open-minded and/or face the consequences of their actions.

Because they have distinct personalities?

I feel like the fact they cast Nagayama Eita as the husband means he'll be the endgame, which is annoying because I don't like his character at all in the manga. When I first heard about this drama I thought he was supposed to play Makoto and was so hyped, but alas.

He's officially blacklisted for getting high and minding his business while scores of rapists, harassers and abusers continue to get lead roles and no one cares? South Korea is such a funny country.

I'm guessing Officer Bong will accept the fire inspector job with NFS, maybe. Perhaps the fire he was in at the end of S1 will leave him physically unable to keep working as a firefighter?

I'm guessing it will be because of WJ's brother; if she was mad at DJ about Minyoung, she'd tell him he's pathetic in her usual calm and brutal manner instead of starting a fight and demanding answers. Since WJ and DJ are still pretending they don't like each other, I don't think WJ would feel entitled to be openly upset and jealous over something like that. But the fact DJ has been harboring her brother in secret is a different matter; she's very protective of her family and sees it as something that falls within her authority, so I can see her getting really mad at DJ over it.

There have been some mawkish/reactionary notes throughout the drama, but the stillbirth case in ep. 9 really takes the cake. A suicidal minor who gives birth to a stillborn baby in secret and throws away the corpse because she has no idea what to do with it should not be subject to criminal prosecution—abandonment? of what? there was never even a child! SHE's a child!—and treating what she did like some huge error of judgement/dereliction of personal responsibility that needs to be litigated in court instead of offering her counselling and sending her on her way is absurd. Also why is there a whole police investigation into the father's identity when she doesn't want to share it? She didn't even know she was pregnant until it was too late, so how is the biological father implicated in her "crime"? And we're supposed to sympathise with Seol, who's incapable of behaving professionally, because she was abandoned as a baby? I don't care! She's living a comfortable life now, unlike the teen who gave birth on her own, without medical care, to a dead foetus and then tried to kill herself!

I'm sure the father will turn out to be a trusted adult or the dead kid or her brother or something and the drama will do a 180 and say, see, actually she's the victim here! now cry!, but I already know she's the victim. I do NOT give a shit if high schoolers get pregnant and abandon their babies, dead or alive, frankly. I don't think high schoolers should be forced to give birth or to be unwilling parents under any circumstances! I'm always on their side! I support abortion! So this whole episode feels extremely vindictive and nonsensical to me.

Kdramas' obsession with forcing unwilling women to be mothers is really gross, frankly, and I wish Korean conservatives would wake up to the fact their treatment of women as broodmares, which is reflected in how Korean TV portrays the subject, is part of the reason their precious birth rate is so low.

Also, seriously, Seol is such a useless paramedic. When Detective Jin was dying, she totally lost her composure and started screaming at his unconscious body in the ambulance to wake up instead of doing her job, a development the writer put in so we'd see how much she cares about him—but then his heart miraculously restarted and she got an award for saving his life through the power of love or something. Then she stopped a teen from committing suicide, became overinvested in the case and followed her around everywhere because the teen reminded her of another person she'd failed to save previously. Okay. But then it turned out the teen had been—gasp!—pregnant and given birth to a stillborn baby, so now Seol is a bitch to her because she hates parents who abandon their children and somehow stillbirth = abandonment by the stupid woman-hating logic of the drama. Like, seriously, lady, learn to do your job because it's your job and not because of your personal relationship to/attitude toward the victim, Jesus fucking Christ!

Thank you very much! Will check them out.

lol I have to say I'm a sucker for it. What other firefighter romances are you aware of? I'm always on the lookout for ones I haven't seen.

Not unless you could Dongjin's clingy ex bothering him, but he doesn't seem to be swayed by her.

I feel like I've made the same comment before, but I was rewatching some scenes from Chocolate out of boredom recently, so I'll say it again: this drama actually has a great romantic melo setup—the ML's best friend fell in love with the FL and she started dating him before she found out his best friend, the ML, was her old crush whom she never got over, so she eventually broke up with her boyfriend with the explanation she was in love with someone else, and the ML, who didn't recognise her from his past, hated her for breaking his friend's heart without realising he was the man she was in love with and the reason for their breakup—but it's executed really badly. There's some spark and dynamism in the first few episodes, but that peters out quickly when the two leads find themselves working at the palliative care facility after the ML's friend dies. Instead of evolving, the tension between them settles into a very unpleasant dynamic where the ML is basically just an asshole to the FL and she never stands up for herself. I know we're supposed to infer he develops feelings for her over time because she's just that pathetic (and boy, did I NOT miss the pathetic FL trope), but he has quite the cold and inexpressive personality, so his feelings for her never come across clearly, he doesn't really apologise or reach out to her in any way until very late into the drama, and she herself doesn't fight for her love OR protest his mean treatment ever. There's zero romantic investment between them, let alone passion or tension.

This isn't helped by the fact the drama doesn't really focus on the romance for some reason. Like, I would have understood if there was something more important going on, but there's no plot to speak of. They're just vibing at the hospice and nothing ever happens. So why not give us more romantic development at least?

Again, the premise of their relationship is actually deliciously juicy IMO. I would have loved to watch a drama that did the same thing better.

There is zero chance they will go that route, stop spreading false information lol

Not at all? I have no idea where people are getting this from when there haven’t been any hints of romance between them. It’s obvious he’s being set up with her sister and has very little interest in WJ’s obvious feelings for DJ.