LA_Drama Fan

brief Ep 33 notes:

-I really like MiSun & GwangSook scenes. They way they communicate with each other, and ability to understand each other.
- FL looked GREAT in that dress. Very classy. And sorry, but I love how the Chairman teases her. And good for him, pulling out her chair for her. Why is she so surprised? He already opens the car door for her. I'm surprised she hasn't called him a 'bulldozer' yet....it's phrase I've heard used a lot in other k-dramas.
- YAY, it's the return of Director Seo, live from the Philippines! Poor guy is miserable and homesick, LOL.
-And finally, HeungSo has no clue how to talk to a woman. Fix up OkBun with the Vet! Baek Sung Hyun deserves it!!!!

I have to agree re: the table. At first I thought it was odd, but then I realized it was a smart choice for him. Anything intimate/cozy/romantic would have been a huge red flag for her and she would have been even more nervous at the least and more likely have bolted for the door. She already took a big leap wearing that dress, so good for the Chairman - a wise and understanding choice.

As far as his complexion goes....hey, He's Spray-Tan Chairman Han!

That is really about how you can tell: look for the changes in the weather. They are obviously in spring now, and the series opened in the late fall. They have done 'time-slips' not skips, per se, but trying to put a timeline to this series doesn't work. For instance, there was a time slip implied during the scenes where she was working on the recipe for the new beverage - although they never explicitly said how long it took her to make it.

@mjcsfla1, don't bother waiting to watch TRHC. Unless you just watch the first 31 episodes and then just quit and live with an unresolved ending. It was really great up til the 32nd ep, then it completely changed direction and sucked. I said in my review there that it was like 2 completely different series grafted onto each other. The story was that there were major changes in the production around that time, but no reasons given. The reviews on the forum give a good summation of how badly things went

Lunkera, it wasn't bad. And I liked the 36 ep approach since none of the prior weekenders were able to manage 50 episodes. It was an off-beat story, and I appreciated it wasn't trying to be the typical 'rom-com'. And it did take some gambles in casting both elders as 'villians' (if you will). It was also a legitimate story of the corrosive influence of money on ordinary working-class people. The characters were maddening at times, but the acting was terrific and Kim JungHyun was really great as the FL. If you treat the 'romance' aspect as a bonus at the end, it makes it more fun to watch.

He needs a reality-check, that's for sure.

I went back and re-watched Ep 32 (why not? We've got a week to kill until Ep33, LOL). What makes the last scene so great? We got to see Um JiWon 's evolving reaction to the news of the 'car accident':
- Confusion (seeing Mr. Kim race off out of the parkway)
- Shock (hearing the culinary staff talk of the accident)
- Fear (hearing the staffers at the elevator mention it possibly being serious)
- Panic (being physically and mentally unable to start her truck to go to the hospital)
- Dread (mistakenly identifying the head-wound patient for the Chairman)
- Relief (seeing him stand behind her, apparently healthy).

What a masterclass in acting, direction, production and writing. The shooting angles, lighting, sparse dialog, all combined to make this the most memorable scene in the series for me.

It's funny for me, because I originally hoped my fave actress, Shin DongMi would have been cast as the FL (they're essentially the same age). But as much as I love DongMi, JiWon is killing it in her role as CEO Ma. I don't think any actress could do a better job than UJW as Ma GwangSook.

It saddens me that I need to mark this as a spoiler, because I hope anyone wanting to see great television should watch the end of Ep 32.

Right, I forgot about that. Good point!

I noted that in my review of it. Of all those series, it came really close to be great. (TRHC was a train-wreck, B&MR just couldn't get out of it's own way...it felt like we watched the first draft of the script that needed a lot of re-working)It just needed a few tweaks to the script (getting rid of the multiple DNA tests, of course, as well) and I almost wish it could be redone with fixes. The lead couple had zero chemistry, so maybe with different actors?

The weekender scene really went downhill fast after that one fell apart: 3 Bold Siblings, The Real Has Come, Beauty & Mr. Romantic all missed the mark. I give Iron Family a pass as it was such a different drama and at least it held together across all 36 eps.

He had such great chemistry with DongMi, I wish some casting director would pair them up again!

Great comments below regarding this weekend's (especially Sunday's) episode(s). My only 2 thoughts:

1. For once, SeRi's parents actually had the right idea (but for the wrong reason) in sending her abroad for a while. I think it would have been good for her to get away, even for a few months, just to clear her head and give the prof some space. Instead, she's sitting on a bus bench without any plan in place, it seems.

2. This show does, at times, give us scenes that are truly PERFECT. And a great script doesn't necessarily tell us everything but let's the audience see it for themselves. The last scene in Ep 32 is another one of those perfect ones where everything came together: script, acting, and camera work. From the point where she drives up to the Hotel's entrance, to the final hug at the end, this could not have been done any better. Even though we've seen scenes like this dozens of times in k-dramas (an almost identical one was in 3 Bold Siblings) and even though we know the Chairman will be fine, the tension created made it all work. Her frantic, trembling, fumbling attempts to start her truck, the background music, and the terrific acting by Uhm JiWon had me all-in. She's so out of it that by the time she gets to the ER, she actually interrupts a doctor tending to a patient instead of asking at the front desk, conspicuously shown behind her. We knew she was flashing back to her husband's car crash and thinking "not again....not again" as she drove to the hospital. But to the screenwriter's credit, they let us think that instead of pointing it out. I love that they respect the audience's intelligence enough to let us figure it out ourselves.

When I think of some of the absolute turkey's we've gotten as KBS weekenders since "It's Beautiful Now" fell apart in it's last 1/3 of its run, it seems so refreshing to see a series that, so far, has held true to form and simply entertains us. Fingers crossed, they can maintain it for the final 18 episodes!

Wow.
How does each episode keep getting better? They are REALLY on a roll....amazing.

And the Vet! I nearly fell over when it was Baek Sung Hyun! I kept blinking my eyes thinking I was hallucinating!

I need to read the comments below, but it's too late tonight....LOL.

Episode 31 can be summed up in two words:
WELL DONE.

From OkBun's long-deserved makeover, to MiSun's memorial for her Dad, to the Chairman's apology to the final scene with his visit to the family, this may have been the best episode in the series. Kudos to the writers, production staff and actors. This series charms like nothing I've seen since It's Beautiful Now.

My two cents on 3 issues:

Time skip:
It’s too late for that. The time skip should have happened right after the husbands death…say 6 months, which would have given the FL time to deal with her grief and accept his death. BUT, that isn’t what they wanted, and instead we get a FL who has used her work to distract her from dealing with his death. Thus she has issues, thus, she declines the Chairman’s feelings, and here we are. This is what they wanted, for whatever reason. Our leads still have 20 eps to go to figure this out, and that is the point of the series.

The ML lead attitude towards FL after her denial:
The only part of this that doesn’t work for me was his attitude in getting her to rush her reply. This would have made sense if he were single all his life, given his lack of interaction with women. But a widower, who has experienced the kind of sadness that she is currently going thru would NEVER have acted that way. This is the biggest screw-up in the series writing for me, so far. That being said, I find his reaction to her putting him firmly “in the friend-zone” to be perfectly normal. His feelings are hurt, of course, but there is a bigger thing at play: it’s very difficult for men to understand how to behave once you’ve been told your affections are not appreciated. In the friend-zone, he has to constantly watch what he says and how he acts to make sure that he’s not being misunderstood (so she doesn’t think he hasn’t gotten the point). He always has to watch himself to make sure everything stays platonic. Folks, it doesn’t work that way. I speak from experience. Women may think it’s easy to ‘let’s just be friends’ but to a man whom has already expressed his feelings, that’s a concept that is difficult to understand and even more difficult to implement. Men just aren’t wired that way. Is he over-doing it? Yeah, a little, but it’s a drama and that how these things work out…it has to be somewhat exaggerated so we all get the point. All that being said I think the ending of Ep 30, with her resentment of his overreaction and his disbelief at her anger, was perfectly written and acted. This is exactly how this scenario plays out in real life.

BeomSu’s video with HaNi (ep30):
I went back and watched this and it makes no sense to me…the youngest brother clearly tells BS to say something to HaNi yet he says ‘I love you’ to the camera (and SeRi) instead of looking at his baby daughter. Obviously this has to be done to 1) break SeRi’s heart and 2) give her parents ammo to use against him. I think they could have left this part out …when watching it live, his ‘I love you’ to the camera was jarring and out of place.

Oh well, time to buckle up for Ep 31 tonight!

Agreed! I'm currently watching "Are You Human Too?" a KBS 2 drama from 2018. I can't believe the budgets these older series had vs. now! Location shoots out of the country, great visuals, multiple sets, special effects, etc. The production values between then (only 7 years ago) and now are shocking. That show looks more like a Netflix series comapred to what KBS is airing these days.

That scene where Dongo accosted him at the brewery was odd....why did he just stand there silently? All he had to do is say 'this was not my doing'. But instead of saying 'talk to your daughter'....he's silent to try to protect her from her Father's wrath?????

SeRi, for all her charm, is a DIRECT THREAT to his career. Why can't she understand this ? And why can't he tell her that straight out? Now, it seems to be too late. Sigh....

Part of me wants to go back to all her scenes and see how much time she spends in bed. It's getting out of hand with her.

Agreed, but there were some interesting points in their discussions in Ep 30:
(sorry, these aren't exact quotes, but you get the point).

-He said "I don't have women friends". And we can see that's true. He deliberately limited his interactions with women
- He said "I already see you from a romantic viewpoint. How can I limit these feelings to just friends" I definitely can see this, he's gone beyond the point of no-return with her and any further 'platonic' relationship would be very difficult...I can personally attest to that. For him, getting put into the friend-zone would be impossible to accept. Plus, he would be constantly second-guessing himself to ensure anything he said wouldn't be taken as a come-on to her. So he goes overboard and limits their interactions to strictly business. Such is life in Dramaland.
-He said he's never been rejected before...that whole point was just there too make him seem entitled/snooty. I wish they'd left that out, it didn't matter as he had to build up the courage to confess and she said NO. Didn't matter whether he'd never been rejected before, he still needs to lick his wounds and back off.

She's made it clear up until his confession, that she's got him in the friend-zone, and yes, HE should have been more sensitive to HER struggling with widowhood, given his own circumstances. The fact that he couldn't relate to that is the only disappointing thing for me from the writers in the series. He approached this whole thing as a business negotiation; it would have been interesting to see if he was this way with his first wife, or if he's so rusty in dealing with his emotions & women that he didn't know how to deal with the situation.

Anyways, we're way to early into the show for their relationship to begin taking off, so they had to create some angst. Plus we know that once they are established as a couple Dongo Tak will cause trouble and then possibly his MIL in the last 5~7 eps.

And FWIW, she told us earlier that she took over the brewery as a means to keep herself busy to avoid dealing with her grief. She's overwhelmed now with all the brewery struggles and hasn't even begun dealing with her sorrow for her late husband. She needs to sort those feelings out before she turns into what he was, with 10 years of emotional isolation shutting himself off from others.

I also LOL'd when she stuck her tongue out at him. I saw "My Love from the Stars" last week, and she really IS pretty, I wish they'd get over the frumpy look for her and do the make-over that is long due for that character.

I was disappointed that SeRi went back home that night after meeting with GangSu....I was hoping he would drop her off at Bom's house that night to avoid her awful parents.