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Dear Hyeri korean drama review
Completed
Dear Hyeri
0 people found this review helpful
by Rsk_tree
Oct 30, 2024
12 of 12 episodes seen
Completed
Overall 7.0
Story 4.5
Acting/Cast 8.0
Music 9.0
Rewatch Value 7.0
This review may contain spoilers

Should have called this drama 'Dear H.' and let audience guess. What a waste of 4 years!!!

In this show there is a scene where Eun Ho asks Hyun Oh what 8 years mean to someone. It's the time taken to have a child and send it to school or so she said. Then what does 4 years mean? What does 12 years mean?

If you follow through the entire drama you can easily see that the primary issue that was presented and resolved in the last 3 episodes could have been resolved in under 2 years had the ML attempted to be the adult he was supposed to be (I am estimating him to be around 32 at the time of break up). And after 4 years of repeat trauma and agony everything got resolved in just --one--freaking ---month? What? I would love the writer to clarify whether her DID was triggered by guilt and trauma due to missing sibling or the extreme loneliness she suffered through or the breakup itself (where supposedly she invested all her emotional dependence on an emotionally unavailable man). If it is break up then they didn't have to put all that trauma on her for 4 years. It's absurd and contradicts so much with her healing process shown in the drama. I am not a psychology expert but isn't DID our brain's response to extreme trauma that it has to split into different identities to cope with it? Could that trauma be just resolved in a month? What new realization did Eun Ho receive after staying in the cabin in the woods by one month? That being with the one you love is happiness? I would have her rather go to Himalayas and attain enlightenment at this point.

Among Chinese webnovels there is a character called 'MIL author' or 'stepmother author' specifically referring to authors who put their FLs through extreme angst while pampering their favorite, toxic but all good qualities attributable to , MLs. And I think the author of this show can be called one.
The comment section in MDL already has plenty of comments elaborating why Hyuon Oh isn't the right choice for Eun Ho's healing and I am not adding further to that. Yes we had the producers already pointing to that Eun Oh and Hyun Oh are endgame but the way they achieved that is extremely dissatisfactory. It was all about Hyun Oh to the point that even Eun Ho who is (supposedly) recovering from something severe as DID had to play therapist to him. This is why I emphasize that they should call this show 'Dear H' and let audience decide to fill it with Hye Ri or Hyun Oh.

Why did I spent 12 hours watching all the episodes? Because of the excellent cinematography and Shin Hye Sun's acting. She had to carry this show on her shoulders to make up for other poorly written randomly placed characters and act out two episodes of extreme mental breakdown to get to the end. I hope the PDs give her a fully sponsored relaxing vacation to recover. The sad part is some of the screenplay in later episodes was so poor that even her acting skills couldn't makeup for the void. We are already exposed to the both MLs' excellent acting skills in other shows but the poorly written characters with no room for development derailed any performance they could deliver in this show.

If you enjoy angst melodrama shows then you can choose to watch this show. The first 4 episodes are truly masterpieces of their own. Had this show released pre 2015 (or early 2000s) this would have been a hit drama but unfortunately we as audience has grown beyond that era of romanticizing emotional dependence as true love.
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