Sinasina

I would be okay with him remaining a sad single dad & that's it. I don't think meaningful redemption is possible without 30 episodes of steady character development, maybe with some long timeskips added in.

What bad thing do you think HY has done that makes her comparable to the 3 other leads?

Second ML is awful, the plot in general is quite awful, ML's family is 2005 kdrama style cartoon villain-ish.

And the mom division's depiction is straight up disrespectful to educated & smart housewives dreaming about returning to the job market.

I have not been talking about her character or moral choices, just the fact that according to the script she shouldn't be stupid & is a university graduate, with scholarships at that.

I do agree that this is not a very good drama. Though Darim's controversial character is just a small part of that in my mind.

There could be contradictions in the writing, but at the very least there are the job interview flashbacks where the interviewers joke about the shitty uni she went to.

>that's why she never finished Uni

She finished Uni, she's been struggling with the civil service exam that guarantees employment if successfully taken, which is absurdly difficult & most people cannot do it. Failing it repeatedly is normal, like only the best of the best of the best can do it.

If you rationally analyze her basic setting as shown in the early episodes, then she should be on the smarter side of average, punished by society for her poor / fatherless family background.

In my experience by and large non romance South Korean shows tend to suck, especially compared to 2000,2010 era American television. The only reason Korean thrillers etc are still gaining traction is because Hollywood is in a big decline. What I'm trying to say is that that is not a very high bar to aim for, especially if we ignore production values & focus on real substance.

So what is the Sci-fi tag about?

My ex's Korean ex handled their breakup exactly like this, so it's certainly a real cultural thing. Though it hardly applies to what's going on in this drama with FL's "friend", that is not real life.

Though I know from experience that this trying to read between lines thing can be insane from a non-Asian perspective. (Chinese people do this too at the very least)

I'm only on e4, but imo if the dad is not evil, then he received a major character rewrite, just "great"!

> Kdrama writers, you're better than this!

I wouldn't expect much from the writers of a show where the ML has a 2005 era evil chaebol dad & where FL's fake husband / love triangle cockroach is her chidhood friend.

Having a bad couple of months with multiple hospital visits is the least of the script's problems.

These shows don't require any experience with this genre. The danger here is that the writers often mess up the final episodes & with this drama we don't yet know if it will be good or bad.

I envy you, I'd love to delete Goblin, While You Were Sleeping, Another Oh Hae Yong, Hogu's Love & It's Okay That's Love from my brain to experience them once again & you can.

Why wouldn't they be? The studio etc know that MDL ratings matter to foreign viewership, so they'll take steps to make sure it's not bad.

But yes considering how many reviews talk about the "amazing chemistry" It seems clear what's going on, even if a small percentile of those are serious.

Just look at the top 2 reviews shown right now, both are 1st time MDL reviewers xD.

I'd guess Son+Won is one.

Oh right, I did not know about Love Reset.

FLs from Love Next Door & Alchemy of Souls are not the same character I think, however it is the same character with This Is My First Life, but she is half assing it now compared to back then.

I have not dropped it yet & I've gotten further, but I agree with this. Hogu is one of my all time favorites & Beloved Summer is also great, but he seems miscast / wasted in this role.

I think it's alright for a drama to have many statistically improbable but still possible events or characters. At the very least the drama should respect its own established rules, the writers shouldn't just randomly retcon things in as they go. They should show a basic level of respect toward the audience & not pretend they forgot their own plot and world-building from earlier episodes. Also sudden character rewrites are almost never okay & unfortunately these are very common in live filmed kdramas.

With that said, these things don't apply very strongly to this show. (at least where I'm currently at) It has other problems..

Really? I loved him in Hogu & Beloved Summer.

He absolutely is, but this role does not great for him specifically. (I only watched a few episodes thus far)