This Drama surprised me. It was a blast from the past, nothing but trope after trope, with clichés thrown in to break up the tropes. BUT, it worked - mostly.

WHAT I LIKED

1. Self-awareness. THe show KNEW it was a tropefest and embraced it, inviting the audience to laugh at its rehashing ALL the tropes. Couple shirts?! It worked because the show knew it was silly and was inviting laughter.

2. Kim Young Ok. This amazing actor just makes EVERYTHING she's in better, and the writer here was smart enough to give her lines that fit her dual persona as hallowed halmeoni and spunky gran perfectly. She was a HUGE part of the reason I stuck it out, as was

3. Ahn Se Ha. The one role that wasn't a trope - no BoF, Heirs type Drama that I've seen had such an irreverent Sancho Panza character, and Ahn's delivery was perfect. Very refreshing, especially in the first half.

4. OTP chemistry. I'm not so much out of the loop on who's dating whom in K Ent as out of the entire galaxy the loop is in, but if these two are a real couple, it would explain a lot. A by-the-numbers romcom like this literally lives or dies by the OTP chemistry, and these two sold it really well, INCLUDING

5. The first kiss scene - HUGE bonus points for this scene, one of VERY few in K Dramas where The kisser ASKED FOR PERMISSION. That is both romantic and sexy and swayed me heavily in favour of not dropping

WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE

1. The clichéd mushiness of the evil half-sister at the very end. Keep those cojones, sistah!

2. The show was too long

3. The show was way too long.

4. The show was ridiculously way too long

5. The show was irritatingly ridiculously way too long

6. The show was unbelievably irritatingly ridiculously way too long


In the end, I gave it 7.5 because of everything it did right. It would have got 8.5-9 if it had been 12 60 minute episodes instead of 16 70 minute episodes