I agree so much with you! You really described the feelings of watching the passion sort of die out in this drama…
Exactly exactly exactly this!! The chemistry is just off the charts in OA, truly making it seem real and alive. I agree with everything you elaborated on so hard that I feel a kinship…LOL
Ok after watching up to ep 46 (and then just abruptly dropping it...) I kinda understand the rating. like 75-79%, a B/B+
This drama has SO MANY elements I love, and I desperately want to see in more dramas, esp family dramas. No toxic/scheming/fully evil characters (except for a narcissistic aunt who is only here for a few eps). No super unreasonable characters (logic tends to prevail), family relations who actually care about each other, plots that get dealt with properly instead of being dragged out. I think the older two brothers did phenomenal in acting their roles, I had true full-out belly laughter in many scenes.
The romance was really good (at first), I was obsessed with the middle couple and adored the younger couple. The eldest imo started off horribly but once they got together, I enjoyed it quite a bit too. I think all three couples spent time being my fav at some point.
I think though...it all started falling apart the more we got into the show. Mind you I still watched 46 episodes (albeit with lots of skipping..) so there's a lot to keep you there and I personally reallllly LOVE slice of life style content where you're just seeing a family exist and love and live. This drama though imo stagnated. Like...there were plots that cropped up and were dealt with but I didnt careeee. It felt like all the things that made the interactions between the characters so dynamic...were stripped away with time.
The couples also lost what made them so good to begin with. I loved seeing Hyun Jae so aloof in the beginning, so unbothered and calm. Even when he started dating, he was kind of careless and absent. I LOVED seeing that change, I loved seeing him fall into her and lose his mind without her. I HATED how the writers seemed to let all this go - I felt no stakes when this couple was together, it felt like Mi Rae had lost all her personality and substance. They always had a good time hanging out together but their declaration of love and marriage just didn't feel real to me.
The eldest couple - to me they had some really interesting threads their plot could've followed, but it got overshadowed by 1) (spoiler) and 2) this weird in-laws competitive spirit Hae Jun developed and where this became the #1 priority. The youngest couple again was soooo cute to start with and with some great tropes - but that INSANE length of separation made me lose total interest in their pairing, esp with that other cutie always around Yu Na. Really wish this plot went in a diff way.
I think ultimately to me it felt like this show had ALL the pieces and even a really good blueprint, but then somehow that excitement of theory didn't translate to the reality of what was made. It was lacking something really really fundamental. Idk like still a lot of things to really like about it, but definitely not nearly as good as it should have been.
Right after this I started rewatching Once Again (again) and THAT to me is an example of incredible execution and perfect chemistry - not just romance but all other relationships too. I also felt more brotherhood there than here, felt all the characters were three dimensional, the things that happened substantially contributed to the development of relationships, and by the end of it, I desperately wanted to keep watching. It felt like a more consistent show and made me realize that this wasn't, entirely and to the end
Well now I'm past ep. 30 I am understanding the rating somewhat. It makes little sense about Mi Rae breaking up…
im on ep38 where she breaks up with him and ...I kinda get it ... she feels she had to make a choice between her mom and her love, and she chose her mom. it sucks but I really can't condemn it (though I might still get annoyed depending on how things go, lets see LOL I been skipping around more..)
Overall this drama is ok. The story/plot are good and interesting. The way they write Nadech/ML character also…
same I hated those moments bc in those moments it made me feel like she was a 21 year old girl uncomfortable by the advances of her 30 year old boss/superior/employer and it made me feel real icky BUT THEN in the moments she would be cute and open and flirt back, it was fine....nadech really got me good in this
started this and its rlly frickin cute without a lot of the AWFUL lakorn specific abusive shit u see and im loving…
ep 9 ML is teaching FL how to be a housewife without her knowledge or consent and its rlly pissing me off like why should she have to be taught that...ESP without knowledge/consent but id be pissed at the screenwriters even if she did consent bc its just so sexist LOL like this girl got accepted to Princeton she should be getting her degree and prioritizing her career but we just love to throw women into homemaking and childrearing as their true calling instead, and it'll be framed as romantic....I just rlly hate it when men act so entitled and heavy-handed. that being said...I was thinking "how are u gonna go from barely knowing her to proposing to her" but I rlly like what the ML said - "it's not a big deal [lookin sad as hell still] I trust what my eyes see and my heart feels, but there are some things I have to know first"
started this and its rlly frickin cute without a lot of the AWFUL lakorn specific abusive shit u see and im loving it so far and I have so many newfound feelings for Nadech but god I gotta say this one thing is rubbing me so the wrong way (and its legit so minor compared to most of the stuff u see in lakorns)
I don’t blame the reviewers but the writers for creating female characters like that. Also, liking or not liking…
What ur saying is fair (people are entitled to their own opinions and liking a character is subjective) but there IS a pattern of holding female protagonists to impossibly high standards especially compared to male counterparts, and it is rooted in the inherent and fundamental misogyny that is part of life.
People shit on FLs more vehemently, more easily, more consistently and that is in part because female protagonists are often worse written (which is also rooted in sexism), but it is also because of how we as a society treat women and how much we expect from them - it’s not only in dramas that our collective response is much harsher on female protagonists, female celebrities get bashed much worse for doing much less, as well as again all women in general LOL
TLDR; female protagonists are often written badly/ worse than male counterpart, but reviewers/ society ALSO judges and criticizes women and female characters more harshly even if the script is well written (which is different from if you personally like it)
This drama has SO MANY elements I love, and I desperately want to see in more dramas, esp family dramas. No toxic/scheming/fully evil characters (except for a narcissistic aunt who is only here for a few eps). No super unreasonable characters (logic tends to prevail), family relations who actually care about each other, plots that get dealt with properly instead of being dragged out. I think the older two brothers did phenomenal in acting their roles, I had true full-out belly laughter in many scenes.
The romance was really good (at first), I was obsessed with the middle couple and adored the younger couple. The eldest imo started off horribly but once they got together, I enjoyed it quite a bit too. I think all three couples spent time being my fav at some point.
I think though...it all started falling apart the more we got into the show. Mind you I still watched 46 episodes (albeit with lots of skipping..) so there's a lot to keep you there and I personally reallllly LOVE slice of life style content where you're just seeing a family exist and love and live. This drama though imo stagnated. Like...there were plots that cropped up and were dealt with but I didnt careeee. It felt like all the things that made the interactions between the characters so dynamic...were stripped away with time.
The couples also lost what made them so good to begin with. I loved seeing Hyun Jae so aloof in the beginning, so unbothered and calm. Even when he started dating, he was kind of careless and absent. I LOVED seeing that change, I loved seeing him fall into her and lose his mind without her. I HATED how the writers seemed to let all this go - I felt no stakes when this couple was together, it felt like Mi Rae had lost all her personality and substance. They always had a good time hanging out together but their declaration of love and marriage just didn't feel real to me.
The eldest couple - to me they had some really interesting threads their plot could've followed, but it got overshadowed by 1) (spoiler) and 2) this weird in-laws competitive spirit Hae Jun developed and where this became the #1 priority. The youngest couple again was soooo cute to start with and with some great tropes - but that INSANE length of separation made me lose total interest in their pairing, esp with that other cutie always around Yu Na. Really wish this plot went in a diff way.
I think ultimately to me it felt like this show had ALL the pieces and even a really good blueprint, but then somehow that excitement of theory didn't translate to the reality of what was made. It was lacking something really really fundamental. Idk like still a lot of things to really like about it, but definitely not nearly as good as it should have been.
Right after this I started rewatching Once Again (again) and THAT to me is an example of incredible execution and perfect chemistry - not just romance but all other relationships too. I also felt more brotherhood there than here, felt all the characters were three dimensional, the things that happened substantially contributed to the development of relationships, and by the end of it, I desperately wanted to keep watching. It felt like a more consistent show and made me realize that this wasn't, entirely and to the end
People shit on FLs more vehemently, more easily, more consistently and that is in part because female protagonists are often worse written (which is also rooted in sexism), but it is also because of how we as a society treat women and how much we expect from them - it’s not only in dramas that our collective response is much harsher on female protagonists, female celebrities get bashed much worse for doing much less, as well as again all women in general LOL
TLDR; female protagonists are often written badly/ worse than male counterpart, but reviewers/ society ALSO judges and criticizes women and female characters more harshly even if the script is well written (which is different from if you personally like it)