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Theatre of the absurd?
It's hard not to compare The Affair Was Just The Beginning to Mad Concrete Dreams - both came out in 2026, and both ultimately use a situation careening out of control as a major story element. Whereas MCD uses that situation for more sympathetic ends, treating it as actions done by a father trying to provide for his family and specifically his daughter, The Affair swings the complete other way. And by god is it for the show's benefit.No one in this show is a good person. Everyone is willing to backstab each other, to sell each other up the river in order to buy themselves just enough time to get out of the situation they are in. Yes, even the kids. But the adults in the room are nowhere near that - even if they ultimately *try* to protect their children from the act that they committed, they are still willing to ignore so much else to keep up the pretenses of their charmed life together. But where the drama really comes into it's own is the back half of the final episode, where everything is ultimately revealed and the audience, alongside the characters, learn that it was all for naught. That three people are dead for no other reason then the mess that was made wasn't even theirs to clean up.
Considering the pure absurdity on display, you ultimately need to have a core of actors that are willing to get up for the task. Kim Hye-soo lives up to it all and is able to effectively sell being a composed career women one minute, and a vindicative bitch the other. Kim Ji Hoon definitely come to play, as does Kim Jae Chul and Cho Yeo Jung. But in my mind, the true standouts is the two child actors, Do Yeong So and Jeon Si Hyun. I generally have a dim view of Korean writers being able to weave a queer storyline in a way that is ultimately effective for story purposes and not just for shock value (to be frank I think the same for Western writers) and especially considering the age of the two girls, it could have easily gone down a terrible road. But it's done in a way that feels honest and true - and it does eventually play into the wider story as yet another element of a rabbit hole of disjointed information coming into view. It certainly is a joy to see the parents incredulous that their daughters could be in love, and dating on the side.
What really buoys this drama though, is the cinematography and the craft of it all. Korean dramas, even now compared to say, the 'golden' era of the late 2000's and early 2010's Hallyu Wave, can definitely be hit a lot with the stick of being incredibly bland on that front. Considering the inner workings of Korean dramas still being filmed more or less in the moment, it is to The Affair's benefit that there is a deliberate, Swiss watch precision in terms of shot composition. A review below pins it as a Coen brothers sort of aesthetic, and that is without question the best descriptor for The Affair - and also a great compliment to the director and writers that they are able to weave such a deliberate thematic and compositional style without it feeling like a cheap imitation.
More then anything though, what I appreciate most about this story is the length. It's eight episodes of very little fat - every moment is dedicated to the story, either in the moment or wider scope. There's very little navel-gazing, and it's almost certain that any writer or director could have very easily taken one wrong step and done the drama equivalent of rolling their ankle. Certainly have watched a fair few dramas where the writers figure they are smarter then the audience and string things out to the point of popping the balloon and leaving audiences running for the door. The Affair doesn't do that, and it's a wonderful feeling to watch a show have faith in its ability to bring the audiences along for the way, and stick the landing too.
I haven't been watching Korean dramas again for long - really since the beginning of this year - but it is clear that this ranks as one of the finest I'll watch this year. And it's easily going top three, it's that good. Do yourself a favor and watch this. You'll be glad you did.
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Fundamentals are key
In a lot of ways, a story doesn't need to try and subvert a person's expectations on what is to be expected. Like a boxer with a good straight/jab, sometimes it's just as good to have the basics nailed down and done well to keep you interested and satisfied. And within Filing for Love, those fundamentals are well set in stone, and well executed on.What might look like your standard Korean drama romantic comedy is more or less that. But where FFL excels is its ability to make the viewer care for the wider story, and feel satisfied in how it ultimately ends. In something like a romantic comedy that is most importantly portrayed by the two leads and how the writers make them come together, and there is no denying that the two leads in FFL do well. Shin Hae-su is by far the stand out here, but Gong Myoung as well has a great comedic ability that is buoyed by the first half of the series having a great pace in terms of scenarios of office politics and rule breakers. Team Three in general is well fleshed out in terms of their personalities and what they contribute to the team, and by the end, you care for them as much as you do the two leads.
Unfortunately, the secondary relationship between Hong Hwa Yeon and Kim Jae Uck does not pass the mustard as much as the leads do - mainly because both of them are nowhere near as compelling in terms of characters, or provide a reason to care other then their prior relationships with the main leads.
Even if this is a 'low' rating, this is about as glowing of a 7.5 as you can get. Will I watch this again and again? No, probably not. But I'm glad I did, because it goes to show that doing things well in service of a specific sub-genre is worth its weight in gold, especially in a world where writers and directors are trying desperately to subvert audience expectations in order to satisfy an ever-increasingly jaded watching public.
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Why did I bother?
To be quite honest, I probably should have looked at the reviews and dropped this around like episode 4. What starts off as a pretty interesting idea for a thriller quickly peters out - and the worst part of it all is that the only reason why I stuck around is that admittedly, the leads (Min Namkoong specifically) put in 10 to 15 dollar acting performances that the overall story simply cannot keep up to. Even then, it feels like Namkoong specifically is trying to cover as much ground as possible - specifically that in the early going, he is portrayed as a husband that is more focused on work then trying even a little to patch up a quickly crumbling marriage.I will admit that there are some story beats I like - the idea that the main bad guy's wife is indeed in on the plot, and the overall ending being presented as a happy ending of sorts - and certainly, the first four episodes do a great job of doing the things a thriller needs to do to keep audiences interested, but once the wheels fall out, hooo boy do things start getting frustrating.
Apropos of nothing, but can we just appreciate the lead detective's mane of hair? That's the clearest example of hockey hair I've seen in a long while, and from a Korean drama no less.
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