One Inch Barrier

The Hardest Person to Forgive is Yourself

This is my first morning daily drama I committed myself to when it started airing back in April. Were all 120 episodes, 60 hours, worth it? Kind of.

I enjoyed the main characters, their chemistry, and their conflict with each other. It's not easy to sit through their struggles, hardships, and bad things just happening to them, but they overcome them with the support of their friends, family, and loved ones. Eventually they learn to embrace what has happened and make the most out of it. Amor Fati. "Love of one's fate." This phrase would apply to every character in the show.

The subplots also talk about a few things that aren't portrayed very often in K-dramas, particularly child depression, homosexuality, and family abuse. They aren't easy topics to discuss, but are handled with care in the show.

My only particular issue with the show is how quickly things wrapped up near the end. Although we are given at least a week's worth of episodes for the epilogue to show how the characters are doing later, there was no build up to them. The four main characters receive a nice conclusion, but the side character stories all wrap up in the final episode, leaving me unsatisfied as they felt rushed. The side characters were just as important as the main ones as they helped carry the show to have enough content for 120 episodes.

Oh well. Amor Fati.

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Some of the Best Feels I've Had In a Long Time

This is a story about a father and a daughter whose bond grows stronger from the trials and tribulations of life, whether it be school bullying, financial problems, or unwanted blind dates.

The father is a patient and gentle man who will do anything for his precious daughter. He may come off as a pushover to some, but he shoulders a lot of burden and responsibility for his family. He often keeps to himself and rarely voices his true feelings. His quiet strength and loyalty to his friends, family, and beliefs are some of his greatest and admirable qualities.

The daughter is a strongheaded, yet understanding person. She comes off as a bit of a brat at times as she makes rash decisions that end up affecting the family. However, she redeems herself multiple times throughout the drama when she learns from her mistakes and reconciles with the people she's hurt.

The female lead is calm, strong-willed, and extremely caring to those she loves. She is always giving the benefit of the doubt to others and steps in to help when she can, no matter the circumstances. She never involves herself because she wants to benefit from a bad situation, but because she believes it is the right thing to do.

Some plot threads can feel a bit rushed and sometimes they end suddenly. In addition, some of the side stories involving the other characters can be kind of uninteresting compared to what's going on with the main three characters. Despite these flaws, however, the show still manages to create dramatic conflicts, tense scenes, and wholesome and heartfelt moments.

Lastly, the conclusion to the series is quite a rollercoaster of emotions. Compared to most dailies, the last five episodes are some of the best I've ever seen. With all of the tragic revelations and characters confessing their fears and feelings, I've never cried tears of joy and sadness so much in such a short span of time.

If you're looking for a heartwarming story about families who are willing to sacrifice anything for each other with a sprinkle of melodrama, you're looking right at it. I highly recommend this one.

9.5/10

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Wholesome, Heartwarming, and Everything In Between

One of the best dailies out there. It has a great premise and does an amazing job at setting up all of the character relationships and the potential drama and conflicts down the line. The first three weeks worth of episodes (1-15) are easy to binge as the prologue paces itself very well.

Some characters are absolutely hilarious and others are downright admirable and respectable. Like most dailies, it will occasionally have characters explain what they are thinking out loud to the audience. However, it also does a good job at showing character and personality through their actions, and the main characters rarely elaborate on the things they do (unless it's absolutely important for the other characters to know). This is very rare to see in most dailies and one of the greatest strengths of this show.

Like most dailies, you have to love the characters to get the most out of it and enjoy the seemingly absurd situations they find themselves get in. Despite the ridiculousness, however, this one is much more wholesome with its themes on family and forgiveness. I highly recommend you give this one a chance if you're looking for a daily to check out!

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Try It And You Won’t Be Disappointed

Your usual Korean revenge makjang soap opera. You should really only watch it and commit if you love this genre, otherwise you’ll disappoint yourself. The show doesn’t do anything new, but it does it really well.

The first half is extremely well done. We don’t even get a major incident until episode ten or so because the writers did a great job building up the tension and making you feel really sad for the grieving family.

Another great thing about this drama are the characters and their relationships with each other. I cared much more about the side characters than the main ones. Kang Seung Woo (the FL brother) has a great arc and I was always excited to see him on screen. Hwang Na Ra (the younger sister) has a good redeeming arc. Kim Do Hee (the ML sister) is a character I really like as well. The only downside is that when their arcs are over, they quietly get less screen time. This happened to Do Yu Gyeong (FL best friend).

After a while, around the halfway mark, the storylines start to loop around in circles. When the good guys get a win, the bad guys reset it back to normal the next episode as if nothing happened. For a specific example, the female villain loses her job because of what the good guys did, but then she is still hanging around the company because she was hired by a temp agency to continue working for the company… Yes, that seriously happens. There are very little consequences for the bad guys as it seems they get away with everything until the last ten episodes.

Some parts of the literal story also don’t make much sense. It feels like the writers will pull out random plot points just for the sake of surprise and twists. Designer L and DH Holdings are some of them. Also the ML is a doctor surgeon but that concept gets thrown out about halfway because it didn’t transfer over to a company about interior design. I understand why they ignored his doctor background, but still could’ve been better if they thought of that beforehand.

Lastly, since the focus is on the family and their relationships, there is very little room to have characters that are a part of YL Group. The company is just a backdrop and we learn nothing about the company. This isn’t a bad thing because we can focus on the families. However, it does make a lot of the company conflicts and issues very confusing and underwhelming. (It just seems like YL Group is always trying to secure money and investments).

It also feels strange that even though the bad guys do get a taste of their own medicine, the good guys get away with committing those same crimes? And that’s okay? I don’t think that sends a good message.

And the ending? Don’t worry. It’s worth it.

Overall, there are lots of great characters and they all have their moments. It was a great experience. Despite my issues, I would still recommend this show. Check it out!

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