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Happy Merry Ending korean drama review
Completed
Happy Merry Ending
2 people found this review helpful
by queenmidalah
May 18, 2023
8 of 8 episodes seen
Completed
Overall 6.0
Story 5.5
Acting/Cast 9.5
Music 6.0
Rewatch Value 4.0
This review may contain spoilers

Needed more time

As was mentioned in a few other reviews, this show packed a lot into a short amount of time. They could have done so much more with the storyline and adaptation to give this story so much more breathing room.

First and foremost, what we know is the ML, Seung Jun can't seem to open up and suffers from PTSD, but we don't know exactly why yet. To be honest, we never *truly* find out. We get a hint of it when Seung Jun gets drunk and we learn it had something to do with a past relationship of some sort. Since this is a BL, we can make the assumption it was with a past relationship with a man, which we further learn when Joo Won shows back up in Seung Jun's life. Even then we don't truly know the depth, only know that he betrayed him and seemed to be using him. The pushiness of the second ML, Jae Hyun, makes it difficult for Seung Jun to open up and it's obvious there are moments where he seems to be comparing Jae Hyun to Joo Won.

Then there is the best friend/neighbor who is *obviously* in love with Seung Jun, but quietly takes a backseat because he knows of the trauma from his past and is there to support him. It's implied that the two are FWB, though you can also argue that they are simply cuddle buddies with Ho Yeon wanting it to be more than that.

To be honest, I had little to no interest in the romance of the two leads. Perhaps it is because I am biased toward Kim Kyu Jong, who played Joo Won so deliciously narcissistic, creepy, and downright nasty. But I was far more interested in his character and the history with Seung Jun. I've seen Kyu Jong in other things and he has such range that I see so many hating on Joo Won (rightfully so) and yet knowing more of him, it makes me proud to follow him because he is one of the sweetest people. I hope people hate just the character and look for other things he has done, plus his music as both a solo artist and with SS501/Double S 301, because his talent is phenomenal.

I think this show could have done so much better if they had done it as either a longer web series or a full series. I am fine with the episodes being short in time, but there needed to be more than 8 episodes. We never really got any history of Jae Hyun, we never got to know or see the struggles of Ho Yeon being in his position as someone who obviously loved Seung Jun but was relegated to only the bestie.

I feel that this show could have been fleshed out so much more for us to see much more of Seung Jun's past with Joo Won, including understanding why Joo Won suddenly came back into his life and wanted to be with him. Was it a case of Joo Won only using him as a plaything? Did he see Seung Jun as his "property" and when Jae Hyun arrived on the scene and he saw he could potentially move on, he couldn't handle it? Just what exactly DID Joo Won do to Seung Jun, other than obviously being manipulative and a cheater to cause him to have the level of PTSD that he did that he needed medication? As it "reads" right now, Seung Jun comes off as extremely weak IMO. I wanted to see those scenes more than I wanted to see the two male leads "falling in love".

I had no real investment in Jae Hyun because we knew nothing about him. Except for apparently owning a cafe, we had no backstory for him. While I am all for a love-at-first-sight type of story (I'm a romantic), this one fell short because of how little time the show had to tell its story.

Ultimately, I will probably watch the episodes that Kyu Jong was in again, because I watched this series for him, but otherwise, I would probably not rewatch this often. I hope in the future, when it comes to web series like this, that production companies/writers consider expanding the episodes to have more of them if they want to keep them short to keep people's attention. Complex stories like this need more time to grow and breathe so so much story isn't squished into so little time. It does a disservice to the story and the characters because this could have been such a compelling drama otherwise.
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