wallawalla

My, possibly wrong interpretation, is that VP is a bad person. He embodies the saying, “You need to crack a couple eggs to make an omelette.” And in this case, the omelette is his company and the eggs are innocent people swept up into the corruption schemes. He is looking at this from a point of self-interest. If it hurts the company, but helps those who were wronged, he will oppose the action. If it hurts his opponents in the company, but helps those who were wronged, he will support the action.

After watching eps 3 and 4, I still think Han Su and Mike Ross are fundamentally different character types.

Mike Ross is ego driven. He's a flashy hotshot guy whose ego as much as credentials got him to where he's at. Given the remarks by his co-workers, Han Su is/was extremely passive. Han Su got his auditor position from a family connection, rather than his own merit. He isn't ever trying to be the center of attention. He has strong ethical/moral principles. Given his actions so far, he wants to uphold those to the end, regardless of the 'correct' corporate action.

Also, you can't say that we should 'look at characters in 4d' while then going on to ignore two of those dimensions.

Let's look at character development arcs. Han Su is becoming empowered to stand up to his co-workers when appropriate. Mike Ross was a 'prodigy' that didn't have to deal with co-workers, or at the very least, was never passsive. They really are different characters, and a comparison between the two is critically lacking.

Eps 3 and 4 are great. The show is hitting its stride, so to say. The characterization of the ML has

moved him from a simple keychain that hopes he accidentally gets carried to Florida, to a person with some strong moral/ethical views that don't always align with corporate culture and entrenched systems. He's been vindicated, imo.

FL finally got more screen time too, though the viewer still doesn't have much insight into her motivations and perspective.

Shin Ha Kyn continues to deliver as a stoic and cold authority figure that is fighting for justice, if nothing else. It'll be interesting to see how his backstory relates to his current character.

This is a solid 8-8.3/10 drama. It just doesn't have romance, so add half a point the MDL score.

At the very least, it will be interesting to see how she handles the conflict between the audit team and the. I agree, I want her to be a good moral/ethical character!

"I know nothing about construction so some of the plot went over my head" I think the big thing to know is that there is a lot of corruption within the construction industry. There is a lot of money and a lot of grifters. A construction company is a great setting for an audit team because irl there is a ton of stuff to investigate.

This article by the world economic forum describes the scale (10-30% of the ~12trillion dollar industry!) of the corruption loses. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/02/why-is-the-construction-industry-so-corrupt-and-what-can-we-do-about-it/

In a real investigation, the laptop data would have been copied using some specific app that makes exact byte for byte hdd copies. the original would have been kept under lock and key and not been accessible to the suspects. auditor would analyze the copy but not touch the original....

Very loosely, perhaps. Wasn't Mike Ross a prodigy hotshot in suits? Really can't say the same a Han Su. Maybe I'm misremembering Suits?

if there is a romantic angle, it will be between Han Su and YSJ imo. Even then, could easily see this drama not even trying to incorporate that element.

I really want to know the story behind the FL. She seems too old to be the daughter of the psycho brother. With the ending of ep 2, I imagine we get to see more of her in the next eps.

Probably zero romance given the first two episodes.

So far an okay show. I just hope that the writers don't rely on the main leads making terrible decisions to drive the plot like they did in the first couple episodes.

He's supposed to be a rookie, but even then, reasonable people should have a basic understanding of their job after 9-months in the role. Both him and teh experienced auditor/team-lead make some really idiotic decisions to extend the plotline. From the rookie not returning the laptop and blindly trusting everybody, to the senior that didn't immediately back up or consult with a digital forensics expert to back up the laptop. Very frustrating.

I enjoyed your review, and especially enjoyed your description of the ending. First 5,6 episodes were okay. All the characters were deeply flawed, some worse than others. I was thinking that the worst will get their comeuppance and the mediocre ones will maybe at least learn something. ML may even become a semi-responsible adult compared to the brooding early teenager figure and outright negligent father shown in the first half. Really, any character improvement would have better than what was delivered.

What do we get after ep. 6? The con-artist conflict resolved with no consequences (wtf was that 'resolution', the writers need to go back to freshman creative writing). We get ep. after ep. after ep. of a will he, won't he die in a fire drama, and then it all culminates in laughable deus ex machina event to remove any consequence for all those episodes of drama. Truly a laugh out loud moment.

I got a kick out of your review. Thanks!

my take away is that people really connect with this or they don't at all. there's very little middle ground in this comment section. The mediocre 7.8 rating reflects that. I'm guessing it's a mean between the folks giving 9 or 10 and the folks giving 5 or 6.

I fall into the former camp. I hope you enjoy it, but don't feel bad if it's not your cup of tea.

@Sometimes1 "FL confession to her friend, she never treated anyone else like Junho.
"My Pride" his name on her Cell. "

He literally made her career. You're reading way too much into their relationship ten years prior. Furthermore, so what? She didn't pursue a relationship back then, neither did he. Was there anys ort of 'love', in the romantic sense? No. They bonded and had an impactful shared experience.

"I'll ignore the rest." Sounds good. Would rather not hear the rest of your 'enlightened' projections.

No to both questions. Pretty wholesome. This doesn't follow the typical romance conflicts like breakups and love-triangles.

I appreciate you expanding on your thoughts and understand your perspective a bit better. We have fundamentally different interpretations of the show, but that makes for interesting discussion. To address your points,

1. Hye Jin was a top instructor and fundamental to her hagwon's success. Given the hyper-competitive nature of the industry, I was not surprised that she was attacked by multiple people, co-workers and competitors alike, given the scandalous situation. I wouldn't call it contrived, I'd call it an expansion greed and competition.

2. One of the weaknesses or misinterpretation may be the passage of time. It wasn't a couple of weeks, it was months working as co-workers and living in the same neighborhood that was covered over a couple of episodes. My memory may be failing me, but wasn't it closer to 4 episodes from their first kiss to officially having a relationship? Hye Jin was quite taken aback by the situation. Perhaps one of the issues was that the show did not have many scenes with the two outside their work environment.

3. I interpreted their current relationship as influenced but not wholly defined by their past. The focus on their history provided ample shared experiences from which their relationship grew.

4. I do think there was more nuance than you are letting on. The overarching critique of 'authority' is certainly present, however that ignores the motivations for the Witch (prestige), the Asst. Dir. (revenge), or her co-workers (reputation, greed). There is more to it if you chose to take a closer examination.

5. I agree that it is not 100% accurate for dramatic reasons, but the characters and plot allowed for interesting insights into the pressures and moral ambiguities present in the hagwon system. Its allegorical nature allowed for exploration of the themes. Like you said, it is a kdrama afterall.



3.

This reddit post does a great job of breaking down the nuance to the academy system shown in this drama: https://old.reddit.com/r/KDRAMA/comments/1cuq9zc/the_midnight_romance_in_hagwon_episodes_3_4/l4l106f/

I agree that for people not knowleagble about the Korean school/academy system, this would have been much less interesting.

I had a very different experience and find many of your supporting arguments lackluster.

They were not in love ten years prior. They had a tutor/student relationship. Jun Ho had a crush, but it was not reciprocated, and he was emotionally immature. They did not rush past getting to know each other before admitting their feelings, either. They had met every year or two to catch up on what was going on in each other's lives (via the academy's reunion events). Hye Jin was very reticent to begin a romantic relationship or even to admit to those feelings, precisely because of the issues it would cause "in the present."

I don't think the intent was to critique existing power structures or pass some sort of moral judgement. My interpretation is that this drama is a character-study examining the conflicts and difficulties that arise in the hyper-competitve and cut-throat hagwon industry. The director and writers never intended to send the message "teachers should be good teachers". Rather, it's much more interesting to examine the wide range of motivations and moral/ethical boundaries for people that consider themselves 'teachers.' The drama succeeded in that regard.

In what way is there a "group of individuals over-involved with each other's lives for contrived reasons?" Can you name an instance in this show?

Really fantastic drama. Perhaps my favorite of 2024.