Protect the Boss

Protect the Boss

4.5/10

Protect the Boss

Genre:                        Episodes: 18                             Year: 2011

Romance

Comedy

Synopsis:

Cha Ji Heon is an immature heir to a large company. His father, the Chairman, is constantly trying to force Ji Heon to contend seriously for the line of succession, but Ji Heon is unwilling to work hard. If Ji Heon doesn’t succeed his father, the company would then pass to Cha Moo Won, son of the Chairman’s deceased brother and his brother’s wife, Shin Sook Hee, who always tries to bring her Brother-in-Law down in order to secure Moo Won’s place as next CEO of the company. After Ji Heon’s secretary quits, No Eun Seol is hired. She is an ordinary girl with no qualifications, but due to her thug past, others believe she is capable of controlling Cha Ji Heon.

Cast:

Ji Sung (Cha Ji Heon)

Choi Kang Hee (No Eun Seol)

Kim Jae Joong (Cha Moo Won)

Wang Ji Hye (Seo Na Yoon)

Park Young Kyu (Chairman Cha)

Cha Hwa Yeon (Shin Sook Hee)

General Thoughts:

It’s a Chaebol rom-com. Imagine any other Chaebol rom-com you’ve ever seen, then imagine the characters are slightly nicer to each other, and BOOM- you’ve got this drama. Not all of it was bad, but it definitely started to drag. I don’t know how the hell the writer thought they were going to stretch the plot out over 20 episodes- but thank the Good Lord that didn’t have to happen. The series ended up getting cut back to 18 episodes, which is just as well. It barely had enough content to spread (very thinly) over 16 episodes, let alone 18. 20 is just completely unthinkable.

Yes, yes...another rich guy - poor girl romance

But that’s not to say the drama was always bad- the beginning was quite enjoyable, but similarly to many standard rom-coms, it fell away at the halfway point. Initially we had a group of characters that were fairly original (bar the childish, reluctant future CEO). Having a heroine with a slightly gangster past put a nice spin on the worn-out Chaebol-Cinderella story. It added a nice little twist on the situation that our leading lady often held the power in the relationship due to her violent tendencies and fast reactions. It meant that she was more than just a cardboard cut-out (haha) getting grabbed by the wrist and dragged around by rich men. It was No Eun Seol who was telling both Ji Heon and Moo Won how to act, how interact with her, and when to back off.

Waiting for a man to fix the mess she made- typical K-Drama heroine

It was beyond nice to have a female character that had a little bit of backbone. But that only made the sting so much worse when she reverted back into typical rom-com heroine. Suddenly Eun Seol isn’t a kick-ass secretary with a determined attitude. She’s bland, boring and does a lot of crying and moaning about how hard it is to have two super rich, super handsome men fighting each other for her affections. Sigh, where’d all that backbone go? Thankfully, the rest of our characters managed to maintain their characteristics throughout the show, and stayed firmly in the realm of likeable and mildly interesting. However, as Eun Soel was getting by far the largest amount of screen-time, her character flop was enough to damage the show. Ji Sung was able to provide a consistently entertaining hero for the series- but if we’re all honest, most of that comes from Ji Sung’s own excellence. Ji Heon as a character was not complex, and was definitely not an original character. How many indifferent Chaebol sons have we seen in our time? However, Ji Sung was able to breathe a little bit of fresh air into the over-used situation by truly emphasising Ji Heon’s childishness. His expressions and movements really sold Ji Heon as a character and his pettiness kept him entertaining to watch. Ji Sung has a beautiful ability to switch from immature and child-like to serious, mature man in a completely believable moment. Our second male lead also did a fairly good job in character delivery. Kim Jae Joong gave us an endearing, hardworking rival to our stroppy future CEO.

The casting prevented this drama from becoming poop

He might have been in contention for starting some serious Second Male Lead Syndrome if Ji Sung’s face hadn’t been slapped on the other character. Sorry, but there’s really no competition for that. Our second female lead was also a breath of fresh air. She was so different to our usual love-rivals- not only in Chaebol romances, but in any romances. While she was demanding and quick to cry, she had an inherently good nature, and wasn’t afraid to stand up to her power-hungry mother. Wang Ji Hye gave us a sweet, likeable second female character that ended up being a satisfying tie-off to our second male lead. 

What Was Great:

Everyone Was Friends:

An interesting take on the Chaebol situation was that our characters actually seemed to deeply care for each other. You go into a drama that's set in the world of the wealthy and elite and expect all the characters to be clawing at each other to grasp more wealth and power. It was a nice change to have a bunch of characters that clearly cared for each other, but also needed to protect their family’s finances.

How nice, how nice

It’s a different (and much more appreciated) version of the Chaebol’s fight for power. It becomes an entirely different ballgame when you can’t screw people over left, right and centre, but actually have to be slightly tactful about your power-plays. It was a new and interesting moral dilemma to have our characters wondering what was worth more- the added power, or protecting an important relationship.

Good girl friends are a sad rarity in K-Drama Land

A good bromance is always appreciated, so the camaraderie between the cousins fighting for the CEO position was always enjoyable. Particularly when the boys try and cover up their feelings with fights and ego-battles. It was the bromance version of pigtail pulling. And it was hilarious. Similarly, the slowly developed friendship between Eun Seol and Na Yoon was fantastic to watch. Not a lot of dramas have girl friendships in them- apparently audiences are supposed to be satisfied when our heroine captures the heart of the wondrous hero and then spends the rest of her life completely dedicated to him, and him alone. It’s always delightful to see a solid female friendship develop, and this drama was no exception. Na Yoon’s small jealousies that were eventually drowned in her affections for Eun Seol were adorable to watch, and Wang Ji Hye played the part to perfection. The exception to the buddy-buddy rule would have to be Na Yoon and Moo Won’s typical rich mothers, but seeing as that was played for more of a comic relief, it was much more bearable than your usual overbearing parent. 

What Wasn’t:

Plot’s Death:

By far the most interesting aspect of this drama was the tangled web of relationships and the interactions of our characters. The series managed to plod along quite steadily with the romance conflicts driving the plot for the first half of the series. However, once the writer opted to focus more on the company inheritance, illegal funding and backdoor dealing, a lot of the interest just evaporates.

The conflict was...actually kind of boring. Yikes.

None of our characters are constructed in a way where they’re seen as huge threats to the company, as the only two that could conceivably be threats are played for comic relief. There’s far too much love between cousins Moo Won and Ji Heon to really entertain the possibility that Moo Won would undercut Ji Heon and his father to claim the company for himself. And quite frankly, the traitor who switches from Ji Heon’s father to Moo Won’s mother to Na Yoon’s mother is just massively under explained and his intentions are unclear. With weak characters carrying out the bulk of the conflict, it just becomes uninteresting to watch.

I think we all knew where this was headed

This feeling of dissatisfaction only increases as Eun Seol’s character takes a dive and starts making stupid decisions. Rather than a fearless fighter, we were given an insecure, indecisive heroine. While the issue of illegal succession being reported was spun to be a big deal, it’s hard to see it as an actual threat when it could be sorted out by everyone having a chat and making rational decisions. But no. Why would intelligent businessmen do that? Instead, Chairman Cha ignores the fact that he has a well-known traitor in his midst and chooses to blame everything on Eun Seol. Who instead of standing up for herself or brainstorming with Ji Heon, chooses to stay silent and flounder in a situation she has no control over. Every time she had the opportunity to tell Ji Heon what was happening in his own company, she chose not to. And then turned into a weepy, blubbering mess. I really can't stand heroines who create messy situations due to their own inability to communicate, and then cry when no one helps them out. It’s beyond irritating. I think I actually cheered when Ji Heon broke up with her, because by then I was well and truly sick of her myself. Lord knows why she thought having a sudden search-and-seize warrant for his office would hurt Ji Heon less than giving him a heads up that his father may be doing some illegal money shenanigans.

No matter how badly the plot was doing, Ji Sung always looked like magic

That being said, Ji Heon’s decision to go on a break and not contact Eun Soel for months on end under the pretext of becoming a son his father respected was just piss-poor. It’s like our leads were having a competition on who could make the stupidest decisions. Due to mass miscommunication and countless inexplicable decisions, I found myself no longer caring if our leads got together or not. I was quite happy to watch Moo Won and Na Yoon be happy together. Because they worked together, communicated, and earned their happy ending.

It's a tad sad when you care more about the secondary pairing that the first- but they were just so super cute

The end of the series only became that much more irritating when the final conclusion was the one I’d guessed at right from the start. Ji Heon steps down and voluntarily lets Moo Won become successor, while still maintaining his shares, dignity and wealth. Was that a surprise to anyone? Adding to that, plot points that the series could have gone deeper into (such as Ji Heon's panic attacks, Ji Heon's brother's death, and Ji Heon's past relationship with Na Yoon) were sadly left unexplored.

Dad’s a D*ck:

Chairman Cha was a fairly interesting character for the most part. While his character wasn’t new or innovative by any stretch, it was a different enough situation to have a demanding, yet loving, father as the CEO, rather than the cold, emotionless CEO’s we’re all used to.

Sigh. Run out of plot-points, did we?

His easy acceptance of Eun Seol at the start of the series had me happily believing that we’d avoided the trope of the rich boy’s parent being disapproving of his son’s choice of woman. But no, I’d just been lulled into a false sense of security. As the rest of the drama headed into over-used cliches, so did Chairman Cha. He became the over-controlling parent who would do anything to give himself and his son more power, and stand in the way of his son’s happy relationship. We’ve all seen that before, and I guarantee that no one wanted to see it again. Chairman Cha’s character may have managed to remain likeable had he not ignored Eun Seol’s attempts (no matter how weak they were) to explain herself and the situation. By the end, he was just downright dislikable as his character had been used purely as a wedge to drive our main couple apart. 

Re-watch?

Absolutely never. Even when the drama was doing well, it was enjoyable fluff at best. At worst it was boring, irritating and far too drawn out. I actually found myself wishing the series would hurry up and end. No mater how fantastic Ji Sung was.

Wasn't substantial enough to be a good drama. Was too long to be a cute fluff drama.