It's Okay To Not Be Okay

 It’s Okay To Not Be Okay

9/10

It's Okay To Not Be Okay

Genre: Episodes: 16 Year: 2020

Romance

Melodrama 

Synopsis:

Kang Tae is a man with an autistic brother, who works in a psychiatric hospital. His life begins to change when he meets Moon Young, a fairytale writer with antisocial personality disorder.

Cast:

Kim Soo Hyun (Moon Kang Tae)

Seo Ye Ji (Ko Moon Young)

Oh Jung Se (Moon Sang Tae)

Park Gyu Young (Nam Joo Ri)

Kim Joo Hoon (Lee Sang In)

Park Jin Joo (Yoo Seung Jae)

Kang Ki Soong (Jo Jae Soo)

Kim Mi Kyung (Kang Soon Duk)

Kim Chang Wan (Oh Ji Wang)

Hang Young Nam (Park Hwang Ja)

General Thoughts:

Why am I like this? Why do I watch great dramas and then procrastinate writing a review for so long that the drama’s details start to fade from my memory? Why? Whyyyyyyy? So this was a good drama. It really and truly was. It’s one of those rare times where I sit down and really feel like I’m watching something that will be remembered years from now as a K-Drama classic.

A memorable, parody-able moment

Whether ‘It’s Okay’ will still be popular and thought of fondly in years to come remains to be seen, but that’s definitely how it felt as I was watching it. It reminded me of other dramas that I loved so completely such as ‘My Love from the Stars’ and ‘Coffee Prince’. There was enough plot going on that the story never felt like it was only centred around a romance (though I’m sure some would argue that it is) and the characters had so much growth and development going on throughout the show’s run. There were a lot of great things going on in this show that contributed to its smooth, sleek, professional feel.

Gah, I really love these three

The directing was really brilliant, and the PD really knew how to maximise the emotional aspects of a scene, whether through darker lighting or longer, lingering shots of our characters. The writing was absolutely brilliant, particularly when it’s only this writer’s second drama (the first being ‘Jugglers’ which was also great, but didn’t have quite the same emotional draw as ‘It’s Okay’). The characters were written with so much depth and complexity, and the way the writer was able to portray so much of their hopes and fears without making them seem bi-polar or sporadic was nothing short of brilliance. The relationships between all the characters, particularly our main three, were so important to the show, and the writer did such a wonderful job at making these relationships deep and layered as well. At first I found Kang Tae and Moon Young’s relationship slightly toxic, and was worried that it was going to portray an unhealthy relationship as something dreamy and romantic, as K-Dramas sometimes do (hellooooo controlling and misogynistic wrist-grab). I was happy to see that as the characters and the relationship developed, Kang Tae and Moon Young actually had this lovely dynamic where they both supported and challenged each other. While Moon Young definitely had some characteristics that could dominate and steamroll other people, I was glad that the writer was able to give Kang Tae enough stubbornness and backbone to not be completely swallowed up by Moon Young’s wants and desires, while also managing to maintain his own apparent soft and submissive nature.

'I want you'- don't we all, babe

Kang Tae’s brother, Sang Tae, was a whole other way of personalising and developing characters. While Moon Young and Kang Tae were both a little out of the ordinary, they were not so different that they seemed abnormal. Autism can be tricky subject to broach, particularly these days when everyone is so ready to be hypercritical of individuals from the societal norm commenting on minorities and marginalised groups. And those with intellectual disabilities are certainly a marginalised group. The writer handled Sang Tae’s character with a lot of tact and did an excellent job at presenting Sang Tae as a whole, complete character all on his own.

Absolute standout

It would have been easy for Sang Tae to only be relevant as ‘Kang Tae’s disabled bother’, so I’m glad the writer put a huge amount of effort into making Sang Tae a relevant, meaningful character of his own accord. I also appreciated that the writer didn’t sugar coat life with autism either. Sang Tae didn’t just have the characteristics and mannerisms of  a younger child, but also demonstrated a whole host of other autistic traits, some which were not exactly easy to live with. Sang Tae often had difficulties with social interactions- even with Kang Tae who knew him the best, and he also had extreme and lengthy emotional reactions to minor things that others did-particularly Kang Tae. There was a good balance of difficult and endearing behaviours in Sang Tae’s character, and I am endlessly glad that he was not simply relegated to ‘simple but delightful’ or ‘simple and difficult’. Apart from our three main leads, not many of the other characters got much in the way of development. Joo Ri’s character was a little all over the place- she was mainly used for comedic effect, but occasionally it seemed like the writer was trying to do something a bit more emotional, only the emotional aspects never really seemed to pay off. While in theory I liked her relationship with Moon Young’s publisher, there just wasn’t enough chemistry on screen to convince me that this was a relationship that made sense. I found them more entertaining when they were butting heads and being comedic than when they had serious discussions.

Not quiiiiite bying it

I’m happy that Joo Ri wasn’t pushed down the path of Snarky Second Lead, but do wish that she had a bit more something going on with her. Towards the end when Joo Ri and Moon Young seemed to be making steps towards a reconciliation and forming a sassy friendship, there were some really nice moments and enjoyable scenes that clicked more emotionally, so I kind of with the drama had focused on that rather than the romance. Similarly Sang In (the publisher) was played more for humour than anything else. Which was fine most of the time. But there is a fine art in giving comedic characters emotional beats, and it again didn’t quite pan out with Sang In. There were moments where his true affection and protectiveness of Moon Young shone through, and that was really nice and could have been potentially capitalised on more. But just like Joo Ri, Sang In's character didn’t really benefit from the forced romantic relationship.

The big family dynamic was nice though

A case in this drama of a comedic character getting solid emotional moments would have to be Jae Soo. He was adorable, he was hilarious, he was heart warming. I think this was particularly helped along by Kang Ki Doong as he ALWAYS gives his funny characters such heart and humour and I ALWAYS love it. His dry, deadpan style of humour is totally my style, and I think it also leaves him slightly more open for those emotional scenes when they do come- because while his previous scenes are still funny, it almost seems like his characters’ humour is being used a shield for the characters’ emotions, rather only a humour tool for the writers to use to evoke laughs.

Oof- my heart

Park Jin Joo has a similar acting style, and this came through here in her character of Seung Jae, but not quite as often or as hard-hitting as Kang Ki Doong's character, Jae Soo. The rest of the side characters didn’t get much in the way of development, but they were enjoyable enough all the same. The patients at the psychiatric hospital weren’t utilised quite as much as I think I would’ve liked, but on the other hand I’m not sure I would have loved this drama as such as I did if we spent significantly less time on the three main characters. When the synopsis and casting first came out for this show I was a little excited to see a K-Drama focusing on mental health. There have been a few K-Dramas I can think of that have done this (‘It’s Okay, That’s Love, 'I Remember You’, ‘Kill Me, Heal Me’), and I was keen to see how far into the rabbit hole this drama would go. The answer to that is ‘not very’, which is a bit of a shame, but the show still pulled together really nicely, and did an amazing job with Sang Tae’s character. The other patients were a little more stereotyped which is a bummer, but I think I was most let down by the avoidance the drama took when looking at Moon Young. In the first handful of episodes Moon Young mentions that she has antisocial personality disorder, and then never brings it up again. Instead, the drama seems to link her strange behaviour and inability to engage in normal relationships to trauma caused by her mother and her mother’s death. Which is fine. Trauma can make for interesting characters (see ‘Come Here and Hug Me’), but I wish that my hopes hadn’t been all caught up by the drama saying that the heroine had a personality disorder that was then widely ignored for the rest of the show’s run.

This show was so bloody cinematic too

All in all I think that this drama did a pretty great job at being appropriately sensitive and appropriately realistic while still remaining enjoyable and entertaining. I really love the english title, and think it is a perfect reflection of the show’s contents and progression. I would have liked it if the Korean title followed suit with the name change, because personally I think sticking with the title ‘Psycho But It’s Okay’ is a bit sh*t, particularly given the stigma around mental health and that none of the main characters were actually psychopaths.

What Was Great:

Cast and Charters:

The heart and soul of this show was for sure the main trio. And they were all just excellent- both the characters themselves and the actors that portrayed them. I have struggled to like Seo Ye Ji in any of her roles in the past that I have seen her in. It’s not that she’s a bad actress- she is a very competent actress, I just never really found myself connecting with her or her characters in the past.

Her in this role is just perfection

Maybe it’s because she’s mostly played pretty vanilla characters previously. Maybe I was just so hurt by ‘Moorim School’ that I found it difficult to unlink her face from those feelings of utter, utter boredom. But here Seo Ye Ji really found her light. She was born to play a sarcastic sass queen. I adored her in this role. It fit her so well and I loved her in every scene she was in. It completely took me by surprise, and I am thrilled by how much I enjoyed her in this role- I hope she goes on to pick more dynamic characters in the future too. Moon Young was a character that seems like she should have been hard to like, but that wasn’t the case at all.

I wonder what it's like to be so physically flawless

Her straightforwardness and bluntness made her fun and enjoyable, even though at times she could be very selfish. I loved how Moon Young was basically just how a regular person would be if they didn’t have a filter. Her statements about Kang Tae being good looking were hilarious and on-point, and these added bits of humour certainly helped in adding warmth to a character that was quite cool and aloof. I think what worked well for Moon Young is that even though the things she said and did could seem thoughtless, she was usually very honest, and didn’t often come from a place of maliciousness. Her bluntness was her being honest about her feelings, even if she didn’t understand others’ feelings or they couldn’t understand hers, so I think that made it easier to forgive her when she appeared self-centred and controlling. Kang Tae’s character was almost the complete opposite, where he was more about holding back- he held back his thoughts, his feelings and his wants as a way to please those around him and not cause waves or unnecessary attention. What Kim Soo Hyun did so well in this role was that he was really able to express Kang Tae’s inner desires, even when Kang Tae was being stoic and closed off. His face can show such great minor changes in expression that can really reflect his character’s inner workings, and that was so crucial for a character like Kang Tae where there is a lot going on beneath the surface. Kim Soo Hyun also played the scenes perfectly where Kang Tae was finally breaking out of his shell and starting to live for himself- he gave off such a feeling of relief, excitement and fear all at once, and it was just so lovely watching this character finally start to live for himself.

And boy did he start living

Kang Tae’s arc was really about learning to let go of this carer role he had built up for himself in his mind and start striking out into the world on his own. I adored that the show didn’t need to completely sever him from Sang Tae in order to do that, and that it took the time to show each of the brothers starting to make small steps towards an individual, independent life while still being able to remain good friends and rely on each other when they needed to. While the two leads were absolutely amazing, what really made the show something special for me was Sang Tae. There was so much complexity to his character and his relationships with those around him.

I didn't expect Sang Tae to be one of my favourite characters of the year but he so was

Because Sang Tae had a view of the world that was so different to most of the people in the audience, it became fascinating just seeing how he viewed and interacted with everyday things around him. Sang Tae wouldn’t be complete without Oh Jung Se being the actor behind him, and what a phenomenal job he did! Oh Jung Se really acted from his head to his toes and absolutely everything about him embodied his character. I was finding myself constantly amazed and awed by just how accurate a representation of autism this character and this actor were being- from the way Sang Tae spoke which was logical and repetitive to Oh Jung Se’s posture and hand movements- it was all just perfection. What really completed how wonderfully written and cast these characters were was the chemistry between these three actors. The romance between Kang Tae and Moon Young was brilliant- while Moon Young became obsessed with Kang Tae quite quickly, it still felt like there was a nice slow burn of them actually getting to know each other and falling for each other. They had amazing chemistry both for their romantic scenes and (perhaps even more so) for their comedic scenes. When I think comedic actors I certainly wouldn’t think Kim Soo Hyung and Seo Ye Ji, but they were brilliant and hilarious together, and I don’t remember laughing this much during a show in quite some time.

Man this show was fun

The chemistry between Kim Soo Hyun and Oh Jung Se was also nothing short of amazing, and their relationship was both so heart warming and heart wrenching all at once. With Sang Tae, I really appreciated that they gave him his own separate relationship with Moon Young also. While the relationship between the brothers was endearing and special, I think it added a lot to the story to have Sang Tae be so close to another person outside of Kang Tae. Having that person be Moon Young was just absolute icing. Seo Ye Ji and Oh Jung Se also had really wonderful comedic timing together, but it was their quieter moments of looking after each other that really hit the sweet spot. One of my favourite moments in the show was Sang Tae stepping in to feed Moon Young after she and Kang Tae fought simply because that was his role as a big brother and he knew no other way to comfort her- it was super sweet and really stood out in the show.

All the moments of Sang Tae acting like a Hyung were just so good

These three characters were so vastly different but they also had a lot of similarities. Their shared stubbornness made for some great scenes, and really helped foster their feeling of family. Even though they didn’t understand each other all the time, all three of them were so determined to at least meet each other half way so that they could stay together, and that was quite special.

Thematic Storytelling:

What I didn’t expect coming into this show was how beautifully thematic it was going to be. When I read that Moon Young was going to be a fairytale author I kind of assumed that they just gave her that job so that they didn’t have to bother about actually explaining why she didn’t have a job that she had to go to during the day, or waste scenes showing the heroine working.

Nothing says fairytale quite like a castle

I was happily surprised when the drama really ran with the idea of Moon Young being a fairytale author and wove that motive into every single episode. Moon Young’s fairytales had a lot of great commentary about how she felt as an individual and were a great way to provide insight into Moon Young’s emotional state, and her history with her mother as well. I liked that the show took the time to make small fairytale details stand out- such as Moon Young’s red high heels, as it contributed to each and every episode feeling like a perfect piece in a well structured set. Another theme that was strong in this drama was the idea of family. While a lot of media touch on the idea that ‘you can make your own family’ it was a particularly strong thread in this drama, particularly when both Kang Tae and Moon Young were picking Sang Tae to be a part of their family over and over again. At first I feared that the show was going to focus on jealousy- with Sang Tae becoming jealous that Moon Young was stealing away his younger brother, so I absolutely loved it when the show instead went the route of Kang Tae asking his brother if he would accept Moon Young into their family. It enforced the idea that Moon Young had a strong relationship with each of the brothers individually, and really made me think that even if she hadn’t gone on to date Kang Tae she still would have been accepted as family due to her close friendship with Sang Tae.

I kind of love when Kang Tae got jealous of how close their friendship was

Memory was another theme that dipped in and out of the drama often, and I quite liked the way the drama explored this through its use of flashbacks and reminiscing. I thought the commentary on memory was poignant and relevant and enjoyed the way our characters came to differing realisations after they heard or remembered something extra about their own past. Seeing as this is a drama about mental illness and mental scars, the drama did a good job at tying in mental wellbeing with our memories- we remember the trauma vividly, but gloss over the happier moments. We can remember second for second how someone else hurt us, but can remain completely oblivious when we are the one who has hurt someone else. There was a lot of great thought and insight in this drama, and it was great to see recurring ideas really be explored and extrapolated as the drama progressed. 

This show was a solid 'How To' on maximising flashback effectiveness

What Wasn’t:

Crummy Mum Reveal:

Moon Young’s Mum was an interesting character for most of the show’s run in the sense that she kind of just…wasn’t even a character. She was an idea, a memory, a bad dream. She was a manifestation of Moon Young’s fear. There was a lot of mystery surrounding Moon Young’s mother and why she and Moon Young had such a tumultuous relationship. She posed a great threat to our couple’s relationship,

Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope

in that her Mum’s previous jealousy and possessiveness of Moon Young clearly sparked a deep fear in her around getting close to other people, which is evident in her treatment of others in her every day life. While she was a phantom living in Moon Young’s mind she was truly frightening, as it is so insanely difficult to fight against something that exists only in your head. Moon Young’s night terrors and sleep paralysis were absolutely bone chilling, and created both distance and closeness between Moon Young and Kang Tae. Distance because there was no way for him to see and combat this ghost directly, and closeness because he was always there to remind Moon Young that she was safe and loved. She was also absolutely terrifying as the butterfly manifestation that terrorised Sang Tae and was the reason the brothers were constantly moving around- because Sang Tae was terrified of being murdered by her also. And that’s some severely scary sh*t. Where the show dropped the ball on Moon Young’s Mum was with the final reveal. It was creepy throughout the show wondering if she was alive out there somewhere, but she really lost a lot of her scare factor when she was finally revealed. While her being Nurse Park was a twist I admit I didn’t see coming, the final showdown between her and the three leads just felt a bit…weak. There’s three of them and one of her, and even with the psychological damage she has inflicted on Moon Young and Sang Tae, that still left one fully functional human to combat her. A tall, strong human no less.

She's so tiny next to Kim Soo Hyun

If the main characters hadn’t all made stupid decisions and split up (seriously I rolled my eyes so hard at that), they would have been able to alert the police and capture Nurse Park no problem. Perhaps it’s the fact that Nurse Park didn’t really do anything that made her lose a lot of her fear factor. She just kind of sang a song and laughed and said mean stuff. For how dramatic she had been set up all drama long, the final conflict was just a bit lame, and not nearly as thrilling as I was wanting.

Like, she was totally dead so how is she not?

I almost wish that the show had left Moon Young’s Mum as a phantom and that it was more time and emotional healing that the three characters needed as opposed to Nurse Park getting arrested and locked up forever. Though I suppose this ending did give us Sang Tae facing his fear and knocking Nurse Park unconscious to protect Moon Young (who he is now calling ‘my dongsaeng’) which was super adorable and super badass. I also literally have no idea how Nurse Park even survived being murdered by Moon Young’s Dad. Like, he pushed her off a balcony and her head cracked open and he then dragged her down into the basement, zipped her in a bag and threw her in the lake. How…how would an unconscious woman even get out of that situation and live? And what was up with the patient that was pretending to be Moon Young’s Mum- why would she do that? Honestly, I kind of thought that the show was going to make Nurse Park into a fan of Moon Young’s Mum’s books as having her be a sasaeng would explain how she knew so much about Moon Young’s family life, and also would have avoided the ‘how did she get out of the bag in the lake’ issue. It also would have left the ghost of Moon Young’s Mum out there still as there would have been no definite answer as to what happened to her. Which would have been mega creepy.  

Recommend?

Yes. There is literally no K-Drama fan I would not recommend this to.

A lovely family indeed

About Time

About Time

3/10

About Time

Genre:                                                    Episodes: 16                                   Year: 2018

Romance

Melodrama

Synopsis:

Choi Michaela has the ability to see how long people have left to live as a clock that counts backwards. She herself has only three months left to live when she meets Lee Do Ha, a man who causes her life-clock to stop when he is near her.

Cast:

Lee Sung Kyung (Choi Michaela)

Lee Sang Yoon (Lee Do Ha)

Kim Hae Sook (Oh So Nyeo)

Kim Dong Joon (Jo Jae Yoo)

Im Se Mi (Bae Soo Bong)

Han Seung Yeon (Jeon Sung Hee)

Ro Woon (Choi Hwi Jin)

Min Sung Wook (Lee Do Bin)

Kang Ki Doong (Park Woo Jin)

Tae In Ho (Park Sung Bin)

General Thoughts:

This drama basically took everything that has ever annoyed me in all the K-Dramas I've watched, and condensed it into one package. This has got to be one of the most stupid, pointless, and irritating dramas I have watched ever. Not just in my K-Drama watching career. I mean, ever. Even the weird shows my baby cousins watch that are just people playing with toys make more sense than this sad excuse for entertainment.

I swear this drama caused me actual physical pain

I feel bad saying it, because I know it sounds harsh- but it isn’t. This drama is just unbelievably bad, and everyone involved in its making needs to know so that they can never make some something like this again. From what I can tell, this is the writer’s first ever drama, and that’s really where all the problems start.

Whine on

I usually say that I find dramas that are character based more emotional and interesting than those that are plot driven. ‘About Time’ is an example of a drama that is trying to be character driven but just fails. There is nothing going on in the plot, and the characters can’t make the show interesting because they basically just suck. Well no, to be fair it’s really only Mi Ka that sucks, but seeing as she takes up 98% of all screen time, it does often feel like she’s the only character in this show. Essentially what this drama had was a great premise and no idea what to do with it. The idea of the heroine seeing lifespan as ticking clocks was cool in a creepy kind of way, and was ripe for all sorts of adventures. But not long after the start of the show it became evident that the life-clocks were no more than a quick gimmick to get people to tune in. There was no plan for what happened after. The life clocks were largely ignored as a whole, and were only used as a plot device to get Mi Ka and Do Ha into contact with each other, and then provide an excuse for them to separate. The life clocks were given no thought whatsoever. The reason Mi Ka and So Nyeo could see them was never explained, nor was it ever explained why Mi Ka was able to take time from Do Ha’s clock and add it to hers.

This could have been super cool, instead it was just super annoying

Then, of course, no explanation was given at the end when neither of the leads died, and Mi Ka suddenly stopped seeing life clocks. It was the central point of the show, and it was just swept under the rug, as if we haven’t just watched hours upon hours of this girl running away from this guy cuz she doesn’t want to steal his time. Then poof she can’t see the clocks and suddenly everything is fixed and they live happily ever after. Um, what? The addition of Mi Ka being a musical actress was kind of bizarre, and while I get that it was a part of her character and whatnot, I felt like the musical was squished into this drama in an awkward way that Do Ha’s super lame business plan just didn’t fix.

Everything about the musical was kinda cringey

His big business plan for his father’s multimillion dollar company is…a musical? It just didn’t make sense, and frankly the to-and-froing with the Chinese investor was confusing and boring. Thank goodness the writer at least had the good sense to keep the business/Chaebol side of things to a bare minimum.

Kind of makes our heroine a bit of a home wrecker

The one Chaebol aspect that did get focused on a lot was the arranged marriage. At first Soo Bong seemed like an interesting second lead, as she didn’t take issue with Do Ha seeing Mi Ka as she was under the impression that their marriage would still be going ahead. I must admit, that giving Do Ha a fiancé didn’t make Mi Ka look that great. Sure, Do Ha didn’t love Soo Bong or anything, but Mi Ka didn’t know that. The excuse for being near him was fair enough, but to start developing feelings for a guy that was going to get married is always a low move. It’s not even like Do Ha and Soo Bong disliked each other- they had a fairly good friendship, and until Mi Ka’s appearance Do Ha was pretty keen to get married to Soo Bong. It really felt as if Soo Bong was the one getting screwed over in that equation- which is probably why the drama decided to make her the classic spurned lover who is all but evil and will do anything to get what she wants. Even Soo Bong’s ‘I’ll break him if it means I can have him’ attitude was kind of interesting because, unlike most K-Drama villainous second female leads, it meant she knew exactly what she was doing. Her boring wind up (complete with attempt at revenge suicide) was honestly a bit of a let down for her character, and meant that Do Ha and Mi Ka didn’t actually have to do anything about the problem of the crazy fiancé because Soo Bong sorted out all her issues on her own.

Why would you even keep meeting up with the girl whose fiancé you stole? That seems like a poor plan

While I initially liked So Nyeo, the older lady Mi Ka was friends with, by the time the drama came to a close I honestly did not understand why she was included in the story at all. At first she’s just a cute friend for Mi Ka, but then it’s revealed that So Nyeo can also see life clocks, and she’s presented as a source of wisdom for Mi Ka, as she’s lived her whole life with the clock issue and should supposedly know some helpful hints.

Yes, yes, run away from your problems- that'll fix everything

Only when Mi Ka’s course of action is to ditch Do Ha and find a nice quiet corner to die in, So Nyeo thinks this is a fab plan. So much for her previous position that love and happiness are the most important. In fact, that was an issue I had with this drama as a whole. It kept presenting the idea that love was worth the risk, only our heroine never actually risked anything for love. She spent the whole drama running away, so when she was rewarded at the end with a miracle where everybody lived I was a little miffed. Because Mi Ka did absolutely nothing to earn that happy ending. I was so fed up and annoyed at this drama that I was out for blood- I wanted one of the two leads to die. Morbid? Probably, but still. I wanted Mi Ka to have to live with what she chose. I wanted Do Ha to ignore her and get on with his life, and for her to die regretting that she hadn’t tried to make things work. Because d*mn that girl was annoying and it made me mad that she gets out of the whole thing thinking she made the right calls, cuz she didn’t. Unlike the plot and the characters, the acting wasn’t too bad. In fact, it was pretty good. 

It did feel a bit like Lee Sang Yoon did most of the work- but maybe that's just because Mi Ka was a sucky character

Lee Sang Yoon is always delightful and loveable, and he brought his usual charms to Do Ha, and made him a sweet and likeable man. I’ve always thought Lee Sung Kyung is an acting powerhouse. She brought the emotions in the sadder scenes really well (even if I had emotionally checked out of the drama episodes ago), and despite thinking that Mi Ka is the stupidest most annoying person on the planet, Lee Sung Kyung at least made me believe that the character herself felt like she was making the right calls.

Sadly the chemistry didn't pop as much as I thought it would

Mi Ka felt a little less sporadic due to Lee Sung Kyung’s great performance, but even her amazing acting couldn’t make such an irritating character likeable. Unfortunately good acting alone isn’t enough to make a compelling story. 

What Was Great:

Smaller Roles:

There were a couple of characters sprinkled throughout the show that brought me actual enjoyment. I wouldn’t go as far as saying that the drama was worth watching for these characters alone, but when they were on my screen at least I could think that this drama wasn’t all bad. One such character was Do Ha’s secretary, Woo Jin, played by Kang Ki Doong.

This man is delightfully hilarious

I thought Kang Ki Doong was delightful as one of the officers in ‘Smart Prison Living’, but I honestly found him so charming and hilarious here. He truly made the role his own, and brought all his cute quirks to set to make a character that was just completely fun to watch. Kang Ki Doong has a kind of nervous energy that can make submissive characters so funny when paired with quiet comebacks and comments. Woo Jin rapidly became by favourite character, and I adored any interactions that went on between him and Do Ha. The noona romance between Mi Ka’s younger brother and her best friend was also an aspect of the show that I found fun to watch. While I don’t really like Ro Woon that much (I saw him on some variety show somewhere and he just seemed so full of himself), I will admit that he’s on his way to becoming a pretty decent actor. He nailed the role of the cheeky younger brother, but could also bring in a more serious vibe for the scenes that called for it. I’ve seen Seung Yeon act better than she did in this drama, but I still thought that she had good chemistry with Ro Woon, and enjoyed watching to see how their romance would play out.

#whoops

Then the drama did something truly delightful- even if it was only for a short time. It teased a love triangle between Woo Jin, Sung Hee and Hwi Jin. Yes, yes, and more yes. It was hilarious. Woo Jin and Sung Hee actually had really cute, awkward chemistry together, and before I knew what was happening I was shipping them. Add in the hot headed younger guy who gets insanely jealous and the whole situation was just delightful.

This love triangle > whatever stupidity is going on in the main storyline

I was pretty sad that we only got to see such a small amount of Woo Jin and Sung Hee together, and can’t help but wish that the drama had spent less time focusing on the leads not being together, and more time focusing on the beautifully hilarious situation going on with the side characters.

What Wasn’t:

Noble Idiocy in Overdrive:

I hate noble idiocy. I hate it. With the fire of a thousands suns. I don’t think I have ever sat down and watched some noble idiocy and thought ‘yeah, you know what, that seems like a logical and fair plan’. Except maybe ‘7 Day Queen’, but that was countered out by the amazing communication that went on between the leads.

Boy, save yourself a lot of energy and just walk away now

The leads here had very poor communication skills. Well, Do Ha’s weren’t bad, but Mi Ka seemed almost obsessed with keeping secrets and trying to do things on her own while leaving Do Ha out in the dark. She told Do Ha pretty early on about the life clocks, as it was her way of trying to convince him to let her stay with him. Then they fall in love in the span of about two seconds. Not long after this Mi Ka realised that she’s stealing Do Ha’s time and naturally decides to break up with him. Break Up 1- I don’t love you anymore so I’m leaving. Obviously a lie, and not a very good one, and in no way going to hurt Do Ha less than the truth. Break Up 2- You are stealing my time, and I want to live so I’m leaving. Slightly more believable, but still going to hurt Do Ha. The problem I have with this lie is that it then makes Do Ha look like a bit of a clown for continuously following Mi Ka around and asking her to stay with him. I guess the writer assumed that because we knew the truth we’d give him a pass, but if he actually was shortening her life it’s completely her call whether she wants to stay in the relationship or not, and following her around is totally not cool. Break Up 3- I’m stealing your time and I don’t want to live if it means killing you so I’m leaving.

If you're going to break up do it properly and f*ck off for good!

Finally the truth. Took us long enough to get there. The problem at this point is that Mi Ka still doesn’t feel the need to talk things out with Do Ha. She can only see things from her own perspective and don’t even give him a chance to explain what might be on his mind. She makes all the decisions in the relationship, and disappears whenever she likes.

I'm kinda bummed she didn't die so that he could get a new (better) girlfriend

Even during their brief reconciliation after she told him the truth, she was lying to him and plotting ways to run off on her own. It was exhausting and exasperating, and took up almost all of the drama's screen time. Cliche though it may be, what I was wanting from these two characters was for them (mainly Mi Ka) to realise that it is the happiness of a life, not its length, that is the most important, and for them to spend their days giving and receiving as much love as they can before their potentially tragic ending. What we got was Mi Ka constantly finding excuses to run away from Do Ha before being given a magic, unexplainable happy ending where the life clocks don’t matter and they both get to live. Like, what was the bloody point then? Answer- there was none. Also, on a side note, Mi Ka's Mum was just as stupid and annoying as Mi Ka. I mean, what kind of useless woman doesn't get a job to support her children, spends her daughter's savings, and then whines about her daughter getting mad about it. I guess it explains where all Mi Ka's annoyingness came from- it's hereditary.

Recommend?

Not even if I was dying and the only way to live was to get someone else to watch this drama. 

Don't let the pretty pictures you see online fool you- this drama sucks major donkey balls