Introverted Boss

Introverted Boss

6.5/10

Introverted Boss

Genre:                                Episodes: 16                          Year: 2017

Romance

Comedy

Synopsis:

Eun Hwan Ki is the CEO of a highly successful public relations company. He suffers from extreme shyness, and due to his inability to interact well with his staff he has earned a reputation as a cold, uncaring boss. A bright, energetic girl, Chae Ro Woon, enters Hwan Ki’s company in order to uncover the truth and get revenge for a secretary that committed suicide at the company three years ago.

Cast:

Yeon Woo Jin (Eun Hwan Ki)

Park Hye Soo (Chae Ro Woon)

Yoon Park (Kang Woo Il)

Gong Seung Yeon (Eun Yi Soo)

Han Chae Ah (Chae Ji Hye)

Ye Ji Won (Dang Yoo Hee)

Jun Hyo Seong (Kim Kyo Ri)

Heo Jeong Min (Eom Sun Bong)

Han Jae Suk (Jang Se Jong)

General Thoughts:

Sadly, the extreme amount of cute from our leading man couldn’t quite cover up the extreme lack of plot in our story. I adored Yeon Woon Jin as Hwan Ki and the Silent Monster team, but a lack of sense and a lack of consistency meant that the plot felt mishandled and discordant.

I adore how awkward he is with everything

For the plot, I think the re-write is where a lot went wrong. I really commend the writers for listening to their audience and trying to adjust their drama to the viewer’s tastes (because what use is a drama with characters no one likes?) but unfortunately this meant that the plot ran into some obstacles further down the road. Perhaps it’s because I watch Western TV as well as Korean, but I’m used to pushy, outspoken, mildly annoying female characters, so I don’t think I was quite as averse to the original Ro Woon as the Korean audience was.

I mean, at least she's not a Candy girl

Sure, I definitely found her annoying and could not comprehend for a moment how she was not being fired what with her blatant lack of respect, so I really didn’t mind her being toned down at all. Until we started nearing the end of the drama. It was then that I started to suspect that not only was Ro Woon’s character toned down, but due to her being toned down, parts of the plot had to be changed- most notably being that the revenge story was basically discarded. Which didn’t matter at all until the last two or three episodes when suddenly nothing was happening and there was a huge inconsistency in Ro Woon’s reactions. The writer did a brilliant job at first adjusting the script so that you wouldn’t notice the re-write unless you’d heard the news, but by the end there was certainly something not quite adding up. Our story opens with Ro Woon wanting to completely destroy the man she thought pushed her sister to suicide even though she had no evidence to support that Hwan Ki had anything to do with her sister’s death. Then at the end, she’s flat-out told that Woo Il is the one who put Ro Woon’s sister in an awkward situation that most likely contributed to her suicidal thoughts and…nothing. Ro Woon cries and…moves on? Yeah, it wasn’t smooth at all.

⇧This is the big emotional payoff for the major plot-line. Yeah. ⇧

I didn’t really have a problem with Park Hye Soo’s acting, it was more the way the character was written that confused me. For sure, I think that Park Hye Soo is more suited for cute comedy over obnoxious, revenge-driven characters, but at the end of the day it was the way Ro Woon was written that made her character seem strange and amiss. However, the story was really quite enjoyable while it focused on Hwan Ki and him learning how to communicate with those around him. Before the show entered its final stages, the re-write seemed to be going quite smoothly.

I'm a total sucker for cute couple stuff

By softening Ro Woon’s character, we got to see lots of cute couple moments sprinkled throughout the series rather than only getting them at the end. As well as Ro Woon, it was fantastic to see our main man start to develop his relationships with the other employees that were a part of Silent Monster. It was wonderful to see how uniquely he thought of each of them, and how he could assign projects to the one most suited to it. As Hwan Ki learned how to interact with his employees, they also learned how to understand Hwan Ki’s intentions, and it was fun watching each of them connect to their strange boss in a different way. I wish that we’d got to see a bit more of the other members of the team, as it was with them that I found a lot of the heart of the show. Including the team members showed how Hwan Ki was learning to socialise with everyone- not just the girl he was interested in. The middle portion of this drama was highly enjoyable, but the start and the end were pretty shaky. 

What Was Great:

The Introverted Boss:

By far the greatest thing about this drama was its hero. Hwan Ki was just all kinds of delightful. Being a total introvert myself, I was definitely drawn to Hwan Ki and his struggles. Though personally I would’ve labelled Hwan Ki as psychologically scarred, I guess ‘Severely Socially Anxious Boss’ just doesn’t have the same ring to it.

I want to snuggle all his sadness away

Hwan Ki was able to be nervous and scared without ever coming across as weak, which is quite an achievement character-wise. Yeon Woo Jin really acted him to perfection so that every effort Hwan Ki made seemed like a courageous step forward rather that something he should have been able to do anyway- like tell someone he liked his coffee sweet.

As a chronic over-thinker, I identify with Hwan Ki on so many levels

The comedy was always pretty present around our hero which kept the tone light and didn't let him wander too far into the realm of emotionally damaged. Yeon Woo Jin was so good at being able to present Hwan Ki’s introverted nature in different ways. In some scenes his individual monologue and internal freak-outs were hilarious, and in others it was heart-wrenching. Yeon Woo Jin's facial expressions (his eyes in particular) were so on point that it made it easy to connect with and understand Hwan Ki, yet it still remained believable that those around him couldn’t decipher what he was thinking. The little cartoons that often accompanied Hwan Ki’s thought processes were also cute as. One of the things that really made Hwan Ki such a wonderful character and a hero that was easy to root for was just that he tried so hard. There were no points in the drama where Hwan Ki gave up- he was constantly battling his insecurities to try and better himself, better the company, or protect someone he loved. You really just wanted to reach through the screen and give him a big hug.

An Abundance of Cute:

The 6 to 8 episodes in the middle there when Ro Woon wasn’t a snoopy b*tch and before the plot started doling out unearned redemption arcs, the relationship between Ro Woon and Hwan Ki was actually pretty sweet.

I don't know where the introvert learned how to kiss so well, but I'm sure glad he figured it out

I liked watching Ro Woon slowly start to draw Hwan Ki out of his shell, and how she started helping him interact with the other members of the team. Watching Hwan Ki awkwardly interacting with those around him was probably the best part of the show, so adding a dose of romance in as well was really nice. The interactions between all the members of Silent Monster were really fun, and showed that the the series could have been a really cute rom-com had it not tried too hard with the mystery-suicide storyline. 

I wouldn't have minded waaaaaay more team shenanigans

What Wasn’t:

I Still Don’t Know What Unnie’s Suicide was About:

I’m not sure if this plot-line was something that got lost in the re-write or if it was always this all over the place- but what the hell? The story arc of Ro Woon’s sister’s suicide just really made no sense. The writer amped up the mystery element so much that it made it super disappointing that it was just a straight-up suicide and didn’t actually have a murder-twist or at least an accident-twist.

I thought there was more to it but there really kinda wasn't

Because the fact is, there’s not a lot of story to work with if it’s a suicide. Okay, I’m sure Ro Woon gained some closure on finding out the reasoning behind her sister choice, but the fact is that we all went into this drama looking for someone to blame. And you kind of can’t blame anyone for a suicide, particularly in Ji Hye’s case, because none of the scenarios that were explored were really adequate reasons why a seemingly mentally sound person would throw herself out a window (because we were shown nothing that would lead us to the conclusion that she was depressed or psychologically unstable). At least when the plot seemed like it was leaning towards Woo Il as the cause (because the plot apparently really needed to blame someone for Ji Hye’s own decision to jump) it made a bit of sense. Young, innocent girl gets mass amounts of attention from her crush, sleeps with him, then finds out he’s engaged and telling everyone she came onto him and it was a mistake and she means nothing. Sure, I can see why that maybe would have lead Ji Hye to the window ledge.

I can roll with Woo Il being the bad guy cuz he's super gross and super sleazy

But then they tried pushing the blame back onto Hwan Ki. No, nope, never. It made no sense, and Hwan Ki is precious and gorgeous so don’t you dare make him feel guilty about this. Because it is in no way Hwan Ki’s fault that he didn’t show romantic interest in a girl that never confessed and was actually actively helping him woo another girl.

I don't even know

Especially when you consider that she slept with his best friend. The show seemed super unwilling to label Woo Il as a rapist (because how would they redeem him then?), yet is seemed weird that Ji Hye was so into Hwan Ki to the point that she would kill herself for not being able to confess to him and then slept with someone else. No show, just no. I’m sure situations like this actually do happen, but in a series that is so clear-cut like this one, I need obvious reasons why the characters acted the way they did. And we did not get that with Ji Hye at all. Right until the end there were viewers debating why Ji Hye did what she did, and it’s really not okay to have your main plot-point be so convoluted and confusing- especially when it plays into whether our leading couple will be together or not. And look, I'm not gonna lie, I'm pretty seriously against movies and shows assigning blame to someone else over a suicide- because harsh as it seems, no one except the one who died can really be attributed as the cause. And this was so not the drama to explore those dark, uncomfortable themes of who's at fault for a suicide.

Woo Il’s Not a Bad Guy?: 

So Woo Il’s a total toxic asshat but he gets a redemption arc anyway. Super lame, and super uncomfortable. He’s been characterised as a chronic cheater who destroys most of his relationships, both with women and with Hwan Ki. I loathed the way the bromance was forced down our throats. I’m always a fan of bromance, but this was so not okay. While Woo Il never really actively worked against Hwan Ki in the company, he also didn’t go out of his way to help him either.

I never thought I'd say this- but get that bromance away from me

He was happy to use all Hwan Ki’s ideas and stand in the limelight taking all the credit, and made no effort to dispel the rumours about Hwan Ki being a cruel, cold boss who mistreated and overworked his employees. Woo Il also actively put Hwan Ki down when he was trying to muster up the courage to speak in public, which is super not an okay thing to do to your best friend. Then Woo Il cheats on Hwan Ki’s sister once, and almost twice.

Ew x2

He’s so uncaring towards Yi Soo that she actually starts harming herself to get his attention. While I can’t outright blame Woo Il for Yi Soo’s self-harm, the way he treated her was still far from okay, and definitely did her more harm than good. Then apparently everyone forgets these things. Yeah. What. Woo Il gets virtually no consequences for his actions. He volunteers at an orphanage for a while before being invited back to the company by Hwan Ki, who still treats him like a friend (ew). And that’s not all. The writers actually go as far as to try and make me believe that Woo Il has fallen in love with Yi Soo (who still isn’t getting professional help for her self-harm I might add) for realsies, and that they make a cute, happy couple. They don’t make a cute happy couple at all! He’s the biggest coward on the planet and she has enough psychological distress to fill a small ocean! The show clearly wanted to have an edgy dark undertone, but didn’t quite have the balls to go all the way, so we ended up with a drama that wasn’t satisfying in a cute, fluffy way or a solved mystery way. 

Suddenly Not an Introvert:

Along with Woo Il suddenly becoming repentant and not being a giant jerkface anymore, Hwan Ki apparently lost all his anxiety. At the beginning of the series he couldn’t even look his own assistant in the eye, but by the end he was doing a dancing serenade in front of his whole company.

I don't know how we got here

It would have been more believable had the entire series focused on reducing Hwan Ki’s anxiety, however instead the writers chose to focus on Ro Woon’s sister’s suicide, which left Hwan Ki’s sudden transformation confusing and inexplicable. I mean, the only other time Hwan Ki did something in front of people was when he gave a presentation he’d meticulously prepared for, and he still fainted and became extremely sick just from that.

I kinda miss him being awkward and misunderstood 

I dearly wish that Hwan Ki’s quiet, introverted nature had been explained more than Unnie’s suicide. Because no matter how sad a death is (and this one wasn’t even that sad because it was just far too confusing), I’m always much more engaged by current issues- not issues rooted solely in the past. I found the small glimpse we got of Ro Woon and Hwan Ki’s clashing personalities in that final episode deeply interesting, and wish we’d got way more of it. I’d much rather watch two people who love each other battle to understand and compromise rather than watching an issue that can only really be resolved by time- like the revelation of Ji Hye’s feelings for Hwan Ki. It would have been nice if the show focused more on Hwan Ki’s social anxiety and how he overcame it rather than just brushing over it completely.

Recommend?

Look, probably not. While the drama had some really cute moments and I totally adore our leading man and his character, I can’t deny that the plot’s just not very good. There are definitely worse dramas out there, but ‘Introverted Boss’ sadly doesn’t flow all that smoothly.

Not flawless, but I adore Yeon Woo Jin as Hwan Ki

Age of Youth

Age of Youth

8/10

Age of Youth

Genre:                               Episodes: 12                         Year: 2016

Melodrama

Synopsis:

Five university students live in a share house, and each girl lives with their own dreams and struggles. The story follows the five girls and their friendships as they learn about each other and the secrets they each keep hidden.

Cast:

Han Ye Ri (Yoon Jin Myung)

Park Hye Soo (Yoo Eun Jae)

Hwa Young (Kang Yi Na)

Han Seung Yeon (Jung Ye Eun)

Park Eun Bin (Song Ji Won)

Shin Hyun Soo (Yoon Jong Yeol)

Yoon Park (Park Jae Wan)

Ji Il Joo (Go Doo Young)

Son Seung Won (Im Sung Min)

Yoon Jong Hoon (Seo Dong Joo)

General Thoughts:

While in no way perfect, the drama still manages to capture hearts, tug at your emotions, and leave in a sadly satisfying way. It’s not often that I find myself sad to watch a drama go (especially not with those longer ones that drag on for more episodes than necessary), but it was a tad sad having to say goodbye to these five wonderful girls.

Our glorious heroines

The writer did such a great job with these characters, as did the actresses who portrayed them. While each girl was distinctly different and had their own quirky characteristics, they never fell into a typical K-Drama heroine category. While the girls definitely had overarching qualities that you could use to label them (studious, shy, glamorous, bubbly, loud) there was so much more to every one of their characters.

Girl friendships are where it's at

To add to how amazing our five heroines were, we had the splendid friendship that was shared between them. The show really hit the nail on the head with the way it began. We enter into this share-house with Eun Jae, who is as new to the situation as we are, so it gives us time to observe the other girls that will be in our story. Then as each episode goes by we have a different main narrator for the hour, with one girl taking centre stage for that episode. Yet the other girls were always present, sometimes coming in with snippets of their own story, sometimes being completely involved in another’s story as either a support, a friend, or an obstacle. As for each girl’s story, they were all unique and different. While most of the stories were a little too dramatic to be considered ‘everyday’ stories, there were always aspects of our characters and their situations that felt similar and relatable: feeling isolated, lost, confused and scared as you try to make your way through the world as an ‘adult’. While none of the storylines were exactly new, the writing and characters were like a breath of fresh air, and completely invigorated the story, making it seem totally original again. I loved that the show felt very ’20’. I haven’t watched a heap of shows that focus on this stage of life, so it was nice to have a drama that was so focused on this period.

Welcome to the 20s- where we drink away our problems

Most dramas tend to go for late 20s-30 and focus on an everlasting love, or on the teens and first love. But ‘Age of Youth’ focuses itself on that weirdly messy period of time in between. Our characters have all made mistakes and have pasts that they have to deal with, but they also have such a question-mark over their futures. Plot-wise I do wish we’d got into some of the stories a little quicker, as while the pacing of the show never felt drawn out (yay for 12 episodes), it did feel a little rushed at the end in regards to Eun Jae’s story, and Ji Won didn’t even really get a story at all.

There were some great love-lines flying around

And while I love that the series focused mainly on the relationships between the girls, I do wish we’d had just a smidge more on the boys. Jae Wan and Doo Young had the perfect amount of screen time and story, but I wouldn’t have been mad if the other three boys were given a little more attention. Jong Yeol had a cute love-line, but did disappear in the middle there as the drama only focused a lot on Eun Jae in the beginning and then at the end. Our other two boys, Sung Min and Dong Joo, were hard to catch a glimpse of. Blink and you might miss them. I do wish that a little more effort had been put into Dong Joo and Yi Na’s relationship, as I found Dong Joo such an interesting character. It’s pretty common to see the ‘sugar daddy’ card played, so I enjoyed that this drama branched out a little and had a male gold-digger. It’s not a new or unheard of concept, but it is rarely seen on screen. His feelings for Yi Na were pretty heavily hinted at, and I dearly wish we could have seen some sort of reciprocated feelings on Yi Na's part. Son Seung Won caught my eye as the young version of the villain in ‘Healer’ and I’ve eagerly anticipated seeing him in more roles since then. Sadly, his character here is pretty blasé and relatively unimportant- but he did sparkle nicely in those scenes he was given.

If you'd made some moves on her maybe you would have gotten more screen-time

The cinematography was beautiful and really gave the whole show a melancholy, reflective feeling. The shots and angles were lovely, but what really caught my attention was the colour of this drama. It’s very soft and clean and gives off a bit of a dream-like, nostalgic quality that was simply stunning. The music helped support this weird (yet totally likeable) melancholy but heartwarming vibe, and really gave the show a sense of endearment. 

What Was Great:

Our Girls:

The characters were great and the actresses were great. If you have both of those things, it’s pretty hard to dislike the characters. Every girl had both likeable and dislikable aspects, and the show really capitalised on that, showing how relationships must overcome these less than wonderful parts of a person in order to be able to continue enjoying all these other wonderful things about them.

You can't not love these girls

What was really sweet about the relationships between the girls is that it wasn’t super in-your-face that they were making a drama that focused on female friendships. While the heart and soul of this drama was definitely all the gal pals, the lovely friendship moments came about in beautifully unforced ways. It was sweet and natural and never overplayed, which only made it that much more rewarding to watch.

Oddly dark for a slice-of-life drama

Rather than having great acts of friendship to display the love between the girls, the show opted for rather mundane, everyday, yet totally heart-tugging ways for the girls to show that they cared, and this made all the relationships feel wonderfully real and authentic.

Our Stories:

I was thoroughly invested in all the different stories going on in this drama. The romances were adorable and you couldn’t help but root for our heroines in all their endeavours- romance or other. The drama shined light on every one of our girls (though Ji Won definitely got less light than the others), and as each story slowly played out, we learned more and more about our different girls, their pasts, and what shaped them into the people they were in the present. It’s a wonderful example of beautiful, fluid writing that keeps the series completely engaging from start to finish. 

Our Visuals:

It’s so pretty to watch. Obviously the girls are all gorgeous and stunning (especially Hwa Young- I mean really, how can anyone be that attractive?), and the boys aren’t bad to look at either. But what really set the drama apart from others visually was the beautiful way it was shot. Even in the funny moments the drama managed to snag a rather thoughtful, pensive tone. The whole thing was just so, so pretty.

It was so nice to look at

What Wasn’t:

Some Unanswered Questions:

While all the stories were loveable and engaging, there were some aspects to them that left me wanting a little more explanation. My main question-mark after the series ended was what the deal was with the ballerina ex-roommate.

Please give me my answers now

It felt like the drama had more mysteries it wanted to go into regarding her character- it felt like she was going to be used for more than just a tool to have Eun Jae suspect that her roommates weren’t very nice people. I kept expecting her to make a reappearance (maybe as a part of Ji Won’s story as she was rather story-less, and is ballerina the Hyo Jin that Ji Won called out to in one of the epilogues?). But alas, she never returned. I felt a little disappointed that this question wasn’t answered- simply because the drama had set her up like some big secret. None of the girls seemed comfortable talking about her and it just seemed like one big lie that she left because she got knocked up. After learning more about each of the housemates, I seriously doubt they’d cut ties with someone just because she got pregnant. But unfortunately for us, we’ll never know. Another unanswered question was the ringing in Ji Won’s ears. Seeing as she was supposedly lying about seeing ghosts and reading auras, I wondered if maybe she did have some supernatural power she didn’t know about yet. But that seemed to eventuate to nothing, and the drama ended without really explaining Ji Won’s ringing ears. And then there’s Doo Young. While we do get to see occasional instances of him being a giant jerk, he mostly just came across as a boyfriend who took his girlfriend for granted.

From uncaring to crazy in one fell swoop

While I appreciate that the show did go into domestic violence, I would have liked to see a gradual buildup to Ye Eun’s kidnapping, as it just seemed to be a bolt from the blue. I think it would have had more effect if his violent behaviours started of small and we saw Ye Eun ignoring or explaining away his actions until it climaxed at the kidnapping. As it was, it was a tad random to have him turn into a deranged, psychopathic kidnapper when he’d really been played as a disinterested boyfriend who cheats for most of the show’s run.

Re-watch?

I would love to go back and revisit this drama when I have the time. The relationships (both friendship and romantic) were just so sweet, and the drama has managed to snag a rather unique niche for itself where there’s nothing else quite like it around. It’s truly a very, very enjoyable drama.

Super satisfying