2022 Jaybird Awards

 2022 Jaybird Awards

So we are basically halfway through 2023 and the 2022 shows I watched have still gone mostly uncommented on. I’m sorry I’m so busy! This has actually been written up for quite some time, it’s just taken me a while to get around to posting. I have to say that I wasn’t super enthusiastic about a lot of the dramas that I watched in 2022- there were a few good ones, but I feel like mostly they just felt average or kinda bad. I think with the limited number of dramas I can watch per year now, I just got mostly unlucky and picked some not-so-great shows to invest my time into. Hopefully my choices this year will be better!

Best RomCom AND Jaybird’s Choice: Business Proposal

I just thoroughly enjoyed this show. Which is quite amazing as it didn’t really deliver anything new or revolutionary in the K-Drama world. This show is solid proof that tropes are tropes for a reason- when they are done well they are so fun, so enjoyable, and so addictive. The cast was absolutely delightful and really brought the characters to life, and the whole show was just so darn FUN. The jokes were funny, the chemistry between the leads was sparky, and we even had a really wonderful, equally sparky second lead couple to fill in time that wasn’t dedicated to the main loveline. Every episode was a good time and it was easy to watch the next episode after each one ended. Just a good time all around.

Runner Up: Shooting Stars

Best Melodrama: Pachinko

I feel a little weird talking about ‘Pachinko’ because unlike a lot of dramas I watch which are light and fluffy and fairly inconsequential, ‘Pachinko’ felt like a big production and an important story. It was really a phenomenal drama. It touched on huge concepts such as identity, isolation from culture, and ostracism and discrimination. It’s a massive, intergenerational story that explores these themes and ideas from various time points and character perspectives. It’s shot so beautifully and the production quality is absolutely through the roof. The storytelling throughout the drama is so incredible and so emotive- you really feel for the characters and their struggles and the writing has this magical way of making you feel so connected to these characters, even though you might have absolutely nothing in common with them. It's an emotional story that has been brought to the screen in a truly brilliant way.

 

Best Thriller: All of Us Are Dead

What can I say, I like zombie shows. I don’t have much of a stomach for horror, but zombies are something I’m usually able to handle. I wouldn’t say ‘All of Us Are Dead’ did anything ground-breaking in the world of zombies, but it was an interesting watch all the same. I kind of like that in zombie movies and TV shows there’s a certain level of predictability- or maybe consistency is a better word? The show didn’t have to waste time explaining how zombies are infectious or how they work- it’s all common lore/mythos so the show is able to do a bit of character introduction and set up before jumping right into the zombie outbreak. I thought the setting of the school was a great new environment- all the characters are already acquainted and it also served to lower the age of the characters too. It was fascinating to watch the teens struggle between waiting for help from adults or striking out on their own. The young cast also delivered strong performances and made their characters understandable and empathetic. It was a great show with high stakes and high tension in each episode and is a great little addition into the zombie genre.

 

Least Thrilling Thriller: Through the Darkness

I wanted to like this show. I really, really, really wanted this to just be the absolute best show of the year. Evidently, I didn’t end up thinking it was, but I really tried to like this one. I've studied psychology and I have recently become an avid listener of a true crime podcast during my work commute, so this drama seemed like it should have been right up my alley! It’s literally a show about the psychology behind criminals! But despite the interesting synopsis, I never really found the show that engaging. I appreciated the time it took to show that the idea of a criminal profiler was difficult to introduce to detectives who had been making their way through their careers without it (and honestly, it would sound a bit like bullsh*t if you’d never heard of it before), but it was quite difficult to watch our little team constantly coming up against roadblocks from within  the police force itself. And then a huge chunk of this drama focused on how the compiling of the murderers’ stories was negatively impacting Ha Young’s mental health. Which is fair and a great point for the drama to delve into. I just don’t think it did it in a particularly interesting way.

 

Biggest Disappointment: Bad and Crazy

This is a drama that I have almost completed wiped from my memory. I was so excited for it and just got more and more hyped with every piece of promo material that came out. It was starring Lee Dong Wook who I will always be excited to see in a drama’s lineup. It also had a fabulous second male lead in Wi Ha Joon, fresh of the success of ‘Squid Game’. The drama promised excitement, comedy and best of all BROMANCE! But I am sad to say that it did not end up being very bromatic at all. The two main characters essentially fought all series long, and only came to an understanding in the last few episodes. And even then the cute friendship scenes were pretty minimal. The plot really dragged and I can’t remember finding any of the episodes all that exciting to watch. The ‘twist’ of Wi Ha Joon’s character not being real was pretty obvious and lacked emotional impact, and is probably part of the reason why the bromance suffered- can’t really be doing lots of cute friend things when there’s only one of you. I am also sad to say (trust me, I don’t like saying it) I don’t think the acting was very good. I know that both of these men are great actors so I can only assume that it was the blandness and shallowness of the script that was impacting on the two’s performances. Or maybe they were just having an off drama. Maybe both.

 

Most Overrated: Extraordinary Attorney Woo

It wasn’t a bad drama, but I certainly wouldn’t label it one of the best K-Drama’s I’ve ever seen. It was pleasantly mediocre. I’m not sure if it’s because it was a Korean drama aired on Netflix (and that it wasn’t dark and depressing like most Korean Netflix shows), or if it was because Park Eun Bin acted amazingly in it (which she did), but I was seeing this show absolutely EVERYWHERE. It was the first time I’d been getting K-drama snippets on my Instagram reels! Everyone was saying the show was insanely cute and insanely ground-breaking and it just…wasn’t really. It was simply fine. But I think after hearing it get talked up so much, I was expecting the drama to deliver more than it did, and I was left feeling a little disappointed.

Runner Up: Yumi’s Cells 2

 

Best Worldbuilding: Our Blues

It took me a little while to warm up to ‘Our Blues’, but once I fell into the style of storytelling and figured out how the drama was telling it’s story, I really enjoyed it. What the show did was introduce us to this one location in this one snippet of time, and then thoroughly explore the lives of a handful of characters that lived there. It’s not a super common way for a drama to unfold- most shows pick one main storyline and run with it, whereas ‘Our Blues’ had many smaller stories that all interweaved and interconnected. It gave us a really rich and vibrant selection of characters that interacted with each other at varying levels throughout the show’s run. A person that was a background character in one story was the main focus of another story- every background character had their own lives, their own struggles, and their own hopes and dreams. It made this little town feel very real and lived in, and exploring all the different characters in detail had a way of bringing the whole setting to life.

 

Biggest Disappointment: Love in Contract

Really only one word comes to mind when I think of this drama. Boring. Boring, boring, boring. Nothing was happening in the plot, the characters weren’t interesting, and there was less than zero chemistry between the leads. This show promised a lot of things that I usually enjoy- a contract relationship, Park Min Young, a cute, younger second-male lead, but it just didn’t deliver. The writing was all over the place, the pacing of the show was excruciatingly slow, and the heroine was kind of unlikeable. Looking back it seems that this was this writer’s first ever drama, so it kinda makes sense that it’s not this super clean script, but oh man, I just expected (and wanted) it to be better. I avoided Park Min Young’s last drama ‘Forecasting Love and Weather’ because I’d heard it was pretty bad, and honestly I sort of wish I’d done the same thing here. Is her drama before that ‘I’ll Find You on a Beautiful Day’ any better? Please, someone, anyone… I just want to watch Park Min Young in a drama that isn’t cr*p…

Love in Contract

 Love in Contract

4/10

Love in Contract

Genre:                                   Episodes: 16                           Year: 2022

Romance

Comedy

Synopsis:

Choi Sang Eun is a charismatic woman who works as a contract wife. Her job is to help her clients in situations where a wife is required- such as looking good for school reunions, climbing the social ladder at work, or avoiding pressure from family to settle down. Sang Eun has a long term client, Jung Ji Ho, who she sees on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. A new client, Kang Hae Jin, is a popular actor who has hired her for Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.

Cast:

Park Min Young (Choi Sang Eun)

Go Kyung Pyo (Jung Ji Ho)

Kim Jae Young (Kang Hae Jin)

Kang Hyung Suk (Woo Gwang Nam)

Jin Kyung (Yoo Mi Ho)

Lee Joo Bin (Jung Ji Eun)

General Thoughts:

I picked up this drama because I am a big fan of Park Min Young. Even though there was a lot of negativity floating around about this show, I honestly thought to myself “How bad can it be? Park Min Young chose to be in it,”. I wish I had listened to all those online posts saying that ‘Love in Contract’ was bad. Because sadly it is. And not even the good kind of bad where everything is so whacky that it’s almost fun to watch what a complete mess the show becomes. This show didn’t become a mess. It was just horribly, horrifically, mind-numbingly boring.

Big yawn

Most poor dramas tend to at least make it a good 5 or 6 episodes in before falling apart, but by episode 3 of ‘Love in Contract’ I was already pretty darn bored. There’s just no plot really. The whole set up of Sang Eun being a wife for hire was basically a lie, because after a short montage in the first episode, she retires. I kid you not. The whole THING of this show was that you could pay Sang Eun to be in a contract relationship and that was supposedly where all our story and tension would come from.

The contract expired before this drama even began

But then she retires except for two ‘clients’. Which pretty quickly takes it out of the professional realm and goes into personal. All the tropes you expect to get with a contract relationship (which is what people who like stories about contract relationships are looking for) just weren’t there. By the time the drama started it was pretty clear and obvious that Sang Eun had feelings for Ji Ho and Ji Ho had feelings for Sang Eun. There was no back and forth or awkwardness of getting around a predetermined relationship set up, and there was no proper confusion about whether the other persons’ feelings were genuine or if they were just playing a role. All the good parts about a scenario like this just weren’t in the show. And if they were in the show, they weren’t developed or explored fully. Even the supposed love-triangle was done poorly. By establishing Sang Eun’s feelings so early on in the show’s run, there was no real opportunity for Hae Jin to have a good chance. Which was a shame because he was probably the only character that didn’t bore me. I don’t think there was anyone watching this who honestly thought that Hae Jin had any hope of ending up with the girl. Beyond these two watered down scenarios, the only other storyline really happening was whatever the hell was going on between Sang Eun and Madam Yoo. And not only was that boring, but it was confusing too.

Why would you even offer to live with someone you actively dislike?

I actually didn’t mind where we ended up, with Madam Yoo being Sang Eun’s Mum and them both having known for a long time but just never broaching the subject. I just don’t like how it played out. Without knowing about the unique relationship between them it was completely baffling as to why Madam Yoo would go so out of her way to meddle in Sang Eun’s life, and why Sang Eun would go so far out of her way to make sure Madam Yoo had money and a place to live. For most of this drama’s run these two characters were making decisions that were virtually impossible for the viewers to understand as we had a big chunk of information missing that would only be revealed in the last few moments.

A lot of this drama would have made a lot more sense if we always knew they were related

I don’t think the relationship needed to be a big twist at the end- I think the drama would have benefitted more from giving insight into the life experiences and thought processes of the characters so that they could be understandable rather than holding back information to try and do a shock reveal- because by the time that reveal came, I really didn’t care anymore. It took too long to get there, and I had already mentally checked out. And then that bring us to the other main relationship Sang Eun had going on in her life- Ji Ho. I quite liked Ji Ho’s character at the start of the show- he seemed sweet but with a uniquely introverted and withdrawn nature.

Ain't no spice in this dish

For a while it was fun to see the differences between Ji Ho’s mindset of minding his own business to the extreme and Sang Eun’s mindset of caring way too much about everyone else's perception (which was kinda just her job). But then it rather quickly became obvious that the writer had absolutely no idea what to do with Ji Ho’s character. He was developed so poorly as the drama progressed that he stopped making any sense at all. Supposedly his divorce was so traumatic that it caused him to completely turn inwards and just start ignoring everyone else around him. Only we then find out that his divorce was due to…miscommunication. You know, the same reason 90% of divorces happen. Why this was so traumatic and why he blamed himself so much for it was left mainly up to the viewers’ imaginations. So it was never really explained why Ji Ho started to shun being social so much. I mean, he has to have been normal and social enough before to date and get married, right? So what happened? Similarly, he then starts to get along with Sang Eun and all his coworkers pretty easily once he decides to date her. Just because that’s what's convenient. This relationship is supposedly so amazing and so life-altering that it changes his outlook on the world completely, and changes how everyone he knows views him. But a major problem here is that there was NO CHEMISTRY. I have never seen Park Min Young not have chemistry with someone, but there you go. There was no spark between the leads and it just felt kind of awkward. The whole relationship felt very immature and high-schooly considering that they were both adults and one of them had been married before.

The show totally glossed over how and why they fell for each other too...

When so much of a drama is riding on nothing more than a romance, it’s super disappointing when that romance is lacklustre. While the characters were all fairly cr*p, I will say that the acting was good. There was nothing amazing (as with such a boring storyline the actors weren’t asked to deliver much), but at least I can say that the actors did a good enough job with the complete amount of nothing they were given.

I didn't really ship her with anyone to be honest

I’m not a huge fan of Go Kyung Pyo- not for any particular reason, he just lacks that sort of sparkle that really makes you love a leading actor. But he did do a good enough job of giving a bit of emotion to a very quiet character which can be a tricky ask. Did I completely love him? No. But did I find him annoying and terrible? Also no. So I mean, that’s a win I guess. On the other hand, Kim Jae Young felt much more male-leady. He had a more engaging character so that was probably a contributing factor. Hae Jin was also a much more emotional character than any of the others in this show, so he expressed himself often and had a larger range of emotions to portray. Not only did this give us insight into exactly how Hae Jin was feeling as a character, but it made Kim Jae Young feel like he was doing a really great job at bringing Hae Jin to life. There was an energy he provided to Hae Jin that just made him likeable as a character and made him stand out a tad more that Go Kyung Pyo. Poor Go Kyung Pyo- there’s only so much you can do when your character’s description is literally just be blank.

What Was Great:

Low Toxicity:

Do I have to put something in this section? I do? Fine, I'll try. While many of the characters were annoying or a little unlikeable, I will say that none of them were outright toxic or completely horrible. When Ji Ho’s ex, Ji Eun, came on the scene I honestly thought they were going to have her be a super b*tchy, horrible character whose only agenda was to break up the leading couple in some deluded attempt to get her ex back.

Though admittedly this drama did need some better conflict

But I was pretty thankful when that didn’t happen- I’ve seen enough spiteful exes on my screen for a lifetime. Similarly, Madam Yoo had a redemption arc towards the end as her character was explored more, and even the two Chaebol families weren’t that bad. They were stubborn and didn’t listen, but they weren’t outright hostile. Except for maybe Sun Jin, but to be honest he was around so sporadically and I really didn’t have any clue what his nefarious schemes were or why they mattered, so he was pretty easy to overlook and forget.

What Wasn’t:

The Leading Lady:

She was just so annoying guys. I couldn’t cope with how much I didn’t like Sang Eun. Even with Park Min Young acting her, there was just no way to save this character for me. I’m sure the writers thought they were giving us a bubbly, perky, somewhat sassy heroine, but that is just not what ended up happening.

Like, could she BE any more self-obsessed?

Sang Eun was so self-absorbed. It’s like the show thought they were giving us a heroine that was extremely selfless because her job was about ‘helping’ people who were needing ways out of certain situations. But that’s just not the case! Sure, Sang Eun focused on her clients when she was with them- else she wouldn’t get paid and she wouldn’t have a job! But when she was on her own time all she seemed to care about was herself- how she was feeling, what she was going through, what she was doing. I cannot count the amount of times Kwang Nam (who was DELIGHTFUL by the way) was trying to tell Sang Eun something or have a serious conversation with her about something he was going through just for her to brush him off or minimise his feelings. This is supposed to be her best friend and she cannot give him even five minutes of her d*mn time to hear him out. Even with Ji Ho she seemed to always be forcing what she wanted onto him. A stand-out in my mind is the hospital scene. Ji Ho didn’t want a fuss and just wanted to go home but Sang Eun completely ignored him and dismissed his feelings and took it upon herself to get him a private room and do it up like a mini house. Not only did Ji Ho not ask for this- he specifically said he didn’t want it. He had to come up with some bullsh*t lie in order to get Sang Eun to finally stop and let him go home. Was this behaviour supposed to be cute? It’s not! It’s controlling and annoying and not a sign of a healthy relationship! To be honest, I actually think I liked Sang Eun better when she was being a chaebol.

Also what the f*ck was with her ghosting Ji Ho in that last episode? He should have dumped her for that alone

In one of the last episodes where she strolls into Hae Jin’s company and utterly destroys Hae Jin’s brother, she was pretty cool. The icy, I’m-the-greatest-thing-ever concept really worked in this sort of Chaebol scenario. I don’t think I’ve ever said this before, but I think I would have preferred if the heroine had just been a Chaebol. It would have made her b*tchy, self-centred character a lot more tolerable.

Recommend?

No. I ignored all the bad things I’d heard about this drama, but please don’t ignore me. You will regret it.

Yay- it's over!

Extraordinary Attorney Woo

 Extraordinary Attorney Woo

6.5/10

Extraordinary Attorney Woo

Genre:                                 Episodes: 16                                  Year: 2022

Romance

Comedy

Synopsis:

Woo Young Woo is a lawyer who has recently landed a job at a prestigious law firm. While she is incredibly intelligent, she has autism and struggles with her social skills. While working she faces discrimination and hardship, but is also able to use her unique skills and perspective when it comes to managing her cases. 

Cast:

Park Eun Bin (Woo Young Woo)

Kang Tae Oh (Lee Joon Ho)

Ha Yoon Kyung (Choi Soo Yeon)

Joo Jong Hyuk (Kwon Min Woo)

Kang Ki Young (Jung Myung Suk)

Jeon Bae Soo (Woo Hwang Ho)

Joo Hyun Young (Dong Geu Rami)

Jin Kyung (Tae Soo Mi)

General Thoughts:

I feel like I’m on the outs with this one. So, so, so, so, SO many people seem to love this show and I just…don’t. I was pulled into watching it as I saw a bunch of cute clips on Instagram and it made the show seem like a fun little romcom. Unfortunately for me all of those clips came from the same episode and a half, and that was about as much lovey dovey cuteness as we ever got.

I mean, it's really my own fault- I know I don't like law dramas

This show was a lot more law-y and work focused that I was really expecting it be. And honestly if there’s one thing that turns me off wanting to watch a drama it’s law. Lawyer, prosecutor, judge- these are all key-words that make me go ‘no thanks’ when reading a K-Drama synopsis. But the cute Instagram scenes. They lured me in. It’s not like it was all bad, I liked the show more than I disliked it and was quite on board for the first few episodes. But after a while all the episodes started to feel a bit the same and it just didn’t feel like the plot was going anywhere. I wasn’t getting the romcom vibes I was expecting and it left me feeling very unenthusiastic to watch the next episode. Of course I must commend the writers and the show as a whole for giving us such a unique heroine that is a part of a group of people who are not usually represented in a positive light in media.

I just wanted more cuteness guys, that's all

Having the main character be autistic was a bold choice, and one that I do think paid of well. Young Woo is a memorable character, and you can’t help but be happy thinking about all the people watching who have never seen a character like themselves on screen before.  I think they handled Young Woo’s autism in a tasteful and well balanced way- it didn’t entirely gloss over the challenges of autism or developmental delays, but it certainly didn’t demonise it either which is what we are all much more used to seeing in media. Unfortunately all the thought and consideration and development that went into Young Woo’s character didn’t make it into the other characters. There wasn’t a huge range of characters that were that integral to the story, and it was mainly just those that worked at Hanbada with Young Woo. Joon Ho had all the making of a sweet and charming leading man, and Kang Tae Oh certainly gave the character a lot of charisma and made him easy to like. But all we ever really learned about his character is that he’s a really nice guy. He’s just a good dude. Which is fine, but it doesn’t make the character super memorable, and meant Joon Ho never really had a sense of individuality- he was just kind of there being nice. And niceness alone isn’t really enough to make me route for a loveline. Similarly, Young Woo’s direct colleagues, Soo Yeon and Min Woo, weren’t developed much either.

Some more girl bonding moments wouldn't have gone astray either

Oh they tried to develop Min Woo but it was not done well at all. And like Joon Ho, Soo Yeon’s main quality was that she was, you guessed it, nice! Not that there’s anything wrong with having a drama full of nice people, I just need a bit more to really be able to fall in love with the characters. Everyone in this show (apart from Woo Young) just seemed to have been given one word personalities- Soo Yeon and Joon Ho were ‘nice’, Min Woo and Woo Young’s Mum were ‘ambitious’ and Geu Rami and Min Shik were ‘quirky’. The only character that seems to escape this vague characterisation was Myung Seok, and that’s really only because he had an entire plot line dedicated to his illness and resulting epiphany. But that let Kang Ki Young have more screen time so I am certainly not complaining- I think he’s a fabulous actor who is able to make side characters endearing and memorable, as is showcased here.

I will always have time for Kang Ki Young

As I mentioned before, the storyline of this show was really focused on the law firm and the cases that they were handling. It felt quite episodic with Woo Young’s team handling a new case each episode with each issue usually being introduced, explored and resolved within the hour. On the plus side this means that we have a revolving door of new characters to get to know and all the cases were examining different issues and ideas. There was also usually also a link between the case being worked on and Woo Young’s life- such as Woo Young contemplating her own ability to love and be loved after the case involving a mentally delayed woman and her ‘gigolo’ boyfriend. On the down side, it meant that all the episodes felt very samey. They all followed the same kind of formula, and there wasn’t really anything unexpected happening. With so many smaller issues being the sole focus of the show, it felt like it took away from the show as a whole- the pacing of the entire series felt very laboured and slow, and apart from the budding relationship between Woo Young and Joon Ho there wasn’t really an ongoing plotline. The final episode with the tension between Woo Young, her Mum and her half-brother was actually quite interesting and I kind of wish that there was some way that this plot point could have been an ongoing one throughout more of the episodes.

So much potential...

I felt like the potential jealousy (or lack thereof) of Tae Su Mi raising her son when she had abandoned Woo Young could have been a really interesting concept to explore, and I think I would have enjoyed watching the relationship develop between Woo Young and her half-brother. All in all, there were parts of ‘Attorney Woo’ that were quite good, but I just feel like there didn’t need to be 16 episodes of it. Honestly, I think the whole thing could have been super condensed down into a really fun movie of just over two hours. 

What Was Great:

Extraordinary Actor Park:

This was basically the Park Eun Bin show. Every character took a backseat to Young Woo, and likewise all other actors took a backseat to Park Eun Bin. She was phenomenal in this role. I think she approached the role of Young Woo with a seriousness and open-mindedness that really allowed the character to bloom into one that has undoubtably become one of the most well loved in 2022.

She was wonderful in every way

Of course a lot of credit must go to the writers for creating such a fabulous depiction of autism for Park Eun Bin to bring to life, but Park Eun Bin herself just really put the magical finishing touches on the character. Her mannerisms, movements, speech and even eye contact did a fabulous job at reflecting Young Woo's neurodiversity. I loved how Park Eun Bin was still able to show that Young Woo was thoughtful and considerate in her own way, even if the way she portrayed that and how she related to others was different to most people. It was obvious that Park Eun Bin approached the character with a sense of respect and fully embraced every aspect of Young Woo-the quirks and traits that made Young Woo unique and that were cues to her autism were realistic and consistent. Neither the writers nor Park Eun Bin would bring in a trait or a behaviour once before abandoning it just to wave a flag that said ‘autism’ in the face of the viewers- all Young Woo’s behaviours felt very well thought through and were evident from the first episode until the last. Throughout the whole show it just really felt like Park Eun Bin had  embodied the character of Young Woo, and she really did give an extraordinary performance in every episode.  

What Wasn’t:

Slow Development:

The pacing of this show was just really slow. Not necessarily the pacing of the episodes- the episodes themselves had a really good pace and balance. But the overall story. There wasn’t much overall story to begin with, and unfortunately there also just wasn’t a lot of character and relationship development to pad that out.

The whale obsession was fun though

Geu Rami and Min Shik are already established as Young Woo’s friends at the start of the show and they don’t really change that much throughout the drama’s duration. Similarly, Soo Yeon and Min Woo don’t really go through that much development either (until the last two episodes and then I hated the way that development went). So really what we are left with is the relationship between Young Woo and Joon Ho. It’s just. So slow.

He just...he looks like he hates this

And I know that a part of that is to represent just how much time and how careful Young Woo and Joon Ho have to be as they navigate this new territory, but I’m sure there was a better way to get that across than just throwing in a few doe eyed looks and forced skinship in a couple of episodes. I really wish the show had dedicated more time to the good parts of Young Woo and Joon Ho’s relationship. We saw their struggles with Joon Ho’s family not being accepting and with Joon Ho feeling unimportant due to Young Woo’s fixation on her cases, so I feel like there really needed to be some super cute and happy moments to balance that out. And there just wasn’t. We got a few cute scenes early on when they decided to date and that was pretty much it. From that point onwards we really never got to see them being happy together. We sure heard about it- they told other people and each other how much they liked each other and wanted to be together but I just didn’t see it. During young Woo’s date ideas, such as dolphin protests, Joon Ho looked bored and embarrassed. And touch was an important part of the relationship for Joon Ho, but anytime they kissed or held hands Young Woo looked massively uncomfortable and that left Joon Ho feeling bad. I wanted to see their relationship succeed and it felt like the writers really wanted to make their relationship succeed but they just weren’t exactly sure how.

I just wasn't buying what they were selling

The drama took so long to get Young Woo and Joon Ho to the point that they were dating that their breakup and reconciliation at the end felt completely rushed and I was left feeling unsatisfied with the conclusion. I didn’t feel like enough of the relationship was developed and explored and so by the end I felt like Joon Ho would always be sacrificing what he wanted and compromising for Young Woo, and Young Woo would always be left wondering why he was frustrated and upset. And I wanted more than that for them.

Lame Lawyer Kwon:

I’m going to level with you. I hate Min Woo. I just really do. He embodies absolutely everything that I dislike in a person and in a character. He’s arrogant, hypocritical, selfish, petulant and has a whacky inferiority complex while at the same time acting so darn superior to everyone around him.

100% *sshat

The fact that he could even look at Young Woo, see (and then ignore) the challenges she has faced, and still have the gall to say she receives special treatment was just so frustrating. And I get it. That was the point. His character was supposed to evoke these sorts of feeling in the viewers because Min Woo’s attitude is not rare. It’s all around us. But because we aren’t directly involved, it doesn’t have much impact on us. But it does have an impact seeing that attitude directed towards a character that we are given understanding and insight to, and that we have come to love and care for. Which fine. I get it. But then the drama tries to…give him…a redemption arc?

Excuse me, drama- what the f*ck is this? Hard pass.

Yes, what the f*ck is the correct response to that, and it is also the response I had when the drama starting trying that sh*t on. Min Woo is the closest thing we have to an ongoing antagonist in this show and we’re just supposed to forgive him? For all his backstabbing and rudeness and entitlement? No thanks. What made this all worse was having Geu Rami have a crush on him and Soo Yeon eventually start to fall for him. Like, maybe Geu Rami can have a pass because I can just go ahead and assume that maybe Young Woo never told her about Min Woo’s attempts to sabotage her at work. But Soo Yeon has no excuse. I really liked Soo Yeon as a character, so for her to be just lumped in with Min Woo was incredibly aggravating. Soo Yeon has been shown to be a good friend and colleague to Young Woo, and was often shown as defending her. She was highly critical of not only the way Min Woo acted toward Woo Young, but the way he perceived her. It was literally the way Min Woo’s brain worked that made Soo Yeon dislike him. But then he buys some flowers and opens her beer while in Jeju (which is just totally unbelievable based off of what we have seen of his character right up until that point) and then she just likes him. Yup. Just like that. Lame lame lame. And then magically because Soo Yeon likes him, Min Woo just stops being a d*ck. The man who has been shown to care about nothing but advancing his own career suddenly develops a conscience thanks to the power of friendship.  

Recommend?

No, I don’t think so. There were parts to this show that were really great, but overall I just really don’t think it’s that impressive. People who are interested in law dramas (ie. not me) would probably like this one though.

I'm sorry to say that I just didn't find this show that extraordinary