Tomorrow With You

Tomorrow With You

5.5/10

Tomorrow With You

Genre:                                 Episodes: 16                            Year: 2017

Romance

Mystery

Synopsis:

Yoo So Joon is a time-traveller who is able to go to the future by riding the subway. On one of his trips to the future, So Joon witnesses his own death. In an attempt to try and change his future, So Joon marries Song Ma Rin, a woman who died at the exact same time as So Joon in the same accident. 

Cast:

Lee Je Hoon (Yoo So Joon)

Shin Min Ah (Song Ma Rin)

Jo Han Chul (Song Doo Shik)

Baek Hyun Jin (Kim Young Jin)

Kang Ki Doong (Kang Ki Doong)

Kim Ye Won (Lee Gun Sook)

Park Joo Hee (Shin Se Young)

General Thoughts:

This drama made me feel so schizophrenic it’s not funny. There were times I completely adored our characters and times I wanted to lean right through the screen and give them a whack upside the head. Unfortunately, these feelings were split pretty 50/50 so I only really enjoyed about half of my time watching this show- because I just don’t really like feeling insanely frustrated at the main characters.

You guys are adorable but dumb

In the beginning So Joon was annoying because of his inability to tell his wife the truth. Not even only about him being a time traveller, but he seemed to lie to her about stupid small things as well. And really, Shin Min Ah is so cute, and her character here was pretty sweet, so it felt uncomfortable seeing So Joon basically taking her for a ride.

Though I definitely preferred when they weren't fighting

I mean, her whole marriage was a lie. Poor girl. I was pretty on board the angst that resulted after Ma Rin found out about his lies though. It felt like a really genuine relationship problem when one half of the relationship isn’t quite as ready to open up about everything as the other. I was totally on Ma Rin’s side during these arguments, and it did feel like we’d made some ground when So Joon opened up and told her about his parents and his sense of guilt. It was these types of arguments and small baby steps forward together that I really enjoyed. Trying to change the future alone and lying about it? Not so much. Generally speaking I liked all the side characters, and I wouldn’t have complained if they’d grabbed a bit more screen time. Considering how many side characters we had, we saw very little of them, and learned virtually nothing about them. Ki Doong was fab as our time traveller’s side-kick and I warmed up to his romance with Se Young once she finally quit being whiney about the guy she never confessed her feelings to getting married. Despite how annoying Gun Sook was in the beginning, I ended up loving the frenemy relationship between her and Ma Rin, and the show really missed out on having a fantastic female friendship there. The two girls almost got to the point of being close buddies, but I felt like they never quite got there.

The house of rebelling wives

I also lament all the juicy fallout we could have had in the breakdown of Gun Sook’s marriage. Like, she was dating our Big Evil Murderer, and it would have been so interesting to watch her marriage completely crumble (more than what was shown), and have her jump completely onto Team Time Travel (cuz she really only jumped halfway and then got pushed down by her cray cray husband). Ah, what could have been.

He killed people because the show needed a villain- let's leave it at that

I wasn’t totally sold on our villain either. He just didn’t get enough back story or enough development. I never had a solid understanding of who he was as a character or why he was so desperate to force this one deal through. And if he’s desperate enough to start killing people, I probably should know what the dealio is. I mean, Young Jin just straight up wasn’t that scary. I never really felt any fear for our main characters in regards to Young Jin, as I just could not for the life of me comprehend how a friggin’ time traveller who knows the future could be out-manoeuvred by a businessman. Sure he was a corrupt businessman, but it’s not like he was an evil genius or anything- he was just a regular-ass dude. Like how…how is he causing you people any trouble at all, I don’t understand. And I guess when you don’t understand the villains motivations or how no one can bring him down, the drama does lose a lot of its fun. The soundtrack was lovely, and I didn’t think it was out to manipulate our emotions- it simply reinforced what we were already seeing on screen. While there’s no song in particular that sticks in my mind, I do remember it being a nice OST. The whole show was shot rather nicely and did have a prettiness to it that enforced the lovey-dovey moments, but also tended to be darker and more colourless during sad or angsty parts of the series (ie. the future).

The dark future where everyone dies

Similarly to the soundtrack, the colour palate was a subtle way of clueing us into the emotions of the characters and was a way to tighten suspense. There were plenty of good aspects to ‘Tomorrow With You’, but at the end of the day it was the trajectory of the plot and its resolution that left me feeling rather dissatisfied. I mean, when you’re a time travel drama you’ve got to be pretty smart and pretty slick- and I don’t really think this drama was either of those things. 

What Was Great:

Sparks:

Well Shin Min Ah and Lee Je Hoon sure had a bunch of chemistry. They were so adorable and so believable as honeymoon lovers. Tell you what, if I were Kim Woo Bin I’d probably not be watching this drama cuz that might spark some mad jealousy.

They're so cute and snuggly

But it made for some believable romance, that’s for sure. I felt like Shin Min Ah stepped up her acting game a bit in this- not a lot, but a bit. I’ve always found her believable in cutesy romance, but I could really connect with her during the scenes of her fighting with her husband too. Yay- believable anger! I think her crying still needs a bit of work, but she acted everything else really well. And Lee Je Hoon is just marvellous.

I want couple jammies. Added bonus if Lee Je Hoon is in them.

Even when his character is being super annoying. And the cute scenes of these guys together were just so cute. It really felt like you were watching two people fall in love. A lot of Korean actors and actresses seem to not like touching each other even when they’re acting in a romance- and when they don’t want to touch each other, the audience can see it. But here our leads had a whole bunch of skinship and a whooooole lot of hugging and kissing scenes, but they didn’t seem awkward or uncomfortable at all. And that more than anything is what really sells a romance. The two looked and felt comfortable together and seemed like they actually wanted to get closer to each other and had fantastic loving expressions. The romance was by far the best aspect of the show, so it was wonderful that Shin Min Ah and Lee Je Hoon were able to generate such crackling chemistry. Even when the rest of the plot sort of fell apart, you were still cheering for these two to get a happy ending.

Acting:

I think I sort of went into this a bit above, but the acting really was very good. And not just from the leads. The support characters were all really excellently acted as well. Though I still don’t quite understand what was going on with the villain, I will say that Baek Hyun Jin acted him really well. I might not know why or how he got so bat-sh*t crazy, but I did believe that he was bat-sh*t crazy, and I guess of the two that one really is a smidge more important.

What a total nutbar

Baek Hyun Jin progressed well from under-appreciated businessman to psycho criminal. Early in the piece he didn’t drop too many clues that he would become a huge villain later on, but still dropped hints that there was no way that Young Jin would ever wind up on Team Time Traveller. I also thought that Jo Han Chul put in a great performance as well. He does awkward and uncomfortable so well, and he brought a lot of that to the table, which always adds a bit of humour. 

What Wasn’t:

Unexplained:

Yeah, so basically the big hole in this drama is that the time travel isn’t explained. At all. At the very least, it’s supposed to have rules, but even that doesn’t seem to be the case. If there were rules, they were very poorly explained, and probably completely discarded at times.

Apparently only boys can hang out in the future

For starters, it’s very weird how both So Joon and Ma Rin’s father got sweet time travel powers and Ma Rin didn’t. Why? Is the time travel god a sexist? It was made even more obvious in the scene where Ma Rin actively tries to time travel the way So Joon does. Like, the scene is super cute, but also reiterates how odd and inconsistent the rules around the time jumping was. She was in the exact same circumstance as the other two, yet completely missed out on all the magic. The show also never really made a clear stance on whether the future could be changed or not (y’know until the end when they didn’t die). Because for a show whose whole gimmick was that the hero was a TIME TRAVELER there wasn’t a whole heap of changing the future going on. For how much time So Joon spent worrying about and travelling to the future, he honestly didn’t do much to try and change it. Except marry Ma Rin, but that was the whole point of the show so that doesn’t really count. I’m also confused as to how So Joon ended up stuck in 2022. Like, why is that a thing?

I didn't know that getting stabbed in the tumtum would put you in a coma, but there you go

The show offered absolutely no explanation as to why So Joon was in a coma for two years after travelling to the future. It also offered no explanation as to why So Joon came out of the coma and couldn’t time travel back to his present after he woke up. They threw around little hypothesis, but never actually confirmed anything. Then, it was never explained why he suddenly could time travel back to his present- except that it was convenient for the plot. And apparently, the rule is that So Joon can only exist in times that he’s alive, but we saw no trace of 2022 So Joon, and when So Joon travelled back to his present, he was still expecting to die in 2019. Which means that there wouldn’t have been a So Joon alive in 2022. Which means that that rule is bullsh*t. I mean really, for a whole time travel drama, the time travel wasn’t very well thought out.

I don't understand how this works. I don't understand how any of this works.

Why Y'all so Daft?:

Characters acted stupidly at frequent times throughout this drama. So Joon was Stupid Number 1. In that it’s really his fault that Se Young’s father died. Like, sorry but it is. If you know a dude is gonna die, then maybe you shouldn’t let him walk around alone. Especially if you think he’s gonna get murdered.

I love you, but you're not very good at changing the future

So Joon already suspected that Se Young’s father’s death was a murder, but instead of simply sticking to that dude like glue, he makes all these convoluted plans to fly him to Japan and whatever. Then he’s kidnapped and murdered anyway. I just kind of think, that maybe if you were there that probably wouldn’t have happened. So Joon also gets double stupid points (along with a not learning anything point) for leaving Ma Rin alone moments before she gets kidnapped. Like, what’s so important that you can’t stay in a taxi 10 minutes and get your wife home. It was literally the situation that f*cked up So Joon’s future the most and he’s just like ‘nah, you can get a taxi alone right?’. So of course she gets kidnapped and of course So Joon gets on the train that’s going to cause him to go missing in the future. Of course. Because apparently knowledge of the future is NOTHING. I still don’t understand why So Joon even had to get on the train in the first place. The police are already there, and it’s not like Young Jin can escape from a moving train. It’s like So Joon just really felt like throwing himself into this situation he’s been trying to avoid for the last couple of months. Stupid Number 2 goes to Ma Rin’s father. Because really. He put in some super halfassed attempts to get Young Jin away from So Joon. I still don’t understand how not telling So Joon that Young Jin was a psycho was going to do anyone any good.

Should I tell him about the murderer? Nah, I'm sure not telling So Joon there's a bad guy will reduce the badness of the baddie.

Like, if they’d just arrested him early on for embezzlement then Se Young’s father wouldn’t have died, that other dude wouldn’t have died, and So Joon wouldn’t have gotten stuck in the future. I’m just saying, it doesn’t really seem like he tried very hard to stop that happening. Stupid Number 3 goes to Ma Rin for lying about Young Jin in the future. Like, you don’t even have any mystical time travel abilities, so why on Earth do you think lying about the evil murderer is going to do So Joon any good.

It's hard to feel bad for you when you could have easily avoided this whole situation

Maybe you should have been like, oh yeah I found some crucial evidence and then I got kidnapped and this is where he took me, so you don’t need to worry about meeting him, just take the evidence off me and hand it to the cops. Boom problem solved. A little bit of blame does have to go to Ki Doong here too, cuz I’m pretty sure that So Joon even told him about the lies future Ki Doong told him, so when Ma Rin suggested the plan in 2019, Ki Doong probably should have been like ‘oh no, that’s what you did last time and it totally didn’t work’. It really just felt like the writers weren’t trying very hard to show that the characters had exhausted all their options. Had there been legitimate reasons for these stupid moments to occur, I wouldn’t be half as upset about them as I am. But instead it’s like the characters chose to ignore very simple solutions to their problems (like maybe stay home and have a movie date and not go anywhere near cars on the day you’re supposed to die), and instead chose very complicated routes that were really bound to end up in a failure. This drama made me feel really smart, but not in a good way. 

Recommend?

Look, if you’re a huge fan of Shin Min Ah or Lee Je Hoon I’d probably recommend it because they’re just so cute together, and they do deliver pretty great performances. If you’re wanting a solid time-travel drama though, I’d advise you to look somewhere else.

Half cute, half why-is-everyone-in-this-show-so-dumb

Top 5 Annoying Candy Girls

Top 5 

Annoying Candy Girls

Ah, the Candy girl. It’s one of K-Dramas favourite tropes and you’ll pretty much find one every two or three series you watch. Basically a Candy girl is that character who is bubbly, bright and innocent. She’s K-Drama’s average girl who comes from a normal family background, or more often than not a poor family. The main characteristics of our Candy heroines are that they are somehow always the subject of misfortune. Whether it’s family debt, no school tuition or some other unfortunate circumstance our Candy tends to stay happy and upbeat. While being depicted as a regular, non-spectacular girl, she somehow manages to snag the attention of handsome (often rich) men. Candy girls are often the heroines in Cinderella-like stories- cheerful, regular girl in unfortunate circumstances is courted by a ridiculously good looking man (or men). Although Candy girls can make decent heroines, they’re starting to get a little over-used and now come across as bland and boring rather than a nice everyday girl. Their ability to see the best in everyone can sometimes make them look stupid rather than forgiving, and Candy girls tend to be fairly prone to noble idiocy (leaving for the greater good). When constructed poorly, Candy heroines can come across daft and annoying, and completely undeserving of their much better developed hero’s affections. Here’s my top 5 pick of Candy girls so candy that they’ve become annoying.

5: Cinderella and Four Knights

Very obviously a Cinderella-esque story. Our Candy girl lives with her mean step-mother and step-sister and works several part-time jobs to save up for paying her tuition. So obviously a Candy girl. The heroine is happy and optimistic despite her hardships and magically finds herself living with three young, handsome grandsons of a large company. I will admit that this heroine had a smidge more personality than most Candy girls, but was mostly reduced to being the quiet girl that the three rich boys could fight over and try to win. While not the worst character out there, our heroine’s Candy traits definitely made her more annoying rather than appealing. It also didn’t help that the drama just wasn’t very good.

4: Princess Hours

An average high school girl finds out she has an arranged marriage to the Prince of Korea. While the girl starts out with a bit of personality she takes the typical trajectory of a Candy. Even though she does virtually nothing to win the favour of the Prince, he falls for her anyway. As does the other Prince. Our heroine this time takes the weepy road- a common road for Candies to take. When the hardships all become to much she just deteriorates into a crying, blubbering mess and does nothing to improve her situation. The heroine's innocent, idealistic nature more often than not comes across as stupid, and makes it difficult to pity her when she encounters a rough situation.

3: The Heirs

Park Shin Hye is pretty much known for her Candy roles. In most of the dramas she acts in she tends to be a Candy girl, and ‘Heirs’ is definitely not an exception. Park Shin Hye’s character has virtually no character to speak of, and spends the entire drama being dragged around by the two male leads who have for some unknown reason fallen for her. This heroine exhibits all traits of a typical Candy girl- she’s pretty happy-go-lucky with a tendency to be quiet, lets men drag her around by the wrist regardless of if she wants to go with them or not, does not actively participate in kisses (just stands there with her eyes open and let’s the young chaebol kiss her), and cries. Oh and noble idiocy. Lots of noble idiocy from the Candy girl.

2: Moon that Embraces the Sun

This is a strange one in that I don’t actually think that the heroine was supposed to be a Candy at all. It just goes to show the overall negative connotations that follow the Candy idea around. While the young actors were amazing, particularly the young heroine, once we switch to the older actors everything just kind of falls apart. The heroine loses her memories (which doesn’t help her Candiness), and with them basically all her personality. She becomes blank and boring and serves no greater purpose than being someone the King is all angsty about. Our heroine wore a vacant expression for the majority of the series. Even when she cried she was kind of blank. As a typical annoying Candy she never really did anything and basically just let every other person in the story dictate her life. And of course she didn't kiss back either.

1: Boys Over Flowers

The Candiest Candy on this list- Geum Jan Di. The situation is similar to ‘Heirs’- normal high school girl gets enrolled in a school for the rich and prestigious and BOOM all the young, wealthy boys want to make her their Cinderella. Not only is Jan Di a typical Candy character (hardworking, bubbly, innocent to the point of naivety), but so many Candy situations happen to her. A main point of the Candy girls is that despite their apparent ‘normality’, everyone takes an interest in them, be they girl, boy or villain. So of course every situation under the sun happens to Jan Di so that she can show just how optimistic or forgiving or bright her character is, despite going through constant hardship. And of course this also means that the hero (and his best friend) have plenty of opportunities to come save her. Jan Di ends up being an annoying Candy for a number of reasons. 1- Her forgiving nature often puts her back in danger making her seem dumb rather than generous. 2- She often never actually did anything when she was in a bad situation and just waited around for someone to save her. 3- She cried. A lot. 4- She was an annoying Candy for an extended period of time (24 episodes as opposed to the usual 16).

Who are your least favourite Candies?

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