People With Flaws

People With Flaws

6/10

People With Flaws

Genre:                                Episodes: 16                          Year: 2020

Romance

Comedy

Synopsis:

After his love confession was rejected because he was ugly and fat, Lee Kang Woo has become a handsome man who takes good care of his appearance. Joo Seo Yeon is a woman who has come to dislike handsome men due to the trouble she went through growing up with three handsome brothers. The two clash when Kang Woo becomes the Head Director at the school where Seo Yeon works.

Cast:

Oh Yeon Seo

Ahn Jae Hyun (Lee Kang Woo)

Kim Seul Gi (Kim Mi Kyung)

Gu Won (Lee Min Hyuk)

Heo Jeong Min (Park Hyun Soo)

Min Woo Hyuk (Joo Won Jae)

Cha In Ha (Joo Won Suk)

Jaeyong (Joo Seo Joon)

General Thoughts:

For my first drama of 2020 and my first drama back after my big hiatus, I was really hoping to snag a drama that was engaging, yet lighthearted, with a good cast and endearing characters. I know, it’s a lot to ask for in a drama. And ‘People With Flaws’ was unfortunately not that drama.

Not great, not horrendous

It wasn’t terrible, but it was just missing that special something that a show needs to make it stand out amongst the onslaught of K-Dramas we get every year. The plot in ‘People With Flaws’ moved very slowly, mainly choosing to focus on the relationship between the two leads, which itself was moving at a slow pace, and had a fair amount of back-and-forth going on.

This show was pretty but kinda plain

Coming from watching a huge string of plot-heavy Western shows (such as ‘The Witcher’), I struggled a bit with the slow pacing of the show. Perhaps if there had been a bit more going on with the characters, I could have stomached the pacing a bit better, but overall there wasn’t actually a lot going on with Seo Yeon and Kang Woo. I don’t really think that either Oh Yeon Seo nor Ahn Jae Hyun are particularly brilliant actors, but thought that they managed the characters well here. I do think that Oh Yeon Seo is much better at comedy than she is at anything else, so the slightly slapstciky, exaggerated humour of the show suited her well and played to her strengths, giving Seo Yeon a cute, quirky nature. I think I have only ever seen Ahn Jae Hyun play rich, arrogant men who think they are the most handsome thing on the planet (which I always find a bit hard to swallow because while Ahn Jae Hyun is by no means an unattractive man, he is just not my style). To be honest, he isn't the most…expressive actor. Cold, emotionless rich dudes seem very in his comfort zone. Thankfully, Ahn Jae Hyun broke out of that comfort zone a fair bit here, joining in on the comedic side of things. While I wasn’t sold on his performance all the time, I think it was a great step out for him to broaden his scope and develop his abilities a bit more.

This is the Ahn Jae Hyun I'm used to

And he’s put on weight which is GREAT- he looked much healthier than usual and, in my humble opinion, better. The chemistry between the leads wasn’t awful but it wasn’t good either. I find one of the more important things in a rom-com is the chemistry- I can sit through a bloody awful show but still find enjoyment in it if the chemistry between the leads is absolutely crackling (case en point- ‘Strong Woman Do Bong Soon’).

Did I only start this drama for Kim Seul Gi? Yes, yes I did.

There just wasn’t that sizzle between Ahn Jae Hyun and Oh Yeon Seo, and unfortunately I do think the drama suffered a bit for it, due to their relationship being the centre of the show. The support characters however, were acted very well. Kim Seul Gi is one of my favourite actresses, and she delivered a really charming second lead. Mi Kyung felt layered and fleshed out, and Kim Seul Gi was so good at delivering the comedy without ever taking it too far. She brought a chirpy quirkiness to Mi Kyung that instantly drew me into the character and made me want to see more of her on screen. Heo Jeong Min I usually find very good, but I do occasionally feel that he takes the comedy too far which can take away from the realism of the character. However, here he was absolutely brilliant. He brought the same energy to his character that Kim Seul Gi brought to hers, which made them one hell of an interesting pair. Won Jae’s bumbling attempts to seduce Mi Kyung while actually ending up insulting her were hilarious and extremely fun to watch. The two of them coming together over Kang Woo and Seo Yeon messy relationship felt organic and unforced, and helped along by Won Jae’s gentle care of her while her mother was unwell it felt like a natural conclusion for Mi Kyung to open up and start liking Woo Jae in return.

Their bickering was pretty fun

Unlike our second female lead, our second male lead didn’t quite hit the same sweet spot. Originally Min Hyuk was a sweet and endearing character, and his luring of Seo Yeon with food was cute and funny. For a good stint of the show I had a fair amount of Second Male Lead Syndrome, and was with Mi Kyung in cheering for him ending up with Seo Yeon rather than Kang Woo.

Kind felt like the writer sometimes forgot who the lead was...

But as the story progressed and it became clear that Seo Yeon had fallen for Kang Woo, it felt like the show didn’t exactly know what to do with Min Hyuk. They sort of toyed with the idea of Min Hyuk being a bad guy and booting Kang Woo out of the company and trying to steal his girl while he was at it- but honestly, it was a very half-assed attempt. It felt like a very round about way for getting Kang Woo out of the school, which he kind of needed to be for the next stage of the story. Then once the show was wrapping up, the writers decided to have Min Hyuk bow out of the running for Seo Yeon’s affections (even though he was out of that race from a long time ago), and then disappear off to some foreign country. Yup. Classic way of getting rid of the second lead- just ship him off overseas, that’ll do it. Gu Won did a great job of acting out Min Hyuk though. He had the perfect amount of cool mixed with awkwardness, and even while the show was toying with Min Hyuk being an *sshole, Gu Won was able to inject a level of pitifulness and regret into his character which prevented him from becoming too unlikeable (though he did come quite close).

Mi Kyung being a passive observer caught in the middle was just fab

The acting from Seo Yeon’s brothers was all fabulous, with Cha In Ha being a particular standout. He was able to bring a serious, sombre tone to his storyline, but could also use the seriousness of his character for comedic effect when playing the protective big brother role.

Kang Hee was so bad*ss

Min Wook Hyuk was great as comedic support, and I really enjoyed the scenes he was given. He didn’t have to foray too much into any serious acting, so I’m not sure how he’d fare for more emotional scenes, but he had good comedic timing and cute chemistry with Hwang Wool Seul Hye. Jaeyong is apparently an idol, which I couldn’t tell from his acting which is a good sign. While he wasn’t a standout, he gave a consistent, believable performance, and if he continues gradually building his experience I think he could become quite a good actor. On the female side, Hwang Woo Seul Hye was fabulous as the chaebol heir with a crush on the useless, but kindhearted, gold digger. I think it can be tricky giving a female character typical male characteristics (such as assertiveness and confidence) and not have them come off arrogant or irritating, but Hwang Woo Seul Hye was so good at balancing her character’s diligence and determination with her compassion and empathy that Kang Hee became a worthy Girl Crush character. Shin Do Hyun and Joo Hae Eun both gave good performances of their characters, but both also had so little screen time that it’s a little hard to comment to much more on their actual acting ability. 

What Was Great:

Variety of Characters:

There were a huuuuuge number of characters in this show, and all of them were interesting and unique. Having such a large number of characters meant that we got to see a variety of different relationships, and provided ways for our characters to show different sides of themselves.

These brothers improved every scene they were in

Our heroine was the tough gym teacher at school and with Kang Woo, but at home she’s the very loved younger sister of two protective older brothers. Making one of the older brothers gay was also an interesting and enjoyable move the writers made. In a society that isn’t exactly openly accepting of homosexuality,

All kids of cute

I enjoyed that the show not only introduced a gay character, but also went as far as to challenge the idea of the ‘typical gay man’. I’m not sure if South Korea has the same stereotype as the West, but Won Suk was a very masculine character, which isn’t really how the West paints gay characters. Won Suk got one of the more interesting side-stories, and his assistance in helping Ho Dol feel comfortable coming out was charming and so, so cute. I really enjoyed Won Jae’s storyline too and his romance with Kang Hee. The older siblings had a sense of responsibility that the younger siblings didn’t have to deal with, and it was interesting to watch that play out, though I do wish that the show didn’t bench their romance at the end. I'm still not even sure why they did- I know in the 80s it was frowned upon in Korea for siblings to date their sibling’s sibling (confusing wording, I know), but is it still? And Won Jae and Seo Yeon aren’t even blood related anyway, so I was a bit in the dark as to what was preventing Won Jae and Kang Hee from dating, particularly when it seemed like they were planning on continuing their relationship once Kang Woo and Seo Yeon were married.

I'm rooting for you!

Joo Hee and Seo Joon didn’t really have too much going on story-wise, but they had a cute bickering dynamic that was always enjoyable to watch on screen. I really enjoyed that Kang Woo’s family wasn’t your typical K-Drama chaebol family, and found them quite funny in the scenes they were given. Small things, such as Grandma saying she let Mum marry her son because she was rich, and Dad getting scolded at work by Kang Hee for playing games instead of working served to inject a lightheartedness into Kang Woo’s family that matched the tone of this show really well.

Could be cute, could be creepy

Jang Mi was a really interesting character, and for quite a while there I wasn’t sure which direction the drama was taking her in, though I am relieved that they didn’t make her into a creepy stalker. Her story of becoming self-confident enough to stand up to her abusive mother was interesting and a good wrap up to her character, but I do wish we’d gotten a bit more of her journey throughout the show. The weird twin swap thing that was going on with Kang Woo’s psychologist I could have done without though.

What Wasn’t:

Too Much Focus on OTP:

Where I felt this show really let itself down is that it had all these interesting characters with all these good actors playing them, and then didn’t do too much with them.

They were just...not that cute

While we were still treated to scenes of the side characters here and there, the leads dominated the screen time. Had something actually been happening between the leads this might not have been such a big deal, but all that really happened is: Kang Woo realised he still liked Seo Yeon, Seo Yeon started falling for Kang Woo, Seo Yeon realised Kang Woo was somewhat involved in the death of her parents, Kang Woo realised he was somewhat involved in the death of Seo Yeon’s parents, they both decide to date anyway. Yup. Not exactly 16 episodes worth of content. And yet we were constantly subjected to the two leads going through the motions and emotions in excruciating detail, while more interesting plots involving the other characters were delegated to the sidelines. As the drama progressed I really started to feel oversaturated by the leads, and it gave a sense of sameness to the episodes as they went by. Sure, the situation might be slightly different, but Kang Woo and Seo Yeon’s reactions tended to be pretty similar.

The moping in this show was killing meeeeee

Aspects of the main couple that could have been glossed over in order to give more screen time to another character were instead focused on and stretched out. Did we really need to delegate two and a half episodes to whether Seo Yeon and Kang Woo were going to sleep together?

Recommend?

Nope, as far as rom-coms go there is nothing in this drama that makes it standout above any other show.

Meandering and mediocre