Office Romance Cruelty (2022)

The perfect representation of right person, bad time

Forecasting Love and Weather managed to receive a decent amount of hate since it came out earlier this year. I personally was very excited for its release because it is starring one of my favourite K-Drama actresses - Park Min Young - whose work, never disappoints.

Its start was quite slow, the first few episodes dragged out a little and the writer really liked to experiment with messing up the timeline or omitting certain details from viewers which completely change the perspective of a scene at the start and throughout vs the end. This is also a technique the writer kept close to heart throughout the drama.

The relationship between the FL and ML developed very quickly and in my opinion at a very bad time; they both had just broken up with their partners and their lives were a depressed mess where a new relationship didn't make sense, yet they fell in love and wanted to be together.

I feel like a lot of people are needlessly comparing this drama to A Business Proposal which came out at the same time as Forecasting. However, comparing the two is a big mistake. A Business Proposal is a quirky, fun rom-com meanwhile Forecasting Love and Weather is about relationships and life.

The drama analyses three different types of relationships:
- Romantic
- Family
- And professional.

It toys around with hard-hitting themes like parents manipulating their children or being way too nosy and pressuring their children into marriage, the line you draw between colleagues and lovers and where you stand with your exes.

I was gassed to see a female lead, finally, who was in a superior position at work to the male lead - she was his boss. And this new perspective gave office romance dramas a new theme to work with.

The couple's relationship comparison to the weather also spoke volumes to the drama's central theme. I like how the relationship between the ML and FL wasn't pink and colourful all the time, but instead, blue and grey because relationships are never like A Business Proposal or Her Private Life, they require work and understanding and most importantly communication (which was a long way coming for the main couple here).

A lot of people also discussed the FL's ad ML's relationship with their exes. Personally, I think the drama portrayed the relationship one has with their long time ex pretty well. Not everyone can just block their number and forget them - even though that would have been the healthiest way to deal with things - sometimes people from your past linger in your contacts a little longer than you hoped they would, other times, they become your friends.

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Not Good Enough

Korean Drama "Forecasting Weather and Love" is a drama about the struggles of dating in the office.

The drama gives some insight into how weather forecasting works, which was interesting. The first episodes were also entertaining and had a nice pace.

Unfortunately, the rest of the drama was boring and predictable. The love story had few twists and the couple was tiring. The second couple was probably there to annoy the main lead, but later on, their story took off.

The side stories were also pretty solid. However, they were pushed aside by the stale main story and had a rushed conclusion and rocky progress.

As for the performances, they were all good by everyone in the cast. But the characters were weak and had few things to offer. Therefore they were not memorable nor had any material for the actors to work with.

So, overall, 2.5 out of 10.

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I was surprised to see Park Min Young & Song Kang Paired together.

I was intrigued by the actors playing the leads, which brought me here.

Ep 1: Having watched Cho Young Pil go crazy over weather forecast in Samdalri, I was happy to see another crazy forecaster in Shi Woo. I liked how he stood up to Ha Kyung when he knew he was right. I think him calling her out on her personal issues was a bit too much. Now, let's talk about the trashy ex. Moron got caught cheating, so he married the woman he cheated with. He took half of the expensive stuff as if it was his own, wants the FL to sell the apartment and split the costs (this maybe is fine, since they weren't married) But he wasn't remorseful about his actions at all. FL looked heartbroken when she caught him in the act. Gives me the eck!

Ep 2: What an horrible ex to have. Not only is he even a little bit apologetic, but he goes around flaunting his relationship with his new wife without even consideration for her feelings. Whenever him and his wife come on screen they spoil the whole watching experience for me. The leads have good chemistry together. I'm so glad that Ha Kyung finally spoke her mind. The guy didn't contribute to most of it. She was the one who paid for most of the stuff including the house they were living in. He wanted to go half when all he paid was for 7%. He had the guts to ask for those things after he cheated on her. So damn low. Shee Woo's ex isn't any better either. She keep pretending as if she is gods gift to the world.

Ep 3 to Ep 8: Both Shee Woo & Ha Kyung are gradually learning to trust each other. They are quite a few setbacks which include their idiot exes who can't seem to lie in the beds they made. Ki Joon is such a hypocrite, it was fine when he lived with Ha kyung before but he can't accept his wife's past because she lived with another dude before she got hitched to him. She isn't any better, why not be upfront about her past. I think she got together with Ki Joon because she thought he had money, but learning that he doesn't have much and that they both would have to work to earn a house for themselves seems to make her so uncomfortable. As if someone owes her a house. Now that they both have found out that their exes are dating each other, pretty sure they are going to go out of their way to tell them that they are wrong to be dating.

Ep 9 to Ep 16: This arc was very frustrating to watch. The leads kept dragging the same issue without resolving it. It was frustrating and painful to watch. Why suggest break up if you don't want to? You clearly have different ideas of what you want from life. One wants to be married the other doesn't. Why torture each other needlessly? Is there not going to be any resentment down the line? I was so upset with how Shee Woo was dealing with things that I wanted Ha Kyung to meet someone else at this point. Someone who wouldn't make her constantly doubt her worth. At the same time, I felt that Shee Woo was in need of a therapist. If after dealing with his issues he still felt the same way about marriage then that would have been more logical.

As much as I like them for a short arc, it wasn't that fun to watch. It was interesting but that's about it.

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Great cast, good acting, interesting theme, good camera work

I really enjoyed this series, so I'm surprised at the negative reviews. I liked it enough to watch some behind the scenes videos that showed how the actors worked to perfect each scene. Dialog and movements were much more ad-libbed and less scripted than I imagined, and I was impressed how they improved from the first run-thoughs.. The weather theme and some poetry enters each episode and is thoughtful. The cast commented that they knew nothing about weather forecasting and had to learn a lot just to carry the scenes. The sound tracks were enjoyable for the most part. ( A song toward the end was a little over the top ) . Camera work, color grading, and editing were also well done.

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Excellent...for 6 episodes

Stop there. You'll enjoy it. PMY kicks all kinds of ass. I rate the first 6 eps 9.5/10.

It's appalling how much the show undermines her after that.

The kid is okay at the beginning. Arrogant, but sincere. His transparency is a welcome balm after the tribulations she goes through at the start.

The secondary couple are garbage people. Stop before their "redemption arc" gets going.

The mom is horrible and never gets any better. No loss there.

All you will miss really is a cutesy third couple. You will save yourself so much heartache and disappointment.

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Boring and Bland with a Side of Toxic Relationships

I manage to go as far as ep 8, but I can't really find the enthusiasm to push through until the end. Other than a few scenes together where they disagree on things at work or work together to resolve work-related problems, I can’t really understand where and how they fell in love. Maybe it’s just “he’s young and hot,” “she’s older and hot”, so let’s just make out. I don’t know. Unfortunately, the pairing looks wrong: she looks like a tired working woman in her 30s and he looks like a recent college grad. When the two of them are together making out, I just want to look away. Now, if there was some chemistry, some fire in this relationship, I could probably continue watching. As a woman trying to earn respect in her professional field, she’s stepping on the proverbial poop by having a secret love affair with her direct subordinate. How is this okay in an office environment? We’re talking about an imbalance of power, sexual harassment, favoritism, and a whole array of other workplace issues. Maybe these behaviors and actions are acceptable and normal in SK, but where I am from, get ready to be reprimanded and fired. If they’re colleagues and of equal ranks, or he doesn’t report to her, then ok. Also, the two exes who are now married to each other are annoying AF. The male ex is crazy, a cheater, a slime ball, but at least he’s an interesting character, whereas our ML is pretty bland. After eight episodes, I am not vested nor interested in what happens to the main couple, secondary couple, or any of the supporting characters, so it’s the end of the road for this drama for me.

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PMY is my favorite actress, so I had high hopes in her choice of roles and the chemistry she has with her leads. This is my least favorite role of hers, and I'm disappointed.

Yoon Park is the only actor's character who is actually interesting me and the only one doing justice to his role, because of his acting chops and comedic timing. The man better get a leading role soon since he always ends up having more chemistry with the FL than the ML. It's the same here, even though his character is a complete jerk and they obviously should not end up together, he still manages to have great chemistry with PMY. The FL's character is annoying to watch as she's constantly gloomy and mean and I have no idea what ML sees in her. They have no chemistry at all. Park Min Young seems tired and worn here and it seems to go past her role, I'm concerned as she has expressed health issues on interviews and social media. I've never been a fan of Song Kang and he's still unimpressive in this role imo, he thinks smiling nice is "acting," and his attempts at chemistry almost come across as creepy.

The biggest issue for me is there is no actual story, no plot, every episode is just centered around watching the characters' interactions without anything ever really happening. It's dull and forgettable. I suppose the main motivator here is possibly the FL's character arc into a non-bitch, her character finally "warming up" (aligning with the weather theme), which after 8 episodes is showing no signs of appearing. She's still miserable and rude. She even nags houseguests for leaving food out after they apologized and said they were going to clean it, acting rude and giving them a lecture about how it "leaves a smell." Really weird vibe.

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Honestly I don't really understand the really low rating here on MDL (currently it has 7.6 only). It's not THAT bad . It definitely isn't the best drama out there but for me it still had more pros than cons, thus my fairly high rating of 9 stars for this k-drama.

The story first: the setting was very unique and I got to learn a lot of things about the work of people in meteorological agency. It was interesting to see how much it was affecting all the people even by just changing the coming of the rainy season for a few days. I came to like the supporting characters working there a lot, they all had their own hardships and struggles that made interesting sub-plots that were entertaining to watch.

I just LOVE Park Min Young so I just might be a bit biased towards all her dramas but she nailed the role as always. Other actors did a great job too!
Out of the characters I have a very mixed feelings towards the SML because although he did many questionable things and sometimes he was just borderline obsessive with his ex-fiancee, at the end he got better and became a better husband and future father.
My favourite side couple was definitely FL's sister and the guy from meteorological agency, they were just so cute together! And her books about the crocodile and penquin :3 I love how he was so supportive of her

The music I really liked, especially the one OST that was just so bubbly and cheerful that it always put a smile on my face.

Overall, a 9* drama for me. A perfect drama to slowly watch with a hot cup of delicious tea to unwind after a stressfull day .

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I liked it more than i should have

Okay so if i was being completely objective i would give this show a 7/10 at most. Honestly speaking though, episode 1 through to around episode 9 i think, this was by far my favorite kdrama ever and i just couldnt get enough of it.
Unfortunately, the second half of the drama in my opinion completely lost the magic that could draw anyone in and it was like if the writers room was like "ok, so we've done a lot of character development, its time to turn up the melodrama!!" And they sure did.
That said i am a sucker for anything the FL does and this is no different, her smile is just too much for me

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What started as mature and charming turned out to be incredibly shallow.

The show started good, it had good communication between the main characters, they acted maturely during their budding relationship and met the challenges with honesty and openness... it was refreshing. Then it all went out the window.

I could say a lot, a whole lot... so much, but I will keep it short because otherwise I will just start venting.

The shows narrative consistently frames people in different lights, and then changes it completely. They frame the exes as really horrible, shallow people, especially Ki-Jun. They spend so much time making him a horrible person, then with very little effort or growth he becomes a kind and considerate partner at the end. The main couple start out mature and charming but then do a complete 180 and make out of character decisions that make zero sense, and their character becomes distilled into immature people who cant be honest about their feelings. Over half of the show is just them longingly gazing at each other from across the room, and being stupid about their relationship, it felt juvenile and painful to watch.

With how they wrote both Si Woo's father and Ki-Jun, I think the story would have been much better if they had made them less shitty in the beginning if they wanted to redeem them later on. The lack of any shred of decency early on sets them up to be villainous, but with how they wanted the story to go, they didn't include enough real humanity to build upon later. Which is a shame because in isolation I would have enjoyed how their relationships progress later on, but with the complete leap in character, to me they might as well be alternate universe versions of themselves.

The side character's stories were painfully slow, and just felt a bit exhausting except for the sister and the hipster guy with glasses.

Towards the later half of the show Ha-Kyung kept crossing boundaries about Si-Woo's father and never addressed it, and acted like she did nothing wrong. All we got was Ha-Kyung having a surprised pikachu face in the hospital which was admittedly quite funny, but it was never really talked about after that it was shitty to do and she never apologized. The show clearly panders to forgiving shitty men, and parents who are abusive. It repeatedly frames setting boundaries with people who are destructive and abusive as "immature" or "heartless", and those boundaries just go away because "family" when something bad happens.

The show comments on sexism at a few points but does nothing to actually make a point, and cuts itself off at the knees by repeatedly hand waving bad behavior from men.

The weather parts are stupid, they continually act like they cant report probability of rain or other weather and act like it has to be either no rain, or rain... nothing in between which is just... not how that works, and I cant suspend my disbelief enough to bother caring about it.

Overall the show is frustrating and throws out character development for drama, and then throws in character development out of nowhere for characters that had no business getting developed. The whole show is kind of a mess, and while it is mildly entertaining, it becomes exhausting to watch and the pay off is incredibly weak and shallow by the end. After watching it I just feel tired and frustrated, I wouldn't recommend this to anyone.

Also... I am so fucking tired of weather metaphors...

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