Now Is Beautiful (2022)

Positive Family dynamics portrayed well

The suggested score MDL gives me for this is 9. But I choose to give it 10. I do that because the show has the beautiful element of NO TOXIC CHARACTERS.
If you enjoy drama brought on by crazy exes and horrible mothers-in-law and power hungry individuals…you would hate this one.
This is a simple story about enjoying life in the moment.
About how family is not only through bloodlines.
About how parents are not always right and children are not always right either
A story about familial forgiveness and acceptance but also responsibilities. But we still get enough romance and a ML who is just wonderful. There are many other characters to love though.
The cast has a lot of experienced actors and that shows In the quality of their delivery.
The ended as they started. A chaotic family that loves each other but always has some drama going in their life.

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The reality of life. True-to-life stories in 50 episodes. Dynamic relationships. Extended families.

From 9 stars to 10 stars. The best so far of all the life drama / true-to-life stories I've watched - from any region/country.

They portrayed the different dynamics of each family member. How each person thinks. How their decisions and emotions play with the other members of the family.

I guess this is why the Filipinos and Koreans are close, our family-structure and connections are similar, if not exactly the same. Extended families are a thing and the closeness (or lack thereof in some cases) between members and extended families are something many other nations/cultures doesn't have and will never understand.

This drama, the various different stories they portrayed, the relationships, the dynamics, the REALITY of it all, LIFE itself, well done. WELL DONE!

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'BEAUTIFUL' AT ITS FINEST!

1. Practically "zero" villains ✅
2. Well-shown dynamics from each family ✅
3. Those dolts cracking up in even sad episodes ✅
4. Proper closure regarding father-and-daughter matter ✅
5. Misleading previews but in a good way ✅

You know, it's always best to find a light one after five days of watching stressful dailies. Thankfully enough, this drama stayed that way up until the end. Even when Grandpa Lee, JSJ, and LHJ seemed to be in the verge of their death, but eventually they both survived. What a miracle, isn't it?

DEFINITELY WILL REWATCH! SOMEDAY, WHEN MY TIME IS FREE ENOUGH.
Indeed, IT'S BEAUTIFUL NOW!

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It's not nearly as good as the best family dramas! (Once Again, Father is Strange etc)

In "It's Beautiful Now" the story revolves around three couples & two families. This is a fairly basic family drama setup, there is also a big mystery connection between these two families. It's a textbook setting for this genre, really. In good old family drama fashion the production team tried to please all age groups, so no one will feel this is the best thing ever, but everyone will find something to enjoy. The reason why this is inferior to Once Again is because the couples are just not nearly as entertaining, I guess for me this is what it usually comes down to, when judging how good a family drama is, because the other things are usually fairly similar across all family dramas & that is certainly the case with this drama as well. To iterate on this more I absolutely adored the Hae Jun couple & that is what kept me going for 50 episodes. However the other two couples are very problematic, the Hyun Jae couple goes from super boring to makjang-ish and the Soo Jae couple is so difficult to empathize with that I skipped most of their scenes. It's normal for family dramas to have unlikable characters, but in this one they're far more numerous than usual, though many of them received minor character adjustments making them more bearable in the later episodes.

If I disregard everything else other than the Hae Jun couple, then this is a 10/10 romcom. However if I do the reverse, looking at everything else, this drama is rather mediocre, with quite a bit of makjang. I'm not sure anymore, but If memory serves, then there were like 10 rather bad episodes in a row (maybe from 32 to 41 ~) Also the ending is a bit disappointing, I love long happy endings and this is one thing family dramas usually do extremely well, since out of 50 episodes there is more than enough time to finish up with 3-5 fluffy episodes giving everyone perfect closure. In this drama though two out of three couples had EARLY weddings, so instead the writer went with a little medical emergency type of thing, which was not horrible or anything, but maybe a little out of place!? Though admittedly I liked the early weddings & the newlywed banter a lot..

So is this drama worth watching? If you have seen the best family dramas already, such as Once Again, My Father is Strange, Five Enough and you noticed that you like this genre, then you should be able to enjoy this, otherwise I would stay away.

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Same-old KBS Weekend drama

KBS has a knack for either making memorable weekend dramas, some really meh ones or some just plain forgettable. I'd pin this somewhere in the middle of all those categories. I have to admit I picked up this drama expecting some realistic slice-of-issues that people in their 20s/30s/40s deal with in regards to dating and marriage. The initial noise and marketing of the drama was all about that - a generation that doesn't believe in marriage, etc etc.

PLOT:
What started off as funny and promising was a big let down for me. Knowing some past works of the writer I wanted to keep my expectations low but I couldn't ignore the POTENTIAL the fresh premise had. Don't get me wrong- it started off fine. The characters were all a bit unusual and the initial interactions of the 3 main couples started off really well.

For most part they all came from good loving families instead of the very melodramatic, toxic families that tend to be rampant in many Kdramas. But I feel like the writer couldn't keep up with the challenging of status quos and instead almost all characters did a 180- they either "gave in" to marriage or started behaving erratically to create conflict and to give in way to cliches. I felt like that was rather pissy of the writer to please the audience with the usual crap they are used to watching.

CHARACTERS:
I loved almost all the characters in the drama till no one remained likable till the end. The focus on Mi Rae's mom was horrible and almost all characters behaved in the exact same way from beginning to end. Apart from Soo Jae (who I heartily disliked), none of them had any real growth. The silly conflicts were not convincing enough for me to warrant them under "character development".

ACTING:
Yoon Shi Yoon is a phenomenal actor and the biggest pull for me to check out this drama. Boy- I was so wrong! He was incredibly dull and flat here. I'd blame the writer and director more than the actor himself. His leading lady was the stiffest actress I've ever seen and which is also why I think the elder couple had more screentime. At least they were funny and could emote a bit. But never have I seen such mediocre acting from a cast ever in a weekend drama. It felt a bit tryhard to achieve a sitcom-y feel or there were forced emotional scenes where I could sense no depth. Overall it was totally lacking in this department.

ROMANCE:
I didn't care for it much. I shipped Na Yu Na with her boss most and no other couple was remotely exciting for me. Yoon Shi Yoon's kissing skills were totally wasted in this drama.

ENDING:
It was cheesy and horrible. Reminded me of very terrible 90s Bollywood movie endings and that is NOT something to be copied from. I literally hated it so much lol.

OVERALL:
Started off well but overall a meh drama. There's nothing "fresh" about it. It's a regular drama with the regular tropes like birth secrets, faux incest, sick parent, scams, annoying in-laws and with a message that everyone should be married. There's nothing revolutionary about this drama and it was same-old. So if that's what you prefer- go for it.

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soothing family slice of life

that's a good show, if you are tempted give it a try!
the story is about parents who are tired for not having grand-children. they agree to give a huge reward to their first son getting married. they have 3 sons and even the oldest (40 yo) is still single. so you get to discover how this 3 sons are finding love in their own way. it's almost like Korean's lessons about how to date at 40, at 35 and at 25.

I like it because there is not much dramas, it stages deep thoughts about ageing, adoption, children, parents, marriage, divorce and friendship. most of the characters are sympathetic, and the romantic relations are just touching. I finally appreciated not be able to watch 3/4 episodes in a row because let's be honest, it's exhausting. and even if the series is still going, I like the journey.
my favorite couple is the middle son's one.

I wrote this review on episode 26 while the drama was still airing: this is my feelings after the end of the show:

everything is really nice until episode 37. our assumption on MDL's discussions is that the writer wanted to please the public and give more screen time to soojung (park ji young). she is an amazing actress, she deserved more time from the beginning, and above all, her story is the very foundation of the drama's story. so, it's understandable, but it ruined the drama. things will then become hectic and messy and the end of the drama feels shortened. this is still a good show I would recommend to anyone into family's slice of life.

the experience of watching it and commenting on MDL was also very fun because each one had his favorites characters and we were just arguing as if they were true people. this too I would recommend. next time, let's watch an airing drama together!

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Realistic Family drama with full on emotions and comedy

i never watched a drama with more than 24 episodes so when I started this drama i have that negative feeling but after watching first 5 episodes i was completely into their lives because it's a family drama setting was different to get used to that u need to watch atleast 3-4 episodes at first i only cared about lead couples story but slowly i ven interested in their family issues back stories.
because it's a 50 ep drama there will few lags here and there but thoose gaps were filled with funny encounters and emotional scenes.
lead actors chemistry worked very well all other family members acting is too good not over the top it is close to reality.

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Loved the Lee Brothers

It's Beautiful Now (2022)

Likes
1. Love the 3 brothers and their wives/girlfriends. I prolly would have dropped this if it weren't for them. Particularly loved the Dolt couple for providing the comic relief.
2. Hyunjae is the best boy. He is known to be the troubleshooter in the family but sometimes I wish he didnt always have to sacrifice himself or solve every problem. Mirae is lucky to have a solid guy like Hyunjae since she is weak.
3. Loved Soojae and Yuna but i preferred Yuna and Jungho. Still i'm satisfied with their friendship.
4. Loved the two dads, they were the stable rocks to their otherwise senstive wives.
5. I also loved the OST.

Dislikes
1. Too much focus on Mirae's mom, and the grandfather's actions in the latter part. The last 5 episodes with the sudden liver cancer storyline was unnecessary makjang. They could have just gave Soojae and Yuna better resolution and not a rushed one.
2. So many unnecessary characters. The whole extended family of the Lees (grandaunt, sis in law, uncle, Sungsoo and the kids) should have been cut out of the story and instead could have focuaed more on Soojae.
3. The supporting female characters were all either toxic, loud and/or selfish.

Rating: 7/10

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36 out of 50 ain't bad

This review is a little late in coming. In retrospect, this was better than any of the follow-on weekenders on KBS, so there's that. The show seemed to divide the fans along the lines of who shipped which couple: There was the youngest couple camp, the middle, and the oldest ("the dolts"). I was in the latter. SDM & OMS had terrific chemistry in this series and really played well off each other. She was center of the series for a good portion of it, as we heard her thoughts and fears in voice-over. Each of the couples had their time in the sun, and had their share of obstacles to overcome. I won't spoil it, there are some really terriific scenes for each, and as a whole family too, of the Lees with Mom, Dad and their three sons. The actors were great: Kim HyeOk seems to touch gold wherever she goes and is one of my favorite 'Mom' characters. YSY did his usual great job, his character didn't get much of a stretch until the latter part of the show. For me, the show stopped being interesting once they refocused the show on Park JiYoung, and it became essentially a star-vehicle for her. I think this was per-ordained as why would such an accomplished actress be in this family drama, especially as a background character in the first 2/3rds? Oh well, once that arc began, around Ep 37, the show falls apart. The final episode couldn't even give us a full wind-down because the first half of it was STILL about her. So, the wrap-up was hastily done and poorly so.

This could have been a GREAT series, had they stuck to the original story arcs and used the last 10 or so episodes on bringing each couple to a logical conclusion. But, unfortunately not. Watch up to 36, and if you're curious, skip to 50, but really, you don't need to as it doesn't give much closure. At one time, I wished for a follow-up (season 2) to the series, or even a spinoff of how the oldest couple's life turned out, focusing on the challenges an older couple face. But I'm not sure if the writers could pull it off. Better to leave this one be, and just appreciate the first 2/3s.

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