Family: The Unbreakable Bond (2023)

I had a hard time finishing this series! Apart from the very very cute kids, the show is a lame Mr. and Mrs. Smith with a bunch of plot holes and loose ends. It would have been more interesting to see the family and their interaction since it's a comedy afterall! Why complicate things when you don't want to explain anything in the end. The couple didn't have any proper talk among each other after they discovered the truth about one another. I'd rather watch more Minseo and Boseok! It would have been fun to watch that rather feeling that it was a task to be done with.

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A simple fun show about a family

I came into the show, knowing that it would be a silly little slice of life family drama with the added element of a spy thriller -and that is exactly what I got. I see that the other reviews have called the character interaction is a bit cringe and silly, but that is precisely what I liked about the show. I didn’t go into expecting the most amazing acting and writing, but I still enjoyed what I got. I actually quite liked the spy stuff and in particular I thought the actress for Ms Oh was amazing! I also wanted to appreciate how they handled the foreigners and the many languages spoken! Often I find in kdramas that foreigners are always handled a bit odd especially when you can tell they’re white but you can tell they speak Korean better than they can speak English but I didn’t get that here! Personally I loved the backstory between the husband and wife, and even though I thought the child was a tad annoying at times, I still thought she was adorable and I laughed at her storyline. The only aspect of the show I didn’t care about was the Grandfathers storyline especially since it didn’t have a pay off. Oh and warning it does end on somewhat of a cliffhanger but even if it doesn’t get a season two idk it’s such a small thing that I can pretend it didn’t happen 😌

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5th time’s the charm?

Jang Nara and Jang Hyuk reunite for the 4th time, how promising.

Wish they chose a different project so I could actually celebrate.

Firstly, this show does a horrible job at balancing it’s tones- actually, it doesn’t balance them at all. There’s an abundance of silly scenes with the family/kids that have constant banter and jokes, and then there’s plain serious assassin-work scenes. They do not mesh at all, not because they can’t, but because whoever worked on this show just doesn’t know how to make it flow.

At the very end of episode 4, we get serious again when Jang hyuk’s character has to kill his friend, but then suddenly someone else does. It’s revealed to be Jang Nara’s character. Woah, right? Then we continue with this at the beginning of episode 5, serious music flashbacks and dialogue. Had me thinking oh maybe they’re starting to focus on/put more effort into the serious half of the story, only to then be back with the family bickering over absolutely nothing less than 10 minutes into the episode. This continues throughout the entirety of the series, making me never take the serious scenes seriously despite them clearly wanting the viewer to.

Apart from the above, in general I found it hard to keep watching/stay focused, as there is no actual story. Just family fighting and murder. Family fighting and murder, family fighting and murder, family fighting and murder. There is no arc no objective no start-to-finish narrative. Just flat nothingness trying to disguise itself as comedy.

I honestly think it would have been an alright drama if it stuck to one of it’s tones and never touched the other. Humour&Family only: Have Jang Hyuk’s character work at a regular office. He could still have the female boss which could still cause a comical rift, and he could still be absent in both fatherfood and marriage due to working long hours. They could work to fix that together all in a happy tone. Now this still wouldn’t have made it perfect as whoever was writing the comedy aspect wasn’t great. A lot of the jokes fall flat. Nara and Jang Hyuk manage to carry the material they’re given, but it’s not much. For example, for the first 4 episodes the biggest running gag is that they can’t have sex because they keep getting interrupted. FOR 4 FULL EPISODES. Anyways, I digress. For if it stuck with it’s serious tone instead of humour, they could have gone a similar route as Undercover (2021) but keep the Mr. & Mrs. Smith aspect to set it apart.

Do I have any positives about the show we actually got? Hmmm..
• Episode 11 Thailand opening followed by the fight together.
• Shin Su A - a wonderful child actress. Steals every single scene.
• Minseo & Taegoo - cute dynamic.
• Jang Nara - a great great performance from her and a cool-ish role for her as well. Badass killer
• As always gotta love Jang Hyuk’s dramatic comedy (though I did find it a little over the top a few times here… let’s blame the direction.).
• Jang Hyuk & Nara’s chemistry - still hasn’t died. Let’s hope we get a 5th reunion to make up for this mess.

Overall, a big let down. I believe there was a lot of potential to do good here but they crammed so much genre and characters in that it was not only messy but annoying.

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Disappointing.

I may be in the minority, or not. But this show was such a huge letdown for me. They used "Family" so much in the drama, but they made it too comedic and not really something to look forward to watching. The action drama and storyline of the series could've been its saving grace, but the story had so many plot holes it was such a headache to watch and appreciate. While the plot twist with Jang Nara's history seemed like the saving grace of the drama, it wasn't enough. Not only were the first episodes very dragging, but also lacked chemistry between the leads and the family members- the interactions shown all seemed very fake and cringey. Most especially the husband and wife interactions. It's so bland. The way I see it, they portrayed it like they're just staying together for the sake of being like a family... The attitude of the male lead towards the beginning was also such a red flag.

Honestly, I was only able to finish the series with the hope that it'll turn better but it didn't. Until the end, the plotholes just thickened and nothing still made sense.

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At first it was good... then the ending flopped :(

I reviewed this about halfway thru the show and as I said before, you need to keep watching for the plot to come to fruition. After finishing this drama, it really had a lot of potential but I am honestly disappointed. The ending seems incomplete and there is no indication for a second season. I would love a 2nd season but the end of the final episode either needs to be conclusive enough in case the show isn't renewed or it needs to be blatantly obvious that a s2 is planned. This drama just had an ambiguous ending that had smiles and happy music but then half the plot is not even resolved. I think it needed 2 more episodes personally.

As for positives: the acting is top tier. The cast is amazing. I know some people say the ML and fl have no chemistry but I honestly think it felt as if they had been together for a while. I mean the actors have been Fated to Love You together which was great. Overall the acting brings up the score a lot. The action imo is also pretty good. I personally enjoyed it tho it may not be a style everyone likes. Most of the show is definitely just snipers but I thought it was a good balance of action, comedy, and family.
The music is great and the middle of the story imo is enjoyable. But, as I said before, so many plotlines were left completely open. I want to recommend this show but unless there is a 2nd season, I probably will not. It's still a fun watch tho, so I won't try to dissuade you either. Even tho the ending was super disappointing it didn't feel like a waste of time. maybe it will tomorrow lol. 7/10 for me.

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Pretty mid and super slow pacing

I loved it but maybe it's because I watched this with full expectations but this was a little bit disappointing.
It could've been a lot better if it was done right
To be honest I only watched this for the plot...
But I was actually obessed with it. (This review will be mostly about negative aspects so be cautious)
There were a lot of unnecessary scenes, Especially the first few episodes (1-4) it's so boring there's nothing except that short misunderstanding. Not just that
also some of the teasers are misleading it shows the scenes that are in other episodes than the episode it is for.
I do know that it's supposed to be about family (the title is literally "Family") and it's a comedy/action genre but there's too many. Most of the 'comedy' scenes are not funny at all in my opinion.
I feels like it needs more plot twists, 'cause there are really few plot twists
(I feel like the grandpa ,the maknae or someone unexpected in the family being a hidden villain would thicken the plot but it's just really my expectations so I'm letting it slide)
But the music and ost are chef's kiss, the singers did a great job.
They makes me watching this drama more worth it.
And I'm sorry but The Dialogues especially the ones about wanting to protect the Family
.. They're poor, they almost cringed me.
I think that If we removes the unnecessary scenes it could've been turned into a show with 3 epsiode or
a 3 hours (or less) long movie.
But again it's just my opinion.
All the casts did a good job and everyone has a different opinion. I might not like the comedy and family scenes but you might love them and thinks they really are necessary.
This review is just from my perspective and you yourself should give it a try and decide whether you like it or not! :D

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An Incomplete mess

Finally finished this drama (it was a chore) and here's my review:6/10
The starting episodes were really promising even though they were dragging a lot, it picked up about halfway through but then crashed down super hard in the end.
The writer kept adding new plot points without resolving anything one after another and watching it gave me a feeling of incompleteness.
The Family members felt like they were added as an afterthought and were there to just pad the runtime, especially Do Hoon's brother and sister-in-law were such useless and cringe characters and added zero substance to the story.
The child actor did a semi-decent job but the whole plot revolving around her and her crush on top of being weird and creepy went nowhere and amounted to nothing, just like Grandpa's relationships; it amounted to nothing and went nowhere, it felt like it was going to go somewhere but it was just abandoned.
All in all a very weak script with some decent acting here and there by Jang Na Ra. For me, it was a 4/10 but because of Na Ra, I'm gonna increase it to a 6/10.
Also considering how much I was looking forward to this. it was a complete letdown and a total disappointment and a waste of Jang Na Ra's talent.
I forgot to add that the way they were wasting time with meaningless family stuff and ending the drama so abruptly like that felt as if there should be more episodes, it felt like I was watching a 50-episode drama and we were just starting to get into the juicy stuff.

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Underwhelming

Pros:

The opening sequence

Fight scenes

OST

Flashback scenes

Talented actors doing what they could with the direction.

Cons:

Forced humor, often too over the top

Several annoying characters (the entitled/loud/boy-crazy daughter; the deadbeat brother; and the pathetic sister-in-law)

The annoying scene jumping I’ve seen on several Hulu/Disney produced Kdramas

A plethora of non-productive family scenes where the problem people never grow or resolve anything

Plot holes right up to the bitter end

So to sum it up in a non-list form, I *wanted* to enjoy it, it just wouldn’t let me. I didn’t hate it, and what was good, was quite good. It just didn’t balance out with the plot holes, conversations that didn’t happen but should have, lack of any resolutions at all, and unnecessary time with the very annoying characters. It would have been a 7.5 had any one of those issues been properly addressed. Will not watch again, but I wouldn’t insist people not watch it either.

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Though the world may crumble the bond of family will never........or will it?

Family: The Unbreakable Bond was a series I happened to stumble across and boy am I glad I chose to watch it. The story like the title suggests challenges the bond of family when the dangerous world of government agents and rouge assassins come face to face with the daily life of a family. Kwon Do Hoon the father of Minseo and the husband of Yura has to balance his responsibilities as a father and husband while keeping his identity as a government Agent a secret from his family. While following a case his investigation leads to a significant discovery that he could have never predicted. As a result, his two lives collided with one another and began to place pressure on the safety of his family. What will happen next only time will tell.

This series has a perfect balance of thriller and comedy that enables the tension built up from the plot to be released each time a comedy relief is applied. Though this style may not be for everyone I thoroughly enjoyed each comedic scene as it displayed different sides to each character making them more likable/relatable. The OST though a short list was placed into each scene perfectly so as to not seem overused and repeated, this enabled certain scenes to have a greater impact than others allowing them to be more memorable. The actions/Fighting scenes in the series were amazing and it is here where I can understand why many may have wanted the series to lean heavily towards Thriller rather than evenly balancing it with comedy. However, each fighting scene left no room for disappointment as each character displayed amazing fighting skills. I praise the acting skills of each cast member as they portrayed their characters well which made each scene enjoyable to watch. Overall this series was such a joy to watch and I can already tell will probably be a comfort show for me.

Some of you may be curious is it worth the watch?

Simply put 'Don't let your fear of wasting your time on a series you may not enjoy chain you from finding those hidden gems in underrated series' We all have different tastes so how will you know if you like this series unless you take that first 'BITE'

PEACE

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Good Enough

Korean Drama " Family: The Unbreakable Bond " is a drama about family (obviously), mystery, action, and suspense.

The drama does a good job of creating a nice family environment. The bonds between the family members provide the plot with many comical scenes and aid with the emotional build up.

On the other hand, and oddly enough, the couple didn't have much dynamic to work with. This tells a lot about the success of the drama, as the main leads were the killer point of the series, being a famous acting couple and all.

On the other hand, the mystery of the wife's past was intriguing and was well handled. It provided the plot with a lot of action scenes and suspenseful moments as well.

The performances, moreover, were pretty enjoyable by everyone in the cast.

However, the story lacked consistency and enjoyment in some of its episodes.

So, overall, five out of ten.

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