Conventional with a Twist

I loved this drama because of the messages: you are the main character of your life/story even if the world doesn’t view you that way and love always finds a way.

This is essentially a story of how childhood sweethearts reconnect after nearly two decades. The ML, played by Park Seo Joon, pines for and eventually finds his first love who loved him when he was overweight with curly hair and devoid of earthly family. His first love, played by Hwang Jung Eum, was conventionally beautiful and confident as an early teen but life and student loans happened and she’s now not-so-beautiful with a rough case of rosacea and dry, frizzy hair which lowers her self -confidence.

The ML finds her via email and of course wants to meet. Our FL, seeing her childhood love is now gorgeous and put-together in contrast to her messy life, foists her rich, conventionally beautiful best friend on our ML to pretend to be her.

But love finds a way as our ML and FL meet at work and the ML falls in love with the FL despite himself.

If you love good rom-cons, ugly duckling/swan stories and of course Park Seo Joon. The leads and secondaries do their job well and this has excellent rewatch value.

Also, it has an unabashed happy ending.

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Smart, Lovely Fluff That

This is intelligent fluff. All the drama tropes are here: tsundere, childhood love, etc but they are done so smartly and well by the leads, you fall in love with the story any way.

This features the FL in Put Your Head on My Shoulder with the SML as her leading man here and they have great chemistry and act so well. The female lead is smart and independent but falls head over heels for the ML who dutifully earns and keeps her trust and love. The secondary characters are also smart and funny. The elder actors also highlight the family centered nature of this drama.

This is 28 short and sweet episodes of romance and family.

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Great Saeguk but the final Episode made no sense

I loved this story for the way it presented Korean history/culture in its interactions with its neighbors and the west and inverted gender stereotypes by making the FL level-headed and cynical while the ML was romantic and optimistic. I loved the political intrigue and tension, the insight provided into the roles of everyone in the Joseon court and bureaucracy. The custuming and cinematography were beautiful which reinforced why I love saeguks. The series was always fascinating and informative.

It was consistent in this until the final episode when the writers suddenly could not make decisions about how to end the series. The ending is nonsensical and shambolic and ruined an otherwise interesting series.

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It’s Great Fluff Even With the Twist

I’ve watched both seasons of this drama and still prefer the first season despite the episode 11 reveal that shocks every one. The first season story is more cohesive, romantic and fluffy than the second one. I love tsundere, contract marriage stories and this one is one of the best. The secondary cast, both friends and foes of the main leads are also good which gives the story more flavor.

That being said the re the plot twist that disgusts every one in episode 11. I get why folks are upset by it: it’s so manipulative and breaks trust, it is almost unforgivable. However, if you understand the ML’s deep-seated abandonment issues-and the drama has a whole arc about how his mother abandoned him-you can understand if not justify how he courted the female lead. How he courted the FL makes logical sense in light of his abandonment issues. He needs a lot of counseling, but I understand why the FL went back to him AFTER she called him out for how he courted and expresses love. The drama doesn’t condone what he did because he does change how he expresses love after the FL calls it out.

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