Satisfying ending, however the Netflix issues were worse.

I enjoyed Moon Dong-eun and Joo Yeo-jeong's stories a lot! I was so relieved as, there was a point there where it almost seemed like they wouldn't get a happy ending. This part really hit hard on obstacles in Moon Dong-eun's way, especially her mother, but I felt satisfied that the punishments doled out were proportionate.

This part digs more into Moon Dong-eun's terrible mother. In some ways, the ending of her career at the school felt unaddressed. She says farewell to Yeon-sol, but since we didn't get many shots of Moon Dong-eun at the school in this part, it almost felt like she wasn't there that much, despite it being her job. A couple of things felt somewhat dropped in this part.

We find out that Jae Jun apparently got Yoon-hee pregnant, but we don't really dig into that any further. For a character that was so important to Yeon-jin's story, his ending seemed a little brushed aside. Sa-ra's undoing was a little confusing as everyone seemed worried she'd be in big trouble after the press photos at the church, but then she was just at home playing around on her computer like nothing happened. It took her stabbing Choi Hye-jeong in the neck for her to get in any serious trouble, and I don't think Moon Dong-eun could've predicted that.

Ha Dong-yeon's ending was happy, I think. I was a little curious why he didn't have any further goodbye with Moon Dong-eun, but I was glad he wasn't caught in the crossfire too badly after Yeon-jin's conviction.

Again, my issues with this series were Netflix produced drama's tendency to have unnecessary nudity, unnecessarily drawn out violent scenes and unnecessary sex scenes. I have never seen a kdrama with bare breasts - I also don't think that was necessary. We have an unnecessarily drawn out (and repeated) sex scene with Myeong-o and Sa-ra. Also, a really weird note, the scene where we find out there's a creep at the elementary school taking pictures of children showed the pictures and I don't think they needed to. You can convey what he was doing with that. There were a lot more scenes of characters just screaming at each other and that didn't make for drama, it skewed into melodrama, in my opinion.

However, overall, I enjoyed the series and it's ending. I think it would've been even stronger if there didn't seem to be this focus on adding the kinds of scenes that draw in international audiences.

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Disappointing

This has all the issues I see with Netflix produced kdramas. Unnecessary sex scenes, female nudity (it’s always women), and really bad dialogue. I came to understand Netflix subtitles don’t translate exactly what’s said, but what they translated made it sound as if the script used swear words the way a twelve year old would if they just discovered them. In addition, I didn’t think any female character was written well or treated all that well development wise. It was a huge bummer because the premise interested me. I can’t help but wonder what this would’ve been like produced by another network.

Anyway, I don’t have complaints about the acting of the MLs. Some of the cinematography was interesting.

Sometimes I can ignore some bad spots if the story is intriguing enough but I found this drama also dragged a lot. Disappointing.

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Best Viki drama I've seen so far

I watched this primarily for Cha Eun-kyung. The actress, Jang Na-ra, was captivating at every turn and her story was so compelling. Her scenes with her hoobae, her child, her "work husband", and even her arguments with her ex and his mistress were so entertaining to watch. She had chemistry with everyone. Were it not for her, I would not have been as interested in this show.

The views on divorce are prevalent throughout several kdramas with stories like the World of the Married doing the worst to portray women that get divorced as being incapable of "making it work". Finding out this story was written by a divorce attorney made a lot of sense. There is a clear intent here to destigmatize divorce and present it more as a way for women to find new lives beyond being reduced to the services they offer their husbands. The turn into the murder plot was jarring. I understand the purpose - to basically shame families that see divorce as more of a blight than their daughter suffering domestic violence. In a show that made sort of light of that issue with an earlier case where the women kept coming for consultations but ultimately stayed, it seemed a bit of a turn.

CEK's divorce and custody battle were long, but I enjoyed seeing the way she repaired her relationship with her daughter. Her ex was despicable and so was the mistress, but it was a bit odd how their story wrapped up and they pretty much exit the series. Hence me feeling like this show probably could've been even shorter. I enjoyed the different cases, especially the one about the woman that wanted her ex to take primary custody. However, this series overall surpassed Perfect Marriage Revenge as the best Viki drama I've watched. The pacing was a lot better and there was less melodramatic acting in this series, in my opinion.

I enjoyed how Han Yu-ri encouraged CEK and was relentless in trying to achieve justice for her. However, I found her stances a bit baffling, particularly in the case where the woman wanted a divorce because her family didn't see her. HYR was incapable of seeing past how the children felt and that confused me considering her previous cases. That that story ends with an agreement to revisit divorce was disheartening to me. The number of men that only "wake up" when their wife talks about divorce, act better for a few months, and then go right back to treating them like crap is exactly why women fall into these cycles and end up stuck.

The romance between HYR and her coworker Jeon Eun-ho was the weakest part of the show for me. I didn't buy the romance, I didn't see the chemistry, and it takes up roughly 30-35% of the show. Honestly, I didn't really like JEH's character until he was working with CEK and that was probably because it showed his competency better than any other case.

Overall, the acting was good in this series. The stories were mostly compelling. The pacing was really good. I hope it serves to destigmatize divorce and show women that it's never too late to reinvent themselves and get out of bad relationships. Even if they can't find attorneys like CEK to fight for them, I hope they fight for themselves.

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Dramatic in the way that webtoons always are

The premise of this show is interesting: mistreated girl gets a second chance at life and revenge. Even if I hadn’t already found out this was based on a webtoon, I would’ve figured it out eventually. The plot twists and hard to believe coincidences would’ve spelled it out for me.

The acting is pretty good. There are a few points where the adoptive mother and daughter dipped into melodrama. There were also a few times where people just behaved strangely like slapping others or throwing drinks which felt more like children throwing tantrums more than adult behavior.

There were a ton of plot points that were just impossible to believe. Also many points where the bad guys used the press to villainize others and I couldn’t understand why the public opinion was so nonsensical. Also, there were some pretty dramatic accusations and a general lack of reaction to them. So, I’m a little confused at the directional choices.

Also, the end of the revenge plot was a little anticlimactic in my opinion. I just wanted it to hit a little bit harder.

Simply put, this is a melodramatic soapy show and if you like revenge shows, you’ll probably get something out of it. If you’re expecting something closer to Penthouse or The Glory where the plot seemed a lot more intricately planned (at least, s1 &2 of Penthouse), you’re going to be a little disappointed. However, it’s the best Viki original I’ve seen thus far.

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Quite a bit different from HYYH, but entertaining for the most part

These opinions are all my own and, as always, super glad others seemed to really love this take on HYYH. I personally didn’t, but not everything is going to be my cup of tea. Namjoon's story was my favorite in HYYH.

To start, Dogeon is an entirely different character from HYYH’s Namjoon. Dogeon's vibe was a lot more clean cut and he was was more of a rule follower than HYYH Namjoon. The iconic scenes from the Notes/MVs where he and Tae run away from the cops after getting caught spray painting seems like something Dogeon would never do. Most of the big events from his story don’t happen in this drama and he’s not given a ton of story on his own.

In order of who got the most story:
Haru, Jeha, Cein, Jooan, Hwan, Hosu, Dogeon comes in last.

Most of Dogeon and Hosu’s stories involve supporting other characters, but Hosu at least got the story with his narcolepsy and his mother abandoning him.

Namjoon’s closest relationship (and the most interesting one to me) was his relationship with Tae in the OG story. There’s more of a supportive relationship set up here with Jooan and Haru instead. Dogeon and Jooan’s story was colored negatively by the only scene in which Dogeon lets out his emotions and talks about hating that no one comforts him… is followed by him apologizing for “unloading” and Jooan abandoning him. End result: he still has no support system. That was perhaps the most heartbreaking aspect of his entire story. Dogeon is a character that exists to serve literally everyone else.

Every time it seemed we were finally giving him focus, it cut away to another character’s story without giving depth to his. His time in the hospital, the start of episode 12 before it cut to Jooan, and we don’t even get his personal thoughts in the aftermath of nearly being killed?? What was the nosebleed storyline? It was just dropped completely. Did the delivery boy story from the Notes happen here? Who knows?

The writers didn’t seem to be interested in Dogeon which made this drama less enjoyable overall for me, but I’m glad fans of other characters enjoyed it.

My general thoughts on everything else: it's entertaining for the most part. The episodes are long and you can feel it. I did enjoy the group scenes where they're all together, Cein's birthday party was my favorite group scene. Some of the acting in a few scenes was a bit cringy and choppy, but I don’t think that was the actors’ faults. I think the director should’ve made some different choices.

The best performances in my opinion were Hwan and Jooan’s. I thought those actors did a great job in their portrayals. Surprisingly, the relationships I found the most interesting (for however much we got to see of them) were Hwan & Dogeon and Hosu & Dogeon. I don’t remember any real interactions between Hosu and Dogeon (Hobi and Namjoon) in the OG story, so that was a pleasant surprise. Hwan and Dogeon were great together and I wished we got a lot more of that.

For Dogeon’s sake, I hope there’s another season because I really think he got the short end of the stick story wise. It seems like they were clearly setting up for another season and I read they supposedly filmed 24 episodes. It’d be nice if they could give Dogeon more, but I’ll always have the OG story that I enjoyed.

I’m glad others enjoyed this a lot more than I did.

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Very thought provoking

It’s been a while since a drama left me this morally conflicted. The story is heartbreaking, the acting was phenomenal, and I empathized with Risako more than I thought possible considering I don’t have children.

Considering what I know from trials like the Andrea Yates trial, I was set to feel that the defendant most likely had some sort of psychological break. The more the show delved into her family life, the more I felt sorry for this woman that received nothing but criticism from the people that were supposed to support her. The more they showed Risako’s connection with her, the more the show sucked me in.

I actually teared up a few times and that’s not something that happens often for me. This show really shows the struggles of women to feel like they’re succeeding in life, regardless of if they’re stay at home mothers, working mothers, or women without children. Every female character in the show had moments of doubt forced into their heads by outsider’s opinions and the show did a great job finding common ground here.

The ending was a little open ended in terms of one relationship I wanted to see ended, but other than that, I was incredibly loved while watching this.

Definitely a recommend if you can stomach the subject matter.

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Enjoyable!

I've seen most of the criticism of this series being who the Jo-Kyung ends up with in the end. Unpopular opinion: I never had a problem with that. It was foreshadowed pretty much from episode one.

My beefs with this show are:
- plot hole from ep one regarding a voicemail left for the mother. It just never comes up again
- I'm not a huge fan of the "actually they knew each other years ago" thing. It pops up in a lot of dramas, but this one used it better than most, I will say. It's still a pet peeve of mine
- Soo-jin was turned into a woman scorned for no reason at all, in my opinion. Why must female friendships involve this type of plot?
- The last episodes were annoying with the time skip and then back and forth with Su-ho in a way that just felt odd to me?

Anyway, I enjoyed this show. I've watched it twice all the way through and I've laughed out loud both times. It's fun, it's cute, the vibe is entertaining and light throughout the majority of the show. I love the music. The acting is great and Moon Ga-Young is so charming and adorable! Perfectly cast! Definitely a recommend, especially if you're new to k-dramas.

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Most fun I’ve had in ages!

I love Korean variety shows and this one had so much heart! Admittedly, I wasn’t all that sure given the really long introduction episode, but the cast is just so wonderful. Not only do you laugh a lot watching them learn the basic rules and techniques of basketball, but you get attached to the players and really root for them. I knew absolutely nothing about basketball and learned along with the cast. I found myself cheering and screaming at the TV because I could see how hard they were trying and I was just so proud!

Honestly, Netflix recommended me shows of athletes learning other sports or amateur men’s baseball players forming teams but I just don’t think it’d be the same or nearly as entertaining as this was. This was a perfect storm of a group of women that were so willing to let themselves look a bit silly at times and truly put the work in to become a good team. I would honestly watch them learn other sports like volleyball or soccer or anything really. They had such fun chemistry with each other and the managers.

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Enjoyable!

I haven't watched the drama this was based on, so this review is solely on the kdrama.

I was surprised to see a drama with this kind of subject matter being made into a kdrama. Seeing that Netflix was presenting it in the U.S. made it more plausible because the Netflix kdramas have always been riskier than the dramas I've seen from other platforms. Surprisingly, I think the topic was handled pretty well in this drama (though the drama takes a pretty big shift in story about halfway through and is mostly about interpersonal drama). There were some genuine laughs in the beginning when the women first start selling the products and, while some jokes were cheesy, I enjoyed it.

The cast is 100% the reason I gave this a chance because the main actresses have majorly impressed me in other dramas. There's even brief appearances from Ra Mi-ran, one of my all time faves. Also, the guys were all great. The kids did a good job, too!

This drama worked the best when it was centered on the women's individual growth. I enjoyed Jung-sook's story the most when she was getting rid of the crappy husband who was just dragging her down and making peace with her mother's treatment of her. I felt like Ju-ri was primarily a woman that supported her friends when they struggled with confidence, especially when it was something they'd been shamed for. Young-bok was also a really loyal friend and her family situation was so sad. Geum-hee was actually my favorite character and I loved every single scene she was in. The actress was phenomenal and I loved that this show subverted the assumption that the oldest woman in the friend group would be the most conservative. Her story is partially why I kind of felt like the business aspect could've been stronger.

I'd wished, for all that she suffered in continuing it, that Jung-sook had a more personal reason for joining the business. Geum-hee has this storyline revolving around her husband initially shaming her for wanting anything sold by that kind of company and she basically ignores him and wears the lingerie anyway. It was about her overcoming that desire to just do whatever her husband wanted. For Jung-sook, it was just a cash grab, yet she suffers more than anyone else for the job. I don't know if the original drama gave the MC more of a personal reason to keep doing it, but it was just a bit of a missing piece to me.

The story of the detective looking for his mother was interesting. For such a small town, I didn't expect 2 random plots of people in the town being sociopathic monsters. That joke on tiktok about kdramas being (kinda) sunny/happy until they insert a random kidnapping/murder plot came to mind with the random man trying to kidnap Jung-sook. I wished they hadn't laid the "reveal" on quite so thick, but it was nice that the detective had a happy conclusion to his story.

The storyline I was most moved by was Young-bok's and her husband's trouble with the law. It was actually heartbreaking with how clear it was her husband loved his family but couldn't do anything to support them. It was a bit of a sad ending for them overall (unless I missed something?) because, as I understand it, he still didn't have a job? Maybe he became a stay at home dad?

Overall, I enjoyed this show for the most part. Admittedly, it was still a bit hard for me to see So Yeon Kim in this kind of role. I don't expect her to just play a villain in everything, but I also felt like this character wasn't given a ton for the actress to really dig into. Her character's motivations start with trying to make money to take care of her son and shift halfway through to trying to take care of and help the detective. I thought she did a great job in the scenes where she was bonding with the other women.

The scenes centering the friendship between the women were my favorite part of this drama. Its a recommend and the second most enjoyable Netflix kdrama I've seen.

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Thrilling start!

I love a great revenge story! Moon Dong-eun aloof, reserved and seemingly cold mannerisms draw you in and, similar to the Ha Do-yeung described her, you start waiting for her reactions to things. Her story was awful and the lack of flashbacks from when she was happy leaves the viewer to wonder if she ever was. All of this makes for a lead character you root for and it was enough to keep me watching when some of the aspects of Netflix kdramas became especially off-putting.

I really liked the 2 male characters that get caught in her web, so to speak. Joo Yeo-jeong was a sympathetic character the decision to write him as both adorably smitten and quietly vengeful was a nice touch. Both he and Moon Dong-eun bonded over the the darkness resulting from great injustice done to them and people they cared about. I was just as interested in his story as Moon Dong-eun. Ha Do-yeung is a character I didn't expect to like, but he was the austere, quietly powerful male character that usually shows up as the main love interest in a drama. Surprisingly, I was invested in his story, as well.

Kang Hyun-nam's story was heartbreaking. She was such a lovely, strong woman and I loved how much she cared for her daughter and Moon Dong-eun. The first part ends and I just really hoped nothing would happen to her in the second part.

Now, my issues with this series are purely related to the strange things Netflix kdramas seem to have. There's unnecessary nudity, unnecessary sex scenes and unnecessarily drawn out violent scenes. I understand they wanted to convey just how horribly Dong-eun was treated, but there's a tendency for Netflix dramas (Korean and otherwise) to sort of draw out these kinds of scenes for shock value. Some of the acting choices, particularly for Lee Sa-ra's character were cringey to watch. I'm not a fan of when characters appear to scream 99% of their lines, but it felt like the sort of acting you'd see in a Netflix k-drama.

Anyway, having seen both parts, in some ways, I think part 1 was a bit more solid overall. However, both parts were moving to watch.

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Started great, but didn't finish great, IMO

This started out pretty great. I realized that there aren't a lot of k dramas I've watched where the female lead isn't supposed to be the more welcoming, sweet character and the male lead the surly, serious one. In this story, Ma Yi Deum is unlike any other female protagonist I've seen in a drama, so far. She's rude, gruff, impolite and willing to do anything to get the verdict she wants. At first.

I watched a clip of the second episode's ending court scene on YouTube and there was a comment saying that she was fierce and they wish she stayed that way throughout the drama. I don't quite agree, as I think it was important for her to learn to see the victims as people. However, I will say that it felt like the show let her character sort of become aimless about halfway through. As did the show, to be honest.

I enjoy procedural court dramas. I know not every one of them can be Miss Hammurabi, but it sucks that this is the second one I've seen that does a case every ep for like 5 episodes before stopping and becoming more about the season long plot. Also, like Miss Hammurabi, there was a romance between two coworkers where I felt zero chemistry. I don't think it was necessary and it added nothing to the story.

Towards the end, everything just felt all over the place. Disappointingly, they turned a strong female protagonist into a damsel.

Despite the dark subject matter, I did enjoy seeing the victims get justice. I spent most of the show just waiting for them to finally put Cho and Baek behind bars. I didn't love that the prosecutor that took over for Min defaulted to doubting victims, though. I also thought, while they got the outcome they wanted, Ma Yi Deum tactics in the second episode were cruel to the victim.

So, I enjoyed the first 6 episodes or so, but what made the show unique to me in terms of character work slowly disappeared.

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Really enjoyable!

The best thing about this series was the interaction between Terius and the family! That sounds like a summary of the show, but there's quite a bit that covers the other agents, the bad guys, the other parents in the building, etc. I was most interested in the family interacting with Terius and that's where the show really shines.

The performances were all great! I really loved seeing a strong, bad ass character like Yoo Ji-Yeon, but I also loved that Go Ae-rin got some badass moments, as well! This show never relegated her to just being a mother. She also got to be a hard working career woman and she was very clever.

I enjoyed some of Terius' moments with the other parents, too at times. I liked that he was learning more about how to interact with others after spending so much time alone.

Very cute! I thought the stuff with Jin Yong Tae dragged on a bit, but overall, I enjoyed the show.

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Wonderful start, however it started to drag towards the end.

This series is truly special. It’s unlike the other kdramas I’ve watched and felt immersive in the time period. There were so many touches to the set design, soundtrack, and 1980s events written in that made it feel truly set in 1988-1989 (and beyond). The acting was wonderful, DS/SY is a wonderful female lead, and the chemistry between the cast was so great.

It’s extremely hard to get me invested in a romance in general, especially one between teenagers. So, I went into this knowing that was going to be the weakest aspect for me. I enjoyed the family and friend relationships most of all, and I do feel like that makes up enough of the show to interest even those like me that find a lot of those too trope-y and predictable.

I started to really feel the 1 hour+ runtimes around episode 16 or so. Once we start to get into the kids prepping for college fully and Bo-ra making choices about her future, it felt just a tiny bit aimless. If you’re looking for a slice of life-ish type story and you were actually alive during this time period, you may still enjoy sitting with the story as it builds to its ending. For me, I plan to finish it someday but eventually ended up looking up the ending and dropping it on episode 18.

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Ending left a lot to be desired, but I think I understood the point

Overall, this was one of the best plotted kdramas I’ve watched in a long time. The ending was a tad frustrating, but ultimately, I think I understand what the reason behind it was.

This story digs into generational wealth/poverty and tells the story of the South Korean economy from the 90s-the present. As an American, I learned a lot more about the stock market, South Korean conglomerates and how their legal system changed to accommodate them. On its face, not something I would’ve thought I’d be interested in, but the story weaves in the family plot is of the Jin family empire and it all makes for a really interesting drama. I found myself finishing it much faster than I thought I would.

The only weak parts of this drama (for me anyway) were the romance between DJ/HW and the prosecutor and some of the acting choices. I pitied the prosecutor because I just never thought DJ/HW really cared that much about her. She was constantly an afterthought and she thought about him all the time. To find out she waited so long after their failed romance dating no one and hoping he’d be into her again… that’s just sad. We don’t even really get to see her working cases that weren’t involved with him so it made it look like her life revolved around him.

I also was annoyed at how often someone would say something shock to DJ/HW and he wouldn’t react until they’d already left. They did that several times and the leaning in to whisper intimidation tactic was used a lot, too.

The strongest parts of this drama are the scenes with the family. Both DJ’s and HW’s. Watching HW's family struggle, especially what his father went through, was heartbreaking. DJ's relationship with the Miracle Investment team was great. DJ's constant fight with the Jin family was very interesting to watch. Of course, the most outstanding relationship was between DJ and his grandfather. I was surprised by how much this drama made me invested in that relationship.

The ending was not what I wanted. It did feel like a sudden turn to punish HW for things we didn't even know he'd done. I think the writers wanted to say that the solution to his death wasn't being reborn rich and paying it forward. Instead, he had to reconcile with his own actions and greed and take the Jin family down with the resources he had. In a world where rich people don't ever get the punishment they deserve, this ending falls a bit flat because obviously, the desired ending was DJ taking over and having the Jin family see the results of their own actions. Instead, we get a very quick ending that didn't feel nearly as satisfying.

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