NOTE: I haven't watched Go Ahead prior to writing this review.
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Honestly, I think I had overestimated this drama because of all the Hwang In-youp fans 'healing' from his male lead appearance. At first, it was as I expected, an emotional and heartwarming drama about a chosen family, but it ended up feeling frustrating and slow by episode 3. The idea behind it was great, but the pacing made it harder to enjoy then I expected.

One of the biggest issues was how their birth parents tried to re-enter their children's lives one after the other, in a way that felt rushed and disjointed. Instead of building up emotional weight of their return, each parent came into the picture almost consecutively. There's never a time where Hae Jun's father crosses paths with San Ha's mom which is very unrealistic considering how many times they all went back to convince them. This pacing made the emotional moments feel shallow, as I didn’t have enough time to truly feel the impact of their return.
When the emotional parts finally came, they didn't have the same impact they could have had because the buildup felt so slow and tedious. The pacing made it hard to stay engaged, and I found myself losing interest in what could have been a really touching story.

Another issue I found was the romance that followed after San Ha returned from Seoul quickly became very predictable and cliché. (But I might be a little biased because I was already disappointed because of previous episodes.)

Family by Choice was promising, it had everything it needed to be a good drama. Good actors and a promising beginning, but it just didn't live up to what it could've been. The slow pacing made it harder to connect with the characters or get invested in their healing journey, which was a huge letdown.