You know what? I really tried. Some of you might raise eyebrows that somebody is able to drop something when there's only one episode left, but seriously, I do not even care anymore and I'm going to explain exactly why. Story Ugly Betty. Which actually made it interesting for the first 10 episodes; also, having worked in this setting before, I was engrossed into the whole editing team problems and how hard is to actually write a successfull magazine. That's till the main characters kept being more focused on their cheesy love story, rather than their overall lives, which almost made them look like a bunch of teenagers that sway at the sight of their other half instead of 30 years old adults, till the last few episodes where the setting was once again picked up, which signed some enjoyable moments overall, but a bit late for me to not feel deeply annoyed about most things at that point; everything was rather unbalanced. But turning back to the romcom part, based on the title, "She was Pretty", I expected a love story about a guy that turned handsome and a girl that turned "ugly" (even though Hye Jin was anything but ugly, more like uncared for). I expected them to fall in love despite their very different priorities and very different styles, to learn to accept eachother for what they are, which they did at one point, but the message was never properly delivered in the end; "She WAS Pretty" had no meaning in the end. As you know, Korea is a society that focuses on looks to the point of obsession, the drama was initially good at showing us that, if you have messy hair and don't apply make up, people are going to look at you almost with disdain, if you're fat, it's even worst, alienation and bullying is going to await you; well, unfortunately, drama didn't manage to keep to its own theme. During the last 6 episodes, it barely even mattered anymore; I felt like I was watching a different show entirely, which was a real pain for me because I really enjoyed it overall up to halfway through. What could have turned out as a memorable fashion-related-setting romcom with the good message of "looks into a superficial world don't necessarily have to matter", fell into the usual troupes of its own genre. Characters: Mostly superficial. Bland. Nobody saved itself, besides Shin Hyeok. And let me get this straight. There have been attempts of giving them deepness and character development. I liked Seong Joon's condition, I liked Hye Jin's self sacrificing personality, I liked Ha Ri's inner struggle, but they went nowhere. By episode 15 of the show, Seong Joon turned into a hopeless romantic, Hye Jin turned into an observer, just simply answering and reacting to what was happening (typically romcom heroine), as for Ha Ri, useless tragedy and convenient reason to drag the plot, but I did appreciate her resolve to start doing things on her own, without any help. The rest of the cast? Forgettable, despite being lots of developing potential through the editing team characters as well, but just ignored for the sake of romance. As for, Shin Hyeok, he was the only character that knew and had any shades of "greys". And no, for any one of you that is starting to assume, no, I am not a Siwon fangirl, I didn't even consider his existence till this drama. And no, I did not exactly ship Hye Jin and Shin Hyeok; to be sincere, I did not ship anybody. He was just the character that connected them all and that, in the end, tied them all up and motivated all of them up. If there's a reason why the characters managed to reach that little character development that they had, is exclusively because of Shin Hyeok. Acting/Cast Hwang Jung Eum. Oh, Hwang Jung Eum, you are only sweet when you stop overreacting, sweetheart. Comedy doesn't mean overreaction; no, let me rephrase, comedy doesn't mean yelling and hiding under tables, dropping everything in your way and act as if you're on crack 90% of the time. It's the problem that I had with Kill Me, Heal Me comedy as well, when she was involved. For the rest, I must praise Siwon, of course. I don't know if he improoved or not from his last role, but I really liked to witness his famous "derp faces", as well as his funny to bittersweet expression changes. It was very warming. As for Park Seo Joon, I must compliment him when he had to deal with his post-traumatic condition, but besides that, not much else. The rest of the cast was pretty much average, didn't really made me care about their performance. Music Forgettable and limited. I can't remember any of the tracks up to now. Tools/Storytelling/Execution (because I consider them important enough to mention now) For once I didn't feel that spammed by flashbacks as I usually do when I watch Korean dramas, which is good. The filming was also deal with pretty nicely, I guess. I at least have nothing to complain. What I do have to complain about though, is the storytelling and execution. There are lots of points that are ignored from episode 1 of the show, which people tried to assume, but till an official answer, it just stays as that: assuming. For example (jump over this if you don't want to read SPOILERS), we have Hye Jin complaining and saying that she wished she had Ha Ri's face and body, yet, as the best friend and "wife" Ha Ri is supposed to be, did she try to help Hye Jin? No. Did Hye Jin ask for help? No. Explanation? None. Another one, Hye Jin is asked by the director to be more Most-like and she tried to apply make-up, which she fails horribly. Why did that happen? Pride because she had no intention to ask for help? Then what about later? Somebody that has no idea how to even apply eye-shadows, suddenly becomes able to. How? Errr....And there are more but I'm just going to END SPOILERS HERE. You might say that nobody cares and these are just me picking on unimportant details; well, I must bring to your attention that these "details" makes the "execution". I do not take a story seriously, when the details just don't match or are skipped over. It's a superficial way of storytelling and execution that I will never aproove of, unless its intent IS clear to be superficial to begin with and have a completely different goal than me focusing on the story. Overall It was painful. The reason why I dropped it when I only had one episode left, is because it was so painful to think of what it was and what could have become, that I couldn't bear my frustration anymore. I don't usually drop series. I watch even what doesn't particularly interest me; a good show can be good even if I'm not emotionally invested in it or I can't care less about the topic. I even keep watching it, when I find it bad, but at least I can have fun to point out everything wrong with it. In this case, I couldn't even have the pleasure of laughing at it, for how frustrated I became. If it rode on Kill Me, Heal Me's popularity? Maybe, yes. But I don't count that as the only factor why it failed. And I didn't even like Kill Me, Heal Me either.