Unlike almost all of you, I didn’t have the advantage of growing up with Asian dramas and American soap operas for the simple reason that – gasp! – they didn’t exist back then.

So when I began watching Asian dramas, I had to deal with, not only the alien-ness of the culture I was watching, but also the delayed gratification of not knowing how all pieces fit in until 8 weeks later. The American shows I typically watched were episodic, meaning a problem would be introduced and resolved within the hour or half-hour running time of the show, like “I Love Lucy,” “Star Trek,” “Seinfeld,” “Elementary,” and “House MD.”

And that’s my biggest issue with “Love with Flaws.”

Don’t get me wrong. I understood the premise of the show: girl distrusts handsome men because living with three handsome brothers, she received a lot of grief from her brothers’ admirers. lol. For about a good 30 minutes of the show, I thought this kdrama writer was spying on my high school life, and I was happily settling in to watch a funny romcom when, all of the sudden, the shit hit the fan.

It happened about 3/4th of the first episode (Chapter 2 at 21:05).

You see, while the girl’s flaw is her aversion for handsome guys, his flaw is his fecal incontinence. He has an uncontrollable urge to defecate once his memory of his bowel accident in middle school is triggered.

To show his Irritable Bowel Syndrome Disorder (IBSD), the drama would evoke an image of a flock of white birds bursting out of his nether regions – I guess because bird poop is ubiquitous?

Look: I like the actress, Oh Yeon Seo. She’s the rare actress who can portray a mean, annoyed, berserk bitch, and still look sympathetic. She plays Joo Seo Yeon, a PE instructor with three handsome and irresponsible brothers.

BTW, Yulmo from “Tale of Nokdu” had a special guest appearance. He played Yeon Seo’s ex-boyfriend who dumped her after his successful plastic surgery. Hahaha. I hope he doesn’t get typecast as a jerk.

I also love the second female lead, Kim SeulGi. She plays MiKyung, the perky best friend and co-teacher of Yeon Seo.

She was cute in “Splash Splash Love” and “Oh My Ghostess” so I was looking forward to this show. Aha!! I now remember where I first saw Kang Haneul! From his guest appearance in Happy Together with Kim SeulGi.

I’ve reservation about the male lead Ahn Jae Hyun’s acting skills but I was willing to give him a break because of his unsavory divorce. He plays Lee Kang Woo who had a crush on Seo Yeon when they were in middle school.

In Episode 2 (Chapter 3 at 9:41), his whole sad backstory was unveiled. Back then, Seo Yeon rejected him because he was ugly and fat. He took the rejection hard, so he starved himself for nearly four days. On the eve of a school field trip, he received a call from SY to meet each other. He waited anxiously for her and when she didn’t show up, he binged-eat

…which led to a disastrous and traumatic accident on the school bus.

It hasn’t been revealed yet, but I bet two cents that the reason SY didn’t show up to their meeting was because her parents died on that very night on some car accident. There’s always a “vehicle of doom” in these dramas.

The second male lead portrays Min Hyuk, a cousin of Kang Woo. He plays a cute doctor at the school where Seo Yeon and SeulGi teach. He has a crush on Seo Yeon, too, but I think he’s a good match for SeulGi’s character.

I’m a self-avowed poop-phobe.

I’ve written before that scatological humor never worked for me, even in classic literature (or shiterature, lol) like Jonathan Swift “Gulliver’s Travels” or Francois Rabelais “Gargantua and Pantagruel.”

Had the potty humor in this romcom just been a temporary problem with a quick fix, I would have held my nose and ignored it. After all, I’ve come to expect this preoccupation with poop as part of Korean culture. lol. I’ve seen those poop bread sold in the street of Insadong in Seoul.

credit: korea.net

And I knew (without having to be told) that Gaeddong, the heroine in “Flower Crew: Joseon Marriage Agency” was named after dog’s poop to draw attention to her lowly stature in comparison to the aristocratic Ma Hoon.

credit: kdramakisses

An aside: If we’re to play word association, say the word “yogurt” to me and I’ll think “calcium” for healthy bones. The word “probiotic” and the notion that yogurt was essential in cleaning large intestines (the poop factory!) won’t even enter my ignorant head. I remember seeing Yakult for the the first time, and frowning why milk came in such dainty packaging.

But… but… but… (or should I write “butt butt butt” now?), my issue with this kdrama is that the male lead’s involuntary defecation is THE driving force of his character development. There’s no anti-diarrheal medication that can easily solve his trauma. He wants his revenge because she ruined his excretory system and mental sanity. However,  to exact his revenge, he has no choice but to expose himself to her ridicule and to public disgrace because of his IBSD.

How disgusting is this that I have to sit through weeks of his toilet anxiety to get my happily-ever-after? I can’t watch more of this running joke on Kang Woo’s third…errr…turd world problems.

Seriously, Episode 2 was the worst. It was supposed to be funny but I could only frown in response.  I cringed hard when I heard the rumblings of Kang Woo’s panic attack or poop attack. I could imagine him clenching his butt to hold his shit in. I pitied him as he tried to discreetly leave the party and then frantically search for a clean restroom. It was revolting to see him grab at his butt crack. And the poop stain after the flock of birds exploded from the seat of his pants was TMI (Too Much Information).

Ugh! At that precise moment (Ch 3 at 2:01), I lost the point of this whole shit-show. I stayed, of course, to watch the rest of the show and see whether the other characters could somehow redeem this show.

But no.

I’m sure there’s a positive, moralistic, anal lesson somewhere, like:

He can count his blessing that he isn’t constipated.
Handsome or ugly, straight or gay, rich or poor, we’re all full of crap.
We shouldn’t stigmatize normal bodily functions; we should embrace our earthiness…and then wash our hands. lol.
As a parody of Descartes’ “Cogito, ergo sum” (or “I think, therefore I am”), he poops, therefore he loves.
And it’s not true love until you’ve heard your lover poop.

Unfortunately, I can’t give any more shit about this show than I already have. lol.