The thread is open. Take it away, @GB!
Cast: Seo InGuk and Park JiHyun (I think she was that jealous girl in “Yumi’s Cells” Season 1)
Episodes: 12
Start Date: Monday, Jun 22
Airs on Mondays and Tuesdays
Where to Watch it: Amazon Prime
Network: tvN
Let’s enjoy the show.
Well thank you @pkml3 … it’s so nice to have an open thread. I hope there are many others who will come here and add their thoughts.
I’m mostly tied up on and off and then will be totally ‘gone’ for 2 weeks. Let’s see what occurs to me with this little show.
Well, what can I say about this series? After eight episodes, here are my thoughts which have turned into a review!
At first, I was going to say there wasn’t really much to analyse. But the more I watched, the more I found myself thinking about the show’s underlying idea of love and what it’s trying to say about relationships.
While I don’t feel I’ve wasted my time watching it, neither has it left me feeling particularly inspired or moved. In terms of romance, it reminds me a little of One Spring Night, although I found this one much easier to stay with. Thankfully, it never became quite as slow or painful a watch for me.
The story follows two parallel tracks. On one side is the workplace driven by relentless professionalism; on the other is a web of relationships being formed, tested, coincidentally intertwined, and, in some cases, broken.
… Continued from above.
In many ways, work feels like a protagonist in its own right. The characters inhabit a culture where duty consistently takes precedence over personal lives. No matter what emotional, physical or psychological turmoil they’re experiencing, they keep showing up and pushing forward. It’s another typically uncompromising workplace, with nasty credit-stealing bosses and industrial espionage to boot.
Most of the story is seen through the female lead’s perspective as she navigates the demands of work while cautiously allowing a new relationship into her life: one that inevitably complicates many things.
Early on, I found myself equally invested in her professional journey and her tentative romance. Lately, though, the balance has shifted. As her relationship begins to unravel, her career has become the more compelling storyline for me.
Among the themes, a biggie seems to be the unfolding exploration of modern relationships, particularly how difficult it is to move forward when people haven’t truly let go of the past. There is also the difficult dynamic of secretly dating the boss.
Continued …
I’m not entirely convinced that the romantic conflict, as it’s currently presented, generates enough emotional weight for me to become deeply invested. Oddly enough, I’m now more curious to see whether the new product task force can survive all the backstabbing, office politics and double-dealing than whether the romance itself succeeds.
One thing I do appreciate about the characters is that they remain true to themselves. Their motivations feel recognisably human. They acknowledge their insecurities, rationalise their choices, and even recognise when have to lie. There’s an honesty in their self-awareness that makes them believable.
The show’s treatment of love, however, gives me mixed feelings. At times it seems to risk reducing love to little more than an emotion. One character is criticised for saying that love ends when the feelings disappear (in fact two characters claim that this is enough to end the long-term romance), and rightly so. Thankfully, the series also reminds us, that love involves choice and effort as well as emotion. I only hope that message doesn’t become overshadowed as the story progresses.
Personally, I find another idea more troubling: the repeated insistence in love, that one’s own happiness, or a friend’s interests, should always come first, and that no one should have to endure discomfort within a relationship. At the opposite extreme, the male lead seems to believe that he should constantly give in to whatever the female lead wants in order to compensate for what he sees as his own flaw. Neither outlook strikes me as particularly healthy. A good relationship surely requires mutual sacrifice, mutual respect, and the willingness for both people to grow; not one person always putting themselves first, nor the other always giving themselves up.
Continued …
While the series hasn’t broken any new ground, it remains a pleasant, watchable drama. One of those that do not require much thought, which is a relief! I fancy some will find it insipid and predictable.
Of the 2 main leads, I find myself more interested in how SIG’s character will turn out, who was once overly taciturn and ‘misunderstood’. The usual kdrama gloss of how love changes the man comes into play of course, but SIG handles it well and gives it weight. The other drama trope of how it’s the man who’s going to ‘raise’ the woman to new heights in work is also being played out.
The actress is eminently watchable but although I’ve seen her in other dramas, I do not remember how she was.
I believe I enjoyed the beginning more than I do the middle bits with the self-imposed doubts and misery. Still I wait for the last 4 episodes.
The series doesn’t offer profound insights, but it does raise enough questions about love, work and the choices we make to keep me interested in seeing where it goes from here.