How interesting can a show about potatoes be and how is post-military discharge Kang Tae-oh?
The potato research part sure wasn’t very interesting but it was passable as the backdrop.
The story was more about some very childish people doing very childish things but thankfully, there were a few meaningful threads running through it.
Kim Mi-kyung (Lee Sun-bin) is extremely childish, for example, in making life difficult for So Baek-ho (Kang Tae-oh) when he takes charge of the lab, for abetting the childish village chief and elders in their attempts to do the same (was that supposed to be funny?) and when expecting Baek-ho to do all kinds of silly tricks to win back her affection. You’d think she would grow up over time but she doesn’t. She is topped only by best friend Ong-joo (Kim Ga-eun), childish right to the core. 30-somethings who cannot behave their age.
Hee-jin (Jung Sin-hye) is more annoying than childish (although she has her moments) and plain unprincipled; to think she would do the same thing (steal someone else’s fiancé) if she had to make the decision again, to “protect” her heart and love, despite knowing and experiencing the pain and consequences. Well, at least she matures a little, getting her mother to agree to let the divorce be known, hence letting Ki-se (Lee Hak-joo) go.
Little brother Hwan-kyung (Shin Hyun-seung) is sometimes child-like but he’s not childish, and I like him, as well as youngest potato lab member Hee-dong (Nam Hyeon-woo).
Baek-ho provides the much-needed level-headed balance and Tae-oh easily pockets this role. He and Ki-se are the only ones who get proper character development, and the best parts of that were Baek-ho becoming mortified when he thinking back about all the people he had dismissed (doing what HR people all over the world do all the time) – coldly and nonchalantly – and Ki-se admitting he regretted his past actions. Lovely that Baek-ho learns empathy and how to connect with others. Please give Tae-oh more challenging roles.
There was a huge lost opportunity for Mi-kyung and Ong-joo to grow at least a bit. Why does Mi-kyung get so angry that Baek-ho was the one who had engineered her leaving Wonhan all those years back, when they didn’t know each other yet then, he was just following orders and it was something he’d done to others too? She never acknowledges this. On the other hand, when Ong-joo confesses that she had known about Ki-se’s impending wedding but didn’t tell Mi-kyung, she forgives her immediately! Ong-joo is right that she should have told Mi-kyung and they should have had it out with Ki-se, hence handing Mi-kyung the initiative in “dumping” him, leaving Wonhan and not having to suffer being poorly treated there. As it was, she didn’t do a thing about it and so is much more responsible for Mi-kyung’s misery than Baek-ho was.
As half of the couple, Sun-bin is okay but Tae-oh clearly outshines her and there was much more life in Mi-kyung’s animosity with Ki-se than her interaction with Baek-ho. I suppose the Ong-joo/Hwan-kyung relationship was supposed to be funny but it wasn’t, and neither was it cute, sweet or romantic, although Hwan-kyung is cute, sweet and romantic! The funniest scene was them going off to search for Ong-joo with Baek-ho in his pj’s.
The potato lab crew was entertaining, especially with their scattered hilarious lines.
The lovely rural scenery was great, too!
I’d have liked to see Baek-ho visiting Mi-kyung’s monk dad! Where is their sister who has kids? Why mention them when we’re not going to see them?
Overall, the plot could have been a lot tighter, parts should have been more organically connected and the ending more meaningful and conclusive rather than childish and ridiculous, so this is one of those shows that’s entertaining and best watched without thinking too much!
tvN, 12 episodes
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