The show that brought me into the new year – mini time travel (by only two characters and going back just a year), spiced up with lots of greed, lots on family life, lots of love and a few murderous plots!
Do-guk and Yi-joo
Sung Hoon reprises his role as man with childhood trauma causing him sleep problems. Here, it is Yi-joo (Jung Yoo-min) who has the eating problem, and he pours his heart into feeding her. The larder he stocks for her… complete with dark chocolate Loacker!
Do-guk’s devotion in some ways mitigates how weirdly their relationship develops. We don’t know till rather late why he loves her so much nor do we know why she loves him back in the end.
Nevertheless, they make a cute couple, look fantastic together, and show much resilience and determination as a pair. Yoo-min (looking like Park Eun-bin in certain scenes!) acts much more strongly and her character development provides more room to showcase her skills. For a lot of the show, it feels like she is the main character and Do-guk is two-thirds of a main character. He didn’t seem all that different from Secret Romance days, and why wasn’t he styled as a sharp dresser?! That said, even in his baggy clothes, he is still the handsome hunk he is supposed to be.
Sisters
Do-na is an intelligent and spunky combi of her mother and grandmother, while Yoo-ra has her mother’s dreadful traits. This is the first time I’ve seen adult Jin Ji-hee in a meaty role, and there are definite echoes of her bratty princess insistence on marrying Im Siwan! In addition, Yoo-ra gets so many moods and insecurities, not to mention opportunities at evil plotting like her mother. Does Ji-hee make the most of the role? She tries, and shows she can play a multi-faceted, messed up girl. Now, she needs more experience to get all the subtleties and nuances right.
Mothers
The mothers stole the show from the fathers. Lee Mi-sook as Cha Yeon-hwa is the scene stealer, best character and best actress here. Pitted against evil adoptive mother Lee Jung-hye (played by Lee Min-young), she is funny, surprising and wonderfully cutting.
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| the queen! |
Fathers
The fathers are very much ineffectual heads of household. When I look at one, I can’t help but think, “What an idiot!”, and when I look at the other, it’s “What a fool!”
Dad Seo (Kim Sung-soo) contributes nothing meaningful in any company discussion. He acts unthinkingly and is easily fooled, especially by Jung-wook (Kang Shin-hyo). It’s his fault that Jung-wook grew up bitter and vengeful. How could he not know that his son thought he had abandoned his mother, and that he hated living with the family? It’s absurd that he chooses to cut off ties with Jung-wook when he’s in jail, just when the guy realises he’d got it all wrong. As Jung-wook says, why didn’t dad just tell him?
What was that about a video of the cruise ship scene? Why did Grandma throw the phone to the ground? Dad Seo definitely didn’t deal with the incident properly. He didn’t even bother to find out what exactly happened.
Dad Han (Jeon No-min) is no better. He turns a blind eye to everything, doesn’t investigate anything and honestly, deserves to be manipulated by Jung-hye. It felt like he only cares about himself. Yi-joo and mum Ji-won (Jin Hee-kyung) shouldn’t blame him for not recognising Yi-joo all these years (how was he to know?). However, he is certainly to blame for allowing Jung-hye to mistreat Yi-joo and to turn Yoo-ra into the horror that she is. If she had succeeded in pill-ing him to his death, he himself is to blame for it. Even young Yi-joo realised something was wrong and got rid of the pills that were given to her but he just swallowed all of his. How dumb is that!
I loved how the Seo family instantaneously sees through Jung-hye, more or less ignores Dad Han, warms to Yi-joo, and loves her and stands by her.
Thankfully, the two dads get less airtime than everyone else but they should have had their share of just desserts, since a lot of the misery was caused by them.
Worst off dad – poor old Se-hyuk (Oh Seung-yoon)! Indeed, he was a donkey, monkey, goat, turkey and other animals for hurting Yi-joo but eventually, he is remorseful and helps expose Yoo-ra’s misdeeds. The script didn’t let him off, though. Just when he is about to marry that sweet girl, it foists pregnant Yoo-ra on him! Also, how did his name end up being wrongly paired with Yi-joo’s at the wedding attire shop? I thought it was deliberately done by perhaps Jae-ho or even Do-guk, to humiliate him, as he says, but it didn’t seem so. This guy really gets his unjust desserts!
Dad Han should be the one who takes responsibility for Yoo-ra. After all, he is partly responsible for her growing up without morals.
In any case, she makes another unintelligent decision (like when she ate the DNA test results!) – she shouldn’t ‘abandon’ her mum when she is in prison because she’ll need mum and her tricks when she gets out of jail!
Best props, i.e. characters who are props
Brother-in-law/assistant Jae-ho (Lee Myung-hoon) – funny guy, his best scene being him crying at the wedding
Jung-hye’s assistant Kim Jae-won (Do Yu) – who would have thought an expressionless guy has an interesting backstory! I found it amusing that he is so matter of fact and emotionless, compared to all the drama kings and queens, and for several episodes, I thought he liked Yi-joo as well.
Not the best props
Best friend Soo-jin (Lee Da-hae; not the My Girl one) and mum Ji-won could have been better written. They were pivotal for sure, but boy, were they boring. Even Se-hyuk’s family, annoying and mean-spirited as the ladies were, was much more engaging.
Let me leave this with another regal picture, as well as one of the best lines in the show (Do-guk to Yoo-ra), one of the rare times he gets a punchy, sarcastic line.
Very dramatic and entertaining show!
MBN, 12 episodes
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