We're testing out the new batch of kdramas. From the good to the bad to the unsure, here are some very brief initial responses:
1. The Prime Minister and I
Four episodes in, this is hands-down the most pleasant surprise of the bunch so far. To be honest, ahjussi romances aren't really my thing. I couldn't get past the age gap in Dating Agency: Cyrano, but it hasn't bothered me so far here. It might have something to do with the fact that Yoona is relatively tall and Lee Bum Soo is relatively short, so they're always on eye level with each other. Or maybe it's the fact that Yoona's character is a real adult with a real job, unlike 90% of kdrama females. Or maybe it's the fact that so far, every time he tries to push her around, she finds a way to turn the tables.
I also think the writers have been very smart with their use of Lee Bum Soo so far. He's a comedic actor, but sometimes his character was too much to handle in History of a Salaryman. By using his funny skills in imaginary scenarios, we get to laugh while still taking him seriously as a person. The one thing I can't take seriously is the reasoning behind the fake relationship. Off the top of my head, I can think of about 47 better ways to resolve the problem than a contract marriage. But what else do you expect from a kdrama forced marriage premise?
I'm cautiously optimistic. If the writers flush this potential, I'm going to be Hulk smash a lot of things.
2. My Love from Another Star
Sorry, guys, but I can't do it. I have a terrible habit of judging books (and shows) by their covers. Maybe I'll work on it as a New Year's resolution or something, but until New Year's, I'm going to judge away. I don't know what it's like to be a 400-year-old alien, but according to this poster, it mostly involves crying. In Vivi's world, the only person who gets a pass on Poster Crying is Song Joong Ki. The '90s-tastic "I'm sad! But also ethereal!" mist isn't helping, either.
3. Miss Korea
The first two episodes were much more serious than I expected from the Miss Congeniality-style premise. The writers raised a lot of social issues in episode 1, and how they handle these issues later has the potential to make or break the show for me. I'm squarely on the fence for now, but I'm also quite intrigued. I love the gritty old-school vibe going on.
It's been a while since we featured a solid Fashion Face-off around here. In our last competition, The Master's Sun representing fall, won in a landslide. I think people might have been swayed by their love of the series, though, so I'm not sure it was a fair fight.
Given that it's the Christmas season and all, I figured that we could celebrate some cold-weather wear and do a battle of the kdrama turtlenecks.
But why turtlenecks? Why not fur coats or absurd hats or some other wintery clothing item? To answer that question, I bring you a story:
Once upon a time, Vivi was four years old, and her mother lovingly sewed a dress for her. This dress had a ruffled collar on it that stood up like a turtleneck. When four-year-old Vivi saw this dress, she hated it. HATED IT. But, being the sensitive little whippersnapper she was, she didn't want to hurt her mother's feelings and pretended to like it.
I'm pretty sure I wasn't fooling anyone.
Her family members always wanted her to wear that dress because it was "so cute," but Vivi knew better. Every time she put on that stupid pink dress with its stupid ruffly turtleneck, she was absolutely positive that she looked absurd, so she made up excuses to get out of wearing that dress. Fortunately for her, she eventually outgrew it and was no longer forced to choose between the shame of wearing the dress and the guilt of hurting her mother's feelings. The end.
Ever since I owned that dress, I've had this unreasonable hatred of all turtlenecks. There's something about all that unbroken fabric rubbing up against your chin that I find both unnerving and unflattering, so it drives me absolutely crazy that they're so common in kdramas these days. So, in honor of four-year-old Vivi and her wounded pride, let's look at some of the worst kdrama turtlenecks, shall we?
Contender 1: Park Hae Young, My Princess
YOU. You were the offender.
Look, I totally get the impulse to cover up that turtleneck (with a velvet coat???), but the thing about turtlenecks is that there's always more fabric. This cream number is kind of form-fitting, too, which makes me wonder if they were just trying to show off Abs McGillicuddy over here in a subtle way. Sorry, Song Seung Heon, but even you can't pull it off.
Contender 2: Kim Tan, Heirs
This one's pretty self-explanatory, right? I mean, the sweater is eating his face. I know, I know, I've made fun of Kim Tan a lot lately, but it's kind of like a scab I keep picking. I just can't stop!
Contender 3: Kim Shin, Marry Him If You Dare
If there's one thing I hate more than turtlenecks, it's brown turtlenecks. I don't want to be gross, but the tightness combined with the color really looks like a fresh turd (Turd-leneck--get it?).
Contender 4: Ma Ae Ri, Miss Korea
Not a full-fledged turtleneck like the others, but it reminds me so much of my childhood nemesis dress that I had to include it. Also, this:
Every time I see this character on Miss Korea, I won't be able to get Yzma out of my head.
Which turtleneck takes the cake? If you love turtlenecks and hate me for hating them, which one is your least favorite of the bunch?
So, we actually managed to cover most of our Heirs-related feelings in our finale commentary, but we figured we should probably give a more thorough (and serious) analysis of the show as a whole. After all, it has consumed so much of the kdrama community for the past 2+ months that it deserves some parting words!
Here's the one-paragraph overview: Heirs started out kind of ridiculous. Then it became a train wreck, but also the most boring train wreck I have ever seen. Then it somehow improved for the last handful of episodes. Is it worth watching for people who skipped it while it was airing? I give it a decided meh overall, bordering on "Is it over yet? What about now?"
Let's start with the positives. Many of he the secondary characters were interesting, funny, and charming. It took a while to get invested in some of them (like Hyo Shin) just because we were jumping back and forth between so many people, but the side friendships and romances were often a welcome relief from the main couple. The two superstar couples of this show were Chan Young/Bo Na and Ki Ae/Hee Nam (the two mothers). In both cases, I didn't particularly like the characters at first, but they gradually grew on me until I smiled every time they entered the scene.
The second positive is Kim Woo Bin as Choi Young Do. Wait, you already knew that Coco and I are completely and totally biased in favor of Young Do? How ever did you figure it out?
I know I'm not the only one who started this show feeling a little guilty that I found Young Do more interesting than Kim Tan in pretty much every scene. My theory is that Young Do had to be disturbingly cruel and violent at first to at least give people a fair shot at favoring the intended main couple. Even then, the early episodes were a mental tug-of-war where one side said, "But VIVI, you should never favor bullies! It's despicable!" while the other side said, "I can't help it! He's so fascinating! Plus, Kim Tan is about as interesting as watching cement dry!" It also helped that we knew from episode 1 that this guy would never actually get the girl, so it's not like we were really advocating abusive bully boyfriends anyway.
Even when I couldn't really like Young Do because he was too scary, he was always interesting to watch, and full credit there goes to Kim Woo Bin for making every facial expression in every scene meaningful. He has won a few new fans over here for sure.
And now...the bad.
Really, most of the problems in this show boiled down to the central couple. There was very little romantic scaffolding at the beginning of the show to indicate why Kim Tan would be so obsessive about Eun Sang, and there especially wasn't any strong reasoning for Eun Sang to return his affections. The male lead was already asking "Do I like you?" in episode 2, which pushed the show into the "romantic obstacles abound" phase before it had time to develop the romance in the first place. That's also probably why the middle of the show felt so draggy--we skipped ahead to freeze frame love triangle standoffs by episode 5. What options did they have by episode 10 but to repeat this standoff for the twentieth time? Oh, wait, they could always go for the sad drive-by ignore walk. I counted five of those in one episode alone! FIVE! Sure, there was some cute banter in the last few episodes, but it was a little late by then.
Without this romantic scaffolding in place, we just kind of had to trust the writer's word for it that this couple was madly in love. I remember that I talked a little about internal versus external kdramas in my review of Nice Guy. If that drama was internal, this one was a step beyond external. These characters didn't even look like they were in love. Eun Sang looked horrified every time Kim Tan invaded her personal space (over and over and over again), and yet, the words "I like you" suddenly came out of her mouth. If the dialogue says it, it must be true!
He just confessed his feelings. She's literally trembling with fear.
Doesn't that face say "I'm so happy you kissed me"?
Yup, suuuuuper happy right now. Ah, young love!
"It only looks like you're hurting me against my will! And this struggling is struggling for joy!"
This kind of forced feeling plays into a bigger theme on Heirs, and that theme is that it's all about Kim Tan. I finally realized that Kim Tan's obsession was never even about Eun Sang as a person--it was always about Eun Sang as his personal symbol. He chased her down obsessively, but that relationship was still very self-focused. Here are some examples:
Kim Tan's dialogue often focuses on himself rather than Eun Sang: "Do I like you?" "Why don't you ever listen to me?" (Uhhh, because you've been ignoring everything she says?) "I'm going crazy because I want to hug you." (Followed by a hug. Against her protests.) "But I like you!" "Just do as I say!"
He instigates violence against Young Do time after time after time, and he almost always uses Eun Sang as an excuse. (Fun fact: In four out of five fights, Tan gets physical first. Young Do only hits Tan first when he's trying to sober him up.) But if you look at the most troubling of these scenes (where he kicks down the door while shouting "I'm gonna kill you!"), his first thought isn't to take care of Eun Sang's safety (while "bad guy" Young Do does manage to shield her). Instead, his first thought is to punch Young Do and hit him with a chair. It's not so much about protecting Eun Sang as it is about his own rage against Young Do.
I was happy that Kim Tan finally realized the impact his rampaging tactics had on Eun Sang's life, and I guess his decision to stop chasing after her was some twisted kind of selflessness, but he followed it up by going on that absurd bender of violence and pouty tears. Was he only sad about Eun Sang, or was his inability to "protect" Eun Sang mostly emblematic of his powerlessness against dear old daddy-o?
I saw Kim Tan progressing in some ways (like self-confidence and less family neediness), but for the most part, he wasn't much better at the end of the show than he was at the beginning. While Young Do apologized to the kid he bullied, I wasn't convinced that Kim Tan wouldn't just punch someone else in the face if they got in the way of what he wanted. Is that kid who broke down the door and grabbed the chair gone, or was he pacified because everyone changed around him? His brother supported him, his dad had a stroke and caved, and even his mommy troubles came to an end. What bad habits did Kim Tan abandon in all of this?
In the end, though, I'm glad I watched Heirs. Even the painful music and the ridiculous styling were fun to mock! Love is the moment, guys. Never forget. Or is love my pain? Or is the moment my pain?
One more terrible styling choice for the road, okay? The caked on face makeup in this scene kind of makes it look like his face is melting, like a Barbie that got left in the sun too long.
Guys, this is it. For all of its ups and downs, Heirs was a fun community experience. Even when it was a complete train wreck in the middle, at least we all got to laugh at the train wreck together! Because we live blogged the Heirs premiere, we thought we would round out some of our thoughts on the final episode in the same way. Here we go!
00.10 V: This show has turned me into Pavlov�s dog. I hear the Young Do theme song, and I�m already clutching my heart at the computer screen. CURSE YOU AND YOUR CHARISMA FOREVER, KIM WOO BIN!
I can�t help but wish, though, that they had just consummated this bromance with one last round of �Love Is the Moment.�
6.05 C: Did Young Do�s dad just make a joke? What? It�s a little late for father/son camaraderie don�t you think?
V: Yeah, waaaay too little too late. You can�t just give people strokes or send them to jail in the last episode to make us feel sad!
C: But I did feel sad though. When Tan�s dad reached out to fake little Tan�.FEELS
V: Me too. Stroke + small child flashbacks? I can�t resist. But I still felt manipulated the whole time.
C: Agreed. Those writers are pulling every trick in the tear generator book.
8.10 C: Aww, Young Do is trying to make his peace with the world! Now he�s bad-boy-turned-sad-boy-turned-rad-boy, but still kind of just sad-boy, FOREVER.
9.11 V: LSKJDFFSKHLJFSJLSDFJKLFSDJKL I�m never ever going to recover from Young Do-itis.
C: Me either. They better do him right by the end of this! I FORGIVE YOU YOUNG DO! (and please marry me).
9.50 V: It wouldn�t be Heirs without some unintelligible English, would it?
C: Funny how it�s all coming full circle, even the engrish.
V: Does this mean we might get a closing cameo from Tan�s surfer drug addict thief friend?
C: PLEASE dear drama gods, YES!
11.40 C: NO YOUNG DO! Don�t do it! They better not make him commit suicide. THIS IS NONSENSE!!!
Also, poor little rich kids. Boooo hoooo. Go cry me a river that I know you�re just going to make your servant clean up.
V: Yeah, yeah, we get it. Everyone is sad except for Eun Sang.
C: What? She�s sad for like 19 of the 20 episodes. I thought she only knew how to make one face.
V: Is that why she�s text message rubbing it in that she�s the only non-sad one now? Oh, wait, she�s STILL making her cry face.
18.40 C: It�s making me nervous that Young Do is traipsing all around trying to make amends. He better not die! And if he�s not going to die, then is this just the writer�s evil plot to make us fall even more in love with him so it sucks that much more when he NEVER wins?
V: I can�t even talk about him anymore because it hurts my heart too much. I�m just going to listen to his theme song on repeat instead.
C: That will do you no good. Nothing good ever comes from listening to K-drama theme songs on repeat. Trust me, I did it with Master�s Sun and it wrecked me, like a wrecking ball, that�s how it came in.
V: Well, the writer will just have to take responsibility for any Miley Cyrus happenings around here, then. She�s the one who wrote a male lead with the personality of a potato and matched him against this guy!
C: Yes that was so shortsighted, or genius. Not sure which, but I�m in love so I don�t even care! Young Do *V*! (*V*= the emoticon for FIGHTING!)
21:43
V: The chairwoman is wearing a Snuggie to an important meeting. Hey, at least she dressed it up with her best neck bow, right?
C: I wonder if I can pick one up at Walgreen�s. My mother would love to have one to watch her K-dramas in.
V: I don�t know, Coco. This one appears to be her most formal snuggy. It might be too fancy for casual Kdrama viewing.
C: Are you saying my mom is not classy? You know what happens when people diss each other�s mothers. We�ve just witnessed 20 episodes of it!
V: Don�t hit me with the chair, Coco! I take it all back!
C: Ok, 4 year feud averted.
V: I�m just glad I won�t be forced to rock angry Elvis hair for the foreseeable future.
C: Yes, and I am glad that I won�t have to wear 20 different ugly sweaters. Wait, why do you get to be Young Do?
V: Because Kim Tan is always the one getting his feelings hurt over �your momma� jokes.
C: Ah, ok. Fair enough.
26.00 C: Not the DOUBLE single tear! One single tear rolling down two people�s cheeks at the same time?!? This is getting real!
V: Seriously, people, you�re killing me here! I�m thinking of starting a coffee table book entitled The Many Sad Faces of Young Do. Any takers? And it�s a TRIPLE single tear if you count the one slowly rolling down my cheek.
C: Oh no, then that makes it a QUADRUPLE single tear for my little tear running down my little cheek too!
V: It�s really hard to gaze pensively into the distance and watch the show at the same time.
C: That�s true, but this is Young Do we�re talking about, so if anyone deserves quadruple single tears, it�s him.
29:55 V: FINALLY, a Rachel and Hyo Shin scene! I have been waiting for ANYTHING that doesn�t have to do with stupid boring people and their stupid boring companies.
C: Yes! As much as I hate Rachel, I do want to see her happy. It�s only kind of her fault she�s such a heartless rich girl. Tan did her wrong, there�s no denying that!
I'd say she got the better consolation prize.
42.36 V: I feel like I should be more sad about Won�s breakup. Too bad I can�t even remember this girl�s name. I�ve just been calling her Whazzerface Orphan Lady.
C: Yeah, their relationship never felt particularly real and gripping to me. But I am sad for Won. Did he learn nothing about reckless love from Tan?
V: Well, lest we forget, everything is always all about Tan. If Won had done the same thing, they would have lost that vote (52% to 44% is close!). We can�t have poor little Tanny losing all his stuff, can we?
C: True. Someone has to take one for the team, and apparently Won chose to bear the weight of the power and greed crown!
V: One advantage of this show ending is that we never have to hear anything more about crowns or weight ever, ever again.
45.42 V: Has Young Do been carrying that bandaid around in every pair of pants since he got it? Or has he just never changed his pants? Gross.
C: I knew all the men in this show were strangely stalkerish and obsessive, but that does take the cake.
50.30 C: WTF? Nothing changed? Another shot of Tan and Young Do long walking past each other without looking up? WAE? What was the point of Young Do�s character if he ends up with NOTHING? No girl, no best friend, no company! *throwing table over*
V: Maybe he can go for the new chicken delivery girl?
C: I thought that was what was about to happen and got really angry for a second. Like, that is not an ok cop out last minute.
V: You�re a party pooper. At least Young Do wouldn�t be forever alone, but let�s face it, we all knew this was coming from the first time he showed up. That�s why they started him out SO evil.
C: But every other male lead starts out evil and gets the girl. Just look at Jun Pyo!
V: Or, dare I say it, Kim Tan? Oh wait, he starts out kind of nice and goes downhill from there.
C: How dare you?! You�re right. He�s kind of a controlling and violent maniac.
V: Remember how in Episode 19 he said that he loves to be obsessive? Because I do.
54:27 C: KISS, KISS, KISS! And I mean a real one now! I just really need for a normal, lovely, kiss where no one looks like they�re in pain or being forced to happen.
54.39 V: I LITERALLY LOLd at that ridiculous (and slightly creepy) lip bump.
C: That was NOT a real kiss! That was a freeze frame so that Park Shin Hye doesn�t have to ever learn how to kiss on screen.
V: At least PSH was smiling! Also, are they getting married? Also also why are they living in Tan�s childhood bedroom ten years down the line?
56. 35 V: I can just imagine the writer saying, �You know what we all need here? A recap of EVERY TIME Kim Tan and Eun Sang cried at each other!� You know, in case we forgot.
C: No, I�m pretty sure that was the abridged version. A whole recap would take 10 of the 20 hours.
V: But, you know, eighteen, and pain and stuff. So that makes it okay.
C: Oh to be young! Young Do! Our favorite part of this whole experience.
V: And Bo Na/Chan Young! (Why couldn't we cut half of the boring company stuff for more of them in the finale?)
White Christmas crossed my drama radar several months ago, but at the time, I wasn't in the mood for anything really dark (I blame Breaking Bad). Eventually, the combination of a few disappointing romcoms and the promise of more Kim Woo Bin convinced me to give this miniseries (8 episodes) a chance.
As it turns out, it was just what I needed to cleanse my kdrama palate. White Christmas is anything but a traditional kdrama. It isn't romantic. It isn't funny. It isn't melodramatic, either. It's bleak, terrifying, heartbreaking, and disturbing all at once. It's also fascinating and beautiful in its own dark way.
Overview
I'm going to keep my overview short because this is one drama that probably works best when you know little about it. The basic plot is this: A handful of students at an elite, isolated high school all receive a mysterious note before Christmas and decide to stay behind with one teacher. A terrible snowstorm cuts them off from the outside world, and bad things start to happen to them one by one.
If that sounds like the premise to an Agatha Christie novel, it kind of is. The whole idea of a hodgepodge group of people trapped with one anonymous crazy person isn't exactly new, but, fortunately, that's not the focus of the drama. The "whodunit" quickly takes a back seat to a much more interesting psychological study that spans the remainder of the series.
There are two things that make this series work far more effectively than a lot of similar stories. The first is the production itself. Everything works together, from the claustrophobic setting of the all-glass school to the use of music (I will never hear this song again without thinking of Kim Woo Bin) to the cuts between characters and scenes. It would have been easy to film this thing almost entirely zoomed in on people's faces (Les Miserables, I'm looking at you), but they resisted that temptation for a more measured approach that kept the story grounded in reality.
Anyone else feel like they were watching hamsters in a cage every time they ran back and forth?
The second thing that made this series work so well was the cast. This drama possibly had the best cast I have seen on any kdrama--ever. I don't say that lightly. It was a cast of mostly teenagers, but each and every character (okay, with one exception) was layered and complex. Even the villain of the series had interesting moments of depth that steered clear of caricature. While I didn't like all of the characters, I grew to understand them. The cast members were phenomenal at portraying characters who were so human that you hurt for them. I wasn't worried so much about what the villain might do to them (though that threat was constantly present) so much as what they might do to each other.
I remember reading somewhere (Dramabeans, maybe?) that the director purposely chose young actors who were similar heights for the various roles. Visually, it was an interesting trick. There were some scenes where I really couldn't tell who was who, and yet, even though each student was so similar on the outside, they were all completely different on the inside.
Of course, every drama has its faults, and the faults here mostly stemmed from the plot structure. Time after time, I thought "Why don't you just do X? Problem solved!" The last episode had some especially egregious plot holes that had me rolling my eyes. (Also, who on earth gave Kim Yohan his psychology license?) The short answer here is that the characters never did any of those things because if they had, the conflict would have been gone. Without that conflict, there was no impetus for the psychological study. In a series that's much more about people than plot, I'm willing to let holes slide as a matter of narrative necessity.
Overall, I can't say that I would recommend White Christmas offhand to just anyone. When I say that it's dark, I mean dark. But if you're willing to brave a bleak drama to see some phenomenal acting, including Kim Woo Bin and Sung Joon in early roles, curl up under some warm blankets, stuff yourself with chocolate, and give this one a try. It's well worth it.
And now the spoiler club for those who saw this drama and want to discuss the ending...
In the end, the drama seems to claim that the kids did, in fact, become monsters. We know for a fact that the doctor feels this way--his dying words of "I won" and self-satisfied smile left no question of where he stood on the matter. Combine that with Park Mu Yeol's chilling face as he lies to the detective (possibly the most upsetting moment of the whole thing for me) as well as the doctor's foreshadowing claim that once Park Mu Yeol turned, his monster would be much worse than anyone else's, and you have a pretty grim view of humanity on your hands. I think, however, that there's more to the story.
First of all, I think the central question of "Are monsters born, or are they made?" is inherently flawed. How, exactly, are we distinguishing the categories of monster/not monster? When you piece together the doctor's statements throughout the show, he seems to see it as a clear distinction. One minute, you're not a monster, but once you flip that switch and do something monstrous, you can never go back to being "non-monster" again. In his world, once the kids agree to take a life, they are monsters. At one point in the series, he even points out that it should make no difference whose life it is. A life is still a life.
But why does the psychotic serial killer get to make the rules? That seems a little foolhardy, doesn't it? I agree that the youths made a disturbing (and possibly "monstrous") choice, but that wasn't the only choice they made. Yang Gang Mo chose to jeopardize his own safety to help the hostages. Lee Jae Kyu used his power in the "game" to save the others while sacrificing his own life. Even Mu Yeol overcame his hatred of Chi Hoon to help him. It's overly simplistic to assume that life is some balancing sheet of "monster" choices versus "non-monster" choices, but to assume--as the doctor does--that one moment flips an irreversible switch undermines the complexity of the show.
Instead, I see this drama not as a discussion of the monstrous, but rather as a study in understanding others. Just like the doctor yearns to categorize the boys (and girl) into easy categories of monster or not to ease his own demons, the boys similarly categorize one another at the outset. As the series progresses, they learn that their easy labels--while initially reassuring--were actually isolating them all. By the end, the labels are gone, and so is the isolation.
So which image dominates the ending? Is it Park My Yeol's cold gaze as the doctor whispers "I won"? Or is it the group walking into the light--together?
Where to watch White Christmas
It's a major travesty, but White Christmas isn't currently available on Viki OR Dramafever OR Netflix OR Hulu. I had to do some digging to find it, but you can watch it here:
If I had a time machine, I would go back in time and hang out with Leonardo da Vinci for a while. Once I was done, I would go warn the writers of Marry Him If You Dare (aka Mirae's Choice) not to ruin their show. This thing was so promising at first. I gave it a lot of leeway because hey, at least it wasn't the train wreck that Heirs was, right? Well, while Heirs has gradually been improving, Marry Him If You Dare gradually got worse. And worse. And worse. And then the finale felt like someone vomited into a paper sack, lit it on fire, and put it on my pillow. But more on that later.
Positives
The first few episodes of Marry Him If You Dare were really great. Yoon Eun Hye's ridiculous styling was kind of distracting, but otherwise, it had all of the pieces of an engaging romcom.
Where does one even find a train conductor's hat for casual use?
Most time travel dramas involve someone from the distant past coming to the future, so I liked the switch-up with the traveler coming from the future. It was kind of like A Christmas Carol--if, instead of telling Scrooge what would happen to him over the course of one night, the ghosts kept dropping vague hints for weeks on end for maximum dramatic impact.
The cast was really strong as well. Yoon Eun Hye and Lee Dong Gun created some solid chemistry in the initial stages of the relationship that made me anticipate the progression into passionate love.
I also liked the initial characterization of the second leads. Park Se Joo was kind and thoughtful like a typical male lead, but he wasn't afraid to voice his feelings. He wasn't a complete emotional doormat like other second male leads, which was really refreshing.
The breakout star of the whole thing, though, was Han Chae Ah as Seo Yoo Kyung. In the first few episodes, I thought I would despise her, but then she became delightfully funny and complex. Even when the rest of the show became a gigantic mess, she continued to shine in her scenes.
Let's just make a show about her and skip everyone else.
The other character who went from hatred to love was the brother. He seemed overly overbearing at first, but by the end I was begging for more of his love/hate relationships with both Kim Shin and future Mirae.
Awwww, oppa surrounded by his two sisters (or, to be more accurate, his one sister twice)! So heartwarming!
Where It All Went Wrong
As I said, those first few episodes bought Marry Him If You Dare a lot of time before I suddenly came to the realization that I wasn't enjoying it anymore and that I hadn't been enjoying it for a while. The sad reality is that Marry Him If You Dare is boring. Not typical kdrama draggy middle episodes boring, either. It's stab-yourself-in-the-arm-just-to-make-sure-you-can-still-feel boring. Thinking back, I can remember maybe three scenes from roughly episode 7 to episode 15. It all blends together into a hazy mush that you could feed to people as a tranquilizer.
As if being boring wasn't bad enough, the writers completely tanked 3/4 of the main love square. Seo Yoo Kyung was consistent, but the other three leads were infuriating. What began as a backbone in Se Joo turned into relentless nagging as he wouldn't let Mirae go even after it became clear that she would never love him. Kim Shin did all kinds of logical contortions to make his consistent noble idiocy seem like it made sense. Instead of building his relationship with Mirae, we watched them run away from each other episode after episode (after episode after episode after episode...).
And then, stuck between these two men who inexplicably loved her, we have Mirae. The alternative title of Mirae's Choice suggests that the entire premise focuses on the balance between fate and choice. At several times throughout the show, I applauded when Mirae announced that she wanted to take control of her own life and make decisions independent of other people. That kind of talk struck me as good ground for a strong kdrama heroine. But even as Mirae's words said one thing, her actions consistently said something else. Every time someone offered a reason why she shouldn't date the man she wanted, it put her totally out of emotional commission for the rest of the episode.
Your mouth says "strong female," but your face says, "I have a bad case of motion sickness."
By the end of the series, we are supposed to believe that Mirae has made the right choice to lead her into a future of happiness that her original path wouldn't have held. The big problem, however, is that I'm not convinced that Mirae actually changed in significant ways from the beginning of the series to the end. Yes, she became more confident and found fulfillment in her job, but that wasn't the part of her life that led to the tragic future in the first place. The debt was the outside stressor, but it was Mirae's building resentment over their hardships that caused her to lash out at Kim Shin in the end. In the final few episodes of the altered reality, that stressor is gone, but Mirae still doesn't know how to cope with her trials. She cries over things like office gossip, she strings Park Se Joo along because she doesn't have the communication skills to make her feelings clear, and she becomes tearful and irate when things don't go her way. That doesn't sound like resilient character development, does it?
Ultimately, I didn't like or empathize with Mirae, and that was one of the biggest weaknesses in this show. She was upbeat, positive, and strong in her professional life, but in her personal life, she came off as self-centered and petulant.
The Ending (MAJOR SPOILERS)
If I still cared about Mirae by the end of the series, this is how I would have felt about the finale:
It's like the writers realized that they had squandered the last ten episodes, so they had a contest to see who could make the most disastrous choices for the finale. Let's have a heart-to-heart about that pile of pig excrement they called a last episode, shall we?
If we're talking about "selfless" moves gone wrong, Mirae's breakup with Se Joo takes the cake. Your "gift" to him is doing what you want and telling him to try again later? You're not fooling anyone, Mirae.
The ONLY good thing here is that Yoo Kyung didn't end up with Se Joo. This whole time, I've been wondering why switching one event changed his entire love fate, but apparently nothing can change Mirae's fate to love Kim Shin. Weird, right? Well, Yoo Kyung deserves someone better than this guy anyway. Why did he have to turn into such an obsessive crazypants?
So Mirae only wants to date Kim Shin if he's not in debt anymore? What kind of life lesson is that?
Remember how it was an ENORMOUS deal that future Mirae's timeline couldn't change, regardless of what past Mirae did? And then, in the very next episode, past Mirae is like, "I'm gonna put stuff in a box for you to dig up in the future!" AND IT WORKS? I know that narrative logic isn't your strength, dear drama writers, but this just feels lazy.
Speaking of lazy writing, future Kim Shin is suddenly alive? How did his wife not know this? No takesies backsies on suicide, guys!
Aaaaaaaaaaaand then that freeze frame at the end. I'm not always opposed to ambiguity, but again, this feels like random laziness more than purposeful writing. In a show called Mirae's Choice, MIRAE NEVER ACTUALLY MAKES A CHOICE. Then again, the way the show developed over the last few episodes undermined either choice anyway. The obvious pick would be Kim Shin, but even that option felt sour by the end of episode 16. Poor Kim Shin. He deserves better, too.
Yoon Eun Hye didn't kiss a single person in this entire series. What a waste.
Overall
This series is just a pity. It could (and should) have been so much better, but it just wasn't.
If you want to watch Marry Him If You Dare (but seriously, why would you?), you can see it here:
Anyone who's been watching Kdramas for very long knows just how educational they can be. We learn so much about what life must really be like in Korea, right? Right? Ok, maybe not really, but the fantasy aspect is what makes them so great! I already shared 12 Things We learned about Korea from watching Kdramas, so if you missed it be sure to go get educated. Here are 12 MORE!
Any other fun things you learned about Korea from watching Kdramas? Comment below!
