A Model Family

Started off pretty good, but then ruined by annoying characters. The main character is supposed to be a Professor, but makes a lot of really dumb decisions. Not to mention he's the biggest pushover ever and just a huge coward. There's no real character arch for him, he's just the same sad coward the whole time. Then there's the female characters. Every female character seems so lifeless and dreadful. It's just unbearable to watch. Other than the main gangster character, there's no one you want to really root for. Lastly, the music just seems so out of place. This show is supposed to be intense and have some suspense, but for some reason they throw in this really slow country type song that seems way out of place and takes you out of any feeling of tension. It had the potential to be great, but ended up being mediocre at best.

As Episode 1 of "A Model Family" (2022 release from South Korea; 10 episodes of about 40-45 min each) opens, we are introduced to a husband and wife who have a teenage daughter and a younger daughter. The husband just lost a bunch of money in a bribery scheme to become a tenured professor. His young son needs heart surgery, and he needs to come up with money, the sooner , the better. Then one day his parked car is hit from the back by a van. Amazingly, both the driver and one passenger are dead and when the husband notices a big bag full of cash, he can't resist and takes off with the cash...

Couple of comments: this is the latest "fish out of water" look at an average guy who unbeknownst gets sucked up in the world of drug cartels and cops. The first question is of course whether he will get away with the drug money. Along the way, we get to know his complicated family, which in and of itself causes headaches for the husband. All that aside, the episodes fly by rather quickly, and I'm now 4 episodes into it. No idea how this is going to end when all is said and done.

"A Model Family" premiered in Netflix this past weekend. I've got 6 episodes left which i suspect I'll wrap up over the next 2 nights. If you are in the mood for a foreign crime drama that puts an average guy in an unexpected situation, I'd readily suggest you check this out, and draw your own conclusion.

Whatever you say, Park Hee Son was born to play the gangster and you can't argue with me. I wouldn't watch the show if he wasn't there. He's the most charismatic character of the show. I hope that he will achieve all his goals. And despite all this, we need to see more gangsters portrayed by Park Hee Son! I don't know if I was I was impressed by any other kdrama actors like that. He has everything: talent, charisma, aura and so on. Probably there will be season 2 and we need to see more Kwang-Chul! And please don't let him die or arrested by police. He's the one who makes the show worth to watch.

The Wife character, Kang Eun-Ju (played by actress Yoon Jin-Seo), who was married to the male lead character, Park Dong-Ha (played by actor Jung Woo) ruined it for me. I couldn't get past the Wife's mean, cruel, demeaning, bossy, selfish existence. She was always blaming and putting the husband down; chastising the daughter; acting disgusted towards her mother; pretending to be a concerned parent. She was so annoying with her dead-fish look, it was unbearable. As crazy as this sounds, but her drug-mule husband was way too good for her! She absolutely didn't deserve him, or her kids and mother.

I don't know if the actress has a dead-fish look in real-life, or if she was portraying the wife character that way per the writer/director's wishes, but it killed it for me.

Episodes 1.1, 1.2, and 1.3 are all good and I rated them 9/10. In episode 1.4, after 5 minutes, there is an explicit sex scene that is out of place and inserted there by netflix to make the series more attractive but it does exactly the opposite.