Naesungjukin Boseu

It was great to see a show featuring a character who struggles with anxiety, as you don't see that very often. The story was really tragic and so aspects of it were hard to take. I felt so bad for the main guy being so misunderstood by everyone, but it was great to see him gradually come to have a little circle of people he trusted, who trusted him too.

I think this show highlights how people with anxiety and similar conditions can so easily be misunderstood. I didn't think of the other characters as jerks, the way some reviewers apparently did - because I could see things from both sides. They had no reason to know that their boss wasn't a jerk, especially as his family worked so hard to hide the fact. There were of course plenty of moments where I wanted to shake people till they came to their senses. But every character was dealing with their own "stuff".

Out of hundreds of k-dramas I've watched this is one of my absolute favourites. Having been in a bit of a drama slump, this has snapped me right out of it. Such an underrated show. The ratings for this series was pretty low and I somehow understand that the subject matter was risky to begin with. A show with a socially anxious hero is probably not something that the usual viewer would easily tune into. And his character climb was always going start at a pretty low point. So the first few episodes would be a little hard to digest. But within a few episodes I was properly smitten. Also, the dialogue was so plain and natural. Not the pretentious type where they spew sonnets that you have to wrack your brains to understand what the hell wisdom they are trying to convey. The funny parts were truly funny and cute and all the actors were excellent in both the comedic and dramatic scenes. The chemistry between the main leads were swoon worthy. I know there were some problems at the start of the series and there was a change in direction, but please do yourself a favour and watch this show. Totally worth it. Plus it's now available on Netflix. Yay! 20/10

A young girl goes to work for the CEO of a PR company, the CEO is linked to her sisters suicide 3 years earlier and she is out for revenge. The problem is that to take her revenge she needs to get the socially awkward and painfully shy boss to come out into the open. A romantic drama with a convincing romance, it seemed a little flat at times and the story is predictable but overall an enjoyable series with some light moments.

Overall, this series about a boss with severe social anxiety is watchable and interesting. They certainly get social anxiety right. Someone with this issue is not all cute/quirky, smiling hesitantly and stumbling in a charming manner over their words. Such individuals are often mistakenly thought of as cold, aloof and uncaring (which is the mistake made about the series' protagonist). In addition, they also portrayed accurately the "overthinking" that the socially anxious engage in and how it becomes almost paralyzing. The timeline of a series was nice as we didn't see an overnight change but a more gradual reengagement of the boss with his team and the world around him.

That said, narratively, the series is, at times, incoherent. Supporting characters seem to change their basic natures to meet the demands of the plot (particularly the best friend character). The hardcore mocking that the protagonist receives from society at large as he attempts to improve himself does not seem realistic. I'm not familiar with Korean culture but I have a hard time believing such widespread lack of compassion to be realistic. It seemed over the top. (And speaking of over the top, the protagonist has a pair of the most despicable parents I've ever seen in any program. Though, sadly, that's probably not completely unrealistic).

If you focus on the evolving nature of the main character and his romance with his outspoken employee (and ignore all the plot twists and unnecessary narrative detours), you'll enjoy the series.

This is a rare KDrama for me in that I actually really liked all of the characters (the main characters at least), and that every character's motivations felt genuine and made sense. I don't want to spoil anything, but I will say that for once, the main conflict of this romance made total sense and was very realistic. The story was deeply human, showing a range of emotions and different mental health issues in a way that was both raw and real. I did take off two stars because some spots were a bit cheesy/cringy, and the ending was very drawn out (this could have easily been a 12-14 episode show). But the actors all did a wonderful job and the story was interesting and full of drama that was proportionate to the characters. Definitely worth a watch!