Never twice

A typical Korean drama, filled with Corporate and romance stories

" Never Twice " did what long korean dramas to : give a nice paced story.

The drama had well balance family themes, a mystery case that needed to be solved, and some nice romance plots. And, there was the well known ladies who would pay off anyone that wants to marry into their family. And, seriously, in this one, they paid everyone that approached them, to the point where I started to wonder if they were going to go bankrupt because of it. So, yes, there were some cliche trops in it. The mystery case was pretty much obvious from the start, so there was no interest in it really. The leading lady tended to do an annoying pitch to her voice from time to time, and the old ladies were textbook bad guys, so no surprise there either. However, the romance was nicely paced, slow, as to have both characters get to know each other first, and not have an insta love. And, the baby was hands down adorable!! The ending, finally, was well handled and satisfying.

So, overall, six out of ten.

The drama sits in a weird position of not adhering to neither the long daily drama segmented formula nor to the standard 16-episodes weekly ones. It's closer to the latter except being a poorly stretched one. There were a handful of couples but most of them were bland without much chemistry or dynamic. The main story was too thin for the drama to function and it's clear that they didn't intend to invest much in it but rather just let it be driven by whatever the couples were doing. You can't consider it as a slice of life either because of the direction it took. It's hard to recommend when it's too dry.

This is one of the best family dramas. Not too long and very funny throughout. It's not the usual extended family story. Instead it is about the diverse occupants of an inn and their connection to this wealthy hotel owning family who have done them wrong or are romantically connected to them.

The cast is top notch. The main couple is played by two terrific actors the sweet Park Se Wan and the excellent actor Kwak Dong Yeon. Comic relief provided by the two nasty daughters in law of the wealthy hotel family played hilariously by Park Jun-Keum of Inheritors and Hwang Young-Hee. The older characters are great too including the Oscar winner Youn Yuh-Jung. Another hilarious couple is the caddy Ye Ji Won and the golf coach Oh Ji Ho both struggling to make it and hoping to get a wealthy spouse. The caddy's romance with the rich old man is really funny.

So many funny scenes and such well written dialogue with satisfying comeuppance for the nasty ones. There are some heart warming scenes of friendship and helping each other. Also the dramatic scenes are good too though it never gets too heavy because there is a comic tone that keeps things going. Never felt bored once. Since things are so well written it is not confusing at all.

Highly recommended.