Justice for Jun-su. They did him dirty for the sake of drama and filler. Poor guy didn't even get the girl. It was clear from the get-go that he wouldn't, and I hoped he wouldn't get THAT consolation prize.
Anyway, came here hot off the heels of Chief Kim and I can clearly see the seeds of that character in Nam-koong Min's mannerisms here, so I was a little disappointed by that tbh.
But the drama is clearly a product of its time - long, bloated, there's chaebols, inheritance issues, some murder, rich man - poor girl dynamic, iron lady type grandmother, the lot. Had I seen it a few years ago, like among my first kdramas, I probably would've loved it, there's a lot to love if you haven't seen many of these. Otherwise it gathers pretty much all of the tropes, except the leading men here are not that objectionable as they used to be in the past, so that's a positive.
Gong Shim is a sweet girl and I really liked the feisty side of her. I was disappointed when that went away, only to reappear here and there. Also, only in kdrama is this girl considered unattractive. Even with that wig she's very pretty. She's got self-esteem issues but I got tired of her woe is me attitude and the constant failures that are plaguing her. Her parents are very unsupportive, unlike with her sister. Her own sister undermines her at every step and I was upset she never gets her comeuppance for all the awful things she did to Gong Shim. She only confesses to her misdeeds in the last episode, but not to her sister, who got her chances taken away from her. Of course that was serving the plot cause Gong Shim had to suffer all sorts of indignities and setbacks to find her way to Dan-tae somehow. That's what happens when you have to fill in twenty episodes. As for Dan-tae I hated how he backtracked on his feelings for some stupid reason that would never hold up and he hurts her and by the time he "accepts" that he can no longer hold it in I was no longer rooting for him at all. And that year abroad of no contact is again such a damn trope, together with ensuing misunderstandings I'm just tired of him. Granted, this was made literally ten years ago but come on...
I really liked about eight episodes of this (kind of how it happens with most dramas that I'm not satisfied with), then I started to take breaks from it, my interest in it came and went and I struggled in the second half when they were scapegoating Jun-su and concentrating on the murder-mystery part. That took way too long and basically in the last episodes I was just going through the motions, waiting for things to happen as you'd expect them to. They throw in a couple of twists towards the end just so you don't get bored but I kind of resented that too.
I started this drama sometime in the winter and I willed myself to finish the last three episodes today. So I kind of have a love-hate feeling toward it cause there was a lot to love in the beginning that didn't pan out. I'm tempted to give it a lower rating cause of my frustrations with it but objectively speaking it's mid, like most of them.
