Naesungjukin Boseu

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!

All the credit for why this works goes to Woo-jin Yeon's portrayal of social anxiety and the lack of empathy he receives from the employees demanding empathy from him. No spoilers, there are characters who I utterly loathed from square one, and others who just reflect accurately societies lack of compassion and self centeredness. Just when I want to throttle the unforgiving for their spite, I am rooting for Hwan-gi's courage.

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".

If you can make it passed the first 5 episodes, it finally becomes a pretty watchable show. I don't know what else to say except that I'm glad I didn't give up on it. It was hard to keep going in the beginning. Korea seems to kind of glamorize suicide which I wish they wouldn't. It's a problem. There are much better ways to handle things rather than suicide. Anyway, once I struggled past the first 5 episodes, I found that it was worth watching the rest to the end. Please try.

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