Ela Era Bonita

It was better that many reviews indicate, IMHO.

This show is a lot of fun. There is plenty of humor from the main cast. It is pretty low on the trauma meter, which I like. I really enjoyed the show.

To address the somewhat over-the-top comedy of the FL, played by Hwang Jong-Eum. As I always note, this was the way the show was written and produced, and the actress interprets what she is given, I imagine. She did a masterful job which I guess is not at all easy. I really enjoyed her character and she made us laugh a lot. It may not be your cup of tea and that is fair enough.

Park Seo-Joon as the ML was great, as always, and incredibly good looking, too!

I'd like to call out Si Won Choi for pulling off being a total nutball, without being annoying or tiring. He was great and actually perhaps my favorite character in the series.

Ko Jun-Hee as Min Ha-Ri was absolutely great also. Her acting was very natural and compelling, and of course she is just incredibly beautiful. I wonder why she is not in more series as a lead? The friendship between Ha-Ri and Hey-Jin was a highlight of the series.

If you looking for a nice mix of humor and romance, this is it.

Why just an 8 if I enjoyed it so much?

I think the leads were really good together, but they were just a tad lower in chemistry than some other Kdrama couples, even given their respective (screen) personalities. The chemistry in the later part of the series grew as the personality of the ML was more relaxed and natural. His "stiffer" personality in the early part of the series seemed less natural.

The additional cast beyond the four main characters were a bit underdeveloped.

I have thoughts on how the secondary leads turned out, which I was a bit disappointed in, but I don't want to include any spoilers by getting specific.

Mild Spoiler, I guess?? There was a nice, happy ending that lasted for more than an episode, which I appreciate.

This is what I wrote after just first two episodes:

I am only on episode two of this series and am already frustrated with the extreme overacting of the female lead. She is presented as "ugly" even though she is quite decent looking. I don't know what the hell Korean beauty standards are. And then her ugliness entails being extremely loud and clumsy and doing completely stupid things that you would never expect from a 30 year old. And on top of that Park Seojoon's character is shown as so arrogant and demeaning. He just insults her to her face. In any workplace that would be grounds for dismissal. I am not sure how much of this drama I'll be able to tolerate before I quit.

Now, after finishing the series, here is my genuine review: Really liked the whole series except for one glaring flaw. There was no reason for the leading lady to undergo the transformation that she does in the second half. Everything was going her way- her job was good, the male lead was falling for her.. the series did a bad job of explaining the transformation. And then, when she becomes a writer she goes back to her previous self. It's weird. Anyway, there were several things I liked about this series. The biggest one was that the male lead falls for the girl BEFORE the transformation and isn't just miraculously struck by her beauty after the transformation. I think that is what made it realistic and likeable. Also, the side characters are not annoying like in other dramas which is so refreshing. I didn't have to skip the parts with side characters. Also, I really liked the second female lead.

Let me start out with the positives, because there are some. I liked the chemistry between the actors, and it's very easy to tell that they got along on set. I also enjoyed the comedy of this, I found myself laughing a lot during it.

The problem is mainly with one aspect of the show, and unfortunately it's a big one. The writing for this is awful. The choices that the characters are not only nonsensical, they're choices that no human would ever make. The main story doesn't flow, and there's a huge plot shift part way throughout the show. There's also this mystery which I already knew the answer to the first time it's brought up. Another thing which got over very irritating was the music, whenever the characters were silent they would play this music which would describe how they feel. Seriously, we know what's going on, we don't need this music.

I'll talk about the four main characters. The main lead's is one of those clumsy characters you either love or hate, I personally found her irritating, this type of character was done much better in other shows such as Ugly Betty. The male lead...okay I guess, though the actor wasn't as good as his costars. The second female lead had the best subplot, and she has several interesting dilemmas. But the spotlight was stolen by Choi Siwon's character, Shin-Hyuk, mainly because the man was hilarious and the character knew how ridiculous everything going on was. Seriously, Shin-Hyuk needs his own spin off, that's how funny he was!

Overall, this drama does have some good moments, but if you're going to watch it throw logic out of the window.

I only gave a 9/10 because I became emotionally invested in Siwon's character, and do not accept he way the show ended, otherwise it's a good show.

The female lead annoyed me on 1st episode, so I stopped watching for a while. But I can't resist my urge to resume bcos PSJ was in it! And the plot was my usual romance twist where the guy hate the girl at 1st but ended up falling for her later on 🤣 And the female lead character became bearable eventually 😀