Naesungjukin Boseu

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.

For every 5 seconds of fun there is 5 minutes of bad writing and editing. The main couple is great when they're together and happy (with great chemistry during their kiss scenes), but every choice every character makes is very questionable. Although you always have to suspend your belief with kdramas, this drama has you questioning who in real life would behave the way these characters behave. Again, if you're looking for a show to binge or put in the background, this does the trick. The latter episodes are much more enjoyable than the beginning. This drama is not so bad that you have to stop watching, but I wouldn't recommend it first to anyone either.

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.

This show starts out very slow and even annoying. By the end of the third episode I was about ready to give it the boot. But I stuck with it and warmed up to it as the series went along.

This isn't the best K-drama ever, but it gets better with each episode. It's been said the final two episodes are unnecessary filler, but I didn't find that to be so. Those episodes tied up some strings and were well-done.

While there's something to be said for a show that deals with extreme shyness, at the beginning this series carries that concept to the extreme. How many times can a guy trip all over himself to avoid letting someone look him in the eye?. Fortunately after the 3rd or 4th episode that becomes less slapstick and more emotional in nature. The entire series remains under-keyed, but it has highlights and enough emotional and plot-twist intrigue to build interest as it goes along.

Just be aware that you may have to suffer through three or four episodes of "annoying" before the show even starts to get to the meat of the plot, and nearly halfway through before the series really gets down to the direction it's going.

As a side-thought: Do all these K-drama shows pick exactly two songs for the entire series? I got so sick of "Memories" and "Kiss My Lips" by the end of this series. I enjoy this genre in genral. I've sat through several longish series glued to the screen and once binged-watched a 45-episode series in 5 days. So it's easy to get hooked on K-com / K-drama. I wasn't so much glued to this one as "tolerant" of it, and in the end was glad I stuck with it. This doesn't seem to be as "binge-worthy" as other shows I've seen, but is still worth the watch.

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.