Goodbye to Goodbye (2018)

I'll start off by writing that this wasn't necessarily a bad drama, however you need to go into it having some idea with what it's about.
I remember seeing a clip of it and thinking it was going to be a great drama that explores the experience of a woman handling her own pregnancy independently and moving towards motherhood but unfortunately I was extremely wrong.
This drama mainly narrates the different struggles and problems of two families who are linked together by the unexpected pregnancy between two young adults.
I felt like this drama was overly complicated and didn't explain some aspects well enough. For an example the girl's boyfriend's personality changes way too much!! He was so nasty at the start of the drama and blames her for the pregnancy as well as basically cheating on her. But then he suddenly changes and becomes this gentleman who cares so much for her. It just didn't make any sense.
I felt as if the drama should've focused more on their relationship, or just focused on the family separately, not mix it all together.
This drama had a lot of potential but unfortunately it was hard to follow and didn't really make much sense.

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Meaningful and Touching Drama.

for the first time, I felt so in love with family dramas because usually, I was easily bored and sleepy. In the initial episode, I felt like I wouldn't like it but it turns out that this drama always makes me excited about what happens in the next episode. The plot of the story is quite soothing and even touching and made me aware of a life that I had never thought of before. This drama gave me a ttatteushan neukkim. Happy, sad, and feeling blessed, and realized I was becoming someone who was more blessed and wanted to understand my family especially my parents. This drama is rich and complete telling the story of each character. Young hee said it's true. So myung blesses everyone. Changing and give meaning to life for everyone. I can't express how grateful I feel to have watched this drama. I learned many things from the life lessons here. About forgiving, loving and relationship between parents and children, trying to let go of our greed, trying to understand each other, and many things that I can't mention one by one. But thanks to every cast who showed real-life and strength, director-nim and writer-nim who made this story so meaningful to me. For those of you who are still considering the "Goodbye to Goodbye" drama. Watch this and you will get a meaningful life that you might not be able to get in other dramas.

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OK...

It doesn't utilize its 20 episodes length in a constructive way for a relationship driven drama. There's a huge dent of inconsistency in the writing, sometime it's coherent and well thought out and other times it's as if it was written by someone who just started using a keyboard. A lot of things change and progress in the background without showing or reasoning with it and we are left to accept them and fill the gaps ourselves. For example, how the characters' relationships to one another turned out in the last 2 episodes. Anyway, the drama ended up feeling incomplete in many ways.

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It Started Strong...

I have so much to say about this show, most of it being bad, but I do give it props for being the first drama to get me this heated in a long time. The concept of Goodbye to Goodbye was lovely: two women find solace in each other while they deal with difficult changes in their life. Unfortunately, I was rather disappointed with how they delivered this concept. I will start by saying that the relationship between Junghyo and Yonghee was my favorite part of...well...almost everything this drama had to offer. Their chemistry was beautiful and honestly, the most enjoyable scenes to watch are when they have a heart to heart. I also genuinely enjoyed the fact that although she was unbearable to watch most of the time, they made Seyoung a 3-dimensional character with actual motivations and reasonings for her actions(even if they were irrational). The acting for the most part was good but sometimes a bit gimmicky. They did what they needed to do and even though I never found myself wowed by the performances, they weren't disappointing for the most part.

Outside of those reasons, everything else was completely frustrating. Oftentimes, the characters would make decisions that were either completely random or out of character. The writing was never consistent and a good example of this is Sangjin being adamant about getting divorced, only to suddenly change his mind once Yonghee finally agrees. The characters constantly had developmental changes that came out of nowhere or would make decisions that would never align with who they are and it drove me crazy. The only character whose character development was a long, consistent, and gradual process was Junghyo's father. He was overbearing, aggressive, and overprotective, only to become hostile once he realizes his daughter isn't this perfect angel he pictured in his head. He spends a lot of time reflecting on his relationship with both Junghyo and his ex-wife and soon realizes that no one but him was the problem. It was beautiful, despite me hating him for half of the show. Other than that, characters were rushed into change and it was so random and odd to watch at times. The plot was also rather messy mainly due to pacing. We would either stay on an issue for several episodes, or we would wrap one up within two episodes. I also found myself getting aggravated at the constant filler they shoved in in order to make us care about characters who truly added nothing to the plot(and there are a lot of characters *sigh*). If those scenes were removed, the show could honestly have been cut down in half.

I think my biggest disappointment comes from the fact that I had expectations for the show that weren't met, hence the reason why I gave it 5 stars rather than 1 star. I was hoping to see two women who coincidentally cross paths rely on one another, but instead, the women knew each other because Junghyo gets impregnated by Minsoo, who happens to be Yonghee's son. This dynamic was just strange to watch, especially since Minsoo and Yonghee have a very strained relationship. Realistically, I wouldn't expect someone's girlfriend to seek safety and comfort from a woman who my boyfriend claims were borderline abusive to him. Like I said though, those were my expectations so I can't blame the show for that.

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Could easily become a comfort show for me

I am of African descent and even though our cultures may defer from those in South Korea and anywhere else in general, this story like many others I've watched struck a cord in my heart. The dynamics of the women and their children and vice versa as well as what identity means to women(Being their parent's child, being a wife, being a mother, being a grandmother) and their kins alike is something that was portrayed beautifully that in the last six episodes I was bawling my eyes out....even now as I write this, I am in tears still. I always appreciate films written and played out by Koreans. Saranghae from Kenya, Africa.

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Loved it!

If you are looking for an emotional drama that lightly touches of societal problems than this is for you. There are some things that can be triggers for people such as child birth trauma. Overall the drama was great. It had great character development and storylines as well. I wish that there was more development between the main character and her biological mother. Despite being somewhat wrapped up at the end, I was left with more to be desired. It’s funny to see how much Jo Bo Ah (the main actress) has grown since this role. You can tell in this drama she still had a lot to learn but that’s not to say she didn’t do really well. It was a great watch!

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Este drama es hermoso e indudablemente se ha convertido en uno de mis favoritos.
Me animé a verlo por las dos actrices protagonistas: Jo Bo Ah ( que conocí gracias al drama de Forest ) y Chae Si Ra, ambas recibieron un reconocimiento por su actuación en este drama.
Es verdad que Goodbye to Goodbye trata con temas bastante fuertes y uno podría entrar en conflicto muy facilmente con ellos, por eso es que si te animas a verlo ( y sería genial que le dieras una oportunidad) te prepares mentalmente para que lo veas sin alterarte.
Este drama me enamoró por como van cambiando los personajes para bien y no al revés como podría suceder en la situación que se desarrolla en la historia, solo que eso si, lo hace cada uno a su ritmo.

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Definitely worth the watch.

[ Original date written: June 4th 2021 ]

So many different (but interesting) characters all connected by messy relationships form an overwhelmingly beautiful drama.

It’s very well written, not only in story but the characters individually. The only character I really disliked was Se Young. The story also followed an unpredictable path which I appreciated.

I feel the musical score must be mentioned as well. At times it was all consuming, the themes that played at the ends of episodes or during tense moments were very well suited.

It’s the perfect show to binge-watch. After I finished each episode I felt the need to keep going.

If I were to go into negatives, (this is more of a nitpick really) I'd say it seemed to normalize slapping your adult children. Both Jung Hyo and Min Soo get slapped by their fathers upon their first in-person confrontations following the news of the pregnancy, and it's never really addressed later they just kind of move on from it. I would also say Min Soo's character development was lacking. He starts out rude and selfish so I was excited to see how he'd grow but he kind of just accepted the pregnancy eventually and became the perfect boyfriend. Where was the change in him? I did like how they showed him always looking at the ultrasound picture and Jung Hyo's mother planner it did present some good visual conflict in him but when it came to actually saying things not much came out.

That’s about it.

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Note: I'm a new reviewer, but a long time lurker. xD, Sorry if I'm vague at times, no one likes spoilers! Reviewing the first 20 eps! TLDR, at the bottom

To start off, this K-drama tackles controversial themes, a child's life, and parenting. When watching this drama, make sure to think about the questions, How would I parent?. Is a life valuable although it's not the right time? Would I keep or would I abort, if not what else? This K-drama although set in the more conservative South Korean world can be applied anywhere in the world, where there are mothers, especially single mothers and the uncredited hardship they go through with working, parenting, etc. The way writer has paced through this topic with music is just right, and really reflects the difficulty and beauty of choosing life or death, especially with Yoong Hee acting as a devil's advocate is masterful and brings to light what women give up, and what parenting really is.
Overall I'll give the story (8.5/10) & music an (8.5/10).

The acting and cast in this drama fits very well for the topic and really emphasizes the grey zone (Choices), and grey coloring(mood) #melodramas :D. Besides the two main characters Yoong Hee (Chae Shi Ra), and Jung Hyo (Jo Bo Ah) acting superbly, Jung Hyo's father adds a good deal of comic relief & plot mover. He's my honorable favorite. The worst character has to be Han Min Soo, as he's for lack of better words, USELESS in solving the problems but that's just me. Hopefully, he becomes more fleshed out and rounded at the moment he's pretty much a prick.
Altogether, the acting & cast I'll give (8.5/10).

TLDR;
Story & Music (8.5/10)
Acting & cast (8.5/10)
Rewatch value (okay) (Rewatch if you like melodramas a lot! Otherwise it's okay.)

This drama is a great watch, although at some times story may become a bit of a makjang and you'll question some characters action, which all dramas need! :), the main point of life and parenting really shines through and gives you an open-eyed view of women and what society has laid out for them. Hope you enjoy the k-drama and my review! xD

Overall (8.5/10) (20 EP in)

Quack

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