Oh, what a Jackal and Hyde of a show. I loved the developing love story of the OTP. It is one of the sweetest and most adorable love story of older characters I have seen in c-dramas. It was refreshing to see both leads being highly skilled and highly paid individuals, no power play here, thank you very much. I would ship them any day and once they confessed (swoon!), it is just so satisfying to watch them being loving, steadfast and understanding. Their support for each other should be a model for any relationships.
On the other hand, the family drama was just too much (maybe it was realistic but it was very tiring). We are talking about 2.5 dysfunctional families and it made merry hell with the lives of the two main leads. The antagonist was the FL's younger brother. When I was thinking of words to describe him, I came up with useless, needy, pitiful, bully, scheming, douchebag and many more. I think you get the idea. The problem then spread to the 2OTP which was the brother and his girlfriend. If he wasn't such an annoying character, that romance would have been quite sweet too. Unfortunately, his actions and behaviours just tainted everything he touched. The 2FL actually had the insights to call him out on several occasions but his father and the 2FL's father both enabled him and it went on for far too long.
This leisurely pacing was problematic. The show is 44 (or 46) episodes long and some of the main plots went on for many episodes. The annoying brother subplot started in ep.1 and lasted over 36 episodes. I ended up doing my own director's cut by skipping a lot of the scene involving him. It would have been ok if the subplots were more original. Alas, we had the whole cliché collection, meddling mother, stubborn/unthinking father, femme fatale, get-rich-quick schemes, love triangles and more. They were all standard tropes with their intentions telegraphed well in advance. The show wasn't exactly draggy but it just weave all these plots around each other and strolled down several garden paths.
There was little doubt that we will get happy endings, this is a morality tale after all. The last few episodes were largely fan service and tied everything up (mostly with pink bows). Lots of resolutions, reflections, apologies, tears and hugs. Here I didn't mind the slower pacing and I gave the show extra marks for that. The last half of the final episode was very jingoistic and your mileage will differ depending on your personal view on that.
Acting was superb on most fronts. They have to act well for you to really dislike their characters and they did just that. It was no picnic watching those scenes and there were many inward groans but you have to give credits where they are due. There were lots of character growth as well. A little scripted at times but growth nevertheless.
OST was fine. Quite like the end credit song. Rewatch value is good but I would do my own cut again.