* SPOILERS ALERT *

For starters I know this drama had quite an explosive start with the first 2 episodes: first the Africa controversy and then the scene in which the main lead chases the female lead in the restroom. For the Africa part, when I first saw the scene "live" and like many other people I was thinking "well they should have handled that better" and even now I agree that their approach can be viewed as problematic. With the drama now finished, I personally think the writers didn't want to "target" one country in particular, in order to not offend anyone but it backfired and frankly I can understand why others were angry. For the chase scene, likewise, I could perfectly understand why some viewers were shocked by it. If this happened in real life, of course Han Byul should have reported him immediately to the police (I would have 100% supported her in this process) but we need to keep in mind that this is only fiction, even though I agree this scene wasn’t necessary and they really could have done better without.

Now that I talked about the not-so-great things, I can talk about the GOOD things, and there are many! First is the fantastic chemistry between all the cast and especially the main couple. I can’t believe some people thought there was no chemistry between Han Byul and Tae Sung. Even at first when they were more on the “enemies” side they had amazing chemistry and even more so when they became a couple. I even thought at times that they actually fell for each other while filming lol. The only thing that quite puzzled me with this couple was the very hard feelings they seemed to have for each other at the start of the drama. For Han Byul I could understand considering her past experience but with Tae Sung it was a little more hard to believe… At first he seemed to resent her because she kinda “forced” him to leave the country and do charity work but then we learn that he apparently already liked her at the time (even if he wasn’t aware of his feelings) and also at the end of the drama I thought I understood that he actually wanted to leave the country because of what happened to his best friend?? It was a little confusing. But hey I can work with that.

Now for the other couples, I actually really liked the fact that the writers decided to keep the viewers guessing as to what couples would be endgame. There were so many possibilities lol. On a more negative note, I wasn’t really invested with the young actors, like don’t get me wrong, their scenes together were really funny but I honestly don’t know why they fell for each other in the first place. And sadly I don’t think the actor playing Yoo Na’s love interest was adapted for this role, but again it’s just a personal opinion. And for Yoo Sung and Ho Yeong, I admit they were cute but some of their scenes were just cringe, the constant patting on the head and the childish behavior of Ho Yeong was a little hard to look at. Apart from the romance, I also loved the friendship between the cast: the girls’ trio, the blooming bromance between Tae Sung and the lawyer, his friendship with both his manager and assistant… I can’t talk about them all because there were many but it was really refreshing and captivating to watch.

I also want to talk about the humor in this drama. I honestly didn’t expect to laugh as much as I did, because I only read the synopsis and didn’t watch the trailer beforehand but omg some scenes were just hilarious. Of course it might not be the case for everyone but for me it really checked all the boxes. And the many cameos were absolutely delightful to watch! The music was also a major bonus point. Some scenes were enhanced by the music choice and timing, and the little “animations” were also a nice and funny touch. On the other hand, some episodes were much more serious, especially in the second part of the drama with ep12/13, but it is very understandable with its context. Unfortunately, to a be a part of this world doesn’t mean that all is always pink, glitter and unicorns and the writers and director did a fairly good job in denouncing the not-so-pretty behind the scenes. Keep in mind that they could only show a little of this “dark side” at the risk of flirting too much with the melodrama/tragic genre. That’s also why I loved this drama so much, because despite talking about some serious themes, the show still has this “heartwarming and funny” aspect to it, but it also doesn’t fail to bring tears to your eyes at some well placed pivot points.

Honestly I didn’t expect to find myself attached to these characters so quickly. Of course 16 episodes was the right choice but I wouldn’t mind at all if they suddenly decided to add 4 more episodes to it, that’s how much I loved this story and the characters because I wasn’t bored at all! And it’s so rare for me to find all the different arcs and characters interesting until the very end. Of course I wasn’t in love with absolutely everything (like the young actors couple mentioned before) but they still made things intriguing, and even if I wasn’t as attached to them as the rest of the cast, their scenes were still funny to watch. And I will admit that my eyes were tearing a little at the end of episode 16, not because it was sad but because I was at the same time happy and melancholic about how well the story ended. And that’s now the end of my review! On a final note, big kudos to everyone working behind the scenes. They’re working in the shadows but I think this drama did a good job in bringing them to light.