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bynewtscamander · 5 years

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The Crimes of Grindelwald Review (Spoiler heavy!!)

Alright I’ll start off with a basic (post writing it: it is not basic whoops) plot synopsis for those of you nosy people who want to know what’s up before seeing the movie, or for those who can’t afford to go the movies, etc.

So basically Grindelwald escapes from prison by enchanting Abernathy and switching places with him via polyjuice potion (?) that’s my assumption just cause a spell would probably be too much work given the circumstances. He heads off to Paris and kills a family and takes over their house. He’s there with some french woman who is basically his henchman, the bellatrix to his voldemort. Newt is in London as the British Ministry has forbidden him to travel outside the country. He’s there taking care of all his creatures in his house with the help of his assistant Bunty. Queenie and a love enchanted Jacob show up and talk with Newt. Newt lifts the spell on Jacob that Queenie put, and J&Q fight and Queenie heads off to Paris where Tina is stationed as an auror looking for Credence. Cut to Tina at the magic circus (located in the diagon alley of Paris) snooping about where we learn Credence is basically the circus janitor and is in love with human form Nagini. Shows happening, Nagini transforms, and behind the scenes Credence release a bunch of creatures to cause havoc so he and Nagini can escape. They dissaperate I think. The circus packs up and moves on to who knows where. Tina runs off to investigate stuff and runs into this other guy who’s also there looking for Credence. They have a talk at a street cafe. Jacob and Newt use a portkey to go to Paris and head to the Paris diagon. Newt uses a spell to see what happened there and they follow a feather to find the guy Tina was with so they can find Tina. They meet up with said guy outside of the street cafe and have a talk. Queenie is on her own and looking for Jacob. She gets discouraged and sits on a street corner sad and french bellatrix shows up and talks with her. Newt and Jacob find Tina and they all end up getting locked in a cell by the other auror guy. He passes out and Pickett picks the lock and they escape easy peasy. Newt was told by Dumbledore really early in the movie to go to a safe house in Paris so that’s where Newt and Jacob and Tina go and they bring the auror guy to help him. They get some info from his and Tina runs off and Jacob urges Newt to follow. Jacob watches the auror, who made an unbreakable vow, while he recovers from some magical parasite. He falls asleep and wakes up and finds out Nick Flamel lives there, and the auror guy makes a break for it. Nick shows Jacob a crystal ball and he sees Q and runs off to find her. In the meantime Q was talked into following Grindelwald so she and Jacob can get married in his new “utopian” society. Meanwhile Credence and Nagini are looking for his birth mother and Grindelwald is trying to recruit him. They don’t find her. The British Ministry is keeping close eyes on Dumbledore since they know he’s in major kahoots with Newt. Flashbacks to Leta and Newt at school. Small subplot is that some gossip magazine printed that Leta and Newt were now engaged but it’s actually Theseus and Leta. Back to the main plot, Newt and Tina break into the Paris Ministry to find records of the LeStrange family. Newt uses polyjuice to become Theseus. They get in and are looking for the records and have a moment in the record library. No kissing, just a moment. Leta comes in also looking for her records. They aren’t there. Leta, Tina, and Newt fight off some ministry guard cats and head off to where the records were moved. Now we’re at the LeStrange tomb where Grindelwald has summoned his followers. Auror guy is there and ends up running into Leta, Credence, Nagini, and possibly Newt and Tina (I can’t remember exactly). They explain the LeStrange background. Leta and auror guy are brother and sister. Ther mother was enchanted away from their father by another man. She falls “in love” with him and marries him and dies after giving birth to Leta who I can’t remember now if she was half-sister to auror guy or full sister. Guy who enchanted their mother remarries and have another kid. Non blood related to auror guy and possibly Leta if she was from og parents. Credence is their brother, sort of. When going to America, Leta and “C” were on a ship and “C” kept crying so she, as a child, switched him out with another baby to get some rest. Ship goes under and “C” dies being believed to be another womans baby. That womans baby survives and is apparently the Credence we know and love. So not related in anyway. Wack. Now the Grindelwald meeting has started and Jacob finds Q there and Tina is there to spy and everyone else joins in and Theseus and his aurors are there to keep an eye on stuff. Grindelwald makes his speech, calls out aurors he knows are there, they come forward and one (planted I believe) lashes out and kills a follower of Grindelwalds. More talking and then Grindelwald tells his followers to go. Most do but obvs Newt, Tina, Queenie, Jacob, Theseus, Leta, Grindelwald, french bellatrix, Credence, Nagini, and possibly Leta’s brother are still there. Grindelwald uses fire to weed out those not loyal. Queenie and Credence both join Grindelwald. Big fight with the fire and Leta sacrifices herself so everyone else can escape. They run into Nick Flamel and they do some more fighting of the fire to save Paris. They go to Hogwarts and Dumbledore gets cleared of suspicion and it is revealed that he and Grindelwald made a magical blood pact (basically an unbreakable vow) to never right each other. Ministry wants Dumbledore to fight cause he’s the only one who can match Grindelwald. Now cut to remote mountains in Austria where Grindelwald and Queenie are discussing Credence. Grindelwald talks to him and it is revealed that he is apparently the 4th Dumbledore sibling? And this bird he was taking care of is turned into Fawkes. I think that’s everything major.

I definitely forgot stuff and I’m sure some stuff is wrong, I’m writing this 3ish hours after seeing the movie so it is still pretty fresh but I obviously cannot remember nearly 2.5 hours of content.

Time for my thoughts and opinions and impressions.

So Grindelwald’s escape. They mention something while he’s in the cell that they cut out his tongue. Later when we find out that Grindel was actually Abernathy he has like a forked tongue so idk if that’s what they meant by cutting it out?? Also I wasn’t a fan of the total demotation of Abernathy as GW henchman. Like I know he wasn’t very nice in the 1st movie but come on. Btw they were moving him from British prison to French cause he committed crimes both places. The French ambassador dude has like this whole moment where he’s fighting this creature and GW and then gets thrown from the flying carriage and almost dies on impact of the water. Then he’s just floating around and never mentioned again.

I also wanted to know if the family GW killed to take over their house was muggle or not. minor thing. french bellatrix kills like a 2 year old baby they found in the house after killing his parents and I know they’re the bad guys but like it was kinda messed up.

Newt’s house was dope and everything I expected it would be. His assistant, Bunty, has a crush on him, but he’s too invested in Tina and the animals to care. This is never addressed again. She is never mentioned again after this scene. So I thought it was dumb that her character was even involved and has the crush sub plot. Like either stick with it or make the assistant even more of a throw away character.

So when Q shows up with J she’s like we’re getting married yay. A few minutes into their reunion with Newt he can tell something is up. He realizes that J is under a love enchantment and urges Q to lift it but she’s all like no no no. I just didn’t understand why she even enchanted him in the first place? Like yes he was against marrying her based on the fact that he didn’t want her to go to prison but like was it necessary to enchant him? idk it just felt stupid and childish and tbh Q is a more developed character than the ditzy blonde who wants to get married. I guess it more just rubbed me the wrong way.

So J and Q have a fight where J is like “I dont want to marry you cause I dont want you going jail” which is a totally legitimate reason and like I cant think that there would be any significant benefits to it, i think the big thing for them would be calling each other husband and wife but tbh they could do that anyway so i just thought it made Q seem like a resilient woman who only wants a man to call her own, which like I said earlier, she’s so not. She’s an accomplished legilimens and I feel like her character got a little side lined this movie. So anyway after this fight she heads off to find Tina in Paris.

So the magic circus was super dope, definitely an aspect of the wizarding world I was excited to see. I think they could’ve spent a little more time showing it off and all that cause it was more just a setting to introduce Nagini and what Credence had been up to since the last movie.

The Nagini Credence romance didn’t really bother me, it’s kind of whatever and good for Credence for caring about someone and having someone care about him and stick by him.

Nagini herself is a whole nother ball game. I was mad dude. I still am. I think it’s one of the stupidest plot twists ever. Cause she’s basically from bloodline that is destined to turn into snakes forever and change every night and then at some point dont change back. It seemed kinda just thrown in there and for god’s sake we didn’t need some deep backstory for Nagini. I liked that she was just a snake cause it made sense for voldemort cause it’s like his closest companion isnt even human, that’s how crazy he is. So like I also dont know if he knew she was a person or what. it poses too many questions for the canon. She had a cool costume design though so i guess thats good.

The other creatures at the circus were cool too cause it was neat to see a different side to animal keeping that we didnt in the first movie. All chained up for show and from all over the world. I really liked the big cat/dragon creature (im not looking up names rn so as not to break my stream of conciousness too much). Like im a big cat person and im a big dragon person so it was super cute and when newt used the toy for it i was like awwww.

Side note, Newt when he’s shown at home taking care of his creatures jumps into the water without taking off his shirt and i was hoping this movie for a more indepth dealing with his scars but alas there was none.

I think I would’ve also liked to see more of paris diagon just cause all we get is the circus glimpse and the glimpse when newt and jacob go there and you dont get to really see any shops or stuff.

The scene where newt uses the revelio spell thats all gold and uses the niffler was great, really liked that, i thought it was super pretty and showed they werent shoving aside the beasts despite it being a more wizard driven plot this time.

After they meet up with auror guy and are thrown in jail with tina the auror guy passes out after making some little speech about how they were trapped. I dont even think he took their wands or if he did it wasnt shown or made note of. like a minute after theyve been trapped auror guy passes out. they super easily escape with Pickett picking the lock (my guess now is pick-it was the play for his name, well done, cute). So that plot point was barely a plot point.

When they all go to the safe house we find out that auror guy has some sort of water creature parasite in his eye. its gross and tentacally. newt removes it with literal normal tweezers. all it does is make auror guy need to rest for a few hours. once again, barely a plot point.

Auror guy is also revealed to have the marks of an unbreakable vow, now, correct me if I’m wrong as I’ve only seen the movie once a couple days ago now, but i literally cannot recall what it was for? like idk why have a character make an unbreakable vow, something that was crazy important in book 6, and then make it seem like it wasn’t a big deal or like whatever it was wasn’t significant enough.

So anyway, he escapes while jacob is supposed to be watching him and falls asleep on the job. Then he meets Nick Flamel who I enjoyed being in the movie as it was a good nod to the 1st book. He was a funny character but also very powerful and important. I appreciated that he did look super old cause I think they could’ve easily tried to “sex him up” by making him this banging hot young immortal guy. They didn’t and honestly I prefer it that way.

Now the crystal ball thing, was Nick Flamel a seer? Once again, may be wrong but I thought like only seers or people gifted with some form of the sight could use them? and like flamel was seeing and showing some intense visions that were very graphic and well formed so it didnt seem like he was a casual. Thats neither here nor there i just thought it was an interesting thing going on.

So now we’re with queenie who is being persuaded by GW to join him so she and jacob can get married. I mean that’s consistent with her character this movie but it does make her seem a bit weak willed. I feel like she should’ve known something was up by using her legilimency to try and poke around with gw or french bellatrix. Obvs they’ve probably trained with occlumency but i think lack of hearing those thoughts would’ve been a big red flag. maybe queenie was too emotional or distraught or whatever to think of it? Seemed like a bit of an oversight. Gahh i just wish they’d shown her resisting a bit more so she didnt seemed weak willed and we could also get a better look into just how convincing gw was.

So Nagini and Credence have located where his birth mother lived in Paris but when they go there all they find is this half (elf? i think) woman who was Credence’s nanny basically. She basically reveals his mother is dead and credence is very distraught. The one of gw henchmen (who also works for the british ministry) sneaks into the house and kills the nanny in front of credence. Side note, i did like how they showed avada kedavra in a more casual setting because it shows how merciless gw was with it. I felt like with voldemort even though he was merciless and used it a lot, there was still this big dramatic focus on it. I think the casualness added to the morbid atmosphere being presented.

So credence obvs goes all obscurial on the dude and blows up the house basically and is bombarding him with debris while he’s using a shield charm. The dude dissapperates in the end and credence goes back to being his normal self. And then I think later on at this house gw goes to him and talks him into joining him fully.

So cut to hogwarts for dumbledore. He’s teaching defense and “dueling” some kid. This kid turns out to be an ancestor of cormac mclaggen which I thought was a nice little easter egg kind of thing cause the kid gets his ass handed to him by dumbledore. So in the middle of this lesson ministry officials show up and they’re like kiddos get out. then a woman only referred to as mcgonagall (since I know there’s been some discourse about that in reference to her birth date and age and whether it’s minerva or not. tbh i did always think mm was the sameish age as dumbledore but i also do believe in sticking with the harry potter canon as it’s more concrete and developed than the fantastic beasts) she herds them out so the ministry can talk.

The robes for the 20s hogwarts students were dope btw and im so mad that they i guess went out of fashion cause like the subtle ribbon sleeves and the navy blue and red plaid skirts and the focus on sweaters was sick, really really liked that.

So the ministry is like “so newts in paris and we know it was u” and dumbledore is like “whaaaat, who knew” and plays innocent and whatever. So then the ministry gives him unlinked cuffs that can track what spells he’s casting which i thought was an interesting concept and im wondering if that’s going to be used more for law enforcement and if it was more of an old fashioned thing and thats not used during hp era? i just thought they were cool and clever.

So while this is going on Leta is poking around reminiscing about hogwarts and she was obvs a slytherin and was like jinxing kids and was very unpopular and she finds newt in this hidden nook while hiding from bullies. newt is taking care of some grindylows and a baby crow and some other creatures i couldn’t identify.

They become friends and newt takes out on this island on the black lake and shows her this tree he likes and then we cut back to present day where Leta is looking at graffiti under a desk that says n+l so she had real feelings for him at some point that were probably not returned or newt was too naive to notice. fairly on brand tbh.

Leta’s outfit for this is like a long sleeved loosish satin dress, maroon, with like a cape on that back and while i wish, for every movie tbh, that wizards always wore robes, I thought it was a nice little nod to them being magical and having different fashions.

The gossip magazine subplot was actually so stupid and I wish they hadn’t included it because it makes Tina, who believed it, seem stupid and she’s not. She’s a well trusted auror now and there’s no way should would believe a stupid gossip magazine without doing proper research.

I appreciated the little moment she and newt had upon clearing this up in the records hall. I would still have liked a kiss or something a little more considering everything but I’m not dying for one.

Blah blah blah ministry fight, the familiars used to guard the ministry were cool and i did like their design, however, i am a big cat person so i can see if some people disagree.

Gw uses this really sick method of conjuring like these huge, light, pieces of fabric that cover the buildings of paris in order to summon his followers. Im assuming they were invisible to muggles but this isn’t addressed however no one except the wizards bats at eye at them.

So now we’re at the lestrange tomb which is big and fancy and all that. So now there’s the whole credence origin reveal/lestrange background. Auror guy shows up and is like you’re my sister and credence is our brother and i was just like hmmm because leta and auror guy are both black and credence is white so how does that work.

The plot behind it is so complicated and weird holy heck. Basically auror guys parents fall in love and have him and are wealthy and all this stuff. Lestrange man falls in love with auror guys mother and imperios her to live with him and love him. Now i cant remember if leta was by both auror guys parents or if she was from lestrange and his mother. either way his mother dies giving birth to leta who is brought up, kinda, by lestrange. He remarries to another white woman and they have a baby who is in some way related to leta and auror guy. The baby’s name is corvus which idk, its weird. So eventually leta and corvus get sent to america with the half elf woman from earlier on this ship. Corvus doesn’t stop crying so leta sneaks out and temporarily (she intended) switches him with another womans baby. The ship begins to sink and thus they never get switched back and corvus officially goes down with the ship. Leta, fake corvus, and elf woman are on a lifeboat that tips and not corvus is see falling into the depths and either leta or the elf woman is seen swimming for him. It was super unclear to me whether or not they actually saved him because they must have if credence is there but like it was super unclear and im not sure.

I also dont understand then how credence ended up being adopted and leta ends up back in britain and goes to hogwarts and all that jazz. maybe it will be cleared up in the next movie but that part of the plot gets all fuzzy and unexplained.

I personally haaaaatttteeed this explanation. I may be reading into too deeply but it seems like they were just trying to make an excuse as to how the lestrange family went from a totally different race to another in like 50ish years (assuming bellatrix was born around the 60s). It also just felt like this crazy plot twist to be a crazy plot twist, nothing more. I also want to now go back and look at the black family tree and see how much info on the lestranges i can glean from that. I just think it would be interesting to see how much stuff has differed there.

So now its the followers of gw meeting. There’s several hundred to a couple thousand wizards there and legit they all look like emos. gothic emos. it’s easy to pick queenie out in her multicolored plaid jacket. I just thought that was funny that the demographic for his followers was emo wizards.

So blah blah blah speech about how the muggles are others but how gw doesn’t hate them or anything, something apologetic like that. lots of wwII imagery used to say like here’s what the muggles are gonna do if we dont take action. I think they were trying to push the hitler comparison here. Not a fan of that cause that “trope” or whatever needs to die. feels like we glorify hitler too much as the end all be all of evil in the world and history. that’s more of a personal thing for me, like the guy is gonna live forever in infamy and we as a society have pushed that and used it every which way. he needs to die out as a figure, especially with all the horrible stuff happening in the world today.

So back to way less serious stuff, to show the wwII visions gw literally takes a fat rip off a skull bong that french bellatrix is holding and blows out the smoke which forms into the images. I started laughing out loud in the theater because of this and it majorly lowered the seriousness of the rest of the movie for me.

So after all this gw knows theseus and the aurors are there and like calls em out to come down and like they cant actually do anything to the followers cause listening to someone speak is apparently not illegal even if the person speaking is like #1 escaped criminal of the wizarding world.

And then basically out of nowhere one of the aurors kills a woman, a guy who i believe to be a plant, unsure if the woman was, but it def wasnt real. So gw goes over to her body and is like “look at how sad this is, followers, please leave this place and do stuff,” and they all disapparate. so now its gw, french bellatrix, queenie, jacob, newt, credence, nagini, tina, and theseus and his aurors. (now that im thinking about it i cant recall what became of auror guy)

Gw summons some blue flames in a circle around himself that only loyal followers can pass through. all the non-theseus aurors get consumed by the flames either by charging or gw manipulating it to engulf them. So then one by one gw starts trying to convince people to join him, in the end queenie joins him much to the dismay of jacob. unsure how i feel about this, it’s an interesting duality but god i wish it wasnt queenie again. and then much to naginis dismay credence joins. gw tries to get leta to join. she wont. he lashes out at everyone with the fire but leta holds it off and theseus is like “no ill do it, escape” and leta is like “im doing it and you need to go” they (newt and theseus) linger long enough for leta to be consumed but they manage to escape dramatically.

Once outside the tomb in the graveyard they see flamel who is like “if we dont do something the whole city is gonna burn” so they all stick their wands into the ground and create a ring of fire to encase the evil blue flames and they work super hard at holding it off and they do and thats the big epic ending fight scene. it looked really cool but explaining it it seems kinda lame lol.

So now that paris is saved they all go to hogwarts and are standing on the bridge and have newt alone go talk to dumbledore and he shows his this heart charm thing which has 2 drops of blood in the center. dumbledore explains that in their youth they made a magical blood pact (basically an unbreakable vow in a different form) to not fight each other. Newt is like well can you un do it cause you’re the only dude who can defeat him and dumbledore is like i’ll see what i can do. he also gets his magic tracking cuffs off.

We get to see the mirror of erised again which was cool and i really liked seeing dumbledore stand in front of his for the first time as we all know the “sock” line about it from him. he sees gw, so no surprise there. more of a nice little easter egg moment more than anything.

Then we’re in austria in the mountains. Gw and queenie are talking about how credence is and how to get through to him and then gw walks in and starts talking to him. Gw explains that he is aurelius dumbledore. so wtf. I have big problems with this as dumbledores history is pretty clearly eplained and im pretty sure his parents werent around long after arianna so how did they have another kid? how did they lose him? is he older or younger than arianna? and if we go off the lestrange story wouldnt that make the woman who leta switched the babies on mrs. dumbledore? i also really hated this bit and i want to see how they clean it up in the next movie cause yiiiiikes is it bad. super unnecessary and kinda messed up and weird.

After this gw gives credence his first wand and turns this little bird that credence had been looking after into fawkes (assumed from earlier movie context clues etc). Which is also confusing cause like uhhh can someone actually turn a bird into a phoenix? is that even possible? was the bird secretly a phoenix this whole time? and if so why was gw able to make it grow up so fast? weird shit there.

So anyway that was my long, rambly, opinionated, all over the place, too extra, very informal and grammatically atrocious review of Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald. Maybe things will come to me later and I’ll add on but this is what I’ve got floating around in my head 2 days post movie.

It was by no means a bad movie, the cinematography was great, the acting was great, I loved the characters so much. The beasts were new and exciting. My biggest gripes lie with some of the plot points brought up.

7/10 final score I guess.

#the crimes of grindelwald #fantastic beasts #fbtcog #tcog #tcog review #tcog spoilers

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onceuponakdrama · 3 years

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Was It Love?: KDrama Review

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Bingo Card For Was It Love?

Synopsis: Noh Ae Jung [Song Ji Hyo] is a single mother and works as a producer for a movie company. She has not had a boyfriend in the past 14 years, but 4 men appear in front of her. Oh Dae Oh [Son Hojun] is a mysterious best-selling novel writer. Ryu Jin [Song Jongho] is a popular actor. Koo Pa Do [Kim Min Joon] was once a gangster, but he is now the CEO of Nine Capital financial company. Oh Yeon Woo [Koo Jasung] is a PE teacher at a school.

Overall Main Plot: Rating - 6 out of 10

I actually really liked the plot idea; at least, in the sense of what it sounded like in the description. I was pulled in because of Song Jihyo, but also because it was about single-motherhood. However, the execution of the actual plot... wow. While the overall concept was a good idea, there were just some misses that they could have hit easily.

Who’s the Father - this was the main storyline and I kind of liked it, until they kept dragging it out. It was obvious Dae-Oh was the father, considering that he was the only one with a deep history with her. Everyone else’s romances felt rather shallow, so we were able to understand from the get-go who the male lead is and who was most likely the father.

The Mother-Daughter Relationship - I’ll dive into it later with the characters, but these two had a good-ish relationship. It just felt strained due to all the miscommunication. Their relationship was supposed to be apart of the main plot, considering it centered on the question of: who’s Hani’s father? But the writers didn’t really do that. We got some glimpses of it in the beginning, but then it just centered on Ae-Jeong and Dae-Oh’s romance and it just kind of fell apart.

All The Miscommunication - this was literally the root of all the problems in the drama and I was just... annoyed. If they had all just talked to one another, there would have been no drama at all. It just felt so more melodramatic than it should have been, when it could have all been easily solved.

Characters: Rating - 6 out of 10

↣ Noh Ae-Jeong [played by Song Jihyo] - I actually kind of liked her character the most compared to the other characters. I mentioned in 100 Days, My Prince about how I love seeing strong female leads; single motherhood is hard and watching her try to make things work, without giving up her life, dreams or child was very satisfying. She always put her best effort into what she did and tried not to let people walk over her. However, her character felt kind of weak as the drama progressed because the events that happened around her were not due to her choices. Apparently, the development became: she’s independent and learned to lean on someone; in reality, it should have been about communicating with others to work things out or something.

↣ Noh Hani [played by Um Chaeyoung] - I don’t know how, but Hani was acting exactly like a 13/14 year old and acted more mature at the same time. She had fights with her mom, she struggled making friends, she makes dumb decisions, etc. I liked that side better because it felt more appropriate; she’s a teenager and she’s going to throw fits and be dumb because that’s what being young is about. I don’t like how the writers made her have this double side. There were also some scenes where I felt concerned for her: meeting up with a whole stranger (Ryu Jin) to adopting a dog that she couldn’t care for. There were just too many holes to her character and I didn’t like that they made her inconsistent, which is due to the writing but still.

↣ Oh Dae-Oh [played by Son Ho-Jun] - out of the characters, I think Dae-Oh had the most development. A lot of people say that they didn’t like him, but I do appreciate that he became better by the end of the drama, whereas most of them remained the same. In the past and when they first met again, it’s clear he’s arrogant and petty and demanding of her. However, by the end, he’s realized that his actions have consequences and he tries to be more careful and understanding. I think the whole daughter situation made him wake up and he realized the types of sacrifices that Ae-Jeong had to make. That doesn’t exclude him from the stereotypical male lead in dramas tho, so points are docked off.

↣ Ryu Jin [played by Song Jongho] - I hate him. Okay, hate is kind of strong. I kind of pitied him because of CEO Song and how he got stuck in that relationship with her. However, the whole “I saw her first” and deleting the text was a dick move and I grew to hate him. Like, bruh, how are you still friends with Dae-Oh? I did find him funny because of his wild and dramatic imagination, but there was just so much I didn’t like about him. Even if Hani was his child, he was so hesitant to claim responsibility compared to Dae-Oh. Hani even hated him and I did not blame her. I also hated how he met up with her rather than trying to communicate with Ae-Jeong about what was happening. I did like that he took Hani to see how her biological parents fell in love at the university but, again, too much to dislike about him.

↣ Oh Yeonwoo [played by Koo Jasung] - okay, I actually hated him though. Unpopular opinion: he was the most annoying possible love interest. Everyone trashed Dae-Oh, but no one said a thing about how toxic Yeonwoo is. I did like that he bonded with Hani and, by the end, he just wanted them to be happy. However, he was the most useless character and he only caused more problems rather than solved them. He’s Hani’s teacher and he chose to live with them; his mom hates Ae-Jeong for “stealing him away” and made Ae-Jeong uncomfortable with his confession and CONTINUED to make her uncomfortable. He always popped up in the most useless times and it was just annoying. Originally, I thought he was cute and then, as time went, he just felt more and more unnecessary to the plot.

↣ Koo Pado [played by Kim Minjoon] - 10/10 the best character of this drama. I absolutely loved him and his relationship with his son. Originally, I had no idea as to where this sub-plot was going, but I actually kind of liked the way it went (although the whole Chinese mafia made me confused for a bit). Anyways, Pado was precious as time went, especially since he adopted a son who’s not even biologically his. He was super funny too because he didn’t mean to sound so ominous, but his red pen made it look so threatening. I really liked him throughout the drama, even though I knew they weren’t going to end up together. I really wanted more scenes of him and Ae-Jeong being friends that bonded over single-parenthood and lowkey sticking out during the parent meetings.

Personal Notes: I hated Ahrin [played by Dasom] because she kept going after a guy who was in a relationship and continued to disrespect boundaries throughout the drama. Like, girl, chasing after a romantic relationship with the director of your film? This couldn’t wait until after? I only leaned into her a bit when she stood up for Ryu Jin, but also they’re both assholes who kind of deserve each other. Speaking of Ryu Jin, I still don’t understand how they still are friends after all of that. In the end, they were still friends and I was just so confused because they were so... separated by the end of it and never really got closure? There was just a lot happening and I did not enjoy it.

Romance: Rating - 5 out of 10

This romance was kind of mediocre. While I liked the ex to lovers trope going on, there were too many things blocked me from enjoying it. I want to start first from their romance in college. Dae-Oh puked on Ae-Jeong’s shoes to stop her from kissing someone else; while it’s creative, it was still pretty manipulative, but at least he was honest about his intentions? He proceeded to kind of harass her into getting a meal with him and then intentionally ate a clam (something he’s allergic to) to get her to do something for him. I was getting war flashbacks of the Notebook all over again. Although, I do like the moments of when they were dating; it was cute to see Dae-Oh to try and impress Ae-Jeong by stealing that large deli umbrella or when he was trying to make her laugh during a boring class. I understood the fall out, but, again, communication would have solved that easily and they could have lived a much different life. When they reunited, it was entertaining no doubt because he was “getting his revenge” but, by the end of it, he regretted everything. While it was nice to see that change in him and that romance between them blossomed, I think the main thing I couldn’t get pass was the fact that he just left her after things were getting hard. Just when they could have mended their bond and Hani could have a father like she wanted, he just left. Again, I liked the snippets of their romance, but overall... it was kind of half-assed.

Second Plot/B-Plot and Secondary Characters: Rating - 8 out of 10

I loved the other characters in the story. Noh Ae-Jeong’s mother is the absolute bomb; while she was a bit nosy, there was that warmth from a mother, especially when she was calling out to all those people that were gossiping about her family and when she showed up to the parent meetings. There was so much I loved about her. I already expressed my love for Pado and Dongchan, so yeah. We love their father-son dynamic and watching them grow and bond is so satisfying. As for the other characters, there wasn’t anyone else I was particularly attached to. I did like Ae-Jeong’s assistant and felt really bad for her too because of all the chaos that unravels. The two points off the ten is because of Ryu Jin and Ahrin; they’re selfish characters and didn’t really learn anything other than pity themselves. By the end, they got together but I didn’t feel anything towards them. I think Ryu Jin was supposed to be likable as a second male, but it just didn’t work for me. There’s also Yeonwoo and we already know how much I don’t like him. Overall, I think the characters portrayed their parts accordingly and contributed to the plot (for the most part), but there were just some that made me frustrated.

Additional Notes:

The Last Episode - Yikes. That last episode was a mess. It was clear they threw in a conflict last minute so there could be ANOTHER separation period, even though Dae-Oh was supposed to take responsibility for Hani and I’m just so confused. There was already the 14 years because of the pregnancy and then they just threw in two more for the heck of it? God. On the other hand, I did like the glimpse of Hani and Dongchan’s wedding. It was cute. Other than that, this episode was disastrous.

This was more melodramatic than romantic or comedic like they implied for it to be. Again, all of the conflicts were due to miscommunication and all the confrontations were so dramatic. Hani gets a free pass because she’s 13/14, but the adults? They needed to get it together, but they were all acting like they were teenagers and... ugh.

The College Flashbacks - I actually did enjoy these snippets. It was super cute to see how they were like as a couple and I feel like there should have been more time spent on that. I think there would have been more benefit to spend the time with them throughout college and then having their time skip the 14 years and Hani’s born.

Overall Rating: 6.5 out of 10

Recommended?

↣ Yes: this was a drama with multiple love lines for all sorts of people (exs to lovers, Noona-romance, mafia love line, etc.). It felt like You’re Beautiful, just less painful when the second male lead was rejected. This was also a drama with multiple things happening, so if you want more than just one plot, you kind of get it here. There’s also a lot of focus on family, since it’s about being a working, single mother. There’s also lots of flashbacks, so if you like putting little puzzles of the plotline together, this is for you. There’s also a lot of flawed characters, which makes it easier to connect with them and the choices they made.

↣ No: there’s a lot happening, but also not much is happening. Either a lot is happening all at once or things are progressing over a long time. As things progress, it also might get frustrating to watch. This is more of a slow burn drama, where the two don’t really get together until near the end. Again, the characters are flawed, so they make some mistakes that might be frustrating for you to watch or it’s hard to understand why they did some of the things they did. I would also say that this has a bit more drama, so if you are looking for a romantic comedy, this isn’t exactly the one for you.

#was it love #kdrama review #kdrama recs #spoilers #mine

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