Reviews

Self obsessed lead actress does the now predictably fashionable "time travel" of endless storyline flashbacks, presumably to explain to us why she's so messed up now.

Who cares when there's no charm or interest as to why she got here?

I've never not liked Hahn but for the first time I'm completely disinterested in her story and choices.

And. To really stretch our willingness to participate - why is her younger pregnant self around 20 yet in the present her 15 year old HS daughter would make her 35 yet we repeatedly hear she's 49. Same with her husband who actually looks younger in the present than she and is far taller than her in the present yet is her height, barely, in his 20 y o past?

I admit I watched only 3 episodes but this self indulgent disaster isn't worth more of my time

Did I mention their therapist? No, I won't.

Starting off I thought this would be a good Breaking Bad ripoff with a mix of Ozark, with potential, but rapidly realized after the first few episodes that it wouldn't even be in the ballpark.

The "hero" professor is a pathetic sniveling spineless idiot, too dumb to ever take advantage of his original windfall, too stupid to realize that hiding the evidence is rule #1 in a crime, too spineless to be anything other than a tool to be used by others.

The criminals are depicted as typical violent sociopaths, torturing and killing others for no apparent reason other than for gratuitous violence and brutality. The lead "bad guy" goes from a seeming smart conniver to becoming a tool as well, in a few short episodes.

The police and their mole are so formulaic as to elicit yawns.

The model family title is obviously a joke but to hammer it in we have the typical kids, one an angel, one rebellious, because she sees the hell of her parents' relationship and wants nothing of it.

I would have liked to see more of the wife because she seems to have potential and could hopefully do some real damage as she seems way smarter and capable than her dolt of a husband, but frankly the show is so unrealistic and full of potholes I could care less.

Shlock explotation formulaic trash.

The show starts off fun but one quickly gets the idea and the plot by the time the first episode is done.

And that's a problem because now you have 15 more episodes of endlessly repetitive and obvious scenarios before boy kisses girl. Except he doesn't.

The supporting characters are silly and gimmicky. The male lead's friend is there for comic relief and he's not funny. Unless you think an infant in a man's body is funny. His love interest, the female lead's friend, is the same.

The lead's parents make a statement for stronger and harsher abuse laws. The wife beats up the husband so much and so hard if he's not bleeding he's trembling. And the final episode this is underlined by the lead saying how his parents love each other and how great it is. Huh? This is a codependent abusive relationship that should book the wife in jail. I guess in Korea this is comic relief and normal. Fun times.

As the show struggles through the now seeming endless episodes to get to the forgone conclusion with a few fun evil parent machinations throw in, we watch still. Why? Because the female lead is gorgeous and spirited, giving a great performance. The male lead is cute but blander and clueless, taking all that time to realize his rich older girlfriend is out of his league and uninterested in him and that of course he really loves the new young female employee. That there is a class difference he will never surmount because he has no ambition in the rich girlfriend's world. His false sense of honor / love keeps him with her for way too long. And stupidity. But then his parents role modeling show him that disinterest and non communication is standard relationship procedure.

Speaking of class difference, one of those sublots is what lead him to run the convenience store. Only he is terrible at it. He makes no sales and his family is useless helping him. It is only when his future new girlfriend starts to work with him that sales magically jump up. She has all the skills not him. What skills are those? Who knows, its a convenient plot line, is all. And then he goes back to work for the corporation that he left due to that subplot but soon realizes he rather not be corporate and rich and a bourgeois, but a lowly store owner and happy! Why? He's useless at it! Why then? Just a stupid facile way to tie the bow on a forced happy ending, showing his admiration for his nutty parents and waving goodbye to evil rich corporate executives.

So yes, it finally it ends with their long awaited kiss. Except no, it doesn't. The scene is blocked by the prudish hands of the actors and they wave goodby to you and the cast and crew.

Who knew Korea is so uptight about PDA? In fact all the shows I've seen show barely a kiss and no apparent affection.

Silly stuff. Glad I could fast forward through the show when necessary.

Such a disappointment after the stellar My Mister by the same writer.

This slice of life drama that never takes off, meanders with little direction, has mostly uninteresting characters and mediocre acting for the most part, leaves you wishing you never invested the time.

Although the story centers around three adult children living at home in the country near Seoul, the youngest child commands more of the plot, to the detriment of the story. She has little presence, a wooden expression, the least interesting story and a complete bore. Her older sister is a ditzy romantic who complains about her love life but is a good actress and holds your attention. The middle son has the most interesting life and goes through the greatest turmoil and results. Thankfully he is also a very good actor and pulls it off well.

The parents are pretty much just set pieces, typical worrying mom and taciturn dad who stuggles to express any emotion he may have. Their absence as the story progresses is not missed, even by their children.

The potential wild card is the alcoholic, mysterious, perhaps boyfriend of the youngest daughter, whose heavy drinking seems accepted without any concern for the most part, particularly by her. His schizophrenic life is revealed halfway through the story but makes no sense and his subsequent revelations do not support his appearance from the beginning. The last episode reveals a violent upheaval on his part that apparently will never have consequences. So the potentially most interesting storyline also fails.

Finally, the namesake of the series, an office diary club formed by a few office misfits (one being the youngest daughter) who struggle to confirm to societal pressures but want out, this plotline and character arc abandoned halfway through the show, only to be resuscitated in the ultimate episode, but to what purpose? We learn they did not change and did not continue their diaries but, oh my, perhaps they will continue to meet and start again. Only saving grace here was that one of the best actor in the series was one of the group. We saw too little of him.

This story could have been told in 8 episodes maximum. Watch My Mister instead. Twice. It's as good each time.

Went from lol to melodrama

Also, the fact that nobody in production, from producers to writers, to staff, to actors, crew and fact checkers, knew that Croatia (the place Maisel was supposed to go for a show) did NOT exist in the late 50s and was part of then communist Yugoslavia, is a shande. Nobody from the US or Western Europe was going there to do a comedy show. *facepalm.

Life before and life after - that is the question?

Do we accept our fate or do we rail against it?

Our protagonist rails against it, until suddenly, at the end, doesn't.

He is successful, and along the way he meets deaf people who assist him in acceptance and growth. And he learns and grows with the experiences contained. Yet, he wants his old life back. And so he goes through the steps to do so. And yet when he succeeds and attains his previous life, he changes his mind and decides that deafness is perhaps, better?

Quaint notion, that barely takes in the possibility that his past life may have changed too, and could adapt along with him. Like, you know, life does? Gives nobody a chance when all along his aim was to reunite with his supportive partner. Who is seemingly dismissed.

Good acting but a let down in plot.

Isn't life about change and recovery and growth? And if science is helping, why go back? We don't see anything of a past life to make the decision acceptable, other than a "cool" movie choice.

Seems contrived.

(no actual plot specifics are revealed)

I had high hopes for this and was quickly brought down to earth. And interminable movie, made longer by an interminable preamble that did little to enhance anything with the meat of the movie.

Based on a book by Shuhei Fusjisawa, who's Twilight Samurai novel was so masterfully adapted by the talented Yoji Yamada, this is a glorified Harlequin Romance of love interrupted. And interrupted. And interrupted. The whole movie could have been cut by 40 minutes, including some scenes which were repetitive and others that made no sense. Perhaps it was even longer and the editor was at a loss?

Without revealing anything specific, suffice it to say that this chanbara movie builds up to the one big sword fight scene, doesn't even do it justice after all that foreplay, then falls back to more love interrupted. You feel like hurling your dime store romance paperback at the screen.

A few nice camera shots don't make up for endless preamble of furtive glances and halting touches. In fact, I don't think the two lovers touch more than three times their whole lives together. Any allusions to traditional Japanese customs in feudal Japan is bogus, because marriage and divorce was common then, especially in the samurai class.

Skip this and watch Twilight Samurai 2x instead to see how a real movie should be made.