For Mature Audiences Only

Not knowing what other dramas were in contention for the 2015 -2016 award season, I cannot confidently claim that Heard it through the Grapevine was robbed of any additional awards it should have garnered. What I will write is that it deserved all it achieved and more. The series itself can only be described as a genuine masterpiece and every main actor/actress held their own with respect to the role they played. This includes the lurking household servants who among their other duties were furtive shadows to the goings on in the house. I was surprised that the actress Baek Ji Won's cadence of her voice was so different from that of her character in Be Melodramatic and Do You Like Brahms. Incredible that she has that kind of voice modulation, but I digress. HITTG drama is about a teenage girl (Seo Bom) and her boyfriend (In Sang) who ends up pregnant after their first clumsy sexual encounter at summer camp. What follows is a tearful confession to her mother who is understandably distraught and disappointed, and a distancing from In Sang who has no idea that impending fatherhood is on the horizon as she disappeared from sight. Of course in true melodramatic fashion he combs her high school campus in search of her and through the help of his father's staff member tracks her down at her middle class neighborhood and whisks her off to his family home to emotionally explain to his parents that the baby was conceived in love which was one of the more hilarious moments right out of the gate. So far this synopsis sounds simple right? Wrong! Through the remaining 30 episodes what we experience is a firsthand view of how biases are formed from an extreme conservative bent and how entrenched prejudices and classism can lead to dire consequences. To say that In Sang's parents were shocked and horrified is to put it mildly. In Sang's father (Jun Ho Han), a ruthless egomaniac and his mother a beautiful and elegant but otherwise obtuse woman reluctantly agree to Seo Bom living in their house because afterall In Sang is the male heir to the family fortune. However, this arrangement becomes hell for Seo Bom as despite not knowing prior to their coupling that In Sang was a member of Korea's 1%, tries to fit in as much as possible while still having a voice. I swear if Prince Harry had not met Meghan Markle 2 years after this drama was filmed, I would be convinced that this drama was based on their life. As with the Duchess of Sussex, Seo Bom thought that just being beautiful, smart and poised were enough attributes to win her in-laws favor, but in fact it had the opposite effect as she was looked upon with disdain and disgust for no other reason than she was born of middle class lineage and as such did not deserve a seat at their table. This contradiction of emotion was evident in their doting of their grandchild and so there was never an idea of grudgingly throwing out the baby with the bathwater analogy. While It is said that girls mature faster than boys, we see that with In Sang, who was slow to standing up to his parents for the mistreatment of his now wife and draw lines even as they clung closer to each other and became adults over night. The writer for me does such an excellent job of merging the ridiculous to the sublime with a smattering of soap opera comedic moments and what we get is how the head of a family uses archaic formalities disguised as traditional values to tamp down on their children's right to voice how they wish to live. But as much as I loved the drama, this is not to say that there were no frustrating moments (it's just that HITTG does not come with any chest tightening and throw the remote at the screen scenes nor adversarial sibling rivalries). For example, Seo Bom's uncle's inability to make a final decision about whether or not to sue for his disability annoyed the daylights out of me and went on too long. I am still not sure after 30 episodes what he decided to do and if I am being honest, I think that an episode disappeared between 29 and 30 as the ending seemed unfinished and pitiful somehow. Let me take a minute to talk about the fashions of those catty, superficial moms and as contemptuous as they were, left me green with envy whenever they graced the screen. The wardrobe stylist (him/her) needs a special award just for getting every outfit worn right. Honorable mention, Secretary Lee. My other gripe would be the tendency of this writer and others to sanitize a mother's abhorrent behavior always on the last episode (Something in the Rain anyone) and in this case to absolve In Sang's mother for all the wrongs that she did to Seo Bom for 30 episodes as a willing and downright cruel accomplice. This idea that any mother is still a mother is a fallacy and contrast that with Seo Bom's mother whose support and love of her daughter never waivered and subsequently extended to In Sang. Her emotional scenes anchored the drama for me. I did not spend a lot of time on In Sang's father who is also extremely crucial to the storyline, but I appreciated that Writer Jung did not deviate from his character at all as if sans an act of god humans can easily change from bad to good. Till the very end when he walked into that empty historic and somewhat antebellum house, he remained as defiant and unrepentant as ever. Through the writer's lens, we get to see that Leaders are not born but cultivated and honed and forces the viewer like me to question our own moral compass. Does money really change the core of a person and why. Why does a person or persons continue to be gripped by fear when it becomes necessary to challenge their professional establishment. What is a reasonable expectation from their employer even as we roll through the 21st century. Food for thought. I will leave it here. Across the board this is a solid 10 for me....

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