Not Start-Up, it is more like "Seo Dal-Mi's love life" saved by Kim Seon-Ho a.k.a Han Ji-Pyeong

This is one of those dramas that start off so strong with strong plot line. strong characters and strong themes. The beautiful cinematography and soundtrack just add more to the drama starting off strongly. However, the writing then becomes so sloppy, there is no character development and the main plot seems to get completely side-lined because the writers decided to focus more on the not-so-important aspect just to earn TRP.

The drama was about the journey of young entrepreneurs and their start-up, but the drama looses the plot completely as it heavily starts to focus on the love triangle. The drama starts off as a sister rivalry but ends up being a typical KDrama Rom-Com where no matter how problematic and immature the ML is, he will get everything he wants and never faces the negative consequences of his questionable and immature choices and actions. We are given a FL who starts off as a headstrong, determined person who wants to and will achieve her dreams no matter what but as the drama progresses we get a FL whose character development is going downhill and she is becoming more and more clichéd with questionable choices and losing her strong personality and spirit. The main leads are so sloppily written, there is absolutely no depth to their character arcs. The ML is an Android Robot with only three emotions, that are, sadness, anger and happiness, there is no in between these emotions. He has no strong base for his own character, so if the FL and SML don't exist then the ML's character has no base. The ML's ALL actions and emotions revolve only around the FL and it is pathetic to see this kind of a problematic ML in 2020. No he is NOT an underdog, he literally gets EVERYTHING on a silver platter whereas the SML works hard throughout and is super selfless throughout the drama only to become the punching bag for everyone.

The only few beautifully written character arcs were those of the SML, SFL and the Grandma. Even the AI device had a better development than the main leads. The SML saved the day, I give his character 100/10, he was the only one binding this show, his character growth, development, depth was beautiful to see yet it was sad how writers made him the punching bag of this drama. He was made to suffer so much and he received so much growth but all that went down the drain only because the writer wanted the main leads to be together. The SFL had so much potential, her character could've been written so much better but unfortunately she gets growth only when 5 episodes were remaining. Despite these two characters being the secondary characters, they literally carried the entire drama, these two were the only characters that gave life to the main 'business' aspect of the drama, the main leads were busy romancing and playing the victim card while the secondary characters stole the show.

The drama had a lot of potential but the writer tried to incorporate so many themes and plots that she ended up making a cocktail out of all these sub plots that didn't contribute to the main plot in any way. The writer also disregarded some important plots as if they were nothing after dragging them on for so long and then later used them as plot devices.

Let's go to the acting part. Suzy still is terrible at delivering emotions perfectly. Though there was some improvement in her acting, she still really needs to work on it as I could anyways not connect with her sloppy character but her acting made it more difficult to connect with it. As much as I disliked Nam Joo-Hyuk's character I must say he did a really good job in delivering his role, he made it possible with his acting for people to dislike his character so much. Kudos to Kim Seon-Ho for delivering Han Ji-Pyeong so well. He did a fabulous job. He stole the show, every emotion and every scene was nailed by him, you could so easily connect to his character which was already so beautifully written and brought to life. With the little bit of screen time Kang Han-Na too sole the show. Her character got the development too later in the series but she still stole the show and was fabulous.

All in all, if you have too much time to waste then sure go ahead and watch this mess of a drama, otherwise please save yourself from this big mess of a drama and save your emotions and precious time. There are way too many better dramas for you to watch and you really don't want to get second lead syndrome.

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My Mister - A Drama That Perfectly Depicts “All Relationships are Precious” and Second Chances

I have been putting this drama off since more than a year now and I believe this had to do with how hyped it was. We’ve read so many comments and posts on this drama and each one of those were praising this immensely. I feel skeptical about watching hyped dramas in general. But safe to say, My Mister lives up to it’s hype.

This is a drama that depicts “all relationships are precious” and second chances beautifully! It’s not one of those dramas where you can binge watch it. Give it time and you’ll find yourself getting attached to every character. Even the characters that get on your nerves initially, you’ll end up understanding where they came from if not loving/liking them.

I think this drama does the character driven aspect perfectly. When a drama has so many characters it tends to either make most of these unidimensional and doesn’t develop them properly. But props to the writer of My Mister, she’s written each and every character with such depth. Every character teaches you something. Even if you leave out the learning aspect of it, you’ll end up appreciating their character growth. I was a bit skeptical about many characters in the drama like Jeong-hui, Yu-ra, and a few other characters but as the drama progresses you see a growth and story of all of these characters and how a "second chance" does wonders to their lives.

Let's talk about the main characters. Park Dong-hoon has to be one of my favourite characters ever! He is kind but in a realistic way. He is a nice person, but in a realistic way. He is not your perfect nice guy, he too is flawed, broken and as Ji-ahn says, "pitiful". Yet he manages to be kind. There is a lesson here as well, and as mentioned in the drama, "if you feel helpless and can't save yourself then try to help others out and ease their hardships, it really helps" and this mantra was time and again depicted beautifully in the drama.

Lee Ji-ahn was a character I wasn't too fond of initially but 6 episodes into the drama and I could see feeling myself for Ji-ahn. By the end of the drama I was so attached to her that I wanted to go inside and give her a warm hug. Props to Lee Ji-eun (IU) for pulling this character off so nicely. I literally cried with her whenever she cried because I could feel the pain of her character. It seemed as though she had immersed herself in the role and the entire time I couldn't feel that she was acting. It felt so real. Ji-ahn teaches you a lot but most importantly her character is basically all about a second chance. I believe that the ending she got was the best. Indeed a second chance was all that she needed. Her relationship and care for her Grandma was the most heartwarming and pure thing about the drama. From a person who thought kindness doesn't last long to a person who wanted to be there for someone and who wanted to be loved and taken care of, she came a long way.

The brothers are other characters whom I loved and adored. Sang-hoon is a character that is close to my heart. He was funny, and reminded me of his character from Prison Playbook. I loved how initially he was a bit carefree but ends up taking a job that probably isn't very respectable and yet doing it so diligently. The scene where he gives his mom monthly allowance and living expense and his mom is so touched is probably one of the memorable scenes. His dream of the three brothers dressing up in expensive clothes and going on a drive in an expensive car as he saves up money through all the work and the using that money to help Ji-ahn for her Grandma's funeral spoke volumes about his character growth. From saying "all I did in these 50 years is sleep and shit" to "this is the most memorable day of my life" he clearly as come a long way. Gi-hoon is also hilarious and his dynamics with Yu-ra were absolutely a delight to watch. It was lovely to see how him and Yu-ra grow together and find peace through each other. I also absolutely adored the relationship between the three brothers! They were so wholesome and the way they cared for each other made my heart full.

So coming back to the title of this post. Every character, be it Jeong-hui, Yoon-hui, Ji-ahn, the soccer club guys or even the loan shark, they all depict how a second chance helped them and was the only thing they needed along with someone like each other. I really wish to find a guy like Dong-hoon who would help out a stranger and even if she tried to make things awkward or do whatever she did, he understood where she came from and even if they met after many years he'd want to greet her with a smile.

Dong-hoon and Ji-ahn's relationship was so pure and I can't see how one would want them to get into a relationship because that's clearly a very unrealistic thing in an otherwise realistic drama. Their relationship was a precious one. I adored how Dong-hoon was there for Ji-ahn until the very end. The last hug they had just made my heart warm.

Overall this drama is absolutely perfect and the only flaws were in the characters which made the characters look so true and real. Even those flaws would teach you lots of things. It has a solid plot, well written characters and to top it all it promises great acting from literally everyone. It's one of those that will make you think about the characters even after the drama has ended. I still think about how would Ji-ahn and Dong-hoon's dinner would've been, did Ji-ahn meet the people from Jeoung-hi's bar again, did she decide to move into that neighborhood again, how're things with the loan shark, etc. Also it has a fantastic soundtrack. Adults by Sonida is definitely my favourite OST, everytime I listen to it, it makes me think about Ji-ahn.

Lastly I would say, as Ji-ahn says, "I would like to be born in this neighborhood in my next life". I would love to be surrounded by the bunch of amazing people in that neighborhood where these characters lived.

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