I have to admit, I was actually hesitant to watch Mary Stayed Out All Night at first because the title seems to be somewhat boring? However, I decided to watch this show because I wanted to see Jang Geun Suk act. He was listed as the most popular actor on this website, so I was curious to see what the very best offered. I also saw Kim Jae Wook from Coffee Prince and thought that he had potential to be a lead role, which he definitely proved to be the case in this show. I want to start with the story first. Maybe I should start with a warning though. If you plan to watch this show, make sure you have a lot of time. It's not one of those shows where you can only watch one episode a week, or day for that matter. I was stupid and started watching it at 10 pm after not getting sleep the night before. It's so addicting though that I stayed up until around 5 p.m. the next day watching. Thankfully, there's a little bit around the 9th episode that's slow enough for you to stop watching and finally get some sleep. (Also, if you're trying to calculate the time and wonder why I took that long to watch the episodes, it won't add up. I like to rewind the good parts and re-watch them. This show had a lot of re-wind moments.) Okay, so now to get to the story. While the plot is somewhat hard to believe, that a man wants his wealthy son to marry a poor girl so desperately that he'll do anything to get them together, the way that the story was told was beyond entertaining. It's not just cute, you actually laugh out loud, then rewind because you can't believe what just happened, then rewind one more time just to laugh again (but hug a pillow this time to try to suppress the laughter so people won't think you're crazy). The introduction of the characters to one another is very charming. The two main leads meet each other in a way that seems unlike how you'd want to meet your ideal man, yet somehow they make it work through an oddly interesting way. The characters are realistic in that they don't fall head over heels for each other immediately and they react like normal people, sometimes so bluntly that you wonder how they're gonna get together, yet you're still cheering for them. They're very laid back, yet have the most suspenseful moments. The two male leads have the best rivalry I've seen so far. They're so comedic together! I hate when a show favors one male character over the other to the point where it's obvious who the girl will end up with and unsuspenseful, or the rival gives up too easily that there's no competition. Well, it might be somewhat obvious who she'll end up with, but there's a lot of moments that make you wonder, and the opponent is charmingly pitiful? There's definitely suspense. There's a little bit of a point in the middle (I think episode 9), where the story gets too mushy for me. I can honestly say though, out of all the shows I've finished so far, this has the least boring/filler parts which all add up to less than half an episode. That's the part I hate the most in a lot of shows. Even at the end of the show after two of them get together, during the little bit left that usually gets boring because people are just matched up together, etc... (which also was not the case for this show), they managed to make entertaining. I think I can even say those were some of my favorite parts. You may be wondering why I only gave it a 9 then, if it's all that great. I'm a very picky person. I haven't seen a story that deserves a 10 yet. I felt that the story wasn't too deep (maybe my opinion is somewhat skewed since I just watched Goong, which had a very deep story). The opponent however seemed to have a sad story in this show - he'll probably get a lot of girls afterwards. >____> Just saying... Anyways, the plot by itself deserved about a 6 at most; the way the story was told, however, with all it's twists, turns, charm, and oh-so-irresistible cliffhangers boosted it to a 9. The cast I gave a 9, because the actors fit their roles very well. Jang Geun Suk plays the role of a charming, down-to-earth, laid back, character with few cares very well. It's hard to explain, because he wasn't pretty to me at first, (I hate long hair on guys), but he has some sort of likeability factor that I can't put my finger on, but it has something to do with his actions I think. His actions are some mixture of cute, funny, and cool? - something that's hard to get. I can see why he's so popular after this show. Heck, I even added him to my favorite actors list. Moon Geun Young's cute voice and face make her seem sincerely innocent even when her character's actions don't seem to match. She's one of the non-annoying female leads that even girls find cute. Kim Jae Wook was really believable as a rich and elegant man, from his actions to his posture. I had to take a second look since he was so different from his minor character in Coffee Prince. I think that for this show, I'd give him the best actor award from the cast. During his lowest point, I really pitied him since he seemed so genuinely down that I was afraid for him. His character was very 3-dimensional. Kim Hyo Jin was not the annoying opponent that many lead characters have to face. In fact, I think she had the least annoying character of the female antagonists I've seen. Upon first meeting her character, she seemed so cool that her character seemed like someone you want to be, not go against. She lost a little bit of her strength in the middle, but regains it later. I like her fearlessness, style, and coolness (for lack of a better term). I only put a 9 down for the acting and cast, because, despite being funny, cute, cool, and overall, likeable, they lack an important thing for me (with the exception of Kim Jae Wook's character). I'm not sure if it's the story or the actors, but I was never brought to tears by this show. There wasn't a heart-clenching moment where I felt like they would die for each other. I know not everyone will need this, but that's one of the moments I look forward to in dramas, if not, "the" moment. I have had many, many laughs and cute moments from this show that I have rewound over and over again, but sadly, my tissue box has gone unused and weeps without me. :( Edit: That's why I lowered the overall score to an 8. I really need one of those moments for the story to be complete. *Edit: There is a moment in the beginning that I almost cried for the girl, but it's not from romance so it doesn't count in a romantic drama. >:( The music was a 9 for me. I think it's hard to compete with Secret Garden's OST (my favorite OST), but this track did have many catchy songs. I'm not sure if it's from hearing the songs a lot or if it's because of the placement of the songs that I like them and have started singing along to them, but something has made me like them, because I didn't when I originally heard them. Take the song "My Precious". At first, when I heard it I was startled by a bunch of mixed feelings - not good ones either. I felt a little odd since part of it sounds like the song from Willy Wonka, a little embarrassment from being Asian myself, and hearing the accent during the English words, and to be honest, a little fear from Smeagol's famous words "my precious". Towards the end of the drama, however, I found myself singing along while getting ready for the next episode to load! :D I hate re-watching shows, like I always state. I gave this show a 9 though because it's suspenseful and so incredibly funny from start to the very last minutes of the finish. (The one point was docked off simply because I do not like rewatching shows since that in itself will take out some of the suspense of a show). I would definitely recommend this show to people despite it not having a heart-clenching sad moment because it's one of my most highly rated show so far, all the characters are likeable (even the dad, I forgot to put him in there), there's no side stories whatsoever, it's suspenseful, and not just cute-funny but real-funny. This is definitely a must watch. Edit: I rewatched the first episode of this drama and forgot about the intro. It's a weird intro, don't mind the short weird intro in the beginning, the drama is nothing like that.