Chocolate follows the story of Lee Kang, brought up by a country side chef mother, who becomes a doctor because he vows to not be powerless before his hospital owning paternal grandmother, who believes her son died because of an inadequate daughter-in-law.

Sound like a mess yet?

The romantic interest in Moon Cha Young, who falls in love with Lee Kang because he made her food once in their childhood.

In essence, it is the typical story of a male lead with a complex background who is otherwise saved by the love of the great character of a normal female lead.

That said, the way the drama executes this mess is actually quite well done, at least for the first few episodes. Enough so that it makes me want to keep watching.

Production quality is also top notch, some beautiful cuts of food being made and some parts being filmed in Greece.

However, at its core, I believe the episode structure, where it opts more for a TV series (to meet Netflix standards?) is flawed for a drama where the main premise is centred around love.

Even more so because I believe the writers made the mistake of being too experimental and the drama can't figure out whether it is supposed to be about food, hospital drama, or love, and it just becomes painfully slow to the point where the story or characters just do not progress.

To reiterate, the main story in itself is interesting enough to watch, but I simply do not care enough to hear the story of a random grandpa, boy, or long lost love that finishes in the span of one episode. One drama that executed this well is "Suits" where it actually feels like each story is utilised to develop the character of the main leads. Here.... they're just filler episodes.

I'll leave it at that for now and come back to update when, and if, I finish the drama...