This drama started so wholesome then it turned bitter and heartbreaking. I was very interested in the main couple in the beginning, as episodes went by the domestic abuse storyline grew and overshadowed the main plot.
Patriarchy played a huge role in the way the abuse and the reaction (or lack of) to it was shown. Nobody seems to truly step back and say: you don't deserve to go to jail, you're both victims, his actions were inexcusable, and neither of you were responsible for the situation he created. Instead, it's played as if their intelligence and arrogance as intelligent, beautiful women is partially to blame for the situation.
Both sisters lived their lives as shells, not recovering and basically never speaking about it. They tried to punish themselves in their own ways, hurting Hae Won in the process. Essentially making her the third victim of her father, which I’m sure she would have been if he stayed alive long enough.
I feel like the show gives the abuser (a sort of) free pass, trying to present him as a ‘good’ father and socially likable, as if that makes what he did more okay? I needed a scene where he was vocally called out and branded as he was – a manipulator and an abuser, that scene never happened.
I wish I could end the review with a positive note, but I cannot. Society plays a crucial role (along with the law system) in situations like these. Women should be able to speak up and be heard, not blamed. Society as a whole needs to open the topic of domestic abuse and not bury its head in the sand.