Overall, Private Lives had a lot of wasted potential, in my opinion. The characters, in particular, lacked a deeper character development and depth that I hoped would emerge throughout the 16 episodes. Exploration into the characters’ purposes and how/why they see the world as they do would have been nice. For example, Lee Junghwan’s background is briefly mentioned and shown throughout, but it didn’t fully explain to me exactly how it shaped him into who he is. Same situation for some of the other characters and their relationships. Sophia Chung/Jung Bokgi/Jung Yoonkyung and Cha Jooeun’s connection was a bit odd to me, like they looked like they started to get along so well and then suddenly Sophia Chung is off and doing her own thing without Cha Jooeun, then they’re working together again….? Maybe it was just me, but it seemed a bit disconnected.

The structure of the drama was another weakness as it was quite confusing and difficult to follow at the beginning, which is one of the most important parts of a drama. First two episodes were quite confusing, more than most other dramas’ introductions. I’d recommend thinking of the first two episodes as simply setting up the stage for the plot, even though it seems like they could be part of the plot already. The drama also uses a lot of flashbacks to explain things as the drama progresses, but the timeline was not very clear (once again, mostly in the first few episodes) and was difficult for me to follow, even as someone who usually doesn’t mind flashbacks in dramas and can generally keep up well. I would say the plot really started becoming clear around episode three or four for me, so this drama took some determination to get through haha. Honestly, I could see this drama being shortened to 14 or even 12 episodes and be fine. Certain areas were dragged on a little too long or were kind of boring, while I would say that ep 16 was a bit rushed to tie everything together. Some plot points were also overused (like the “faking a death” thing…a bit too much to use it three times in one drama imo).

I’d say the two main points that made me keep watching were the plot and the cast. The plot had flaws that I mentioned before, but it did piece together well at the end (if you make it that far, that is). It had a few surprising twists and was decently intricate once it was fully revealed. Second, I loved the cast. Seohyun and Go Kyungpyo’s chemistry was amazing. I actually watched the behind the scenes clips first before I started Private Lives, and it was one of the main reasons I watched Private Lives. I’d love to see Seohyun and Go Kyungpyo together in a drama again, except this time a romance drama, because I thought their chemistry was great both on camera and off camera. Kim Hyojin, Kim Youngmin, and Tae Wonseok also did great as their characters, so the acting was definitely a good part of the drama.

Final note: I was hoping for a bit more out of Private Lives as I feel like the cast and plot had a lot of potential, but it was a nice revealing of a puzzle, if you’re into that and willing to piece things together. I binged the drama in a few days so it was a decent story to pass time with, but I don’t think I would’ve stuck with it if I watched it as it aired.