Welcome to my Saturday blog post where I give thoughts on dramas I’m watching, whether at the beginning, middle, or end. Whatever I want, because I’m petty that way.
This week I recapped episode 3 of timey-wimey-thriller BL(?) 4Minutes where our leads flirt over UFO catchers while people are murdered.
I also recapped episodes 3-4 of Jack and Joker, wherein our poor Joker keeps trying to help our poor Jack, and poor Jack tries not to kill him for it.
What did I watch this week? I binged my way through an entire show.
No Gain, No Love – 손해 보기 싫어서 – 2024
Recently aired Korean RomCom with 12 episodes.
To combat unfair work policies that favor married workers, a woman gets fake-married to a local convenience store worker. Things do not go as planned.
I haven’t liked a Korean drama this much in a while. It’s got seriously quirky leads who are three-dimensional characters, a great balance of comedy and angst, and excellent secondary characters. It made my heart pitter-patter.
The leads are “opposites attract”, but not typical opposites
Our female lead is blunt and honest. Too blunt and honest, she says out loud what most of us think quietly but are too polite to say. She’s tired of giving money to people getting married while never receiving anything in return because she’s not married (girl, same.) Her work favors married employees over unmarried employees and it drives her crazy. She’s a hard worker who wants to make money and get ahead.
And she won’t meekly accept unfairness, even if she has to do things others consider over-the-top. Yet she’s not thoughtless and doesn’t take advantage of others. The male lead likes her for these qualities, and so do I.
In contrast, our male lead is full of SECRETS. He’s the nicest guy in the world, working at a convenience store with a bad haircut. Who he is under the bad haircut and kindness, why he does what he does, and more, are all slowly revealed throughout the show.
It’s a fascinating combination. Her honesty makes her unlikeable, while everyone loves him even though they don’t really know him.
But a crucial, early reveal that she’s special to him: he’s not that nice to her.
A contentious mother-daughter relationship that isn’t black and white
As part of our female lead’s background, she grew up with dozens of foster siblings that her parents took in. Our female lead never wanted this constant revolving door of siblings, but she didn’t get any say. As a result, she has a contentious relationship with a selfless mom everyone loves.
I think it’s easy to write our female lead off as a jerk for not also being selfless and loving to every stranger in her life. But I think she needed support and didn’t get it from her mother, no matter how much she asked. As fiercely independent as she is as an adult, I wonder if she’d been given support as a child if she wouldn’t feel she has to be so self-reliant.
I love seeing this kind of relationship, where I don’t fault either for their actions. There are no bad guys, just people doing their best but unable to connect.
Great secondary characters and the perfect combo of angst and comedy
Our female lead has two foster sisters who have stuck with her into adulthood and they are a sweet trio of sibling support. By support I don’t mean it’s all hugs and encouragement, there are also arguments and petty bickering. But even when someone storms off in a rage, you can tell the problem comes from them loving each other and wanting the best for each.
One of those foster sisters writes sexy romance novels. Before she knows it though, her life starts resembling one of those romance novels.
The CEO of the education company where our female lead works is also an important character, along with his long-suffering secretary. His family includes his unhappily married parents, and his mother reads sexy romance novels to escape from reality.
The way relationships start crossing over between the female lead’s personal life and her work life and how it all ties with the male lead, makes for both good comedy and good drama.
There’s an excellent balance of comedy and angst here. Every time the angst got heavy enough that it wasn’t fun anymore, comedy would lighten the mood. At the same time, the comedy never overpowered the character’s personalities or struggles. Even when things were funny, what was going on still felt serious and real.
And thankfully, reprehensible characters were never made “cute” by the comedy. Their actions could be funny sometimes, but they still sucked.
It’s romance, but they aren’t a romantic couple
Our lead couple is not traditionally romantic, their personalities just do not lend themselves to that kind of relationship. She’s too abrasive and his kindness is too evenly spread. The unique way they showed their feeling still gave me strong feels, but it’s not fluffy and sweet and trope-y.
Their uniqueness is a big positive for me, but the lack of sugar could be unsatisfying for others.
Or they’ll get obsessed with the second couple instead, as they are the trope-y, traditional couple. They are also great, so I say this not as a detriment to them. I love having that this show has multiple flavors of love.
So yeah, I recommend this show.
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