I will be frank in my honest thoughts about this drama; it very much met my expectations. I will be open to saying it
did not exceed them, but it was a reasonably engaging and entertaining watch for the most part.


The Good Bad Mother was written by Bae Se Young ( Intimate Strangers, What a Man Wants and Life Is Beautiful) and directed by Shim Na Yeon ( Hip Hop Teacher, Beyond Evil and Moment at Eighteen). It focuses on pig farmer Jin Young Soon (Ra Mi Ran). Young Soon is left to take after her son and the farm as a single mother after the death of her husband. Her son, Kang Ho ( Lee Do Hyun), is reared by Young Soon to study and succeed, even at the cost of his unhappiness. Kang Ho grows up seemingly unhappy, pushing away his mother and long-term childhood friend and sweetheart, Lee Mi Joo (Ahn Eun Jin), to climb up the social leader as a prosecutor.


However, when Kang Ho is involved in a life-changing accident, Young Soon gets a second chance to spend time with her son. Kang Ho's past soon catches up with him and Young Soon as they find themselves in their sudden change of circumstances.


This is a story we have seen in Korean drama screenplays, where a character is forced to go through difficult circumstances and reconciliation. Mostly, The Good Bad Mother is a melodrama focusing on numerous tragedies but with a more slice-of-life comical edge through the country life trope. One surprisingly profound element of the series came through some of the themes tackled, including disability, illness, political corruption, murder and cover-ups. Admittedly, these themes were only partially addressed to their full potential, but the drama did highlight where characters encountered these issues.



The acting for The Good Mother Bad Mother varied, though most of the main cast was pretty good. Ra Mi Ran ( familiar to some watchers for her performances in Sympathy for Lady Vengeance, Avengers Social Club and Cruel Intern) offered a fairly stellar performance as Jin Young Soon.



Jin Young Soon is a problematic character to explore. On the one hand, she is very multifaceted; it would have been easy for the writer Bae Se Young to have cast Young Soon in a villainous light or wholly attempted to have redeemed her character. Instead, we get a surprisingly good middle ground with Young Soon; she is neither truly forgiven for her actions nor demonized. This was surprisingly refreshing for a Korean drama. Of course, Young Soon is not without her writing flaws, one of the main issues being that while we do get to see her character develop and her ending is teased throughout, it still felt a little anti-climactic against the backdrop of the other events of the series.



Lee Do Hyun ( a familiar face to many for his roles in Sweet Home, 18 Again and The Glory Part 1 & 2) starred as the male lead and son of Young Soon, Kang Ho. Kang Ho goes through a multitude of character arcs throughout the drama. Without major spoilers, Kang Ho starts as a reasonably callous individual at first glance before developing into a more well-rounded and kindhearted individual through his accident. As the narrative progresses, the drama elucidates that Kang Ho is a character that has more to him than meets the eye, and this certainly proves to be true. Perhaps one element which did feel somewhat absent through Kang Ho's character arc came through a very deus ex machina ending; his trauma is unresolved, he goes through issues and then finds a solution. There is nothing wrong with this formula per se, but considering the amount of tension building behind his character arc, it felt a little odd that these circumstances came so quickly.


Another central character to talk about is Lee Mi Joo—Ahn Eun Jin (More Than Friends, The One and Only and Goodbye Earth) plays the role with a calm yet bittersweet edge. Mi Joo's relationship with Kang Ho and the mysterious identity of her children's father remains one of the major driving forces of her character. One element of her character that I felt I was a little lacking was that while her goals and dreams were built up a lot or explored to their full potential, they rarely followed through by the drama's ending.



Then there are the primary antagonists of the drama, Song Woo Byeok (Choi Moo Sung) and Oh Tae Soo (Jung Woong). Their role in the drama plays out similarly to moustache-twirling villains; they are necessary to keep the conflict going, but aside from that, their characters are rarely explored further. Other noticeable characters include Bang Sam Sik (Yoo In Soo- Strong Woman Do Bong Soon, Alchemy of Souls and The Uncanny Counter Season 2: Counter Punch), the childhood frenemy of Kang Ho and Mi Joo, who acts as the primary comic relief of the drama series. ( However, Sam Sik has his surprising redemption arc in parts of the series.) Of course, there are the villagers who help propel the comedy and more lighthearted moments alongside Song Woo Byeok's henchmen. Young Rak's wife (Park Bo Kyung-Shadow Beauty, Little Women and Moving) remained an amusing character. Her gag of constantly wearing odd face masks for beauty routines and eccentric comments fantastically lit the mood. Her character resolution was a little weird, but it seemed befitting of her character's personality.



The execution of the series had an odd progression. The first episode delved into the setup and conflict, then slowed down until the halfway point. Although this was necessary to help flesh out specific plot points, it did cause a scenario where certain teased plot arcs and characters were left free-falling by the second half of the series. As a consequence of this execution, certain plot events were left unaddressed. The one element of the narrative that was achieved came through pacing. There were a few scenes which were unnecessary in parts of the drama. Still, for the most part, The Good Bad Mother was engaging with its narrative due to being able to balance the elements of angst, lighthearted moments and comedy reasonably well.



The cinematography of the series was pretty stylish. It was not particularly innovative, but there were a few striking scenes, such as when Kang-Ho and Ahn Eun Jin were caught in the rain or the final scene with Jin Young Soon. The OST was reasonably upbeat and dynamic for the most part. Admittedly, there were a few more tracks which stuck out more than others, such as ''A Dreamy Town'' by Ha Jin and ''Talk About Love/ 사랑을 말해요'' by Lee Moon Se, which were pretty good.



Overall, The Good Bad Mother was a surprisingly engaging watch. Although it may have borrowed from many tropes in Korean dramas, the series remained engaging through its equilibrated themes and an intriguing array of different characters and plot. Overall, worth a watch.