Once you get through the obligatory starter course of processed cheese, the first four or five episodes turn into a gentle, warm, carefully observed drama-romance with credible characters. Then the romance stretches like melted mozzarella for a number of episodes before just about righting itself; the cottage cheese style comedy tries to spice itself up with some hot chilli crime and the plot turns into gruyere, with holes so big you could run a mouse through them. Unfortunately, I could see where it was headed like I had a grandstand view down a wormhole.

Okay, let’s put some spoiler-free depth to those claims.

First the romance. This is a noona romance and visibly so. I have no problem with the age of the FL, or the fact that the characters are played by actors with at least 10 years between them. But at times I found myself wincing because in the script the FL acts more like the ML’s mother than anything else and at one point the ML behaves like a teenager, and those things I did have a problem with. However, once the romance got going things settled down a bit, but there is precious little chemistry going on. It’s all very cosy and comfortable, so be prepared for that.

It seems that the writer wants to give the drama a bit of weight and chose to do it in two ways. One of which definitely added something—educational child abuse in pursuit of excellence. Because of the setting in a tutoring academy it was fully explored and provided some real depth by documenting the impact on the students. This part of the drama was good and was credible alongside the romance. But the other theme—heavy-duty-crime—really didn’t mesh well and was totally unnecessary imo. Also the execution of that whole plot thread was obvious and clumsy.

There’s a fashion at the moment to try mixed genres, but it rarely succeeds. Okay I admit, it could be that I just need to change, get with the program and embrace something new, but … I think that there are genres for a reason. And that’s because any drama is an exaggeration of life in a certain direction. The imaginary world created by a romance is fundamentally different to that of a crime thriller because it is designed to evoke different emotions and responses. Things that are credible in one world aren’t in the other. When you mix the genres it’s like being emotionally and psychologically pulled in opposite directions so that you twang like a rubber band from one to the other. In the time it takes to cut to the next scene the viewer has to heave out one universe and drag in another. Jeez, it wears me out…

A bunch of corrupt mothers were required to fulfil both the comedy and the serious commentary on educational abuse. But neither the writing, nor the acting/directing was subtle or clever enough to exploit this killer opportunity for black humour. Satire is an art-form, and anyone who wants to check it out at its absolute best should watch “Heard it through the Grapevine”. Here it was mostly a clumsy mish-mash.

Hwang Bo Ra was delicious again as the mercurial but minor character, Lee Mi Ok. She could have made a much better job of the self proclaimed leader of the mother’s group than Kim Sun Young and brought out the dark humour. She is such an underrated actor imo. Lee Chae Min as the student Lee Seon Jae and Jang Young Nam as his mother were notable, and the scenes between them were little gems. He’s a Song Kang lookalike but with acting ability… In general the performances were really good and that is what kept this drama afloat for me.

To quote Skitc’s excellent review for “Stranger’s Again”— beware the trebuchet!!!! Another traffic accident. Really!!!

Okay if you are a writer in need of ideas of how to injure someone in an urban environment that doesn’t involve a car, here are some pointers (feel free to add more in the comments below)
• bitten by a zombie escapee from “Happiness”;
• pushed down a manhole into the sewer;
• Dorothy’d into the sky by a tornado;
• half encased in setting concrete;
• an eye gouged out by a drone;
• garrotted by a kite string;
• savaged by a flurry of rabid hamsters.

F**king anything pleeeeeease except being hit by a car.

What my rating means: 7+ A watchable drama, but nothing exceptional. Good enough to qualify for the race, but finished with the pack. The sort of thing that promises more than it delivers.