Lilly
With such a peculiar premise, I would have expected a stellar drama, especially considering all the praise that it has received so far from the viewers. However, for me it turned out to be just a "good" drama, definitely worth watching, but not "great".
For one, it's an episodic drama that presents a new case in each episode, and these take most of the screen time. There's some story development which usually happens in the last few minutes, and while the cases are easy enough to understand for a person that has no knowledge about law, nor is aware of the specific terminology, they still seemed as mere fillers, although they were interesting enough to follow. It's just that after 16 episodes I felt completely empty, because none of these cases had any long-lasting effects on me - they were all very forgettable. If anything, it seemed to me that I watched a 1-2h movie that somehow took 16h of my time.
The first few episodes were more impactful for me than the rest, simply because Woo Young Woo was shown as learning some valuable life lessons from the cases that she had, for example improving her understanding of behavioral patters of non-autistic people, and trying to adapt herself to them. However, after 2-3 episodes, this tendency was quickly forgotten and the drama entered a routine of the "one case per episode" that she presided as a lawyer; until the end of the drama there was little improvement from her part or attempts to warm up to / connect with the people around her, which for me was disappointing.
Secondly, aside from the fact that there's very little story development compared to the law cases, I disliked how the romance was portrayed overall. For the first time in a drama, the ML feels like an appendage of FL rather than an independent person, pretty much like any secondary character who exists only to support the FL's scenes (like a best friend for example) and who doesn't seem to have an own life and an own will besides that. The romance itself is nice and the ML is kind and fully devoted to her, yet the whole thing lacked some substance. Plus, his character development was also extremely weak and although I do like Kang Tae Oh as an actor, in this drama his character doesn't have a strong presence on the screen at all - it's not the actor's fault though, but the writers'.
The cases touch very progressive topics especially for Korean culture (LGBT relationships, pre-marital sex with a disabled person, suicide attempts due to social pressure etc.), but the writers seemed that they couldn't really decide what they actually wanted to convey. It's like they were not brave enough to state their opinion out loud, so most of the trials ended up with neither a black nor a white conclusion, but more like a grey one - perhaps letting the viewer decide what's right and wrong.
Lastly, while the drama is overall overrated and it's less great that it appears to be, Park Eun Bin's acting on the other hand was excellent. The way she managed to portray an autistic person down to little details like specific gestures, the inability to make eye contact, social anxiety etc. was remarkable and deserves a lot of praise. Also notable was the cheerful, explosive and poignant portrayal of Dong Geurami by Joo Hyun Young.
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A deeply healing and very fun show
I don't usually watch variety shows, but I greatly enjoyed watching BTS in the Soop. Thre's something very chill and relaxing about it, almost zen-like. Perhaps it's the idyllic setting, the great group dynamic or simply the genuine fun that the members exude when they're together, but like many others, I felt fully relaxed an healed while watching it.Obviously, since it's a variety show, there will be lots of aspects scripted and a careful eye can easily spot the scenes that were cut short (perhaps to protect the members' privacy), the ones that were specifically created as a fan-service or those that were artificially inserted for obvious reasons (ARMY will know). Regardless, I think that most of their reactions or interactions were fully genuine - perhaps they followed a script, but *how* they followed it depended only of them. Each of the members adds to the mix their own unique personality, and their authenticity is quite undeniable - as it is their bond.
There were lots of moments that I loved seeing, but I think what impressed me the most about their relationships was their constant and unconditional support for each other, from behaving in a manner that allows the growth of one of their members (not discouraging them when they fail), to a simply natural and great dynamic of assigning house chores roles and alternating them smoothly between each other.
Watching the special episodes is a must. They're called "Behind-the-Scene" but in fact they are just extra scenes that were not included in the original release, and which add new funny situations; some of them also explain some details from the main episodes. I used this playlist to watch all the content in fairly good quality:
https://www.dailymotion.com/playlist/x6ur7r
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"The Gangster, The Cop and The Devil" is otherwise a great crime / action movie about a gangster who is attacked by a serial killer, who then teams up with a cop in order to catch the murderer. It's not a black / white situation of bad guys collaborating with the good guys, since everyone in this movie is pictured as a certain shade of grey. The filmmaking was in that regard outstanding, often waving the lines between the gangster group and the police squad, having each of these two parties mirroring the other's way of doing things, mixing them together or even reversing the roles. For me, it was extremely entertaining to watch.
The story doesn't drag at all, it's suspenseful until the very end and the investigation bits are done in a very concise and dynamic manner, leading to a fruitful collaboration between the gangsters and the police, and to a very satisfying resolution of the plot.
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On the one hand, I find the writing for Lee Young Joon (the ML) and the complex relationship that he has with Kim Mi So (the FL) is very good.
Seeing how love changes people is always a treat for me, even though most of the times the characters that undergo this kind of transformation shift their personality 180 degrees, basically becoming a new character in the end. On the contrary, in What's Wrong with Secretary Kim, ML's character growth is done is such a way that he gets to keep his cocky personality throughout the whole story, but he gradually shifts from vanity, self-centeredness into a playful overconfidence that he gets to use in a very adorable way, childishly hoping to impress the FL with its boldness. Lee Young Joon is a many-sided character and despite the arrogance that he displays in various circumstances, he remains a very likeable character from the beginning till the end. Not for a second have I hated him or considered him despicable in any way.
The relationship between the main leads is also complex and multi-faceted. They have overall a very healthy connection and the topics chosen to showcase how one learns to overcome the difficulties of being in a relationship are right on point. Compromising, quick forgiveness to avoid extending conflicts indefinitely, putting your partner's need above yours, sacrificing your own desires, being considerate of your partner's feelings - these are all very well presented and even those that have a long experience in dating could learn a thing of two from this drama.
On the other hand, everything that did not involve the main leads was extremely nonsensical, annoying, unfunny and straight up boring. The various secondary office romances were just not interesting and felt much more of a filler than in any other drama I previously watched. Apart from one endearing character (Yang Cheol), I wanted to skip basically every scene involving these characters. The writing was so different from the one regarding ML+FL pairing that it always felt that one writer (a good one) was tasked to write the main leads story, and another writer (an unskilled one) had to handle everything else.
Lastly, even if "What's Wrong with Secretary Kim" is often compared to "Business Proposal" or "The Secret Life of My Secretary", I find these three dramas quite different from each other (despite them having common elements and even identical scenes). "What's Wrong with Secretary Kim" focuses on complex relationship development, while "Business Proposal" and "The Secret Life of My Secretary" gravitate around the idea of a double identity. They're all lightweight dramas, without any substantial plot and all three have a cold-hearted boss as ML with more or less a childhood trauma, but each of them has its own unique charm. "What's Wrong with Secretary Kim" probably has the deepest meaning, "Business Proposal" has the most likeable ML and "The Secret Life of My Secretary" the most memorable side-character (one can never forget the legendary "Veronica Park speaking").
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The leads have great chemistry. Jang Na Ra's and Shin Sung Rok's acting was also noteworthy, and I also loved Choi Jin Hyuk even though his acting was no more than his usual stiffness of a wooden board (it does have its own charm, even despite this).
However, since the last 2-3 episodes were not initially planned and one of the male leads wasn't able to participate due to conflicting schedules, I was partially left disappointed after an otherwise exciting watch. These extra episodes were probably needed to wrap up the story lines (although they did have lots of fillers as well), but the absence of one of the 3 most important characters made it feel incomplete and I was left partially frustrated because some of the plot lines remained hanging. The way they chose to conclude the show for the rest of the characters also didn't give me the closure that I was expecting, to compensate for the unresolved story lines.
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