"Why are we still here? Just to suffer?"

The Good Bad Mother takes a 'good' setup and layers plot-dense concept after concept to it but the excessive amount of 'bad' things barely allowed the audience to catch their breath. I mean, it's borderline makjang how emotionally-heavy and tragic the story plays out. It felt like the show's core was lacking so it relied on unfair emotional checks to keep the audience engaged. The story spent so much time building up the big bad evil plot line and teased the climax for a bit too long that it resulted in the end game payoff to be not as satisfying (oh, how often we see this sentiment in k-drama land). That aside, personally I was looking forward to one thing the most. How the show would handle and wrap up the "estranged father and his children" story line. But we got all of nothing with it; a cutesy one-off'er that lacked any emotional payoff. Borderline criminal.

The interpersonal relationships between the villagers were great. The audience is shown that, despite being together for so long, things aren't as happy-go-lucky as most shows would try to depict. They argue, fight, compare, criticize, yet still have tons of love and admiration for one other. Though sometimes lacking substance, these parts of the show were very enjoyable.

Now let's cut to the chase--- the "mother" character. It just doesn't make sense. We're led to believe that the former helicopter parent/tiger mom seemingly learns from her mistakes and tries to change for the better... but does exactly none of that as the audience watches her act the same way time after time again. Why?

While the characters in the story were able to understand and come to terms with this good bad mother i.e., perhaps a "good parent" but a "bad mother"--- the show did not afford the audience the same privilege to do the same.