I finished watching What’s Wrong With Secretary Kim — all-around delightful! Though there was one fatal flaw, imo… but the protagonists were lovable and interesting. Our heroine with her bright plastic secretary smile, lol, and our hero with his shameless narcissism, yet puppylike pursuit of her, haha. I’m so surprised they never strayed into #MeToo territory not once, given the premise!
Mild spoilers after the break…
Though the whole plot twist with the brother was poorly executed, imo, and the actor who played him was neither good-looking nor skilled at acting, compounded by the fact that his character was so messed up –after everything he did to his brother, he still accused the brother–the original victim, denied grieving, denied healing, denied compassion, denied even his righteous anger– of being at fault for letting him get away with it!! He needed a swift boot to the face, imo. So annoying.
Other than him, I enjoyed all the side characters, the office personnel, the sisters, but most especially President Park. OMG, he was hilarious (and what a shock to the system seeing him again in “While You Were Sleeping,” scary!!), and had such an excellent rapport with our hero. Really impressive how he handled that character, how do you layer snide, obsequious, cowardly yet friendly and genuinely caring in one airtight package?
What I didn’t enjoy, other than the brother’s entire appearance, was that the story lost track of time as they usually do in these Kdramas. At the beginning, Mi So serves notice that she is quitting in one month. They get a new secretary, whom she will train for ONE MONTH, our hero warns said secretary she should only “pretend” to work for the ONE MONTH, the new secretary also wonders repeatedly if she will have a job after that ONE MONTH. Yet the plot and the courtship seems to last for many months, including the brother’s issues coming to light, the mystery being solved, his going to therapy and mostly recovering before it even gets to her last day of work!! The longest “month” known to man!!
And the fatal flaw, imo: Secretary Kim has worked for Mr. CEO for 9 years, has been to his house and his family home multiple times, his parents treat her like family… yet it was only on a latter-day visit to the family home that she recognizes (instantly!) her “Oppa” in the family pictures decorating the parlor?? Were the baby pictures not on display this whole time?? She only caught sight of them now?? In 9 years? Hmm.
Up Next
Anyway, that aside. I enjoyed the drama immensely. Afterwards, I started on “Mi Ahjussi” but couldn’t get past the first ep. I didn’t like anyone I saw. Our heroine is lifeless, dull and clearly broken by life, her brother sounds like an irresponsible loser wasting time and money on video games, our hero was just dull as bricks, Grandma is ridiculously pitiful and a huge burden, you can’t help but resent her a bit for weighing down the kids so much. Loan shark already made an appearance. It was gross watching our heroine scrap leftovers off a diners plate in the dishwashing stack to eat for dinner , and steal instant coffee or tea or whatever it was from the office, and kill a bug so callously. There’s nothing to like about her… at least not yet. I was going to tune in to the 2nd ep to see if it improved, if our leads would have more interaction and strike a spark, but I felt myself avoiding going back to it and procrastinating… and after a week I decided to switch to something else.
Which brings me to “While You Were Sleeping,” which I thought would be a remake of the American movie but happily discovered it was not. What a relief to finally have likable characters again, people to root for and laugh with and coo over! So I’m sticking with this for now. I’m on Ep. 7…. I think I know what the supernatural connection is. Let’s see if I’m correct!
We Talk Dramas All Day 