Reel Tastes & Travels – a light dose of entertainment to wake you up

I’ve never been so happy to conclude a romantic drama. There have been series where the ending has felt unnecessarily drawn out once the main issues have been resolved, and there have been series when the couples are so charming that I’m almost sad to reach the end of their story. But this one has been so convoluted and jarring with it’s tonal shifts, that it’s been hard to root for the main couple, and I’m glad to be done with it! 

Somewhere within all that tangle though was the seed of a pretty decent romantic drama. To honor that (and to celebrate being done!), here’s the good, bad and truly ugly takeaways from the last 4 episodes.

The Good:
Ho-jin and Mu-hee finally resolve all their miscommunications (and Mu-hee’s split personality issues but whatever…clearly showing her getting some therapy even in passing would have been too logical and taken away from the power of love messaging) and get together and they’re actually…kinda cute? It’s not smooth sailing…there are a lot of issues that crop up but they tackle it together and it’s a relief to see them just be happy and trust each other (even if I don’t quite understand how they arrived at that level of trust given Ho-Jin’s reserve and Do-rami’s antics).

In second lead news, Ji-sun and Yong-u continue to be unproblematic. Yong-u gets his dream job in Europe and reacts idiotically to the possible impact on his nascent relationship by proposing to Ji-sun. Luckily, they have a proper conversation about it, and she decides to pursue a course she’s been considering in Europe alongside him so all’s well that ends well. And considering the blink and you miss it scene of her flashing her hand at her friends, they even enter into some sort of commitment. Given we didn’t spend too much time with the couple over the series, this feels about the right amount of time to wrap up their storylines.

Which brings me to Hiro, and I like how they closed the loop on his story. He started off as a self-obsessed brat but as his feelings for Mu-hee grew, we got to see his softer side. And just in case that wasn’t enough to sway viewer sentiment, we get some super cute scenes of him playing with his niece. Celebrities…they’re just like us at home! Quite often, the second male lead has a sizeable fan following in his own right and so to reassure fans that he too gets his happy ending, a show may introduce or hint at a new love interest right at the end. In all honesty, I’m a sucker for happy endings so I’m usually all for such twists. But I quite liked that they subverted that expectation here. Hiro never really posed the slightest obstacle to Mu-hee and Ho-Jin’s love story. His storyline was really more about how his feelings changed him. So, it seems fitting that rather than jumping into a new romance, he takes away a key lesson instead about taking chances and not losing out because of worrying about his image and applies that to (presumably) reach new heights in his career. He’s grown up and it is a happy place to leave him. 

The Bad:
Did they really need to rehash the old storylines from the start of the series just to create some drama? Out of nowhere a scandal blows up around Mu-hee and her ex-boyfriend but casting her in the role of temptress trying to steal another woman’s husband. I suppose it gives Mu-hee a chance to meet her ex and finally get some closure (though he seems to accept stunningly little responsibility for his actions) which in turn helps her rethink her approach to relationships. However, it misses it’s impact since it happens after the whole Do-rami issue has been resolved and she seems to have already gotten over her fear of being left alone. 

And what was up with Ji-sun and Ho-jin’s conversation about his past crush on her. I thought that was what their meeting in the bookstore was supposed to be about. Isn’t that what helped him decide to move on (at least till Mu-hee self-sabotaged at that point)? As with Mu-hee’s ex I’m not opposed to the plot point itself, but it feels like it would have made more sense earlier on. 

The Ugly:
Just the whole mess with Mu-hee’s family and childhood trauma. Turns out her mother did intend to poison all three of them. Mu-hee grew up burdened by that knowledge and with no comfort provided by her uncle and aunt who very openly viewed her as a bothersome problem to be dealt with. But…plot twist! Turns out her parents didn’t actually die but were saved by a neighbor who called an ambulance when Mu-hee fell from the balcony. They just didn’t want anything to do with her afterwards and left her at the mercy of her relatives. Parents of the year everybody! Mu-hee takes the news very calmly (since all her complex deep-seated issues have been resolved through the power of love!) and gets any remaining closure she wants off screen. Which just left me thinking ‘What was the point of all that!’ I wasn’t really a big fan of the original plot about the scandal around her parents’ deaths. In my opinion, the show would have been better overall if Do-rami had remained a hallucination and a personification of her personal and professional insecurities (which could have still been rooted in being orphaned at a young age and left with uncaring relatives without piling on further tragedy). But what did this last-minute reveal even achieve? She’s already got closure, there’s no happy reconciliation, she doesn’t even meet them on-screen, and it doesn’t help justify her relatives’ treatment of her in any way. Just a mess start to finish!

Stray Musings

• While some of Mu-hee and Ho-Jin’s interactions in Italy were cute, it was difficult to enjoy it knowing she was in her Do-rami persona the whole time.
• Speaking of her alternate persona, the reveal at the end that Do-rami represented her memories of her mother rather than her own insecurities made Do-rami’s interactions with Ho-jin that much weirder in retrospect.
• There’s also a whole storyline about Ho-Jin reconciling with his estranged mother in Italy. Don’t really have any strong feelings about it except for thinking that his brother was really thoughtless for not giving him any advance warning about what to expect before he met up with her again.