When you start watching a romcom, you expect two things. Romance and comedy, just like the literal definition of the phrase "romantic comedy". While cute fluff is bound to be the centerpiece of such dramas, each series should have their own distinguishing factor to avoid blending into the crowd and keep viewers interested. Unfortunately, the attempt by Oh My Ladylord to stand out resulted in confusing and alienating viewers while also creating a weak plot that's barely buoyed up by the cast's performances. The proof is in the pudding, with the drama gaining the lowest average ratings in a primetime free-to-air slot. Without further ado, let's take a look at the rights and wrongs of this drama.
SERIES RETROSPECT AND REVIEW (SPOILER ALERT)
Don't get me wrong, there're definitely things to like about this drama. For starters, I love the cast and I think they did excellent jobs with the script they were given. Our lead couple Bi-soo and Joo-in have made their way into my favourite K-drama couples of all time, with actors Lee Min-ki and Nana's chemistry being off the charts. In both the highs and lows of their romance, you feel every ounce of emotion, whether it's the super cute moments or when there's conflict between the couple. Lee did a great job as the initially standoffish Bi-soo, who masks his insecurities and fears behind a mask of cold rudeness, making him a character you love to dislike at first. Once he mellows out after meeting Joo-in, the different softer side of Bi-soo comes to light and that leads to a ton of comical yet romantic scenes. Later on in the series, our hero "reverts" to his original self in a bid to push Joo-in away (more on this later) and Lee portrays this switch so well that on top of feeling sympathy for him, you also get exasperated at the hurtful things said by Bi-soo.
Our lead actress Nana also deserves praise for a variety of reasons. I'll start with the superficial one, her visuals. It's no secret that Nana is considered to be one of the most beautiful women in the WORLD, not just South Korea and this drama only gives viewers even more opportunities to appreciate her beauty. I'm constantly blown away every time she's on screen so thank you to whoever decided to cast her in this drama. Of course, apart from her visuals, Nana's acting should be complimented as well. Oftentimes with idols-turned-actors they lack a little bit in the acting department but Nana isn't about that life because she killed it in this role. Much like Bi-soo, Joo-in also hides all the pain in her life but instead of being angry, she hides it all behind her "camera smile", something she's gotten familiar with as an actress. Some people have criticised this aspect of Joo-in, saying she smiles at inappropriate moments but if you understand her character you'll see that this makes a ton of sense and Nana portrays this well.
As someone who really enjoys romcoms, this drama undoubtedly stayed true to the core essence of the genre, complete with a second male lead and a love triangle. I liked Kang Min-hyuk's portrayal as Yu Jin, who falls into the typical K-drama role of the female lead's close friend who's always looked out for and loved her even if she doesn't reciprocate his feelings. While I didn't want him to end up with Joo-in, Yu Jin is one of those second male leads that definitely deserved better because all he's done is been supportive and caring for her. He's never forced her to do anything she doesn't want to and even if it meant losing her to Bi-soo, he took a step back for her benefit. That's why it's a little nice to see that by the end of the drama, even though he doesn't get the girl, there're hints that he'll embark on another relationship. If you can't already tell by this point, the main cast are doing their very best for this drama and it shows. You really feel for these characters and want them to succeed in their own ways. Good chemistry all around is also a plus, even between the two male leads.
Unfortunately, I definitely have criticisms for Oh My Ladylord, with the biggest ones being the plot direction and the creative choices. I mentioned in my introduction that romcoms need their own distinguishing factor, whether it's something simple like a CEO dating his secretary or nine-tailed foxes abound (extra points if you can guess which dramas I'm referring to). Oh My Ladylord chooses something that on the surface isn't a mistake but because it was barely expanded on, their wow factor falls flat. I'm talking about the decision to make this drama basically a fantasy romcom, which is something I thought wouldn't happen in my initial thoughts post but my worst fears came to pass. It turns out that Bi-soo was supposed to die in that car accident in episode 1 but was saved by a man in white, who we're led to believe is an angel of sorts. As the series progresses, we find out that the angel has extended Bi-soo's life by 49 days and at the end of that period, our hero will "vanish completely from this world".
The inclusion of this plot point is fine and could make for something interesting, especially if they actually focused on it throughout the drama. Instead, it's shuffled into the background and only brought up periodically in the second half of the series, with Bi-soo essentially having "vanishing" episodes where he's invisible to those around him but yet still exists on the mortal plane. This then leaves audiences to wonder whether the drama is meant to be more romcom or more fantastical because the screenwriters didn't meld the two genres together well so it felt like I was watching two different dramas at times. I also mentioned earlier that Bi-soo pushed Joo-in away because of this and tried to break up with her so she wouldn't have to suffer the pain of seeing her boyfriend disappear but what's so mind-boggling to me is that Bi-soo never makes an attempt to explain the situation to her. Even if he didn't want to mention the disappearing nonsense because it sounds like make-believe, he could've attempted to tell her that he was dying and they should make the most out of their time left together. Instead, it's only in the last 3 episodes that Joo-in figures out what's going on and then we get back on track.
This leads me to my next point, Bi-soo's death. Yes, this is one of the times a lead character dies in a drama, something that doesn't happen too often. I don't have a problem with leads dying as long as they serve the purpose of constructively advancing the narrative, for example, the death of He Is Psychometric's second female lead Eun Ji-soo (played by Kim Da-som). Bi-soo dying does have a purpose and that is for him to be able to learn what it's like to love and be loved but let me tell you, I was NOT expecting him to actually be killed off. Man thought that just like most romcoms, the male lead will miraculously make it out alive but boy was I wrong. Anyway, due to the lack of expansion on this fantasy plotline, there was no indication that there was a way to stop him from disappearing so Bi-soo's death was inevitable and made sense. I'm just disappointed that it was executed so poorly and suddenly, without even a proper goodbye for both Joo-in and us as viewers.
My last gripe with the drama is a combination of all the other problems and that is the mishandling of plot points. In general there're just too many extra plot lines that either disappear too fast or feel very randomly included. Let's talk about Bi-soo's parentage because as it turns out, the man he treated as his father (doctor Min-joon) wasn't his biological father but instead only married his mother Hae-jin as part of a deal. He would treat Bi-soo like his own son in exchange for allowing him to take over the hospital she ran. That's not the worst part because these kinds of makjang elements are commonplace in K-dramas. What happens later on is that Hae-jin finds out that Min-joon cheated on her in the past and that Bi-soo, who saw everything, was threatened by him to keep the adultery a secret and has been bottling up the pain ever since that day. A furious Hae-jin then gets Min-joon fired as hospital director and kicked out of their house but not before he calls up Bi-soo and threatens him once again, telling him that he won't go down so easily.
What happens after this scene is that Min-joon disappears entirely and doesn't show up again, not even in a small scene or anything. What was the point of all this if you were just going to set up an antagonist only to have them become irrelevant halfway through the drama? It would've been so much better if the screenwriters had written out the fantasy plotline and just had Min-joon been the wrench in the works of Bi-soo's life as revenge for making him lose everything despite doing (what he thinks is) his best to be a father. Would that've made the drama less of a romcom and more intense? Maybe but I think it could've worked out for the better than what we got in the end.
Since we're on the concept of fathers, let's go back to the fantasy plotline. The identity of the angel is only revealed to us in the very last episode, where we find out he's actually Bi-soo's biological father Lee Jung-gil, who died in a car accident similar to what his son went through. Jung-gil was on his way to propose to Hae-jin at the time of his death and was never able to tell her that he loved her, which then spurs him to extend his son's life so that he'll eventually be able to meet and fall in love with Joo-in, and more importantly tell her that he loves her. Basically, Jung-gil wanted to help Bi-soo do everything that he himself was unable to do. Again, I don't have a problem with them wanting to include the fantasy plotline but if they wanted to go with it, they should've made it the drama's main plot instead of barely touching on it. In short, the screenwriters should've either focused entirely on the fantasy aspect or gone with the revenge plotline that I wrote up, not both. Too many cooks spoil the broth and that's the same thing here, with too many plotlines messing up the drama.
I knew what I was getting myself into when I started this drama. While I've learnt that ratings aren't everything, they can be a pretty good indication of the drama's quality and this was definitely the case here. Was it a classic romcom that made me squeal like a high school girl with a ton of cute moments? Yes. Could it have been a lot better? Definitely. If you're going in expecting amazing writing and a deep story, you'll be disappointed because there're a ton of moments that'll leave you scratching your head and wondering why the screenwriters did this. For all its flaws, Oh My Ladylord is still something that'll make you smile like an idiot and laugh a lot, so go into this drama with that mindset and you'll enjoy yourself as well. Thanks for reading.
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