About to watch the last episode of Her Private Life and I have some thoughts.

First, I want to say there is a lot to love here. I’m so happy to see Kim Jae Wook get loved on and even pettily fought over/the source of envy. It was nice and he is great. I really love both Ryan Gold and Deok Mi. I love them independently and together and like how the show keeps their independence when they’re a couple as well. Deok Mi still has things going on and Ryan still has things going on and these are all good things.

I think the sinker that is the “traumatic childhood connection.” Something I didn’t know was that this was based on a webtoon, so I guess I can’t blame the adapter for adapting but boy oh boy, I think some things should just be left out of the rom-com genre all together and this is one. Perhaps if Writer didn’t bundle all of the sadness into the last couple episodes it might have been better. For example, I like the way WFKBJ handled their male lead’s trauma, balancing it with the rest of the show and think HPL would have benefitted from a similar approach.

Secondly, I feel everyone on their thoughts about the direction of the show. Actually, I always thought the title was a tongue-in-cheek thing for Ryan’s character. Like it was his exclamation on the life she lived and not really the focus of the show per say. Basically, I went into the show thinking this was gonna be about a guy who finds out a secret about a girl at work and gradually becomes her fan/falls in love once he sees how she balances her life. Her through his perspective. In some ways my theory was right. I was surprised to see the show focus so much on Deok Mi in the beginning (even her crushing first), so I admit the second half of the show fell within my expectations more. I think what was missing was Deok Mi’s other side, her Healer-esque character with the crazy camera during this time. I can understand since her fave, Cha Si An, pretty much lived at her work place in the second half but maybe we could have done more with that too and then no one would feel like Deok Mi took a backseat. Her wrestling with wanting to take secret pics of him while he toured the gallery might have been pretty funny.

I DO like that Ryan took time to reassure Deok Mi and her mom that he was OK after the reveals. I thought that was nice and a subtle subversion of what I usually expect where the male lead kind of blames everyone and makes everyone feel bad and only thinks about himself. This saved things a great deal for me that he decided to put things behind him. Because it was mature and satisfying. The whole relationship was because the couple talked everything out. I love communication. T_T

All in all, I’m sure I’ll like the ending but wish for more balance. Please no more childhood connection tragedies. Put Kim Jae Wook top-billing in lots of things. And Park Min Young should really be paid extra. She makes everything look good. Clothes, co-stars, crazy fan culture…give her a bonus!

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