Discovery of Romance

연애의 발견 / Yeonaeui Balgyeon

Genre: Romance, comedy
Episodes: 16
Broadcast network: KBS2
Broadcast period: Aug to Oct, 2014

My Rating:

This was good. Surprisingly good.

I didn't like the leading lady much, but she did an excellent job of portraying the character's messed up personality.

I just wasn't all that convinced that she was deserving or attractive enough to have not one but two hot, successful men after her.

The chemistry wasn't there in either relationship, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

If you haven't seen it yet, this is a rom-com with more rom than com, but with enough com to make me laugh through at least the first half.

It's about a woman who experiences love at first sight and sticks with this guy (Eric) for over five years when things go south and they break up.

Three years later, she meets another hot guy (Seong jun) and the same thing happens again -- instant attraction, hook-up, and romance.

A little more than a year later, she finds out that Seong jun's Nam Ha jin is on a blind date and storms the hotel lobby to make an ass of herself.

She plunks down at a small seating arrangement directly in front of Han jin's cozy nook, hides behind a newspaper, and passes the guy already seated there a quick note to let him know why she's barged in on his privacy, and to please excuse her rude behavior just this once.

The guy turns out to be Eric's Kang Tae ha.

They're both stunned to see one another again, and she shouts at him about things from their past, but that Ha jin presumes have to do with his being there on a blind date.

The first half of this 16-episode melodrama with comedy tossed in for relief is about the first relationship and why they broke up and why she's clinging to Ha jin (the plastic surgeon with his own mixed up past).

It was a little disconcerting to have her mother, some guy, and her assistant showing up every now & then since it didn't seem (to me) like it had anything to do with the plot.

And then to be just as confused with Han Yeo reum (Jung Yoo mi as the female love interest) living with a guy and a girl (friends) whom I was first led to believe were brother/sister, but then it turns out they're not, she's Yeo reum's sister and then no, she's not. He is Yeo reum's brother.

No, wait. None of them are actually related. They just all live together.

(scratches head)

The second plot was about Ha jin's past, his being an orphan who did something he felt was pretty mean to a little girl he once cared deeply for at the orphanage. Those two end up meeting, and for the rest of the episodes, the secret remains just that -- because of his guilt.

Around episode 13-14, I got bummed thinking she would end up with the wrong guy. By the start of episode 15, I was like, I hope neither guy is stupid enough to continue to want to stick it out with her.

It had a happy ending, and I was pleased with the final choice between the two leading men, but I'm still not sure how I feel about the relationship in general or its chances for survival.

Unless she makes some major personality changes.

The show flowed well, the music wasn't invasive, and there wasn't too much repetitious rehash of previous scenes & you-just-said-that dialogue, no 10-minute long dwelling instances of someone walking aimlessly while thinking, or a lot of weepy angst & brutality in the form of verbal & physical abuse like you get with most KDo's, which annoy and distract from the story.

If I recall correctly, there was only one instance of someone doing something that the camera needed to show in triple-effect, too.

I got the slightest hint of old 90's and 00's dramas -- like What Happened in Bali -- but nowhere near those dark and dismal melodramas from back in the day.

I said hint



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