Saturday, December 2, 2017

280. Because It's My First Life 이번 생은 처음이라 (2017) Korean

Lee Min Ki, Jung So Min, Esom, Park Byung Eun, Kim Ga Eun, Kim Min Suk

Drama Rating: 9/10     Neck Score: A

I knew going in that I was probably going to like this drama, just based on the plot and the cast of characters.  I just didn't think I was going to get this obsessed with it.  This is easily a contender for the top drama of the year for me, and I'm not sure that it has any competition, I'd have to go back and do some research on it.  Maybe Defendant... but they are completely different genres, so they can both be the best, it's fine.  It was soooooo good!  It was so relatable, and hilarious, and deep, and full of the tropes that we love, but handled in a good and fresh way that made us laugh and squeal instead of roll our eyes and groan.  It helps that it had some pretty tight writing, great actors, and plenty of good chemistry.

I'm a sucker for tropes like contract marriages and forced living situations.  This has them both.  That hit it off right away too.  I also really love how it is about three friends and their lives, so we had three couples rather than the typical love triangle.  THERE WERE NO ACTUAL LOVE TRIANGLES!  Can I just say how happy I was about that?  I hate triangles of love, and that was not what this was about.  It was about learning about themselves and healing wounds, and understanding feels and most of all communication.  I loved how most of the plot was about learning how to communicate with the significant others, and with their inner feelings.  So all of the drama with the couples really came down to learning to communicate, which is both great and frustrating at times, when there is a lack of communication or understanding.



I loved all three of the couples.  Obviously I was most invested in our main couple, the Ji Ho/Se Hee couple, because they got the most screen time.  And I love both Lee Min Ki and Jung So Min.  We called Se Hee our Robot Muffin, and he melted our hearts with his staid, analytical, cute ways.  Ji Ho was super relatable too, most of the time.  We totally just felt her pain, especially at the beginning, as she was single, and struggling in a career, and just kind of done with everything.  My favorite couple, though, was the Soo Ji/CEO Ma couple, because they had the highest level of communication, once they learned how to communicate.  The best part is that they didn't stop trying to figure out how to communicate, and they worked things out too.  I maybe just love how CEO Ma was all about respecting her and how awesome she was, and supporting her as she fulfilled her potential.  He was just the cutest, and I'm totally in love with him.  Also, that 500 Days of Summer dance.  I loved the little puppies couple, who probably had the worst communication, which was interesting when they've been together for 7 years.  I love how all the couples interconnected and helped each other.

So, I'm not saying it was perfect, there were lots of parts that were not.  I wasn't a huge fan of the ending, although I understand what they were trying to go with, I just thought they could have done it in a less ridiculous way.  Mostly, I just wished that they had wrapped the angsty parts up sooner so we could have had more cute parts, because while the cute parts were amazing and we died of happiness, I still felt a bit cheated because it wasn't as long as it could have been.  I know that lots of people felt the same way, or even more harshly about some of the points of the ending.  I can't really discuss those without spoiling anything, but it's true that while it wasn't ideal, it wasn't the worst, and I do understand what they were trying to go for, and it made some sense.  It's just not what I would have done.  At least it wasn't a year gap, but still...  I really loved the show and any faults to it are in no way distracting or ruining it in any way, so you should all just watch it and love it too, because it's the best and I love it.