It's Okay, It's Love: 2014 Korean TV melodrama,16 episodes.
Story: Relationship adverse psychiatrist meets popular playboy novelist. They are seemingly mismatched for one another, but they end up having to live together as roommates due to some contrived circumstances. They soon start to develop feelings for one another, and thus, another K-drama love story is underway.
SPOILERS AHEAD!
If the story sounds familiar to you, well, of course it does; many of these K-drama shows invoke the same basic story being retold again & again with just slight variations. This show involves two thirty some year old leads that fall in love and try to stay in love, overcome obstacles along the way, and eventually try to find some peace or happiness at the end of it all regardless of what happens. For these shows to work, all you really need is some experienced leads and some decent writing, and, you need to keep the show at a minimal number of episodes that include enough interesting auxiliary characters and side stories to keep everything moving along when the lead love story isn't the focal point. This particular show, while nowhere near the best K-drama I've seen, accomplishes enough of the aforementioned ingredients to be above satisfactory at the very least.
Aside from the love story, the overall theme of this show focuses on the general healing of past & present emotional wounds among the characters. Along with the female lead, 2 of the secondary cast members are also psychiatrists, and many of the side stories occur in a hospital dealing with random patients that need some help. The psychiatrists aren't much better off than some of their patients though, and the same goes for everyone else on this show, as they all have their own deep seeded personal problems to reconcile (some more than others). Most of the interaction with the patients is just window dressing & filler, as the docs diagnose a different disorder for each weekly new patient, then fix 'em up and send them on their way. Don't expect to gain any deep insight about the field of psychiatry when you watch this show; it's pretty clear the writers and cast are just winging it as best they can after briefly perusing a Psychiatry for Dummies book.
Jo In-sung & Gong Hyo-jin are your two leads. Neither is a stranger to this genre, and they've each played similar characters many times before. Jo In-sung has long since mastered playing the suave & smug handsome guy who comes complete with a past tragedy and stoic underlying intentions. Gong Hyo-jin is an expert at portraying the attractive & caring, yet somewhat flawed & vulnerable woman that just needs to find that one special guy that truly understands her. They work very well together, but it's not so much that the two stars have some searing on-screen chemistry, as it is that they're both just real solid pros who know what's needed to play these parts. In an indication of how professional these actors are, Gong Hyo-jin doesn't delay or disrupt the series at all when she breaks her arm off set in an accident; she just shows up for work as usual, the writers hurriedly fit this mishap into the daily script re-writes, and the show doesn't miss a beat.
The rest of the cast is all right. No complaints really. There are number of solid veterans on hand, along with several other interesting characters, and two younglings who get the resident flower boy and snotty hottie roles while they work on their acting chops. A lot of these side characters have their own relationship and or emotional issues to deal with as the show progresses. There are really no secondary love interests that compete for the leads' affections though; one dude tries to "re-involve" himself with Gong Hyo-jin occasionally, but she ain't having none of his nonsense. This character also serves as somewhat of antagonist, albeit a very meek one, in a story that has very few of antagonists at all...the only true antagonist in play is Jo In-sung's older delinquent brother, who's soon to be released from prison and is determined to cause some trouble with his family secret & desire for justice. This show doesn't really put its focus on love triangles or ridiculously mean/evil peopleit's much more about relationships and healing and that sort of thing.
One thing I really liked about this show, and deserves special mention, is its idea of giving Jo In-sung's character a "hidden alter ego" (so to speak). I can't say too much about this without spoiling things because it's somewhat crucial to the story. It won't take you long to catch on to it though if you're paying attention, and, eventually it's made blatantly obvious later on. This story line could have even been better implemented if more time was allowed to think it through a little more, but this is KTV "on-the-fly", so I must commend the writers for even trying to implement it and for pulling it off as well as they did.
Summary: I don't really have many complaints with this show to be honest...Everything is pretty good, and it makes for a pretty decent & solid K-drama overall. Probably best suited to late 20's-mid 40's viewing crowd, but there's very little vulgarity or violence as usual, and no sex; so, just about anyone can watch it and not be overly offended.
Bottom Line: 7.5-8 out of 10 stars on the KTV drama scale!...I'll recommend it!
Story: Relationship adverse psychiatrist meets popular playboy novelist. They are seemingly mismatched for one another, but they end up having to live together as roommates due to some contrived circumstances. They soon start to develop feelings for one another, and thus, another K-drama love story is underway.
SPOILERS AHEAD!
If the story sounds familiar to you, well, of course it does; many of these K-drama shows invoke the same basic story being retold again & again with just slight variations. This show involves two thirty some year old leads that fall in love and try to stay in love, overcome obstacles along the way, and eventually try to find some peace or happiness at the end of it all regardless of what happens. For these shows to work, all you really need is some experienced leads and some decent writing, and, you need to keep the show at a minimal number of episodes that include enough interesting auxiliary characters and side stories to keep everything moving along when the lead love story isn't the focal point. This particular show, while nowhere near the best K-drama I've seen, accomplishes enough of the aforementioned ingredients to be above satisfactory at the very least.
Aside from the love story, the overall theme of this show focuses on the general healing of past & present emotional wounds among the characters. Along with the female lead, 2 of the secondary cast members are also psychiatrists, and many of the side stories occur in a hospital dealing with random patients that need some help. The psychiatrists aren't much better off than some of their patients though, and the same goes for everyone else on this show, as they all have their own deep seeded personal problems to reconcile (some more than others). Most of the interaction with the patients is just window dressing & filler, as the docs diagnose a different disorder for each weekly new patient, then fix 'em up and send them on their way. Don't expect to gain any deep insight about the field of psychiatry when you watch this show; it's pretty clear the writers and cast are just winging it as best they can after briefly perusing a Psychiatry for Dummies book.
Jo In-sung & Gong Hyo-jin are your two leads. Neither is a stranger to this genre, and they've each played similar characters many times before. Jo In-sung has long since mastered playing the suave & smug handsome guy who comes complete with a past tragedy and stoic underlying intentions. Gong Hyo-jin is an expert at portraying the attractive & caring, yet somewhat flawed & vulnerable woman that just needs to find that one special guy that truly understands her. They work very well together, but it's not so much that the two stars have some searing on-screen chemistry, as it is that they're both just real solid pros who know what's needed to play these parts. In an indication of how professional these actors are, Gong Hyo-jin doesn't delay or disrupt the series at all when she breaks her arm off set in an accident; she just shows up for work as usual, the writers hurriedly fit this mishap into the daily script re-writes, and the show doesn't miss a beat.
The rest of the cast is all right. No complaints really. There are number of solid veterans on hand, along with several other interesting characters, and two younglings who get the resident flower boy and snotty hottie roles while they work on their acting chops. A lot of these side characters have their own relationship and or emotional issues to deal with as the show progresses. There are really no secondary love interests that compete for the leads' affections though; one dude tries to "re-involve" himself with Gong Hyo-jin occasionally, but she ain't having none of his nonsense. This character also serves as somewhat of antagonist, albeit a very meek one, in a story that has very few of antagonists at all...the only true antagonist in play is Jo In-sung's older delinquent brother, who's soon to be released from prison and is determined to cause some trouble with his family secret & desire for justice. This show doesn't really put its focus on love triangles or ridiculously mean/evil peopleit's much more about relationships and healing and that sort of thing.
One thing I really liked about this show, and deserves special mention, is its idea of giving Jo In-sung's character a "hidden alter ego" (so to speak). I can't say too much about this without spoiling things because it's somewhat crucial to the story. It won't take you long to catch on to it though if you're paying attention, and, eventually it's made blatantly obvious later on. This story line could have even been better implemented if more time was allowed to think it through a little more, but this is KTV "on-the-fly", so I must commend the writers for even trying to implement it and for pulling it off as well as they did.
Summary: I don't really have many complaints with this show to be honest...Everything is pretty good, and it makes for a pretty decent & solid K-drama overall. Probably best suited to late 20's-mid 40's viewing crowd, but there's very little vulgarity or violence as usual, and no sex; so, just about anyone can watch it and not be overly offended.
Bottom Line: 7.5-8 out of 10 stars on the KTV drama scale!...I'll recommend it!