Pretend dating story lines are as played as can be, but there never seems to be a lack of appetite for more. After all, what better way to get the couple together than committing them to a mutual mission of being affectionate in the public’s eye? Fake it till you make it, right?

Characters:

• Han Groo as Joo Jang Mi (29)
• Yun Woo Jin as Gong Ki Tae (33)
• Jung Jin Woon as Han Yeo Reum (28)
• Han Sun Hwa as Kang Se Ah (33)
• Huh Jung Min as Lee Hoon Dong (33)
• Yoon So Hee as Na Hyun Hee (24)

Details:

• Korean
• 16 episodes
• Original run: July 4, 2014 – August, 22, 2014

Quick Rundown:

Gong Ki Tae, a successful, wealthy plastic surgeon who is uninterested in marriage is about to meet his match! But, in whom? Is it Joo Jang Mi who starts off as as Lee Hoon Dong’s girlfriend, but ends up being entangled with Gong Ki Tae through a series of misunderstandings? Or Kang Se Ah, a beautiful and equally successful plastic surgeon who has a past with Ki Tae? Or is it Jang Mi’s friend, Na Hyun Hee who is in the game to catch a rich groom of her own? Throw in the mix playboy Lee Hoon Dong and mystery man Han Yeo Reum, what will happen? Watch to find out!

Estelle’s Take

For something that I thought was going to be quite ‘meh’ it actually really turned itself around. After watching two (okay, more like 1.5) unimpressive episodes, I decided to lay this one down to rest and watch it when I’m on the inevitable dry spell. But as luck would have it, I returned to this show a couple of weeks later (3 to be exact) and binge watched all 6 of the available episodes in one afternoon. Did I regret it? Absolutely not, because it got good, real good.

Having watched Han Groo in Can We Get Married? I was not expecting too much from her on screen performance, but she actually did pretty well as the bubbly scene maker who just wants to do the best she could. I haven’t seen Yun Woo Jin anywhere else before (maybe I’ve been living under a rock?), but I am sure I will in the future because his acting is also solid. He is likely not the most handsome in the land of idols (don’t hit me!), but I can’t imagine why he would not be cast in more dramas going forward.

The main couple recuperated from the lack of onscreen chemistry earlier in the show rather quickly and began to really build up a rapport with each other as they bickered back and forth and found out love has been taking root in their hearts. The other four characters were fun side distractions from time to time, but they were not pivotal to the plot to say the least (Han Sunhwa’s Kang Se Ah made it on our villains list... erm, as a pathetic wannabe though).

This show made me wonder if I should go back to all the other potential train wrecks I have dismissed over the years (ahem, I’m looking at you Korean Fated), but I hesitate to apply the same rule all around because this was truly an exception. Plus, not to mention I love the way they portray each episode as a flashback instead of a forward progression. Worth watching for sure.

This & That:

• Yun Woo Jin was the bad guy in fantasy-horror-comedy Aarang and Magistrate as well as recent melodrama When a Man Falls in Love (okay, both categories I do not watch, no wonder I never heard of him!). His first featured film The Tunnel premiered on August 13, 2014.
• Kim Hae Sook, character Gong Ki Tae’s mom, was recently in Hotel King.
• Han Groo’s fellow actors from Can We Get Married? have been busy as well, acting in Discovery of Love and Plus Nine Boys.