Strong Woman Bong Soon Drama Review

This show is a prime example of why I hate watching drama’s while they air. 
When watching a completed show you know how the show ends, and if it is worth the watch. With currently airing shows you don't know how the show is going to turn out. All you can do is watch and if the plot starts to go downhill, pray that the plot will miraculously become better.

When it does you feel proud of yourself. When it doesn't recover you feel like smacking the producer.

Sadly, this show was the latter. 

I don't understand how a show that has received so much attention can be so...bad?

This show has been hyped up as one of the best shows of 2017, and it has received a lot of publicity. Maybe because of this I had high expectations for this show. 

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The Ill-Fated Love Triangle 

The main couple's relationship WAS SO CUTE! And somehow it also managed to annoy me.

The interactions between Bong Soon and Min Hyeok were fun to watch and the actors made the relationship come across as natural and effortless. I loved the moments when the show focused not only on the development of their relationship but also on how they changed each other. For once the female wasn't just a damsel in distress but instead someone who stood strong. The guy wasn't constantly having to rescue her, but instead he was just there to support her. Seeing this kind of relationship was a nice change of pace.

Will be added on my list of best K-drama couples?

Nope.

No doubt they made me blush and caused my heart to flutter but sadly, their love was aboard the Titanic. All the plot mishaps caused the Min Hyeok x Bong Soon ship to sank taking my love for this couple along with it. 

There were multiple reasons that contributed to this ship sinking: 

The bad law enforcement, and terrible crime solving skills was the first iceberg

The high amount of WTF moments was the second iceberg.

The crappy love triangle was the final iceberg that ended it all.

I mean seriously?! That love triangle was overly cliche and it ended in a unsatisfying way. It was nice seeing Ji Soo on the screen but Gook Du had many flaws as a character. His relationship with Bong Soo had me longing for more and hoping that there would be more character development. His character had so much potential but he didn't get to show it.  On a positive note it was adorable how protective Gook Du was of Bong Soon and how they were always concerned about each other. Besides making Min Hyeok jealous I loved how the guys kept getting involved in little feuds, and stupid competitions. The interactions between the 3 was definitely a highlight of the show!

But…

The problem is that the first 5 episodes place so much focus on this love triangle. The show was trying to make it into a romantic and comedic love competition but it didn't work. Gook Du wasn't trying to win Bong Soon's heart, and Woo her.  Instead it seemed to be nothing more than an unrequited first love on Bong Soon's part. It wasn’t like Jealousy Incarnate when you thought “wow!” The 2^nd male lead might actually end up with girl! From the beginning you had no doubt who Bong Soon was going to end up with. You knew Gook Du wasn't going to get a chance because he never seemed like a serious competitor. He recognized his feelings but was to slow in taking action. They could've done so much but the end of this love triangle and Bong Soon’s first love was very anticlimactic. 

If the show hadn’t put so much empathize on the (weak) love triangle and instead just kept it a cute story about Bong Soon moving past her first love it might’ve been better.

The hot mess main plot

It wasn’t bad, instead it was mediocre. Nothing about it stood out to me.

What started out as exciting and interesting slowly become boring. I found myself losing interest in majority of the show. Although solving the crime was supposed to be the main focus of the plot there were other happenings that could've been more developed or avoided altogether. 

Min Hyeok being threatened: I loved when they introduced his family and gave insight to his complicated family relationships. The only problem is that once we discovered who the perpetrator, and Min Hyeok stood his ground, this story arc vanished. I would've liked to see more growth in Min Hyeok's relationship with his family or just some mention on what happened after the incident was resolved. They could've done a better job wrapping up this story line. 

The side romance: Why was it even mentioned? We barely saw the characters, and we knew little about them. I would've loved to learn more about the Bong Soon's brother, Bong Ki. Hee Ji on the other hand never caught my interest. Maybe if the brother had ended up with the friend Kyung Shim...

The crime: This was the downfall of the story. It was the focus of the plot but it became pointless after to many WTF moments. The stupidity of the law enforcement, Gook Du's irrational thinking, and the terrible crime solving skills just made me frustrated. What's worse is that this was so unnecessary. If the writers wanted to add some suspense and crime all they had to do was put more focus on Min Hyeok's family and him being threatened. At least that would've been more interesting.

The Gang and Bong Soons little thuglets: Completely unnecessary for the main plot but still very funny! These characters were nothing more than punching bags and comedic relief. They did a good job of taking your attention from the sinking plot, and I wish they could've had bigger roles in the story.

The parents: The mom was to aggressive and the father was to passive. There relationship was dominated by her, so she came across as very controlling. Whenever their scenes appeared I always found myself hitting the fast forward button. 

Overall

Strong Woman Bong Soon contained a great cast, and elements that could’ve made a great plot but sadly it didn’t work out that way.

This show is what I consider gray. Not bad, but definitely not something I consider good.  

I don’t have any plans to re-watch this and I honestly don’t know if I would recommend it. You wouldn’t be wasting your time, but you'll mostly find yourself fast forwarding, rolling your eyes, and banging your head in frustration.