Miss Mermaid (2002)

A Case Study of A Writer's Mental Decline

The drama was really something different even when compared to others of its time, well, it was so initially, I'll get into details later. The cast selection were mostly good except for Choi Jae Ho and Han Hye Sook which were an unsuccessful choice. Han Hye Sook, despite playing a critical role in the story, she always felt out of place and out of character. Ironically, she played as a famous skillful actress. Choi Jae Ho, had a small side role as the director but later on, the drama turned him into something much more and gave him a lot of attention which was an awful unsuccessful transition and a complete unplanned mismatch. At first, I found Ma Rin & Ma Joon interactions to be unbearably annoying but it ended up being quite fun. Props to Lee Jae Eun, she really got into the role of Ma Rin. On the other hand, her character became horrendous once the director got involved with her. The writer put a lot of character in these characters which allowed for a lot of possible interactions. The drama had tons of small irrelevant scenes between these characters. At first I though it was a detrimental trait that will plague its length but the drama quickly managed to turn that into its own identity.

The entire revenge plotline ended within the first 100 episodes which led to the beginning of the drama's major problems. The first 120 episodes or so were great, carefully calculated, intriguing, progressed smoothly and developed naturally. However, the subsequent episodes between 130-215 things changed drastically. The drama became strange and static, the 2 leads characters became completely irrelevant and the story shifted towards Ma Joon & Ye Young. Even then, Ma Joon & Ye Young didn't get the same treatment of intrigue and natural development. Around episodes between 215 to 235 the drama was trying to build a new plotline for the long term despite its strange new direction but everything came down crashing with the last 13 episodes. It felt like they had a lot more plans but had to end the drama within a few episodes. I had to double check around the last 13 episodes to see if they changed the writer because the shift was too drastic. The writer became extremely childish and tacky with writing conflicts and tension for these few last episodes. Now, arriving to the last episode, things gotten a lot worse. Compared to its earlier pace and taking into consideration its huge length, everything was moving at a crazy rapid pace for the last episode with lots of cuts, skips and gaps. I refuse to believe there wasn't a major problem happening behind the scenes. All of that led to the most questionable choice of immature silly ending that was just trying to pull the viewers' leg and yanking any sense of satisfaction. It didn't match the overall tone of the drama. I really enjoyed everything about its earlier episodes. The drama had the perfect sweet spot around episodes 130-140 to wrap things up and end it reasonably.

Regarding the ending: According to a statement from the production team, the ending suggests a reunion as it shows Ah Ri Young, who has recovered from the shock and skipped over two years after the traffic accident, enjoying a happy moment with Joo Wang, their daughter, and the son born between them.

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