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AudienceofOne
A cracktastic makjang with almost precisely the right mix of the grounded and the ridiculous. Graceful Family is pure enjoyment from beginning to end.
Im Soo Hyang is well cast as Mo Seok-hee; the badass chaebol heiress who returns to Korea after an exile in the United States to solve her mother's murder. She teams up with the genuine, sweet and down-to-earth lawyer, Heo Yoon-do (Lee Jang Woo) whose mother was framed for the same murder.
While Seok-hee returns home to wreak havoc within her entitled, dysfunctional family, Yeon-do becomes her personal lawyer and gets employed by TOP: the corporation's all-seeing, all-knowing, law firm run by the controlling and Machiavellian Han Je-kook (Bae Jong Ok).
It's almost impossible to pin down the appeal of a show like this. It's pure crack, full of deliciously over-the-top plot twists and revelations: scheming mothers-in-law, corporate shenanigans, birth secrets, and murders among many others. The OST does the work of 50 actors; leaving us in no doubt about just how melodramatically we are supposed to watch this insane show. The soundtrack is like distilled makjang rendered into musical form.
And yet the show does have themes - real ones. While most shows lose track of theirs somewhere along the way, Graceful Family somehow finds some, almost by accident. Still, the appeal is rarely in the plotting, which resembles too often the standard Corporation-as-Joseon-Kingdom shenanigans that kdrama is a tad too fond of. The appeal is in the characters, especially the clever, entitled, bitchy, manipulative, but warm hearted Seok-hee herself - no Candy here - and the delightfully beta Yoon-do.
Dubbed Kermit and Miss Piggy for her bold confidence and his supportive and nurturing response, these two are one of the most shippable couples in dramaland. And it's only a shame the show didn't spend more time on the romance, even if these two never lose sight of their buddy-cop partnership.
I'm not going to lie - the show made one big narrative misstep, one that nearly ruined it for a lot of viewers and that I won't spoil. But apart from that, this is a very watchable, very enjoyable and very cracky piece of television. So dive on in!
Im Soo Hyang is well cast as Mo Seok-hee; the badass chaebol heiress who returns to Korea after an exile in the United States to solve her mother's murder. She teams up with the genuine, sweet and down-to-earth lawyer, Heo Yoon-do (Lee Jang Woo) whose mother was framed for the same murder.
While Seok-hee returns home to wreak havoc within her entitled, dysfunctional family, Yeon-do becomes her personal lawyer and gets employed by TOP: the corporation's all-seeing, all-knowing, law firm run by the controlling and Machiavellian Han Je-kook (Bae Jong Ok).
It's almost impossible to pin down the appeal of a show like this. It's pure crack, full of deliciously over-the-top plot twists and revelations: scheming mothers-in-law, corporate shenanigans, birth secrets, and murders among many others. The OST does the work of 50 actors; leaving us in no doubt about just how melodramatically we are supposed to watch this insane show. The soundtrack is like distilled makjang rendered into musical form.
And yet the show does have themes - real ones. While most shows lose track of theirs somewhere along the way, Graceful Family somehow finds some, almost by accident. Still, the appeal is rarely in the plotting, which resembles too often the standard Corporation-as-Joseon-Kingdom shenanigans that kdrama is a tad too fond of. The appeal is in the characters, especially the clever, entitled, bitchy, manipulative, but warm hearted Seok-hee herself - no Candy here - and the delightfully beta Yoon-do.
Dubbed Kermit and Miss Piggy for her bold confidence and his supportive and nurturing response, these two are one of the most shippable couples in dramaland. And it's only a shame the show didn't spend more time on the romance, even if these two never lose sight of their buddy-cop partnership.
I'm not going to lie - the show made one big narrative misstep, one that nearly ruined it for a lot of viewers and that I won't spoil. But apart from that, this is a very watchable, very enjoyable and very cracky piece of television. So dive on in!
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