Ugly Alert Review

 Ugly Alert: The title is explained midway through- the grand-daughter tells her grandfather that she will give him a warning when there is more unginess ahead.

It’s a daily drama, so that means what first feels like a draggy story, convoluted interruptions, lots of angsty misunderstandings and heart-ache and frustration for the viewers who are used to 16 episode dramas.  But it stars Im Joo-hwan (What’s Up lead), Choi Tae-joon (the surprise son in Padam Padam, a bully in Adolescent Medley),  Kang Byul and Kim Seol-hyun as four siblings with a complicated relationship, and mainly, Im Joo Huwan - I liked both his acting and his character the best from the start, but the others all grew on me over time.  And, the story is not all that draggy after all, the misunderstandings are largely cut short, and there’s ample amount of sweet to make up for the heart-ache.

The writer to this drama is the same man who wrote the drama Stars Falling from the Sky, and it shows.  All the stuff I love so much about that is here, too, plus more.

Im Joo-hwan’s character is the oppa/hyung. His father is a petty criminal, a bit of a ne’er do well, so the son has had to fend for himself and make his own way in the world. Fortunately, his bright, sunny optimism, excellent memory, gifted social skills, bright mind, and incredible work ethic help him along. He’s the stereotypical ‘Candy’ character of K-dramas, except male.  At first it bothered me how over the top perfect he was, but it helped that pretty much every other character is bothered by the same thing- and gradually you see his sunny disposition hides some of his other character flaws, and some of his seeming perfections are also character flaws.
His father marries the widowed mother of the next two children, and the fourth child is the one they have together.  Jun Soo loves his new mother and she adores him and gives him all the mother-love he’s been craving, he loves having a home and a family, he is thrilled to have dongsaengs, and there’s nothing he won’t do for all of them.  The two step-siblings are obnoxious, petty, materialistic brats and I had a hard time feeling any sympathy for them at all- I get that it’s hard for them to accept the new step father and his criminal record and lower social ranking (he didn’t finish school, their late father was a doctor), but they were just too over the top for me.  However, I love what happens after they all grow up, and while I still think they were over the top, the drama does give a few more character reveals that don’t excuse their obnoxiousness, but do explain it a bit.

Naturally, this being a daily drama, the spite feels like it goes on forever, Jin soo just keeps on loving them all, no matter what, both parents die in separate accidents, etc, etc. That aspect of the story kind of reminds me of the stories I wrote in junior high.  But…. Im Joo-Hwan and his character are both so endearing.   He quits school at 14 and works part-time jobs, often carrying his littlest sister on his back, in order to continue to support his step siblings so they can go to school. They are not remotely grateful, and refuse to call him oppa/hyung, the snots.  Just about the time he’s almost gotten his little brother to admit he loves him after all, little bro gets in a fist fight with a bully (and the son of a politician), and unbeknownst to him, he kills the other boy.  Jun Soo, racing to stop the fight, comes on the scene as little bro is walking off, and he finds the dead boy and realizes his brother doesn’t even know he killed him, so, of course, he takes the blame, goes to jail for ten years while the step brother, resentful of his brother becoming a murderer, becomes a prosecutor who specializes in…. murder cases.

Why am I watching this?  Because in spite of all of the above, it’s really a terrific drama.  The story just gets better and better, and there are some very interesting resolutions, twists and turns.  Spoilers (the above isn’t really as spoiler, it’s in the show description):

Also,  Besides Im Joo-Hwan, there’s the family thing and restoration of sibling relationships I see coming, as dysfunctional as this family is (when Jun Soo goes to jail, the siblings put their youngest half sister in an orphanage for a few years, so they can finish school. They do go back to get her, and she’s back with the family when Jun Soo is released, but… she knows, and makes it clear to them that she knows, her Kun-Oppa (oldest brother) would never have done that to her.

The materialistic, spiteful sister, Jin Ju, falls in love with the spoiled only son of a selfish widow who treats her in all the ways she treated her older brother, and who is as materialistic as Jin Ju ever was.  All the things her mother tried to tell her come back in spades.

The cold, introverted younger brother, Hyeon Seok, begins to fall in love with somebody who will never love him back, and he learns to make the kinds of sacrifices his older brother always made for him.  And then… but I’ll keep that to myself.

The oldest boy learns that sometimes the self sacrifices he has always made are selfish, and burdensome to those for whom you play the martyr.

There are some of the funniest side characters I’ve ever met in a K-Drama, most of them fascinating and very well fleshed out, and definitely interesting.

 

There’s a lot to love about this drama after all, and if the 120 episodes puts you off, keep in mind that because it is a daily, the episodes are shorter than the usual drama- only half an hour, in fact.

It’s one drama that just got better and better along the way, and some parts of it were so funny that I showed them to my non-drama loving family, and they laughed along with me and suggested I share them with other non-drama loving family members (there is a childbirth scene that is just to die for, it is so hilarious).

This isn’t necessarily one for your teen-age boy, who probably wouldn’t like it anyway.  But I would definitely watch it with my daughters.  The clothes for one character alone would be a fascinating study, but there’s a lot more to this than the clothes.

I really enjoyed this, a lot.

By Headmistress