[HanCinema's Drama Review] "Family Outing" Episode 8

One overly dramatic ends, then another one begins, and just as quickly ends. I doubt any of these plot points are gone forever, but the rapidity with which these characters depart really emphasizes how "Family Outing" utilizes the revolving door style of storytelling. While this can work for a sitcom, and particularly for jokes, in the context of criminal domestic behavior the effect is rather poor. I mostly just feel awkward watching these people bumble through awful emotional turmoil.

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This comes off particularly badly because when it's not focusing on tragedy, "Family Outing" tries to tell jokes. While some decent humor is wrung out of Joon-hee's fake amnesia, the drama then makes the unwise move of reminding us that, oh, right, Kkeut-soon is possibly going to be suffering from real amnesia in the near future. It's especially difficult to see the comedy in Joon-hee's situation when that bit's just lurking around the corner.

This repetition makes the plot particularly obnoxious, because events like this appear to just be random coincidences. Loan sharks show up...again. And as usual it's a completely different group of loan sharks. Exactly how many loan sharks does any single drama need anyway? It would be a joke except, as usual, "Family Outing" tries to play all of this off mostly serious, even in the context of Kkeut-soon starting up the next round of missions.

Is that what the missions are really all about- Kkeut-soon just making sure that she doesn't leave her inheritance to someone who will irresponsibly waste all of the money trying to do something stupid? I'm rather hoping that's what this is all leading up to. The characters in this drama act so consistently childish and irresponsible it's hard to view them with much sympathy. There's a certain obvious irony in the fact that one of the best characters in terms of actually managing money is an elementary school-age child.

The main bright spot right now is the romance between Joon-hee and Dong-seok. Their story in the latter part of this episode is an interesting note on how perception is the main factor toward romantic relationships. Joon-hee would not act this way if not for the convoluted amnesia ploy. Why that is isn't particularly well explained, but given that Joon-hee herself doesn't really know, the lack of elucidation on this point is forgivable. As for the rest of "Family Outing"...well, again, there's only so many contrived plot points I can take before losing all patience.

Review by William Schwartz

"Family Outing" is directed by Joo Dong-min, written by Kim Sin-hye and features Lee Jung-hyun, Jin Yi-han, Oh Sang-jin, Park Won-sook, Jung Han-hun and Park Jun-gyu.

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