[HanCinema's Drama Review] "It's Okay, That's Love" Episode 5

By William Schwartz on 2014/08/06 at 19:32 PST

We're finally moving into the stage of the Jae-yeol / Hae-soo relationship where one of them actually starts acting like they like the other. Obviously it would be better if both of them would act like that, but I'll take what I can get. This episode gets one decent laugh near the start where Hae-soo, apparently still in her candid camera reverie, obviously has a complete tonal shift in the way she anticipates Jae-yeol's arrival.

After that though, I didn't find any of this funny at all. Remember So-nyeo (played by Lee Sung-kyung)? Well, she gets a bigger part to play here, as she once again visits the house, and proceeds to annoy all the inhabitants. I feel like I'm fundamentally misunderstanding the humor in this drama somehow, because as far as I can tell, nearly every joke is just some variation on how amusing it is when other people are harassed. I don't even like these characters and I still don't want to see them harassed for no reason.

At least her visit doesn't last that long as the episode moves onto the next phase- Hae-soo and her entourage randomly running into people in near-death situations. Yes there is some greater context for these events but it really doesn't help. We barely spend any time with these people doing their actual jobs. I'd think there'd be enough crises in an actual mental hospital that the script wouldn't need to resort to this kind of nonsense.

Then again, I know exactly why the drama keeps doing this- to humanize Jae-yeol and emphasize that, all right, even if he's an obnoxious jerk on the outside, deep down, he doesn't actually hold people that much in contempt. Sure is a good thing he's running into life-and-death situations solely to establish his moral credentials. "It's Okay, That's Love" is clearly sending the message that it's fine for a person to be aggressive and rude on the outside, provided that-

All right, see, that's my problem with the drama. It's constantly giving Jae-yeol excuses without him ever even coming close to seriously scrutinizing his own behavior. Every bit of progress in the romance is absolutely driving me insane. I wouldn't even want to speak to a person who thinks violating a person's verbal wishes and physical integrity is fun and flirtatious, and here the drama is actually expecting for me to root for this guy. It's offensive on a base level, and I really, really want it to stop.

Review by William Schwartz

"It's Okay, That's Love" is directed by Kim Kyoo-tae, written by Noh Hee-kyeong and features Zo In-sung, Kong Hyo-jin, Sung Dong-il and Lee Kwang-soo.

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