Family: Episodes 1-2 (First Impressions)

Family: Episodes 1-2 (First Impressions)

by Unit

A Jang Hyuk + Jang Nara pairing = me diving in headfirst without caution. Amazing lead actors in a family comedy drama with some action on the side? *Grabs popcorn* Because, what can go wrong?

Editor’s note: Continued drama coverage is pending.
 
EPISODES 1-2

The drama opens with our hero, KWON DO-HOON (Jang Hyuk) in action as a highly skilled black ops agent. He’s a sniper, and he kicks butts too. But life soon kicks him in the butt when he remembers in an “Oops! I did it again” manner that he has forgotten about his wedding anniversary. And this opener does well to establish the dual sides to Do-hoon: a great agent at work, and a not-so-great guy at home.

His wife, KANG YU-RA (Jang Nara) tries to be understanding, but there’s only so much a woman can take. Forgetting her birthdays and missing his daughter KWON MIN-SEO’s (Shin Su-ah) big days is one thing, but forgetting their 10th (!) anniversary and leaving her to go alone on their anniversary trip is a really big deal, and Yura is rightly pissed!

As he has always done throughout their marriage, Do-hoon blames his absence on a certain Manager Oh at work (yunno, since his black ops identity is a secret and everyone thinks he’s just a regular office employee). And while the double life he leads is part of the premise of the show, it strikes me as off-putting because Do-hoon almost never takes responsibility for his many absences. At least, for once, apologize without dragging Manager Oh into it.

Moving on, Do-hoon spends most of the first episode trying to appease Yu-ra, and we get a fun cameo by Cha Tae-hyun as the patisserie who scolds Do-hoon for not paying enough attention to his wife. Do-hoon gets defensive and accidentally ruins the apology cake he bought for Yu-ra (even before leaving the shop!) so, he settles for an apology fried chicken. Only, after ten years of marriage, he still doesn’t know that his wife prefers grilled chicken. Tsk.

Husband of the year, Do-hoon certainly isn’t. Neither is he that much of a father of the year. It’s bad enough that he wants a second kid in the middle of all of this, but it’s even worse that rather than completely smoothing things over, Do-hoon and Yu-ra agree to a temporary truce during her baby-making time of the month. But having another baby won’t make their problems go away. And nobody should go through the stress of pregnancy with a husband that can be called away at any time for a mission. Sure, Yu-ra has got her father-in-law KWON WOONG-SOO (Lee Soon-jae) and brother-in-law KWON JI-HOON (Kim Kang-min) around, but that’s not the same thing.

Day 1 of the truce period coincides with Do-hoon’s mom’s memorial service, and this is where I had my first and only chuckle of the week… because it’s the first memorial I’ve seen with a projected (on the TV) picture of the departed, and not the usual framed picture. Hello, technology! Lol. As usual, Do-hoon is late, no thanks to Manager Oh. And while he hurriedly changes into an appropriate memorial outfit, Yu-ra uses his phone to send a text to Manager Oh (whom none of the family members have ever met in person) requesting her presence at his house. Yikes!

In the middle of the dramatic Kwon family memorial mourning, the doorbell rings. They all expect to see a delivery guy with sister-in-law LEE MI-RIM’s (Yoon Sang-jung) pregnancy cravings. What they don’t expect to see is the beautiful MANAGER OH CHUN-RYUN (Chae Jung-ahn) and I don’t know what shocks them the most: that the infamous Manager Oh is a woman, or that she’s this stunning? Okay, I laughed here, too.

Within minutes of being introduced to Manager Oh, we see her badassery as she takes down the delivery guy — who she identified as a gang member — in the elevator, and changes into all-black to suit the memorial mood at home all without breaking a sweat. But she’s sneaky, so she tries to bribe the household with gifts as her way of apologizing for keeping Do-hoon away from home so often. When that doesn’t work, she turns on the tears. But not about to be out-teared in her own house, Yu-ra also turns on the waterworks and Do-hoon just sits in discomfort, torn between his wife (who delivers the mother of all pinches to his thigh) and his boss.

A drinking competition takes over the crying competition, and both women proceed to drink themselves senseless. But when Manager Oh gets to her car after the memorial service is over, she’s as sober as a judge. And at home, Yu-ra doesn’t appear to be completely wasted, either (but I have a bit of a problem with Do-hoon still wanting to make a baby after his wife just drank). Thankfully, Min-seo comes to pass the night with her parents and puts a pause to their plans to give her a sibling. Phew!

But it only gets worse from here because Do-hoon spends most of the second episode whining like a petulant child throwing a supermarket tantrum to get a toy. Or in this case, a second child. Because why is he doing pushups and raising his voice about “doing it” with Yu-ra at Min-seo’s school’s parking lot?!

This is more embarrassing than funny. Why is he rushing her home to make babies after her cafe gets its first-in-a-long-time large group order? (For a Cha Eun-woo fan club lol!) It’s okay for him to keep odd hours at work, but he won’t let her spend an extra few minutes at the cafe to take care of last minute details? Tsk. It’s not like Yu-ra wants to make all that money for herself — she’s planning to book a family trip for Do-hoon’s dad’s 80th birthday. Unfortunately, Manager Oh already went behind her back to gift Dad plane tickets for him and his girlfriend. Yu-ra grits her teeth when she finds out, but she says it’s fine with her.

Mi-rim also cancels the postpartum care Yu-ra arranged for her in favor of Manager Oh’s premium postpartum care center offer — and it’s how the entire family just ditches Yu-ra’s efforts without considering her feelings at all that gets you. They’ve seen firsthand how much she has been through in the marriage thanks to Do-hoon and Manager Oh, yet at the first opportunity they pick Oh over Yu-ra? That’s so disappointing! It doesn’t even help that Yu-ra starts getting suspicious of the nature of Manager Oh’s relationship with Do-hoon.

To kill two birds with one stone, Do-hoon books a hotel room for a sniping assignment and for a baby-making meet and greet with his wife. Yu-ra stews all the way to the hotel after she learns that the Cha Eun-woo fan club order was based on Manager Oh’s recommendation, and she eventually explodes on seeing Manager Oh with her daughter in a school award ceremony picture Min-seo sends to her. To make matters worse, when Yu-ra gets to the hotel, she spots Manager Oh in the elevator — almost a confirmation of her worst nightmare — and this is where we pull the curtains on Family’s first week.

I wanted to like this show more than I did, and for an opener that is meant to capture — and sustain — the viewer’s attention, I couldn’t wait for it to end. The drama has its funny moments, but they just didn’t land for me. I didn’t like any of the characters, and maybe I’m just being overly dramatic, but I don’t think Do-hoon and Yu-ra are ready for another child. Because even if they haven’t realized it yet, their marriage is on the rocks. But then, if it’s not broken there’ll be nothing to fix. And the whole point of the drama is for them to fix their family, right?

My biggest peeve with the drama so far is Min-seo’s “love story.” I’m not that big a fan of coupling kids in dramas, and while some dramas make it as light and fun as possible, this one got on my nerves. Min-seo came off as entitled to her classmate’s feelings, and that whole sequence of chasing him around and calling him up in the middle of the night to demand an answer to her confession was just disconcerting. And talking about getting revenge because a boy turned her down? No! It’s not cute.

If this were to be any other drama, I’d have dropped it like a sack of potatoes, but the synopsis said that Yu-ra is hiding a secret of her own and I’m curious to know what it is. At least, that’s my official excuse for not dropping the drama yet. Unofficially, it’s because I love the Jangs too much to not give them a second chance. You’ve got one more week to make me like you, Show, don’t waste it!

 
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Family: Episodes 1-2 (First Impressions)
Source: Buzz Pinay Daily