My K-Drama binge-fest on Netflix during this pandemic was stalled a bit with a show that my cousin recommended, the romantic comedy titled She Was Pretty. Starring Park Seo Joon and Hwang Jung Eum, the story revolves around Kim Hye Jin, who was supposed to meet up with a childhood friend after many years of not seeing each other. When he did not recognize her when they ran into each other, she assumed it was because she was not as beautiful as she was when she was younger. As a result, she made her pretty best friend meet him in her place.
I usually love K-Dramas, but this show did not appeal to me as much as some of the others I have seen. I struggled to watch the show midway through and almost did not finish it. I felt like Park Seo Joon’s character here is like the one he played in What’s Wrong with Secretary Kim, which I had just seen. I was not sure if I wanted more of that.
For the most part, the plot was very predictable: they were childhood besties, they grew up apart, he doesn’t recognize her and she gets someone else to pretend to be her, only to be thrust together constantly because of work. Eventually, they find each other again after experiencing heartbreak on all sides because of the subterfuge.
Another thing that I did not appreciate was how the leading man fell for the leading lady only when she changed up her look. And how for someone who “loved” her since childhood, he did not remember her at all — even if I’m sure he would have guessed she could possibly look like her father (with the hair and face) when she grew up. It also did not make sense to me to have those unexplained weird habits of Sung Joon (Park Seo Joon) where he accidentally knocks himself on doors, drinks the water from a plant, and all that. I thought at first that he might have been sick, but it was not the case. If that was supposed to be a funny quirk, it was a little too weird and not that amusing.
There were some backstories involving the co-workers and the family of Hye Jin, but I felt that they were not as necessary or as entertaining and could have just been kept out of the show. It is like they were put in there for the sake of having supporting characters, but their stories did not contribute much to making the show entertaining — at least not for me anyway.
The only reason that I finished the series was because of Kim Shin Hyuk, played by Super Junior member Siwon Choi. I thought that he was the saving grace of this show. From the start to the end, his character was the most entertaining. He started off seemingly annoying but as the show went on his character slowly peels his layers and becomes someone you fall for. Part of me was rooting for him to have the love that he wanted, even if that was impossible since he was not the leading man. If I were a writer and this story was a book, I would write a sequel that is all about his character and where he goes after his last scene in this series. I have seen Siwon in other K-Dramas, but this is one role that really had my heartache for how his story ended. I feel like he deserved more than what he got in the end.
I am sure that Park Seo Joon fans will love this show, although I would have to say there are better PSJ shows compared to this one. I did not enjoy it as much as I wanted to, but because of Siwon Choi as Shin Hyuk, I would still recommend it.
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