Hi everyone!

Today I’m sharing my episode 1-2 notes on A Virtuous Business, because I am loving it right away, and I was wondering if you’d like to join me? 🤗

These are my episode 1-2 notes, exactly as they appear on Patreon, ie, without screenshots (I’m saving those for the actual review).

I hope you all enjoy, and I hope you’ll consider joining us over on Patreon, for the rest of the discussions! ❤️

Episode notes:

E1-2. You guys. I know that we all had positive expectations that this show would be a fun watch, but just based on these first two episodes, I think Show’s exceeding my expectations, even.

For one thing, it’s actually very funny, and I’ve found myself laughing out loud on more than a few occasions.

Since k-humor and I don’t often get along, this, for me, is huge.

Honestly, I’d been a little afraid, that with Show might lean into humor that was more crass, given our subject matter, but instead, I’m finding the humor almost.. elegant, in the way it deals with all the bedroom talk and such.

If Show keeps this up, I will be a happy camper.

Another thing that I really like, is how Show still manages to have emotional heft, despite its branding being on the more hilarious side of things.

There are definitely notes of pathos, particularly in the personal situation of our characters, particularly Kim So Yeon’s character, Jeong Suk.

It’s bad enough that her husband is hot-tempered guy who can’t keep a job and can’t keep out of fights, leaving her to find ways to scrape together enough money for rent and food for their family.

It’s even worse that when he’s down and out, he’d take the rent money that she’d hidden way, and “invested” it by entrusting it to a friend who looks like you shouldn’t trust him as far as you could throw him.

To make things even worse, by the end of episode 1, we see Deadbeat Husband literally sleeping with Jeong Suk’s good friend – which poor Jeong Suk witnesses with her own eyes, coz she’s at Supposed Friend’s house, looking for Deadbeat Husband.

On top of all this, we see that it’s actually hard for Jeong Suk to find work, because the general preference is for single young ladies, and not married ahjummas.

To be clear, Show doesn’t pile that all on at once, so it doesn’t feel as overwhelming as it might right now, the way I’ve stacked it all up.

But it does add up to a very sad picture, and I definitely felt my sympathy for Jeong Suk grow, layer by layer, as Show revealed her troubles, layer by layer.

By the end of episode 1, I was ready for her to leave him and kick him to the curb, but of course, it’s not such a simple thing.

Happily, Deadbeat Husband disappears on his own, so he’s not around much at all, in episode 2, and we therefore don’t have to put up with his annoying presence.

However, it is true that things aren’t so simple or easy for the women in our story.

All our main players have their own difficulties.

Among our group of ladies, Geum Hui looks like she has the best life, since she’s genteel, well-educated, and lives in a big house with her pharmacist husband.

But, as we see, she has a lot to put up with, in her husband’s temperament, his nagging behavior, and his pompous inflated sense of self-importance.

It’s not hard to conclude that in her own way, Geum Hui feels stuck.

She has no source of income, and her husband basically doesn’t allow any sources of joy that don’t come from a Stepford Wives type of manual. It’s stifling and crippling and you can see that Geum Hui is suffocating in her marriage.

As for Yeong Bok, I really like her, coz of her cheerful nature.

For her, life is difficult because her husband doesn’t have a steady job, and they have four kids to feed, including a babe in arms.

That’s a big burden on her, and yet, she has a positive aura that I really like.

Also, it really is quite cute how her husband, played by Im Chul Soo, thinks she’s the sexiest woman alive, and can’t keep his hands off her. 🤭

But also, points to him for being supportive of her new business, where most of the other husbands in our story world are horrified and scandalized.

I also really like Ju Ri, the hairdresser.

I love her positive and cheerful nature too, and I also love how open-minded and helpful she is, about the new business that Jeong Suk and Yeong Bok are undertaking.

When everyone else is acting all grossed out and disgusted at the fact that Jeong Suk and Yeong Bok are selling lingerie and adult toys, Ju Ri’s all enthusiasm and curiosity. It’s very cute.

Considering that she’s a single mom who bears the burden of taking care of her son all by herself without help, and considering that there’s a great deal of stigma around being a single mom, it’s honestly amazing that she manages to be so upbeat.

I really like this idea of Jeong Suk and Yeong Bok joining hands, and then eventually welcoming Geum Hui and Ju Ri into the group.

That whole arc is so very heartwarming, as I feel like we can see the bonds between them growing stronger, as they share more of their personal stories with each other, and spend more time together.

At the same time, some of the scenes in these two episodes were hysterically funny, making for a watch experience that’s just bursting with various feels.

The first gathering that they organize at Geum Hui’s home, where everyone’s scandalized at the vibrator, and tossing it around the living room like it’s some kind of hot potato, was laugh-out-loud funny, and I actually had to pause the episode, just to have a good laugh. 😁

I also thought things got distinctly cuter, once Jeong Suk gets the idea from Ju Ri, that she ought to be testing out the lingerie and toys, in order to better sell them.

The scene where Geum Hui translates the write-up about the “magic stick” leading users to a “fantastic world” was really funny, and I honestly just love the curiosity that our main group has, in terms of their “research” coz it all seems so pure and innocent. 🤭

Their decision to test the vibrators at home as “self-study” was very funny too, and the visual, of fireworks going off in Jeong Suk’s bedroom, as she tests the “magic stick” was hilariously perfect.

I also love the enthusiastic sharing session that they have the next day, where Jeong Suk and Yeong Bok report back on how their research at home has gone. 🤭

And then there’s the way Jeong Suk is inspired by that tea ceremony recording, to guide their sales sessions in a similarly elegant manner, even talking about Cleopatra and all.

I thought it was cute, and I loved that they had a successful session, and followed that with a girls’ night out, just the four of them.

I feel bad for Jeong Suk that she ran into Supposed Friend, but I’m honestly glad that Ju Ri and Yeong Bok overhear their confrontation in the restroom, because their strong empathy pushes their friendship to a whole new level, I feel.

It’s great that they decide to take some petty revenge on Supposed Friend, and then run outta there like a bunch of mischievous teenagers. It’s great. 🤩

Honestly, I’d wondered how Geum Hui would manage to join the group, since her stuffy husband is so against it, and I’m very, very tickled by how Show solves that, in episode.

I love that he basically gets cowed by the very lingerie that he’d been so against, and becomes a docile whipped puppy the next morning, hahahaha.

It’s hilarious to me that when Stuffy Hubs asks why the breakfast table is so simple, Geum Hui “explains” that other women put out a spread for their husbands the morning after, in order to enable their husbands to do better next time.

And because he’s “naturally gifted” in that area, there’s no need for her to do so. HAHAHAHA THAT’S FREAKING BRILLIANT. 😂😂😂

I couldn’t help but crack up at Stuffy Hubs’ enthusiastic endorsement of the bare table, saying that if she fed him too much, she wouldn’t be able to get a wink of sleep.

And then how about that moment when he gobbles up the bundle of bracken that Geum Hui feeds him, and assures her that his “cucumber will stay rock solid”???

Wheeze. That’s something that only Kim Won Hae could pull off, that’s for sure. 😂😂

Well played, Geum Hui. Well played indeed. 😁😁

Of course, there’s also Do Hyeon, the new detective in town, who’s played by Yeon Woo Jin.

It seems like Show might be pushing a loveline between him and Jeong Suk, since the two have several run-ins in just these two episodes, and he does seem to have some curiosity about her, despite keeping a studiously distant sort of attitude in general.

That said, I’m not super sure that that’s the direction that this will take, since Do Hyeon is clearly in town for a secret investigation.

Plus, there’s the thing where he tells the real estate agent (Jung Young Joo, being her loudly glamorous best 😁) that he doesn’t know how long he will be staying.

And how about that big info map that he’s got going, where he’s mapped out all our main residents.

There’s clearly some kind of mystery that’s brewing here, and I’m a little concerned at how this might affect our main story.

Additionally, as we close out episode, there are signs that things aren’t quite going to be as smooth sailing for our ladies as we might hope, with that rude graffiti splashed all over Jeong Suk’s wall.

Whatever it is, though, I’m glad that she’s not alone in this; she’s got her sisterhood behind her, and I love that. 🥰

*This show is being covered on the Early Access Plus (US$10) Tier on Patreon*

To view episode 1-2 notes in Patreon, along with everyone’s comments, you can go here!

You can find my Patreon page here, and for all future episode notes for this show you can click here.

Episodes 3-4 notes will be out soon! I hope you’ll consider joining us!

It’ll be a way to have fun, and support me at the same time? 🥲❤️

PS: For more information on what the Patreon experience is like, you might like to check out my Patreon update post for October, which you can find here!