Hi everyone!
I hope you guys enjoyed my episode 1-2 notes on A Virtuous Business (here!). Today I’m sharing my episode 1-2 notes on Family By Choice, 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. My friends. I just wanted to tell you right away, that I really, really, really like this. 😍😍😍
I’ve had some pretty patchy experiences with remakes, and am not generally one for remakes, normally, but there was just something in my gut that couldn’t help but squee at the idea of a remake of c-drama Go Ahead (review here!), which I had loved, and which serves as this show’s source material.
This remake just works, for me.
I love the familiarity of the story that I get right away, and at the same time, I love how writer-nim is clearly doing stuff to make this story its own creature, and not just a copy-and-paste of the original.
I do think that for folks who like family drama feels, but don’t like the length of the typical family drama, and the commitment that goes with, that this could be a really good option.
The original is 40 40-minute episodes, and this is 16 one-hour episodes, so we are dealing with a lot less story time.
To me, there are pros and cons to this.
On the upside, yes, it’s less of a time commitment, and we get the big important beats without having to invest the time and patience to get there.
And, might I say, I do think that Show is doing a very solid job of giving us a good flavor for our story, our characters and their relationships, despite cramming about.. I dunno, I’d guess 10 original episodes worth of story, into our first two episodes.
That said, the downside to this, is that while Show accomplishes all that in two episodes, the foundation in terms of my feelings for these characters and their relationships, is simply less strong, because it all got a quickie foundation instead of a foundation built over time.
When I’d spent that (still a guess) 10 episodes with our characters, I couldn’t help but get a deep sense of their bond, and what kind of wounds they keep in their hearts, and how precious the found family is, to each member of said found family.
In two episodes, I get a decent sense of it, but there’s just no substituting actual time spent with the characters, in my opinion.
That said, I’m not mad at what Show is doing.
If we only had 16 episodes for this story, then this is an approach that I would fully endorse and support, because this way, we get the foundation established, with highlighted milestone moments given a little bit of extra time, before we get to the meat of the story.
Before I get to that, though, I wanted to talk a little bit about our characters.
I’d say that our characters mostly feel quite similar to their c-drama counterparts, but tend to also have their own flavor, if you will.
For example, our two dads are, like their c-drama counterparts, like an adorable old married couple, with one dad being the gruff policeman, and the other dad being more like a mom.
It’s freaking adorable, and I love it.
But also, I do find that Policeman Dad here, has a softer vibe to him, which I honestly really like. I love that little beat, of him washing the dishes and asking Mom Dad, if he did a good job. SO CUTE.
And I also find that Mom Dad, in this story world, is a tiny bit less Mom-like, than his c-drama counterpart, which I think works well for where I think this story is going.
As for the kids, I think the biggest difference I’m seeing, is in Ju Won, who is a lot less boisterous than her c-drama counterpart.
(Can I just say though, that the casting of Oh Eun Seo to play young Ju Won, is perfect; I love the innocent-cheeky-willful vibe that Oh Eun So brings to the character. I thought it was absolutely fantastic. 🤩🤩)
I can appreciate that Show might want to make its female lead more feminine, and I do think that it does a good job of retaining the “crazy” scenes, by having it be something that Hae Jun coaches her on, to deal with the naysayers claiming that she’s not their real sister, rather than something that’s part of her own personality.
I thought that was a nice compromise, honestly.
As for Oppa San Ha, I think that he’s less broody (and perhaps therefore less smoldery) than Song Wei Long, his c-drama counterpart.
Despite that, I do feel like Hwang In Yeop is doing a nice job of being the responsible Oppa who has a huge soft spot for Ju Won, and who happens to be the object of many girls’ crushes, at school.
Like, I’d buy that lotsa girls want to give him love letters. 😁
And then there’s Hae Jun, whom I find to be a lot more of an endearing puppy than his c-drama counterpart, who was played by Zhang Xin Cheng.
Maybe it’s just Bae Hyeon Seong’s sweet face (he always gives me Park Bo Gum vibes, for real 🥰); I find myself having an almost instant soft spot for Hae Jun, that I didn’t quite have, for his c-drama counterpart (sorry, Zhang Xin Cheng).
This makes for an interesting dynamic shift here, because I find myself more invested in Hae Jun at the moment, than in San Ha, and that was the other way around, when I watched Go Ahead.
I’m definitely curious to see how this plays out, because the way Show has set up its characters, has my emotions already being distributed somewhat differently. 😅
As a secondary example, there’s also the way Show is approaching the situation with Hae Jun’s mother.
In the original story, Mom had disappeared, and there hadn’t been any indication given to the audience, that she perhaps had run into problems, and perhaps hadn’t wanted to disappear.
I do think that that approach gave me, as a viewer, a closer vicarious experience as to how her son might have felt, being left behind like that.
However, in this version of the story, we get to see that Mom had run into trouble of some sort, and hadn’t wanted to leave the way she did.
I do feel that the reason for this different approach, is that we only have 16 episodes to work with, and there is therefore less time for Show to break down our acceptance of her, and then build it back up again.
That’s probably why Show is allowing us to have a more sympathetic view of her, right from the beginning.
As for San Ha’s mom, well, what can I say; if you want a dysfunctional mom, then Kim Hye Eun is perfectly cast. 😁
Ah, that does bring me to the scene where she leaves, and tells Ju Won that yes, she can have San Ha.
This was the one area where I thought that Show’s presentation of the scene paled in comparison to the original.
In the original, Ju Won’s counterpart Jianjian, had danced around San Ha’s counterpart Ling Xiao, with tears in her eyes.
In this version, Ju Won doesn’t do so, and I do think that that makes a world of difference, in how the scene lands.
In this version, it had simply seemed like Ju Won had been rather clueless as to how tragic the situation was, that San Ha’s mom was giving him away.
But in the original version, it had seemed like Jianjian understood how tragic and painful this was, but was making a happy show of it, as a way to console Ling Xiao, that he was still wanted, even though his mom might not want him anymore. 😭
Aside from this, though, I don’t have any bones to pick, with this show.
I get the sense that Show’s going to focus more on the romance than the original, and y’know what, I am actually curious about that, in the most positive way possible.
I’d found the romance rather low-key in the original, and I’d found that that had worked pretty well, though the romantic in me had wanted a little more swoon to it.
And so, with melty, swoony romance being such a significant part of the kdrama DNA, perhaps Show will actually be able to give me what I’d wanted? 😁
Plus, with Ju Won’s best friend Dal having a crush on Hae Jun instead of San Ha, unlike her c-drama counterpart, who’d nursed a crush on Big Oppa, I’m thinking that perhaps Hae Jun will get his own happy ending, romance-wise?
That’s not an unappealing thought at all, so I’m happy to see where Show takes this.
I just hope that Show will remember to give enough screen time to the found family part of our story, because I just love this found family, so very much. ❤️
All in all, I really, really enjoyed these opening episodes, and honestly actively looking forward to more.
Gimme all of the feels already, Show; I’m ready. 🥰🥰🥰
*This show is being covered on the VVIP Early Access (US$20) 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 5-6 notes will be out very 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!