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SECRETARY_KIM
September 20, 2018
February 18, 2019
About the Korean romantic-comedy,
"What's the Matter With Secretary Kim?"
This is one of a few shows I
Our heroine has been working diligently as watched because of the name
secretary to the rich boy corporate leader "Kim"-- I was trying to get
male lead for many years, and now has a sense of whether there's
suddenly announced that she wants out. Her some sort of genre
boss is distressed by this, stops taking convention about characters
her for granted, and takes steps to keep named Kim... it doesn't seem
her around, which you will be stunned to so. Consider this
hear, leads them away from a strictly "Secretary Kim", the
professional relationship. "Secretary Kim" in the
"Goblin", and "Chief Kim".
I watched the entire series without
expecting too much, and hence was
not left feeling disappointed by it.
Many people seem to like this one The main dynamic of the show: the
quite a bit, though it's not without rich-boy is if anything more
it's problems. egocentric than usual, and the
female lead has been in a servile
relationship with him for so long
that it won't go away-- he says
It's clear that two main characters something insane, she looks
are going to land with each other, wide-eyed for a moment, tries to
it wasn't at all clear to me that smile politely, and begins gently
they really should-- are they deeply steering him away from the insanity.
in love or do they have the worst
case of co-dependency in history? To my eye, this works early
My judgement about these people in on, but gets stale-- the
real life would probably be that she schtick starts seeming
had the right idea in the first forced and insincere.
place-- she needs to get out on her
own and think about what she's
really about.
There are some really funny bits at the
outset. In one scene he's asking her why
she's quitting, and she says things like It's *very* common for
"... also you know, I'm already 29, I these shows to start
might want to think about dating and moving fast in Comedy
having kids." He immediately responds, mode, and then once the
"All right, *I'll* marry you!". She looks characters are
at him very seriously, she slowly moves established they switch
her face closer to his-- then *sniffs* to Drama-- and everyone
and says "Have you been drinking?!" sits around looking sad.
In the later ones-- like
this one-- there's much
less of that.
The story feels like it's been padded out with
standard korean drama folderol: really, they
knew each other when they were little kids
(he's aware of this, she isn't); they were SKIP_BEAT
victims in a kidnapping case in which someone
else in his family might've been a culprit;
some characters are struggling with amnesia,
and their fallible memories of what happened Of all the many and various
provide an adjustable parameter to get every things they could've done
thing to fit. with this kidnapping plot I
didn't expect what they did
Many issues are raised and just dropped: do: resolve it fast, several
episodes before the end of
Could it be difficult for Secretary Kim to the story, making it seem
keep working under her boss once they're like entirely extraneous
lovers? filler.
There's some back-biting from other employees (I *thought* it might be
suggesting that she hasn't succeeded on her used to switch to a
own merits as an employee-- but that actually suspense plot to keep
turns out to have some truth to it: he hired things going once the
an unqualified candidate because he knew her romance was resolved.)
as a child.
In the stunning conclusion (SPOILERS) SPOLIERS
the heroine just decides that she doesn't
want to quit after all...
But that actually bothered me quite a bit.
Isn't there something else she wants to do? A fizzle of an ending
Go back to school? Start a company of her without humor or dramtics.
own? Work as an actual manager some place?
(Compare to
If I'd been writing it, I would've had her boss suddenly "First Life's"
change tack, and announce that he was going to fire her reversion to
for her own good. formula?)
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