Lazy Unnie's Couch: Itaewon Class

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Who would have thought two months ago that this show would end up occupying my mind every week? Anyone? Yeah, me neither. Like I said during the first impression, Park Seo Joon is my guy and I was probably going to watch this even if it turned out to be craptastic. Luckily it was so far from craptastic that I wonder if this could be Park Seo Joon’s best acting work yet.

There were many things that I loved and not so loved about this roller-coaster of a drama. A story of revenge, love, betrayal, and growth. You’re taken on the journey of Park Sae Royi’s revenge of Jang Dae Hee and his family and corporation for the wrongful death of his father. Along the way you meet people from both sides of this world. Ones that stand by and believe in Park Sae Royi and the ones that Jang Dae Hee surround himself with. Every time I felt like something good was happening or some resolve was coming, I felt like I was hit in the face with a sucker punch. However, this series progressed the way you make a stew and after two months of simmering and boiling, it ended with a nice taste on my soul.

With any good recipe, it comes down to your ingredients and the quality of them. In this case, the cast turned out to be top notch. Kim Da Mi who played the charming and sociopath Jo Yi Seo was really the breakout star for me. The character of Yi Seo felt fresh and a complete different breed of your typical female lead. Yi Seo was everything we should hate about a person; selfish, vengeful, tactless, an all around bitch. But her bluntness and bold actions are what made her somewhat endearing. Throughout the whole series she was very clear in her goals and her feelings. She loved Park Sae Royi and she didn’t care what or who stood in her way to reach that goal of being with him. But that isn’t what made me love her so much. It was her failures along the way. She was not perfect and messed up a bunch by not really taking others into consideration, even the ones you could tell she cared for. In a nutshell, her faults made her beautiful.

Then you had Park Seo Joon’s Park Sae Royi. On first glance he is someone who has his morals and values and stands by them to the end. But with deeper looks you can see that it is not only a positive about him but also could be his downfall. Loyal to a fault but also very prideful. It took him the whole series to come to terms with that. Sae Royi was so consumed in his plot for revenge you would think that it would blind him to others around him or close off his heart but actually it was the opposite, he was all about people and standing for them. Aside from his horrible haircut, Park Sae Royi was so attractive and not just because of his looks. No wonder Yi Seo was in love.

And you can’t have a meal without your seasoning and Itaewon’s seasoning were the supporting players. From ex-con and gang member Choi Seung Kwon, transgender chef (and badass) Ma Hyun Yi, Jang Dae Hee’s bastard son Jang Geun Soo and even our secondary villain Jang Dae Hee’s successor Jang Geun Won threw his own flavor in the mix. I guess I should mention Park Sae Royi’s first love and technically third piece of the love triangle, Oh Soo Ah. All you need to know about her is that she’s selfish, annoying, and really didn’t need her. I could go on and on about the amazingness of these characters as well as others (except Soo Ah, trash) but that would take too long. I’ll just show you one of my favorite scenes that brought me to tears.

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Anyway, I know a lot of people didn’t like the ending but after the two months that left me feeling emotionally raw some weeks, I thought that it ended just as it should. For another show based off a webtoon, I’m really intrigued to see how the show and the source material were different. Especially after finding out that the author was also the screenwriter. All I can say is thank you and I will miss the Dam Bam crew.

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