Lazy Unnie’s Couch: True Beauty

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It has been a while since I’ve become obsessed with a drama. And by a while, I mean like two month. Anyway, True Beauty was the latest weekly obsession in my life. Practically everyone else’s as well. A show that was based off a currently updating webtoon about a girl who was born not the prettiest of the bunch, uses makeup to disguise her unwanted features after dealing with a horrific bullying incident at her previous school. The plot is pretty straight forward when it comes to what’s going on. Especially in the romance department. Im Ju Gyeong, our lead, isn’t really torn between our two male leads, Lee Suho and Han Seo Jun. It turns out that us viewers are more torn. I haven’t seen this many #Team’s on social media since #TeamEdward and #TeamJacob fights.

As I was saying, the plot is pretty cliché and your typical high school drama tropes are all present. One-sided love, misunderstandings, jealous second leads. All of it is present. And you would think that it wouldn’t work but it is Moon Ga Young’s performance as our lead that really sells the story. Her portrayal of Im Ju Gyeong is both relatable and sweet. It really loved the scenes where she really got vulnerable about the insecurities she felt being the ugly duckling in her family. Another thing I really liked was yes, she wore the makeup as an armor but when she was home, she was still just her horror comic, heavy metal, spicy food loving self.

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Now the romance on the other hand… I’m a sucker for a good love triangle and I would love to say this was a good one, but lets be honest… Seo Jun had no chance. When you throw in a childhood meetcute, you know our second lead, no matter how much better a choice he is for the lead, he is not getting the girl. Speaking of Seo Jun… WHOA! Hwang In Yeop did his damn thing as the bad boy exterior with the soft gooey center. Watching his progression from first meeting Ju Gyeong to the end when he has to basically bottle up his heart… it was beautiful and painful. He deserved better.

As I come down from my rage and depression of the mistreatment of my second lead, let me discuss some of the other points I found enjoyable. I really REALLY loved Im Ju Gyeong’s family, especially the love story between her sister and her Homeroom teacher. It was intentionally atypical and I ate that shit up. Another aspect that I appreciated was how the topic of bullying and its outcomes were handled. Bullying is such an issue and I think they handled it in a way that wasn’t tacky. Then there was Kang Su Jin. Besides the romantic relationships that Ju Gyeong had, what she really wanted was friendships and she got that with Su Jin and Choi Soo Ah. But it was Kang Su Jin that really had a storyline that I felt could have been explored more. The physical and mental abuse she endured really rounded her out as a character and I would have loved to see even more of her backstory. I know everyone, myself included, was pissed at her villain turn but I think it just made her redemption arc better. Brava.

Even though I 90% loved this show, there was one debbie downer to the whole thing, and sadly that was our main Mr. Lee Su Ho aka Cha Eun Woo. Let me preface with saying that I was really okay with his OTP with Im Ju Gyeong, but his acting really brought the character down. I will give him credit and say his acting has improved since I watched him in My ID is Gangnam Beauty, but that isn’t saying much. He just felt wooden at the worst times. And when he tried different things, they felt awkward and out of place. FNC, please just pay for acting classes, please, I know you got some money somewhere.

The ending wrapped up with a nice little bow, even though I feel like they should have went more open ended and given us a second season at least since the webtoon isn’t even completed. But for what it was, I was in love with this drama. All it means is I can wait for Hwang in Yeop and Moon Ga Young to do something together instead. Or maybe we can have a world crossover between True Beauty and Extra-Ordinary You like we did with the cameo’s… one can wish.