Lazy Unnie’s Couch: Dali and the Cocky Prince

As a young boy, Moo Hak grew up in the market as a peddler. Although he is ignorant, he is strong-willed and knows how to make money. He is now the managing director of Dondon F and B, a global restaurant chain that his family started as a small gamjatang diner. However, he isn’t dignified and only cares about money. He meets Da Li, the only daughter and child of an upper-class family who runs an art gallery. She has a profound deep knowledge of things. She gets faced with bankruptcy due to her father’s sudden death and begins a hard life. Moo Hak and Da Li start a relationship as a creditor and debtor over the art gallery. Will these two polar opposites understand each other and fall in love?
mydramalist

Starring: Park Gyu Young | Kim Min Jae | Kwon Yool | Hwang Hee | Yeonwoo
Episodes: 16 (1 hr. 5 mins.)
Aired: September 22 – November 11, 2021
Network: KBS2
Where to Watch: Viki

If there was ever a blueprint on how to make the perfect himbo, this would be included. I’ve always known that my favorite trope wasn’t the perfect man or the full-on bad boy. It was the attractive, sweet, strong, rough around the edges, and a little stupid kind of man. And everything about Moo Hak fit that.

What starts off as mistaken identity and turns into clearly some one-sided love at first sight shit, quickly turns into lessons of class, grief, and identity. I didn’t expect this to have any deeper layers and to be a very surface-cute show. It was all of those things and more. And partly because the chemistry between Kim Minjae and Park Gyu Young felt so natural that I felt as if I was peaking in on their true love story unfolding. Minjae showed that his leading manpower was intact and Gyu Young really was a FL I didn’t dislike. She handled the role of a fallen princess very well. And I think what the show did was show these class differences without being overly in your face with it. It kinda showed the differences between that money doesn’t really make the man and how old money and new money affect people. Another aspect I liked was the found family concept or more so, what defines what a family is. The part that really touched me was the topics of parents and what makes a parent. Both Dali and Moo Hak obviously suffered family trauma but it never really made them weak characters. I loved that for them.

On top of the underlining serious topics, the humor stood out. I continuously laughed at our little himbo and his inability to word right. All his idioms that he just kept getting confused was hilarious. But when you have a himbo, you need a counterpart to be there for him and that is what Dali and even his assistant were there for. All of these combined with the light suspense aspects made this a fun and easy watch. I think it is definitely underrated and wish more people would watch and appreciate the subtle nuances laced within.