Fragrant Nature

I am very happy to see my favorite Korean actor back onscreen (Lee Min-ho) and his acting did not waiver. He's still got it. The cast did well, but there were too many actors. The storyline started out being interesting, and then I found it difficult to continue watching from episode 5 onwards. I did push through to the end of episode 16, but it was dissapointing. I look forward to more romantic dramas, but not as dragged out as this one was.

The drama was not bad. A crazy hot headed chef with good intentions, was well done. The leads, although there was chemistry it was very awkward at most and there were too many paused/dead drawn out silent non conversation moments with them just looking at each other. I was not impressed with the young cook not taking the opportunity to study abroad. It was good that the injured chef could go, but if her rich boss loved her so much, he could have sent her to study there. I was VERY impressed with the young cook's tenacity to succeed, hence the dissapointment when she didn't take up the opportunity for studies abroad. I also appreciated that the discrimination of women, unfair dismissals, unfair salaries and the lack of acknowledgement for work efforts was addressed. Not a must watch for me, but it was ok after bypassing this drama on my watch list for more than a year.

I am a Ji Chang-wook fan. This could've been done in 8 episodes. It was way too drawn out. The ending was rushed and poorly done. There were too many twists and most of the charachters were overdone (male lead's first girlfriend had a flat charachter that could have been omitted, the female lead's psychologist boyfriend that was weirdly obsessed, chang-wook's sister was all over the place and his bosses all moany - cringe). The doctor with memory loss and then absolute clarity all of a sudden. Messy and weird with the conglomerate tie-in too. The young girl was my absolute favorite, playing the role of chang-wook's niece. Samdal-ri and this one, left me dissapointed.

I have watched at least 80+ Korean dramas and even though I am a devout fan, there are probably less than 10 dramas that deserve a rating of 4 or higher. This drama definitely falls into the top 10 for me. I am a fan of Park Min-Young's acting and roles. Once again she has demonstrated her talent with plausible success. The entire cast did exceptionally well and kuddo's to everyone that contributed to the writing, directing and producing, apart from the quality acting, the crew behind it deserves a double thumbs up. The intensity of the relationships between Park Min-young, Lee Yi-keong, Lee Gi-kwang, Na In-woo, Song Ha-yoon, Park Min-young and Lee Yi-keong had me laughing and welling-up with all kinds of emotions while watching. I mean I wanted to pull off some taekwando moves of my own on Song Ha-yoon, Boa, Lee Yi-keong, Jung Kyung-soon, Kim Joong-hee and Jang Jae-ho's characters. Choi Gyu-ri's chatacter was fresh and energetic. Lee Gi-kwang, aw, a little too late for him and Ji-won, but ended up well with Hee-yeon. The chemistry between Ji-won and Ji-hyeok was mature and exceptional, and I thoroughly enjoyed this. Min-hwan & Soo-min - brilliant acting! Seamlessly switching between awkward, romantic, caring, attentive, supportive, anger, greed & just crazy was fantastic. It's scary to think that people can actually pull off all these personalities that well. Well done! Ju-ran, enjoyed the development of the character (standing up against mistreatment, same as Ji-won, we need more of this) and the relationship with Suk-joon. Manager Kim drove me nuts, but I enjoyed the acting and evolution of this character. Ja-ok, the crazy mother-in-law. Han-il, wealthy gramps-in-law that eventually accepted Ji-won and Hyun-mo, the doting father well done on your roles! At times the relationships with parents and grandparents in the dramas distract too much from the lead couple's story, but it was done better in this one. The second chances story was different and enjoyable. It developed well all the way to the end for each of the characters, which I find extremely rare for k-dramas. I was impressed for the very first time. The wrap up at the end was good, better than Queen of Tears, Dr Slump etc. The endings can be better though. I also found that I was looking forward to the end when I reached episode 12. I didn't want it to end, but lost interest in all the other characters at this stage and only wanted to see the relationships between Ji-won and Ji-Hyeok as well as the relationship between Min-hwan & Soo-min wrapped up in the last few episodes. All the other characters' stories could have been closed off by episode 12 and not carried all the way through to episode 16. I sincerely wish for this drama to be the benchmark for a good watch, e.g. the adult relationships were good, although too much hugging and hand holding becomes boring, rather skip some of it and show the characters playfully intertwined, I thoroughly enjoy the addition of kids and hope to see more appearances, not only as the lead characters' past lives or a quick scene at the end. As mentioned possibly end off some of the many character stories earlier in the series. These few suggestions so as to continue to progress to outstanding future dramas. So overall, I quite enjoyed it and it rates at 8/10 for me.

I've rated 4 stars in the hope that after watching at least 80 plus K-drama series, something will change. This drama deserves 3 stars. I was intrigued with the first two episodes and couldn't wait for the rest, however, in the later episodes there were at least three or more plots too many that kept the lead couple and the FL's family apart. The plot with FL's grandfather's mistress and her son was way too drawn out. It becomes exhausting to watch and I found myself fast-forwarding through almost half or more of some of the episodes. This I find myself doing more often lately in K-dramas that steer too far away from the lead characters' story. Some of the interactions in the ML's hometown were just not necessary at all, as well as all the weird drama in the FL's home with the FL's male friend living there and the FL's family being unrealistically stiffling. The overreacting of the FL's aunt and brother, the matchmaker, the ML's siblings too was annoying and the writers/directors need to do better. The interactions between the FL & ML made for awesome watching, but was not rounded off well. The rest of the story just became unnecessary distractions. The last two episodes and the ending was dissapointing. I was hoping to see more of the lead couple actually living together and enjoying their families, not just quickly wrapping up the lead couple and their family's story in the last few minutes. The whole drawn out relationship, with a quick wrap up in the last few minutes of the last episode is common for K-drama and at the same time the most DISSAPOINTING to watch almost EVERY SINGLE TIME (at least 98% in my view). It's like buying a chocolate filled donut, anxiously anticipating the oozy melted chocolate inside, but only finding one solid chocolate chip inside at the very end or not finding any chocolate at all. It's not a good feeling to have wasted the time watching something that has not been well thought out all the way through to the end. It's like a bad business presentation. All the effort spent to create a product even though some parts are of low quality/do not fit well, closing off the presentation is the most important part. Unpack and address the known flaws to instill confidence in the product. Why bother to try and sell the product if you do not intend to finish strong and provide the complete package?

Cindy's story was way more interesting than anything else and would've made this more interesting to watch. The love triangle with Ye-jin, Baek and Ra was cringe, even the cast was not suited to play these characters. Baek's character, a pushover, under the thumb of his seniors, who ends up on a frustrating pursuit of two females who ended up with Ra, was a bit too much. Baek's role chasing after Ye-jin, was very cringe to watch even though his acting was great as always. They do not make a good pair at all. The personalities of the two characters, Baek & Ye-jin, are suffocating and the relationship that developed, quite stomach-churning. Ye-jin's annoying character was well suited to the actress, Gong Yo-iin (I don't think that the cuteness when drunk was pulled off by this actress, the acting was just frustrating especially for adult behavior.) I enjoyed Ra's acting, but the relationship with Ye-jin was too drawn out and could have developed earlier. The adult cast to play these two characters were not a match either. The story was different and the idea of the show being produced was a fresh approach. Cindy's story could have developed more. The romance part was a bit of a mess, mostly cringe and failed hopelessly in my view. I really enjoyed some of the comedy and the sincerity especially when portrayed by Ra, Baek and Cindy. Ye-jin was fantastic at being annoying. Gong Yo-iin's (Ye-jin) was a perfect typecast for the annoying character role, even her voice is perfectly suited for it. The whole drawn out relationship, with a quick wrap up in the last few minutes of the last episode is common for K-drama and at the same time the most DISSAPOINTING to watch almost EVERY SINGLE TIME (at least 98% in my view). It's like buying a chocolate filled donut, anxiously anticipating the oozy melted chocolate inside, but only finding one solid chocolate chip inside at the very end or not finding any chocolate at all. It's not a good feeling to have wasted the time watching something that has not been well thought out all the way through to the end. It's like a bad business presentation. All the effort spent to create a product even though some parts are of low quality/do not fit well, closing off the presentation is the most important part. Unpack and address the known flaws to instill confidence in the product. Why bother to try and sell the product if you do not intend to finish strong and provide the complete package? This drama had some potential, but it was not a favorite of mine.

This drama is really weak. I love Japanese, Korean and Chinese dramas, most of the stories are really intense and entertaining however it is frustrating to consistently see immature women as FLs and over the top MLs. It's cheezy and unrealistic. I usually cannot wait for the latest series to be released, however I am disappointed 8/10 times with how immature the role of adults are portrayed, noteably women. It seems that child actors are granted the mature roles. They're really amazing to watch. I am hoping that I will see major improvement soon before giving up on these types of dramas.

I am a big fan of K-drama and waited long for this, especially since the FL & ML are of my fav's. I was disappointed, it was a bit boring. It showed a bit of potential in the first few episodes and then spiralled downhill. The brother role played by Yoon sang-hyeon as Nam Ba-Da was acted out well, even though a bit cringe at the end. The role of his mom was not for me. The other cast members played their roles well too, but the roles were average or less than average as the story was not great. The romance was poor between the lead actors. Surely every adult relationship cannot be portrayed as fragile. The men are always portrayed as having bad timing and the women look as if though they will disintegrate when about to be kissed? Can we PLEASE have some mature, confident romances not childish back and fourth insecure nonsense. The lifeless, drawn out dead kisses and insecure, immature, awkward romance scenes have been done to death. So has the accidents by truck, the long distance separations and disapproving in-laws scenes. The intoxication scenes are usually done really well and at times has me lol. Overreacting to treat the slightest cut or injury in the k-drama's could be done better to send the audience the right message. I look forward to more k-dama series displaying content focused at the right audience, a clear distinction between content for young teens and also adult focused content. The thumbs up/down rating on pay tv is not enough to advise on content that we pay for and want to see more/less of. So, I hope to see more, but I know that it could be better.

As an avid viewer of Chinese, Korean, Japanese and Taiwanese drama's/movies (over 200 series and movies watched since 2022) I feel that this series could have more potential. The male lead gets 4/5 stars for his intense acting of this role. Some of his lines were really cringe, but he pulled it off well. The female lead's casted role was good for her success and drive in her sport as well as the support shown for her boyfriend. Her role was very poor in the romance scenes. She appeared fragile and uncomfortable when the male lead tried to lean in for a kiss and made it awkward to watch. The lack of confidence shown requires much needed improvement to send the right message to the audience. The supporting actors were good and the story content ok. There were quite a few cringe moments (e.g. too many long speechless stares, guitar singing scene too long, the expensive taxis, drinks overdone etc), use different background music and too much emphasis on food. Thank you for not having drawn out wicked in-laws scenes and overdone crazy girlfriend/boyfriend pursuers, that awful lifeless 'dead-kiss' scene, the overdone loss of memory scenes, apart from the ever present drawn out long distant relationship scenes. I look forward to more drama series displaying content focused at the right audience, a clear distinction between content for young teens and also adult focused content. The thumbs up/down rating is not enough to advise on content that we pay for and want to see more of. So, I hope to see more, but I know that it could be better.