Week in Review (Apr 17 – 23, 2022)

What have I been doing this week? I’m glad you asked! Here’s what’s been on my watchlist this week:

*Note: My reviews usually contain spoilers. You have been warned. Proceed at your own risk.*

TV

When the Weather is Fine (2020) – Ep 5

As our Hae-won (Park Min-young) continues to navigate the difficulties of living in the tiny city, another complication arrives in the form of her mother. Myung-joo (Jin Hee-kyung) has an imposing presence and her daughter follows her around silently, despite it being clear that she is dying to say something. Even Aunt Myung-yeo (Moon Jeong-hee) is uncharacteristically well-behaved around her sister, while simultaneously being fully willing to throw her niece under the bus if it means she looks good. It absolutely cracked me up when Myung-yeo told Mom that Hae-won is living with a man.

Speaking of said man, Eun-seob (Seo Kang-joon) seemed to have his own things to deal with this episode, and we soon find out that said ‘things’ happen to be a meeting with Bo-young (Lim Se-mi), who seems to be using his closeness to Hae-won to get to her. I really hope she stops trying to impose herself on the people in Hae-won’s life after she was the one who was at fault. I do understand that they’re both adults now and should communicate better, but what Hae-won has been through left a scar on her psyche, and she’s going to need her time with it.

Despite all the difficulties that Hae-won went through as a result of her mother’s actions and resulting incarceration, it seems that the two have a cold relationship. It’s clear that Hae-won craves her mother’s attention, but Mom just doesn’t seem willing to give it, and things reach a boiling point by the end of the episode, where Hae-won spills her guts to her mother about wanting even a smidge of love or affection from her.

Sadly, despite all that, Myung-joo is still a difficult person to read, and when she has a strange encounter with Eun-seob later, it only further solidified this sense of confusion for me. I’m not sure how much more involvement Mom will have in this story, but I feel like she was mostly there for Hae-won to have some catharsis, and then move on. And it seems like we’re moving on into love triangle territory (which I’m not happy about) but our third vertex will be Kim Young-dae (which I am happy about).