Grade: A-
Category
Revenge melodrama
What it’s about
A young man out for revenge falls in love with the stepdaughter of his first love, a woman who betrayed him after he gave up everything in his life to protect her. Makjang and madness ensue.
First impression
From its very first scenes, this drama is a high-octane thrill ride
that promises a wealth of soap-opera-style pleasures. Murder!
Intrigue! Evil stepmothers, shrewish young women and manipulative
young heroes-disguised-as-villains! Seriously...what’s not to like?
Midterm exam
Midterm exam
Final
verdict
No matter how much I love Korean drama,
it’s a rare thing to come across a show that I would feel safe
recommending to anyone, no matter what their personal interests. Nice
Guy is one of the few shows that fit this bill—it does most everything right, and the things it does wrong are easy to overlook. It’s a
near-perfect mix of the things Kdramas do so incredibly well:
romance, intrigue, and melodrama. And unlike most television shows
(whatever their continent of origin), it even rewards thoughtful
viewing and deep consideration.
With its carefully
structured plot full of subtle reveals, exciting reversals, and
ambiguous, nuanced antiheroes, Nice Guy’s script takes
what might have been a vehicle for soap-opera makjang and gives it
real emotional heft. On the surface, its
story contains the same old hoary elements that come up in all
melodramas: miserable childhoods, tragic illnesses, and chaebol power
struggles. (Amnesia, every drama writer’s magic-bullet plot device,
makes a few fortuitous appearances, too.) But these things are just
window dressing: this show’s true soul is found in its characters
and their journeys. On the voyage from degradation and desperation to
strength and wisdom, they clash again and again, nearly destroying
themselves and each other.
It’s the viewers’
good luck that this deeply flawed group of characters is brought to
life by a stellar cast that delivers almost universally spectacular
performances. From Song Joong Ki’s steely-eyed “nice guy” to
Moon Chae Won’s fiery heiress and Park Si Yeon’s beautifully
damaged, ruthless social climber, its actors regularly say more with
a single look than could be contained in a thousand pages of
dialogue.
Nonetheless, Nice
Guy is not perfect. Its first half was dragged down by dissonant,
cartoony elements in the Choco/Jae Gil storyline. And by the last
stretch of episodes, the complicated plot started to feel more like
an intellectual exercise than an emotional one. The finale also left
a little something to be desired, as far as I’m concerned. It
didn’t really resolve the workplace storyline (I guess the winner
was the person driving the nicest car in the coda?), and for a show
that’s all about the importance of taking responsibility for one’s
actions, the male lead got off the hook awfully easily. (For more involved, spoilery discussion of the coda, scroll down to the cut line at the bottom of this post.)
While it might not
be my favorite show ever, Nice Guy is still one of the finest
examples of its species: dark and drawn to the things that
break us, it explores the horrible things people will do to save
themselves, and the precarious ways they can earn redemption for
them.
Random Thoughts
• Episode 3.
Kudos to this show’s makeup department for using Ma Ru’s
wounds as an excuse to lovingly highlight Song Joong Ki’s delicate,
finely wrought features. That’s the kind of craftsmanship I can get
behind.
• Episode 8.
So they made a huge deal about her leaving with nothing in the
previous episode—and now she has a car all of a sudden? What? It
was even specifically mentioned that she left her car keys behind at
home...did she carjack some poor ajumma?
• Episode 12.
The harmonica. LOL. The harmonica...did Ma Ru pick up some mad
mouth harp skills in the pokey, or what?
• Episode 14.
I appreciate that narrative demands that the good guys don’t
win until the last minute, but must they always be such idiots along
the way? How could Ma Ru not be smart enough to have someone
physically verify the person they were meeting? This bumbling might
turn me team Jae Hee after all.
• Episode 14.
I’m in mourning for poor Eun Gi, who started out a spitfire and has
since lost every iota of personal agency. On the bright side, at
least she’s still allowed to speak, which is sort of more than you
can say for the heroine of Will It Snow at Christmas, an
earlier drama written by Nice Guy’s screenwriter.
• Episode 15.
Only in Kdrama fandom would knowing that someone opened their
eyes during a kiss be a spoiler of a Dumbledore-dies level of
awfulness. And yet, they included this very moment in the next
episode’s preview.
• Episode 16.
In life and in television I’m all for people getting what they
want most, but I can’t even consider the possibility of Choco and
Jae Gil ending up together. They have cute, sibling-style chemistry,
but he seems way too old for her and they’re a terrible physical
fit. The thought of them really kissing makes my skin crawl a
little...but I still suspect the show might be headed that way.
• Episode 16.
The only other show I’ve seen by this screenwriter is Will
It Snow at Christmas, which I also really liked. It’s
interesting that the two dramas have similar plot structures—each
has three separate, nearly self-contained story arcs, as if someone
hit the reset button mid-drama. This show’s beginning was all about
Ma Ru’s obsessive love for Jae Hee, its middle was about Eun Gi’s
struggle with amnesia...and now we have to wonder what the final four
episodes will hold. Lots of twisty-turny betrayals and a happy
ending, I hope.
• Episode 16.
So I just realized what the combination of Song Joon Ki’s little,
girlie face and his rough man hands reminds me of. The cover of Tiny
Fey’s Bossypants.
• Episode 17.
The icing on the Nice Guy cake? Seo Eun Gi having a
nervous breakdown as she wanders around in her wedding dress, like
Miss Havisham’s long lost Korean granddaughter. Well played, show.
• Episode 19. All the acting in this show is good, but the bench scene in this episode is actually stunning. For that one moment, we see the true Ma Ru, with all his flaws and graces etched right into Song Joon Ki’s suddenly not-so-handsome face.
• Episode 19. All the acting in this show is good, but the bench scene in this episode is actually stunning. For that one moment, we see the true Ma Ru, with all his flaws and graces etched right into Song Joon Ki’s suddenly not-so-handsome face.
• Episode 20. The cherry on the icing on the Nice Guy cake? The fact
that the finale’s opening credits have a different ending than the
ones for the rest of the episodes. It’s like every single thing
about the drama has evolved during its run.
• Episode 20.
I think the coda is filmed in one of the (gorgeous) spots
prominently featured Padam Padam—the bakery and vet’s
office are in the very same building, even.
Watch it
You might also
like
Screenwriter Lee Kyung Hee’s other dark melodramas, including Will
It Snow at Christmas?; I’m Sorry, I Love You; and A Love to
Kill
