REVIEW: It’s Okay to Not Be Okay
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Re-watch value: 3 out of 5 stars
SYNOPSIS
*From MyDramaList*
The story of a community health worker at a psychiatric ward who lives on 1.8 million won (approximately $1,520) a month and a storybook writer suffering from an antisocial personality disorder. A man who denies love and a woman who doesn’t know love defy fate and fall in love, finding their souls and identities in the process. Moon Gang Tae is a community health worker at a psychiatric ward who was blessed with everything including a great body, smarts, ability to sympathize with others, patience, ability to react quickly, stamina, and more. Meanwhile, Ko Moon Young is a popular writer of children’s literature, but she is extremely selfish, arrogant, and rude.
RAMBLING
*beware of spoilers*
This is one of the highest scores I’ve given a drama as of late, and I was so close to just going 3.5 stars, but I thought to myself, Stop being such a killjoy critic and tell the truth. Oh, and I caught up with this show just as the final two episodes dropped right when I was ready to watch those episodes. My timing with this one was impeccable—so rare!
I missed Kim Soo-hyun. I did. I never watched his starring role in The Producers back in 2015(!), although I did love his hilarious cameo in Crash Landing on You. But it’s just not enough! This show was a very nice showcase for him; and I found myself pausing the show to squeal and swoon at his perfect self before collecting myself and pressing play. I want to sing the praises of Seo Ye-ji as well; it was my first time seeing her in anything other than the supporting (forgettable) role in Hwarang since I haven’t seen Lawless Lawyer yet ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I was pretty much hooked from episode 1 with this one. Although I wouldn’t call it a full-on binge, it was a close call. Episode 1 featured a striking intro sequence with fantasy elements and gorgeous cinematography. Then, I was stunned with the stop motion animation! When it kicked in toward the beginning of episode 1, I was just shocked it was even there. It was a cool Tim Burton-esque flex. It’s nice to have that Netflix money.
The wardrobe they gave Moon-young… Let’s talk about this. She dressed so whimsically, dark clothes, glam gothic. It reminded me a lot of the styling from the movie Penelope (2007), except make it runway chic.
The synopsis doesn’t really tell you this, but this show heads deep into mental health territory, something K-dramas tend to skip. That made this drama very DIFFERENT. The last time I watched a K-drama unapologetically dive deep on mental illness and psychoanalysis was back in 2014 with It’s Okay, That’s Love. In fact, the two shows seem to be fraternal twins: both have leads who are authors, a love interest in the psychiatry field, a supporting character with a mental illness (Tourette syndrome and autism, respectively), cohabitation, and the lovers have to help each other heal from their own deep-rooted emotional scars. Wow, now I want to go back and rewatch It’s Okay, That’s Love.
By episode 3, I was trying to diagnose Moon-young. I settled on her being a sociopath, or (as the synopsis reads) antisocial personality disorder (ASPD). I looked it up, and it was textbook. The biggest upset I had with this show is that it makes the case that ASPD can be cured, and rather quickly and relatively easily as well. ASPD can’t be cured. It can be treated with therapy.
That being said, I had a little trouble with the show trying to desperately to portray Moon-young as this horrible monster. It seemed to me that she was just misunderstood? A little too goth queen for the small community? Sure, she gave off serial killer vibes, but it didn’t seem enough to ostracize her or enough for her father to, you know, try to kill her.
The romance between Gang-tae and Moon-young was actually some type of melodramatic fun. I loved how, for the first half of the show, she was constantly challenging him, poking at him, totally reading him like a book (get the pun?). He’s righteous and nice on the outside, but on the inside, he’s suppressing everything he truly feels. Gang-tae’s mother told him she gave birth to him only so that he could take care of his autistic older brother for the rest of his life; thus, he was only given value as a “useful” child. He’s been putting on a brave smile and gritting through the pain of life, hoping for the best but expecting the worst—faking it till he makes it. She preys on the fact that he wants to let go, live life, have fun, and ditch responsibilities.
By episode 11, the couple finally have this epic, steamy make-out session. Is it terrible that I had to rewind that scene just to take it in a second time? That kissing scene was totally worth waiting 11 episodes for; I was afraid the pop kiss with the flowers was going to be it for a while so I settled on the drought being inevitable. But damn. I’m the one that needed a cold bath after that one, not Gang-tae with his bull shit fever. On that note, the fact that the show actually acknowledged that his fever and sickness were plot related was great. Moon-young’s all like, “You’re feeling better??” And he’s like, “Yeah, it was lovesickness.” L O L
There was one sobering moment in episode 13 that stuck out to me. Moon-young brings up a great point after Gang-tae tells her that her dad is dying. Why do parents get a “get out of jail free” card when they’re on their deathbed? Why do they get absolved of their sins? Why should she forgive him after all the wrong he’s done? (Which is not exactly detailed at this point in the show; we only know from a flashback, and the present-day murderous encounter, that he tried to kill her.) Furthermore, if her mother was the abuser, then her father let it happen.
“The one who neglects and turns a blind eye to the abuse is worse than the abuser.” —Moon-young
This brings me to my next point: Every episode had a theme and explored one fairytale (for which it is named) and then there was a moral or lesson learned by at least one character. Instead of finding this preachy, I found it comforting. For example, the Zombie Kid story showed that you can be starved for love and attention yet still be capable of destroying what you love just to feel closer to that person or thing.
Kudos to the show for orchestrating a great twist: the head nurse was Moon-young’s mom in disguise! I guessed that it was going to come down to the older brother Sang-tae saving the other two (especially after the hospital director literally said that maybe one day Sang-tae might be of help). And I was right, he hit that bitch over the head with a big book of fairytales. Some might say that’s too on the nose, or that they ~hit us over the head~ with that, but I quite liked the strong irony.
Moon-young’s mom had a huge Palpatine moment, with her telling Gang-tae to kill her so her daughter could become a ~monster~ once again. She was manipulating everyone to turn to the dark side, commit murder so they’d be inhuman. She somehow knew that killing, succumbing to negative impulses, was what made people lose themselves to hopelessness and stay unhappy. I had a passing thought that she might be a nihilist since she was an extreme pessimist and seemed to have no purpose other than an impulse to destroy. But, I settled on the medical diagnosis of—batshit crazy.
Gang-tae the hairdresser?
A few stray thoughts:
A book critic that only reviews one author’s children’s book smells like an unemployed person. He can’t possibly get paid or backed by a media outlet to write about something so specialized as that. It just doesn’t exist.
The episode 12 sequence with the old man having a PTSD episode on the bus was brutal. The effects were amazing, with changing the view outside the bus to scenes of horrific warfare in Vietnam. So compelling.
Not sure why patients with dissociative identity disorder, recovering alcoholics, and veterans suffering from PTSD are all thrown into the same acute therapy psychiatric center, but I’m not too sure that’d fly in the states.
I haven’t seen this much blatant product placement/sponsorship of Volvos since the Twilight saga!
Subway continues to get heavy-handed product placement in these otherwise great K-dramas. As I said in my Goblin review, Subway is nowhere near that level of believability!
How in the hell did Gang-tae manage to clean up Moon-young’s bad haircut into a perfect bob? That’s just ludicrous!
All in all, you probably better crack open this fairytale before it whacks you upside the head. Take it from this psycho—this show is ~crazy~ good.
Did you see It’s Okay to Not Be Okay? Tell me your thoughts in the comments below!
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