Jealousy Incarnate #review

질투의 화신

Romanization -  Jiltooui Hwashin
Genre -  Romantic Comedy, Drama, Family
Writer -  Seo Sook hyang
Network -  SBS
Episodes -  24
Released  -  2016, Aug - Nov

CAST

PLOT

Depicts the fierce competition at a broadcasting station and the love between anchor Lee Hwa shin and forecaster Pyo Na ri.
Pyo Na-ri has had a crush on news anchor Lee Hwa shin for three years when things change after she meets Go Jung won, a chaebol heir and close friend of Hwa shin.

REVIEW

Loved it.

Hilarity throughout, although I found myself on a guilt-trip numerous times due to my smirking at and giggling about a subject as dead serious as breast cancer.

Hmm.

And, I wouldn't say this was Jealousy Incarnate, either, although enough of the negative emotion cropped up in these 24 episodes, the intensity and severity of them just wasn't Incarnate enough to my mind.

Na ri is your average (typical) Korean do-gooder on the set of a Seoul Broadcasting network as forecaster, and for 3 years she's carried a unilateral torch for heavyweight news anchor, Hwa shin.

For three years, Na ri kisses ass, bows down, succumbs to the whims of others, and passes herself by time and again in the name of 'nice girl' (doormat).

Everyone abuses, confuses, and refuses her until one day she ends up on an overseas assignment with her long-time crush and his best bud, handsome Chaebol heir Jung won.

Jung won treats Na ri different.

He's interested in her, he's patient with her, and he shows outward affection for her, which causes Na ri to rethink her former methods and emotions while it also manages to stir up the titled Jealousy in go-getter Hwa shin.

The three return to Seoul with 3 new ways of thinking, feeling, and doing.

It takes awhile for Hwa shin to admit to those changes while his handsome bud Jung won is moving full steam ahead with his plans to woo Na ri, and Na ri seems just as interested in starting afresh with the heir to a high-end Anchor store.

Jung won supplies the newsroom outfits, and one of the anchors is slated to become his wife (as per his mother's intentions).

But then Hwa shin becomes ill, and it is up to Na ri to help him through the situation in order to prevent the station manager from discovering the situation.

If Hwa shin is ill, he'll lose his last chance at becoming a nightly news anchor, and (this isn't a spoiler because it is overly obvious throughout the drama) Na ri will do anything to help him.

It ends up where Na ri is forced to have to choose between the two guys, and so the three decide to live together for one month in order for Na ri to make the right decision. 

Jung won is thoughtful, helpful, and flexible while Hwa shin remains stubborn, egocentric, and determined to get his way.

Na ri is overly concerned about being responsible for breaking up a long-standing friendship.

SECOND LEAD SYNDROME

As strange as it might sound, my answer is no.

Na ri and Hwa shin worked too well together, had a past together, albeit a rocky, one-sided one, but the two together equated to magic with the spell already cast and which could not be broken.

Not even by someone like Ko Gyung pyo.

Who did an impressive and relatively easy job of stealing the show and running with it for the duration, I might add.

In reality, I would say the opposite.

In reality, Na ri needs to let go of her one-sided love and work just as hard to accept Jung won, the man who (in reality) would serve a far better purpose if marriage is indeed the goal.

If you gave up on Jealousy Incarnate, I would recommend that you to go back and try again because yes, the beginning was somewhat sketchy with an inability to decide its genre (is it a melodrama, a medical drama, a comedy, or a suspense drama?)

But, once the leads return to Seoul from SE Asia, the story takes off like a jet plane, trust me.

And, yeah, there were two aside stories (one that really had no business being inserted about the high school kids) but the people involved are all related in some way, so it maybe confused the writers at one point, who knows.

No Ken dolls, not as much catty bitch as you would expect, and a decent love story that included a fair amount of actual romance to keep me interested and rooting for the right team start to finish.

A feel-good with enough comedic relief to relax the anxiety build-up in each episode.

Could have done well (maybe even better) stopping at 16, but again, I think it was worth the entire watch.

THE YEPPEUN