To be honest, I don't know what to feel about this drama. This show had been airing on my TV for awhile now. Overall, it just feels cliched (and lazy) but again I am hoping for execution rather cliche so I am keeping on that. Korean dramas aren't my thing (I only saw like three Korean dramas in its completion so far) so I'm not an expert on that.
On, one hand, there are interesting enough characters including the sociopath father Tae-sung. There is the good family, the Na's and then there's the really toxic family, the Lee's.
When the comical events like the big sister of Young-ja, Young-jin and the mother of Ye-ra Mi-ran are really funny, hell even the fighting between Mi-ran and Tae-sung were quite funny.
However, as time went on and as people started to get more information (sometimes be omission; there are still lies by omission like by the main girl protagonist or just straight up lying like the sociopath father) and really starting to go into this big chess game, I kept seeing that things will explode.
Ye-ra is really setting up herself for what was Nurse Song's word again "laughingstock" with her unprofessionalism. She can't separate her work from personal life at all; inserting her business into others is just another sign of her spoiled brat behavior all just for her hatred for Young-ja, for the jealousy that her fiance Ji-wook is more impressed by that girl rather than by her. Even when she was repeatedly told off for her behavior (up to deliberately changing the menu of the beauty class), she still doesn't understand and learn from her mistakes. Ji-wook and Sung-jae told her off about her behavior yet she still can't understand and take responsibility. All she acted to her father is the messenger of what everyone else is doing...giving him a tracker albeit not a really reliable one because she has the tendency to act out in her bubble of jealousy and hatred. Even when she was told off by even the President, she doesn't understand what she does wrong because to her, her life is more important than any other person, not taking in consideration of why people kept calling her rude.and horrible or even why she does horrible things because it's unacceptable; she won't even admit that it was her own damn fault that she nearly lost her head in jealousy when forging the damn document for the beauty class. Young-ja made it explicitly clear to Ye-ra's intended Ji-wook that she is not interested in him and the interactions I saw between Young-ja and Ji-wook are simply friendly (must be because Ji-wook already confessed to her and he saw how uneasy she got after the love confession but he will still care for her like a decent human being) that are sometimes misinterpreted by Sung-jae, Young-ja's love interest, and Ye-ra herself. To be fair of Sung-jae, he is at least reasonable and keeps his head on straight unlike Ye-ra's impulsiveness regarding her love interest.
She was sympathetic at first (because of unrequited love) as Ji-wook rejects her advances and his insensitivity but grows increasingly unsympathetic as time goes on (like the aforementioned forgery) as Ji-wook continues to grow as a person and as a leader. Their upbringing and personalities are drastically different but they are foils. Both suffered from unrequited love and makes many mistakes (although none would be as bad as Ye-ra's forgery and tendency to lash out when she doesn't get her way) but when one listens to people's comments, the other makes it incredibly clear it will be all about her, refusing to see her wrongful actions as wrong but as just.
Tae-sung...He really is setting up himself for such a fall. More and more people are coming out to the woodwork to confront him on his betrayals, greed, pride, etc. because he really is such a dbag. His general abusive nature to those he hates (like the Na family) is not surprisingly based on his own treatment of his son, wife, and sometimes daughter; I really do think it's a miracle he even chose to marry Mi-ran and reproducing. On the moment he said that it's frustrating (It's all your goddamn fault in the first place!), the next he is happily destroying and ruining people's dreams and lives. Even his Romeo son, Sung-ho is one of his many victims. From an omniscient narrator, the person he is most afraid of is the President (who is quite reasonable authority figure) because with them exposing everything he had done (up to harassing her at every turn) would leave him with nothing...which would happen. His casual manipulation to destroy the Na family and Nurse Song (like the reveal of Song's baby) was to induce in-fighting so they can destroy themselves.
Really, these two from the way they are going and how they are avowing to destroy the lives of other people they hate, I cannot see their futures as bright, going to jail.
Now, the Romeo and Juliet, Sung-ho and Young-ji respectively, really do love each other of the two families who really do hate other (and it's not a petty feud as it was in the play because the mothers legit hate each other, the sisters legit hate each other, the fathers really legit hate each other, the son-in-law legit hates the father, everyone in the Na family (with the exception of toddler) hates Tae-sung) has far too many external forces keeping them from together. Even the main protagonist allows her vicious hatred for Ye-ra gets the better of her and would not allow her sister to be married just so she cannot be related to Ye-ra. Mi-ran even tried to bribe her son's love. The Na family really does regret how their family's hatred is getting in the way of their love because the father Bong-il can see that the son really is a kind person from a family of temperamental horrifying people. Even Young-ji was shocked to see how could a kind son be produced by such a man.
Edit: I am crying about the show's laziness. When they want characters to know something (albeit limited due to not getting the whole conversation), they will make Ye-ra learn it and be the one who spills the beans. Literally. She is just so impulsive and not really that calculating unlike other characters in the show like Nurse Song and her father, Everything is escalating until Mr. Kang, the president, will learn just how complicated and stupid the entire situation is. Not even Mrs. Na is rather shocking given her actions. I am still sympathetic to her but she and Mr. Na is not answering what Young-ja is increasingly learning. She may be a foster baby they took in but she is raised as a Na.
Also, y'know sterile Sung-ho... yeah, he got Young-ji pregnant. I'm just... not speechless but it's just so lazy. I thought they can do without the pregnancy thing. Even eloping is better than a pregnancy plot. Because a marriage between the two from two opposing families would make more drama because one] it is the consented decision of the married couple and two] the families would come to blows faster than a jet, leading to more drama escalating. Baby drama is just stupid at this rate. Look, I know the drama centers around an OB/GYN, babies. The series is called Start Again and what is the symbolism of babies? New life, beginnings. Having an unplanned pregnancy for a couple who we already know is perfectly fine without them and even Young-ji even admitted that she would adopt, for a man who is sterile. To see a relationship that doesn't need to have pregnancy involved but a couple who can adopt (regardless of how long it would take) in a show that had a pregnancy from a selfish greedy man and a kind but incredibly cunning nurse (her daughter definitely inherited her wit and kindness although she was also taught that by her foster mother and father). I thought the show could think outside of the box rather than be lazy. Bend what it means to "start again". Marriage? Fine. Babies? Regardless of your symbolism, be flexible and show that the couple doesn't need to have babies to be together. It is their own choice to be forever, dating for seven years now. Marriage for them would cement what they have been feeling for years now, not a baby that the two already know they can't have and suddenly have.
How I would love to discuss the villainous family of Lee.... Jesus, almost all of them are spoiled and temperamental, even Sung-ho. However, the only sane Sung-ho realized his mistakes (of forcing Young-ji) and tried to prove himself as worthy. Even Bong-il, who hates the Na family, realizes that this boy and his daughter's love is getting collateral damage from their feud. The second sanest I supposed would be the comic relief mother Mi-ran who runs into the situation, her head's off (a trait she shared with her children) who at least tried to help her son (but at the worst possible way possible; bribing and threatening his son's love, threatening the Na matriarch after working with her to find her son...which she did find but drag him away from the happy sphere he had with his love in the worst possible way). Tae-sung and Ye-ra are the most insane of the lot; Tae-sung just for all the evil stuff he is doing and Ye-ra who is deliberately harming her chances at both love and at the workspace although to be fair she doesn't understand why people keep calling her out because of her upbringing. Ironically, her brother ends up the sanest (up to seeing that his sister faked being injured just to gain sympathy points).
The two families and Nurse Song has this confidante to go to. She may not have all the details because they are lying by omission to her or just not telling her the bubbling mess. She's wise and just allowed somebody to talked to.
Edit: As it turns out, Young-ja turns out to be the biological daughter of Nurse Song and Tae-sung, therefore, half-sister of Ye-ra and Sung-ho. The execution is just so...tired and lazy; I don't feel the emotional beat in it unlike how I love the emotional beats in You From Another Star; in that drama, the sincere love story coupled with well-written character development is one of its good points, it's just so sincere. So Young-ja isn't a biological daughter of the Na family after all.
Ji-wook is great. His character is developing from a meek and sweet boy to a leader of his own right. He starts taking initiatives regarding the Tae-sung's continuous incidents and his love life. He can be a little insensitive at times and makes many mistakes but he is using Young-ja and his best friend Sung-jae as a model instead, learning from his mistakes. His relationship, if there were any, with Ye-ra is doomed to fail. She may continue to love him (and I do think she does love him) no matter how unrequited it might be but most of the time her thought process is MEMEMEMEME rather than actually take Ji-wook in consideration of his feelings and why he told her why her actions are so horrid.
Sung-jae... The actor does a great job with his reasonable authority figure and his own issues regarding his wife's death. He was horrified when his wife's death was used as blackmail and a bargaining chip in the escalating mess because he knows that his wife would not like that at all. He was moving onto a second love in Young-ja and that is the point: moving on. He doesn't react with jealousy (maybe a little given he mistaken interactions between his best friend and Young-ja and Ji-wook did say he confessed to her). At least we know why he got a wife first well before everyone else in the main cast did; his kind and gentle treatment of other people as well as how reasonable he can be.
Young-ja is growing so much into herself. At the beginning, she is a hardworking and intelligent doctor-to-be (all her life she had been studying to be a doctor for the past six years) and now she is growing more confident and standing up for what is right, using her intelligence to defeat the two insane Lee's. She is growing into her kindness and genteel to help others.
Overall, there is nice characterization. It's more character-based as characters' actions directly influenced the situation around them, worsening it by every second.
Plot-wise, I can see why people call it cliched. I worry more about execution though because cliched is cliched...let's see how they do what they can with these cliches; for example, HTTYD movie does a great job with the cliches. Teen Wolf does a great job playing with tropes.
A horrible execution of cliches would be Frozen which did a bad job subverting tropes (if ever...just look at my review). It doesn't even examine tropes at all but just say it. Saying it does not mean they are examining. They have to show. Teen Wolf does a great job with show vs tell whereas Frozen tell a lot.
If you really want me to pick between Jeff Davis or Ryan Murphy, you will see me pick the former every time. Both are not perfect which is why I never buy into authorial worship in the first place, even William Shakespeare. Murphy did create American Horror Story and Glee (whether or not you like it, you have to admit it did change society in a way) after all and Jeff Davis was the creative brain behind Criminal Minds (before he was fired and have his show up for adoption; seriously he was planning to have Reid be bisexual and would be likely coded to be bisexual just like Stiles and really the fact there is a similar dynamic between Derek Morgan and Derek Hale & Stiles and Reid up to age differences, bisexuality, sexual abuse that the older man suffered, Moreid would have likely been endgame should Davis had his way and the network had not chopped it because Reid and JJ never went anywhere, just remaining a "pack", not a clique like the McCall "pack" but a pack like the Hales, all the other alphas for heaven's sake. Hell, the reason why I think the flirting that had been going on between Garcia and Morgan is because that is likely set up similarly to Draeden/Stalia and they would not end up together anyway in a long-term fashion as opposed to Moreid which would have likely something similar to Sterek. As a writer, there are things one would cling to and never let go, using it for other stories too just like how I often parallel with canon and use of fairy tale/myth/fables so for Davis, it is the slow build homosexual romance with age difference, bisexuality for one of the males, sexual abuse for the other man, trust and saving each other with a relationship where the sexually abused man is able to find himself at peace and the quirky hyper-smart man is growing up and becoming into himself. Yeah, had Davis was able to get his way and be the showrunner of the show he created instead of being the creative executive, we will see that the BAU would be full of jerks and it's best displayed in the pilot too. All of Davis' characters are assholes one way or another with awful character traits and flaws and exceptionally well-written. Hell, I think Criminal Minds would likely end early should Davis had his way because now that Teen Wolf is on its last season, it's going out with the bang with the Wild Hunt, something that had been foreshadowed as early as S2.). The main difference between them is that at least Davis is utilizing everything he knows from media (Teen Wolf is best compared to an anime, an acquired taste because the show has a lot of critical thinking you need to have) like anime and video games to the point he forgets to signpost whereas Murphy, while he does love his job, is as subtle as an elephant dancing to Eurovision music, the bad kind, not the decent or okay, just literally bad like France's "Mustache" bad. He's like Eurovision, to be honest.
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