Monthly House (2021)

Good Enough

Korean Drama "Monthly Magazine Home" is a slice of life drama with a fun couple as the main focus.

The drama offers enough cute moments, like the colourful tips on how to save money in order to buy a house. The main couple was, in addition, the biggest provider of these moments as well, especially the male lead, who was frustrating at times, but funny and enjoyable overall. The romance was also pretty sweet, but the progress was messy and close to a slow burn. The love triangle was not well handled either. Still, the side characters were interesting enough to keep things aloof and entertaining when the romance was failing to live up to its potentials.

However, what makes this drama not as good as it should have been, even though it checked all the boxes of an enemies to lovers trop, is that it is forgettable, as it didn't offer anything special, and the ending was bad. The latter was open, confused things for no real reason and it was just ridiculous. Plus, looking back, the drama didn't really leave any impression, nor had anything to say. It was just an office rom com with no sufficient plot.

To boot, the characters weren't well explored, as the story offered a few clues only when it came to their past life. However, the performances were great.

So, overall, 6 out of 10.

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Un excellent drama vaudevillesque

Même s'il est vrai que je suis un inconditionnel de Jung So Min, mon jugement ne me semble pas obscurci en affirmant qu'on a affaire ici à un très très bon drama, lequel a beaucoup de similarités avec l'excellent Because This Is My First Life, autre drama avec Jung So Min avec pour trame de fond l'accession à la propriété et les difficultés de se loger en Corée. Sauf que Monthly Magazine Home est beaucoup plus drôle, plus fantaisiste, pouvant s'apparenter à un vaudeville avec des personnages hauts en couleur à l'instar de Kim Ji Seok en patron ambivalent et maladroit, la sémillante Chae Jung Ahn ou le burlesque Kim Won Hae, dont le personnage n'est pas sans rappeler son rôle dans le drama Chief Kim.

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Lesser than the sum of its parts

This may not be al all-star team, but "Monthly Magazine Home" has a high caliber of talent at the top of the credits. Kim Ji Suk may not have a history as a lead but he's been a standout as a supporting cast member. Kim Won Hae has an incredible resume'. Jung So Min is unquestionably a quality lead actor. Chae Jung An has stolen more than her share of scenes in previous work. And for a good chunk of of this series, they play a terrific melody together. But it doesn't last and, while it remains an entertaining show, "Monthly Magazine Home" falls short of making the memorable performance that this cast is capable of making.

Kim Ji Suk's Yoo Ja Sung is the character with the most significant growth, but while the character matures and grows, his charm vanishes. Ahn Chang Hwan has a series of episodes where he is scintillating but his tendency to overdo comedic scenes is unfortunate. Kim Won Hae, similarly, bright moments mixed with less than his finest work. Jung So Min is terrific where her character has material for her to use. But Na Young Won just winds up being rather bland.

There's plenty of criticism for the storyline in later episodes and there's merit to it, but things started to go awry much sooner. It really begins with some clunky direction at the halfway mark. Kim Ji Suk, in particular, has some extremely awkward blocking in what should be touching moments with Jung So Min. All the supporting characters are asked to recycle the same lines for rapidly declining comedic returns. And there's quite a bit of extraneous cast that are present for a large amount of the show but are given almost nothing to do. What's more disappointing is that there are multiple devices that work well for much of the series that completely vanish shortly after the halfway mark.

Credit to the wardrobe people for an incredible collection of sweaters. The Jo Yuri track "Story of Us" is terrific and one of the best soundtrack entries of 2021. The houses featured are absolutely stunning.

Overall, "Monthly Magazine Home" is a nice show. It has flaws and some are noticeable. It also has a nice collection of positives and quality moments. It's not strongly recommended, but recommended nevertheless.

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This drama has a Unique concept it makes interesting

I love this drama cause it's unique concept and it's very entertaining and realistic and I got so many life lessons in life. I hope this drama will be discovered by the young generations they really needed this. And to the cast Kim Hi Seok a little bit older but I can see their undeniable chemistry. Maybe because Jung So Min charm makes good chemistry to all her leadingman. And now this drama is ep7 is getting better and better can't wait ep8❤️. Maybe because of its unique concept the others cannot find this interesting that's a big no! U need to watched this and see you goona like this.

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If you like drama born from immaturity, then this show is for you!

I just can't with this show. It's love-hate - and mostly hate it at this point. It look me awhile to figure out why this show grates on me so much. There are many reasons but the main one is that the show has 30 and 40 year olds going around with the emotional maturity of teenagers. It's bewildering and, in my eyes, a complete waste of storytelling and talent.

The female lead is a complete pushover devoid of personality and severely lacking a backbone. Let's just turn the feminist movement back by a century, why don't we?

The male lead has redeeming moments, but the show somehow thinks it's okay/endearing/funny for him to display circa 1990 kdrama toxic male behavior?!

The only redeeming factors about this show and why I continue to watch are Kim Ji Seok (Ja-sung) and Editor Nam, who are delivering great comedic and dramatic acting gold.

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Cliché

At first I was a little hesitant to watch ( because i don't like concept of poor FL and rich ML) ,but anyways I gave it a try .Till now I never regretted it. THIS IS MY FEELINGS AFTER WATCHING 4 EPISODES.

For some odd reasons i dropped it. I think i watched up to 7 -8 episodes, after that i don' t feel like continuing it any more. It does feel like its not interesting anymore.................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

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Even experienced actors couldn't save this

Not sure what happened here. A story about the troubles of the property market viewed , through various characters circumstances, and make it a rom, com? It just wasn't funny, and seemed to suggest that its OK to put up with bullying and abuse, by your boss, your 'friend', work colleagues, ex ,and even your parent, and just about every sort of abuse, which the FL just had to put up with to keep a job, and find a home. It was set in a modern day office, so really there is no excuse for promoting this idea of the work place. Not sure what the writers were thinking, did someone get an idea, and then just not understand how to write the rest of it?
The last straw for me was about episode 6, something happens to the FL and her reaction is just so wrong, I book ended it, watched the last three episodes just to check I hadn't missed something, nope, it was worse.
All the actors in this are talented,it seemed to be directed to act to extreme caricature, to work the poor script. Well done to them for trying,
I watched this about two months ago, as of writing this, and it still makes me cringe with its awfulness.

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Great start, fell off

The first ten-ish episodes were amazing. First of all, the plot was light but also very fun to watch. The last 5 episodes or so reminded me of literally every drama that I've watched: the ML/FML running in circles, and away from each other. If you enjoy these types of romcom plots, binge tf out of this drama! It'll probably be a 8/10 or higher for you.
Though I have to admit, the comedy aspect of this whole show was off the charts. The cast never failed to make me laugh every episode

Is this drama for you? Yeah, if you like
- Minor love triangles
- Wholesome, cute relationships
- A happy ending for everyone
- *light* frustration due to the plot

// SPOILERS, FINAL THOUGHTS //
I feel like the drama could've ended on episode 10, or even better, 8. Some might think I'm exaggerating, but I really feel like it should've ended when they confessed to each other. The writers were obviously adding in some cliché events (taking a trip together and breaking up at the end/love triangle/angst through small fights/time skip, it's endless) to drag out the drama for 6 whole eps imo. It was worth watching, but some would see the last episodes as a bunch of extras/filler episodes :) they were nice to watch though

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Bom, mas poderia ter sido melhor

Demorei um pouco para engatar no amor por esse drama, o começo realmente me deixou irritada, e a Na Young Won ser tão condescendente com tudo que todos fazem com ela me deixava muito nervosa. O Yoo Ja Sung não ajudou nem um pouco, já que a implicância dele no começo me dava nos nervos, gosto desse tipo de casal que se forma em meio a implicância, mas estava de mais. Quando finalmente o romance começou foi maravilhoso, as cenas fofas deles como casal me deixou com com aquele sorriso bobo o ep todo, na primeira separação é compreensível, já que como boa amante de K-dramas e C-dramas isso é algo mais que comum de acontecer, ok, porem na segunda separação foi completamente sem sentido eles passarem tanto tempo separados principalmente pelo motivo da separação, eu realmente estava amando esse drama, mas esse final me decepcionou, não foi um final horrível, longe disse, já assisti outros dramas que deixaram finais bem piores, mais foi uma decepção muito grande, de um drama que eu realmente não esperava me decepcionar assim.

no geral acho que vale a pena assistir principalmente pq tem boas lições e personagens bem legais.

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Feel good, light rom-com

If you are like me and you're watching Devil Judge and Penthouse; sometimes you need a breather from all those dark, heavy scenes.

This rom-com is just right up my alley. First off, I love that the setting is bright and sunny. The casts each lend their talents to portray a group of co-workers with just the right amount of sense of humor. It is a workplace which I can only dream of.

The storyline, particularly when it comes to house surveying, is a bit unique. I enjoy learning about the different Korean locations and real estate prices. The subscription angle is also something new to me, so I had to research it first to fully understand why you need a subscription to own a house.

I am glad that Kim Ji Suk is being given this break. He delivers his line comically and his role suits him well. Both he and the FL also show great chemistry together.

Still, I am only half way through this drama; but I don't find anything boring about it so far. Although from what I hear, the ending could have been better

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an underrated balanced combination of realistic plot+cute romance

i wont deny,it is a typical trope BUT i would still recommend you to start it. what impressed me the most was the plot. although the male character is shown to be the typical "rich man" he has risen from hardships and efforts. plus points for that. it is going to be a typical rom com trope but hey its not like we dont like our typical kdrama romance. the side story of the male lead is quite intriguing too! its a nice and different mixture with cutesy romance. everything shown tho typical, its very realistic. how the female does small small things to save up its very easy to relate because of the realism. it makes the drama even better! love it! id recommendit for a nice light romcom drama :)))

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