Happy Ending Outside the Fence (2022)

unique dynamics with confusing execution

Overall: the bizarre editing/timeline in the beginning and lack of explanations made this unnecessarily confusing. I did like the different take on a love triangle. Aired on GagaOOLala and Viki.

Content Warnings: harassment, manipulation

What I Liked
- this was a love triangle that I actually liked
- a morally gray character (aka good intentions, wrong actions)
- good production value (except for the odd editing)
- a female character who wasn't a stalker fan or evil ex
- the ending

Room For Improvement
- this has some bizarre editing and I had to re-watch the beginning of episode 1 to figure out what was happening, as an example in episode 2: first minute is a partial recap of episode 1 set 3 years in the past followed by five minutes of new scenes (presumably still in the past), then at 6 minutes in there is a recap of the last episode in the present and a new scene added, then at 10 minutes of 26 minutes we have the final scene of episode 1 and new scenes from then on
- they should have actually shown the kiss right away to explain their relationship three years ago and then they needed to confirm what their relationship is in the present
- never really explain what happened in the past or how all the "plans" would actually work
- lack of agency from Jung Woo and our supposed hero did the exact same thing that the villain did with making choices for Jung Woo instead of making choices with Jung Woo
- multiple mediocre kisses

Question - is self-publishing not an option in South Korea?

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Bad try...

This drama main problem is that it wants to be deeper than it is.
So in order to appear as mysterious and artsy as possible it throws us viewer in the middle of the plot without any explanation and keep being vague enough.
Character introduction or their motivation – nope - puzzle them yourself from what you can observe, maybe then they will make deeper sense.
So we have three main characters that storyline joggle from person to person with time skip – making one confusing start of drama.
But okay middle part for sure will clarify it for everyone, right? Nope.
What big crime Cha Jung Woo commit to be banned for writing under his own name? Everyone speaks of it in such vague manner that its just scream that script wants to appear more than it is. In days of digital printing and self-published book this whole storyline just don’t make sense the more you think about it.
Making main points of storyline vague doesn’t make drama artsy or deep.
As for romance – just forget it. Leads don’t have chemistry, their romance plot line is not cute or believable they just woke up one day and decided – Oh I want to be with that guy.
There is nothing memorable about this drama – maybe except this song they use.

Overall I watched worse dramas but also many better ones.
If this drama didn’t pretend to me more than it is – it would be a much better experience.

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