Currently Watching: Cheongdamdong Scandal

Ok, that’s it! I give up! I’m not going to add any daily dramas into my watch list. Do you know how hard it is to wait for a subbed drama to show up on your screen? Very hard! Like Only Love, I’m watching Cheongdamdong Scandal raw too. And who else I would be watching it other than Bel, right? I think we might as well move in together! We keep screaming and tweeting to why aren’t people subbing this fabulous drama? People! Please focus! Cheongdamdong Scandal is THE best daily drama ever made!!! No really, you heard me! I’m not joking! Only Love‘s momentum has died down a bit but CS keeps speeding at 100mph. You should be on board on this train coz the things these writers wrote to make this drama interesting is unbelievable! When you thought you figure it out the problem, OR when you thought the writers are going to take you into the usual familiar plot, think again! These writers are not hiding anything! You want fire? They give you fire! You want earthquakes? They give you a nearly 9.0 scale earthquake. And they don’t hide behind bushes. They’ll give you heaven and hell immediately. Nope, you don’t even hafta wait! Aren’t they the best? Why wait for another week when you can see it all on the next day! Bel and I were worried at one point! We thought if the writers give it all, what would happened next? Geogjeongma, they have it all figured it out for us.

This 100, 30 minute episode SBS drama started back in July 21. The story started pretty rosy. The atmosphere was very rich. Very picture perfect. The characters are well-dressed, living in a lavish lifestyle, well behaved and living rich. I was very impressed and I remember asking myself what could go wrong with this picture? I don’t see it. Well… The writers are extremely generous to their viewers. And then they roll out the craziness one layer at the time. They first introduced us to Hyun Soo and she did what any first daughter-in-law do best! Taking care of business! Her brother-in-law slept with another woman, she walked in and cleaned up the mess and send him home. This reminded me so much of Midas, an underrated 2011 kdrama. So that is our introduction of Kyung Hoo, Hyun Soo’s playboy brother in law even though he looks nerdier than playboy-ish. Later, we get to know how Hyun Soo and her husband Soo Hoo have been dying to start a family but continue to fail after numerous attempt. Now, these are the beginning of the disaster that what to come next. It turns out, Kyung Hoo’s source of sleeping around was because he doesn’t love his wife, Jae Ni. Obviously, he had an arranged marriage. Hyun Soo and Soo Hoo though are very much in love, and their marriage are based on love. So we now see two distinctive couple under one roof. And then there is a mother in law, Kang Bok Hee. I was extremely shocked when I first get to know her. She seems unreal! She is the holiest mother in law I have ever seen. Period. It was hard to believe that she later is the source of what the whole scandal is about!

The first craziness started when mother in law despise Jae Ni. Due to her family background, Jae Ni and Bok Hee always butt head and it left Jae Ni feeling envy and bitter with her, and envy towards Hyun Soo because she’s loved by the family. While this is going on, Jae Ni became pregnant through artificial insemination. Of course right, Kyung Hoo doesn’t love her, so why should he make babies with her? Hyung Soo envied Jae Ni’s pregnancy and she became a little upset, jealous and a little depressed. But behind all this, she later found out that she’s being fed birth control in her daily vitamin which supposed to help her pregnant! Guess who did it? YES, her beloved mother in law! Imagine the look on her face when she found out! And imagine that Hyun Soo did not sit still like any other character in kdrama, she confronted her mother in law right away! Yeah, my jaw was on the floor when she did it! I thought she would just going to secretly revenge but confronting her beloved mother in law is something I don’t predict! Wow! Now, let’s go back to Kang Bok Hee. Let’s step in on her side of life. Why did she do it? First, Hyun Soo is not her choice and it means Soo Hoo is defying her wish for the first daughter in law. Bok Hee loves Soo Hoo so much but angry at his chosen wife. In order to separate them, she did the unthinkable by offering vitamins that include birth control to his wife. Why? So she can use this as an excuse later that his wife fail to bear him a lineage. Heh, what a smart idea I must say! Jae Ni is the wife of choice but by marrying her, Kyung Hoo had to leave his on love. As a good son he is, he went on with the marriage but continue to see someone else. Bok Hee approves this marriage but dislikes Jae Ni but insisting of getting this marriage work, she did not include any birth control in her daily vitamin dose. There you have it kids… This is the start of the scandal that will escalate to even bigger!

So what is next? Well, not to get you excited too early but Hyun Soo left the house after she found out what her mother in law did. Kyung Hoo ended up dead. Yes, I know. We were shocked too! Jae Ni left the home after his passing and Hyun Soo despised his mom after what she did to Hyun Soo. Yeah, scandalous! There is 16 episodes left and what can you expect? Birth secret, stalker (yeah, you heard me!), love interest, love triangle, revenge and jealousy. Oooh oooh and not forgetting more lies. Bel wrote a fabulous mid point review on her blog and you can click here for more details. As much as we are dying to know how this show is going to end, we still couldn’t figure out how the writers will wrap Cheongdamdong Scandal. My biggest hunch, as I shared with Bel, that Hyun Soo will walk out of this scandal as a free woman, no strings attached. Would you agree with me? If you are as curious as I am, let’s find out together. Hopefully, SBS will re-released Cheongdamdong Scandal next year fully subbed. It’s a shame if you don’t get to watch this as this is one of the best daily drama I have seen in years!