Mi Mo (Jang Na Ra) and Soo Hyuk (Jung Kyung Ho) got married in a drunken haze, but spend many sober weeks trying to deny their attraction to each other. Complicating matters are attractive surgeon, Hae Joon (Kwon Yool), Mi Mo’s idol past, and her ex-husband and ex-boyfriend. Mi Mo’s former idol band mates also demonstrate other modern women problems: Dong Mi (Yoo In Na) is a spinster teacher looking for love in all the wrong places, Da Jung (Yoo Da In) has been estranged from her husband for years, and Ae Ran (Seo In Young) is about to marry a man who expects an open marriage.
Junggugeo Kaenada 중국어 캐나다: ★.5
Only 만: ★.5
Only 만: I was initially wary of “One More Happy Ending”, because the last time we covered a show about female friendships, “I Need Romance 3”, it ended badly.
Junggugeo Kaenada 중국어 캐나다: Unfortunately, I was won over by the wackiness of Jang Na Ra and Jung Kyung Ho. I loved how frantic and silly they were with each other. Silly me for expecting that frivolity to last.
Only: I suppose we were expecting too much comedy from this romantic comedy.
But, let’s start with what we liked about it. As you said, Jang Na Ra and Jung Kyung Ho had great comedic chemistry and they were eminently watchable when they were being funny. The show was at its best when it concentrated on their characters bickering.
Junggugeo Kaenada: Yes, Mi Mo and Soo Hyuk bickering in the parking lot with an audience of shocked tourists watching on, bickering after he saves her from the water, etc. I also laughed until I cried when Mi Mo tried to demonstrate her sexy moves to Soo Hyuk, ended up setting fire to herself, and Soo Hyuk had to douse her with water.
I also really enjoyed the appearance of Conan O’Brien on the show, and Jang Na Ra’s silly interaction with him. As pointless as his cameo was, it was as fun and frivolous as the best parts of the show.
Only: But, then we were thrown into the pit of angsty love triangles, longing looks, and random problems and the show went from funny and lighthearted to painful and slow. And, thanks to that, Kwon Yool’s character, Hae Joon, became completely unattractive pretty early on, which is a feat unto itself, given the actor’s charm.
Junggugeo Kaenada: So, they made the second male lead completely useless, then proceeded to throw in a rival for Soo Hyuk’s affections late in the series who did nothing but take up space. I don’t understand why they even bothered to introduce the rival only to have Soo Hyuk immediately state that he has no interest in her. Why was she there if not to provide some tension and uncertainty?
Only: I think the writers reached a point where they realized that there was no good reason for our leads not to be together, so they just tacked on some random problems, which mostly involved Mi Mo behaving like an idiot or a jerk, and then being rescued by Soo Hyuk. I can’t even vaguely explain why her ex-husband, Seung Jae had a late-stage comeback, if not to tack on yet another pointless problem.
Junggugeo Kaenada: Let us not neglect the secondary characters, because this show was supposed to be about Mi Mo and her three best friends.
Only: I only became interested in Mi Mo’s friends when the main storyline went south, and even then, I really only cared about Da Jung and Gun Hak. I wanted them to get back together so her persistent sad face would go away.
Junggugeo Kaenada: Yes, we wanted Da Jung and Gun Hak to be reunited simply for superficial reasons, because if we thought too deeply about the reason for their estrangement, we would have stabbed ourselves in frustration. As it turned out, they had a sexless marriage for several years, because she felt uncomfortable with her body, and did not care to communicate with her husband about this.
Dong Mi was this awful stereotype of the desperate and dowdy teacher. She only became interesting to me when she entered a noona romance with a man who can only be deemed a saint. He saw something in her that no one else could, and pretty much saved her from a life of lonely spinsterhood. The scenario was as offensive as Dong Mi, but the younger boyfriend was cute, and the things Dong Mi did to show that she could be down with the kids was amusing enough.
As for Ae Ran, the way they introduced her, I expected this shrill troublemaker. Instead, we got a woman hiding from her husband who suddenly became very committed to Ae Ran through no effort on her part. Ae Ran’s story line barely had any air time compared to the other characters, so maybe the writers forgot to build a believable conflict, and then, had to resolve it before time ran out.
I am finding it hard to review “One More Happy Ending”. This show just sucked the good will out of me.
Only: It’s frustrating because there are any number of fantastic scenarios for a pair of actors who are as great at comedy as Jang Na Ra and Jung Kyung Ho, and we ended up recycling boring tropes instead. Here’s hoping this pair gets their one more happy ending in a better show.
One More Happy Ending (한번 더 해피엔딩)
Noonas Over Forks 