Terms of Endearment (2004)

The drama descended into the depths of revulsion with its gratuitous and sensationalistic approach to storytelling, leaving us appalled by its lack of subtlety and tact. Its heavy reliance on cheap tactics and low blows served only to alienate and inflame. The writing veered into the abyss of absurdity, sacrificing logical leniency and impartiality for the sake of eliciting visceral reactions. Broken balance system by design to further push this same narrative. A case in point, Eun Pa and Yun Tek as well as their individual paths. There was a big opportunity for the drama to do some real character reflection but it decided to ignore it, it only did it very briefly with Eun Pa in the first 1/3 of the drama. The drama had the audacity to deliver a message at the end of the drama from the cast members on what the "terms of endearment" means while miserably failing to portray what they preached in the message itself, pathetic and shameful. There were two main stories running in parallel, one for each of the sisters, however, they didn't interconnect well. The older sister had her world falling part, yet she was always emotionally discharged and normal when helping her younger sister, detracting from the seriousness and tension of her own story. On the other hand, the third sister was utterly useless in the entire dynamic, she should have played the linking bridge between everyone. In general most of the stories remained underdeveloped, cut short or had no direction, even the side ones, despite having a very generous long runtime. In its quest for conspicuous sensationalism, the drama lost sight of any memorable qualities, leaving us disheartened by its blatant disregard for a reasonable delivery to what it preached.