KDrama to Miss: Mine (2021)

 Mine (2021)

Grade: F

16 Episodes, 80 minutes each

Viewing Platform: Netflix

Despite numerous secrets, everything seems to be going well at the Cadenza mansion and Rubato annex, until one day a new tutor is hired for the 8-year-old Han Ha-joon. The new tutor starts doing inappropriate things at the annex, like dancing in the mother Seo Hi-soo's fancy dress, or acting like Ha-joon is her son. Hi-soo, Ha-joon's step-mother, can't help but feel the new tutor is strange, and soon she discovers her husband, Han Ji-yong, knew the tutor previously. Meanwhile Hi-soo's sister-in-law, Jung Seo-hyun, thinks she has everything at the houses under control – until the new maid attracts her step-son's interest, derailing him from her father-in-law's plans for the grandson to inherit the company one day. (Seo-hyun's husband is an incompetent alcoholic, and his sister has anger management issues, so neither of them are acceptable candidates.) Then it is revealed that Ji-yong is not actually the chairman's biological son, which is another reason the oldest grandson is in line to inherit the Hyowon empire. But what happens when Hi-soo discovers her relationship with Ji-yong was all a lie? Will she be able to escape the mansion and take her beloved step-son with her?

*This is probably the soapiest, most dramatic Kdrama I have ever watched – and I disliked it so much I had to watch it on 1.5 speed, just to get it over with. The music was better suited to a horror film, and there is such ugliness among the family members. Eventually the three main women team up to “take down” the monstrous (or just plain incompetent) men in their lives, making the whole theme a new wave feminist movement. Then there is a significant amount of time spent on one of the women and her lesbian identity, and on top of that, they have a quasi-religious person telling her that it “isn't a sin” (yet another example of western/worldly influence). Luckily the women don't end up actually committing a murder – it's just self-defense – but it's evident they would and could have lied to cover up a murder. Even if it's a terrible person, that doesn't justify murder; the hero needs to bring the bad guy to justice and let the law take care of it. Won't watch this again, and I definitely do not recommend it.*