2017 in review || (2/15) ↦ Best Mini Series (4 episodes or less)
⤷ Individualist Ms. Ji Young/The Happy Loner (KBS)
A not-so-typical enemies to frenemies with benefits to lovers story, Individualist Ms. Ji Young takes two characters with deep abandonment issues and lets them create their own conflict. While Ji Young and Byuk Soo share similar histories, they’ve internalized the abuses of their childhood in completely different ways. Byuk Soo craves human comfort and care and interaction. Ji Young walls herself inside her apartment, unwilling to let any living thing–even a plant–touch her.
What I love most about this drama is that it lets Ji Young be hurt. It lets her be depressed. We get to see her getting professional help. A lesser drama would’ve let him be her fix-all. But he’s not. It’s not a switch that’s flipped and she’s alright again. Ji Young’s struggles with her trauma over the course of the drama, and it’s with the help of everyone around her–not just Byuk Soo, but the ladies she works with, her patient, that she’s able to make peace with her past.
Despite being only 2 episodes long, this drama delivers on all fronts. We get two incredibly well-developed characters, we get a lovely romance. We get thematic bows and symbolism and cute grocery shopping scenes. We get kisses. Lots of them. And though I will complain and wish I had more of these two, the story manages to do it all in two hours, thanks to some incredibly tight writing. I’m going to be watching this again and again and again.
