This drama is the story of some many people, myself included, that I had no other choice than watching it.
My Shy Boss (Introverted Boss, Sensitive Boss, Introvert Boss) is a romantic comedy. Ro-Won used to play in musicals, but, one day, she decides to become an employee of the biggest PR company. As soon as she enters the company, she has other goal in mind than exposing the true nature of Hwan-Gi, the shy and reserved CEO of the company who, she strongly believe, pushed her sister to commit suicide.
As always, I tried to keep the review without spoilers, but, stay careful, since some might be hidden in my review without my knowing.
I’ll just do a separate review for the first five episodes and the last tenth of episodes, since there were changes (positive changes) in the script after that point to make the story more likable to the viewers. As said before, those changes were a true lifesaver for the series in my opinion, since they really made it more enjoyable and hoked me in the story of the characters.
The first four episodes set the story base. In other words, we learn who Ro-Woon is and why she decided to go in this PR company, but she appears as a really dislikable character as she’s too extroverted for her own good. She made me slightly uncomfortable by always pushing it too far. Also, it gave to many people the impression that the calm and reserved Hawn-Gyi would be better with his secretary than with the overly pushy Ro-Woon. The story was kind of tiring because it wasn’t relatable at all. The story is quite usual. I mean, it’s overseen the fact that one of the lead is responsible from the other lead’s loss of his family. What was original was that it wasn’t set in mafia drama or something like that. The circumstances around the death of Ro-Woon’s bigger sister are quite unusual as well as the reason behind it, but I’ll cover that later. Also Ro-Woon’s has a goal that’s quite understandable and realistic.
The fifth episode is the turning point in the story, since it presents the story behind the death of Ro-Woon’s sister. It was a well-thought idea, but I felt as if having a whole episode of flashback really broke the pace of the story and slightly confused me. I mean, there was no use to put such episode there and, when the sixth episode come, I had to rewatch the end of the fourth episode to make sure I’ll follow the story. You know, I watched it when it was still on air, so there was week between the watching of the two episodes and the fifth episode didn’t help me keep up.
Then with the sixth episode starts a really good series. I mean, the episodes after the sixth are simply genial and well-paced. They clearly illustrate the battle of power in our society through many characters and many different situations, which makes this light and heartwarming series based on the romance between those cutie pies quite serious sometime by treating of subjects that are a bit heavier such as depression, obligation, suicide and integration in a middle of work. The ending is quite satisfying, since it has just the right amount of happy and, by then, everything is explained.
For what is of the characters, I’ll just cover them from the episode five onwards. In the revised version, both of the leads are adorable and seems to be in perfect synergy. The female lead has an acceptable attitude, even though some time she seems to overstep her boundaries in a quite forceful way, which surely made the male lead quite uncomfortable. She’s quite typical by being the outgoing female lead who always tries to do her best to help the male lead, but, after all, such personality fits perfectly the story and helps making it interesting. The male lead is quite relatable (when it comes to being introvert. I mean, some time, I was watching and was like ‘’That’s exactly what I think in such situation’’ You know, when he’s overthinking everything) and his development is the best thing in the whole drama, according to me. His personality is quite used in kdramaworld, but it’s nicely explored in the drama and helps making the story a bit more intriguing when it comes to the death of the sister. Also, most of the characters at the exception of those in Ro-Woon’s family (even though her mother wasn’t the nicest of the supportive character, since she (SPOILER) literally let herself die after her daughter’s death, abandoning Ro-Woon (which is kind of understandable, but I won’t accept because it’s devastating for the daughter who’s left behind), and her sister wasn’t really giving the same vibe as the rest of the family), the second female lead (who’s completely genial because she’s such a sweetie and doesn’t seem to try to push forcefully Ro-Woon away when she learns she’s kind of dating Hwang-Gyi) and the members of Silent Monster (who are, by the way, completely awesome, since they allow the story to be kind interesting because they each have their own personality and character that is developed through the drama and explains their abilities as well as their way to interact with others) give quite a bad vibe. I mean, most of them appear as completely unlikable. The second male lead has awful motives and he, even if around the end we learn that he’s quite a troubled character with his one issues, should just keep away from Ro-Woon and stop causing her trouble. Hwan-Gyi’s sister is a character that is difficult to like as well as the whole family because they appear quite badly in the story, even though their evolution is quite interesting. Maybe you haven’t noticed it so far, but, in this drama, the characters’ development is a true must and is truly enjoyable, since it’s well-thought and quite realistic. None of them does a complete 180 and their changes are subtle, but are, at the same time, quite important because it really affects their way to comport themselves around others or to deal with their reality.
I’ll conclude here, since it’s already long enough. The plot would deserve a 7/10 simply because of the first episodes who truly weren’t enjoyable and weren’t really interesting. The characters would deserve a 4/5. The tearjerker factor would be a 2/5.