The Atypical Family || Series Review

It's been a while since I watched a drama. I mean watched a complete kdrama. It's been a while since I did that. Don't get me wrong. I've been watching other movies. Just not K-dramas. And then, yesterday, I was in the mood to watch a drama. I scrolled through the dramas I already had and I came across The Atypical Family.

This movie since it aired, had been in my To be Watched list but I kept from watching it for a while for some reasons. Still, I looked forward to when I'll get to watch it and yesterday, while I was looking for a K-drama to watch, I came across it once again and decided to watch it.

Another thing that fuelled my decision to watch it was the way a friend of mine had talked about how interesting the series seemed. Although I'm not really keen on hype, I took her seriously because it's the first time she actually recommended a series to me. So, I watched The Atypical Family and I was totally engrossed.

The Series is a total of 12 episodes, each with a run-time of 70minutes. It stars actors Jang Kiyong (Bok Gwi-ju), Park So Yi(Bok I-na), Chun Woo Hee(Do da-hae), Ko Du-shim(Mrs. Bok)

The first episode opens with the Bok family sitting on a cliff, overlooking the beach. Mrs Bok (the mother) complaining about how the family is doomed if nobody in the family can use their powers anymore. Each member of the family has a superpower but they all lost their powers to different modern day diseases. For instance, Bok Gwi-Ju who has the power to go back to his happy moments in the past is too depressed after he lost his wife to go into the past. Bok Dong-hee, Gwi-ju's sister lost her ability to fly when she became obese. Mrs Bok who has the power to see the future in her dreams is down with insomnia. Therefore she can't sleep to dream about the future.

In the midst of her complaints, Gwi-ju disappears. The whole family thinks he got his power back but after a while, they see someone being dragged out of the water. They all run towards the other side of the river and see Gwi-ju being dragged out of the water. He actually dived in. He didn't go into the past. He is resuscitated by a young lady (Do da-hae) and mistakes her for his dead wife and hugs her deeply. His family walks into this scene and his mother begins to look forward to his marriage with the mysterious girl but she forgot to get the girl's contact.

The next week, Mrs Bok goes to a spa looking for a masseuse that will help her sleep. Surprisingly, after getting a massage, she sleeps off. She wakes up and requests for the masseuse and sees that it's the same girl that saved her son on the beach that day. She begins to invite Do da-hae over to the house in hopes that her son will fall in love with her and maybe no longer be depressed. Meanwhile, Do da-hae's plan is to scam the family of their money. Things begin to go awry when Do da-hae finds out that Gwi-ju's daughter (Bok I-na) has the ability to read minds by looking into one's eyes. Although the whole family isn't aware of I-na's power. Even her dad, as he is too busy drinking than be bothered about her welfare. I-na is the first to discover Do da-hae's plans but instead of disclosing it to her family, she's quiet about it saying Do da-hae needs to teach her grandmother a lesson for being so obsessed with superpowers.

During the time Do da-hae starts to live with the Bok's, Gwi-ju begins to turn a new leaf when he discovers that he can now return to the past once again. But he can only return to the past where Da-hae is present. More like his happy moments with Da-hae. Also, Do da-hae's plan to scam the family starts dwindling when she begins to catch feelings for Gwi-Ju.

I totally enjoyed the series. Firstly, the female lead was really smart. Her manipulation techniques were topnotch and she delivered it well. Also, Park So Yi who acted as I-na did justice to her role. I loved her character so much. To me, she was the highlight of the series. From her relationship with her father to that with her boyfriend, I loved it all. I've watched her in other dramas and she is very very talented. At this point, I think she's one of my favourite child actresses.

Also, I loved the cinematography, the uniqueness of the plot, the character development and how the series progressed. It wasn't too fast, neither was it too slow. Although I can't say the same for the ending which seemed rushed. Apart from the fact that it seemed rushed, it was baseless. In the last fifteen minutes of the series, it felt like I was watching something else entirely with the same characters from the initial series. It left me confused how the tables suddenly turned. This was really disheartening.

Did I enjoy the series? Yes. I totally enjoyed it notwithstanding the fact that it had flying as a superpower (I hate when characters fly. It's cringe 😂). Now, I can tick it off my To be Watched list. Yayyy!!!

Well, I'll give the series a rating of 3.9/5. Lesser points due to the unsatisfying ending. If you are looking for a drama that is intriguing and soft, this drama is definitely for you (That's if you're okay with watching dramas with dissatisfying endings).

Thanks for reading.