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Kind of a Mess, But Still

At times it was almost painful for me to watch the k-drama series My Shy Boss, so it took me a couple of months to get through all of the the episodes. I think most socially awkward introverts who have been tormented by others over their shyness would feel the same. Although it has some major flaws, especially in the way the script was written, in the end I think it's worth seeing.

As CEO of a PR firm, Eun Hwan-gi (Yeon Woo-jin) occupies a penthouse suite and mostly avoids his employees, social situations and anything that would require him to speak in front of a large group or be the center of attention. He's also taken the blame for the suicide of his secretary, Chae Ji-hye (Han Chae-ah), after a tragic incident that involved his future brother-in-law and best friend Kang U-il (Yoon Park). Over the three years since Ji-hye's death Hwan-gi has kept watch over her younger sister Chae Ro-un, a stage actress with whom he falls in love.

Unaware of her secret admirer/protector, Chae Ro-un (Park Hye-soo) blames Hwan-gi for Ji-hye's death, as she believes he's a psycopath who drove her sister to kill herself. To take revenge and expose Hwan-gi while finding out all the facts about what caused the suicide, she gets a job with his company and begins digging and tormenting Hwan-gi. She manages to make Hwan-gi look like an overprivileged ass to the media, but gradually discovers he's not at all what she assumed. As she begins falling for her shy boss, the past comes back to haunt everyone involved in the night that led to Ji-hye's death.

Extroverts and party people may find Hwan-gi's character hilarious, and the series does set up some comical scenarios, but he wasn't funny to me. I felt his panic and distress in every situation as if it were my own. The hardest scenes to watch were when he has to deal with his politician father, who is loud, domineering and treats his son like garbage. Imagine being beaten, despised and screamed at by your parent for simply being shy and quiet.

I also didn't particular care for Chae Ro-un's character, as she came off to me as abrasive, clueless, shallow and wholly undeserving of Hwan-gi. By the end of the series I felt she redeemed herself slightly, but her romance with Hwan-gi really didn't work for me. I would have written off Chae Ro-un and instead paired Hwan-gi with his ex from college -- that's how much I didn't like her.

The story's central plot felt a bit too convoluted and over-done, especially as new revelations about Ji-hye's suicide never seem to stop coming. The resolutions were either non-existant or unsatisfying, too. It was as if the script writers had to keep throwing in extra conflicts to make the drama work. A lot of the problems in this series were also solved by the characters' acceptance, nothing more, which didn't make sense to me. So that's the other major flaw.

The reason I didn't give up on My Shy Boss was the acting job Yeon Woo-jin did with the title role. I fell in love with this guy, and I think he carried the whole series with his incredible performance. He had me so sympathetic that I couldn't stop watching; I had to know if Hwan-gi would get through it all in the end. I also thought his character was the most absorbing and true to life. An actor who can convince you that his character is real is top-tier talent, so I'll be on the lookout for Yeon Woo-jin now. Available to watch on Netflix in the US.

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