Start-Up SPOILER Review: IYKYK 🤡🍜

I concede defeat. The writers have spoken and we must accept the outcome. However, as I am a ragingly passionate Han Ji Pyeong fan, I am extremely disappointed at how this drama was executed. There’s something incredibly unsatisfying about watching 16 episodes of a drama (some an hour and a half long) and having your favorite character not receive the happy ending he/she deserves. It creates discontent among viewers and frustration about the lack of closure. If anything, I’ll never forget this drama for how poorly it wrapped up the second main lead’s story, and for using the best character of the entire show as a doormat for the main characters to step on.

There was an attempt to give a second male lead a first male lead intro story to subvert traditional drama tropes, but it ultimately enraged half of the fanbase. This drama tried to do something unique and interesting with its love triangle, but it was executed incredibly poorly for fans of the second main lead. Since Suzy (Dal Mi) and Nam Joo Hyuk (Do San) were on the promotional posters, us seasoned drama watchers probably already understood that they were going to become a couple at the end. But this drama did something unusual - it presented Kim Seon Ho (Ji Pyeong) an entire backstory and emotional tie to audiences in the first episode, which was fabulous and a great introduction to the story. In a way, this drama was trying to subvert the traditional drama tropes by giving the second male lead a storyline and a character that was typically reserved for a first male lead. I would have been ok with the fact that Ji Pyeong wasn’t going to be the main love interest, but the more you got to know the character, the more you realized how sweet and great he was. His relationship with Dal Mi’s grandma was incredibly adorable and he had a charm about him that kept fans laughing and wishing for him to succeed. So how exactly was this drama going to convince us that Do San deserved the happy ending and not Ji Pyeong? Long story short, it’s not particularly successful.

I’m convinced that more than half of the people out there that watched this show (as I’ve seen through polls and maybe my own blissful ignorance) were solidly Team Ji Pyeong because he was the most stand-up and well-written character. He had to overcome the most challenges in his life, he was a self-made man, and he did not lie or cheat his way to victory. In the last episode, his line on the rooftop to Dal Mi about how “even after 15 years, I didn’t go to look for you, but Do San went to look for you on the first day” was absolutely crushing. To me, the writers used Ji Pyeong to try to validate to the viewers that Dal Mi made the right choice. Sure, Ji Pyeong made mistakes and missed opportunities, but it’s painful to me to understand that Do San somehow ended up with his loving family, the love of his life, and his dream career, while initially riding on the coattails of one of the only joyful memories from Ji Pyeong’s childhood. It’s so tragic that the character with the saddest backstory and hard-working disposition did not receive the thing he craved the most at the end of the story - love and family. You could argue that he would always have love from Halmeoni, but from the ending, I still felt like Ji Pyeong would continue to live alone in his apartment and only have his work as comfort.

While Do San is presented as a lovable and awkward coder, he’s not a persuasive male lead. He’s a lost character from beginning to end, because despite the emphasis on the theme about “follow your dream,” his only dream seemed to be loving Dal Mi and saying yes to every business idea she wanted to do. Kind of a weird character motivation for a drama that seemed to be built on emphasizing career passions and growth.

Ultimately, Ji Pyeong and Dal Mi should have had a deeper connection through the letters they wrote to each other. It’s so unrealistic that something that had impacted Dal Mi for practically 15 years of her life could be overridden so easily. I guess a few weeks of physical presence can trump any emotional connection. Ok in all fairness, I do not hate Do San, and I am actually ok with the fact that he ended up with Dal Mi in the end. These two characters deserved each other, because they were both at the same point in their careers, they were there for each other, and they related to each other’s growth and challenges. What I did not like was how the story dragged out the love triangle (further discussed later) and used Ji Pyeong as the doormat that eventually brought the main leads together. He did not deserve any of it, especially after he won all of our hearts and became the star of this show, in my opinion.

By the midpoint of the series, you realize this drama is becoming lazy and inconsistent as it throws away the interesting plots from the beginning to drag on an increasingly infuriating love triangle. These characters had so much potential when they were introduced to us in the beginning, but by the middle, the engaging storylines were thrown aside to give us a “who’s it gonna be” battle between Ji Pyeong and Do San. The whole plot-line about the Dal Mi & In Jae’s family reunion got brushed over a lot in this drama and wrapped up quickly in the final episode. Honestly, In Jae was a great character and she barely got any screen time. There was also a lot of wasted potential with the competitiveness of the start-up and business environment. I thought the best parts of this drama were the parts where we were learning about how start-ups functioned (in a romanticized way of course). I loved the hackathon episodes, but ultimately the drama favored the romantic drama versus the career-related drama. And finally, the really dark plot about how Yong San’s brother committed suicide because his start-up failed seemed to be going somewhere really interesting, but it was extremely under-explored. There was so much potential there to talk about failure in the business world and how to cope with loss, but again, more screen time was dedicated to the agony of the romantic love triangle.

While Dal Mi was introduced as this confident and self-sufficient decision maker in the beginning, she became this girl who did not know how to properly recognize her own feelings or give other people closure. There was this three year time skip that was basically a useless plot device, because during those three years, it was like the characters barely did anything or grow emotionally. All that happened was that they got more money and could afford better outfits/cars. What’s upsetting is that Dal Mi led Ji Pyeong on for three years because she knew that he liked her (he confessed over noodles!!) but she would not give him a solid answer about whether or not she liked him back. It’s also clear that she was hung up over Do San the entire time, so the least she could do was end Ji Pyeong’s (and the viewer’s) misery. The writers underestimated the significant fan base that was sticking around for Ji Pyeong’s happiness and started to throw us fan service scenes of Ji Pyeong and Dal Mi interacting with each other. A lot of us were fooled into believing that Ji Pyeong had a chance, hence why we called ourselves clowns.

In conclusion…

The scenes with Han Ji Pyeong were the only scenes that kept me going. I could not stop myself from scoffing at Do San and Dal Mi every time they were shown to do something romantic. I was also bawling out of FRUSTRATION in the very final scene where In Jae, Dal Mi, Do San, and Ji Pyeong walked side by side into the “sunset” and the closing credits. Ji Pyeong is truly an angel of a character who, at the end of the show, still felt very much alone to me while everyone else was happy with their growing families/coworkers. What exactly did they have to show for Ji Pyeong’s happiness? NOTHING. It was implied that Ji Pyeong was doing the same thing he was doing from the start of the show (aka he did not have character growth at all). For 16 episodes of me wanting Ji Pyeong to be happy and mourning all of the pain he was undergoing, this was such a slap in the face. But anyway, I know this is just a drama and there’s no point getting riled up over it. The toxicity of the fans hating each other really got to me, and I feel like I’m becoming toxic the more I engage. I hope that everyone had a good time watching this drama and discussing it with their friends or the internet! It truly was a conversation starter LOL.