The Good Bad Mother Review: Lee Do Hyun and Ra Mi Ran’s drama is worth investing your emotions in

Resentment can run deep. Human emotions are complex and in this game of survival of the ‘richest’ and ‘powerful’, it is these abstract and intangible emotions that often suffer. You can choose to go with the flow or swim against the tides. Either way, there will be consequences. The new Korean show, The Good Bad Mother, is about these emotional sufferings and a chance to pause, reset and reconnect.

A resentful son, a clueless mother and a chance at redemption, The Good Bad Mother uses these emotional strings to weave a slice-of-life drama. Set in a small village in South Korea, a couple, both pig farmers, nest their home, and are all ready to welcome a baby. Until a conglomerate head uproots the family from their roots. Now widowed, Young-Soon (Ra Mi-Ran) raises her son, Choi Kang-ho (Lee Do Hyun), alone. Feeling wronged by the system, she aspires for her Kang-ho to become a prosecutor growing up.

Young-soon (Ra Mi-Ran) leaves no scope for relief for Choi Kang-ho (Lee Do Hyun). She is stubborn and uses inexcusable violence against Kang-ho to discipline him. Kang-ho isn’t allowed to eat a full meal to avoid feeling sleepy while studying. He is not allowed a day off from studying. When bullied for being ‘fatherless’, the mother asks him to suck it up and instead focuses on climbing the ladder and becoming invincible as a prosecutor. His path was set by his mother.

TRAILER HERE:

Young-soon chooses to be seen in bad light by her son. Choi Kang-ho, deprived of mother-ly love throughout, harbours a strong sense of resentment. His resentment turns him into a cold-hearted prosecutor, who finds it difficult to empathise. Now somewhat powerful, Kang-ho becomes what his mother wanted him to fight against. One accident gives this mother-son duo a chance to reset and reconnect.

The first two episodes of The Good Bad Mother establish the backstory of our protagonists. One is usually trained to see things in extremes, black or white, but humans by nature are not governed by these laws. Humans are complex. Sometimes there is no right or wrong in what one chooses to do. A sign of good writing is when the writer leaves enough room for interpretation for the viewers with regards to the character development. In this case, writer Bae Se-young doesn’t villianize either Young-soon or grown up Kang-ho.

She makes the characters believable and instead of justifying any act by them, the story focuses on telling us what it is. The use of eccentric supporting characters in the village setting is interesting. Mi-Joo (Ahn Eun-Jin) plays the role of Kang-ho’s childhood friend and her parallel storyline adds another layer of human connections to The Good Bad Mother.

READ | OTT platform releases to watch this weekend

Although focused primarily on the relationship between Young-soon and Kang-ho, The Good Bad Mother’s biggest strength is its writing supported by extraordinary performances by Lee Do Hyun and Ra Mi Ran. The duo share a great understanding onscreen. Lee Do Hyun is a chameleon. Just a month back, he left viewers bewitched in The Glory and now, as a cold-hearted prosecutor, he is flawless. Ra Mi Ran is a delight to watch. Her switch from turning a ‘bad’ mother to being vulnerable is heart achingly beautiful.

The show is directed by Sim Na-Yeon. The show will now be building more towards the reset that an accident leads to in the life of our protagonists.

Is The Good Bad Mother worth investing your emotions in? Definitely!

It is currently streaming on Netflix. The review is based on the first two episodes. New episodes will drop on every Wednesday and Thursday.