[Drama Review] 'Lucky Romance' - Episode 16 (Finale)

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Posted by eric_r_wirsing Friday, July 15, 2016

Hwang Jung Eum, Lee Soo Hyuk, Ryu Joon Yeol

LUCKY ROMANCE -- EPISODE 16 (FINALE)

"The note pinned to my chest reminds me to smile. How am I doing?"

Gary leaves his agency to sign with Amy, who is now an independent agent. Dal Nim and Ryang Ha are tying the knot. Bo Ra leaves for Seoul to find Soo Ho, the mysterious man that Bo Nui won't talk about. He helps her wheelchair onto the sidewalk, but she doesn't recognize him. Later, both Bo Nui and Soo Ho attend a competition to find investors for their games. Each of these games complement each other and they both get funding. They move back in to her old apartment, and the gang shows up for an impromptu housewarming party. The next day our heroine and Soo Ho walk to the park where they broke up, and he says yes to her marriage proposal...

They wrapped it up nice and neat, but I pretty much knew where it was going. It was fun to see Ryang Ha and Dal Nim acting disgustingly cute, though. And we get not one but two marriages. Would that be two OTPs, or a TTP (two true pairings)? I was hoping Gary and Amy could find someone too -- but I think those two make a cute couple, frankly.

"It says there's a Pokemon gym ahead..."

One of the things I'm happy about is that they dumped the idea of prophecy. I will admit that there are things that we can't understand about the universe, about how the quantum realm influences our own and is in turn influenced by our world. No one really knows if there are ghosts or if you can truly tell the future. But I don't think it's a matter of pushing the right buttons and the right thing happens. Our future is always changing; each choice we make changes what happens down the road. We are our own future, and that's something Bo Nui needed to learn.

Speaking of learning things, I think Soo Ho also underwent a transformation. He needed to learn how to feel. I think he was not necessarily emotionally unavailable, I think he just buried his emotions in favor of business. To him math and science are the purest activities that you can do. That is his joy. And math was the metaphorical sand he buried his head in when Amy left.

That awkward moment when you realize you have nothing clean so you wear your suitjamas

I'm also pleased that it was a happy love story. The melodramatic elements had me a bit worried. Melodrama means something bad has to happen. At any time any one of those characters could die, especially Bo Ra. And really watching the news these days is bad enough. We don't need to manufacture reasons to be depressed or anxious.

In the final analysis the series itself was a bit uneven. It came to a satisfying conclusion, but there are certain assumptions that we don't know if we are meant to question or not. I'm inclined to question the truth of fortune telling, but there were certain times during the series where the drama seemed to wholeheartedly embrace it. Fortunes are fun, don't get me wrong. There's a certain pleasure in cracking open a cookie, pulling out the piece of paper inside and reading it (not to mention eating the cookie). But the series was a bit inconsistent in both tone and philosophy. I'm just glad common sense and love won out.

Why are they really partying? Because filming is done?

It was an adorable series though. I had issues with some of it, but it just feels like nitpicking now. The finale was awesome, and everyone lived happily ever after. And that's the best that can be hoped for, right?