[HanCinema's Drama Review] "The Greatest Thing in the World" Episode 2

Unfortunately, the drama has apparently decided that simply choosing to be a mother and hanging around with villainous characters is all the context needed to make Woo-Seon a likable character. Is professional rival Yoo-Ri catty and mean? Yes, but Woo-Seon deliberately lied to the production company about not having a medical condition in order to secure a stage role she cannot possibly perform. I can't worry about Yoo-Ri discovering Woo-Seon is pregnant when Yoo-Ri and the entire production company have a right to know about this.

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Is ex-boyfriend Jae-Soo an unsupportive jerk? Sure- but Woo-Seon's the one who chose to have sex with him and is now choosing to have his child. It is horrifically short-sighted of her to act so adversarial- having a child with an ex-boyfriend requires a certain amount of diplomacy, and she's choosing to engage in comeuppance dramatics that may satisfy a comedic desire for vengeance, but is astonishingly immature for an adult woman to take in the long term. Irritatingly, all of Woon-Seon's problems could be solved by just having an abortion- but this prospect is never seriously discussed, nor does the drama give us any reason to believe Woon-Seon would be a good mother.

It's annoying because on the flip side the teenage subplot is much stronger, even as its genre trappings are much sillier. We get a closer look at the relationship between Bo-Hyeon and his noona Ja-Yoo- yes, he actually calls her that, with adorable idolized puppy dog eyes, and it says volumes about their relationship. I very much get the feeling that she's the one who initiated sex, because he'll do absolutely anything she tells him to without stopping to question whether it's a good idea.

It makes for a compelling narrative, because it seems clear that this dispute over what to do with the baby is the first time Bo-Hyeon has ever felt so strongly about something that he'll move heaven and earth to change Ja-Yoo's mind instead of just accepting her opinion. And we actually do get a sense that Ja-Yoo's not as heartless as she seems, and that she could be a good mother- just not in the traditional sense which, understandably, is completely incompatible with Ja-Yoo's larger life goals.

Overall "The Greatest Thing in the World" is an awkward mix of the good and the bad in unplanned pregnancy narratives. I really enjoyed Bo-Hyeon's story but didn't like Woo-Seon's narrative at all. The two don't really parallel or overlap in any interesting or compelling metaphorical way. On the flip side, the drama is still quite funny, so I'm willing enough to recommend it on that basis alone. This drama is more of a light-hearted way to bring the topic of unplanned pregnancy into conversation than it is an attempt at a serious artistic statement.

Review by William Schwartz

"The Greatest Thing in the World" is directed by Lee Eun-gyoo, written by Kang-ha Ji-eun and features Choi Yoon-young, Lee Sang-yeob, Jeon Min-joon and Goo Eun-ae.