[HanCinema's Drama Review] "The Heirs" Episode 18

It would seem that the immense effort tha previous episode made to convince the viewer that yes, the Kim Tan / Eun-Sang separation really is serious this time, was actually just an elaborate trick so that the drama could do the same plot, again, without it feeling too repetitive. I have to admit that it worked- there simply isn't enough time left at this point for "The Heirs" to try and stir up drama by separating them again. And I did have that brief optimism, for one episode.

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But that's pretty much entirely gone now. This episode is immensely exhausting in the way it just keeps going on and on about the Kim Tan / Eun-Sang connection, wringing its hands about awful the situation is, until finally we get to a climatic moment where they finally resolve to do something to finish off the drama's issues once and for all. How any of this is supposed to relate to meaningful opposition from Kim Tan's father I have no idea. The guy's not much of a villain if he can't even issue an order to his subordinates saying "don't help my son, and especially don't help his girlfriend".

Actually, the Kim family patriarch isn't much of a presence at all here. So far as I can tell the main thing keeping Kim Tan and Eun-Sang apart at this point is a psychological barrier. Which only makes so much of the conflict up until now that much weirder. Both of these characters were defined, in the early episodes, as being largely immune to that kind of emotional manipulation unless it was coming directly from a sibling.

Speaking of which, apparently something really important happened with Kim Won's subplot off-screen. The last time I remember seeing his girlfriend (outside of the school, where she's been curiously underutilized) was when Kim Nam-Yoon humiliated both her and Kim Won just to make a point. I guess they must have just been dealing with psychological barriers this whole time, too, since I can't imagine what else could have possibly happened to make their problems go away.

The focus on Kim Tan and Eun-Sang lately has made it all too clear how important the supporting cast is to "The Heirs"- and just how insufferable the drama becomes when we don't have any of these various subplots to distract anything. About the only plotline of interest anymore is the Cinderella story. Which might be all right, except that the main thing that made "The Heirs" interesting early on was the indication that the social structure itself was the villain rather than wicked relatives. So much for that.

Review by William Schwartz

"The Heirs" is directed by Kang Sin-hyo and written by Kim Eun-sook and features Lee Min-ho, Park Shin-hye, Kim Woo-bin and Jung Soo-jung.