Can We Get Married? (2012)

Can We Get Married? (2012)

Truth be told, I only watched Can We Get Married? because I am helpless when it comes to Bang SungJoon. I just want to watch everything he's in. You can say he got me wrapped around his fingers, heh. But sadly, he's pretty much the only reason why I stayed, too.

Don't get me wrong, I like this series. In fact, I think it's one of the rare ones that deal with situations so realistically. It's also rare to find a series in which we start with a boy and a girl and the marriage proposal. We don't meet them when they're just starting out. We meet them when they're about to start a married life, and this is pretty much what happens after the closing credits rolled after every korean drama.

It's so fresh for me, especially when we have Jung SoMin and Bang SungJoon, playing HyeWon and JungHoon respectively, leading the drama. They have been around Kdramaland for quite awhile now, but both of them haven't been on that many dramas yet. I think that's what's amazing about cable channels, they give chance to talents that haven't been tapped into much and end up giving us some of the freshest performances of the year. They are seriously one of the most adorable on-screen couples.

However, this drama made me realize something, and that's I'm not much into family dramas. Though Can We Get Married? focuses mostly on JungHoon and HyeWon's engagement, we also get a shitload of side stories focusing on the sister, the in-laws, the friends, the cousin, etc. This is why it's 20-episode long, this is why I felt like it it is too long.

At first, I enjoyed watching HyeWon and JungHoon struggle with the wedding preparations. Meeting the parents is no joke, and having both sides of the family agree on one thing puts the couple in awkward situations. They have crazy fights that they didn't have before the engagement, and it's interesting what it does to them. They show sides of themselves that wouldn't have been revealed if they weren't engaged.

Then it got too repetitive. The parents fight. One of them get hurt or arrive at a conclusion. They break up. They get back together. Repeat until fade.

It was tiring. I got tired of the mothers-in-law fighting all the time. I have more to say about this, but I think I'll keep it to myself since I don't have enough knowledge about the Korean culture. I do love JungHoon and HyeWon, but not even my love for them kept me from getting bored. Way too much time is spent dwelling on HyeWon's sister's divorce and the aunt's love life. It's okay at first, then about half of the episode is spent on them. Uhm no, I'm not here for them.With all that said, I still have to say that the theme of the drama's pretty consistent. Though they have tackled way too many side stories for my taste, they maintained it consistent all throughout the end. This is quite a feat because for a drama this long, it's supposed to lose footing by episode 16. Though it does get a bit dragging, it at least makes sure to stick to the main theme.

But then again, it's really the length that becomes its downfall. I guess when you have more hours to fill, you also feel the need to make sure that it reaches that number of hours, despite knowing that you can pretty much make it a lot shorter.

Can We Get Married? could have been a really strong drama if only it focused more on the lead and gave less time for the side stories. But I guess it all depends on who you ask.