It is very rare for me to initially love a kdrama only to have it fall apart about 2/3rds of the way through and become one of the most frustrating shows I can remember ever watching. Unfortunately, “Dear Hyeri” is one of those shows. Despite a stellar cast, a fantastic premise, and the opportunity for some really emotional storytelling, the show somehow decided to forego all of that and avoid any attempts at doing a deep dive into mental health and healing. Instead it began to focus on an unlikeable character, as though the writer realized that if they didn’t humanize him quickly, the audience would turn against the show. Well, this audience member certainly turned at the attempt to gaslight the female lead into liking a character who throughout the show had only been awful and brutish in his treatment of the woman he supposedly loves.
“Dear Hyeri” was written by Han Ga-ram (“When the Weather is Fine”), and co-directed by Jung Ji-hyun (“Search:WWW” and “Twenty-Five Twenty-One”) and Han Seok-won. It was produced by Studio Dragon, who is one of my favorite production companies in Korea, having previously produced such beloved shows as Love Alarm, Crash Landing on You, Sweet Home, “Doom at Your Service,” “Happiness,” “Queen of Tears,” and Love Next Door (just to name a FEW of the many shows they have in their history). When I see the Studio Dragon logo pop up during the opening credits, my expectations immediately rise, knowing that they primarily produce high quality content. However, even the best production companies can end up with shows that disappoint.
“Dear Hyeri” is about a TV announcer named Joo Eun-ho (portrayed the brilliantly talented actress Shin Hye Sun), who has been tirelessly working in relative obscurity for 14 years. At the same news station she works with her ex-boyfriend, Jung Hyun-oh (Lee Jin Wook), who is a star TV announcer. We quickly find out that Eun-ho suffered from trauma after the mysterious disappearance of her sister. Her ex Hyun-oh has some childhood demons to deal with as well, the avoidance of which caused his breakup with Eun-ho years prior. Unbeknownst to Eun-ho and those around her, she suffers from Dissociative Identity Disorder as a result her past trauma, and has developed another personality named Hye-ri, an outgoing woman who works as a parking lot attendant. As this other personality, she meets a TV announcer at a competing news station, Kang Joo-yeon (Kang Hoon), who is reserved but fascinated by the quirky Hye-ri, and they soon begin to date.
The show started out strong – the first two episodes were fantastic at establishing Eun-ho’s innate struggles, Hye-ri’s fun sparkle, Hyun-oh’s ongoing smarminess and Joo-yeon’s growing softheartedness. We were introduced to characters unable to process pain openly, instead choosing to either ignore or push down any attempts at healing. From those two episodes, I felt this show had such a promising plotline that I really looked forward to seeing Shin Hye Sun take over this dual role, while watching a show that surely would make a real statement on the importance of seeking important mental healthcare and creating proper channels for people to find that help and get support from family.
Instead. INSTEAD. Instead we got a show that devolved into an ex-boyfriend who completely gaslit his former girlfriend and treated her like garbage, spoke down to her, moved between making her think she has a chance with him again and completely rejecting her. We had a second male lead who was mostly sweet and earnest with Hyeri but needless mean to the woman he worked with who made clear she had a crush on him. And then the awful storytelling culminates in episode 8 when Eun-ho overhears that Hyun-oh is getting married – something Hyun-oh had repeatedly told her he would never do while they were together. Already teetering on the edge, Eun-ho suffers a serious mental breakdown and disappears for a month, under the guise of letting Hye-ri take over and find happiness in light of Eun-ho’s “failure” to do so.
At one point, Joo-yeon confronts Hyun-oh during Eun-ho’s disappearance and breaks the news about Eun-ho’s DID. Hyun-oh’s reaction is to get upset that his ex-girlfriend is dating someone else. Joo-yeon’s later comment is that he is in love with both Hye-ri AND Eun-oh because to him they are the same person in some respects (although he ruins that sentiment by basically adding that he prefers Hye-ri).
And despite Hye-ri writing in a diary that she’ll take over to find happiness because Eun-ho had no success, we never see Hye-ri again. Eun-ho spends her month in the woods and comes out supposedly ready to take control of her life and let go of Hye-ri for good. Let me say that again – we’re meant to believe that somehow Eun-ho healed her fractured self all on her own while hiding out in a cabin in the woods, and comes back well-adjusted and able to dip right back into her life. WHAT?!
And not only that, but she takes back Hyun-oh, breaks it off with Joo-yeon and then forces people to attend a good-bye party for Hye-ri and tell her (through Eun-ho) goodbye one last time. It was surreal. And to be honest, I’ve left a lot out – there were other things that happened during the course of the show that frustrated me to no end, but suffice to say that this write-up should suffice.
My hope for Kang Hoon, who played the second male lead, gets roles that allow him to flex a bit more. He has shown in past projects that he has great emotional range, but was not able to display that here.
I don’t recommend this show UNLESS you want to watch Shin Hye Sun portray two characters in one show. The reason it gets the score found below is because Shin Hye Sun is always fantastic, the OST was good, and the very effective fractured cinematography used as a storytelling device.
My rating: 2.2 out of 5.0 stars
Comment below and let me know what you thought of “Dear Hyeri”…
