Welcome to Kdrama and Ramen!

Welcome to my Mom Has An Affair – Unspoiled Review.  A single mom has spent her life struggling to make ends meet to provide for her family, while hoping to fulfill her dream of becoming a full time PE teacher.  So she is shocked and hurt when her children come to her and beg her to get married so that they can have a rich and handsome dad.  For their sake, she agrees to try, but things get complicated when a picky male lodgers moves into their room upstairs.  Though they don’t get off to a great start, living together brings them closer and feelings start to develop for both of them.  But someone who needs lodging in their home is obviously not rich and will not pass the test for her children.  Or is there more to his story than they assume?

Lee Jae Hwang as Kang Seok Jun

Kang Seok Jun is the second son of the chairman of LX Corporation.  While he grew up in a wealthy family, his life hasn’t been easy.  He has always been favored by his father as the best heir for the company, but his mother and brother both hate him and want his older brother to inherit the company.  He originally moves in with Pil Jung’s family to convince them to sell their house to LX so they can put a new building in it’s place.  But as he gets to know all of them and understand their reasons for wanting to stay in their house, he tries to find a way to help them save it.  Never one to examine his own heart, it takes him awhile to realize that his feelings for Pil Jung and her family are more than just pity.  Now he wants to protect his father’s company and Pil Jung from his mean-spirited brother and greedy mother.  

Seok Jun is a stable, loyal kind of guy.  There were times when it felt like he could have made things a lot easier if he wasn’t so determined to please everyone.  I did appreciate the way he stepped up to act like a dad for Min Ho and Min Ji.  Their interactions were sweet to watch.  I also like the fact that no matter how shocking a secret was revealed, he never let it come between him and Pil Jung.  He took everything in stride and always stayed true to his promise to stay by her side no matter once.  And it definitely wasn’t always easy.  

Seo Hyun Suk and Nam Yi An as Lee Tae Woo and Oh Sun Jung

Oh Sun Jung is Pil Jung’s younger sister.  She has lived with Pil Jung and helped her raise her family since Pil Jung’s husband’s death.  She is gutsy and has no problem fighting the system to get what she wants.  She falls in love with Eun Joo’s younger brother, which infuriates Eun Joo.  These 2 manages to rise above all the drama of their families and stay fair and grounded through it all.  

♥ Rock Steady Guys

So, Seok Jun’s character was not bad.  But let’s give a shout-out to 2 of the male characters who never wavered in their loyalty and support.  First off, Lee Tae Woo, was always there to defend Sun Joo from his mom and sister.  Without causing a lot of drama, he would step in and support her.  I really loved how mature and calm he was through everything.  It’s unusual, especially in such a long drama, to find a character that doesn’t mess things up at least once.  When Tae Woo and Sun Joo first moved in with his mom, he was a little slow to catch on to what was happening and I was afraid he might blow his great track record.  But once he figured it out, he stepped right in to fix it.  

Second is Wang Gi Beom, Seok Jun’s friend and eventually co-worker.  Again, at some point the friend who knows all the secrets usually falls for some trap that causes the lead trouble.  But this guy knew it all and kept everything to himself all the way through.  It would have been easy to gossip with his other co-workers, but he kept quiet and was an amazing friend from start to finish.  

♥No Yo-Yo Break Ups

With such a long drama, it is amazing that Mom Has An Affair managed to avoid the kdrama trope that includes a break up and reconciliation every few episodes.  Each couple did experience a near break up, which is necessary to keep the drama plot moving, but it wasn’t a continuous cycle like many others.  This also meant that they needed to find other plot twists to tell the story, which kept things interesting.  It would have been easy to fall into that kind of cycle, so I appreciated their effort to offer some variety to the storylines.  

Lee Eun Joo

I already said above that Lee Eun Joo played her role of villain to perfection, which made me hate her character completely, but I really got tired of her scheming evil facial expression straight into the camera to end every scene.  Whether the expression was complete with a snickering smile or a shocked panic, it was always the same and got really irritating as time went on.  In a drama that tended toward overacting anyway, she was way over-the-top.  

Dr. Choi

I thought Dr. Choi was good as a friend who supported Pil Jung through the school stuff, but I just didn’t buy him as a second lead love interest.  I know that he and Pil Jung have kids who are a similar age, but he seems so much older than Pil Jung and there really was no real chemistry between them.  This storyline was a dead-end for me and it felt like a waste of screen time.

The ending of Mom Has An Affair was pretty good. First of all, it was happy to see a show where justice actually wins in the end.  There was no last minute redemption or change of heart. Seeing Seok Hwan, his mom, and Eun Joo all end up in jail was strangely satisfying.  Even with all of their efforts to change the outcome with the police, in the end, each of them was left to face their own actions.  Both Pil Jung and Sun Jung ended up with a happily ever after.  Min Ji finally got her dad and Min Ho made peace with his dad before he was sent off to prison.  And Seok Jun’s dad will have Pil Jung and her family to fill his empty house, now that everyone else has been locked up.