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Madam Antoine: Episode 1

The last of cable’s new weekend shows is JTBC’s quirky rom-com Madam Antoine, an opposites-attract comedy about a phony fortuneteller and a psychologist whose worlds collide. Though the first episode jumps through some hoops to force our two leads together, they make a pretty entertaining pair, matched point for point in intuition, fast-talking wit, and petty pride. I already like the heroine and the hero is surely due to get his big comeuppance for being a know-it-all. Because you know what happens to drama heroes who say they don’t believe in love…

Note: This is just a first episode recap.

 
SONG OF THE DAY

Zion.T – “마담” (Madam) [ Download ]

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EPISODE 1 RECAP

People start gathering around a tall tree on a busy street and look up at a woman perched on one of the branches covered in streamers. She shouts, “I love you!” as we cut to a man watching this footage later. He explains the obvious—that this woman is in love—but adds, “No, I made it so that she’d fall in love.”

This is psychologist CHOI SOO-HYUN (Sung Joon), who tells his TV interviewers that this was a psychological test he conducted about love. Six months ago, he had three different men approach this woman acting as real suitors, without her knowing she was being experimented on (gee, that doesn’t seem even a little ethical).

Soo-hyun says that she eventually believed that these men really loved her, and would do the most ridiculous things that they asked of her. Case in point: love declaration from tree. Soo-hyun’s question is, what on earth is love that it makes people this crazy?

He says that this was just the first experiment of the series, featuring a woman in her twenties. Next up is a thirtysomething woman, and he’ll begin with a pool of 500 prospects. The interviewer asks how he got permission from his subjects, and Soo-hyun explains that the women think they’re participating in research about their ideal mates, and that it’s not ethically wrong if they consented to an experiment.

Soo-hyun says that in the end, the first subject chose the man with lots of money, and his conclusion is that a woman’s love basically amounts to material goods: “In the end, there is no such thing as true love to a woman.” Seriously, you have a PhD in clinical psychology and this is your conclusion?

He doesn’t seem like a quack though, because we see him stop to help a man who’s sitting in the middle of the street counting cracks in the crosswalk and having some kind of breakdown.

Soo-hyun expertly calms the man down and gets him to talk about his trauma—losing his wife when he fought a burglar in their home—that was triggered by an exhibition poster across the street. Soo-hyun tells the man that it wasn’t his fault and hands out his card for further assistance, and curiously his email address says “Madam Antoine.”

At Madam Antoine Café, we meet fortuneteller GO HYE-RIM (Han Ye-seul), who goes by the psychic name Madam Antoine. We can hear her thoughts as she guesses why an ajumma came to see her, and lays the groundwork for her psychic “abilities,” aka her expertly-honed skill for cold-reading people.

She says that Marie Antoinette came to her in a dream one day and they’ve had a psychic connection ever since. In the middle of the consult she answers a call from “Byung-heon” and advises him not to take that movie part, and lets the lady assume she’s talking to Lee Byung-heon.

There’s a disruption that brings her outside, and Hye-rim is appalled to see her café’s sign in pieces on the ground, and a worker is putting up a new sign for her new upstairs neighbor—a psychologist’s counseling office called, strangely enough, Madam Antoine.

She can’t believe the two businesses have the same name and calls the landlord grandpa to complain, but there’s nothing to be done about it. People are already arriving in droves to the grand opening reception upstairs, and even Hye-rim’s little sister YOO-RIM comes down after having eaten their food.

Yoo-rim says she heard that the psychologist upstairs went to Stanford, and Hye-rim scoffs that it’s probably the name of an academy down the street, not Stanford University. Hye-rim grits her teeth and decides that the fight is on.

Meanwhile Soo-hyun meets with an assistant about the new office and tells him to leave the downstairs café as it is, and to change the furniture upstairs to be more inviting. He takes issue with all the artwork, declaring them the choices of someone with lots of family problems.

CHAIRMAN KIM, the building landlord who chose the art, grumbles to hear Soo-hyun’s assessment of him. He’s an investor and president of a cosmetics company who’s interested in Soo-hyun’s research, and when he hears that there are lots of cosmetics companies lining up to sponsor his research into the woman’s mind, Chairman Kim says he wants the exclusive even though he doesn’t know what the experiment is actually about.

Soo-hyun’s research assistant WON JI-HO seeks out the twentysomething subject from their first experiment and brings her in for more tests. They basically show her pictures of different men and read her vitals, and then Soo-hyun sits her down to explain that she’s been dating a fake experiment boyfriend, and that’s why he never showed up that day when she shouted her love from the tree.

Soo-hyun just says all this without an ounce of empathy, either not knowing or not caring that he’s breaking a woman’s heart right now. He actually seems a little clueless as he thanks her for loving her experiment boyfriend so much, and proceeds to rattle off question after question at her about when she fell in love and how much she loved him.

He encourages her to use actions to express herself if she can’t use words, not noticing that she can’t say anything because she’s so upset and fuming with angry tears. She finally erupts and smacks him in the face with her purse and answers, “This much, you crazy bastard,” and walks out. Well that was satisfying.

Soo-hyun just scoffs as he wipes at his bloody nose and tells assistant Ji-ho to write it all down. He asks about the fake suitors they have lined up for their thirtysomething subject, and Ji-ho says he’s found an older man with a high-paying job and a prickly personality, a twentysomething student in their department with a good physique and low income, and he’s still looking for the pretty flower boy.

Soo-hyun tells Ji-ho to be the flower boy, and adds that he has a bit of a weird personality, but that’s better for inciting her motherly instincts anyway. Ji-ho asks if there’s really no such thing as love, and Soo-hyun doesn’t hesitate at all to say that love is just hormones playing tricks on the mind.

Ji-ho adds that they had a cancelation today, because the man they helped in the street the other day saw someone else for treatment and is all better. Soo-hyun meets with him and is incredulous to discover that he spoke to a fortuneteller who works out of the café downstairs.

In flashback, we see that Hye-rim approached the man while he was waiting for his appointment with Soo-hyun, and began jabbering in French (to ask where the Eiffel Tower is, lol). The man was skeptical, but she guessed that his wife died because of something he did, and Hye-rim brought tears to his eyes by passing along the message that his wife wanted him to live a happy life.

She tells Yoo-rim about it later, how she saw that the man had two wedding bands on and guessed that his wife had died. She coos at a picture of her daughter, who’s studying abroad in America, and Yoo-rim tattles to the photo that Mom is a phony fortuneteller.

Soo-hyun argues with his patient that a fortuneteller just uses cues to make guesses and invents nice-sounding things about people in heaven wishing you well, but there’s no such thing as heaven and he hasn’t technically recovered from his trauma because this is just a band-aid. But the man looks crushed and asks what’s so wrong with that, if he’s happier.

Soo-hyun leaves in an angry huff and calls JI-ho to meet him at the fortuneteller’s café, and he struts in there looking for a fight. (Ha, the café menu has a sticker on it that discourages people from overpaying for the upstairs counseling center when they could get their fortunes read here.)

Little Sis Yoo-rim warns Hye-rim that this customer looks educated, and that’s when we learn that Hye-rim has been getting all her information on Marie Antoinette via comic books. Oh noes. Not even Wikipedia?

Hye-rim enters the room and sits down across from Soo-hyun, who just smiles smugly at her and offers not a clue about himself. They both sit there smiling pleasantly on the outside, but struggling to get a read on the other person.

Meanwhile, Ji-ho goes up to the counter to get a coffee refill from Yoo-rim, and takes one glance at the receipts sprawled out in front of her and gives her the total in two seconds. Well that’s odd.

Hye-rim can’t get a read on anything, and Soo-hyun calls her out on feeling nervous when she draws out time by sipping water. She admits to having trouble seeing anything because he’s so closed off, and then catches him off guard when she says, “Tell me the truth. You’re not here to get your fortune read, are you?” He says he came because he was curious and asks her to guess.

When Yoo-rim calculates the receipts and sees that Ji-ho was right, she searches “math genius” and realizes that this is why he looked so familiar when he walked in the door. There are articles about Ji-ho as a boy genius who went to college at age 7. She glances over at him, and he’s solving a Rubik’s Cube in mere seconds.

Soo-hyun totally flips the situation around and starts reading Hye-rim, guessing that she was loved by her parents and has had some hardships, but is overall very happy and confident. He guesses that she was popular when she was young, and she starts agreeing and talking about herself before she realizes what’s happening.

She tells herself not to fall for his ploy and to start digging with the basics. So she asks about his mother, which he immediately comments on as a good strategy—going for the parents when you can’t get a read on a person.

She says something harmless about mothers in general to gauge his reaction, and notices him talking more and being more standoffish. That’s a sign, and she asks, “You’ve waited for your mother a long time, haven’t you?”

Soo-hyun scoffs that his parents are doing fine in Switzerland, but again she throws him off when she says she wasn’t talking about physical distance. She guesses that he’s been waiting every day for thirty years, and Soo-hyun is about to cut her off and tell her the truth when suddenly a memory flashes in his mind: him as a little boy, crying near a carousel and screaming for his mother.

Hye-rim continues down that road and asks if the little boy inside of him is still angry at Mom, and that brings up another memory of him eating an ice cream cone as a child. Hye-rim reaches out for his hand just as a drop of ice cream falls on his hand in his flashback, and he yanks away from her violently. He tells himself to calm down and not lose focus, and this time Hye-rim smirks because she thinks she’s got him figured out.

Yoo-rim approaches assistant Ji-ho and introduces herself as a freelance VJ who heard about him through a writer friend. She sees him reading a psychology text and asks why he’s studying that when he already went to med school, and he answers matter-of-factly, “I don’t know people.”

Yoo-rim answers a call from the landlord grandpa (aka Chairman Kim), who has a message for the upstairs counseling center because they’re not answering their phone. Ji-ho just takes the receiver, startling her.

Soo-hyun marvels at Hye-rim’s skill and acknowledges that he has no memories of his youth before the age of 6, but she just managed to help him retrieve a few. He asks if he should go upstairs to the counseling center, but she advises him not to waste his money on an overpriced session just to hear nice things. She says shrinks are just good talkers, and he lets her think he’s agreeing for a minute, and then whips out his business card.

Yoo-rim runs in to warn Hye-rim, but she’s already caught up, and Soo-hyun describes a famous clown at a circus who was extremely skilled at reading people: “But it turned out he was just a con artist.” He calls her a fraud who simply says generic things that apply to all people, and points out that hearing the voices of dead people is commonly a side effect of drugs (lol). He asks what drugs she takes, and Hye-rim scoffs, “Vitamins!”

Then it’s her turn to interrogate him, and she asks why he copied her Madam Antoine name. He claims it’s the nickname he’s always used, and argues that it’s not against the law for them to have the same name or to hang a sign up for his office.

He gets up to walk away, so Hye-rim quickly acts like she’s hearing voices and warns him that he’ll hear a noise tonight, and that he shouldn’t look into any mirrors because he can’t handle what he’ll see.

Soo-hyun scoffs at the notion of ghosts and tells Ji-ho to call the landlord to get rid of the downstairs café. But when he arrives in his office alone, his door keeps creaking open on its own, and it starts to spook him out. Ha, after all that bluster, are you afraid of ghosts?

Hye-rim takes her anger out on a dried fish and admits to making up the stuff about mirrors and late-night noises, scoffing, “There’s no such thing as ghosts.” But Soo-hyun is spooked enough to feel wary about the bathroom mirror, and actually ducks to crawl over to the toilet. Okay, that cracked me up.

Hye-rim meets with landlord grandpa Chairman Kim in person to ask if he can kick Soo-hyun out, but he says they already signed a contract so they’ll just have to live with it. Hye-rim and Chairman Kim are on really friendly terms, and she advises him about what ajummas want in their cosmetics and such. She actually just thinks he’s a small-time landlord grandpa and doesn’t really believe that he’s the president of a corporation, and seems to humor him.

Soo-hyun goes to Chairman Kim and asks him to kick Hye-rim out of the building, and tries to convince him that she’s a quack. Chairman Kim just wonders why a clinical psychologist would be threatened by a fortuneteller, making Soo-hyun fume impotently.

Meanwhile, Hye-rim gets thrown a curveball when someone runs off with thirty thousand dollars that she’d invested in a private fund. It was meant as a fund for her daughter’s tuition and board, and she wonders if she’ll have to vacate the café and her home just to scrape money together and get by.

Soo-hyun happens to overhear the crisis on his way in, as Hye-rim berates herself for being a fortuneteller who couldn’t see herself losing her life savings. Soo-hyun is happy to take advantage of the situation and calls Chairman Kim.

Yoo-rim has the same idea, though it’s because she thinks maybe Chairman Kim can help. Hye-rim thinks there’s no way he’s actually a chairman, but Yoo-rim remembers Ji-ho calling him by his title, and hopes that maybe he at least owns multiple buildings. Soo-hyun calls the chairman first and says that Hye-rim will ask to borrow money, and he’s about to see her true face. Sure enough, Hye-rim calls a minute later.

She arrives at the Bella Cosmetics building and asks the front desk where she can find Grandpa, only to be told that the chairman is waiting. She’s shocked to learn that he really is the president of the company, and rushes to the bathroom to gather her bearings.

She turns off the lights and sits in the dark for a moment, and we hear her think in voiceover that she’s in a moment of true desperation, and this is just like doing a stage play in college—when the lights turn on, she’ll transform into a gumiho (she means metaphorically, of course).

She flips the lights on and then meets with Chairman Kim and does the one thing she shouldn’t do—lies that he’s about to encounter trouble with his investments, and that giving Marie Antoinette money will fix the problem. You can see the disappointment on his face because he’d defended her, but she’s doing exactly what Soo-hyun had warned.

But Chairman Kim obviously has a soft spot for her and pretends to fall for the whole story, agreeing to give her money. She walks out of the office feeling like scum, and her daughter happens to call.

Hye-rim wants to talk but is on the verge of tears, and in the end she has to hang up because she breaks down in sobs in the hallway, crying, “I’m sorry, I conned someone. I’m sorry that your mother is this kind of person! Mom is so ashamed and sorry!”

After wailing on the floor, she heads out and sees Chairman Kim on his way to the car and runs over, calling him Grandpa again. He can see that she’s been crying, and she apologizes for having lied to him just now. She tells him the whole truth, and he says that he didn’t like it when Soo-hyun called her a con artist, but assures her kindly that everything is fine now because she proved herself to be the trustworthy person he always thought she was.

He asks if she has a way to take care of her money problems, and she says she’ll have to move out of her house and leave the café, and move to Daejeon where she can work at a fortunetelling café she knows. She promises to say goodbye before moving and runs off to the police station to deal with the investment theft.

Soo-hyun signs the contract with Chairman Kim’s company to sponsor the counseling center, and afterwards he asks about the clause that says Chairman Kim will have an employee who works there. The secretary says it’s an advisor position, someone who will participate in meetings and sessions. Soo-hyun doesn’t like the sound of that at all and asks who this counselor is and where he can read their dissertation, and the secretary says it’s the “life coach” he met downstairs. Ha.

Hye-rim is shocked to be told the same thing by Chairman Kim over the phone. He tells her that this is payback for lying to him, and tells her to keep the café and work upstairs at the counseling center, and he arranged for her to live on the third floor of that building too. Hye-rim argues that she’s not up to the task of psychological counseling, but Chairman Kim just ignores her protests and hangs up.

Soo-hyun blows up at being ordered to treat people alongside a fortuneteller, and stomps downstairs to confront Hye-rim about it. She’s not keen on the idea either, but then he gets in her face and accuses her of being a con artist parasite who feeds off of other people by tossing them nice words to make them happy.

He says she probably thinks she’s helping people too, when really they’re all too stupid to reflect on themselves. He argues that the people who come upstairs are there to see him, so why should they be dragged into her crude life? Well that’s an assy thing to say.

Soo-hyun takes out his phone and demands that Hye-rim pull out of the arrangement, prodding for her to admit that this is beyond her level. Hye-rim doesn’t say a word through any of this, and dials Chairman Kim’s office. She leaves a message with the secretary that she’d be happy to work at the counseling center and looks right at Soo-hyun as she says, “I think I’m perfectly suited for the job. It’s going. To. Be. Fun.” Hee.

In no time, Hye-rim and Yoo-rim arrive with a moving truck. Soo-hyun watches with displeasure from his window and Ji-ho tells him that he’s been searching for their next test subject, and Hye-rim is the ideal candidate.

Soo-hyun imagines her sitting up in the tree confessing her undying love (to him, lol), and him arriving to announce publicly that this was all an experiment and he never loved her. I love the giddy expression on his face as Imaginary Soo-hyun shouts, “You were completely fooled! BY ME!”

He chuckles to himself as he imagines it, and Ji-ho points out that he can kill two birds with one stone this way and get revenge. Soo-hyun argues that he wouldn’t mess up an important experiment with his personal revenge (yeeaaaaah right), and tells Ji-ho to keep Hye-rim on the list as a possibility as they continue looking.

Soo-hyun has Hye-rim come upstairs and rattles off clinical diagnoses in English to scare her and make it clear that she’s out of her league with this job. He warns her not to speak to any of his patients, and she argues that she can talk to anyone downstairs in the café because they’re her customers too.

He tells her to keep it downstairs then, because upstairs isn’t a place for ghosts to be running around. She smiles at that and asks if he’s recovered his memories from childhood yet, and just that mention triggers the same flashback that made him jump the first time.

He says it’s not really the kind of thing a few words from a fortuneteller can let loose, but she points out that just a mere word from a fortuneteller triggered the memory again. He snarls and asks if her daughter knows she’s a con artist, and offers free treatment for the trauma that it’ll cause her when she finds out. He leaves Hye-rim fuming and walks away with a smirk knowing he won that round.

On his way home, Ji-ho mentions a call from someone named CHOI SEUNG-CHAN (Jung Jin-woon), and Soo-hyun makes sure he didn’t give Seung-chan his cell phone number. But when they pull up, Seung-chan is there waiting outside his house and runs up to Soo-hyun calling him “hyung.”

Ji-ho says he gave out his home address instead, and recognizes Seung-chan as a famous baseball player. Seung-chan bounds up like an energetic puppy and greets Soo-hyun happily, wondering why Hyung didn’t call when he came to Korea. Soo-hyun asks coldly why he’s here, and Seung-chan says he’s here to eat dinner. Also to live with him, “Because we’re brothers!” Lol, you don’t seem like brothers.

Soo-hyun just shakes him off and gets back in the car to avoid him, and Seung-chan asks if he doesn’t even feel sorry for him because he got injured and had to quit baseball. Soo-hyun continues to ignore him, and Seung-chan threatens to tell the press that Hyung didn’t learn his multiplication tables till the third grade. Soo-hyun kicks him to the curb, literally, and drives off.

Hye-rim tries to tell Chairman Kim that she’s just not suited for psychological counseling, but Chairman Kim shows her one of his company’s ad campaigns and explains how much psychological research helps them figure out the best way to market their products. He says that Soo-hyun in particular is an expert in women, and tasks Hye-rim with just one thing, which we don’t get to hear.

Hye-rim heads to a bookstore to buy an introductory psychology textbook, and pauses in front of a TV when she sees a gymnast getting ready to compete in nationals. Little Sis Yoo-rim is there as a VJ and ignores Hye-rim’s request for an autograph, and Soo-hyun is there too as a consultant.

The gymnast is a rising star and the country’s pinned its Olympics hopes on her, and she seems fine until she’s up for her event, and her vision suddenly blurs. She shakes it off and does her vault jump… and falls on her landing.

The next day the gymnast and her staff are at Soo-hyun’s office because she checked out fine medically and there’s no physical reason for her blurred vision. Soo-hyun sits her down for a consultation alone, and when she gives him a sullen attitude, he challenges her to leave because he’s not about to force anyone to get treatment.

That gets her to stop being a brat, and Soo-hyun finds it odd that she doesn’t seem to care about the possibility of going blind. He has her walk back and forth in his office and places objects in her path, which she avoids without a problem.

Afterwards, he shares his thoughts with Ji-ho about the gymnast’s conversion disorder, purposely throwing in as many complicated diagnoses as possible to make Hye-rim sweat. She tries her best to write things down and look them up, but she has to ask Soo-hyun to clarify what a conversion disorder is.

He argues that he might’ve agreed to her being present at the meetings but isn’t about to spend his time teaching her, and when she says she’s trying to learn but is struggling wih the jargon, he simply says she should leave.

She asks if he’s that black-and-white about everything, with no middle ground. She doesn’t see why he isn’t using her, pointing out the hundreds of people she’s seen as a fortuneteller. She calls him out on his childish behavior, throwing around fancy jargon just to show off and then telling her to leave if she doesn’t understand.

That seems to get through to him, because when she gives up and turns to go, he throws her a bone and explains that the gymnast isn’t faking her condition—it’s real that she can’t see, but the cause is psychological, stemming from a trauma. Hye-rim wonders what could’ve caused it.

Later, Soo-hyun looks over the fake boyfriend candidates for the experiment with Hye-rim in mind as their next test subject, and he complains that Ji-ho isn’t trying hard enough to find better men. He argues that if they really do go with Hye-rim, she’s far too sharp and good at reading people not to see right through the whole charade.

Ji-ho complains that they’re out of people, and there aren’t exactly a lot of options out there for nice, handsome, young men with good bodies who aren’t already celebrities.

Soo-hyun thinks a moment and decides, “There is one person…”

 
COMMENTS

I hope he means himself, though he’s probably talking about his little brother. I do think that once the love experiment gets going with all the boys romancing our heroine, the drama will have a much stronger pull in the romance department. As long as they can carry the same antagonistic, competitive dynamic in the experiment, it’ll only mean good things for us when they refuse to lose to each other and push the boundaries of faux courtship. It’s a promising setup, though I did feel like some of the maneuvering was overkill in the first episode. Do they really need to work together on top of the experiment, when they’re already competing for customers as neighboring businesses? (I did crack up at the idea that a fortuneteller and a psychologist’s office are competing for clients though.) I don’t think they really needed her to be robbed of her life savings or be saved by a benevolent chairman when she and Soo-hyun could’ve just remained competitive neighbors. That relationship is funny enough as it is.

I’m not really taken with Soo-hyun yet, but he’s being set up for a big fall, so I’m okay with him being full of himself and spouting nonsense about love and women as long as he’s going to eat every last one of his words. I’m confused as to how someone with so little empathy could’ve become a clinical psychologist, but I suppose how he got licensed is beside the point. It’s already clear that he’s speaking from the perspective of someone who’s never really been in love and thinks himself superior because he’s never been brainwashed by his own hormones, when in truth he’s closed off and stunted in his own way. A shrink with childhood trauma is already a typical drama hero at this point (the setup is really similar to Heart to Heart, actually), so he’s not a huge draw as a character, but there’s a funny hapless streak in him that I like. It came out in moments with Hye-rim and especially with his little brother, and my favorite was Soo-hyun imagining how he’s going to make Hye-rim fall in love with him and get his revenge. That side of him makes the banter fun, and the character a more interesting choice for Sung Joon. I’m hoping for some outlandish comedy from him, just to see if he can pull it off.

But I do think this one is Han Ye-seul’s show. She’s perfectly cast as the warm, bubbly fortuneteller who’s somehow a total fraud and yet not at all a con artist. Hye-rim is just lovable and endearing, and she made me care for her the moment she came back and apologized to the chairman for scamming him. I like that she’s sharp and insightful, to the point that even Soo-hyun has to acknowledge her skills, and that despite lying about the psychic abilities, she does actually help people find healing and peace over their problems. Obviously there is a limit to what she can do without clinical training, but already we’re seeing that she’s just as good at talking to people and rooting out their problems as Soo-hyun is, and she has expertise of her own. In the scheme of things I find it more problematic that Soo-hyun is lying to women in the name of science than the fact that Hye-rim is making a living as a phony psychic (because to me the phoniness is rather inherent in the job description and I would guess that most people who see psychics know that and go anyway). But if they stopped we’d have no drama.

The tone is light and fun, and I think the show will be even better when the experiment gets going in earnest. I mean, the experiment itself is whack and I can’t believe he’s wasting all that time and money to draw such ridiculous conclusions about women just wholesale as a gender, without ever once experimenting on a man in the same way. Also, I find it offensive and scientifically unsound that he’s chosen candidates based on external factors like money and looks, and then decided that women choose mates based on superficial factors. YOU chose them for superficial factors, you goose! Anyway, I don’t think that necessarily makes the show any less watchable, because Soo-hyun is clearly wrong and we’re here to see the transformation through the romance. And so far, the couple has a great fast-talking, witty repartee (their dialogue is really a mile-a-minute in this show, it’s crazy), which keeps their energy fresh and their antagonism playful. I don’t know about love yet, but I am keen on seeing his petty revenge plan go spectacularly awry, right in his smug little face. And for now I plan to keep watching, to see where that leads.

 
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Thank you for the recap!

Honestly, this psychologist needs to see a psychologist. Plus he needs to lose his license. What kind of experiment is that?

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No kidding. The writer clearly does not know (or perhaps doesn't care) what the actual ethics of experimentation are. This guy was over the line with alarms ringing not 5 minutes into the show! (I work in medical publishing and deal with ethics approval, I'm not just chiming in here.)

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I have done psychological research projects and the amount of effort to get ethical approval s enormous.

There is no way he would have got ethical approval for his experiment

His experiment is not even valid as it does not have even subjects.

And (this may be in episode 2) he can't run an experiment and be a participant in it.

Standford should sue

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actually compared to other kdrama with psychologist this one is - for now- the most authentic
i for one usually avoid any kdrama with psychologist aka KMHM IOIL which the psychologist would have never past any test let alone accepted to university psychology department let alone medicine
although human experiment of most kind are banned now in my country it is a matter of 15 years or so
so it could be acceptable depending on the country
and there are a lot of social experiment and datin experiments done
aka the british experiment on what women and men find attractive which was recorded and part of a BBC program
it is of course exaggerated in the drama in the way it is done as a plot device but there have been experiment on dating

for me it is the first psychology drama that i dont want to break the computer at the absurdity

anyway i really like it

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Sure, IOIL was ridiculous in terms of psychology, but it was much less ridiculous than this show. At least some of the doctors in IOIL actually asked the right questions concerning ethics from time to time, and there were hints of professional psychology hidden here and there. Here, not only the main "experiment" is nonsense on every possible level, even the side-plot cases are utterly absurd.

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I think we all know to take the "psychological stuff in psychological shows with a grain of salt", but then when it requires a bottle of salt, it becomes impossible to swallow.

That kind of experiment 5 mins. into the show sends a signal loud and clear as to the quality of writing in the show. If the writer doesn't even bother to check out some basic facts and ethics about the profession (s)he is writing about, I can't trust the rest of (s)he writes.

I tried to finish ep 1, tried twice, but couldn't get pass the first 30 mins.

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@jon g i didnt watch more than the first 3 eps in IOIL and in them i didnt see any
what i did see were ppl who would never be allowed to practice
the basic that we have seen there is coved in the first term of the first year there is NO way a psychiatrist would get all the way to become a doctor without knowing the basic it was disgracing towards even first years of psychology students
we are here in the first 2 eps as in all kdramas
the ethics comes later after itwas used as a plot device

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ha, I love when the more professional viewers commented on less professional drama.

So, as a general viewer, turns out I'm not the only one who find him strange, eh?

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so true. lol. Especially in the part where he was rambling on about his experiment to his test subject and totally missed out on the fact that it was pissing her off. I was wondering at that point, if he really was a psychologist =.=

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Show is cute and has surprising heart and depth if one sticks with it for a while, but I can see why the ratings are the way they are (kinda hard to compete with the other dramas in their time slots). In terms of tensions, stakes and/or freshness, it's all stuff that's been done before so...that said, it's an easy watch and will likely be something light that one can stick in between the meatier shows like Signal and CITT. I kinda wish Sung Joon's character would be more...different to the other types of characters he has played before though.

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I have only seen SJ in Shut up and Lie to Me... so this looks different to me. Has he done similar roles before then? I have a soft stop for him because of Shut Up, and really hope that he does well in this show. (I doubt that the show itself will do very well because the premise - the crazy experiment - is just too un-relatable even for a K-drama.)

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I loved him in Shut Up but not much else. I think I just like him better with a little of that rebel edge.

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Shut me FFB is the best work that Sung Joon has done, or it has the best char for him. That "rebel edge", as AJK, said, served him well in it.

He looks and feels very similar in everything else. I don't dislike him, but the more of his dramas I've seen, the more similar from show to show I find his acting.

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so his hypothesis is completely outrageous and slightly cringe worthy in how it seems to operate entirely in the grey area of human testing ethics. But as you mentioned he is being set up for the great fall and i for one cant wait for it!!!

Han ye Seul is so freaking gorgeous! i think im going to like this one. It promises to be OTT but a fun ride. plus i like the the whole pride and prejudice underlying theme thats going on.

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Thanks for the 1st ep recap. Now I know why people were complaining so much about the lead guy's character. Looks like we're all cheering for Hye-rim to knock Soo-hyun down a peg or two (or ten). :D

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I love Han Ye-seul in romcoms, she's so naturally funny. I'm also loving her boho chic fashion. Sung Joon on the other hand is a bit yawn, I loved him in Flower Boy Rock Band and Can We Get Married but all his characters since then have been meh.

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The 1st time I saw HanYS, in Fantasy Couple, I had to pick my chin up from the ground, on account of her extraordinary beauty. The next time I saw her, in Spy Myung Wol, I thought she was so beautiful, hence no wonder she demanded a better filming schedule, which no doubt was really really bad. 3rd time, with Birth of a beauty, I agreed with the show reminding us over and over again of her great beauty. Here, I find her less beautiful but not overwhelmingly so compared to other Korean actresses.
I guess over time, I get less impressed by her beauty, maybe cos I've gotten used to it. But more likely cos besides her beauty, her acting has pretty much stayed the same. Not just the same level, but the same.
People are always complaining about Kim Tae Hee's poor acting. I wonder how viewers feel about Han YS's acting.

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Stupid typo. Should read:
Here, I find her beautiful, but not overwhelmingly so.....

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goodness, I couldn't stand her acting. it feels like she's doing a high school skit or something. her expressions are too simple and limited. Kim Tae Hee is better, in my opinion.

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I wont watch this show until it's done but it looks really cute. Hope the ratings get better for this and hope it can deliver!

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The idea of love as a play of hormoes is quite sound well to me at least. Emotion is caused by chemicals and love is just one of many. The thing about love is that it's just overhyped as a phenomena. Perhaps I've never experienced it so I cannot say how real it is but to me it seems like rather a fixation and obsession over another human being. Nonetheless, for soohyun to suggest that women just choose men bases on external factors is fundamentally incorrect. Men more often that not are attracted to women for their looks- then should one draw the conclusion that men are superficial as well? However, soohyun is right in that external factors play a large role: they initially attract you to someone or interact with someone. I think I am justified in saying that the more beautiful women of our world are the object of adoration of countless men.
Soohyun as a character really intrigues me- I wonder what has causes this abject hatred of love. For myself I can think of nothing: perhaps his development as a character will cast insight for myself.
Hyerim I can't really say much about. She's his antithesis. It'll be worth watching their interactions to see how the writer plots it out and develops the storyline- I'd like a nice twist.

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Grammar mistakes:
Hormones
Based

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im also not one to lose myself completely although have experienced it it was never as it is in the movies and dramas
although i do think it is pheromones there is a reason why some ppl look more attractive to most ppl and some dont
also the way we think someone is attractive has changed over time so it cant be only physical and has some social and psychological factors which i think is what SH is tryingto figure out also i think since he doesnt understand exactly what is going on when someone fall in love he doesnt comprehend the graveness of dismissing those feeling in the way he treated the first woman
from his point of view he just made her realize that she was manipulated therefor can let go of those feelings without the trauma bc it wasnt in fact real

to me SH seem more of a researcher than a full time psychiatrist so his reactions are different that what you would have expected from a full time psychiatrist

and he is trying to pint point the reason ppl fall in love to make the world a better place - well not his reason but still can do good

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to me SH seem more of a researcher than a full time psychiatrist so his reactions are different that what you would have expected from a full time psychiatrist

In real actual psychology, psychological research like what he does is done by psychological researchers. And psychotherapy is done by psychotherapists (or psychiatrists with an adequate education).

I've never met a single psychologist who does both. It's not impossible, but it's just really unlikely (especially for a person not even 40 years old). But ... K-drama.

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oh common fellows, its jst a drama on the top it is a rom com.......cant u jst use some 'willing suspension of disbelief' thing....its not asking us to use it as some authentic reference material but MA also delivers what its genre claims.....i had lot of fun.... ofcourse it is prsonal

***spoiler******

abt psychology....during lee ma ri's final match i was also tensed...my hairs were standing***goosebumps***and at the end when she finished i too was full of smile along with sun joon hye rim and the girl

evrybdy want soo hyun to be punished or something like that....but for me im on his side...he is ethically wrng so i want him to correct it...his eq is low so i want to see him grow as a person....he wants to be loved so i want him to fall in love and feel the warmth for himself.....is this the same thing i dnt know i hav a sft spot for him.......sung joon fighting..........soo hyun fighting

may be im his only fan.....

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sry not common bt come on..........sry sry u people are not common bt special

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we do at least i do realize this is a show
and itmade us think beyond the scope of the show
its not to diminish the enjoyment but to enhance it
i do not talk about shows i dont like in their thread i just stop watching and dont comment on them in their relative post
for me at laest commenting means that the show did something positive for me

if it will stop i will lso stop commenting

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You really should not post spoilers for an upcoming episode. It is this forums policy to not allow it, even if you do announce is a spoiler.

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first of all research is usally combined with others researcher
and of course they administrate experiments or what became in my country surveys - when you go on a train and get a survey
who do you think monitor this surveys?
depend on the subject it is either a general psychologist or a psychiatrist

although you can become a psychiatrist from medicine the norm is from psychology and then becoming a doctor

most psychiatrist cannot prescribe a prescription for antibiotics only antidepressants at least where i come from
and to give them they do sessions not all of them work in hospitals

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BTW the opposite is allowed - youre family doctor can prescribe an antidepressant for an immediate use and refer you for a treatment if needed
someone having a onetime shock will be able to get one from the doctor available without consulting a psychiatrist

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first of all research is usally combined with others researcher
and of course they administrate experiments or what became in my country surveys – when you go on a train and get a survey
who do you think monitor this surveys?
depend on the subject it is either a general psychologist or a psychiatrist

Yes, psychologists do experiments, and some psychiatrists participate in experiments too.

Psychotherapists on the other hand, despite the fact that they are psychologists, do not administer psychiatrist or General Psychology experiments.

Psychotherapists are psychologists who specialised in clinical psychology (and have an additional education as psychotherapists on top of that), which is a completely different branch of psychology than the one that researches typical models of human behaviour.

although you can become a psychiatrist from medicine the norm is from psychology and then becoming a doctor

Where, in Korea? I studied Psychology in Germany and the US, in both countries as well as in all other OECD countries I'm familiar with, psychiatrist is a physician, a medical doctor. They graduate in medicine, not psychology.

The character in the show is clearly not a psychiatrist. He does psychotherapy work (very badly, utterly unprofessional and ethically indefensible), and at the same time administers research experiments in Emotion Psychology (extremely badly, methodologically wrong and ethically indefensible).

It's not impossible for a person to be an expert in two different fields (here: Clinical Psychology/psychotherapy on one hand, General Psychology/emotion psychology on the other). There are people who have a PhD in Biology and do research in this field, and who are medical doctors at the same time (maybe not full-time practicing ones).

But to do both on a solid level, at young age, is not particularly easy; read: pretty much impossible. Then again, he is utterly incompetent in either field.

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"Where, in Korea? I studied Psychology in Germany and the US, in both countries as well as in all other OECD countries I’m familiar with, psychiatrist is a physician, a medical doctor. They graduate in medicine, not psychology.Where, in Korea? I studied Psychology in Germany and the US, in both countries as well as in all other OECD countries I’m familiar with, psychiatrist is a physician, a medical doctor. They graduate in medicine, not psychology."

i come from an OECD country and although you do you second degree on psychiatry you do NOT come from medical shcool you study medicine for psychiatrist
as a psychiatrist can you prescribe antibiotics?
all doctors from medicine can
although MD bc they prescribe medicines for mental sickness they have different classes and need different score
than medicine students
while again regular doctors can prescribe mental sickness medicine

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"Yes, psychologists do experiments, and some psychiatrists participate in experiments too.

Psychotherapists on the other hand, despite the fact that they are psychologists, do not administer psychiatrist or General Psychology experiments.

Psychotherapists are psychologists who specialised in clinical psychology (and have an additional education as psychotherapists on top of that), which is a completely different branch of psychology than the one that researches typical models of human behaviour."

why do research no most reasons are are case studies needing to be proofed

a psychiatrist see that the usual treatment doesnt work (mental hospitals for example) and have a new idea that does so to see if it is a fluke something he didnt see he administrates a survey
depending on country and sickness it can be an exact experiment like in sleep deprivation or a simulation most times in groups or a brain study as in surveys which is mostly used in my country

they check through matriculates questions usually almost the same with very small changes how you answer
usually it is done with a time limit and usually the subject dont really care that much or pay attention to notice they actually answer almost the same questions

today most questions in general psychology have been answered to have new questions and new theories they turn to practicing psychiatrist and psychologist
from there they build together a theory and experiments

at least where i come from

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for some reason my post is waiting for moderation?
so if it will be a double post im sorry

why do research no most reasons are are case studies needing to be proofed

a psychiatrist see that the usual treatment doesnt work (mental hospitals for example) and have a new idea that does so to see if it is a fluke something he didnt see he administrates a survey
depending on country and sickness it can be an exact experiment like in sleep deprivation or a simulation most times in groups or a brain study as in surveys which is mostly used in my country

they check through matriculates questions usually almost the same with very small changes how you answer
usually it is done with a time limit and usually the subject dont really care that much or pay attention to notice they actually answer almost the same questions

today most questions in general psychology have been answered to have new questions and new theories they turn to practicing psychiatrist and psychologist
from there they build together a theory and experiments

at least where i come from

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@nara

I'm having the same problem with the moderation loop here ...

i come from an OECD country and although you do you second degree on psychiatry you do NOT come from medical shcool you study medicine for psychiatrist

Okay, that is very interesting. I wasn't familiar with a (OECD) country where psychiatrists do not go to medical schools first. Do you have specialised institutions for psychiatrist education? How do psychiatrists learn the medical basics, do psychiatry schools cooperate with medical schools?

I'm really curious which country you refer to, because this sounds like a rather unique and interesting concept. (But I understood if you did't want to provide this kind of private information.)

When it comes to prescribing medicine, yes, there are various different regulations in different countries. Some of the more regulated countries don't allow medical doctors in general to prescribe medicine. You have to have a certain kind of expertise to do so. In my country, for example, an orthopaedist is not allowed to prescribe even basic antibiotics (while a typical psychiatrist would be allowed to do so).

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today most questions in general psychology have been answered to have new questions and new theories they turn to practicing psychiatrist and psychologist
from there they build together a theory and experiments

Wait, you are from the future, are you?

Look at the largest societies of researching psychologists like APA. There are way, way more people doing "General Psychology" research than "Clinical Psychology". (Despite the fact that it is much easier to monetise knowledge about mentally ill people than about mentally healthy, and despite the fact that a huge number of psychology students turn to clinical psychology) The number of researching psychiatrists in psychology (as opposed to psychiatry) is tiny.

General Psychology is a far cry from being any kind of hard science, not to mention "all questions have been answered".

Yes, technology first used in psychiatrical research is used in psychology (that includes General P. too) research a lot nowadays, medical imaging for example. And, yes, some artifacts from psychiatry influence model building in clinical and even general psychology. But that is a very small fraction of research in psychology overall.

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you mean salami slices?
what are most researches are criticized about is the "thin salami slices"
anticipation and prediction are characteristic of researches

and the "general psychology" research is based on clinical cases this is exactly what im saying
they see a phenomenon and want to check it "globe wide"if it is it a social or genetic
what is the cause is it one time is it global
what causes it and how to treat it
the same process that happens in medical cases apply here only it can not be experimented in a lab bf they do it on animals and ppl

they go immediately to animals and ppl there is no other way as there is no other way of doing research

this is exactly what im saying

the research is inspired by problems that has arisen
how do think a research of any kind is being conducted
for what reason do you think they do it?

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Unfortunately, most of my answers are in for mod actions :(

you mean salami slices?
what are most researches are criticized about is the “thin salami slices”
anticipation and prediction are characteristic of researches

That's what mature science is all about: Salami slices and once in a blue moon a paradigm shift. Just take a look at natural sciences for instance.

and the “general psychology” research is based on clinical cases this is exactly what im saying

No. Plain no. General psychology is mostly based on experimental psychology with healthy people as subjects. (And a lot of out-of-the-air model building. Just like Physics, actually.) These experiments are still the vast majority for most non-Clinical branches of psychology.

The instances where a finding from clinical psychology or psychiatry create new impulses for general psychology are very, very few, but very important, of course. But they are not the fundament of general psychology research.

they see a phenomenon and want to check it “globe wide”if it is it a social or genetic
what is the cause is it one time is it global
what causes it and how to treat it

General psychology never asks "how to treat it". If you need to treat something, it's not Gen. P., it's Clin. P.

Like, for example, most psychologists don't think "love" is some kind of mental disorder (a small minority disagrees, but you gives). Hence "love" is not an issue of Clin. P. per se, but of Gen. P. (for example, of emotion psychology).

Of course, there might be research topics for Clin.P. about love too: Why do people with certain anti-social disorders can love while others cannot? (And Clin.P. uses models about "love" from Gen.P. and applies models about mental disorders from Clin.P. to them).

But the main character in this show is a Clin. psychologist (not a psychiatrist, not a Gen. psychologist). Why doesn't he care about Clin. psychology or psychotherapy at all in his research when this is is field of expertise (well, except that he sucks at it) and does research in a field where he clearly has no clue at all?

the research is inspired by problems that has arisen
how do think a research of any kind is being conducted
for what reason do you think they do it?

Tell me, what mental disorder or phenomenon did inspire the main character in this show to do research on "love" of mentally healthy people?

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@jon G they go tomedical school they have to
only doctors can subscribe prescriptions
but they dont go through the same procces and selectio as medical students
they go after they did a first degree in psychology
and only learn the relevant to them
they dont learn 7 years
and again they cant prescribe antibiotic
the mental wards are inside the hosppital so they always have a physician on hand they can treat any physical ilness only mental

the inability to prescribe antibiotic which i already wrote acoupleof times is a main thing
even your dentist can
your body is taken much more serious than your mind in cases of health

if you cant prescribe antibiotic your are not a physician you are a psychiatrist and the process (and sorry but IQ is very different)

the classes you take are quite different

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"When it comes to prescribing medicine, yes, there are various different regulations in different countries. Some of the more regulated countries don’t allow medical doctors in general to prescribe medicine. You have to have a certain kind of expertise to do so. In my country, for example, an orthopaedist is not allowed to prescribe even basic antibiotics (while a typical psychiatrist would be allowed to do so)."

i guess we come from different countries
here only the amount is different and how it is taken
as well as allergies and the adaptability of the germs

there are only 4 or so types of antibiotics
and each pharmaceutical company have their own with a bit of changes
but it is the same all over the world
and very limited

but here any physician can give you antibiotics

so here it matters greatly if you are a physician or a psychiatrist which also need to have sessions with the patient in order to give a prescription
unless were talking in a wards which is then according to profile and agreed treatment

but here for example
if you go to a psychologist and they think you need medicine they will refer you to a psychiatrist since they cant themselves give it and after psychotherapy it will be decided if you need it or not

just talking about antidepressant for instance not severe illness

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Tell me, what mental disorder or phenomenon did inspire the main character in this show to do research on “love” of mentally healthy people?

it was obvious
what triggers LOVE
why did she started to like someone although initially reserved
why she became so attached to the feeling of love
since she was more upset about being treated this way than the loss of that person
since he hurt herf feeling more than anything

it wasnt in mourning for lost love
but disregard to the feeling hse had developed

logically if you discover that your feelings are for a fake person you should be relieved since all the emotions you felt were not real
and yet in love the force of those emotions instead of relieving her made her feel angry and betrayed
he is trying to understand why what is so special about the emotion love

if you think of a hidden camera
sometimes the situation is quite sever and yet te moment it is revealed it is not real you feel relieve and even in on the joke

you can state that the time invested here and the hope invested makes reactions more drastic
but clinically its the same you should be relieved that the hurt you felt is not real an dthe person is not real
and yet when it comes to love this is not accepted and he is trying to figure out why
whats going on in the brain to make us react so fiercely when it comes to situations involving love

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I'm from America (Psychology student) and I don't think it's that uncommon? Sure, a lot of therapists don't keep up with research but I don't think it's a stretch that he's a therapist and doing research at the same time. I had a few (I can't say it was a lot cause I actually don't know what most of my profs do outside of research, I don't talk to them) professors who were both therapists and researchers. It definitely isn't a rare thing.

I can turn off some of my brain for this drama, really. Psychology has had its fair share of unethical experiments in the past. Probably the most ridic thing for me was HYS's character buying one single textbook and is supposed to learn everything about psych through that lmao

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ki dont think she was supposed to learn psycho;ogy just te term
so when speaking it will be understood by her

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sorry the ghost in the computer

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A few (relative to the absolute number) psychotherapists do research, of course. Psychotherapy and Clinical psychology need research to be done too, of course. But they do research in their field: Clinical psychology. They don't do research in a field completely unrelated to their own field.

A dental specialist might do medical research, but almost always research that has to do with his field of expertise and not other fields of medicine like endocrinology or psychiatry (unless its a really very broadly interdisciplinary research done by a team of specialists from different fields).

As I said, it's K-drama, where Psychiatrists do surgeries and stuff. I don't really blame them for treating psychology with the same ignorance they apply do medicine (or almost any other profession). I just wanted to point it out, because people in real life are much more confused about psychology than they are about medicine.

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(2nd try after mod loop)

A few (relative to the absolute number) psychotherapists do research, of course. Psychotherapy and Clinical psychology need research to be done too, of course. But they do research in their field: Clinical psychology. They don’t do research in a field completely unrelated to their own field.

A dental specialist might do medical research, but almost always research that has to do with his field of expertise and not other fields of medicine like endocrinology or psychiatry (unless its a really very broadly interdisciplinary research done by a team of specialists from different fields).

As I said, it’s K-drama, where Psychiatrists do surgeries and stuff. I don’t really blame them for treating psychology with the same ignorance they apply do medicine (or almost any other profession). I just wanted to point it out, because people in real life are much more confused about psychology than they are about medicine.

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No. Plain no. General psychology is mostly based on experimental psychology with healthy people as subjects. (And a lot of out-of-the-air model building. Just like Physics, actually.) These experiments are still the vast majority for most non-Clinical branches of psychology.

The instances where a finding from clinical psychology or psychiatry create new impulses for general psychology are very, very few, but very important, of course. But they are not the fundament of general psychology research

i exactly said they get the idea from clinical cases and then to prove it they do it on regular ppl
thats what i meant when i said
is it genetic social
they do it on us everybody
they have to to get the best results

but the theory and WHAT to search they get from the cases that are in progress

all the others are just exercise - there is a pont a reason to make an experiment it is to put a theory to the test

where do the theories come from? this is my point

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To be honest, before this drama, I had only seen Han Ye Seul in "Spy Myung-wol" and I didn't care for her or that drama at all. However, after viewing her in this drama, she appears much more softer and I find her very likable. That bodes well for me as I plan on sticking it out til the end.

Sung Joon has also improved in this drama. He's not inscrutable as he was in High Society. He's playing a dick but he has good chemistry with the lead actress and so he's much more watchable here. Hope he can keep it up.

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She was good in Fantasy Couple

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i used to like sung joon, but i like him less and less the more i watch him. all i know is that while watching the first two episodes, i was constantly irritated by his voice and rapidfire speech. felt like jekyll and hyde all over again, but also i wonder if that's just his acting style. i've seen it before, most notably in can we get married, although i will admit that that show was written that way—all the characters were dialogue heavy.

but i just feel like i've seen this from him before and it feels lazy now. a little ironic because i used to love sung joon for his voice, but the charm is wearing off.

not sure if i will keep up with this show. han ye-seul also has a sort of voice that's very trying to my ears—i feel like fantasy couple will forever be her best work, and that she's not a very versatile actress. and i feel like i can already see where the show is headed—girl will melt icy psychologist's heart eventually, etc. not enough for me to want to continue.

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I agree with you word for word.
The way I feel about SJ is also the way I feel about HanYS. She remains the same from char to char.

I tried to watch ep 1; 1st attempt, I got as far as 20 min; 2nd time, I couldn't get pass the 30 min mark. Everything about the story is predictable. Before anyone gets mad and calls me a hater, pls consider that there may be enough people who feel this way such that the show's ratings are the way they are.

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oops so sorry, didn't mean to hijack your comment. i thought i was writing my own comment but somehow it got attached to yours. my apologies!!

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No worries. I welcome all discussions, varying perspectives keep things interesting, you know?

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I really like this show,more than i was expecting to at least,it hilar yet it has some deep and i like the heroine a lot,also Han Yaesul looked amazing...The hero sure has his own problems and for sure needs to see a doctor...Can't even imagine when she finds out she is in an experiment,how will he get out of that

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oh finallYYYY...thanks DB, im pretty disappointed that it is a first episode recap but hope this may help the show gain some of the deserved attention.

i really like sung joon's character though ethically he is wrong in the drama, but it is the way the character is written and that is what brings the fun............i hav already watched 2 ep and that makes me think that something something and something comes before fall....ha but no worries bcoz he is jst going to fall in love. and the whole drama is abt love and there are so many couples to ship

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I'm on board with like all of what Girlfriday said. I think I'm on board here for a fun romcom romp and basically all for Hye-Rim.

Soo-Hyun is a much bigger asshole than I was expected and it is sorta disappointing, but like GF, I'm excited for his fall. (Also, Sung Joon.) Completely agree about his pettiness too - like yeah it devalues his credibility as a researcher even more, but that's a foregone conclusion anyway. The pettiness at least adds a touch to the character that makes him more distinct. I loved that mean little revenge vision of his.

I knew going into it the psych aspect is something to not take seriously, but will be annoying regardless. Sometimes all the super inept & unethical parts of career focused dramas just put me off ENTIRELY and other times they're just annoying but not too hard to ignore. Like it was harder for me to swallow It's Okay, That's Love, but my instinct is that this psych-shittiness will be easier to ignore. I'm assuming it's cos the show is so light, it's not asking me to take it seriously.

I didn't notice my disappointment about their working together before, but now that Girlfriday mentioned it, it's totally true. It is disappointing, on top of unnecessary. A fortune teller and psychologist competing for clients was such a great set up, and I loved what we got of it. I want more of that.

Still, it's fun so far, and Hye-Rim is so winning! Also Seungchan/Jin-Woon didn't have much time in this epi, but he's already charming from what I've seen. I'm gonna keep my hopes up for this show, I just want it to be fun and zippy and have a touch of heart.

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Meh...it's like the more I see Sung Joon the less I like him.

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Hello ^^ Thanks for the recap!
When you said this was just a first episode recap, did you mean you're not sure if you're going to recap the upcoming episodes?

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I liked it a lot. A fun watch and episode 2 is even more fun. the leads being easy on the eyes is just another feather to the hat. I'm looking forward to this one especially since the leads have fantastic chemistry

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Yes! Episode 2 was even better. I'm enjoying it a lot, Han Ye Seul and Sung Joon are perfect for their roles and as long as the script keeps being decent we have lots of fun ahead :D

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ohhh.I got to see jin soon oppa that is one good reason to follow this drama.soo hyun is childish.i like hye rim I'm totally rooting for her.

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I needed light and fluffy so this fits the bill perrrrfectly. Shame its a one episoder, though perhaps the fluffiness means it might be less interesting to recap?

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Isn't it funny how Soo-hyun's first thoughts about how to get back at Hye-Rim were to romance her? (albeit in fantasy) And after only knowing her for about a day too! lol It's obvious he's already attracted to her (I'd argue from the get go) but he's so petty and childish (despite being a grown man with a PHD) that he'd never admit that to himself. Methinks the man doth protest too much? He's prime to be the one to fall first and the hardest. It'll be slower and more gradual from Hye-Rim's side (despite the physical attraction) because regardless of what Soo-hyun said about Hye-Rim leading mostly a happy life and having a few hardships, her last bout with love still seems to have left her with scars and yearning for the real thing. So I think she'll be the one doing her damnest to not fall for him because she wants to protect herself. I personally can't wait for Soon-hyun to fall in love, it'll be delicious to see how everything backfires on him and he falls genuinely and deeply. His ego and pride need to knocked down a few pegs (or several) and I'm all for it! Side note, does anyone else think despite his scoffing and condescension towards Hye-Rim's line of work, he still respects how good she is at what she does? He can't deny that she is very intelligent and has talent. It's probably in part why he was attracted to her in the first place IMO. He might even see a kindred spirit in her because he knows she can see right through him the way he does with her. Anyway, loving the breezy, snappy dialogue in this drama and am excited for the rom com shenanigans once the experiment starts in full swing. These two have really good chemistry and practically crackle when they're onscreen together, especially when they're arguing lol. Hopefully the ratings do better and in the mean time, I'll be watching!

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I loved the chemistry between the leads so I'll definitely keep watching! Too bad for the ratings...although it has its flaws, it had a solid start as a promising rom-com. Good rom-coms are sometimes hard to get these days because they tend to be more noticeably formulaic than any other genre...

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I have to be honest here. Sung Joon just ruins many dramas for me. (I know I'm about to experience the wrath of God for this. DB seems to be a bit of a Sung Joon shrine.)

It's not even really his fault. It's just that in my eyes he's repeatedly miscast. Having to sit through his painful attempts at "play-acting" as some kind of supposed intellectual type is excruciating. I recognize that the guy is handsome and all, but he just doesn't have the presence or gravitas to pull off all the roles they cast him in. Seriously, he's always playing some kind of doctor, psychologist or other professional. This is not a man that screams authority/man-in-charge/etc. He's more "live-in boyfriend swinging free rent in exchange for sex while swooning high school girls look on". Just my two cents.

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The last two lines of your post, really made me laugh :D

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For the sake of comparison, I would propose Yoon Hyun-Min as an example of a young actor who is still on the "pretty boy" spectrum who in my opinion CAN pull off an authority or intellectual figure. He's got so much more presence. Ironically, they had him playing Sung Joon's doctor's goofy best friend in 2014's Discovery of Romance. (Which he manages very well by the way, as he also excels in comedic roles.)

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Yoon Hyun Min is an 1985er so it's not a surprise that he can pull of those roles considering he's actually age appropriate for them...

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"He’s more “live-in boyfriend swinging free rent in exchange for sex while swooning high school girls look on”"

Exactly like his character in I Need Romance 3. He was a famous musician/music producer abroad who went back to Korea to find the lead girl. He lived in the girl's house for a while because he didn't know a lot in the city and because he wanted the girl to fall in love with him. And she did (eventually, together with the rest of us viewers).

I guess that's why I fell in love with him because I saw him first in that drama.

Now that I think about it, I totally get what you're saying. I loved him in I Need Romance 3, but I didn't care about him at all in Discovery of Romance (probably because of Eric).

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I don't understand why he seems always choose the roles that doesn't match with his age while his co-stars are often much older than him. I still remember how I decided to watch Discovery of Romance because I was fall for him after I Need Romance 3 and Can We Get Married but ended up seeing him looks like a boy beside that manly tough super confidence guy like Eric. However, I like him better in Hyde Jekyl and Me rather than High Society. He should choose heavy roles more and please no noona romance anymore. I'm sick of it.

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Ugh. He was miscast in I Need Romance 3 and very, very painful to watch.

I don't know why he keeps choosing these rom-com roles. I think he'd be much better in heavier fare, where he doesn't need to emote a lot and can get a way with his poker face.

It's not just that the roles are age-inappropriate for Sung Joon, I think they are genre-inappropriate too. He should broaden his range and try do something else. Maybe, play a soldier for instance?

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Thanks for your courage in stating this obvious fact!

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I love both leads but as an (non-clinical with some clinical knowledge) experimental psychologist Sung Joon's experiments made my blood boil. Sigh. Why infringe on SCIENCE, show??

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thanx for the recap really enjoyed this episode

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Most of the psychology is weird but I'm glad they covered conversion disorder! and that they explained they ruled out medical causes and that it's not a conscious thing. It's one of the coolest disorders in psych (though of course not good for the patient). And yes, people actually lose their sight and mobility and can get them back when they get psychotherapy (though in a more stretched out and appropriate version than what he was doing -.- )

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one of the thing that i liked and disliked was that HR triggered SH suppressed memory
usually to become a psychiatrist you hav to undergo a treatment yourself nd there is no way his mother woudnt have come up
but having the memory back with HR means SH unconsciously trust HR or want her of all ppl to figure him out so although unlikely i liked how they made her his "safe" place

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damn, han ye seul should really stick to romcom shows. she's totally rocking this role. sung joon, i'd really want to see you pick a role that's completely different from this and past few roles youve been taking - they've been getting so repetitive. as i watched episode 1, all i could think of was sung joon in hyde jekyll me

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K-drama writers need to either learn more about psychology or stay away from it as a topic, because every time I've ever seen in it a drama it's been majorly distorted. And this one sounds even more outrageous than the others I've seen. I do have some interest in this drama since I like HYS and like the idea of the hero falling for her while running the experiment, but at this point I can't tell whether or not the fun stuff will outweigh the psychology fail. Hope someone takes up the recaps so that I can get a better idea of whether or not I want to watch it.

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The problem with Sung Joon is this role is that he is very, very young to be playing the role. IMO, it would have been better with an actor whose age actually fits the accomplishments they attribute to the character. He's a fine actor, but imagine a late 30s or 40 year old in the role.

I will keep watching, though, despite the poor portrayal of psychology. I can suspend disbelief for a comedy. Legal shows, OTOH, make me itchy, and I can't stomach even the best of them.

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<The problem with Sung Joon is this role is that he is very, very young to be playing the role.

I think that applies to about 90% of kdramas that involve doctors, lawyers or similar professionals. They always cast actors (and have characters) that are in anything from their early to late twenties. Often, they try to sell them as "geniuses", but sometimes they don't even do that (going to an Ivy League School doesn't make you a genius!).

These actors/characters are always unconvincingly young. I'd be terrified if I walked into a hospital and 75% of the staff were looked like they were barely out of high school but apparently the "star doctors/nurses/etc". No matter how brilliant some individuals might be, there is a) certain amount of time you need to study for certain professions (before that you are a junior doctor/trainee/intern etc.) and b) EXPERIENCE which you only gain over years and years of practice.

<He’s a fine actor

I have a soft spot for him because of SUFBB (he nailed the rock rebel boy), but I agree with everyone else that's saying he's playing very similar roles in very same-ish ways. I'm not seeing the fine acting skills, but one-note roles & performance, sadly.

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GF: What do you mean about the Note above?

"Note: This is just a first episode recap."

That you won't be recapping it anymore?

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Thanks for the recap.

This is where I got in the episode:
"Six months ago, he had three different men approach this woman acting as real suitors, without her knowing she was being experimented on (gee, that doesn’t seem even a little ethical)."

--and stopped watching.
--really, this got pass IRB.
--really, this is how you conduct experiments without informed consent.

I like the actor so I'm here to see if I can get my my horror.

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I know kdramas really do like the genius trope, but when the writers haven't done their research, and it has this many holes, it makes the character and the show seem laughable. I actually cringed through so much of it. It's as if the writer read a couple of pages of a textbook, liked some crime dramas, and just went from there. The scenario with the man on the street was embarrassing, as was the way he went about with the gymnast.

And I can't say the rom com side of it is well written either. All of girlfriday's comments are legitimate and would've made for a better drama, though we obviously have them working together so they can learn through their patients.

I did like when he was speaking into her ear, that was fantastic. But then the whole 'I'm seeing me on the bridge' killed it again.

And the romantic entanglements are so obviously set up in the first two episodes sigh. I know cliches can be great and the journey is usually more fulfilling in kdramas, but ugh.

And Sung Joon, as others have pointed out, is either not as good as an actor as Shut Up made him to be (actually many of the actors for that drama sparkled in a way they have not since) or is choosing the wrong projects. He's relying on a couple of expressions and mannerisms and it's already gotten old for me. Which is heartbreaking because I would really really like to love him as an actor.

I hate writing reviews like this ;____;

But Han Ye Seul is so good. She gives life to this drama.

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I was contemplating whether to watch the drama or not since this was just a one episode recap ?

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Soohyun is a jerk. I hope karma bites him hard soon. The others too. I really have to turn a blind eye to the fact that he thinks his experiment will fly with ethical regulations with all the violations he's doing. If I were the girl, i would sue the hell out of him after this experiment. He even told her she couldn't drop out wth. I hope he does get sued as punishment, even if they don't take it all the way because he grovels for forgiveness.

Also, i am really sorry for mentioning my opinion on this... But sung joon always seems awkward to me. He never seems to fully transform into his characters. His close ups are quite telling.

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this is the first time i really enjoyed drama about psychology disorder or else...can't wait for watch more episodes..
thanks for the recaps 😄😄

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This drama's writer is totally don't know what she did. I just can't enjoy it.

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hmmm wanted to watch this but the warning right at the beginning of the episode that "all psychological cases and theories in this drama are all fictional" (or something to that effect) sort of turned me off already, and that being confirmed by Sung Joon's unethical experiment completely made me give this up. I don't think the writer should dabble in psychology if she is not prepared to do the proper research. Relying on that warning is to cover up for laziness.

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Setting aside my love for kdramas to make sense logically - I'll just put my brain into Girl Who Can See Smells mode - and enjoy this.

GF says Sung Joon's character has never experienced love but it could be he has and was DUMPED, hence his disdain for women. Although it looks like they'll be going with his relationship with his mother as the reason he thinks so lowly of women.

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Why do you think he has a disdain for women? He is an unprofessional ass, make no mistake. But his hate does not seem to be targeting women as much as all human kind.

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I know this is an entirely off-topic comment but, girlfriday, this "Song of the Day" is an amazing sound for my sensitive ears (kpop usually torments me)! Thank you...

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It's a drama. they are not going to study psychology for it, and viewer don't care about that very much . we are here for the story between the characters not for learning psychology !!

I like the drama. thanks GF.

Give it a chance people .

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hi guys .. this is my first time i started to comment..on a drama.. i like this drama .. its different from the usual one.this
hero is my best villain from hyde jykll and me..
support me .. NANDRI(thanks)

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Episodes 3 and 4 are really funny. I was afraid Hye-rim would turn idiotic, but she dodges most of the mines and still have a sharp eye to notice something is fishy. I like the 2 episode rythm for each patient ( even if its a real routine to solve it), and we had a few heartbreaking moments (Hye-rim daughter etc...)

Poor Soo-hyun the beginning of Ep 4 was a cold shower for him and i liked how Hye-rim reaction was explained. But he deserved it and right now he s still a jerk. I think he s going to suffer a little :p!

So far i do like the show ( more than One more happy ending tbh) but im also hoping the quality wont go down the same way Birth of a beauty did...

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Watching this with my sister right now. I got to say that the writers nerfed her hard. Where's the con artist who could read people!? Made are dear doctor get all shook? Gone girl, gone. Still watching cause when the shit hits the fan it will be glorious. Plus talking shit with my sister is always bonding time I enjoy # blessed

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Thanks for the recap.
Soo-hyun no one would make such a dumb conclusion.

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