Gosh they're so adorable. I love how they're so cute together but neither forgets that the title of gangster follows Jihwan for the rest of his life. The wholesome is equally matched with the bigger themes of "can a person really change" and "don't judge a book by its cover."

Thank you for this sweetest of the sweet show recap. 🍭

I never knew how much I would love uri petty Shoulder Thug and omona that backseat growl had me wiping sweat off my brow too. 🥰🤣

I love this Snow White who is fearless in the face of the scary deerlings and can laugh at uri Gentle Giant - to his face!! 🤣🤣😍

Uri Prosecutor-nim needs to back off - pali, pali. What a disaster of a date. Uri Snow White is so cute taking out the extra "protein" from the rameyon. From now on I'll take mine with a glass of warm milk please. 🍜🥛🙏

I loved how Marketing Deerling and Snow White ran to hide behind uri Sweet Mobster's back. So on point. 👍👏👏👏

Mobster Penguin Huddle is my most favorite backhug ever!! 🐧🤗👌🥰😍

as a runner I am always told do not post your running location. used to be a minor thing here but psychos have caught up. even if it was a good thing NOW the deerlings urge to share brought Ji Hwan to help, it might be one of their enemies next time. bad guys have eyes too.
it is all presented as comedy but im feeling more and more the comedy is like a ruse here to point out some truths about society. cause no one likes being lectured but they are facts.

I checked the public vote on Personality Database and Ji Hwan is declared INTJ. Total introvert but once he accepts you he does it 200%.
as a northern European I appreciate a character who doesnt talk much and is reliable. im exhausted of noisy overconfident and bratty characters. Ji Hwan is a mans man.

@daebakgrits Haha loved this recap! Thanks! Like the fact that you nicknamed Ji Hwan's underlings as deerlings.

The ML actor and his character matched with good social commentary is making this drama better and better. It is relaxing to watch the two leads try to be good humans which means a lot in this modern dark world. I also kind of get disney animated movies vibe here because on paper it feels like a drama for teenagers but it has a hidden depth for any adult who chooses to watch it. So, I am glad for the increase in ratings.

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Re: "Gah! Let the man build his meat processing empire and crush on the object of his affection in peace, dammit!"
WORD.
p.s. Prosecutor Jang is shaping up to be such a *cough* cough* cxxkblocker

I have to stop pretending this isn't my kind of show, because I had such fun once again with these episodes. Ofc sometimes I cringed (hint, I'm not a Disney gal, nor believe in pure as snow 30-somethings), but this rom-com is truly romancing and comedy gold. And with its green flag male lead and the he-fell-first-and-hard trope, it's also fulfilling my fantasy reqs. Ha. As for the comedy, so many great moments, but I just died with second-hand embarrassment for JH showing off his pecs. 😂

The one trope they're failing with is the love triangle, as most will agree. Is it because they introduced the 2ML and his back story too late, how black-and-white he is compared to what we've been shown of the ML, or just so blah otherwise as daebakgrits says, I don't know. But what's a triangle without a real contender?

What's better are the thematic messages underlying MSM, and how the deer and his deerlings embody them. I read somewhere, it's all UTG, and yes, all credit to the charisma of the actor, but the characterization is also layered. Not only demonstrating his strengths, but also his self-doubts, confusion, small vanities. All his weaknesses make him one of my favorite MLs. We're all thirsty now, no doubt.

Ep 5-6 are glorious crack! With criminal levels of rom & com in equal dollop!

My litany of favourite comedy beats:
1) Dry sauna sequence: this is the trope of "My soccer captain elder brother has showed up in the sandpit scuffle I am miserably losing. Hurrah & shove it boys!" Our Hyung-nim's fearsome reputation truly precedes him, and here we see it in all its glory. The sauna is desolate in a blink; all we see is a lone fluttering flyer and that phone on the ground 🤣🤣 [also, the hyperbolic string of honorific titles on contact name is capital 😂]

2) Shoulder-Thug: It's hilarious for all kinds of reasons -- notable mentions go to gym scene ("shoulders as broad as the Pacific Ocean"; "shoulders are everything on a man")

The Pacific Ocean reference made me LOL cos of the allusion to Seri in CLOY gushing over a paparazzi stealth photo taken of Captain Ri hugging her and all she could gush about are his broad as Pacific Ocean shoulders LOL)

2b) How hilariously quick the Deerlings are on the uptake about this latest romantic undertow + their gamut of reactions. Jae-soo takes the cake when he leaps to back-hug his Hyung: "I disapprove of this marriage!!!" (breath-taking leap of logic from lats-workout to impending marriage, but oh-so-astute)

3) The first class: "What is hard on the outside, soft on the inside?" (I love how subtly the writers unfold this several more times in different contexts across the episode). The whole shenanigan is a hoot, including the math question about dividing 4 cherry tomatoes and how that veers off to...other stuff.

4) Morning-after: The parallel between our first OTP & 2nd OTP -- both had their unexpected "mistake" (and their mortified reactions / conflicted awkwardness the next day)

My other standout moments l themes that are unfolding rapidly with deft narrative strokes (highlights in no order of merit):

1) Theme of debt: "a promise is an unpaid debt." Last week, it was Ye-Na but this week we see a glimpse of how various other characters tussle with their private debts of guilt, of gratitude etc - some, for many many years. (Il Young, Hong Ki and his "collateral", even Eun Ha & her childhood "mistake that cause them to separate)

The dinner conversation between Il Young & Mi-Ho is one of the most moving this week, and her wise and redemptive interpretation of why Ji-Hwan would even put Il-Young in his debt. "Owe no man any debt, except the debt of love" (Rom 13:8) this is a nuance & sentiment I feel that East Asians understand intimately. Being "indebted" to each other is what creates intimacy (that is what Ye-Na is trying desperately to do with her special clause provision. She wants to establish a relationship; not just pay off a creditor).

2) Motif of digging up dirt (aka the past): We see this played out both metaphorically and literally (Eun-Ha eagerly wanting to recapture the past of her cherished childhood memories; with a shovel for the time capsule), as well as Ji-Hwan's laconic counsel to Ye-Na and why he feigned ignorance last week: "Digging up the past will do neither of us any good." He wants to wipe his slate clean, and firmly closes the door on Ye-Na's chequered past as well.

3) Related Note: Ji-Hwan is so pretending *not* to know Eun-Ha when it's patently obvious to the whole universe! (if all the narrative breadcrumbs don't add up, I will stab my own hand with a meat-carving knife) Dead giveaway: I LURVE how he - led by unconscious body memory - simply raises his hand to pet her head affectionately the night after hearing her talk about her special memories of his house and playmate)

4) Hug Vs Hug: Relished the bristling jealousy of Eun-ha when the Deerlings (I swear they are modelled on the Ducklings in CLOY!) were recounting the "cooler-than-Hyun-Bin" embrace by their Boss, and how the universe heard our cries, and squares off that ledger when Eun-Ha gets the "Emperor Penguin huddle" pay-off at the end (echo of Ep 3 when Ji-Hwan first hides behind a "survival in the Antarctica penguin docu poster" Subtitled: How the Emperor Penguin Protects Their Nestlings" ❤❤❤ How cool is that?!

I'm not watching this show yet, but after looking at that header pic with every comment, I only want to mention that the gaffer knew what they were doing in that scene!

Ji-Hwan has my full focus, I don't see or care about anything else or body. I just want to give him a hug. He's trying so hard to make his deerlings being able to have a normal life, shielding them from the old world.

Hyun-woo is a bad witness, he didn't really see the action and just made a conclusion.

The second couple is fast in action! And it was a very big splash.

I’m thinking ji hwan has a childhood hood connection to Eun Ha. When he finally found out our FL real name, he seemed kinda shocked and had her looked into right away. Seems there is some kind of recognition. But I am loving this drama. It’s so sweet and laugh out funny especially when he second guesses everything . Our poor former mobster just wants to be loved by his crush. Also I like that he usually asks for permission to touch our FL even if it is for saving her life. Bring in more sweet and cute moments between our leads!

First, Um Tae Gu and Han Sun Hwa are just killing it in their roles. Both give their characters depth, vulnerabilities AND charisma in every scene whether it be comedic, dramatic or both—that’s the magic here.

There are so many layers to this seemingly cartoon level show. One level is just the surfacey things—the color palate, the clothing, the hair, etc. This is the level upon which we often first (and often last) judge people. What’s interesting is how both the show and the characters embrace that reality and use and play with it. Ji Hwan knows that society has judged him to be a gangster by birth and association, and maybe, but maybe not, by deed. Instead of trying to fight it, he subversively dons it like armor—the black clothes, the shellacked hair, and ripped body, and boy does he rock it. It serves him by both claiming the predispostion of people to judge him a thug, but also, because it commands respect so he doesn’t have to use actual physical violence to get his point across, which, so far, has been on the side of mercy, redemption and good. What’s interesting is where he sheds his clothing and hair armor is inside the house, where only his deermates and Eun Ha are let in (we know that he won’t even let the mail person in) and the only place where he lets the need to use the outside prejudices to his advantage go and where people see him beyond that tough exterior. Similarly, Eun Ha has her styling armor—hers is one that she created, instead of being thrust upon her—one of a kid’s creator with playful clothes and hair. She worked at a company filled with people using that facade of being kid-friendly, and yet, their actions often were emotionally or morally violent. After her show was shut down and when she went in the deer house, she too sheds her armor and even sheds her Mini Unnii name and lets them see her for who she is and what she does. It’s a brilliant juxtaposition of the use and prejudicies of appearances.

In terms of judging each other, Ji Hwan and Eun Ha quickly put aside the surfacey stuff after their inital misunderstanding of each other. Ji Hwan is a person who having been judged unfairly his whole life grants people grace and a chance of redemption—for a seemingly dark mobster, he is the most hopeful character in the show. He believes in second, third and fourth chances even if the face of difficult realities of having them. Eun Ha sees that in him because she believes in the kid-like wonder and hope for more love, for return of loved ones, for the possibility of fun to break out. Ji Hwan in turn resonates with being seen and seeing that quality in her. It doesn’t hurt that both are lovely on all levels—physically, emotionally and etthically—and they see and appreciate all the levels too. Eun Ha, like all of us, looked and noticed the shoulders before and after the workout. (If you want to see the moll/doll that Han Sun Hwa can be, look up clips in Save Me 2.). It’s interesting how despite the...

Everybody, gather around! Snow White and the Seven Ex-Kkangpae is on! This show is so much fun.

I'm loving this show, to the point I look forward to the upcoming episodes..It's so swooning...and the comedy ji hwan showing his pecs iso ridiculous 😂😂..I love him..not to mention a complete green flag, the way explained huddling before doing it😍..only annoying part is SML. This show also shows expects of ex cons lives and some people were helpless in becoming a criminal like the wife who killed her abusive husband. It's simple and fun..

What an adorable drama this is turning out to be. I love ❤️ everything about this show.

I also like that they are adding little conflicts while bringing the OTP together rather than getting them together fast and then driving a wedge. Him being a ex mobster is the elephant in the room and it’s something both are working with.
She is learning to see him for his present. And I also hope she talks to him about his past at some point.
My heart sank when he asked her how the prosecutor is already her friend. Ouch. He realizes he is not. And when he thinks she isn’t comfortable telling anyone that she is staying with him. His little hurts were so obvious and I really felt for Ji Hwan.

That huddle hug was so melty and swoony. Hope girl got to feel the shoulders and biceps inspite of freezing.

Gaah. This recap 💗💛 So freaking sweet. Makes me want to rewatch the episodes AGAIN (I'm not saying if it will be my third or fourth rewatch 🥰)

This little show may be sweetness personified but it's packing a punch in the wisdom/theme department too. Ji-hwan's hesitance to pursue the object of his desire isn't something that he can simply overcome on his own. Not really. The show is giving us a hard look into how society can be harsh in determining what we get served depending on who we are, what we look like and what we did in the past. I feel deeply for our Deerlings. I'm rooting for their success and happiness.

And is it just me or is sweetness the new hawtness?? 🥵💛 I can't get enough of all the ways our OTP are sweet to each other even amidst all the distractions (HYUN-WOO, GET IN THE BACK). Ji-hwan's awareness that his ladylove could get hurt just by being close to him. Lesser men would just forge ahead and think only of what they want. Not our hero 🥰 Eun-ha's willingness to learn and know her own mind about our hero's questionable past. I adore characters who are open to growth and change and our pair have this down. The way they took on father-mother/good cop-bad cop vibes in dealing with the brood of Deerlings was endearing.

And let's just say it was 🔥 in that freezer! I can't wait for next week though seeing Ji-hwan covered in blood in the preview makes me a little anxious. May the week go as fast as how Ji-hwan got home before Eun-ha did!! 👀🤩

Three cheers @daebakgrits for a wonderful re-cap that captures my utterly surprised enjoyment of what I thought would be a brain-bubblegum show. OTP is nailing it, the directing/cinematography is top notch. Above all the writing team is providing us with wonderful dialogue and serious subtext. After laughing, giggling and squeeing, I will stop and think, wait - they are saying something substantive about SoKo society.
After dropping the two big Beanie favs of the year so far, I despaired that I would ever fall in love with a K-drama again. Step back, I'm head over heels!

That's an interesting point about our second couple @daebakgrits. Did they spend a night in that hotel the camera lingered on? Otherwise put, were Mi-ho's one-rice-grain-at-a-time breakfast fantasies memories??? In the moment, I didn't think so. I thought they were her hopes and dreams... Huh. Either way, thanks for sharing, Mi-ho! 😉

I don't think this has been said enough, but I love UTG's acting. LOVE.
His interpretation of the character, emotional depth, nuance and range has wowed me. I hope this is his breakout role for romcom leads

Notable mention of his expressive eyebrows: I swear, they went to hagwon to take special cram classes on method acting. They have a life of their own.

I am loving this drama so much! Agree with all that has been said, and have to give a shout out for the added animations which constantly make me spit my tea. Jihwan lying on his bed whilst the word "gangster" hit him like hailstones was hilarious, particularly the last which bounced off the bed and onto the floor with a pathetically tinny thud. Such a way to capture a mood!! Plus, although I generally hate shouty characters, deerling Jaesu is comedy gold - sand in your eye and defending his boss's "torso purity" were played so well! Thanks @daebakgrits for a recap that is as enjoyable as the episodes :)

A very different UTG but so charming - https://youtu.be/Q93GrEOm4ac?si=RSUfFJih6htBLIpb

I have to say something about the love triangle plotline. I am now sick of it. Would it kill writers to depict some healthy female-to-male and male-to-female friendships? Give the 2nd FL and MLs their own love stories instead of turning them into a villain or just destined to get their heart stomped on.

Now that they have blatantly said there is a mole among the bulldogs, I feel it's going to be another twist and the mole is no longer going to be Il Yeong. It will probably be some super minor character whose backstory is only revealed in 1 minute in Episode 14. Or Il Yeong turns out to be a triple agent.

Also, for all the people hating on Hyun Woo for assuming Ji Hwan killed his family member, my theory is that Ji Hwan confessed to take the blame for someone else. So, Hyun Woo has reason to hate Ji Hwan. Eun Ha will probably hear this. There will be some confusion and it will only be cleared up after next week.

This post is making me sound so cynical about the show. But, the acting is really good and more than makes up for the formulaic plot.

This drama is totally Castaway Diva-ing us (trying to make us think the 2ML is the childhood friend but it's totally the ML)

did the bestie and the Cinderella straight up have a, um, night of passion??? 💀 in kdramas, everyone *but* the leads move so fast T-T

Bro has fallen so hard for her, he astral projected into that car seat just to prevent Eun-ha and lawyer man from having a Kdrama Romantic Swoon Moment™️

speaking of lawyer man... He doesn't even know any of excons' story, yet he judges them as some evil that cannot be redeemed. Ya really think the lady who killed her abusive husband to save her kid is peddling drugs? or the lady studying to be a social worker? And I bet you anything that Ji-hwan was helping people at that hotel incident.

I was literally like, "it wouldn't be cute or funny to lock people into a -18°C freezer... Man-ho better not be responsible" but alas...

Y’all!! This show is hitting all the right notes for me. I don’t remember the last time I was this captivated by a romcom. I NEEDED this. I’m a sucker for a found family storyline, so while the prank is low key life threatening, I love that his boys love him so much they’d even play Cupid. Squeee! Our leads have such great chemistry and their respect for each other is so earnest. Everything about this show is working just right. I want all the success for the cast and crew!!!