Fresh out of the military, Jang Kiyong decided to star in another fantasy drama, this time around in a supernatural, time-travel one paired with some great co-stars such as Chun Woohee, Claudia Kim, veteran actress Goo Dooshim, and our up-and-coming talented child actress Park Soyi.
I was patiently waiting for The Atypical Family to fully air because I had a feeling it would be impossible not to lose your mind waiting for the next episodes – with time travel, supernatural powers, and family scheming, I know I would’ve been so impatient to see what happens next. This is surprisingly my first Jang Kiyong drama (although I’ve been eyeing Kill It for a while) and I didn’t have much opportunity to see some of the other actors involved in this project, with the exception of Park Soyi who is really one of the best young actresses right now, as well as Claudia Kim (who I know outside of kdramaland). However, I’m really pleasantly surprised by how well everyone fit into this story and the chemistry between everyone was great as well. Let’s review The Atypical Family in more detail, but it’ll be a positive one, don’t worry.
From MyDramaList: Bok Gwi Ju and his family were born with different supernatural powers. Bok Gwi Ju is able to travel back in time, but only to happy times in his life. He can’t change the past, so he can only dwell on those happy moments. Bok Gwi Ju becomes afflicted with depression, and this leads him to lose his supernatural power. His family also loses their own powers due to modern-day problems like insomnia, bulimia, and smartphone addiction. One day, Do Da Hae happens to get involved with Bok Gwi Ju and his family. She begins to live with them, and change occurs.
Minor spoilers ahead:
I love supernatural shows and The Atypical Family really seemed like something that would bring something different to the k-drama scene this year and I think I was pretty much right. With 12 episodes, it managed to portray a complex storyline, multiple characters, and their progress, as well as the tricky connection between the present, past, and future. I would also say that The Atypical Family was a bit different for another reason too – most of the characters were somewhat unlikeable in the beginning to me and it was interesting to see how they developed and how much I warmed up to almost everyone by the end of the drama (except the moms… both of them can go). Jang Kiyong’s character Gwi Ju is probably the most likable character in the drama, although he’s very troubled and makes a lot of mistakes on his own, as well as his sister Dong Hee (Claudia Kim), and his daughter I Na (Park Soyi). The Bok family was a mess but you could tell they had a lot of redeeming qualities and that, honestly, their mother was just insane and influenced them in so many ways. I couldn’t stand her character from the beginning until the very end and you cannot change my opinion. Privileged people annoy me.
Gwi Ju was a nice character to follow, although there are some things I feel like I kept getting irritated about. For example, my biggest problem was that I Na always came second – even when he was starting to get better, he was focusing more on Da Hee for so long that I just wanted to ask him hello, where is your daughter? I liked him but he had a long, long way to go with his parental skills to make up for lost time and I feel like he kept getting stuck on side quests way too often. However, Jang Kiyong was very good in this role. I’ve never watched his dramas, as I said before, but he was so charming until the end and he really brought Gwi Ju to life. His chemistry with Chun Woohee was great as well and I liked watching their relationship develop. Chun Woohee was amazing in this role as well – she had the difficult task of portraying a rather complex character that we don’t even see as positive in the beginning and she was so expressive in her acting that I enjoyed all of her scenes so much. Da Hee was a character that kept you on your toes – Is she lying or not? Is she really dedicated to this or not? What is her story or is she making things up? Every episode we uncovered another layer of her story and I really liked her character development a lot. She also had a lot of crazy circumstances in life and I didn’t blame her for taking opportunities. Da Hee and Gwi Ju had a weird beginning to their story but I loved them together.
Now, the absolute scene-stealers for me were Bok Dong Hee and Grace and their entire side-storyline. I didn’t expect Dong Hee’s story to get me so hooked but I was rooting for her so much and she was often the only voice of logic and reason in the Bok house beside I Na from the beginning. Why was she the only one questioning what even is this unknown woman doing in their house? She was also hilarious and just overall so fun to watch, especially when she finally took matters into her own hands and decided to pave her own future. Her and Grace’s chemistry was kind of overshadowing everyone in the drama for me because I found their bickering so entertaining and natural the entire time. I’m going to project my own thoughts here but they honestly had the perfect enemies-to-lovers trope going on and I’m sad we didn’t actually get that. That scene where they’re flying together? I teared up. They weren’t sure whether to help each other or continue scheming and it was fun seeing how both of them developed, especially Grace when it came to Dong Hee. This was my OTP and I stand by it.
I Na was also one of my favourites in the drama and I liked the way her character developed as well throughout the drama too. It was also a pleasant surprise to see Moon Woojin here who I absolutely loved in Castaway Diva – he’s such a talented young actor as well! Their story was also so sweet to follow and I enjoyed getting a glimpse into I Na’s school life and everything that went on there. Her chemistry with Da Hee was also so cute – they were the mom-daughter duo I didn’t know I needed and neither did they. I’m a bit shocked that Da Hee’s “family” ended up having a turn-around in the end but I respect that they tried to deliver a redemption arc there as well.
Story-wise, The Atypical Family was relatively easy to follow and despite the confusion that time travel and its consequences can bring, I feel like it was done well in the drama. I liked the idea of everyone having a supernatural ability and the fact that the ability could grow and expand more as they developed as people too. Of course, there were some moments I wasn’t the biggest fan of, but I have to say that the ending was rather interesting. Almost from the very beginning we know that Gwi Ju is predestined to have this dramatic moment later on related to Da Hee and I feel like they did as good of a job as possible regarding this. I’m never too big on open endings, but I think The Atypical Family did a good job with this one – yes, the predestined future does happen, but there are also circumstances that the future didn’t take into consideration. I wish we got a bit more of the ending story as it felt rushed and short, but it didn’t leave me sad or dissatisfied. Considering the situation, it’s the best outcome they could’ve had. I really enjoyed The Atypical Family overall and feel like it’s definitely a breath of fresh air on the current romance-oriented k-drama scene so I’m happily giving it a 9/10 for its genre and due to its fantastic cast. Yang Kiyong was definitely my biggest pleasant surprise from this.