I feel very passionate towards Secret. I passionately hated it and passionately loved it while watching. It is the first drama that gave me such diverse feelings, and i am thankful and regretful because of that. Secret was the first drama that i thought of dropping, and one of the very least dramas that made me cry so much i actually hurt. STORY You basically got the main premise of the show by the description: 'This drama will depict how a man falls in love with a woman who killed his lover' this is actually it. However even if it seems like a very straightforward show from the description this definately isn't the case. The base story here is about a hit and run incident in which the lead protagonist takes the fall and goes to jail. The hit and run incident ended up with a dead woman who is the love of the male protagonist. The two of them (the 2 leads) are meant to be together. The show starts so dramatically, the two of them have nothing to link them whatsoever, and this incident made their love even more unlikely. This was probably one of the main reasons i watched, in order to see if the writters can pull it off or it will be ridiculous. Well, they did pull it off, believe me! Sadly, the main problem i had with the drama was the fact that it was boring beyond imagination, especially the first 5-6 episodes. People argued that the story progresses fast, and comments saying that none of the conversations are skippable. I disagree. The first 3 episodes were slow and super boring. The show tries harder after episode 4, it picks up in episode 7 and gets really enjoyable after episode 11. Episodes 11-16 were very good, and the last episode was F-L-A-W-L-E-S-S! But can one flawless episodes and a few GREAT plot twists in the end save a show? Yes they obviously can, since the overall rating i was planning on giving this was 7 and it went up to a 8.5, still even though i want to give it a higher rating, the first 5-6 episodes were almost unbearable to watch. Another problem i had with the show was the fact that it wasn't obvious from the beginning what the drama was actually about. Was it the struggle of a woman who gets accused for a crime she didn't commit? Was it how she got through jail? No, to be honest it was about the aftermath of all this, and the romance that comes from revenge. The point of the show becomes apparent in episode 8 or so. I will continue talking about the problems i had, saying that they overdramatized the female protagonist. I understand this is a melodrama, and the female lead needs to be vulnerable, and we need to feel sorry for her, yes, i get that; but, at some point i started thinking, what else can this woman (who has never done anything wrong in her life) go through?! I wanted to make this into a drinking game, i would do a shot whenever something sad happens to her (100% drunk rate in a few hours believe me). The show generally adresses, revenge, selfless people, selfish people and love, but in the first 6 episodes it mostly felt like: 'why bad things happen to good people?'. These were pretty much the problems i had, with huge emphasis on the 'the first 6 episodes were dead boring'. However, the show when it desides to pick up it does. It becomes very shocking, very emotional, until the last 2 episodes when it pretty much changes everything, and it exceeds expectations. The thing i need to praise the most is how they showed that love can come from revenge. The male protagonist is dead set on tormenting the female lead forever for killing his love, and yet, their love comes slowly and feels normal, it feels right, it feels natural. They showed how from hate comes doubts (doubts about if she is actually guilty), from doubts comes care and from care comes love. A huge applause to the writers for pulling this off without forcing it, and to the actors for making us believe in such an, otherwise, completely unrealistic thing. Probably this was the best and redeeming quality of the show along with the acting and the brilliant character development. Overall, i had a difficulty rating the story. The base idea while it is interesting, i believe it is weak. The fact that the first episodes were dead boring didn't help either. Later on, the show rewards your (really huge) patience with amazing plot twists and couple swaps and shocking revealing moments. All of them felt very natural. Borderline, the fact that everything 'clicked' so perfectly made me give the story an actual 9. The writters took a somewhat weak idea, and crafted something definately worth watching. Congrats. ACTING Let's continue to the absolute BEST thing of the show, which is the acting. Possibly, the main reason i kept watching during the early episodes. Hwang Jung Eum. ABSOLUTE QUEEN! I love her comedy skills, but i feel like she is overacting sometimes trying to be funny. After watching Secret, she needs to focus on melodramas. The woman has IT! She can pass her feelings on to you through a screen. I felt every scream, every cry, even when she was smiling, i felt her pain behind that smile. She was FLAWLESS in every way, she was luscious, we aren't worthy of her acting to be honest. A huge applaud to her, i will definately watch her other projects and looking forward to seeing her in the future. Ji Sung. I already liked him but i LOVED him here. Official new fave actor. KMHM was more ON him, he was the star, secret is based more HJE's character, but Ji Sung really does a great job portraying a kid that evolves into a man. He had wonderful angry scenes, emotional scenes, his acting was real, spontaneous, sincere, truthful and emotional. The two leads shared a shivering chemistry, they need to act again together. Their chemistry really shines here! Bae Su Bin deserves some special mention for his definitely memorable performance. For what he was given to do he was great, i hated his character with passion! This was his role's goal, and he delivered! CHARACTERS I'll need to dedicate a special part of this review to the characters. I need to talk about them. (If you haven't watched the drama already feel free to skip this part since it will, most probably, include spoilers). This drama has quite a few questionable character choices, that i need to talk about. Some dramas that deside to go in a controversial route don't have deep enough characters for the viewers to feel the need to excuse them or at least get in the mood to think what the characters are thinking, and generally understand them. However Secret, thankfully, does a great job making you think the reason why the characters do what they do. Kang Yoo Jung. I'll start with the most difficult one. Here we have the selfless person. A person who will give up their own life for someone they love. KYJ suffered from the 'self-punishment' syndrome. She believed that she doesn't deserve anything good in her life, she believed she deserved the worst, and she kept hurting herself. I kind of understand why she did what she did in the beginning. It was her love, her one true love (or so she thought), and she probably thought it wouldn't end up with her going to jail and all that shit, so she took the fall ok. She gets out, and she breaks up, and omfg she keeps taking the blame, WHY GIRL WHY? You aren't with that (excuse of a) person anymore, you are free, stop accepting others treating you like a piece of shit, tell the truth, IT WAS HIS FAULT. But no, she still lies. She did things that made me believe that she actually believed she did it. Was she crazy? I couldn't keep watching if i couldn't enter her mind and understand what she was thinking. KYJ suffered from, what i said, self-punishment. How that happened? She was blaming herself for losing her kid, and that was it for her. She never deserved anything in her mind. I understand that, i get it. Up to a certain point i identified with her after this. I, myself, believe we need to be punished for the wrongs we have done. Sometimes the punishment you get from others isn't enough. KYJ kept and kept blaming herself for everything. She wasn't crazy she was depressed. Shocking character development to be honest, i appreciated her complicated character a lot. Jo Min Hyuk. A selfish person. A spoiled playboy brat who only knows how to order people around and has never done anything in his life. Thankfully, the character development here is major. He went from being a spoiled brat into choosing others and not himself. Obviously you can understand that one of the best qualities of the show was the development of the characters! The way he stops hating her, and understands that a woman like that couldn't have done what she was accused of. He feels sorry for his mistakes, and he slowly begins to care. I appreciated the fact that when he confessed his feelings, he was shocked as well. He said what he said, and then he glared at her, like 'wtf did i just say? Do i really feel these things?' The actor did an amazing job getting these messages across just through his eyes. Amazing character, i loved him. Someone who can learn from the female lead how to care about others, and someone who can teach the female lead how to love herself. Seriously shivering couple dynamics, a perfect match. This couple was very well though. So much potential hidden, i couldn't possibly believe they could make them happen, but they did! Ahn Do Hoon. Have you ever felt like punching a tv character in the throat? Or putting his house on fire? Wishing he would rot in hell for good? Yeah me neither, but it happened here. Here we get another selfish person. He is the exact opposite of JMH, while JMH evolves, ADH devolves. He is also the exact opposite of KYJ, while she puts all the blame for everything on herself, he places all the blame on others, saying this is his way to 'climb the ladder, and become a powerful person' Bitch, die! I hated him with passion what he did was fucked up, his excuses were shit, he was an official sociopath and a scary one! His ending was too lenient if you ask me Shin Se Yeon. A self-centered rich spoiled girl, who wants something and she wants it now! Well girl, we all loved someone and we were rejected, grow up! A manipulator who does what she does using the excuse of having pushy parents. WE ALL DO, GROW THE FUCK UP! I can't say i really hated her, she was an unnecessary character imo. Her personality was very childish, and she never grew up. MUSIC We get another great OST here. Navi's song Incurable desease is flawless, you can hear the pain in the singer's voice. RECOMMEND/REWATCH Would i recommend it? Yes, even though i wasn't expecting me to say it. If you like melodramas you will love this one. Most people found it amazing from the beginning, which i really don't get but it says something. If you find the first episodes boring like me, don't drop it just yet, maybe you can fastforward the first episodes, read what happens online, and watch the interesting stuff. Believe me, i wanted to drop it more than 5 times, and in the end i am happy i didn't. However, please know, this isn't an easy watch! Would i rewatch it? Honestly, no, the first episodes were boring, the later episodes were too dramatic, once is enough. Maybe, just to watch HJE act like aboss again, just for her!