My favorite thing about this show was how it managed to provide a lot of ridiculous soapy excess while also wrestling intelligently with its central thematic concern: the importance of timing in determining whether a relationship succeeds or fails. Successful romances aren't just built on who you love, but when and how you love. Early on Phoenix sells the audience on the powerful attraction between the leads as well as the significance of the internal and external obstacles that drive them apart and keep them estranged for so long. I was so emotionally engaged by these characters and their tortured circumstances even though I wanted to wring their necks a lot of the time. I thought this show also did a job making the typical plot obstacle second leads interesting characters in their own right because they're just so messy and weird. The second FL in particular was such a great baddie. There was some dragginess and repetition in the second half of the drama, as well as a minor and totally unnecessary "comic relief" subplot between a few useless supporting characters that could have easily hit the cutting room floor, but I was still captivated enough to binge 26 episodes in 4 days.