Drama Digest
Mothers (2020) sees an “ordinary” woman of the 21st century as its protagonist. Han Jung-Eun, the mother of a daughter, Lee Yoona, conceived after 10 years of a marriage running 14 years, has always endeavored to perform her domestic and professional responsibilities to her level best. She works incredibly hard as a corporate employee while her husband, Lee Woo Cheol is employed as a PD at a radio station. The series showcases the chain of events that follow when an unexpected calamity strikes Jung-Eun’s family, and she has to look for hope in her bleak life and take on the challenge of processing her complicated feelings and navigating delicate relationships with the women (particularly with her mother, Choi Soon Ok and her daughter) in her family and herself.
The Feel-Good Part
This series is a family portrait of grief. If you are looking for something particularly bleak to watch, then this one is for you. The series puts the microcosm of this family reeling from the tragedy that has befallen them under a magnifying glass and intends to stifle the viewer with the heaviness that surrounds people once sorrow strikes their lives. It also bravely engages with themes of the toxicity existing in the corporate world dominated by chauvinistic males and explores relationships among women in the face of tragedy. It is always good to watch content on the screen that puts a greater focus on women while also maintaining their individuality, and this series tries to do that, quite successfully to a great extent.
The Disappointing Factor
Although this series is about grief as its central theme, there is minimal context provided towards the same. When exploring themes as intense as the ones this series features, summing up everything in two episodes can be quite tricky, and this series is proof of that. It becomes difficult to empathize with the characters because their backgrounds are as blurry as they are here. While trying to condense everything in two episodes, the creators rushed through plotlines that needed careful handling.
In-Depth Analysis
This series is an audacious attempt at depicting grief, familial relationships, and interpersonal ties women have with each other and the world outside. However, it fails to achieve what it had planned to because of the faulty pacing of the episodes. The first episode has all the characters at a standstill, which is customary to people facing a storm in their lives, and the second episode hurries through every other theme that the series was supposed to deal with. Therefore, the uneven distribution of plot points in this series makes it a mediocre watch.
Star Power
The cast is brilliant, and they carry the show with their perfect portrayal of intricate sensitivities that accompany the anguish people feel when all hell breaks loose. Han Hye-Jin is spectacular, and one can sense how seasoned an actor she is when they see her in the first few minutes of the series.
Overall Opinion
This series achieves lesser than it sets out to, and one wonders about all the potential that the show had that got wasted once you are done watching it. Nonetheless, if you have two hours in hand and are in the mood to watch something austere, this one should be your choice.
