Disclaimer: this is a review, and as such it contains spoilers of the whole series. Please proceed to read at your own risk if you still plan on watching this show or if you haven’t finished it yet. You have been warned.

Strangers Again
(남이 될 수 있을까 / (Nami Doel Su Isseulkka / Can We Become Strangers?)
MyDramaList rating: 6.5/10

Hello hello, and welcome to a new review. My schedule suddenly became busy and I was debating on postponing this review, but then I really didn’t feel like waiting a whole week for the last episode and I just really wanted to finish this and move on. When I looked up this drama on MDL, I saw a lot of negative reviews, but since I always want to see something for myself before believing what other people say, I went into it with an open mind and no particular expectations. In hindsight, although there were definitely some frustrating and annoying bits, I was actually able to appreciate the overall message of the story and the different perspectives it offered through various relationships and court cases. I’m excited to share my thoughts on this series, so let’s get started.

Strangers Again is an ENA K-Drama with twelve episodes of little over an hour each. I watched it on Viki this time, as I couldn’t find it on KissKH. The story revolves around the relationship between two attorneys, Oh Ha Ra (played by Kang So Ra) and Goo Eun Beom (played by Jang Seung Jo). These two met in college and had a sweet romance before getting married. However, at some point during their marriage, Eun Beom suddenly announced he’d been having an affair and asked for a divorce, leaving Ha Ra in complete shock and confusion.
At the start of the series, the two have been divorced for two years. While Ha Ra has built herself a stellar reputation as a divorce lawyer, with the nickname ‘goddess of litigation’ and frequent talk show appearances, Eun Beom hasn’t been doing so well financially ever since he quit his job after the divorce. Since he and Ha Ra used to work at the same company, he left to avoid the awkward tension between them. However, probably due to his ongoing connections with his former CEO, Eun Beom suddenly appears at Ha Ra’s firm again. The prospect of having to work with her ex-husband at the same company again when she still harbors so many grudging feelings towards him isn’t a very nice one for Ha Ra, but she grits her teeth and bears it. Luckily, she has most of her team on her side and can always vent her feelings to her colleague and close friend Kang Bi Chwi (played by Jo Eun Ji), who in turn gets into an office relationship herself with the conservative Kwon Shi Wook (played by Lee Jae Won).
While working together, old feelings and memories come flooding back, together with past secrets and truths that weren’t spoken out loud before. Ha Ra and Eun Beom go back and forth between forgiving and fighting, redeeming and remembering until they finally work out their true feelings for each other. In the meantime, they have to deal with several court cases that bring new insights into their own feelings and situations as well.

If there’s one thing that I appreciate about this show, it’s that it took a different approach in framing relationships and marriage. Since K-Dramas tend to over-romanticize and often depict marriage as the final confirming seal on a romantic relationship, I actually thought it was very original to focus on a relationship that didn’t work out, even after several attempts. I also thought using the court cases as plot tools to help the main characters reflect on their own situation was very clever, especially towards the end. Even though they were all divorce cases, every case focussed on a different issue, whether it was an affair or a custody claim or something related to the in-laws. It reminded me a bit of how Extraordinary Attorney Woo was structured, in how the main characters grew throughout their cases and learned from them both personally and professionally.
I also really appreciated that the series ultimately didn’t end with the main leads getting back together. From the way it started, I was really worried that they would push Ha Ra and Eun Beom back together and make everything that happened between them water under the bridge. Since the part where they got back together was the biggest ick for me in the whole series, I really didn’t want that to happen. That’s why I was so glad that they ended it with them finally acknowledging their own insecurities and flaws and starting to work on those individually. Honestly, after all the annoying parts where they kept trying to make things work between them, I actually thought the ending was pretty wholesome and satisfying, and I want to give the show credit for that.

While I was watching this series, I found myself looking at the main characters as couples more than as individual people. I think that’s because in this story, the characters are pretty much defined through their relationships, or at least through their attitude towards relationships, both in a familial and romantic sense. Both Ha Ra and Eun Beom are established through their respective upbringings -their first main difference- and then through their divorce and lingering attachment to each other. Bi Chwi and Shi Wook are both framed through their respective attitudes towards relationships and gender roles, in which they initially clash but then manage to find a consensus.
Because of this, I’ve decided to frame my character analysis a bit differently than usual, focussing on one couple at a time instead of going one by one. Of course I’ll cover each character individually as well, but as I said, everyone was defined most clearly through their relationships. There also wasn’t a lot of background information on everyone’s pasts besides Eun Beom’s childhood trauma, so there isn’t much to cover regarding everyone’s individual backstories.

Let’s start with our first female lead, Ha Ra. From the very first impression that we get of Ha Ra and Eun Beom in the first episode, we are led to believe that Ha Ra is the bigger person, literally looking down on Eun Beom as he’s dangling from a cliff, asking him to pay the due alimony. From the way she’s introduced and presented during her talk show segments, Ha Ra seems to have come out of the divorce the strongest, getting her alimony and thriving as a famous divorce attorney. When Eun Beom is suddenly reinstated at her firm, she initially seems very determined to stay away from him as much as possible and refuses to be in the same space as him for longer than necessary. And validly so. After all, Eun Beom was the one who cheated on her and divorced her out of the blue, why should she accept to suddenly work with him again? Her discomfort with the situation was relativized even more through the fact that Eun Beom just happily reinserted himself in his old position and was able to look and smile at Ha Ra as if nothing happened between them. I mean, that would annoy the heck out of me, as well.
However, what quickly started to irk me was that, while Ha Ra did seem to be the most self-assured person at first, she was also the first to fold again. While it was realistic that the person who seemed to be the most decisive actually tended to doubt and overthink things the most, I can’t deny it made me a bit disappointed in her at times. Of course I haven’t personally experienced the emotional repercussions of a divorce, and I can imagine that Eun Beom’s return to the office brought back old feelings that she thought she’d already buried, but I kept wanting her to remain as casual as Eun Beom and let him get nervous around her more. Because let’s be real here, Eun Beom did some very insensitive and unsolicited things in the beginning that she just rolled with instead of putting him in his place. I got so mad when he invited her to dinner only to reveal that he was setting her up on a blind date, like, who the heck are you to decide on her next relationship, bro? He kept giving her mixed signals: one moment he’d act like nothing happened between them, then he suddenly acted like he cared about her again, and then when she started reciprocating that, he’d act like she was being too clingy. I had a very hard time understanding why Ha Ra kept finding ways to redeem him and came crawling back to him time and time again. Even after getting mad at him for a very valid reason, she always ended up second-guessing herself or found another excuse to blame herself for ‘overreacting’, which really wasn’t necessary in my opinion. Although there was nothing wrong with self-reflection, I think Ha Ra occasionally tended to do a bit too much of that, to the point where she didn’t need to do it at all.
There were two parts in the story where I found Ha Ra really annoying. The first part was when she suddenly decided she still loved Eun Beom and wanted to get back together with him, and she just started lovebombing him every single day, at the office and through text. From one day to the next, she suddenly barged into his office saying: “I love you, let’s get back together” and the way she kept sending those texts was just really childish. The fact that this happened when Eun Beom was working on a very demanding case didn’t help either. That was actually really immature and unprofessional of Ha Ra. She knew she was bothering him during a time when he had a lot on his mind at work, and she still acted like a clingy child. During this part, honestly, I was completely on Eun Beom’s side because, heck, even I got annoyed with her.
The second part had to do with the issue of having kids, which I’ll elaborate on more after discussing Eun Beom. Overall, I did like Ha Ra’s character. As annoyed as I occasionally got with her, her self-awareness was very refreshing. I’m very glad that she, out of the both of them, was ultimately the one that really ended it between them because she admitted that they were just too different and she wouldn’t be able to embrace all of him. I think the fact that she was able to recognize their incompatibility despite her lingering feelings for him in the end was a major development for her. I actually felt proud of her when she acknowledged to CEO Seo at the end that she felt like it wasn’t enough for the two of them to just ‘like each other a lot’, no matter how many times they tried to make things work. They were just too different, both in their upbringing and in their outlook on marriage and starting a family. In hindsight, no matter how unsatisfying it was, I could respect that Ha Ra gave in to her feelings for Eun Beom one more time before coming to the conclusion that it really wouldn’t have worked out between them, even if they hadn’t gotten divorced before.
Something that really resonated with me in the end was that Ha Ra seemed really anxious about the fact that she hadn’t found her ideal kind of love yet in her mid-thirties. As a thirtysomething with zero relationship experience myself, this actually hit quite close to home, also how her mother assured her to take her time and find what she was looking for at her own pace. It also kind of redeemed her childishness for me, because when I think about it, I can also get pretty childish about things knowing fully well that I’m being petty. And, admittedly, Ha Ra did go through something very chaotic and confusing with Eun Beom, so I can imagine that would stir up a lot of insecurities regarding finding new love as well. In any case, I just mean to say that I was happy with Ha Ra’s development through the story, and it was very satisfying to see her finally put her lingering attachment to Eun Beom to rest. It was quite symbolical that she chose to move to another law firm as well, because that really felt as if she finally detached herself from Eun Beom to focus on her own life and career. The way her team fully encouraged this decision spoke volumes as well.

As I said, I think the first major difference between Ha Ra and Eun Beom lay in their upbringing. Ha Ra came from a pretty well-off family, her father was a respected college professor, and she never really wanted for anything during her school and career paths. Eun Beom, on the other hand, grew up without a father and was raised by a single mother alongside two other siblings. As the only son, he was pressured from an early age on by his mother Seon Myung Hwa (played by Jeon Gook Hyang) to focus only on his studies. At eleven, Eun Beom (as a child played by Ki Eun Yoo) always had to take care of his younger sister, Eun Byeol (Ki So Yoo – Ki Eun Yoo’s real life sister, cute detail). What’s worse, little Eun Byeol died after Eun Beom left her alone ONE TIME to play soccer with his friends. After being blamed for his younger sister’s death by his own mother, Eun Beom developed a deep trauma that still fuels the estranged relationship he has with his mother as an adult. Besides his trauma of losing his younger sister, Eun Beom has also looked on sadly as his older sister tired herself out while taking care of two children on her own. Looking at his past and family, it’s not too hard to understand why Eun Beom isn’t too keen on having kids himself.
Honestly, the part where Eun Beom’s trauma was revealed was the only part in the story where I really felt for him. Being expected to achieve the highest points at school and take on full responsibility for a younger sibling at such a young age will always leave a mark on a child. And let’s be real, despite the fact that I really felt for his mother to have to work twice as hard to support her family, I didn’t think it was right of her to be so harsh on Eun Beom in the meantime as well. She would actually take away his lunch money if he didn’t get straight As, causing him to lose precious break- and playtime at school. She made him always stay at home to study and watch Eun Byeol instead of letting him play outside with his friends. When raised under such a strict regime, it’s only natural for a child to start yearning for the things they’re missing out on. Even if it was just an instinctual reaction of his mother to blame Eun Beom for what happened, that actually ended up traumatizing him for life. I have to admit I also found it quite irresponsible of her to be like: “Of course that wasn’t your fault, how could you think that” in the last episode, like uhh, maybe because YOU made him feel that way?! She didn’t even know how much she scarred him, and that was very problematic of her. I don’t know if this is controversial to say, but I fully blamed Eun Byeol’s accident on her mother’s neglectful parenting, despite the circumstances. It wasn’t Eun Beom’s fault for giving in to his desire to play with his friends – he even made sure Eun Byeol was asleep when he left and probably planned to come back before she woke up – and it wasn’t Eun Byeol’s fault for going out to look for him. This entire situation wouldn’t have happened if the mother had been watching her kids herself, or if she had gotten another adult to watch them while she was away, like a neighbor or something. It gave me major Nobody Knows vibes. Even if you have a son that’s slightly mature for his age, you can’t forget that he’s a kid: he shouldn’t be burdened with his family’s financial struggles to the point where he’s not even allowed to play outside anymore.
As I said, considering his past I could get behind Eun Beom’s reason for not wanting kids hundred percent. Having children isn’t for everyone, and it should be completely valid to say that you don’t want them. Referring back to the second thing that annoyed me about Ha Ra, it was the way that she kept pushing him to change his mind about that. As if it wasn’t already icky enough that they got back together, it really weirded me out when she IMMEDIATELY started mentioning having kids. Like, girl, you didn’t even get remarried, it’s literally your first day of dating again after two years of separation and you think you can immediately pick up where you left off? Especially considering the fact that Eun Beom wanted a divorce in the first place because she wanted kids and he didn’t, which Ha Ra also knew by then. It just didn’t feel right. I couldn’t believe she thought of a plan with Eun Beom’s mother to actually BRIBE him into having a kid, that was so inappropriate. While we could redeem Ha Ra by saying that she didn’t know about Eun Beom’s underlying reason and trauma at that point, that in itself was also a good enough reason to give up on trying to make their relationship work. The fact that she didn’t even know what he went through, even after having been married to him, should’ve been enough to go on: as long as they couldn’t be transparent with each other and properly communicate their respective feelings, it was never going to work. So yeah, the fact that both Ha Ra and Eun Beom’s mother kept pushing him to change his mind about having kids was really frustrating to watch – that actually made me feel for Eun Beom.
Other than that, there were plenty of things that Eun Beom did that legit pissed me off. Besides the fact that he seemingly thought he had the right to set Ha Ra up on a blind date without her consent and his constant back-and-forth feelings for her, his tendency to jump to conclusions and decide things by himself without discussing them first really set my teeth on edge. Just like the male lead in Lucky’s First Love, who also couldn’t learn from his mistakes, this habit of Eun Beom also kept coming back.
First of all, this man actually faked an affair to get out of his marriage because he couldn’t bring himself to tell his wife honestly that his heart wasn’t in it anymore. I’m not gonna lie, I felt like something was fishy about their divorce from the start. The way Eun Beom acted when he appeared at Ha Ra’s office did not rhyme with how someone would act after being confronted with their ex-spouse that they cheated on. He was way too casual about it. Also, from the way he acted around the woman he allegedly cheated on Ha Ra with, I didn’t get any (former) lovers vibes whatsoever. After claiming he’d been having an affair with this woman, it was never even mentioned what happened to them afterwards, or if they were even still together. It just didn’t feel right. So yeah, when Eun Beom panickingly confessed that he’d faked an affair to divorce Ha Ra (great cliffhanger, by the way) I definitely was like: I KNEW SOMETHING WAS OFF. As if that wasn’t already a huge enough shock to Ha Ra, I really couldn’t understand Eun Beom’s reasoning when he tried to explain it to her afterwards. He actually said that telling her he’d committed a crime or gotten a terminal disease would’ve been easier than admitting that he got annoyed with her because it was ‘too mundane’ of a reason. That’s a wild excuse. What the actual heck, bro. Aren’t issues like ‘when should we do the dishes’ and ‘do we put the airco on or off at night’ the most basic compromises in a marriage? It’s like they started living together while knowing nothing about each other’s preferences, and he immediately got sick of it. But instead of talking to his wife and finding ways to work things out and compromise to give each other the space that they needed, he just made up an excuse to lie about having an affair to get a divorce. What a spineless freaking manchild. And the worst thing is, he kept blaming it on Ha Ra for being too pushy and clingy and not giving in to him. Bro, how is she supposed to know she’s bothering you when you don’t tell her?! You’re newlyweds, of course she wants to be all lovey-dovey with you. If you want to watch a movie by yourself, you can just tell her that you need some alone time. You should be able to say that to the person you’re married to, right?
All in all, Eun Beom’s toxic trait was that he never expressed his pet peeves, figured out a way to get out of it without too much hassle, and then blamed it on the other person for forcing him to go that far. It was unbelievable. Also, I couldn’t understand why, even after his real reason for divorcing Ha Ra was revealed, he still didn’t even blink while acting friendly and flirty with Ha Ra, and even said things like: “You’ll never find another guy like me”. Are you actually delusional? After everything that just came out, I sure as heck hope she never finds another guy like you. Get real, bro.
Another toxic trait that he exhibited at least two times in the story was that he’d jump to conclusions without first checking whether it was actually true. Which is a strange habit for an attorney, if you think about it.
The first time this happens is when the case with Ha Ra’s father comes into play. Somehow, Eun Beom finds out that Ha Ra’s father has another daughter from a mistress. Around the same time, Ha Ra gets a new client who fits the description of said mistress perfectly. From one glance at the woman, Eun Beom just assumes that she is Ha Ra’s father’s ‘other woman’ and starts acting all weird around Ha Ra because he’s afraid that she’ll find out about her father’s affair when taking on this woman’s case. I’m actually glad that they turned out to be different cases, because that would’ve been really typical, but the fact that Eun Beom just assumed that this was the same woman based on one very general appearance description instead of her name or something more definitive was really stupid. Because of him, Ha Ra actually found out about her dad’s affair in the worst way possible.
The second time was in the last couple of episodes, when Eun Beom overheard Ha Ra talking to her mother on the phone about ‘convincing someone’ and he immediately assumed that it was about him and the issue of wanting kids. Again, without even checking with Ha Ra what she’d been talking about, he just assumed that that’s what was happening and he immediately distanced himself from Ha Ra and started acting like a jerk before straight-up breaking up with her again. He even had the audacity to blame it all on her, that he was only breaking up with her because that’s what she really wanted. He just made up a story about how she didn’t want to be with him because he didn’t want kids, while he was the one breaking up with her. That was so twisted. I hated how he actually managed to gaslight Ha Ra into thinking that it was her fault AGAIN.
In the end, Eun Beom finally acknowledging that he needed therapy was the best thing that came out of him in the story. Truth be told, it all came down to the fact that he couldn’t talk about his feelings and didn’t know how to take responsibility for his actions. He chose avoidance over confrontation and then deflected it by justifying it as that he ‘didn’t have another choice’ or that he was ‘driven into a corner’ by the other person. I read some comments on MDL beforehand that already warned me for the lack of improvement in his character, but I did feel like him finally going to therapy to talk about his issues was the best ending for him. He came a very long way, and it got incredibly annoying to watch at times, but he did eventually get to a place where he could set his pride aside and work on himself, and that’s honestly the best I could expect from him.

I guess there just has to be one show where the relationship doesn’t work out, right? Nevertheless, this was definitely one of my least favorite main couples in a K-Drama ever. I didn’t want Ha Ra and Eun Beom to get back together from the get-go, and that’s not a very common feeling to have when going into a K-Drama. Looking back on it, I didn’t actually feel anything real between them, either. The flashbacks of how they fell in love was really sweet, but since Eun Beom already got the ick so quickly after they started living together, it just seemed like they weren’t even meant to take their relationship to the next level. Although Ha Ra kept saying that she still had feelings for Eun Beom, even the way she kept pestering and pressuring him to get back together didn’t really have any feeling behind it. It’s like she was just announcing it to the world, but the true love that she felt never really came through. Same with Eun Beom, because it honestly didn’t feel like he was still interested in Ha Ra anymore at all. He’d somehow throw her a wistful look, but even when he was nice to her, it never felt like it was meant to mean more than that. Even when he briefly became affectionate after agreeing to Ha Ra’s pushy request to get back together, he just switched back to being distant and rude to her the next day. So yeah, chemistry-wise, this also definitely wasn’t it. The only parts that I felt anything genuine between them was during the flashbacks of how they first got together, and the scenes in which they were intimate, even though those also felt weird since they went back and forth between such different energies.
In hindsight, I think it’s safe to say that what stood between Ha Ra and Eun Beom wasn’t even the kids issue, but the fact that they couldn’t communicate. Eun Beom had the tendency to keep everything to himself and take distance from Ha Ra without explaining anything, which caused Ha Ra to get anxious and start second-guessing everything to the point of drunk-dialing Eun Beom every single night while they weren’t talking. No matter how much they liked each other, once they committed to a new attempt at a relationship they would always reach that same point, so it really wasn’t any use. While I can understand the urge to give it one more try, I’m glad that it became the final lesson for them. Admittedly, it’s the same for me and dating apps at the moment.

Let’s move on to the characters I did like in this series! 😀
Honestly, it didn’t take too long for me to get completely into the relationship between Bi Chwi and Shi Wook. They had such a contrastive and interesting dynamic from the start, and I loved the ‘open-minded older woman versus conservative younger guy’ trope in this case.
Bi Chwi is slightly older than Ha Ra, who calls her eonni, and she’s initially the bestie that keeps urging her to ‘get under someone new’. Bi Chwi herself is a free spirit, she’s not looking to bind herself to anyone or settle down and just wants to have fun with men while she can. I liked that she was like a voice of reason whenever Ha Ra started hesitating about Eun Beom again. The fact that Bi Chwi was always a supporter of her and Eun Beom going their separate ways made me appreciate her from the start.
In stark contrast to Bi Chwi, Kwon Shi Wook is a very conservative guy with a rigid mindset when it comes to gender roles in a marriage. He and Bi Chwi often go at each other during meetings because they’re just so different. However, their dynamic takes a shift when they end up having a one-night stand after getting drunk at a team dinner.
I really loved their respective reactions after waking up in that hotel room. I kind of expected Bi Chwi to be appalled by herself, but it was actually really funny how unfazed she was while Shi Wook immediately panicked. Also, the fact that he was immediately ready to ‘take responsibility’ and date her after sleeping together while it was ‘just another’ meaningless one-night stand for Bi Chwi really stirred things up. The way Shi Wook became super antsy and avoidant around Bi Chwi and she responded by sneaking up on him and teasing him just to make him nervous was pretty funny. But then Bi Chwi suddenly started getting nauseous by the smell of certain foods and I was like: “there we preggo”.
I’m not gonna lie, I initially didn’t like this reveal at all. I was hoping for a slowburn romantic development in which Bi Chwi would ultimately realize her true feelings for Shi Wook. I felt like the pregnancy kind of forced them together prematurely, before the buildup in their romance was at its peak. This was strengthened by the fact that I found it really peculiar how Shi Wook, after finding out about the pregnancy, immediately threw away his conservative mindset and willingly agreed to become a stay-at-home husband/dad. Like, of course it was a major green flag that he immediately agreed to cater to all of Bi Chwi’s needs, but it a pretty sudden switch when looking at the buildup in their relationship. They hadn’t hooked up again after that one-night stand and Shi Wook had taken a respectable distance from Bi Chwi after she made it clear she didn’t want to commit to anything serious with him. While I did think he’d take responsibility because that would be ‘the right thing to do’, I honestly didn’t expect him to immediately jump at the prospect of dropping everything to devote the rest of his life to Bi Chwi. I personally found it kind of a weird switch.
Still, I can’t deny that I found the relationship between these two way more enjoyable to watch than the main leads’, probably because the tension between them was more fun than irking. Although I personally would’ve liked them to get to that final “I love you” stage without the push of a pregnancy, it was nice to at least see one functional relationship in this show where both parties were able to find a middle ground despite their differences.

The friendship between Ha Ra and Bi Chwi was also something I really appreciated. Sure, they didn’t always tell each everything that was going on, but they never let that influence their bond and they remained to be each other’s go-to person when something happened. It was interesting to see how their respective storylines passed each other, like how Bi Chwi felt additionally awkward about getting pregnant because she knew Ha Ra really wanted kids but was stuck with someone who didn’t. I’m glad that didn’t become a major issue between them and Ha Ra could still bring herself to be genuinely happy for her friend. I hated it when Eun Beom used this tension point in his breakup speech to Ha Ra. In any case, I liked Bi Chwi as a second female lead and consistent supporting character to Ha Ra, she was really cool.
Shi Wook also grew on me while he became more open-minded through his cases. At some point, he and Bi Chwi were on opposite sides in defending one part of a couple in a divorce case. It was really satisfying to see Shi Wook’s opinion change as he realized that the man he was defending was actually a lazy bum who didn’t lift a single finger and dumped every single chore on his wife. I loved how he too, as a conservative man who initially agreed that women should take the lead in the childrearing, ended up telling the guy that he was being ridiculous and refused to take up his case, lol. It was nice to see him become a bit more open-minded, because he definitely said some problematic things at the start and initially tended to take Eun Beom’s side against Ha Ra’s. I feel like he also changed his mindset throughout the different cases he worked on, and that definitely worked in his favor.
I really liked that the relationship between him and Bi Chwi was so much more dynamic than Ha Ra and Eun Beom’s, which was purely based on lingering attachment from a problematic marriage. The addition of his dialect was also nice, it made him such a distinctive character. The ‘Son of Bi Chwi’ joke about their baby’s nickname made me cackle – I just knew there was going to be at least one wordpun about Bi Chwi’s name at some point, lol.

Before I go on to discuss the other people at the law firm, I just want to discuss Ha Ra’s interim boyfriend, Min Jae Gyeom (played by Moo Jin Sung). Jae Gyeom is the guy that Eun Beom sets Ha Ra up with at the end of the first episode. Although I first judged Ha Ra for actually going along with it instead of just walking away, Jae Gyeom actually turned out to be a very decent guy, and he and Ha Ra even date for a while. I loved that Jae Gyeom fell for Ha Ra despite knowing that she used to be married to Eun Beom, and that he didn’t make any deal about her being a divorcee, which apparently is quite a stigma in Korean culture. Not only did he express genuine interest, he was even willing to wait for her to come around after she admitted still having feelings for Eun Beom. I’m glad they at least got one proper kissing scene, too. Honestly, I was shipping Ha Ra with Jae Gyeom so hard. I expected it to fail, because everything pointed at that she was going to get back together with Eun Beom at some point, but I still really hated the way they ultimately broke up. Jae Gyeom was a really good guy and, in contrast to Eun Beom, he was very open to discussing any kinds of qualms Ha Ra had with him.
The reason why I hated their breakup wasn’t just because I shipped them together, but also because I felt like they initiated it very suddenly and forcefully. Jae Gyeom had always been nothing but a green flag to Ha Ra, but then he suddenly became super judgemental out of nowhere. He didn’t seem to acknowledge Ha Ra’s feelings at all anymore, not when he relentlessly started bashing her dad for having an affair, or when he basically forced her to become friendly and spend a lot of time with his mom. It was like they just came up with a reason that would lead to their breakup and initiated it without any buildup, so it felt a bit forced to me. Despite this, I really rooted for Jae Gyeom, because he was the most patient and understanding person ever. Of course he was anxious about Ha Ra working with her ex-husband who he knew she still had feelings for, but he never doubted her or acted out of jealousy or anything. They also ended things on a very mature and friendly note, wishing each other the best without any grudges or shade. I’m not gonna lie, as soon as the relationship between Ha Ra and Eun Beom was wrapped up for good, I found myself thinking “can’t she just go back to Jae Gyeom now? 🥹”. If there was anyone that treated Ha Ra the right way, it was him.

Just one more sidestop before moving on, because I want to quickly say something about Ha Ra’s parents in a bit more detail because in my opinion, Oh Dae Hwan (Park Ji Il) and Im Sook Jung (Lee Ji Ha) also contributed to some interesting new perspectives in this story.
When faced with her husband’s infidelity and urged by Ha Ra to divorce him, Sook Jung initially didn’t want to go ahead with it. When asked why, she came up with a reason that I found very interesting. She said that agreeing to the divorce would mean giving in to her husband’s mistress, and that holding on to him would also be a kind of revenge. That was such an out-of-the-box way of thinking to me, honestly. I hadn’t thought about it like that before. In the end, she still agreed to it because she couldn’t take it, which was probably for the best, after all. I loved how she just immediately found another lover after that, lol, that was really “What, like it’s hard?”💅🏻of her.
I honestly couldn’t really gauge what Oh Dae Hwan’s intentions were in the whole affair thing. I got the feeling that he just felt responsible for his other daughter (who was an absolute brat, by the way) because she had a health condition, but then he actually ended up choosing his other family despite initially insisting he wanted to cut ties with his mistress. Anyways, I liked that we got to see a little bit of interaction between Ha Ra and her parents, just like we got to see a bit about Eun Beom’s family history. It was nice to at least have their backgrounds a bit fleshed out to show what kind of family they grew up in, because that was definitely relevant to their character building.

The law firm that Ha Ra and Eun Beom work at is called Doohwang, and at the start of the story it has two acting CEOs, Seo Han Gil (played by Jeon Bae Soo) and Hong Yeo Rae (played by Gil Hae Yeon). From what I understood, CEO Hong joined when CEO Seo was struggling with his marriage, but I’m not actually sure it was explained, exactly.
I’ll start with CEO Hong, since she is the most active boss at the office. I really loved this woman. She was so just and strong and awesome. I loved the way she consoled Ha Ra after she found out why Eun Beom had truly wanted to divorce her. Ha Ra was getting emotional over the fact that she’d wanted a baby so badly, and complained about how marriage seemed to go so well for some people, to which CEO Hong said:

“There’s no one who has it all. Everyone lives at a crossroads of some amount of happiness and some amount of misfortune. It’s fine if you want to dig down, but I’ll hold your hand, so come back up. You went so far already. You’re done digging, right? You’ll come back up, right?”

It was such a warm and sweet moment, and it meant a lot coming from CEO Hong, who had gone through such an incredibly toxic marriage herself. CEO Hong was a divorcee as well, and at some point she was appointed to defend the new in-laws of her former husband, who appeared to not have changed a single bit. My favorite part was definitely her threatening to drive her ex-husband into the ocean if he didn’t sign the agreement for divorce, that was such a cold-blooded power move. She was such a nice headfigure at Doohwang and I really admired how she balanced her professionality with her genuine sympathy for all her team members. It was so cool of her to encourage Ha Ra to go bigger by moving to a different firm without a single shred of judgement. She was like a cool aunt, and definitely one of my favorite characters.
My confusion regarding the dynamic between the two CEOs mostly came from the fact that CEO Seo barely did anything, lol. At first he only appeared to introduce Eun Beom back into the team, and after that he was always shown dozing off during meetings and stuff, so I have no idea what he was doing. He only got his own little arc towards the end of the series. Rather than getting divorced, he agreed to an ‘open marriage’ with his wife, which supported the fact that he really wanted to appear as a modern and open-minded person. However, after he helps his wife get custody of her dog from her foreign boyfriend and she tells him she already found a new lover, it definitely kills him a bit inside. I guess he was trying to appear chill but secretly wanted to get back with her exclusively? It was kind of sad for him. Despite the fact that he only made a few appearances, mostly as a comic relief character, I did appreciate that he ultimately started getting involved in the matter between Ha Ra and Eun Beom. During the final episode he actually voiced my thoughts exactly when calling Eun Beom out on his BS, lol, so I couldn’t help but agree with that. All in all, I thought he was an interesting character, but it was a pity that they only zoomed in on him towards the end. I would’ve liked to see more CEO sides of him, rather than just him being a useless seat-filler during the meetings, lol.
Despite the difference in their active contributions to the team, I actually quite liked the dynamic between the two CEOs. They seemed like they were really close, and it was nice to see how they’d always drink a cup of tea together in CEO Hong’s office. Honestly, I wouldn’t have minded if they’d ended up as a couple, that’s how comfortable they seemed together.

The remaining three people at Doohwang were Jeon Min Kyung (Kim Ro Sa), Sung Chan Yeong (Shin Joo Hyeop) and Ji Ye Seul (Min Chae Min). Their exact functions weren’t really clear to me, but since they had no office of their own and sat in the general area where clients came in, I figured they must have been administration/reception. While these three weren’t exactly a part of the main plot, I really liked them as side characters. They brought some welcome lightness to the tensions in the office, and it was fun to see them gossip among each other. I also liked that Chan Yeong and Ye Seul didn’t become a couple, because I feel like that would’ve been a very obvious choice. We don’t get any background information about them, for example on how they came to this firm, but I liked the casual banter between them. Their energy balanced out the emotional chaos of the main characters in a very nice way.

I want to briefly go over some of the court cases that contributed to the main characters’ stories. By the way, am I the only one who found it peculiar that so many of the cases were tied to the lawyers’ own families? I thought that there was a rule that attorneys aren’t put in charge of people they personally know because of potential bias, just like how doctors aren’t allowed to operate on their own family members. I guess not, but I couldn’t help wonder if this was actually realistic.
As I mentioned before, I thought the variety of court cases in this series was really interesting and relevant to the main plot. Although they all essentially revolved around divorce, the circumstances of each case were different and it was cool to see how they kept highlighting different elements each time. I also liked that, just like in Extraordinary Attorney Woo, they kept introducing new opposing attorneys and judges, which altered the dynamics within each courtroom. The cases varied from centering on affairs and child custody claims to insufferable in-laws.
I think the cases that were most important for Ha Ra and Eun Beom were the case involving the woman Eun Beom allegedly cheated with (the Ki Seo Hee vs. Jung Joon Kyung Case), the case that mirrored Ha Ra’s father’s affair (the Kim Ga Eun Case), the case of Ha Ra’s cousin (the Lee Sung Joo vs. Sun Hyo Jung Case), and the case of the couple that had already gotten divorced three times (the Third Divorce Case).
The case of Ki Seo Hee (Park Jung Won), the woman Eun Beom claimed to have cheated on Ha Ra with, was important first and foremost because it resulted in the revelation that this affair had been fake. I’m still not entirely sure how Eun Beom and Seo Hee knew each other, but I believe they found a friend in each other when they were both struggling with their respective marriages. Even though the affair was fake, Seo Hee did seem to be interested in Eun Beom, but he rejected her advances as soon as the case was closed.
If I remember correctly, Eun Beom was on the Kim Ga Eun case when Ha Ra started lovebombing him, which in hindsight was even more unprofessional since Eun Beom had taken that case from Ha Ra since she had to sort things out with her parents’ divorce. I remember that this was a particularly emotional case since the defendant ended up stabbing her lover because he wouldn’t acknowledge her child as his. Since Ha Ra was going through a similar situation with her father’s other daughter, so I thought this was an interesting parallel.
The case of Ha Ra’s cousin hit close to home because he had married his wife under a DINK agreement while he actually wanted children, and she had an abortion without telling him. DINK stands for Double Income, No Kids, so it’s a childless marriage where both spouses earn an equal income. This case came around the time that Ha Ra and Eun Beom were also discussing the kids issue again. I like to think that this case strengthened both Ha Ra and Eun Beom in their stances regarding the matter, how it really wouldn’t do to give in to the other for the sake of the relationship, because it would become an obstacle again at some point, anyway.
The Third Divorce Case was a very clear wake-up call, since it again mirrored Ha Ra and Eun Beom’s relationship. They kept coming back because of lingering feelings and memories, but then they also kept breaking up because they never solved the fundamental things that were wrong between them. It really felt like this was the case that finally made Ha Ra see the truth about her relationship with Eun Beom. Personally, this case pissed me off because neither of the two wanted to take care of their child and I found that incredibly irresponsible. Normally custody cases are fought by two parents that both want to keep their child, so it was baffling to see that it could happen the other way around, as well.
All in all, I feel like every case had something of essence to the main story, because Ha Ra and Eun Beom took something from each and every defendant’s story, and I liked that they made all those stories equally relevant. It felt like the majority of the people at Doohwang got their characters fleshed out through their respective arcs that focussed on their own past experiences with relationships and marriage, including the two CEOs. Although this did contribute to everyone’s personal growth, I couldn’t help but feel like it was executed in a different way than usual. Normally, the main leads are introduced as individual people, whether they know each other already or not, and their worlds collide when they get together. Here, it seemed to be the other way around: Ha Ra and Eun Beom had to rediscover their individual selves after the collision of their worlds. Personally, I thought that was quite an interesting approach. I recently watched Welcome 2 Life, where the main leads were also a divorced couple, but that show also took a different approach and worked towards a more redeeming conclusion of rediscovering the love they once felt for each other and getting back together. In Strangers Again, the whole point seemed to be for Ha Ra and Eun Beom to figure out if things could have been different after the true reason for the divorce came out, trying again, and still coming to the same conclusion.

Lastly, I just want to briefly comment on the series’ title. The English title is ‘Strangers Again’, while the Korean title is a full question, ‘Can We Become Strangers Again?’ Besides the slightly on-the-nose title drop in the last scene of the final episode when Ha Ra and Eun Beom went their separate ways, I did like that this question was also part of the daily discourse at the law firm, since their whole work revolved around people ‘becoming strangers’. I thought it was a fitting title because it didn’t just refer to the main leads as a divorced couple, but to their whole work field, as there were so many characters that became became estranged in one way or another.

I think that’s all I really wanted to say about this series content-wise, so let’s move on to the cast comments!

It’s been so long since I last saw a drama with Kang So Ra! I know her from Doctor Stranger and Revolutionary Love. Strangers Again is her last drama to date, and according to MDL she gave birth to her second child in 2023, so maybe she’s taking a break from acting for a while? I’m not sure. In any case, it was nice to see her in a lead role again. So far, her performance in Doctor Stranger is still my favorite, and I have to admit that the rest of her performances still haven’t topped that one for me. Although I did like seeing her in another more emotionally layered role, I feel like the other roles I’ve seen her in so far all kind of blend together. Despite the fact that she’s gorgeous and a decent actress, I always feel like she keeps getting roles that don’t really make her shine that much. There always seems to be a sense of awkwardness that I get from her, although I can’t really put my finger on what that is and where it comes from. I still liked her performance as Ha Ra and I definitely saw a new side of her acting, but I still wished there’d been a lot more to her character that set her apart. I also had mixed feelings about her chemistry with Jang Seung Jo. Their more intimate scenes looked very natural, but then they would immediately shoot back to that awkwardness as soon as the scene changed. Still, I’m really curious to see more of her, either in old or new dramas. Also, everytime I look at her face I just feel like she needs to play the younger version of Park Ji Young in something, they look SO much alike.

I’ve only seen Jang Seung Jo before in supporting roles, in The Package, Wife I Know and Encounter. This was the first lead role I’ve seen him in, so that was cool. As I already made clear in my review, I didn’t exactly warm up to Eun Beom and I found it difficult to understand his logic and way of thinking. He was very hard to gauge, as well, and until the end I never really understood whether or not he actually still had feelings for Ha Ra or not. Of course, a character is as frustrating as the actor makes them, so in that sense I still think Jang Seung Jo did a good job at portraying Eun Beom. Although his chemistry with Kang So Ra was a bit meh and I would’ve liked to get a clearer insight into his character’s mind, I’m still curious to see him in more dramas and get a better feel of him as an actor. There are some more dramas with him on my list, so we’ll see. If I had to say, his performance in Wife I Know is still my favorite, since his character was the most pleasant I’ve seen him play, lol.

I kept wondering where I recognized Jo Eun Ji from, but apparently she appeared in Personal Taste, Oh My Venus and Madame Antoine – although I don’t have a clear memory of her character in those shows. I’ll definitely remember her as Bi Chwi, though. I can’t deny that I initially feared she’d be this over the top comic relief character (like the ones Hwang Bo Ra likes to play), but I’m glad she remained a serious character throughout. From her look to her personality, she did a really good job portraying Bi Chwi as a cool individual, and I appreciated how free-spirited and progressive she was. It was like being surrounded by unhappy couples at work strengthened her even more in enjoying her single life, which I can understand. Her chemistry with Lee Jae Won as Shi Wook was really nice to see, I loved how she kept flustering him. I wonder if I’ll get to see more of her acting in the future!

I’ve seen Lee Jae Won before in The Master’s Sun, Doctor Stranger, The Legend of the Blue Sea and While You Were Sleeping, and there’s a bunch more dramas with him on my list. While I can’t exactly picture his characters from these shows, he did look familiar to me and it was nice to see him in this. He brought a really fun energy to Shi Wook, not only because of his dialect but also because of his pure and conservative nature. It was really nice to see him shrink when cornered by Bi Chwi, and how he ended up being the most loving and doting husband to her ever. I thought he and Jo Eun Ji made quite the unusual pair for a second lead couple, but that actually made it refreshing. I really liked their dynamic and performances in general.

Jeon Bae Soo is one of those familiar faces that pop up everywhere. So far I’ve seen him in Fight For My Way, Revolutionary Love (where he played Kang So Ra’s father), Thirty But Seventeen, Abyss, The King: Eternal Monarch, Forecasting Love and Weather and Extraordinary Attorney Woo. While I didn’t really know what CEO Seo’s function was, since he was never paying attention during meetings and even winged his defense for the dog custody case to get on the judge’s good side, for some reason he always brings a certain presence with him in his performance that makes you want to like him. Looking at the last role I saw of him in Forecasting Love and Weather, I’ll take CEO Seo and all his uselessness any day, lol. I still liked seeing him in this.

Gil Hae Yeon is one of those actresses that makes me either absolutely love or hate the role she plays. Which is a compliment, I guess. I will never forget how her character in Something in the Rain partially ruined the show for me, while her performance in Melting Me Softly touched me to the core. Apart from that I’ve seen her in Sassy Go Go, Encounter and The Silent Sea, and many more that are still on my list. As I mentioned in my review, CEO Hong was probably my favorite character in this show. I loved how she was written as such a strong woman, having gone through an awful marriage, who still didn’t back away from her toxic ex-husband. Her support towards Ha Ra was really touching as well. I think this might be my favorite role of her to date. Gotta love Gil Hae Yeon.

My first thought at seeing Moo Jin Sung was that he somehow reminded me of Lee Jong Seok, lol. I didn’t know him from anything else, and according to MDL I also don’t currently have any other dramas with him on my list, but that can change, of course. While I initially wasn’t sure what kind of guy Jae Gyeom was going to be, I was glad that he turned out to be such a catch for Ha Ra. I really liked that they at least got to date seriously for a while, and I think he portrayed the underlying conflict in Jae Gyeom’s feelings pretty well. I shipped them. 🥹 He was a nice new face to discover, so I definitely hope to see him again in something else.

I’m going to leave it at that for the cast comments. I knew that this wasn’t going to be too long of a review since the story was pretty straightforward and there weren’t too many characters or complicated storylines to cover, but I’m still glad I got to finish this review in one day and squeeze it in within my busy schedule. I can’t deny that I’m happy that I got through it, especially since the episodes were quite lengthy. Still, I’m glad that I get to watch it and form my own opinions on it.
Again, while I understand the negative reviews and I definitely support the mixed feelings about the main leads, I still rated it positively because I appreciated that they focussed on the other side of the over-romanticized concept of marriage. I found all the cases very interesting and I’m mostly happy with how things ended between Ha Ra and Eun Beom. People often judge a K-Drama based on whether or not the main couple ends up together, but that just wasn’t the point here. In essence, I felt like it was about figuring out life and love, finding peace with taking your time and processing your feelings. Ha Ra and Eun Beom needed one final try to determine if they really weren’t meant to be, and as a result they both got to work through their own personal issues and came out stronger. I think that’s the most important thing to take away from this drama. For me personally, it gave me confirmation that it’s okay not to have everything figured out yet, and that sometimes it really is for the best to let lingering feelings towards someone who hurt you where they belong: in the past.

Thank you for reading all the way through this review if you did, and I’ll probably be back with another review before the end of the month. I’m really excited to find out what I’ll be watching next, so until then!

Bye-bee! x