Her Legend

3 out 5 ain't half bad

This review was started a few months back and has been sitting in edit mode. It looked lonely with the "draft" tag next to it so I thought, "I have time to kill. Why don't I finish it?"

My final rating is 3 soju bottles and that might be a bit generous for this drama. I had issues with the pace, development of the story, the lead actors, and some other minor things not worth mentioning. For more information on the plot and actors check out this link.

The one thing that I'd like to focus on regarding this drama is SDGS because I've seen it in several other dramas and it always irritates me. Her Legend is a glaring example of it.

What is SDGS?

Smart Dumb Girl Syndrome

It is best defined as the inability of a heroine in a Korean drama to perceive that she is being lied to, cheated, robbed, extorted, and/or abused - generally by the people closest to her. She will continuously tolerate behavior that in any other circumstance is not acceptable. This heroine is generally well educated, talented, and worldly, which makes it all the more baffling.

The below illustration is an excerpt from Her Legend depicting SDGS:

Needless to say, the cousin was hiding something as were several other supporting characters. And, yet, it is a shocking revelation at the end of the series. For me, it wasn't so shocking and I saw what was coming at least 5 episodes into the series, maybe earlier. Sadly, the most exciting thing about this drama were the handbags.

For another classic example of SDGS check out Shining Inheritance.

Before I close out the topic of Her Legend, I'm going to throw out one final observation. Does anyone else see a resemblance between Choi Jung-won and (a young) Shannen Doherty?