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[HanCinema's Drama Review] "Family Outing" Episode 4

It would be really nice if "Family Outing" would just stick to a single plot thread and fully develop it instead of just jumping around everywhere. Keeping track of everything that's going on is genuinely difficult. Take the guys who are hassling Joon-hee for money. Who are these people? How did they find Joon-hee? How much do they actually know about her? And more importantly, why do they wait several days before coming after her again?

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Character reactions in general are hard to measure in a consistent light. Kkeut-soon appears to be rather unhappy about being given a birthday party. It's not at all clear why, and it's difficult to fit this attitude change in with the woman's generally cheerful and magnaminous behavior up until this point. What exactly is her relationship with Joon-ah anyway, and why has she gone to being all friendly at the airport to currently being annoyed that he dare even show himself in her presence?

If it was just two or three unresolved character points like this there wouldn't be a problem. Keeping some facts a clear mystery is an important method for maintaining viewer engagement. But as currently presented "Family Outing" lacks any kind of measurable coherence, either in terms of general storytelling or even just being able to keep character relationships straight. Paradoxically, the best defined characters are the ones with the least overall screen time.

The drama's also suffering from a lack of real comedy elements even though almost of the tropes are obviously intended to be used for humor. Take the dopy sister who married young. Her arm of the family is goofy and somewhat childish, as is well demonstrated in the karaoke scene. How is that supposed to work in to a greater plot that's involves multiple gangsters and inheritance shenanigans, where we're supposed to seriously worry about characters getting hurt?

About the only element that's being well-used right now is Dong-seok's artistic ability. While artists like Dong-seok are often maligned for not being "useful" contributors to society, to date Dong-seok's artistic perception is the only character trait that's been of any help to Kkeut-soon's greater motives. Dong-seok even gets a moment of kindness where he's able to help out another character who's had a rough time of it lately. Family relationships, in a drama called "Family Outing"- a pretty crazy idea to be sure, but at least it's something.

Review by William Schwartz

"Family Outing" is directed by Joo Dong-min, written by Kim Sin-hye and features Lee Jung-hyun, Jin Yi-han, Oh Sang-jin, Park Won-sook, Jung Han-hun and Park Jun-gyu.

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