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[HanCinema's Drama Review] "Family Outing" Episode 6

Joon-hee, apparently having realized that her storyline is too ridiculously convoluted to keep track of, spends most of this episode panicking about how she can possibly keep her story straight when so many basic facts threaten to unravel the whole scheme. "Family Outing" actually manages to do a generally decent job with her...until the ending abruptly decides to have Joon-hee try to escape from this mess with one of the most infamous clichés in all Korean drama.

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It's a shame the story decided to take this extreme route, because the character development is actually fairly steady here. For the first time Joon-hee and Dong-seok appear to meaningfully bond- mainly as a result of the fact that they're both undergoing a lot of stress at the moment. Dong-seok in particular doesn't seem to know what to do about Kkeut-soon's illness. That's quite a bit to take in considering all the other zany antics going on.

"Family Outing" gets some decent laughs out of the whole shadow thing. It's also integrated reasonably well in the plot- just when you start wondering whether a character has gotten away from their shadow for the sake of breaking some rules, there's one of the friendly folks in a yellow shirt, wishing them a good day. How does a person even get a job like that? How would it be described to the employment agency- like a bodyguard, but not really?

Dramatic statements regarding Kkeut-soon's past are also brought to full fruition...only to be ruined by Joon-hee's aforementioned scheme turning in to the actual cliffhanger. It's irritating to be sure. All sorts of potentially interesting plot points and sources for humor come up, and this is what the drama's come to. While I appreciate that the story is mostly coherent at this point, with relatively few extant distracting plot points, it's hard to get excited about Joon-hee's new character direction.

Be that as it may this is possibly the best episode of "Family Outing" to date. Not exactly high praise, I know, what with how mediocre the drama has been so far. But credit has to be given where it's due. Joon-hee and to a lesser extent Dong-seok are learning from their experiences, potentially leading to a long-term character growth where they focus on stability rather than pride. While Joon-hee's scheme is obviously a step backward on that path, at least we can that a path exists for her to walk on in the first place.

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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