[KDrama.com Spotlight] "It's Okay, That's Love" First Impressions

When SBS revealed the theme of the follow-up drama to "You're Surrounded", I'll admit that I was skeptical. A romantic comedy centering around psychiatric patients? Could this type of drama be done in a tasteful way?

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Well, add a superstar cast - Kong Hyo-jin, Zo In-sung, Lee Kwang-soo, Sung Dong-il - and a well-written script and it seems like this show might be a smash hit for SBS. The director himself said that the drama's underlying message would be one of tolerance and breaking social prejudice and so far he is living up to his promise.

All of the characters are written in a way that does not define them by whatever psychological diagnosis they may have received. Sure, Lee Kwang-soo's character (confusingly named Soo Kwang) has Tourette Syndrome but it has not defined his character at all - instead, his fit of ticks is viewed as something that happens from time to time and no reason to worry or ostracize him. A patient in the hospital was revealed as being transgendered (born a male but transitioning to a female) - and when her family beat her nearly to death in anger, Ji Hae-soo (Kong Hyo-jin) and the other doctors were compassionate and adamant that being gay and transgendered was nothing to get upset about.

All of the psychiatric elements are neither mocked nor ignored. Instead, they are woven into the story in a way that allows viewers to focus on the human elements - the actual people behind the disorders and the relationships they make.

Zo In-sung plays Jang Jae-yeol, a playboy author and radio host that writes dark fantasy novels and has a brother out to kill him. Hae-soo is a psychiatric doctor, herself dealing with commitment phobia and an anxiety disorder. When they are brought together on a talk show to argue the psychological effects dark fiction has on readers, sparks fly as each continues to one-up the other during the show.

Following the debate, they end up running into each other again as Hae-soo chases down a former patient and Jae-yeol gets dragged into the chase. After an epic car chase and various injuries to both of them, they part and Hae-soo plans on never seeing him again.

But of course, being a drama, they are destined to continue to run into each other. Jae-yeol ends up moving into Hae-soo's house to find inspiration for his new novel and things continue going downhill for the pair from there. From vehement arguments to completely ignoring each other, their relationship looks like it will continue to be quite the ride!

Of course, only two episodes have been released thus far but I'm going to mark this one down as "extremely promising, must watch". You should too!

"It's Okay, That's Love" airs every Wednesday and Thursday evening on SBS and you can catch the first two episodes on KDrama tonight!