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[HanCinema's Drama Review] "Family Outing" Episode 10

By trying to hide her fake personality by using her true personality, Joon-hee has managed to accidentally deliberately give Dong-seok the impression that she's romantically interested in him. Which is true, but totally inconvenient for the sake of all these other schemes Joon-hee is trying to juggle at once. I really like how Joon-hee is genuinely, completely confused about what she actually wants, and the issue isn't really an external one. Whatever circumstances have forced Joon-hee into this situation, at this point it's just a lifestyle choice.

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Which is also how I'd describe the cast of "Family Outing" right now writ large. At multiple points we get the rather comical visual of Chae-won treating her older family members like weak-minded subordinates, because that's exactly what they are. This has been a consistently defined character trait for pretty much the entire drama, even if up until now it hasn't been a very compelling one. This family is a mess precisely because they have no clear commonly held value outside of just making sure to look out for each other.

Oddly enough, even on its own that's actually pretty compelling. The generally irresponsible attitude of the characters will almost certainly lead to another potential crisis later on, yet I'm surprisingly unconcerned because as long as some of the family members are sensible enough to keep things under control, the situation can't get too bad. In this way "Family Outing" is a relieving refresher course on the importance of familial support networks.

It's also pretty hard to escape the clear value being given here to the concept of authenticity. While Jong-tae came off pretty badly last episode, here he actually manages to be mostly sympathetic. Simply by actually explaining himself directly, instead of resorting to sneaky gestures, he comes off much more sensibly. Truthfulness here also demonstrates quite a bit of trust- let's just face it, the reason scams are so common is because people never want to believe the truth anyway.

"Family Outing" has finally hit just the right blend of emotional heart and comedy to be genuinely pleasant and enjoyable. The cliffhanger warrants some apprehension, because it seems to suggest a tumble backward into more incomprehensible scheming. But I think at this point Joon-hee is realizing, however slowly, that a sustainable long-term situation, however chaotic, is an improvement over her having to constantly run ever-more-convoluted con games. While it's a subtle change, we are making definite progress.

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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