[HanCinema's Drama Review] "Welcome to Waikiki" Episode 2

Yoon-ah (played by Jung In-sun) is the final member of the main cast - the mother of the abandoned baby. Although she's the same age as the male leads, Yoon-ah consistently and somewhat impressively manages to come off as even more dumb than they are. I approve of this, since Yoon-ah's life is defined by her decision to have a baby with absolutely no plan for how to take care of it. The preview appears to imply that Seo-jin didn't even tell her ex-boyfriend.

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But overall there's far less pretense of a serial story here than there was in the first episode. The plots we get are just extended situation comedy gags. Joon-ki being forced to dress up as the wolfman for a full day is everything I could have hoped for in terms of tacit absurdity. Does Joon-ki belong to an actor's union, which would stand up for his right to avoid such indignities? Although maybe the better question is how does he go to the bathroom?

Speaking of which yes, the other major plot is just an extended poop joke. I found this funnier than it had any right to be, although that's probably just because I haven't seen any poop jokes in awhile. Incidentally, when one of the regular cast members is a baby, writer Kim Ki-ho really needs to institute a limit on poop jokes. There's only so many of those a writer can do before it's obvious they're out of ideas.

Although I rather liked the ending to the poop storyline. It ends with Dong-goo solving, however accidentally, the problem of a guest house that is intended to house dozens of people at peak season only having one bathroom. But again, the lack of continuity doesn't let this develop so much. The minute the poop storyline is over with, it's on to two completely different storylines- one about Dong-goo's predictably abortive attempt to make Soo-ah jealous, and another about Seo-jin's terrible secret

That these two new storylines happen right when the other two end, and even get their own title, create a bizarre irony. JTBC is producing an hour long drama that would work a lot better in the two half-hour format currently being used by MBC and SBS solely for the sake of adding commercials. That's a bit of an aesthetic disappointment. Although what I'd really like to see is more creativity with the format instead of just hewing to the traditional half hour situation comedy style.

Review by William Schwartz

"Welcome to Waikiki" is directed by Lee Chang-min-I, written by Kim Ki-ho, and features Kim Jung-hyun, Lee Yi-kyung, Son Seung-won, and Jung In-sun.