[ad_1]
A Good Day to Be a Dog: Episode 14 (Final)
by Unit
It’s a good day to end our doggy tale! After bursting out of the gate with the cute and quirky, A Good Day to Be a Dog limps to its end with more filler than cute moments, and more repetitive scenes than new information. But hey, we get a happily ever after, and maybe that’s all that matters for a finale.
EPISODE 14
I should have known this episode was going to be a waste of time when it opened with a one-year time skip. I can just imagine a conversation in the writers’ room that went like: our story has already come to an end, but we still have one episode to go. How do we fill the one hour run time? Then someone goes, “By peppering the episode with flashbacks and filler, of course,” and that’s exactly what they did!
After wrapping up with the Bo-gyeom drama and dog curse, Seo-won and Hae-na have been indulging in the secret dating trope at school. The vice principal and Bo-gyeom have quit, and the school is preparing for a festival. Seo-won’s birthday is on the same day as the festival, and Hae-na is obsessed with coming up with a special and meaningful present.
Seo-won — who has gotten over his dog phobia — mentions that having someone to talk to about his phobia is a bigger present than overcoming the fear, and he thanks her for coming into his life as a present. And this inspires Hae-na to write a play based on their love story for the school festival.
Out of the blue, a dating show PD reaches out to cast Seo-won on her show, but he turns her down. She comes to the school to see him in person, but does more flirting than cajoling. The other teachers encourage Seo-won to go on the show, causing Hae-na to sulk and excuse herself. Seo-won goes after her and we get a slo-mo wrist grab. He’s upset that she didn’t speak up in front of the others. “‘This man is mine. I can’t let him participate in the show.’ Why can’t you say that?” Seo-won fumes, and Hae-na wonders if he’s shooting a drama. Lol.
It’s this drama’s self awareness for me. Because, really, what are we even doing here? Seo-won drags Hae-na back to the staff room for the big “we are dating” announcement, and the other teachers are deadpan. They’ve known about it for a while. *Pretends to be shocked* The PD sashays out like she was never there, and the show goes on. Ha! We really got a whole dating show arc for the big relationship reveal — which fell flat for me, anyway.
Moving on, it’s finally the day of the festival, and the theme is horror. Zombies, undeads, and ghosts parade the grounds, and the vice principal comes around disguised as a virgin ghost. Ji-ah actually lured him to the festival by listing his favorite board game on a second hand site, and when he arrives, she asks him about Bo-gyeom. The vice principal claims not to know the mountain spirit’s whereabouts, but he tells Ji-ah not to look for Bo-gyeom because he has completely forgotten about the secular world. Ha!
Hae-na’s uncle also comes to the festival to get his mind off a breakup. I have no idea how they met, but Uncle was dating Hae-na’s former “rival,” and fellow teacher, Chae-ah. It’s bad enough that she was only dating him for his money (apparently, the price of some stocks Uncle bought 18 years ago skyrocketed), but it’s worse that she didn’t even hear him speak for the entire one week (!) duration of their relationship. They eventually broke up when she heard him bark — because he still can’t speak.
Hae-na leaves Uncle in Seo-won’s care to go prepare for the play, and she tells him to come watch the play when it starts. But when Uncle sees the vice principal who stole his voice, Uncle runs after him and Seo-won follows after them in a ridiculous slow motion chase. Unfortunately, the vice principal isn’t able to reverse the spell on Uncle, and Seo-won has to go drop off a disappointed Uncle back at home.
Hae-na’s play is titled: A Man and a Woman Who Became a Gift for Each Other, and Yul is the lead actor. It’s a cute shadow play, but since Seo-won isn’t in the audience, Hae-na has the play recorded, and she sends it to him for a private viewing. Then we sit with Seo-won in his car, get more flashback scenes that show us the Seohae love story all over again and re-watch the shadow play we saw just minutes ago!
Man, this drama has the most creative ways to make sure we don’t forget Hae-na and Seo-won’s love story, as well as all the tribulations they faced. The play ends up being the best birthday present Seo-won has ever received, and the couple share a kiss under the flickering streetlights.
And just because we can’t end the drama without seeing Bo-gyeom, Ji-ah visits him at a beachfront house where he’s leisurely sipping coffee like he didn’t just spend hundreds of years harassing an innocent family. Is this supposed to be the non-secular life that Bo-gyeom is living? Anyway, Ji-ah tells him that she’s moving past the whole past life drama, and that he should do the same. Bo-gyeom and Ji-ah send off paper lanterns in lieu of the kites Bo-gyeom and Cho-young were supposed to fly in Joseon, and this is where their story concludes.
Hae-na’s family adopts a dog, and Seo-won names him Duk-gu — which was the name of Cho-young’s dog. Woo-taek and Yoo-ra get engaged and plan their wedding. I’m not sure how, but uncle gets his voice back. He properly breaks up with Chae-ah… and then they get back together. As for our OTP, their relationship is stronger than ever, and everybody basically just lives happily ever after. The end.
*Inhale, exhale* We survived, guys! A Good Day to Be a Dog had the potential to be a better show than what we got, especially since it was adapted from cute and light source material. Making the drama about eight to ten episodes might have made for a tighter story with little to no avenues for missteps. Unfortunately, the drama was stretched out too thin, and the early preemptions and single episode per week scheduling didn’t do it any favors. In the end, I have no attachment or lingering feelings towards the show. I’m just glad the drama is over and we can all move on.
RELATED POSTS
[ad_2]
Source link
