I feel like Park Hye Ryun‘s last drama Start-up, which I loved but ended up being so polarizing with viewers due to the male lead ship wars, made her next drama Castaway Diva turn out so uneventful. This weekend the drama finished it’s short 12-episode run averaging around 7% ratings through its entire run which I attribute to Park Eun Bin‘s wonderful and warm acting and a compelling family abuse story. Her being lost on an island for 15 years was dealt with in such a fairytale way (even her island set up was so twee and cottagecore) that the real trauma was around male lead Chae Jong Hyeob‘s story with his father’s abuse of the kids and their mother. There wasn’t any love line shipping and the romance was so sweet and caring but ultimately not a lot of fireworks. I wanted more from this drama so it didn’t fully engage me but I appreciated a well-written and emotionally sincere story albeit with lots of logical leaps that were noticeable without derailing the ultimate message about persevering through adversity.