I can’t get my arms around either the plot or ratings of tvN drama It’s Okay to Not be Okay and it’s all in good ways. This drama keeps me off kilter and every scene feels meaningful and thrilling, I was riveted to episode 3 and there is so much to talk about. The drama setting moves from Seoul to the countryside of Sungjin which will be the setting from here on out, much like the seaside town of Sokcho played a key role in the same PD’s last drama Encounter. Sungjin is where Kang Tae and Sung Tae have been running from, the “butterfly” that killed their mom and the place of cruelly dashed hopes and dreams. It’s telling that Kang Tae goes back to both run away from Moon Young but also because Moon Young calls him out on his run away/avoidance two step self-preservation personality.

Moon Young follows and what ensues is brilliant – she becomes the crazier than the mental patients literature teacher at the hospital and plays a key role in helping cameo crazy guy played by Kwak Dong Yeon (so awesome) get some much needed catharsis with his flashing and self-destructive behavior as a stand in for fatherly validation. Each scene between Kang Tae and Moon Young sizzles with sexual and mental energy but there is also countless nuggets of great storytelling to feast on. This drama is so good I can’t even, Kim Soo Hyun you are like a savant of drama picking dude. There is also another reunion, the director of the mental hospital is played by Kim Chang Wan who acted as Kim Soo Hyun’s good friend/fake father in You From Another Star.