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Why Her? x Eve

We are excited about the new season of dramas, and if Why Her? and Eve are anything to go by then it will be chock full of high-quality dramas with interesting stories. tvN's Eve began on Wednesday, June 1st and SBS's Why Her? began on Friday, June 3rd. Both dramas have great casts, revenge plots with strong female leads, and were also highly anticipated dramas for this season.


The Return of Seo Ye Ji


Song Rae: Eve features a return of Seo Ye Ji from a "scandal" she was entangled in with a few former boyfriends. The "scandal" as I am literally air quoting was more about personal taste than her causing any issue or harm to anyone. As an adult, she entered a relationship with a weak minded gentleman and he made choices of his own accord while making Ye Ji the scape goat for his choices. She took a hit and had to work quietly. She was in a film called Recalled with Kim Kang Woo which finished filming July of 2019 but was released April 21, 2021. That was her only work that year.


Something Else: Yes, the "scandal" just makes her interesting to me and definitely lends itself to her role in Eve. If you know the gossip (which I won't share here), there are strong parallels and similarities. Short of actually causing someone harm, I'm inspired by strong women.



All About Eve


Seo Ye Ji stars in Eve as Lee La El, a scorned woman whose family was caught in a tragedy when her father was falsely accused and then killed for his company. Her mother fell ill and disappeared leaving La El to be whisked away to the US. La El returns to South Korea years later and inserts herself into the lives of the villains so that she can methodically avenge herself and her family.


Song Rae: Ye Ji is working alongside Park Byung Eun, Yoo Sun, and Lee Sang Yeob. Together, they have woven a makjang drama with some far-reaching ideals, but I am intrigued to find out how she does this. I fear though that to achieve her goals, she will become morally ambiguous to me. I sometimes find it difficult to follow leads that I cannot find any commonality with. I am a bleeding heart for a good revenge and Han So Ra and her father are definitely in need of some "get right" in their lives.


Something Else: I do enjoy morally ambiguous characters, especially female leads! What we can't do in real life they get to do in dramas. We are so indoctrinated to appreciate the Mary Sue archetype that sometimes characters like La El, Jung Geum-Ja (Hyena), and Jo Yi-Seo (Itaewon Class) feel foreign to us and go under-appreciated. The complexity that a good anti-hero can bring to a story is immeasurable. Yes, there is often a tragedy or they are somehow done wrong, but it's fun to watch the path to either revenge or redemption.



What About Why Her?


Why Her? is a revenge story, but one that has legs and a bit more bite to it. It tells the story of the Oh Soo Jae, an underdog who makes it to the top spaces but is knocked down just as she reaches the pinnacle of her career. While down, she will reconnect with her lost focus and become who she initially set out to be.


Hyun Jin is the law professor and with her students, which include In Yeop and In Hyuk, they work to help her solve cases as they try to take down TK Law Group, which ousted Oh Soo Jae and their chairman's son is Bae In Hyuk's character. The drama is filled with depth and hints at romance.


Why Her? features Seo Hyun Jin, Hwang In Yeop, Heo Jun Ho, and Bae In Hyuk. Seo Hyun Jin was last in You Are My Spring and she has a film releasing this year as well. Hwang In Yeop was just recently in Netflix's The Sound of Magic with Ji Chang Wook. Heo Jun Ho was last in Snowdrop and Undercover while he'll be in Hunting Dogs scheduled to release some time this year (although not sure when as the Kim Sae Ron scandal has pushed back that date). His last film was "Escape from Mogadishu" which he earned Best Supporting Actor at the Blue Dragon Film Awards. Finally, Bae In Hyuk was in At a Distance, Spring is Green and My Roommate Is a Gumiho last year and he has a second drama dropping later this year titled Cheer Up. He's also filming a movie for release next year.


Song Rae: I am very interested in how this story will be woven and to see character development with many of the characters. This drama gives me serious How to Get Away with Murder/Law School vibes.


Something Else: It's funny that you mention How to Get Away with Murder because I want her to be Olivia Pope from Scandal, another Shonda Rhimes show. I can see Soo-Jae swooping in with her team of ex-TK Law Group associates and law school students to steal cases from the top law firms.


Eve versus Why Her?


Song Rae: I am most excited about Why Her? After watching episodes 1 and 2 of both dramas, Why Her? is giving me more hope for a clean fixer upper while Eve makes me feel like we'll have to get dirty to get to the end result.


Since they are similar, both dropped this week, and both caught my eye, I decided to watch them both. I'm more invested in Why Her? right now because it drove my curiosity to figure out how they would solve their issues while Eve didn't lead me to figure out much except how ratchet will her character become to achieve her revenge. She has already shown us she's willing to be indecent to lure Kang Yoon Kyum from his wife, Han So Ra, despite being married and both couples having a child involved. The extreme moral corruption troupe is not one of my faves. Why Her? has a morally bankrupt character but I believe redemption is there for her. There is a noona romance element and I do not know how large our age gap is, but I am never fond of teacher/student romance as that power dynamic can be considered abusive with a slight twist.


Something Else: I've been watching back-to-back revenge dramas with the same lead actor, Lee Joon-Gi (Lawless Lawyer and Again My Life). And it's very interesting that in both he's a lawyer, so it's no surprise that I am a bit more partial to Why Her? than Eve. Why Her? is a bit more recognizable to me because it's your standard legal procedural drama. Eve, on the other hand, breaks new ground for me because it's been a while since I've seen a hyper-intelligent femme fatale bent on revenge at any cost (did you see her in her secret lair rocking "I'm smart" glasses as she spied on her subjects?).


On Why Her?, I'm waiting for Oh Soo-Jae to stop being a sellout and guard dog for TK Law Group. She doesn't realize how much they despise her yet. I'm uninterested in her potential romance with her student, Gong Chan (played by Hwang In-Yeop). I get that she's an alpha female, but must she be with a subordinate?! I agree with Song Rae that the power dynamic is potentially harmful. Maybe him being the chairman's son will play into the plot later in this series. Actually, if we are offering up potential love interests, I'd much rather see her with Choi Joo-Wan (played by Ji Seung-Hyun), who I really loved in Search: WWW). He's a more balanced figure in that they are of similar ages, he's hella attractive, and she can't push him around.


On Eve, I'm waiting to see La El trip up because she's a little too on-the-ball, a bit too know-it-all. She needs some real challenges to make this show interesting. She gets major points for putting on the sex show for Kang Yoon-Kyum, and doing the absolute most to get his attention. But, damnit woman, you have a kid! Like, forget the whole husband, did the kid come from her loins? How'd she time the birth so that it coincided with the rich daughter's age? And she has a whole husband that she doesn't mind cheating on and dumping? Yikes! I'd like for her to end up with Seo Eun-Pyeong, but I don't feel that she deserves him.

Final Thoughts


While we plan to finish both dramas at the time of writing this, neither of us know what the future may hold. There's really no need to compare the two shows because we get to enjoy them both. Eve seems to have more turn-offs than Why Her? but it's the kind of guilty pleasure drama that is a perfect escape after a long day. However, we'd would love to hear your thoughts and opinions. Have you watched either drama? Do you plan to watch both? Why or why not? Share your opinions with us!



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