Netflix and JTBC have a hit on their hands with the recent k-drama When the Phone Rings, but if you've been thinking about watching this show, don't even bother. While the unique premise could've worked and did ultimately deliver in a few aspects, the overall story was poorly executed, crowded with repetition, and full of cringe.
The show begins with Presidential Office spokesperson Baek Saeon getting a threatening call from a kidnapper who has his secret wife, Hong Heejoo, who can't speak. The marriage is just a facade that unites the Baek family with the Hong family to support Saeon's father's presidential campaign with the help of Heejoo's media head stepfather. Due to his high profile and the fact that Heejoo's mother (incorrectly) confirmed she got home safely, Saeon doesn't take the call seriously at all. This pisses off Heejoo, who crashes the car, steals the kidnapping phone with preset voice distortion, and uses it to threaten her own husband. And that's about as good as it gets.
If not for this interesting premise, the drama would be unbearable to watch. Saeon and Heejoo are both ridiculously badly written characters: Saeon has no personality beyond hating his adoptive family and trying to protect Heejoo, and Heejoo just cries all the damn time, though in her defense, at least she has more going for her than her husband. We know she's kind-hearted but uses the phone calls as an opportunity to finally voice her frustrations, which could've worked if their conversations didn't have such terrible dialogue. Saeon, on the other hand, is basically just a Wattpad cliche.
There are some sparing moments where some potential shines through. Heejoo attempting to take pictures of herself in lingerie to send as a kidnapper threat was amusing, and Saeon attempting to learn sign language from her and get better-husband tips from his colleague was appreciated. However, this is just a sign that the drama should've been more of a romantic comedy instead. If they threw out the corny stuff, like accidentally falling right into each others arms, and actually tried to craft the story around the comedy of them communicating with each other in such a weird way, and how that affects the relationship, that would've been way better.
Their actual relationship isn't even well written. It doesn't make you feel like the characters should be together. I honestly didn't even care. They don't actually fall in love, or rekindle their initial feelings. It just turns out they both liked each other from an early age but then Saeon saved her from a bad marriage and decided to be cold so she wouldn't get hurt once he eventually exposed and renounced his adoptive parents. Honestly, it's a load of crap that could've been avoided if they just cut out the kidnapping and mystery plot, but more on that later.
This drama intentionally tries to build up to moments like their first kiss but it's so lackluster. There's zero chemistry between the characters as well as the actors. They honestly seem like they couldn't be any more than just friends. So not only is the romance poorly executed, but it's taking place between two bland characters that really have no romantic development beyond your typical Wattpad tropes.
When the show isn't failing at the romance part, it's super bogged down by all this other nonsense with kidnappings and secret plots. The kidnapper is the real Baek Saeon and instead of being a well-developed villain, he's just some crazy unhinged guy who killed kids when he was a kid himself but also shows enormous restraint when the plot needs him to, and at the same time he's being controlled by some "Master." So weird.
He's mad 'cause his grandfather tried to kill him and gave his name and life to fake Saeon so now he wants it all back, but really, he's just a plot device to instigate the phone storyline and then drag out the show once the phone stuff gets revealed. Surely the drama could've figured out some other way to show that both leads came from bad family situations without doing all this stupidity. I really just had to ignore this stuff, which was hard when the corny kidnapper kept reappearing all the time. Not to mention, how many times did Heejoo get kidnapped?? Enough, already!
The only thing that really kept me watching was the fact that the marriage was a secret, and I was curious how people would react when they found out. Of course, to no one's surprise, this was also really poorly done. He reveals it publicly after she's been kidnapped yet again, and then people help him out. There are pretty much no reactions except some people are sad about Heejoo being missing.
This was really the last straw in a long list of unsatisfying moments. Saeon finding out that Heejoo could speak and that she was the voice behind the phone were such weak revelations that came from the most random sources. At the very least, they did manage to create an interesting moment after she's pushed off a cliff and calls him from the kidnapper's phone, and he pretends like he doesn't know it's her as he tries to find her. But even this had really cringey dialogue and acting from her side.
Then his revelation to her that he knew who she was, that was also super boring. Instead of all the convoluted crap we got, their story should've been a natural progression with the phone calls, their relationship, and their workplace. That's it, nothing else, because this show couldn't handle it.
Even their families suffered from bad writing. Heejoo's family story was ridiculous as hell, manufactured to fit even more tropes as her mother used her to gold dig her way into a rich family (though her sister was at least bearable). At least Saeon's adoptive parents had a lot more going on at first, but unfortunately, their development and their relationship with Saeon was thinned out to supplement the horrible plot.
There's also a whole side story about Heejoo's old friend from working at an orphanage together, and the character himself isn't bad (along with the newscaster lady), but he's not really important except when the plot needs him to show up. They could've given his story some thematic relevance at least, but since the main story didn't even have any, why would they bother, right?
Plus, he only exists to unlock some mysteries around this crazy killing kid and something about finding a missing twin, who turns out to be Saeon's right-hand man and also the "Master" who thought the fake Saeon was the real Saeon that killed his brother and wanted revenge. It's just the stupidest thing ever, and they were so obvious with it while also failing to develop what should have been a heartbreaking revelation and subsequent fallout between the two characters.
The ending was so bad I couldn't even watch it. I barely made it through the terrible episode 11 but I practically fast forwarded through all of episode 12 because it was yet another ridiculous plot twist with a ton of cringe. Like Saeon just randomly leaves and Heejoo has to go find him in an active war zone??? Really??? Then they get it on for the first time in this region and there's one last stupid corny phone call to remind us the original premise of the drama which had been abandoned for several episodes now.
What really pisses me off is the show could've ignored the garbage source material (a Webtoon/webnovel to which they tried to be very accurate) and just focused on telling a good story based solely on the broad premise. A stale marriage between two people with bad families revitalized through threatening phone calls while kept secret from the public isn't a bad idea, but when topped with horrendous plotting, super cringey overacting, and absolutely terrible romantic development, it's just one big disaster.
Ultimately, it's just a reminder that when the phone rings from Webtoon, Wattpad, or adjacent platforms, don't pick it up unless you're willing to scrap the crap and develop the characters and plot beyond their basic tropes.
There is, however, one drama based on a story from such a platform that changed all the corny vicarious fantasy stuff and crafted something emotionally resonant and truly worthwhile. You can read all about that show, Marry My Husband, very soon.