Drama Review: Sweet Home Sweet Honey Episodes 1-24

"Sweet Home Sweet Honey" is a KBS daily drama that has recently caught my attention and I normally don't have the patience for these long shows. I've tried to watch a few, but as always it became draggy towards the end and the writers somehow forgot what kind of drama they were writing. I am hoping for a different experience with this one so wish me luck.

Our main heroine is Oh Bom (SECRET's Jieun), who remains bright and positive despite her difficult financial situation. Her life is far from easy, she has a mom who always yells at her and basically uses her to pay off their debt that was left by her father when he passed away. Bom works multiple part time jobs to help the family stay afloat while also trying to get into a large company. She comes in contact with a family who has gone through an equally as tragic incident and there she meets our "hero" in the form of the Choi family's eldest son, Kang Ma Roo (Lee Jae Joon). Ma Roo is sort of naive when it comes to the real world and its problems, his family was well off prior to his mother's death and the new found knowledge of her debt throws the family's life upside down. Instead of going back to study, Ma Roo takes on odd jobs to save up for a new place to live while his younger sister (Choi Ji Ah, Joo Da Young) whines about being poor and their dad (Choi Jung Ki, Lee Young Ha) works in Bom's family's restaurant in exchange for room and board. Ma Roo and Bom form a friendship bonded by their need to make money, Bom shows him the ropes of the part time work world and he gives her an ear to listen whenever she needs a friend.
The resident second lead comes in the form of Choi Ah Ran (Seo Yi Ahn), an heiress to a traditional alcohol company run by her mother, Bae Gook Hee (Choi Myoung Gil). When Ah Ran was around 7 years old, her younger sister Choi Pa Ran went missing and her entire family was turned upside down. Her dad left her mother and has 2 other children (Ji Ah and Ma Roo) and her mother emotionally abandoned her while continuing her search for Pa Ran. For 20 years, Ah Ran has had to live in her missing sister's shadow and has shown resentment towards her family because of that. She's now engaged to Ahn Tae Ho (Kim Min Soo), a director within the company who seems to love her no matter how badly she treats him. Tae Ho's father, Ahn Gil Soo (Kim Yu Seok) has been Gook Hee's secretary for over 20 years and is responsible for little Pa Ran's disappearance.
Secretary Ahn has been covering his tracks for the last 20 or so years so his boss doesn't find out he is the one who caused Pa Ran to go missing. I liked him at first because he seemed to be one of the few in this drama with a conscience and he always shut down his wife's tantrums. Since we discover this early on, we can see this drama is centered on his actions and the consequences that came from that. Secretary Ahn was being fishy with Gook Hee's recipe and Pa Ran found out, so he left her at a store. Fast forward 20 years later, Little Pa Ran is now Oh Bom, someone who is struggling financially, but is still very positive. She (obviously) does not remember her past and thinks the family who raised her are her biological relatives. Her mom is one of those annoying money hungry drama moms, but not without good reason since her husband left them with a lot of debt and she also yells a lot, but despite her harshness towards Bom she's never told her she was adopted.
Since we've established Bom's true lineage, we can now talk about her older sister. Ah Ran is a director at Poong Gil Dang with sights on eventually running the company, she comes off as greedy and will go to any lengths to get what she wants; which is her mother's attention. She has shown she  will not take responsibility for anything she's done and continues to justify her actions such as going against her company's policy regarding using artificial additives in their alcohol. Ah Ran is so desperate to have her mother appreciate her that her judgment is clouded and she makes the wrong decisions over and over again. She has also exhibited abandonment issues, since her dad left and her mother pays little attention to her, she tries to cling onto anything she can. Tae Ho seems to be in love with her, but she can't grasp the idea that he doesn't want anything else from her except that. He shows attention to Bom at work and she flips out because she's trying to keep him before he can leave her, which can come off as odd since she's the one who put off their engagement. Tae Ho has shown nothing to warrant her reactions, but since she's very use to people leaving her, her mind jumps to conclusions and she's suddenly coming up with schemes to prevent him from going anywhere. I wouldn't mind Tae Ho leaving her only so she could see how bad she's treated him, but I am against him going to Bom if he does. I am not fond of Ah Ran, but I don't want to see her lose everything to her sister. That's too cruel.
Speaking of cruel, you can't have a daily drama without the usual annoying characters and in this drama we have several, but one takes the cake and that is Halmoni (Jung Ki's mother played by Kim Young Rim). Now Halmoni is one of those drama grandmothers who seems to have lost touch of reality and imposes herself on others, she's forced herself into Gook Hee's home in hopes of getting her back with her son despite both saying that's not happening. So why can't they put Halmoni out? Well Gook Hee never divorced Jung Ki despite him constantly requesting one for 20 years. She's busy scheming to do something nobody wants that she doesn't realize everyone is fed up with her very presence. From trying to suck up to Ah Ran to outright telling Ma Roo he has no place there since he's not related to anyone shows how careless she is. Auntie is almost as bad, she's lied to Jug Ki's face about Ji Ah's condition more than once just to go along with her mother. Now she's shown how bad she felt, but she knows how her brother feels and never agrees with their mother anyways so I don't understand any of her actions.
Can't have a review without talking about the main character, Bom. She's a typical drama heroine who hasn't had the easiest life, but is always trying to be cheerful and not let anything get her down. From always working part time jobs to losing her father suddenly, something always comes up yet she keeps on working. She has no recollection of her past as Choi Pa Ran and believes she's the biological child of Oh Young Ho and Lee Mi Dal (Yoo Hye Ri), he brought her home before her younger sister Oh Ga Eul (Yoo Yeon Mi) was born. Viewers are currently wondering if she'll regain her memories from her childhood when she discovers her birth secret. Bom's friendship with Ma Roo is in the beginning stages of their impending romance, but as of now she has no real interest in relationships since she's very focused on making money. Ma Roo, on the other hand, has begun the classic trope of getting jealous any time the heroine has any close interaction with another male and in this case it's Tae Ho, their boss. In my own opinion, it's bordeing on obsession the way he constantly yells at her whenever she laughs with Tae Ho, he's almost similar to Ah Ran in that way and both end up making fools of themselves for assuming the worst. However, can you blame Tae Ho for being so at ease with Bom? They're virtually the same person regarding their personalities and outlooks on life, they're also easygoing and can empathize with others. Will these two have a love line? I hope not, Tae Ho can be the key to changing Ah Ran and it would be weird considering we know she's Bom's sister.
So far, even with the annoying characters, the drama is pretty good and I do look forward to each episode. There are many episodes left so let's see if I still feel the same at episode 78. There are other side stories within this show, but they're not important enough to talk about right now so I'll leave it at this.
At the time of this being posted, only episodes 1-24 have been subbed so this is where my mini review stops. Since this is a daily drama, finding a site that subs on time is hard. If you want to watch this, you can go to OnDemandKorea or KBS World on YouTube.