It’s a season of new K-dramas yet again and this time around, we finally get to see Son Ye-ji back on the small screen with Eve. The actress, who had delivered a memorable performance in It’s Okay To Not Be Okay, made a comeback almost two years after the K-drama ended. Eve also marks her first K-drama involving her ex Kim Jung-hyun. Eve instantly became one of the highly anticipated dramas this June. However, the series hasn’t delivered an impressive opening.
Eve revolves around a 28-year-old dance teacher Lee Ra-el (Seo Ye-ji). While she comes across as a sweet person who loves children on the surface, she has a volcano brewing underneath for 13 years. The series reveals that Ra-el takes on a fake identity, who has a caring husband and a loving daughter, in order to seek revenge for her father’s death.
In the first two episodes, the makers offer a gruesome flashback of events. Ra-el’s father, a president of an established firm, was killed after he refused to sell his business to a politically backed group of people. The moles at her father’s company ensured a smooth transition and no media attention. With the help of a lawyer, she leaves the country but promises herself that she would return to ruin the powerful group and their families.
The episodes then return to the present, showing Ra-el crossing paths with Kang Yoon-kyum (Park Byung-eun). He heads the LY Group and is the son-in-law of Han Pan-ro (Jeon Kuk-hwan), the boss man of the politically-backed group. She learns that both their children study at the same school and through it, she starts growing closer to him physically. This only leads to chaos in his family.
The first two episodes are not only packed with drama but also feature a few bold scenes, with Seo Ye-ji leading them. Seo Ye-ji returns with a bang. The actress has shown that the scandal that entangled her last year does not have any effect on her on-screen performance. Her duality is unmissable. At one point, she comes across as a ray of sunshine on the screen, in another, she transforms into a sensual goddess. Her chemistry and sexual tension with Park Byung-eun are evident from the get-go.
Yoo-sun as the empathetic and hypocrite Han So-ra holds the screen every time she’s in focus, doubling up as the perfect grey character opposite Seo Ye-ji. While the ladies were the star of the first two episodes, Eve is still very rough in its portrayal.
The drama’s narration style is confusing. It starts off in the present-day scenario but switches gears to events that took place a few months ago. However, out of the blue, it changes timelines and takes you back to events that transpired 13 years ago, making the storytelling a mess.
Eve has also tried to rush through the past, the events from 13 years ago, at lightning speed pace in an attempt to just inform the viewers to know what had happened instead of actually allowing them to invest and side with Ra-el. It is to see if the show improves the storytelling style and allows the audience to invest in the characters a little more.
