Mother · Season 1 · tvN
Mother Season 1
Mother Season 1 is a MUST-WATCH, BollyMeter 9.0/10. 16 episodes on tvN from 24 January 2018.
Updated
What BollyAI Thinks
Mother aired on tvN from January to March 2018 and took the 54th Baeksang Arts Awards' Best Drama prize - the year's most prestigious Korean television honour. Adapted from the acclaimed 2010 Japanese series, screenwriter Jeong Seo-kyeong relocated the premise to Seoul without losing any of its psychological weight. Lee Bo-young's performance as Kang Soo-jin was described by critics as a masterclass in restrained maternal ferocity, while child actress Heo Yool, who won Best New Actress at the Baeksang, delivered a performance that critics called 'flawless.' The show probes abuse, identity, and what constitutes family through 16 episodes that never let the subject matter drift into melodrama for its own sake. IMDb's 8.9 audience rating places it among the highest-scored Korean dramas on the platform.
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The Room
“One of the most unique K-dramas I have ever watched. Definitely outshined almost all other 2018 K-dramas.”
KDramaLove
Standout Episodes
The hours worth arguing about - premieres, finales, and the turning points. BollyAI reads the room episode by episode.
- E1Episode 19.0
A pilot that wastes no time establishing the moral stakes - the abuse is depicted with enough specificity to be devastating without being exploitative, and the central choice lands with full weight.
The moment: The moment Soo-jin finds the child in the plastic bag outside and chooses not to walk away defines the entire series' emotional architecture.
- E16Episode 169.1
The finale resolves each character's journey with earned honesty - no cheap sentiment, no tidy resolution, just the slow work of people learning to live with who they have become.
The moment: The final scene between the two leads, stripped of any dramatic flourish, is the kind of underplayed moment Korean drama rarely trusts itself to attempt.