A Love Other Than Yours loses its way, review says

A Love Other Than Yours, a Korean drama starring Seo Kang-joon and Ahn Eun-jin, has drawn sharp criticism from a reviewer who says the series loses the promise of its early episodes. The story follows a couple who have been together for 10 years and have grown distant, asking whether they will reconnect or drift apart. After Episode 8, the leads agree to see other people for a month, and the reviewer said the story then loses focus. The review argued that Lee Mi-do's struggles at work and her emotional exhaustion are sidelined, and that female characters, including Mi-do and Soo-ah, played by Jo A-ram, are written in ways that weaken them. The reviewer called the guilt over the death of Mi-do's father, who had saved Nam-goong from drowning, the series' most contrived plot point. The reviewer praised the early episodes for capturing the fear of becoming a burden to a partner, but said the characters do not grow, which the reviewer considered essential to a story about two people outgrowing each other.