The Ordinary Life of Ms. 'O'! (2016)

Short and Sweet Slices of Slice of Life

This drama is so short (less than 20 minutes in total) that it's actually impressive they managed to fit a story in here. And- disregarding my clever title- there is in fact a story, depicting a romance far more realistic than most portrayals in long form dramas. The interesting problem the show runners had to solve is how to split this story into eight episodes of only two minutes! The resulting miniseries is almost like slices of how you might otherwise have seen the story in a longer show.

The quick and clever way they depict information within their limited time is quite impressive. We're able to pick up important exposition about the characters, their situations, and their motivations. This leaves the much-needed resulting air time to story moments that further develop the characters and add spacing to main plotline (the romance). All of this is supported by solid production and acting, and clear editing between scenes and perspectives.

Unfortunately, not every mishap can be avoided with rapid storytelling, and there are a few other missteps here and there regarding creative decisions. For instance, it seems very odd and completely pointless to have a male character be the narrating voice from the perspective of our female character. Perhaps if there were internal conflicts about her sexual identity this may be justified, but as there is no such thing it just leaves us confused. Another thing they're forced to do to save time is to cut the dialogue very quickly, which does add a bit of energy but unfortunately also makes it occasionally hard to keep up or completely process the implications of the lines. In addition, sometimes it can feel like the audience is missing some kind of history between the characters, although at other times it is well implied. However, assuming these issues arose from production constraints rather than artistic direction, they can be easily forgiven.

In conclusion, this miniseries delivers a surprisingly well-defined story through clever visual exposition and fast-paced dialogue, only missing a few steps here and there in production and direction on their way to an otherwise successful show. That, coupled with the extremely short runtime and consequently low time commitment, means I will firmly recommend this show.

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