Drama Profile
Title: The One and Only / Only One Person (Literal Title)
Main Cast: Ahn Eun-jin, Kim Kyung-nam, Kang Ye-won, Joy
Writer: Moon Jung-min (Matrimonial Chaos)
PD: Oh Hyun-jong (Find Me in Your Memory)
Timeslot: Monday and Tuesday 23:00
Network: JTBC
Episodes: 16
Genre: Melodrama
Plot Synopsis:
The One and Only follows the story of three terminally ill women who met at a hospice. As they walk in a path towards their known deaths, the three women face decided to take down “just one person” before they die.
Maknae’s Impression:
Everyone in this series is going to die. It’s just a matter of time before one character will drop dead. But despite The One and Only’s dark and melancholic undertone, there is something hopeful about it. I can’t quite pinpoint exactly what it is but it’s most probably because of the fateful meeting of our three dying heroines: Pyo In-sook (Ahn Eun-jin), Kang Se-yeon (Kang Ye-won), and Sung Mi-do (Joy).
In-sook’s storyline is a melodrama cutout. She was abandoned by her parents. She lives in a despicable neighborhood with an abusive and trash person as a neighbor. And on top of that, she was diagnosed with brain tumor. Although the narrative heavily leans to In-sook, I think getting to know the stories of Se-yeon and Mi-do is something that will make this series a more interesting watch. Se-yeon has a toxic husband and mother-in-law, she couldn’t quite cut ties off. Mi-do’s life, meanwhile, has slowly been crumbling from her well-filtered and “perfect for social media” façade. Then she got diagnosed with lung cancer and it seemed like she is also had no choice but to stay at the hospice. These three have nothing in common but a murder bond them together and it seems like Morning’s Light Hospice would become their sanctuary instead of a place they despise.
The place and the people they would encounter there are quite interesting. We saw a glimpse of the people residing there during In-sook’s arrival and I could see potentially great and heart-wrenching subplots being written already. Aside from the patients at the hospice, other characters will also be accompanying our main trio, particularly In-sook.
Min Woo-cheon (Kim Kyung-nam) is a mysterious character who appeared to be part of an ambiguous organization that kills people who they consider as trash. The motivation for the killing hasn’t yet been revealed so I can’t call them vigilantes yet. But now, the police got whiffed of their covert operation because of their last murder, which involves our three hospice girls.
There are actually a lot of other ways to make main characters meet but I guess, the writer has his reason for adding the murder part. I like watching the dynamics between the female characters and their life at the hospice so I don’t know yet what to feel about the murder part of the story. Yes, I’m curious but I’m more likely to tune in for the poignant life moments at the hospice than solving yet, again, another crime. So, I hope this series would be more of a tale about finding life in the face of death.
Afterthoughts:
-I’m a sucker for quotes so I super love the quotable dialogues and monologues they have in this series.
-Imagine Woo-cheon telling their future kids how he and their mother met and he’d say, “Well, your mother killed someone for me.” Kidding. They won’t have kids, I presume.
-At some point, the series felt like it was Age of Youth meets Pretty Little Liars but everyone is dying.
Image credit: JTBC
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