I could've gone with "Who's Your Daddy?" for the alternate title, but how cliché would that have been? Seriously, that would've been more cliché than putting "Kimchi" or "Seoul" in the title of my blog. For those of you not in the know, "Appa" (아빠) is the Korean equivalent of "papa" or "dad."
As I mentioned in a previous post, Three Dads, One Mom is quite different than Lovers in Paris. While the drama sites classify it as a romance, the storyline is heavier on philia than eros. It also differs in that there’s a lot more humor.
Plot
Seong Min is a man with three best friends: Soo Hyeon, Kwang Hee and Kyeong Tae. Soo Hyeon is a stock broker whose life is driven by the pursuit of money. He has a very stern personality, and tends to be a tightwad. Kwang Hee is a comic artist and a prolific womanizer. He’s stylish and very vain. Kyeong Tae is a police detective who's slightly dimwitted but has a good heart. He’s a bit of a slob, and has little luck with women. Seong Min marries a woman named Na Yeong, who's extremely devoted to him but can't stand his three immature friends.
Both Seong Min and Na Yeong want to have children, but they're unable to because Seong Min has a fertility problem. Na Yeong, however, is a very demanding woman, so she gets angry with Seong Min one day over the issue. She accuses him of not trying hard enough with the fertility procedures, because, well, that's just the type of person she is.
After this fight, Seong Min goes out for drinks with his three friends and tells them of the situation. The suggestion of getting a sperm donor arises, and Seong Min likes it so much that he asks his friends to be the donors. At first the three are opposed to the idea, but Seong Min is so desperate to make his wife happy that he eventually twists their arms into doing it. Because Na Yeong doesn't like the friends though, they have to keep it a secret that when Seong Min goes to the doctor for the fertility procedures he's actually using their sperm. In addition, Seong Min has to promise his buddies that they won't have any responsibilities toward the child, as none of them wants the burden of fatherhood.
The initial idea was that all three friends would contribute their sperm and Seong Min would keep it a secret which one he chose, but he has so much trouble deciding that he mixes all three friends' sperm together. As planned, the conception is successful and Na Yeong becomes pregnant. The couple is overjoyed and makes many preparations for the baby, but tragedy strikes when Seong Min is killed in a car accident. Suddenly, everything changes. The three friends realize that because Seong Min was their best friend, and one of them is the real father, it's only right for them to help out Na Yeong during the pregnancy, since she doesn’t have any other family (except for an unreliable father).
After Na Yeong gives birth to a baby girl named Ha Seon the friends assume they’re off the hook, because Na Yeong can raise the child by herself. However, issues continually arise which require the three “uncles” to step in and help out. Of course, all three of them are single guys with no experience raising children, so their help often resembles the Keystone Kops. Over time though, they become accustomed to their roles, and the three of them grow closer to Ha Seon and Na Yeong.
Writing and Acting
I'd say the acting in Lovers in Paris was better, but as this one was more of a comedy, high-caliber acting wasn't as necessary. In some of the more humorous scenes it got a little hammy, but in more serious scenes I often felt the characters’ emotions along with them. After Seong Min dies the grief is portrayed perfectly.
I was pleased with the writing too. The jokes were frequently hilarious, and sometimes even subtle enough that you felt rewarded for paying attention. The four main characters started out fairly two-dimensional, and in the beginning Seong Min was probably more likable than any of them. The more you learn about their histories and watch them deal with adversity though, the more you care about them, which (obviously) is crucial to staying engaged in a story.
Music
There isn’t a lot to say about the music in this one, but the soundtrack does contain three western pop songs (that I can recall): “Girlfriend” by Avril Lavigne (they even blanked out a curse word!), "Dancing Queen" by ABBA and "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head" by B.J. Thomas.
Each song related to what was happening in the scene, so it makes me wonder a few things: Is the average Korean familiar with those songs? Do enough Koreans speak English well enough to understand why those songs were chosen? Are non-English-speaking Koreans familiar with the general themes of those songs even if they don’t understand the words? I ask because surely there must be Korean songs with the same lyrical themes that could’ve been used for those scenes. Certainly, I don’t have a problem with those song choices; I just wonder what the reasoning is behind them.
Of course, I almost forgot to mention one other western song that found its way into the soundtrack: the theme song to The Smurfs. It was extremely random the way they used it, and it wouldn't be nearly as funny if I tried to explain it. Just watch the first episode if you want to see it for yourself.
English
It’s impossible to watch a Korean drama without hearing or seeing English (for my Lovers in Paris recap I forgot to mention that there’s a minor character who’s apparently supposed to be American, and they speak to him in English). Just as English has adopted words from other languages, some English words appear to be the standard for Korean too. “Tent” and “campfire” are the same, and at one point Na Yeong gets a job at a company in a department called the “Research Task Force Team” (spelled phonetically as “리서치 T/F 팀”).
In one scene Kwang Hee’s mother is talking on the phone, and she ends the call with “I love you.” I’m thinking that may be a case where a simple foreign phrase was used in a gimmicky way, similar to the way many Americans sometimes say “adios” instead of “goodbye.” It’s kind of like “hey, I’ll throw in another language just to spice up a commonplace exchange.”
The more English I encounter here in Korea the more I wonder what it looks like through a Korean’s eyes. We native English speakers take our language for granted, as it’s a common lingua franca throughout the world and we can usually get by without knowing anything else. What’s it like for the non-native speakers who see it everywhere though? The very students I teach have parents sending them to this school to learn it, presumably because knowing English will open doors to more opportunities in the future. Is there an implicit message that one’s own country and native tongue aren’t good enough? Does that create some sort of inferiority complex? Obviously I don’t know the answers, I’m just pondering.
A minor recurring theme in Three Dads, One Mom is that Kyeong Tae hates English, apparently because he doesn’t speak it very well and it makes him feel stupid. In one of the last episodes though, he starts singing “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star,” and the others remark that his English has gotten better. Apparently “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” is an English song Koreans are familiar with.
Ending
The ending wasn't exactly what I was hoping for, but it was still a nice little conclusion. It seemed a bit slapdash, to be honest. The final scene did make me laugh though, I’ll give it that much.
It could’ve been worse. Throughout the final two episodes I was under the impression that it was going to end a different way, which I wouldn’t have been particularly happy about. It was a relief to me that they didn’t go down that path (sorry to be vague, but I don’t want to spoil it on the miniscule chance that someone out there reads this blog and decides to watch the drama).
There were a few minor loose ends that were never tied up, but none of them were crucial plot points, just things I was curious about. To be more specific, I wanted to know what happened to some of the supporting characters.
Other Observations
There was a surprising amount of scatological humor in this series. They definitely weren't shy about showing the baby's excretory substances, whether they were on soiled diapers or hitting people in the face. I ain’t a huge fan of that lowbrow stuff, but I’ll admit some of it made me laugh (often in a grossed-out way). I find it most interesting that it was allowed at all. I couldn’t imagine them showing that on American TV.
There was one point where the setting switched from day to night between episodes. One episode ended with Soo Hyeon walking into a building to get Na Yeong during daylight, and when the next episode picked up they were walking out of the building and it was dark. I’m not sure if that was supposed to signify that the events of the scene took longer than they appeared to or if it was some sort of production goof.
Final Thoughts
While I enjoyed Lovers in Paris, I think this drama was more up my alley as a man. While Lovers in Paris had two male leads, the female lead was really the central character. Three Dads, One Mom split the focus pretty evenly between the four main characters, three-quarters of whom were male, so there was a lot more “guy stuff” in it.
I was surprised when I went online and found that Three Dads, One Mom was panned by some critics. My best guess is that these critics were female and couldn’t relate to a man’s emotions very well. I thought watching the three “uncles” transform from self-focused bachelors into loving father figures was beautiful, and it’s something I understand better the older I get.
Three Dads, One Mom is laugh-out-loud funny at times and genuinely heartwarming at others. If you’re looking for a recommendation you’ll definitely find one here.
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