“Monthly Magazine Home” Ending: Shockingly Anti-Climatic And Absurd- Episode 16 Recap And Review

Published Categorized as Kdrama Recaps
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“Monthly Magazine Home” has wrapped up its run today and it unexpectedly had one of the most disappointing endings of a 2021 kdrama, we’re here to discuss why that happened.

First, I will recap “Monthly Magazine Home” episode 16 and then discuss my thoughts on it and why the ending was a huge letdown.

Note: this will be a spoiler review of the said episodes in the title. This is a subjective review.

“Monthly Magazine Home” episode 16 recap

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Yoo Ja Sung finds a buyer for his home but he rejects the offer and decides to register his home address saying he wants to finally settle down and to make more memories with his lover in that home.

While working, Na Young Won suggests a theme based on trips and while discussing school trips, she finds out Yoo Ja Sung has never been on one, so she suggests they take a trip. While they discuss the trip, Na Young Won brings up her painful past, her father bought a home and when they wanted to move in, it turned out that there was a double fraud contract and her father lost all of his money.

Later she finds out that her father has run away leaving her mother a note saying that he will make money and return. He disappeared and after that, they had a very difficult life.

On another day.

While Na Young Won is talking about her trip with Shin Gyeom, he thanks her for bringing life back into Yoo Ja Sung and for enabling him to get out of his shell. Back when he was scammed, he built walls and prevented people from getting closer to him.

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Editor Yeo and Editor Nam are both happily working out together until she tells him that she does not want to get married, he says that he also doesn’t want to get married if she doesn’t want to get married.

At night

While preparing for bed, Na Young Won gets sent photos from editor Nam and she finds out where her father is.

The next day she goes with her mother to see him and they find him living in a secluded environment. After her mother gets into a fight with her father, he explains that after he left he felt so ashamed and couldn’t return home. He apologized for them. The mother then asked him to pack his bags as he will be going back with them to their home.

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Meanwhile at work, Editor Nam parents visit and they tease the editor-in-chief about preventing their son from going home because he’s working late overtime. They do not realize that he is dating. They also discuss marriage and talk about how much they like their son to get married, Editor Nam Vents and says he doesn’t want to get married anymore, his parents scold him for saying that, and Editor Yeo begins to have second thoughts about their relationship.

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As Na Young Won got back home with her father, she opens up about having a boyfriend, the mother is very happy for her and she shows them a photo of him. The father realizes that this is a man he unintentionally scammed. Turns out back when he was working as a contract worker, he asked Yoo Ja Sung to lend him money, Yoo Ja Sung later finds out that he fled with his money.

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The day of the trip comes, you can see that she is sad inside but she tries to pretend to be happy, she goes along with him and they have fun exploring the place. At the end of it, she says she has something to tell him.

He sees her father and he kneels down to apologize.

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Discussing the issue, Na Young Won says because of her father Ja Sung ended up having a difficult time. She can’t pretend it didn’t happen and stay with him. he tries to stop her telling her that it was a misunderstanding and that her father didn’t deceive him but was conned by his friend. He had no choice. She continues to deflect and say that her father still made mistakes, she says she’s afraid whatever she thinks about the difficult time but he made him go through because of what he did.

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Ja Sung says he can forgive that but she insists that he can’t. She thanks him for everything and breaks up with him. He tells her to not do this and breaks up with him saying it’s for herself too and asks him to let go.

Meanwhile.

Editor Nam goes to see Editor Yeo who has been avoiding him since seeing his parents, she tells him she’s ready to get married now, why? Because after looking at how his father treated his mother, she could feel assured that he wouldn’t betray her.

THREE MONTHS LATER

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The two hold a photo shoot three months later for their wedding, she asks Chief Editor Choi to sit in her father’s place but later, her fiance arranges a meeting with her father so she could make up with him, she invites him to the wedding.

Na Young Won went MIA and Ja Sung deeply misses her, Shin Gyeom cancels his trip to stay with him.

THREE YEARS LATER

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While holding a presentation about getting influencers for their magazine, Ja Sung notices something that reminds him of her. He rushes to see the influencer thinking its her but turns out she’s not. But, she does know that influencer.

Later, they cross paths while she walks the places they went to on their trip before their breakup. They meet in the middle of a street and smile back at each other. Later, the camera zooms towards a home that she bought and it appears they have made up and now share this space together.

“Monthly Magazine Home” Ending Explained

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While it does not seem clear the drama does hint that they are back together or at least on friendly terms.

It is unclear whether they live in the same space or not, but judging by the change in his clothes when he is remembering his home versus Na Young Won’s new house that she bought, it appears that they don’t live in the same place.

It is stated that she has found another job at another monthly magazine as an editor too since she met the same influencer that appeared in the final episode to encourage her to do a collab with her company. It appears that she has since made some money enough to buy a home but the drama does not explain how she got to that stage.

“Monthly Magazine Home” Episode 16 Review+ Final Thoughts

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JTBC has many amazing projects but then they come up with something like that that utterly surprises and disappoints you at the same time. The difference between their good and disappointing projects is astonishing.

“Monthly Magazine Home” was clearly not going to be a memorable drama considering its writing but at least, it was fluffy and fun at times, although, some of its humor fell flat, it wasn’t a terrible watch.

The last episode was utterly puzzling, you had 16 episodes to wrap up the drama nicely and this is the best that the writer could have come up with? It’s just astonishing how anticlimactic and disappointing it was. I didn’t expect it to blow me away or be of any shocking value, but it turned out to be shocking and not in a way that will linger in your brain leaving a happy memory.

If 2021 assured me something, it is the fact that about 95% of the kdramas that I’ve seen this year did not deserve 16 episodes or 20 episodes. Why introduce such a lame conflict mid-way of the last episode to add unnecessary ‘drama’ to what could’ve been a fine ending? Why would you do that to the audience that stuck around to watch?

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The drama tries to act profound but it comes off pretty shallow, it had good ideas up its sleeves but it became just another ‘typical kdrama.’ I wonder why it was made, to begin with, it doesn’t do anything or even attempt to challenge our perception of the housing crisis that’s plaguing today’s youth. In the end, our female ends ends up her own home and we have no idea how on Earth she got enough money to buy it in an area that will soon be developed. What could’ve been interesting was just relayed in merely 2 minutes of cringy voice-over… why would you do that?

The drama was filled with tropes till the very very end and it was used in the most expected way possible making even more boring than I’d ever expected walking in.

This is without even going into details about how typical the main characters are and how annoying and toxic Yoo Ja Sung’s character was. I am just so tired of the cliché mean boss male lead who mistreats and disrespects the female lead because of his ‘past trauma.’ What’s even more annoying and disappointing is how this was written by a woman, this is what a woman concludes to be a ‘romance drama.’

This pushes a very dangerous narrative and excuses toxic men to treat women like shit simply because they suffered, which is just NOT OKAY. The fact that Na Young Won not only brushes off his insults which were very difficult to watch but she ends up dating him, this is why women think they can change men. Not only is this message very toxic and tone-deaf but also very cringy and overly used.

“Monthly Magazine Home” could’ve easily been better, it is so sad such a stellar cast had to work with such a lackluster script.

So these are my thoughts on “Monthly Magazine Home”, so what about you guys? did you like the episodes? let me know what you thought in the comment section below.

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By Jass K.

Hi, I am Jass k. I discuss some of the hottest currently airing kdramas on this site in form of reviews an/or recaps, join me in the discussion~

12 comments

  1. You make a lot of really good points about some of the damaging tropes in this drama. I found myself mostly able to rationalize/overlook the toxic CEO trope because Kim ji-suk made him a bit OTT, which made it more comical – plus you saw early on (a) what had happened to him and (b) that he was secretly kind from the very beginning. I also felt that Na Young-won did stand up to him in many ways, both before and after they got together.

    This drama managed to sneak into my heart and become a comfort food watch; I loved the OTP and the other characters. I got a little wary when they did the noble idiocy thing in Ep 12/13 but at least they explored their feelings about it. And then Ep 14 restore my faith – including the fact that Young-won didn’t accept him back so easily (plus she used his own words/actions against him).

    But then. Episode 16 brought in a stupid last-minute destiny/dramatic plot point, then it was her turn to be the noble idiot, and then a stupid time jump? Then that inconclusive ending broke my heart.

    It’s ridiculous how emotionally invested I became in MMH. I wish I hadn’t because I have been feeling so sad all day.

    However.

  2. I have watched up until ep 14 and quite enjoyed the light fun drama with some focus on home ownership. From this recap, I don’t think I’ll enjoy the last episode. So I think I’ll just skip the last two.

    1. Same here!! All along I’ve been smiling and laughing, much needed these days, and so I think I will leave those two right there on the sidewalk with that huh
      Why you wanna bring me down now, writernim?!?

  3. Monthly Magazine Home is a nice drama series, the best drama in 2021. The casts are all good actors especially the 2 main leads who made us laugh, cry and learn life’s valuable lessons. Here are few lessons we can take to heart, as this series bids us goodbye:

    1) Save when you are still young so you don’t have regrets in the future.
    2) Learn to communicate first before breaking up. It lessens misunderstandings.
    3) Keep on dreaming and striving to achieve your dream – no matter what the odds may be.
    4) Do not judge a person purely based on appearances. Get to know them first and their story to understand why they behave the way they do.
    5) Relationships take time to grow- just like building a home. For it to flourish, you must nurture it with love, patience, understanding and trust. This is what makes a relationship stand the test of time. And just like a good home, when you decorate it with effort and love, it becomes beautiful, warm and cozy.
    In general, it ended on a happy note. The issues from the beginning of the series were all resolved in the end. The focus of Editor NaYoungWon on acquiring her own place is liberating because this was a long time dream of hers.
    Yes, it just would have been poetic if their love story was explained or developed further. However, there’s a style in writing a book, or a drama or movie that a writer wants to have an open ended story telling, so that it gives the viewers the chance to think and develop its imaginative skills.
    Imagination is the ability to think further of the things you didn’t see in the scene. If you imagine that there is a happy ending then you are an optimistic type of person. You have a positive outlook in life. If you imagine of a bad or sad ending then you are pessimistic type of person. A negative thinker.

  4. I agree with the review. I liked watching it, overall – I like that it was really romantic, but they finished with a string of clichés which spoiled the ending episodes. The incredible “sacrifice” of Ja Sung (who would break up with his girlfriend and love of his life to indulge a friend – even the best one- don’t make me laugh) and the cliché 3 year separation. I noticed it is always the odd number – 3, 5, etc, never 2,4,6, for some reason, what’s wrong with 4 years, they should have gone for 4 years, it would have been more impactful:)) Also, for a no reason. So I was disappointed in the end, because the drama apparently had very low expectations about itself, lower than mine in any case.

  5. True.. I’m disappointed with the last episode.. But I still support Jung So Min, the female lead. I just don’t like how the writer write the story of the ending 🙁

  6. I absolutely loved this drama, tropes and all, except that as already stated, the character of Yoo Ja Sung was way too harsh. The ending was just awful – heartbreaking to be honest. We watched 16 episodes of this drama and then get sucker punched with an unknown and uncertain ending. Just so disappointed.

  7. I literally just finished the drama and searched for the ending discussion. This is so infuriating and frustating. Koreans really have a knack for ruining what could be amazing stories. Of course, I’ve watched many dramas that I loved, but if I were to make a list of the ones with disappointing endings, I’m afraid it would be almost endless.
    I apologize for all this ranting, I’m just very disappointed with the ending and need to vent. I’m a big fan of Jung Somin and hope to see her again in a better drama.

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