Summary
Business Proposal continues to lean against contrivance and slapstick as Ha-ri and Tae-moo sign their agreement.
This recap of Business Proposal season 1, episode 3 contains spoilers.
Rom-coms rely, for the most part, on contrivance and stupidity. Things happen which otherwise wouldn’t, and characters don’t notice things they obviously would, and so on, and so forth. Mileage will obviously vary, but it’s all a part of the experience. The success of a good rom-com is how much you buy into the farce of it all, which is a difficult needle to thread. Too much silliness and the whole thing feels frivolous but too much and it’s morbid.
Business Proposal season 1, episode 3 recap
As of its third episode, Business Proposal is very much on the frivolous side of things. But I don’t mind the setup. After some messing around last week and in the opener of this week’s episode, we finally get down to brass tacks. Ha-ri signs the contract to pretend to be Tae-moo’s fiancé, but part of that is impressing Chairman Kang, which is a far more complicated process than simply remembering the made-up facts about “Geum-hui” and her family.
Family is emerging as a theme since there’s something about the accident that killed Tae-moo’s parents that prompted Chairman Kang to fire all the blood relatives in the company for his protection – I like his relationship with his grandfather, which seems like a somewhat rare one for film and TV to explore. But the bigger idea is of Ha-ri and Tae-moo predictably falling for one another outside the terms of their arrangement. Tae-moo smiles when Seong-hoon describes her as being endearing. He’s got a point.
Speaking of Seong-hoon, he and Young-seo are brought physically closer together when Young-seo decides to move out to stop her father from badgering her about blind dates, resulting in her being cut off from the family funding and moving in right next door to Seong-hoon. She suggests the two of them should get to know one another personally, but he’s not keen on the idea at first.
There’s also the matter of Ha-ri trying to hide her identity at work, and trying not to get too attached to Min-woo, who she discovers on a date with his ex, Yoo-ra, prompting her to break down in tears. Through an unlikely series of events, Tae-moo becomes privy to her upset but doesn’t mention it. Thanks to Chairman Kang they end up at a concert with the tickets Min-woo gave to her for her birthday, and he has requested a song for her as a nice gesture for always being there for him. This only prompts further waterworks, as Tae-moo tries to awkwardly comfort her.
The episode ends with Ha-ri getting hit in the face by a baseball and having to attend work the next day with a black eye – not ideal for someone trying to conceal their identity.
You can stream Business Proposal season 1, episode 3 exclusively on Netflix.
