# It's Okay to Not Be Okay Review: Dark Fairy Tales That Heal > It's Okay to Not Be Okay is a gorgeous, emotionally serious K-drama romance between a psychiatric ward carer and a children's author who claims she cannot love. Canonical: https://celluloidscore.com/reviews/its-okay-to-not-be-okay-review/ Published: 2026-07-25 Last updated: 2026-09-24 Author: Kaiser Khan — Founder & Editor Language: English Review basis: direct-viewing Spoilers: none Rating: 4.5/5 ## Verdict Yes. It is one of the most distinctive K-drama romances of its era, ideal for viewers who want beauty, dark humour and real feeling in one package. ## Is It's Okay to Not Be Okay worth watching? **Yes. It's Okay to Not Be Okay is a ravishing and unusually thoughtful romance about damaged people learning to care for each other, and it stands among the best K-dramas of 2020.** Seo Yea-ji and Kim Soo-hyun make a magnetic, prickly pair, and Oh Jung-se gives the series its emotional anchor. The main reservation is that its storybook style occasionally outruns its substance, and a thriller subplot in the later episodes is less convincing than the character drama around it. ## What is It's Okay to Not Be Okay about? Moon Gang-tae ([Kim Soo-hyun](https://celluloidscore.com/stars/asia/south-korea/kim-soo-hyun/)) works as a caregiver on psychiatric wards and has spent his adult life looking after his autistic older brother, Sang-tae (Oh Jung-se), moving from town to town whenever old fears catch up with them. Ko Mun-yeong (Seo Yea-ji) is a celebrated author of beautiful, brutal children's books who was told as a child that she is incapable of love. When the two meet, she fixes on Gang-tae with alarming intensity, and he finds himself unable to walk away. The collision is abrasive, funny and gradually healing, and the series threads it with dark fairy tales that echo the characters' histories. Park Gyu-young plays Nam Ju-ri, a nurse at the hospital where Gang-tae works. [It's Okay to Not Be Okay](https://celluloidscore.com/shows/its-okay-to-not-be-okay/) is a South Korean series in Korean, written by Jo Yong, and it streams on Netflix. This review covers the complete show: one season of 16 episodes, with the story finished. ## A romance built from damage What sets the series apart is how seriously it takes mental health without turning into a lecture. Gang-tae has buried his own needs so deeply in caring for others that he barely recognises them, while Mun-yeong has built a personality out of armour. Their romance is less about attraction than about two people slowly admitting they are hurt, and the writing lets both behave badly before it lets them change. The psychiatric hospital setting could easily have been used for cheap drama. Instead, the patients are drawn with sympathy and humour, and many episodes centre on one of them, turning the ward into a gallery of people the show treats as more than plot devices. ## Oh Jung-se and the brothers at the heart The central romance gets the attention, but the relationship between the two brothers is the show's deepest material. Oh Jung-se plays Sang-tae with warmth, precision and no condescension, making him funny, stubborn and fully a person rather than a symbol. The tension between Gang-tae's devotion and his exhaustion gives the drama a moral complexity that most romances avoid. Seo Yea-ji, meanwhile, is a force. Mun-yeong is imperious, rude and deliberately theatrical, and Seo plays her with a gothic glamour that makes her impossible to look away from. Kim Soo-hyun is the quieter presence, carrying a lifetime of suppressed feeling in his face. ## Storybook style, with a cost Visually, this is one of the most lavish K-dramas of its time. Mun-yeong's crumbling castle of a house, her striking wardrobe and the illustrated fairy tales, presented in short animated sequences, give the series the texture of a grown-up picture book. The style has a price. In later episodes, the story leans on a mystery about the past that is more conventional than the character work, and a few of the symbolic flourishes feel heavy. None of it undoes the emotional payoff, but the series is strongest when it trusts its three leads rather than its plot machinery. ## Who should watch It's Okay to Not Be Okay? It suits viewers who like romance with an edge, stories about family and caregiving, and anyone drawn to strong visual style. At 16 hour-long episodes, it is a substantial but finished commitment. Content includes discussions of trauma, mental illness, self-harm and some violence and sexual references, so it is better suited to adults than younger teens. For more from the same shelf of [romance](https://celluloidscore.com/genres/romance/): - [Queen of Tears](https://celluloidscore.com/reviews/queen-of-tears-review/), a later Kim Soo-hyun drama that mixes comedy and heartbreak on a bigger scale. - [Goblin](https://celluloidscore.com/reviews/goblin-2016-review/) for another melancholy, fairy-tale romance with a strong visual identity. ## The verdict It's Okay to Not Be Okay is a bold, beautiful and deeply felt drama that uses romance to talk honestly about trauma, care and family. Its late-season plotting is weaker than everything else, but the performances and the sheer imagination of the storytelling make it a series to treasure. **Rating: 4.5/5** ## Related title - [It's Okay to Not Be Okay (2020)](https://celluloidscore.com/shows/its-okay-to-not-be-okay/) ## Editorial - [Editorial standards](https://celluloidscore.com/about/editorial-policy/) - [Report a correction](https://celluloidscore.com/about/corrections/)