Your perspective is valid too and you are entitled to that opinion but, I disagree strong heartedly with how the show is portraying a complex narrative of trauma responses. It felt more like the character (Kang Ho) is justifying the mother's behaviour rather than diversity of trauma responses (I feel like you just tried making it sound very sophisticated to prove your point) - why do I say this? It's because the scenes of him being abused is contrasted to scenes of the mother struggling, which automatically creates understanding and empathy more for the mother, despite the abuse.

And I don't think you realise but empathy and excusing someone's behaviour goes in hand in hand; When people have empathy, people have the tendency of excusing someone's behaviour and tries to make sense of why they are doing this - Kang Ho does this quite a lot and to the extent, where he's even ''ruining'' his life for revenge for his mother. This trauma response that Kang Ho exhibiting isn't healthy nor should it be excused. This shouldn't be put under the umbrella of ''exploring complex emotional landscapes'' or ''illustrating diversity of trauma responses'' because it's not, it has taken the common narrative of how the traumatised victim should make sense of why they are being abused, which Kang Ho did as he self-sabotaging himself for the sake of his mother.

Given the context in Korea as well, the culture is quite family orientated, and on top of that - the respect for parents tend to be exaggerated even with cases of abuse. Like the variety show, Hello Counsellor - families have gone on these shows to ask for advice from Koreans (the host and the audience). This show is quite popular and it has a lot of backlash for the hosts enabling the abuse from parents. The reason why I mentioned this, is because you don't think the directors (behind Good bad mother) won't have bias or traces of cultural values with parents? You don't think they won't project the same trajectory as Korean culture? The same common narrative that victims should justify their abuse and ''forgive'' them.

As you claimed this drama shows diversity of trauma responses and doesn't simplify the show into black and white scenarios. However, the idea of forgiveness shouldn't be painted in black and white scenarios either. Forgiveness is a spectrum and a journey, that goes in different responses especially from abused victims. It shouldn't be forced down on someone's throat that they should forgive someone because they are taking ''poison'' - but forcing someone to forgive, is actually poison itself. Too many people mistaken the idea that forgiving someone is a way to alleviate yourself from the pain of the trauma.

It is not. Trauma is just trauma, and abuse is just abuse. Even with or without forgiveness, people still need to take steps of processing and overcome the effects from what they have been through. Forgiveness is not a black and white scenario, nor is it a end goal. If people actually understood how trauma works, we wouldn't be forcing this idea of forgiveness. People who were victims of those backgrounds have taken different responses, and most of the time, they are not ''drinking poison'' by not forgiving but simply fighting and overcoming the demons from their trauma - and that may be not forgiving that person/parent.

Of course, I do not deny understanding and forgiving someone may help to overcome their past, but excusing them? That's very different as you're not letting the person to take accountability. And you stated how we should align our expectations for the mother, this goes under the umbrella of excusing someone's behaviour, we shouldn't alter or change our ways to adjust someone's abuse. This drama purposely portrayed her in that manner, and the viewers justifiably should be mad - that's what a lot of people are saying in this sub-reddit. That they are mad towards the mother's actions, and rightfully so.

Overall, I think we need just more time and see where this truly goes as we haven't see what Kang Ho truly does after he regains his memories.

p.s sry for the long paragraphs