In ‘The Green Mothers’ Club’ The Green Stands For Jealousy

Exactly how much are moms expected to do for their offspring? After most of the moms in the drama The Green Mothers’ Club wake their children, serve them breakfast and prep them for school, they march out for school crossing traffic safety duty. Before ferrying offspring for rounds of after-school instruction, they attend a lecture, where they are told their determined efforts can help their children achieve better grades. Some of the mothers are more likely to believe that than others. Those moms may have replaced their own dreams with micro-managing their children.

Newcomer Lee Eun-pyo, played resolutely by Lee Yo-won, is not like that. What she hates most in the world is moms who forsake their dreams and hyper-focus on their kids’ achievements. She had to put her dreams of becoming a fine arts professor on hold, but she has no intention of giving up on her dreams or burdening her child with her expectations.

As soon as she moves into her new neighborhood she’s forced to interact with a gaggle of gossipy micro-managing moms, played cattily by Choo Ja-hyun, Jang Hye-jin and Joo Min-kyung. They are busy guiding their children’s careers and don’t think much of her attitude. It’s not going to win her any friends.

Being on the outs with the mothers-behaving-badly crowd is bad enough, but life gets more complicated for Eun-pyo. A woman she used to know, Seo Jin-ha, played by Kim Gyu-ri, has a child in the same school. The enviably wealthy Jin-ha seems happy to see Eun-pyo, but it’s obvious they have some bad history and it has something to do with Jin-ha’s French-speaking husband, played by Luis Buñuel.

If the first episode is any indicator, this drama is going to include a lot of bad behavior by moms, behavior their kids probably shouldn’t model, but it’s also likely to be entertaining for viewers who like a good melodrama in which jealousy plays a punishing but ultimately self-destructive role.

The drama also stars Choi Jae-rim, Choi Duk-moon and Im Su-hyung. Green Mothers’ Club is Lee Yo-won’s first drama in three years.