The female mid-life crisis doramas don't really appeal to me not because there are all the same but because the characters are always skin deep and they never get past their designated stereotype roles as the happily married rich woman, the single live for work woman and the normally married one. The characters will get together to contemplate 'what is happiness to me', proclaim they have gotten stronger at the end and go their separate ways.
Sayonara Watashi starts off like any mid life crisis female dorama and then there is a hint that Nagasaku Hiromi's best friend Ishida Yuriko is sleeping with her husband, Fujiki Naohito who looks like he hasn't eaten in months. I like that it drops the subtle hint telling me to keep watching through the usual character set ups.
At the end of the show, we find out the hook of Sayonara Watashi; wife and mistress switch bodies. Ok, they've got my attention and episode 1 ends with wife having sex with husband in mistress's body. Now that's something you don't usually see in body switching stories because they usually try to be family friendly.
It also made sense why the characters were so stereotypical, it was so that the audience could easily recognise when Nagasaku Hiromi and Ishida Yuriko were playing each other in each other's bodies.
Sayonara Watashi reminds me of Double Tone, an entertaining older women dorama with a sci-fi element. Let's see how far Sayonara Watashi takes advantage of its premise. For now, I think its a watchable show. At the very least, its probably going to be a smarter show compared to Hirugao.