Vincenzo

Honestly after 4 or episodes it was so nerve-wracking to watch, there were too much tension that made me become disinterested for next episodes. Cinematography, acting and lead's chemistry was the things that made me continue to watch but in the end they weren't enough. I really wanted to watch some romance because of their chemistry was so great but unfortunately it was wasted. Other thing that made me become disinterested to show were the tenants. There were many memorable scenes (especially funny scenes were very enjoyable for me.) and catchwords. However, i find it overrated and i had to push myself to watch after few episodes.

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not what I expected...

I don't usually write reviews but I had to for this one. I've heard a lot of people calling this wasted potential and I have to agree...

The show started off great with the first episode. It had this cool but quirky vibe to it that had me immediately hooked. I looked forward to the next episode every week (watched it while it was ongoing). The cast seemed great as well. Joongi and Yeobeen as well as the villains, played their characters very well. I obviously had high expectations bc of this.

I think my main problem has to do with the progression of the plot. Halfway through the plot starts feeling rushed and repetitive. I believe this is why the characters didn't have any room to develop either. A lot of what was happening felt kinda forced or "out of place". The initial purpose of the story felt lost as well.

Things I especially wish they would've done differently:
1. Chayoung's story
I think they moved on a little too fast with her overall story. Her relationship with her father and her morally questionable choices as a lawyer is what made her feel super refreshing (specially as a female character). I feel like we didn't get to properly see her mourn over her father or how that transitioned into her seeking revenge. I also expected to see more of the "enemies to lovers" trope between her and Vincenzo.

2. Hanseo and Vincenzo
I thought them teaming up was actually perfect but the timing was kinda off (which happens a lot throughout the show). We didn't get to see them develop a PROPER brother-like love, which is why it felt somewhat forced. It's a shame considering how much bigger the emotional impact would've been.

Despite the disappointment, the show still had some great things. I think Vincenzo himself was a great character and his dilemma with the mafia and killing people was portrayed well.
I also loved Choi Myunghee as a villain. Instead of making up a redemption story they chose to show that she did what she did bc she was simply evil and greedy.

I think I had too high expectations and watching it while it was ongoing made me analyze it a little more than I probably should have. So I would still recommend it to people who are just looking for something fun to watch!!

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Slow paced drama with okayish acting , average light revenge drama

9 episodes down and I felt Vincenzo is nothing more than an average watch.The storyline is becoming more predictable lacking serious twists and they add all unnecessary details making it so slow paced. Its not easy to get a attachment to characters and doesn't offer a compelling watch.

a)Vincenzo uses a lot of forced comedy scenes which can be really enjoyed by some people but for some it hardly gave any laugh.Coming to episode 5 and 6,the comedy scenes itself became so predictable and then almost the humour tone turns into a substandard one.
b) Some ideas to tackle enemy were brilliant but the show don't show any specific revenge fire,no clever twists.
c) At the same time, some ideas looks really silly like tonsil scenes, a judge who doesn't wipes his after something sticky falls on his face( I think suit was enough to sting )- just for creating comedy.
Tat flower plot scenes was so predictable from the first look.
d) FL acting is average and has got a lot of room for improvement. She started strong but now she turned into an assistant role to hero, total mismatch to her topdog character of a famous law firm- kdrama cliche.

e) Some show off scenes of Song are really good but he is not that good in a dark hero role. Even now, viewers don't know what is in his mind. No emotional attachment.
f) Almost all father daughter scenes were poor and not emotionally or atleast comically involving.
g) FL walking style and dance - really funny
h)I think negative characters are performing good especially the villain and we can easily get that negative vibes from them.
i) Great potential for love angle.
j) leads chemistry also good.

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Patience is a virtue!

Acting/Cast
- The casts for this show were truly excellent and the characters were very well executed, that's the main highlight for you!
- It took quite some time (around half of the whole show) for me to feel attached to the characters mainly Geumga Plaza family, the second half of the show brought me to tears on several occasions as I felt the characters' struggle & sadness.
- Sense of humour is spot on most of the time, well at least for me.

Story/Plot
- The first half is the reason why I gave the story's rating of 6 out of 10, due to its lighter tone, slow & draggy.
- The first half of the show is significantly lighter than the second half, the tone gets darker and darker until the very last episode. Yes, the finale is the darkest one & I love it!
- Identity reveals in this show are no joke! Seriously, each of them made me paused, took a breather before continuing.
- People do back-stabbing as if it's their hobbies.

Music/OST
- Just MASTERPIECE, near perfection!

Rewatch value
- Not in the near future, maybe after a year or two. Not quite sure if I want to repeat the first half again, hence, patience is a virtue.

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I really enjoyed this show but...

this is not one where I will miss the characters. I might miss the quirkiness of the Plaza residents who lightened the mood when it got too dark. But, this is a seriously dark view of the world and there's just so much blood...

Song Joon Ki and Jeon Yeo Been were great in the lead roles, but I think Ok Taec Yeon stole the show. I don't think I can see him in anything else for a while. Han Seok was downright scary, all rage and unbridled emotions, as opposed to Vincenzo, who was cool and collected for most of the show.

Glad I watched the show, but I need a few light-hearted rom-coms to recover...

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Spettacolo molto bello con un uomo molto bello*

*That's with Google Translate, so forgive me if you're an Italian speaker.

Using my personal rating system of "loved," "liked," "meh," & "nah," this was mostly a “loved”.

I am writing this review after re-watching show from start to finish for the first time since it came out (which is when I watched it the first time).

Things I liked:
Characters. Vincenzo Cassano. I loved the complexity of the character. That he had moments of fear, loss, and humanity. I loved how well he was played by Song Joong Ki who, despite being known for his youthful appearance (I completely believed him as the twin teenagers in the Arthdal Chronicles), can also pay a ruthless bad@$$. I liked Hong Cha Young as well. I remember reading comments/reviews that some did not like her character, but I liked her better on the re-watch. She was outspoken, outgoing, irreverent, and brave. She was not this sweet, innocent female lead who fit all the tropes of a pure heart and soul. She, too, was a complexly written character. Ok Taec Yeon did an amazing job playing two sides of the same person. He did such a good job as a monster, I’m currently re-watching “Secret Royal Inspecter & Joy” just to see him play a nice person. Lol! And finally, Choi Myung Hee because this character broke all the tropes about evil women. She was horrible but it had nothing to do with her gender or jealousy. I liked the plaza residents, their different personalities, their quirks.

Other things: I liked the moments of fear, tension interspersed with tragedy but also love and humor (even slapstick) because real life is that way. There are times when we are crying because we’re laughing so hard and then crying because of sorrow. I also liked the tension—I had a hard time predicting what would be coming up in the plot. For example, I did NOT predict who would become the main antagonist in the show. Usually, if I questioned a plot point (for example, when Vincenzo goes to threaten the CEO with a gun, I could not figure out why he just didn’t shoot him—it was so out of character for him to hold a gun on somebody and then talk…but the next episode explained it all) it would all be revealed later and would make sense—some inconsistencies aside.

Set/music/styling. This was well done many times throughout the show. The first scenes of VC in the vineyard and then defending himself against assassination were gold. When he first defended the Plaza residents. When he was riding that horse…(though I did which they had gotten him a pair of tighter pants—not even from the aesthetic sense, but from a horseback riding perspective, he was going to have some serious chafing…).

Things I did not like so much:
Motivation. Those were not always fleshed out well. I mean, why was Babel Group ALWAYS so horrible!? It was like their mission statement was “do as much evil as possible even if doing legitimate business might actually be more profitable in the long run…”. They were actively killing off their own employees and test subjects—that just does not make sense from a business standpoint. Even though I liked the fact that Choi Myung Hee’s gender was not usually made an issue in the show, I did not understand why she was such a terrible person. It was not entirely clear why she disliked the FL on first sight nor why she always chose killing people off as the best option. The way they introduced her in the beginning, she seemed like she would be a sympathetic character, but then once she got to Wusan, the gloves came off (but they imply she was the hitman-by-proxy when she worked for the gov’t, too). The evil main lead and evil female lead just kept doing stupid things to piss VC off. They SAW the pictures of what he’d done in Italy, why on earth did they think that would not happen to them!? (And why did CMH always scream in terror every time she was threatened--like she had not wrought such on others!? And does no one in South Korea own a washing machine of their own?)

Inconsistencies, unrealities. The pigeon rescue was a bit much…cute, but beyond my ability to suspend disbelief. Why was VC always using civilians!? He was a mafia consigliere, even if he did not have the same level of connections in SK, why would he ever trust these serious jobs to civilians!? I get that is how they included the Plaza residents in the story, but it did not make sense from a logical point of view—especially when they wrote VC’s character to be so brilliant. And how did all the Plaza residents turn out to be professional fighters!?--I felt like they threw that in there at the last minute with zero logical set up in the plot beforehand.

Violence. It was bit too much, for me personally, especially towards the end. It made it hard to like VC’s character fully since he was capable of such ‘creativity’. They try to explain it away, but still, for me, personally, that was one of my dislikes of the show.

Conclusion. All inconsistencies aside, I pretty much loved this show. I would recommend it if you like k-drama thrillers and/or Song Joong Ki. :D

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Characterwise, the mains are way too eccentric

(Watched it around 2 months ago, but i still remember the impression) || I actually liked the overall story but what I couldn't stand from this drama is the female lead. I know comedy is one of this drama's genre but the TOO eccentric characteristic of the main leads (SJK and JYB) sometimes made me cringe and failed to feel the drama. From what i saw, the comics seemed to be forced ESPECIALLY the FL. She's a good actress, i know, but maybe the writer didnt do good at creating the character that it had flaws here and there. Taecyeon is for sure another eccentric lead too, but to me he made it better than the two, and it suits him (all the rages and comics, i just loved itt). To sum it up, to me it needs more seriousness(?). I gave the acting an 8 thanks to Tacyeon, I could've given a 6.5 if he didnt do good there. || They did a great job for the cinematography, plot, etc tho, but it lacked characteristic creation that i could say it's kinda o V e R r A t E d. 이상입니다.

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So much hype but all wasted

When i saw the adv and rating for this drama i was shocked then i went to watch this , when reached in the middle of the drama it does not impressed me personally there is no new improvements in story plot and director is only focus on evil character as well as hero and funny scenes etc. We don't know what is happening at last episodes like something is going on parallelly we know it, at first they said it is thriller and comedy , action! We can only see these two rather thriller. Only suspense part is that villan is the colleague of heroine at office so that is all nothing else is there! Why name it as thriller then, and only few scenes stands for me remaining either pulling off the episodes etc.

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I liked it (yes, past tense)

I watched this for Taecyeon. I already knew that he is gonna be the main villain because I saw an article about his role before it got edited. And I'll have to be honest, I really looked forward to it after knowing what the story is about, and seeing that the writer was the one who also wrote Chief Kim (which is one of my favorite dramas) I had high hopes for it, high enough for me to open up naver every morning to check for news about the drama. And honestly? I liked it... at first.

The first few episodes were pretty good. I enjoyed the comedic scenes, and the story build up was pretty nice too. The ending of episode 4? I wasn't surprised about the reveal of him being the villain, but I was pretty surprised at the timing. Revealing the big bad in episode 4? Well, I guess... It's not a complaint though, because seeing Taecyeon's duality, playing innocent as Jang Junwoo but showing his true deadly colors as Jang Hanseok was creepy and cool at the same time. I'm not gonna lie, when I watched the drama on going, I kept rewatching the episodes throughout the week, and it was all mostly because of him. At least, that was what I did in the early episodes until the episode where his identity was fully revealed to public. After that, he felt kinda... tamed. Sure, Jang Hanseok was ordering people to do the dirty work for him as he always did. But I felt that was all he did in the later episodes, and it just felt so... boring. And I understand it was probably because of his public image. But at the same time I can't help but think about other villains that still did the killing themselves. Around this time, I don't rewatch, and honestly, my motivation to continue the drama decreased.

Next, the Jang brothers. I absolutely love both of their characters. When I heard Dongyeon is gonna be in Vincenzo and saw that his character's name have the same surname as Taecyeon's character, I couldn't help getting my hopes up for a supervillain duo brothers. And of course that didn't go well as their backstory gets revealed one by one. Though, I still have quite a lot of questions left about them that didn't get unanswered. It was a bit disappointing that there wasn't any more backstory on them, but I understand. This is the same complaint I have with Chief Kim, where I also have a lot of questions about Seo Yul and how his character became like that. But compared to Seo Yul who is still questionable and vague, I think Jang brothers had quite a lot of their story told, at least for a drama that's titled for the main character. Though I guess as a person who's an overthinker and imaginative, I appreciate them leaving some blank spaces for me to fill in with my own story and narrative.

I guess this part is my biggest complaint and question that I will never unerstand no matter how many times anyone tries to justify it. I STILL don't understand how Chayoung is so easy to side with Vincenzo. Like... When I think about it, it just doesn't make sense. Was it because Vincenzo was close to her dad? Because if I try to look into everything else, Junwoo was the only answer. She knew Junwoo longer than she knew Vincenzo. Especially at the part where Cenzo told Chayoung that Junwoo was the main villain, Hanseok. I still don't understand how she just believes him over her loyal friend who worked for her before. Was it because he's a mafia and he can easily get any information on anyone if he wants? I can't understand at all. There really wasn't a scene where Chayoung was questioning it or defend Junwoo. Come to think of it, I felt like she ALWAYS sided with Vincenzo and never for her intern. Was it because Junwoo was still working at Wusang? I don't know, honestly. Thinking of how their relationship developed made my head hurt more. Good for them ig.

Oh, and I also felt like 20 episodes were too much. Since it's from the same writer, I can't help compare it to Chief Kim. For me, Chief Kim felt perfect with 20 episodes, but for Vincenzo which I think the story felt off for me around episode 12, it felt dragged on for so long. Honestly, I think maybe if they had 16 episodes it would be much better, or at least slightly better.

But, through all my complaints and questions, I do have one compliment.... I think the OSTs are very good. Well, the ones with vocals are good, but I honestly prefer the just instrumental ones. They're really cool. But other than that, in conclusion, the OSTs are pretty good, the casts is also pretty good, I think that the story is very good in the first few episodes, up until around episode 12? where it just went.... wrong. I honestly thought it had the potential to be one of my favorite dramas that I would be able to rewatch, but I was wrong. After it ended, I tried to rewatch it at least a few weeks or months later, but I couldn't, I guess after knowing how the story developed and ended, it put me in a bad mood.

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Whose vengeance is righteous ? "Heroes" are just as bad as villains.Romance doesn't work.

why the low rating:Song Joong Ki is not the reason ! it's the cast of characters closest around him that foul up the drama. For the first half of the series it was unexpectedly fun -yet the gritty, cold violence increasingly escalates & is very disturbing. The females in this series are all crass, crude, irritating & unpleasant. The good guys are playing the same games as the bad guys, so "good" is a matter of perspective ( who has tortured & killed less ?). Hero's by my definition are not cruel, so this eye for eye vengeful plotline pushed my level of tolerance to it's limit. OK it's fun to have a cool guy going around righting wrongs, but where's the line you don't cross ? Even Vincenzo admits that there is a time when he becomes a monster in order to fulfill his agenda. And the sad thing is that he inspires ( infects is a better word) those around him, putting them all in danger by following his example as well as turning them into deviants.By Episode 14 I just wanted to enjoy watching Song Joong Ki do his snarky cool thing, but the irritating female lead is like fingernails on a chalkboard & you wish someone would "off" her. I have zero desire to see the lead's in a romantic relationship at this point (& that never changed) .I gave myself a week off from watching before finishing the drama- I didn't find the building occupants interesting or amusing & the violence had started to be too much. The rest of the drama was set on driving home the theme that the justice system doesn't work as it should & so vigilantism is the only solution.[wait, by being a torturer & a killer driven by your own moral compass, how are you better than the evil you are trying to eradicate-as you go about unchecked on your self declared righteous "crusade" ?] The last episodes are grim & a blood bath of Vincenzo getting his revenge. They throw a bit of romance in that doesn't go anywhere because he can't stay in Korea & then there is a year time skip with the teaser that there might be a season 2. The ending is unsatisfying & if you step back from the fact that the actor playing the lead is so great to watch do his James Bond sort of thing, then you realize that you don't like the dark character he's playing, who will always be a killer.

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