Trying too hard
Aside from good CGI and props, there is nothing praiseworthy for this drama. The cast did their best with the bad hand they were dealt.A bland, stereotypical high school drama with the class clown, the bully, the nerd, the pretty clique girls, the good class monitor, the fat nerd who is best friends with the wimpy kid protagonist, and the gorgeous love interest who is inexplicably interested in the protagonist.
The drama skips over every major emotionally impactful scene, never leaving them out long enough to dry and develop the characters. Every character is a watered-down version of their stereotypes, but all share stunted flight & fight reflexes. No one has leadership qualities, no one has useful survival skills, and no one has a proper incentive to move the plot forward. Every high-stakes scenario is a result of a moronic mistake, the story is entirely driven by reactionary decisions.
A paper thin plot line, a bunch of lacklustre characters, zero opportunity given for development and for us to emphasize, cliche dumb sacrifices everywhere, the list of flaws go on.
To those who dare to compare this drama to All of Us Are Dead, all of you are dead.
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A drama I came to watch with zero expectations
I love drama plots with zombies and aliens. But after reading the synopsis and seeing the cast I didn’t expected a lot from this drama. I thought that maybe this is another drama trying to ride the big wave of zombie drama success.Maybe it is because I came with zero expectations but this drama is just too good. It didn’t had that amount of hype like All of us are dead but according to me this is better than All of us are dead . It is a bit different as it is an Alien invasion sort of a drama than to a zombie drama.
This drama felt more realistic to me than most of the other zombie/alien apocalypse dramas out there. It has quite a good amount of characters in it. Which could have gone wrong. But each character is unique and is given quite a fair screen time. This drama shows us all emotions of greed, fear, happy, grateful,sad, hopeful, kindness. The cast did an amazing job in portraying their characters well. And left us with an amazing first half of the drama. I binge watched the whole part in a single sitting. And will do so for the second part too.
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A realistic portrayal of teenagers in an apocalypse
I love that Duty After School has no specific main characters and it focuses on each students as a team. Some may find them annoying and dumb, but I love how they're realistic and relatable. They're still kids who are whiny, reckless and clueless about the sudden situation they got into. All they know is that they joined the military training to gain extra points for their college entrance exams. At first, they treated it like a camping with fun and games. They're even joking and mocking the soldiers instead of being scared. They don't have access to the internet and communication outside that adds to their ignorant behavior. Then they realize how serious the training is and the other students wanted to leave, but it took a dark turn when the real situation hit them and the rest of the students no longer have the choice to leave.Before and during their training, I already love their class harmony and how real the characters feels like being immature and carefree teenagers. There's a lot of funny scenes that made me laugh and there's more intense scenes that made me hooked. After the first alien attack that they encountered, they are forced to face their new reality and grow too fast. There are times when they couldn't rely on the adults and have to be independent while working together. Despite everyone's differences from personality/mindset/ability and when conflict arises, they still keep hold onto their bond and trust each other. It's so heartwarming and admirable to watch all the students helping each other, growing closer and doing what they can despite being thrown into chaos. I became attached to these students who learned to be strong while gradually building their teamwork during the apocalypse.
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This review may contain spoilers
Too many plot holes and messy part 1 ending
Usually in apocalypse shows we start off with a big group and 2 people die every episode until only the main cast is left. That was a big cliche this show avoided, one of the characters whom I thought would be main was just killed off in the first episode itself. After that a bit unrealistically but everyone seemed to be managing ok, right until the ending that is, where they just killed off the main character. The worst thing about that was that he died doing nothing, he just gave up. He could have just jumped off the building, he probably would've broken bones, but mostly survived. It just seemed like they wanted a cool shot for the part 1 ending and decided to kill him off with everyone screaming and crying for dramatic effects.Also, they were not even sure that the spheres were attacking a shelter, like they had never seen the shelter or knew how many people were present there but suddenly after hearing a kid's speech they decided it worth risking their lives for.
1. While the students left the school they took 2 trucks, which caused the whole 1 group got abandoned and the other group came to rescue them thingy. But while going back to the shelter after the rescue, they seemed to be managing just fine within a single truck(unless it was a bigger truck, but it didn't seem like it). So why would they divide into 2 trucks to begin with.
2. The teacher lived outside the school even though the whole area was evacuated and was swarming with the spheres.
3. But the biggest plot hole according to me was that all their parents are apparently just chilling in the shelters while the high school kids are dying to protect them. Shouldn't it be the opposite, shouldn't adult civilians be drafted for the military and students protected in the shelters....
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High Octane Drama
I have been looking forward to Duty After School for quite a while and it's quite the adrenaline rush that I was seeking!Managed to binge the first 6 episodes over 2 days. The first episode took time to build the story and get to the aliens but once they started to come, they just kept coming! The series is more of a thriller than a horror but it did make my heart race in one particular episode and I almost didn't want to look. This is for those who are a bit weak (like me) when it comes to scary movies and shows.
The characters are interesting and developed slowly but not in great detail which might disconnect viewers. The focus is on one particular class in one particular school. And at times I thought, is this the only class that survived? They could have used a few more extras to represent a proper school.
Story is interesting and exciting though there are some moments where I felt common sense was lacking. Like trying to retrieve a key from behind a cupboard when they could have tried to use some kind of stick to extend their reach but didn't. Moments like those felt quite frustrating. But on the positive note, some characters show growth and others show weakness which is especially important in a real crisis. No character can be strong all the time so plus points for that realistic take.
The CGI is pretty good. The aliens are visually beautiful, almost flower-like. Reminded me a bit of Stranger Things. And the added aspect that they are intelligent besides not understanding much about them is what adds to the fear-factor. It was a good touch.
There is plenty of blood and gore though it is not too gruesome. And mild comedy and other light moments to balance out the series.
All the episodes end on a crucial point which is the perfect recipe for a binge watch. I just dislike splitting up shows for no good reason. It makes less sense that as this series is just 4 episodes short. For this reason, I can't give it a rating higher than 9 as I don't know if I'll enjoy the ending. But taking it's flaws into consideration, I'll give it a 9.
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Devoid of any sense or logic.
This is a fictional show, regardless t it doesn't excuse the lack of logic, sense or general stupidity the show is full of. You can produce a good fictional show without having to be devoid of logic.I thought 'The Tomorrow War' with Chris Pratt was the dumbest piece of Sci-Fi I have ever had the misfortune of watching, but this show is dumber and worse.
People really are handing out 10s and 9s so easily on MDL, but I can't agree. I think if you are someone who watches shows and cannot disconnect entertainment from logic, you will not enjoy this. Even then, it is incredibly hard to detach when the writing, characters, motives, pace, and story are so poor on top of it all.
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My favorite drama of 2023
Actually I started this drama without reading synapsis. I just started it because i was bored and i thought some drama about school life but after watching 1st episode i completed this in single sitting. I really this drama. TBH This is best drama i watched these days. i can't wait for remaining story 😭.1st of all the cast is perfect i didn't expect much from them but after watching this I feel like they are perfect. No one can do better than them.
From starting episodes i felt character development. The school bullies, the one who fight for grades, the nerds , even clam ones too fight for others . Protected others. That 2nd ranker might say some things like he only care for merits but still he cared about others when they didn't come to base .
I felt soo bad about Lee chun ho's death . He literally don't deserve it. Everyone in this deserve to have a happy ending 😭😭.
I want to see the story from parents POV because some of parents are in super rich, politicians, military man, and much more higher position . How would they feel about their kids fighting with some anonymous aliens?
I guess they will fight with big spheres in part 2
Can't wait for further story 🥺🤯
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thrilling and wholesome.. couldn't help but binge watch.. it's just... GREAT.. give it a try
I don't like to watch these types of dramas tbh I only picked it up because it said it revolves around CSATbut man was I wrong I made the best decision it had everything it especially made me see the school students as too relatable
the acting is just very good. I have no words just a little reference... I watched the rest of the episodes ( 4-6 ) raw because I couldn't hold my curiosity. I hope you get an idea from this the last time I got so crazy about this to watch it without subs was in the last episodes or a very good web series again called HAPPINESS.. it was very good all I would recommend you to do is give it a try.
thank you!! have a great day everyone!
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A Worthy Adaptation
I started reading the webtoon while watching this and it really made me appreciate the drama more. The webtoon was first released over 10 years ago and the drama made updates to tell the story in a more engaging way.The Good:
They create a contrast in the tone through Kim Chi Yeol's interviews versus the harsh reality that the students are facing. Kim Chi Yeol captures some funny moments of the students at times and in general they have some laid back humorous scenes. However, the worst possible thing happens each episode which immerses us in the students' feelings of being students who want to be playful at times in the midst of adversity. They were supposed to be goofing off from studying for their college entrance exam, not goofing from training to fight a war that literally fell from the sky. They also rewrote some order of events that helped create tension and suspense for the story. In the webtoon, everyone was kind of just going with the flow even when they were faced with a potentially traumatizing moment.
The Bad:
The changes to Bora and Ilha don't make sense to me. I don't get why they were changed to be more bullies. In the webtoon, Ilha seemed more like a class clown which is why he got into the fight that led to the studious Younghoon's death. But here, he's just a bully that is getting screentime without any sort of redemption so far. On the other hand, Bora was fine being a popular girl in the webtoon that redeemed herself by acting upon her sympathy for Aeseol.
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GenX Vibes
Invasions, Zombies, and World Disasters are all some of my favorite types stories. After watching the first six episodes, I'm getting some strong vibes/feelings that are similar to RED DAWN (1984). While the cast is fairly large, it's still very easy to find someone(s) that you know or went to school with.These first six episodes won't leave you feeling bored. It's the opposite - lots of drama, tense scenes and even some humor. The sixth episode leaves us with a large cliffhanger. 19 days until the next four episodes!
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This is the happiest you’ll be. -Kim WonBin
Brutal, right? That’s the world of Duty After School feels like when you are watching the everyday mundane moments and those especially packaged in an epilogue.Duty After School can be likened to any SHTF drama like All of Us are Dead or Sweet Home, but here, the 3rd year high school students and also the adult main characters are given the weight of responsibility for numerous people, not just your family and friends, which you’ll probably feel while watching. It has a couple of interesting characters and relationship dynamics that include friendship, competition and innocent love lines that makes their situation feel lighter.
The lines from the drama, not the web toon that I haven’t read yet, may sound too cliché especially when adults really want to impart ‘a lesson’ to the teens. It also felt like it is really adapted from a webtoon, because of some moments, especially in the first 3 episodes, wherein I do not feel as emotionally invested yet in the characters, but expected some despair to their outcome. There were also times that it tried too hard to give the viewers a laugh, when it is not the right atmosphere. It could have been the acting too, but as it went on, I (and probably the actors too) have warmed up to enjoy the camaraderie among the them. Having said that, there are a couple of promising rookie actors here too and I look forward seeing them in more dramas.
For the music, the first OST song played is kinda disorientating in the beginning but I think I’ll enjoy it better listening to it individually. Apart from that, I have nothing to complain.
I am not very keen in rewatching but will probably scan the last episodes before Part 2.
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