Black Out

Best Thriller of 2024 - Every Second of Every Episode is Exciting!

“Black Out” is one of the most captivating thrillers I’ve ever seen, in any language. With just 14 episodes, it kept me on the edge with its clever, suspenseful narrative, brilliant acting, and haunting background music. It’s definitely one of my top dramas for 2024! I always say "Life’s too short for bad, draggy dramas" but believe me this one will keep you hooked every second. This is definitely going in my Hall of Fame, and going to be my Top 10 Drama recommendations henceforth!

⦿ Story & Pace:
Clever writing and direction - making you watch every second of every episode with bated breath for the mystery to unfold. The pacing is just right - not too fast or slow, and we see every character, every situation analyzed well, so when all the pieces fall in together - the end result is logical, sad but satisfying. The narrative is of the present, with flashbacks from the past. This could be obvious from the drama title and summary - given this about a man who has no memories of the crime he may have committed, and therefore trying to put the pieces together.

⦿ Acting:
Sheer brilliance - from every character: the good characters will make you root for them and hope that they triumph, the bad ones will you want to slap them from the screen and the grey ones will make you pull your hair, be shocked at the revelation and sometimes sympathize with them & their situation (as you might have guessed some lines are blurred with those good/bad characters, and therefore is one of the reasons this is such a brilliant drama)

⦿ Special Mention:
(1) Byun Yo Han (ML) playing Go Jeong U: I had seen him only in Misaeng: Incomplete Life, a drama which is iconic in itself. There too he had owned the character even though it was a support role. In this drama, he depicts a man who has lost a lot in life, but is still not able to come in terms with what he has been accused of. The frustration he shows is with all around him as well as himself, because he cannot remember whether he is guilty or not. When you watch the drama - as an audience even we are perplexed, half the time making us think he is innocent, and sometimes giving us a doubt - which is something beautifully portrayed by this talented actor.

(2) Go Jun playing Detective Noh: Oh where do I even begin with this man? I think this actor has been rightfully nicknamed "Dirty Sexy" cause he literally embodies it. He is your typical brawny cop who lives by the books, but when he meets the ML and he observes, doubts creep in his mind - on whether justice was really handed, or are there more secrets that need to be uncovered. From acting as a tough cop, to be sarcastic to his seniors, to getting his way cleverly in order to get to the bottom of the mystery - he shows a diverse range, and along with the ML, their subtle bromance/camaraderie is really great. This is my first drama technically in a main role and I can't wait to binge his other works - for the looks and acting both! (I saw him in Misty last but that was a support role, but totally sexy ;)

⦿ Overall:
If you like such genres - I'd highly recommend this show. I never waste my time in a drama if it doesn't grab my attention in first 10 minutes, and drop it no matter what if it wastes even a single second. Since Life is Too Short to Waste on Bad/Draggy Dramas. Therefore, take my word - every second of this drama is worth your time - and be warned, you'll not be able to keep it down until you complete it.

⦿ P.S.: Why 9.5/10 for some aspects in MDL Rating?
In my ratings break-up - the music and rewatch value are not 10/10 only cause - honestly I was not focused on the music as the story was enticing. So after completing the drama I just know that it supported it well, landing it during the suspense/thrills and twists as needed from a background score for such a show.

The other aspect of rewatch - this is a personal opinion, I usually never go back to watch crime/mystery/thriller/suspense shows - cause I know how it all unfolds. And since I know the ending I will never rewatch it completely. But otherwise, I would definitely watch some of the best scenes from in between.

Therefore overall the drama is 10/10, but these are some minor aspects which can be overlooked, but I thought to add cause MDL ratings ask for it. And in case anyone wonders why some factors are less than 10 but overall the drama is a 10/10 score from me.

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I have nobody to speak to about this!

This is a 10/10 show through and through. The plot is well written, the acting is amazing, the pacing is impeccable, and the resolve is perfect. I was hooked from start to finish. It did not feel like it was dragging on at any point. The characters are so perfectly portrayed to the point where you feel actual anger seeing some of them on the screen. Although the show is very emotionally heavy from start to finish, the incorporation of lighthearted moments between the main character and the detective, as well as Ha Seol, gives the viewer a little bundle of hope they can hold on to till the end. This was an amazing watch from start to finish, and I would recommend this to anyone that values quality.

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Taking out the trash

This is a great mystery but almost every character made my blood boil.

The beginning is genuinely so sad. We see Joung Woo getting arrested, mentally tortured and blamed for two murders he very obviously didn't do. He suffers in prison, he suffers when he gets out of prison. Everyone hates him, everyone blames him. No one is on his side.

He gets almost murdered every episode and he is reckless and naive but I like that about his character. In the shitty town where everyone betrayed him and his family, he was holding onto hope that they are his friends. But with friends like that, who needs enemies?

The shitty characters ranked:

1. Fake detective friend - super shitty bastard. I can't explain how much he annoyed me. THE ENTITLEMENT, THE AUDACITY. WOW. He thinks he is the victim. He hasn't apologized even once to Joung Woo. I'm glad he is suffering and his life is falling apart but I wish we saw more. For example, his life in prison should be hell.

2. Chief's minion/lab rat - everytime he opened his mouth I wanted to slap him across face. He should be a fantasy novel writer, not a detective. He acted all righteous and mighty ignoring he put an innocent man behind bars. Also a coward.

3. Chief - this man never stopped and tried to reflect on his actions. He never apologized, he never admitted his mistakes. He just manipulated people and tried to save his own skin. He might say it's for his son's but it was never for them, only for himself. Absolute human garbage. He tried to die but he doesn't deserve that, he should suffer living with all the things he did.

4. Actress stalker - she is insane. Just because she couldn't have Jeong Woo in a romantic way, she decided to destroy his life. If he said he doesn't like her, he doesn't like her. That's it and she needed to accept it.

4. Father duo - they were the ones that killed the first girl but they tortured Jeong Woo and his family and pretended like they are the most righteous people in the world. The most important people. The best. Their son's are precious while someone else's son and daughter can die and go to prison. THE ENTITLEMENT with every word they say. The fact one father asked Jeong Woo to write the appeal letter. I couldn't believe what he was saying. Absolute trash.

5. Min Su/nurse - coward trash.

6. Doctor - a creep sleeping with minors. He can't yell at his rich, successful wife so he yells at every other woman that he thinks is below him.

7. Congresswoman/Doctor's wife - she is super fake.

8. BY mother - hypocrite. They are all hypocrites. When it's about them, it's one thing. When it's about someone else, it's another.

Decent characters:

1. Joung Woo - they set him up because he was loved, rich and successful. They were jealous.
It was super satisfying to see him get a not guilty verdict at the end.
A cutie pie.

2. The detective - awesome character. Very smart and cool.

3. Med intern/girl - nosy but cute.

4. Why did the wife beater turn out to be the only one to feel guilty, apologize and reflect on his actions?

5. Geon Oh - he was a coward, he came too late but he tried his best and he was the only person to show some remorse, guilt and to apologize sincerely.

6. Jeong Woo's parents - the fact they hid his car and believed in him till the end.

Best line: Why does everyone keep dying without saying anything?

The best scene in this drama is the ending of ep 3 where Jeong Woo finds the first girls corpse. It's so sad.

Overall, very interesting, very stressful, everyone sucks.

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Finest Mystery Thriller

Black Out: Snow White Must Die

This was one of the finest mystery thrillers i have watched this year. It started off with a bad impression due to its low production quality but the tightly woven mystery plot kept pulling me in more and more, to the point where i forgot about the cheap production. The story just kept getting better with each passing episode until the end.

The show also made my blood boil with its infuriating characters. What made it even more frustrating is how real they felt. They werent inherently evil like the typical psychopaths in crime thrillers, instead they were ordinary people trying to cover up one crime, only to commit more and more in an effort to save themselves.

Byun Yohan's acting was stupendous. He is an actor i usually dislike or at least he doesnt draw me to his projects but here his portrayal of a man falsely accused and unjustly punished for 10 years was outstanding. The way he conveyed the pain and suffering through his performance moved me all the way to the end. Even the supporting cast did so well that i wanted to jump into the screen and punch them.

The show started with a modest 2.8% rating and ended with 8.8%, which says a lot about how it grew on the audience. Like many others, i was initially disappointed but the script and story changed everyone's perception of the drama.

I loved this show and im really looking forward to the director's future projects. Hopefully, he gets a better budget for his upcoming work.

I would have given an extra 0.5 points if the production quality were better but i will still give a solid 9/10 to this excellent mystery thriller.

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Great Drama

If you look for a thriller/mystery drama ...this it is.
For me one of the best dramas until now of 2024. Beware although, a lot of frustrating characters, but as you go deeper into the intrigue you will see why all act like that, yet most are hypocrites.
The story revolves around a man who is falsely accused of murdering his girlfriend and a friend of his. After 10/11 years the truth slowly came out, helped by a detective which was transferred there.
Might find him annoying at first, but he his sharp and notices fast that things don't add up... as they investigate they create a nice friendship bond too.
To be honest the last two minutes made me teary. I think his real friend he had, beside si-oh, was his twin brother, but his father decisions made his life a living hell.
He could just ask back then, not assume things and things might take another direction,
Anyway.
Great acting from all, the plot was good (I liked more the drama than the novel- because here he didn't fall in love of his stalker to put like this and who knew all], ost was good too. The main characters actor delivered his emotions very good.

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Don't drink, kids

Started this purely on recommendation and was completely sucked in. The events of the story are a bit too crazy and coïncidental to be believed, but it's telling such a compelling case study about guilt, shame, and envy that I couldn't look away. I even guessed the main culprits and plot a few episodes in and still was not a minute bored. It's also not relying on psychopathy for once, showing that you can tell a very dark murder mystery without it (well, you can make a case about one of them but this character is not the murderer, interestingly). If I had to make on criticism it's that they don't let us doubt one second that our hero is 100% innocent, it's obvious from the start he was framed, and I wish that we did have a little more uncertainity about it, it would have make some characters' arcs much more compelling. Byun Yo Han and Go Jun were great, I liked that the show didn't try to make them super cops or soulmates or something, and let their partnership grow naturally. Extended cast was amazing, so good that I forgot they were acting.

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Black out - good premise questionable execution

To start things off this K-drama is by no means bad it just could’ve been so much better.

Firstly i loved everything up until the culprit(s) reveal. The fact that every one was guilty for the 2 girls murders was just ridiculous. It felt like the writers were just adding more and more people as culprits just for shock value. If the culprits were just the 2 boys ( min su and byeong mu ) as well as the Doc without bringing in literally the entire cast being accomplices to the 2 boys it would've been sooo much better.

Here’s what i feel like should’ve happened instead, Geon oh (the police chief son) Byeong mu, min su and Boyeong were drinking then they get into the fight etc after she dies. Goon oh tries to call his father but is stoped. Byeong mu, Minsu and Geonoh load Boyeong’s body in Jongwoo’s car and the events play out same way as they did for Minsu and Byeong mu’s fathers (they crash the car and hide the body in the abandoned school) Geonoh helps cuz the other 2 tell him that the police wont believe him if he were to snitch. Later Da run dies by the hands of the doc.

There was literally no reason for some of these characters to be involved in the crime, the biggest example of this is Na Gyeom they tried to make her this super evil mastermind and had her be involved in literally everything and the writers failed so bad with the execution of her character especially. Both the boys fathers also did not need to be there.

As for the Chief and how Jongwoo will be framed, what could’ve happened was shortly after the crime has happened and the investigation began Geon oh could have incoherently told his father privately. His father (the chief) wanting to do anything to protect his son covers up any evidence and ends up framing Jongwoo etc.

And by far the most ridiculous part of this all was the location of Da eun’s body. Her body had no reason being there. Im sorry but when that reveal i found it so ridiculous. One again merely there for shock value, the matter with her body could be easily handled by having the doc hide it/bury it somewhere with the help of his wife, and later it gets found when he ( the doc) gets caught.

That isn’t to say that i was bad, there were many things that i liked in it too. I absolutely adored Ha seol as a character as well as the Mc, Jongwoo, i also liked how Dong min (Boyeong’s father) character was done, i felt bad for him but i also hated his guts at the same time. I also loved Detective Noh and his character development especially with Jongwoo. Su-ho & Geon oh were also characters i ended up loving so much, cant say the same for their dad tho. Of course there are other things that i liked in this too but I’ll end it here.

Over all would I recommend this kdrama to someone? Probably
Solid 8/10

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Good Plot, Slow Paced, Solid Acting

I really really enjoyed the acting in this. I barely recognized Byun YoHan from Misaeng, because he plays such a different character and does so good at it. Ko Jun also did amazing per usual. And, a special shoutout to Lee GaSub for playing two different characters executed amazingly.

I enjoyed the plot very much, but things do drag some due to going overboard in foreshadowing. It was painfully obvious when a character was “suspicious” and it caused the reveals to be dull. I don’t know if it was intended to be obvious, but I personally enjoy some good shock value.

The congresswoman did not need that much screen time. Her husband is the one that committed the crime, and she just assisted in covering it up, yet she seemed to have more screen time than him. I honestly started skipping through her scenes because it was just a repetition of her using her status to control things being covered up.

I feel like they made JungWoo a little bit too chill for the fact that he just spent 10 years in prison for being falsely accused of murdering his best friend and girlfriend, and also the way people treated him knowing damn well they’re the ones that actually did it. Maybe I’m just temperamental, but I feel like most people would’ve crashed out way harder. Though, maybe he would have if he didn’t have Detective Na to keep him grounded and focused.

Speaking of Detective Na, I wish they would have shown us what happened with his wife.

All in all, it was a decent watch, but could have been 8-10 episodes and could’ve had more shock value. I probably won’t re-watch it, but I don’t regret giving it a watch.

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Good Enough

Korean Drama '' Black Out '' or '' Snow White Must Die '' is a crime mystery drama about a man's quest to find the truth.

The drama is thrilling from start to end, with many twists and many layers of the mystery that keep things interesting and fresh.

In addition, the characters were also interesting, though some of them were too much of stereotypes, especially the 'bad guys'.

Still, the puzzle was well crafted and the result unpredictable.

Finally, the performances were all great by all the actors and actresses of the cast.

So, overall, seven out of ten.

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A Solid Mystery Buried Under Bad Decisions and Dragging Pacing

This drama had potential but ultimately falls short. It’s predictable, drags on far too long, and is filled with characters who make one questionable decision after another. Almost everyone behaves like an asshole at some point, and a few moments border on outright unrealistic or just plain dumb.

What saves it from being a total miss is the cast, they do their best with what they’re given and manage to keep things somewhat engaging. The central mystery about what really happened is intriguing enough to hold your attention, but the story should’ve been shorter and sharper. It had the foundation for a solid thriller, but too much filler and poor writing weigh it down.

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Underrated and gripping

I watched Black Out in March and yet I can't stop thinking about it. It was my third thriller after Beyond Evil and Strangers from Hell and I believe that it's painfully underrated.

Black Out is based on the German novel "Snow White Must Die". I haven't read the novel therefore I don't know how accurate the series is. But that's irrelevant to me because the drama had me hooked from the very first episode.

Black Out is the type of slow-paced thriller I enjoy. It took it's time to introduce the audience to the story and the characters. When you thought you knew everything about them, the series would hit you with some revelations that would shatter what you knew until then. I was able to predict some of the plot twists but in some cases, I couldn't predict what would follow next. It was a nail-bitting experience, especially towards the climax.

The main character, Jeongwoo, won my heart. Byun Yo-han did a fantastic job at portraying him and in my humble opinion, his performance could have been nominated for some awards. At first, the series really made me flirt with the idea that he really was the culprit but I quickly abandoned my theory because Jeongwoo was far too kind of a person to do that. He is one of the most tragic characters I've seen in a kdrama series, he was basically abandoned by everyone and seeing him being mistreated really made my blood boil from anger (although I could excuse people's prejudice and fears).

The relationship between Jeongwoo and Sangcheol was one of the highlights for me. Definitely one of my most favourite bromances. They didn't get along due to Sangcheol's hatred towards Jeongwoo because he thought him as the culprit and yet their chemistry blossomed so much. Their interactions were so soft and reassuring and I loved every single scene between them.

Sangcheol himself was a very interesting character and Ko Jun did a fantastic job to bring him to life. He was grumpy, clever, sarcastic and yet he always made sure to do his job right and help Jeongwoo.

The rest of the casting did an equally magnificent job, everyone played so well. The series is full of great deliveries, there were moments which made me tear up or made me want to strangle some of the characters. Trust me when I tell you that this drama might frustrate you when it comes to some of the characters, I couldn't believe how some people could do the things they did to Jeongwoo and his family.

The relationships between the characters were well-explored and as the story went on, everything made sense and how some parts connected with each other. If I could point out a complaint of mine is the amount of times Jeongwoo and Sangcheol's plans were jeopardized and that sometimes, the plot dragged (but not to the point it made me want to drop out).

If you haven't watched the series, please give it a chance. I don't want to write more but I really hope I expressed my opinion as clear as I could.

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Imperfect but gripping.

So I just finished it. And I'm still kind of confused about what I feel exactly. There are a lot of things I disliked about this drama but a lot of things I loved as well. The sometimes convenient writing, some overdone tropes and plot holes are among the things I dislike. But the characters, relationships, OST, general story, lessons are those I like and are always what matter most to me in any work of fiction.

The first few episodes were pretty boring and frustrating to me but maybe because I wasn't in the right state of mind to watch then. When Geon Oh arrived is basically the moment I didn't want to stop watching anymore. Even when I wasn't convinced by the writing, I wanted to know. Things were starting to seriously move at this point and make me realize that the intense and complex personalities and relationships of all these characters made up for the sometimes sloppy writing - for me at least. Some twists I didn't except. Some were common, boring tropes. Some were common but interestingly done. Then the ending felt a bit rushed, especially episode 16. And the twist was... seriously absurd and badly written imo, with no explanation whatsoever. Really weird. So that was disappointing. There are also a lot of loose ends. But - what really mattered was resolved. And I think that's what makes its ending satisfying despite its many flaws.

I also absolutely loved the subtle friendship between the two male leads that slowly builds upon trust and suffering. Sang Cheol's character could have been deepened but he was a good guy anyway, loyal and honest from start to end and beyond.

Special mention for Sang Min, the father of Bo Young, that in all his imperfection and sins is actually a very powerful and interesting character.

Overall it's an extremely tragic, sad, bitter, sick but powerful story with fascinating characters, interesting relationships and a relatively satisfying ending despite a lot of unfinished businesses and sometimes too much plot convenience.

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