The Frog

Snoozefest in the Forest, drinks on me!

I want to start this review in a positive note, so here are the things I liked about "The Frog":
1. Acting
2. Soundtrack
3. Imagery
Unfortunately not even the hard work of these mentioned parts was enough to save this trainwreck. In the end I caught myself wishing the crazy lady story didn't exist at all because at least the secondary story with the failed hotel business and the serial killer had some potential, especially with Park Chanyeol's surprising great performance. Would it be a revolutionary concept with a groundbreaking storyline? Probably not, but at least it would've made more sense and would be much less boring. Unlike the other reviewers, I didn't find the show confusing or graphic at all: it's pretty easy to follow, just badly written. It seems like the writers didn't spend any time on the characters of the main story at all they simply said "act unhinged" to Go Minsi and she gave them the performance of her life.
If they cared more about the characters' backstories and motivations I feel like it wouldn't be as bad as it was. As it is right now, it's just violence for the sake of violence and that can never be art.
ON A LIGHTER NOTE: god, i love the daughter and the detective

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A visually gorgeous drama that makes you work harder than a detective to figure out what's going on

Two storylines, zero correlation, and a cop who barely does her job—The Frog is a masterclass in how not to structure a thriller.

Disclaimer: This review is 100% my opinion — I’m not here to hate, just to share my thoughts! Also, SPOILERS AHEAD, so proceed with caution if you haven’t watched yet. Watch it, come back and let’s see if you agree. Let’s keep the discussion respectful and fun! 💕

The Good

A Mystery Wrapped in a Postcard
I was about to say there was nothing good about this show until I remembered how visually stunning it was. Yeong Ha’s rental home was tucked away in one of the most breathtaking locations I’ve seen in a drama yet. If scenery could carry a plot, this show would’ve been a masterpiece.


The Bad
When the Comment Section Becomes a Study Guide
I originally gave this show a 1.5/10 until I dove into the comments and realized other viewers had become full-time detectives trying to make sense of it all. And while I appreciate the effort… that’s exactly the problem. If random internet strangers can explain the story better than the show itself, something’s off.


Two Timelines, Zero Connection
My biggest issue? The two stories had no meaningful correlation. Aside from the shared presence of the police officer, they may as well have been happening in alternate universes. These weren’t parallel stories; they were just two separate cases loosely glued together by theme. Yeong Ha could’ve sold his property at any time (which he eventually did), had a wealthy daughter, and wasn’t exactly struggling. Sang Jun, on the other hand, poured everything into his motel and lost it all.
And may I remind you, Yeong Ha got his happy ending. Everyone lived, he became a grandfather, and got to sell his home for (most-likely) a lot of money. Sang Jun lost everything. His wife killed herself, his son became a killer and almost killed himself too, and for a cherry on top, he lost his mind and is now trapped in a time that no longer exists. The contrast is so big, it’s almost laughable.

The Proverb Stretch
And that brings us to the frog proverb. “A frog dies from a stone thrown inadvertently.” Which is a poetic way of saying: careless actions can cause unexpected harm. Except in The Frog, no one’s careless. Hyang Cheol knew exactly what he was doing. He was malicious, intentional, and had no regrets. And Seong A? Her actions weren’t accidental—they were extremely personal. If anyone caused damage by accident, it was Yeong Ha, and even then, he was more passive than careless. His suffering came from deliberate inaction, not from being blindsided. A better fit would be “The frog pays for the hand that chooses to strike.” or something more fitting.
*I do realise that the proverb does kind of work with Sang Jun. He innocently gave the killer a room and then the whole thing played out.*

Plot Convenience Was Doing Overtime
Apparently, the police in this drama were just there for decoration until the final act. Seong A literally rammed Yeong Ha’s car in the middle of the day, in front of a police station and somehow, she’s back home in the next scene, like nothing happened. And Bo Min? Queen of being suspicious at all the wrong times. She’s always circling the cabin when nothing’s happening, yet nowhere to be found when a cop is killed, a man is beaten nearly to death, and a girl gets choked out. How are you suspicious about the cabin for five episodes straight but miss all the actual crimes?

Then there’s Gi Ho and his magical rifle. In case it needs saying: owning a gun, especially a rifle, in South Korea is near impossible, let alone sneaking one around, practicing with it, and staging a public hospital assassination without being caught. But somehow, he pulls it off. He misses his shot (sigh), dashes through the hospital like he’s in an action movie, shoots the killer point-blank, and escapes through a window… completely unseen. No security footage. No witnesses. Not even a blurry hospital hallway clip.


The Man Who Dug His Own Grave (Then Complained About It)
Yeong Ha was his own worst enemy. Let’s be real, Seong A murdered a child and he just… cleaned it up? He stayed quiet and endangered everyone, treating Seong A like a minor inconvenience instead of what she actually was—a literal murderer. He didn’t act scared of her or the police. He just… wanted the whole thing to go away.
And the worst part? He gets a happy ending. After actively endangering everyone around him, wiping away evidence of a brutal child murder, and indirectly getting a cop killed, he ends the show laughing over dinner like he didn’t throw gasoline on the entire plot. Incredible.


Final Thoughts
This entire drama tried to sell me a frog proverb and then fed me plot holes, weak connections, and a cast of characters who either did too much or nothing at all. At some point, it stopped being a thriller and started feeling like a cautionary tale about what happens when your protagonist does literally nothing for a year straight.

The biggest issue? There was no meaningful connection between the two plotlines. When Yeong Ha finally met Gi Ho, it should’ve been the moment everything clicked… but instead, it barely registered as significant. If they’d made them the same person or given Sang Jun a real reason to intervene, some kind of déjà vu storyline, it would’ve elevated the entire show.

It felt like the writers trusted us to just “get it” without doing the work to guide us there. I kept waiting. For it all to tie together. For the chaos to converge into clarity. Instead, I got beautifully shot confusion and a finale that said, “We good?” when all I had was more questions. So yes, it looked great. But no amount of cinematic sunsets can hide a plot that forgot to finish the puzzle. Sometimes a story needs to show you the frog instead of just telling you that it jumped.

~~~

What were your thoughts? Were you on team “We love a metaphor moment” or “what the heck is going on?”

This isn’t even everything loll! I even went into detail on what I would do instead if anyone’s interested 💕

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save the best for the last

decided to speedrun the last four episodes because, honestly, the first half of the series left me cold. The pacing was painfully slow, the plot dragged on with barely any tension, and the constant timeline switches made it even more confusing. By episode six, there was still no real progress—just more and more unnecessary subplots that added clutter instead of depth.

Thankfully, the final two episodes turned things around. What started out as a moody psychological thriller finally leaned into a full-blown thriller. The tone shifted from brooding and cryptic to intense and violent. Go Min Si’s character spiraled into full chaos mode—unhinged, destructive, unpredictable. No one was safe from her wrath, and it all culminated in a pretty bloody climax that actually made sitting through the earlier episodes feel (somewhat) worth it.

To be completely honest, Go Min Si was the sole reason I stuck with this show. The moment I saw her screaming “Ahjussiiiiii!” in the trailer, I knew I had to watch it. Her performance was magnetic. She carried the series, starting off as mysterious and manipulative, and gradually unraveling into something feral, unhinged and terrifying. She absolutely stole every scene she was in.

Another thing that stood out was the shooting location. The lush, idyllic countryside surrounding the guesthouse was majestic. There was a strange beauty in watching such disturbing events unfold in such a peaceful, picturesque setting. It almost became its own character—calm on the surface, but hiding something sinister underneath.

Overall, The Frog was an underwhelming watch for me. It had potential, but poor pacing, over-complicated storytelling, and a scattered structure held it back. It could’ve been a much tighter and more compelling series if it had stuck to a single timeline, even if that meant reducing the number of episodes.

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A surprising and impressive story

"The Frog" it's a drama that follows two different timelines, which sometimes got a little confusing, but when you understands the development, it's really impressive.
Yeong Ha runs a guest house and Seong Ah comes one day to stay with her "son". The twist in here it's that Yeong Ha understands that Seong Ah killed the boy in the house, but doesn't say anything because he's afraid of the rumors and not being to rent the house again.
This is connected with Sang Jun's story. He had a motel and a serial killer killed someone in there and it became famous, but not in a good way, changing Sang Jun's life forever.

The story is intriguing, smart and the development is amazing, you stay stuck from the beginning to the end. The acting is spectacular, specially Kim Yoon Seok and Go Min Si <3
Chan Yeol really surprised me as an actor, I have seen him in "Missing 9", but I couldn't really see him as an actor, only as an idol, but after this role, it's impossible not to.

Seong Ah is awesome, I still can't forget her crazy eyes and even that I know that she's a psychopath, my dark side just fell in love with her. HAHAHA'
She's a very interesting character, the way that she doesn't feel guilty for what she's done. It was very unfortunate for Yeong Ha to have her in his guest house.

The drama's ending is very satisfying, because the bad guys got they deserved and the people involved finally had peace.
"If a tree falls in a forest, and no one is around to hear it... does it make a sound? or is there nothing but silence?" <3

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GREAT DRAMA

i took my time watching this drama even tho all the episodes came out at the same time and id say that’s the best way to watch this one, u really have to take in a lot of the plot and doing it all at the same time might be too overwhelming so then the drama wont be so good for u iykyim. i personally loved it so so much, i loved the story i loved how the two time lines were connected with each other and most importantly i love how well written all the characters are, omg i was just amazed, i dont know what it was but all the characters felt so so well written i don’t know how to describe it. in my opinion the plot is actually deep and you have to pay attention to understand it which by the comments i can see that not a lot of people did. the pace was fine, it was a bit slow sometimes but that was the best fit for the drama, i know the villain got the easy way out but thats a good enough ending for me as long as the victims that managed to survive got their happy ending, thank god the history didn’t repeat itself cuz that would be just too sad and unfair.i think my favorite character was giho, his parents suffered too but i think the child always has it worse because he was so little and had his life ruined so early he was literally traumatized but still managed to kill that mf, i was so so proud of him at that scene, the ending of that mf(dk his name) was the beginning of giho’s life and i hope he lives the best life possible. yoon seoha’s fighting scene was so good to, all the cameos were 10/10

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Will you be able to get out of a forest by yourself?

An artistic noir-thriller for those who can see beyond what they are shown.
This was absolute great. I was so impressed by how seamlessly they showed the two storylines parallely. I saw saw many people commenting its slow, BUT, this kind of pacing is nature in a noir-thriller film. Its frustrating to watch Yeong Ha slowly losing his shit because of Yeong A. But thats the point. The story painstakingly make you experience the turmoil that he goes through and eventually decides to let the hell break loose.

Its actually good writing. The character Seong A was so great. As in I really wanted to smack the hell out of her towards the end. The character of Seong A is a crazy psycho with a powerful backing until her father decided he cannot take anymore of this monster. So many people cannot fully take in the character because they might be looking for a reason behind the craziness. No. There's no necessity for a reason behind someone's craziness or psycho behaviour. And that's what makes them dangerous. They are unhinged, unreasonable and can burst anytime. Seong A was such a mental character and Go Min Si portrayed it with all the madness it required.

There was a time when I did felt the story lacking. The disconnect between the past and the present after Gi Ho killed the serial killer and met with Yeong Ha. But I am glad they finally drew the circle towards the end.

Another aspect that troubled me at first but then I made my peace around it was Yoon Bo Min's character. Like initially I felt why is she just watching without proactively taking any action. But then I remembered the convo young Bo Min had with her senior. That convo gave the glimpse that her character was never the one to 'look' or focus on solving a crime. Rather, she was an observer, to whom all this was a game or puzzle which would fall into place once she decides. Of course her role as a police officer refined her throughout the years. In the present timeline, she knew somewhere something was amiss. She looked around for the missing pieces and did not get into the playground untill she got hold of most of the pieces that she needed to complete the picture. And when she did she made sure to get it right. This I believe is a great detailing to the character.

Another thing that makes me point out the brilliance is the Killer's cap that Yeong Ha kept at his house. The killer gave it to Ki Ho when he found him on stairs. Ki Ho made sure that he wore the same cap to kill the one who destroyed his life. Later Yeong Ha wore the cap when he made his resolve to get rid of Seong A. I feel like him keeping the cap was an indication that he won't be the same Yeong Ha who decided to turn a blind eye but instead would do anything to protect his people.

One more thing was the story of Ki Ho's family. How something so usual in their life would turn out to be a disaster that ruined their whole family. To be honest, that was an angle to murder stories that I haven't seen before. Like yes, victim's story, the culprit's story, a brief mention of the trauma of the witness, but I honestly never thought about what would happen to the other stakeholders of the event - like Ki Ho's family, who happened to be the owners of the motel where the body was found and the culprit was caught.

What I am trying to say here is if one decides to read a little more deeper into cinema, its direction, you would see so many underlying stories that make the whole stories so much better.

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고민시 is great but this drama is uninteresting

Reason for watching: I love 고민시 and she was nominated alongside some big leagues in the 벡상 awards. She was impressive throughout but not exactly the main character. I realised the "twist" regarding the 2 storylines occuring in different time periods in episode 2 and it was a nice surprise but I didnt find it that interesting as the later episodes unfolded. There are psychopathic characters portrayed in many many dramas but 고민시 was able to portray the character without making it a caricuture (rare!). I guess the theme of the series is how an evil person can upturn the lives of normal people and turn them into tragedies. But I wasnt interested in the ways they explored it:
- The father's kindness invited evil into their lives, the vacation home
- The old guy covering up a serial killer's tracks invited her back. In the end, the son took his revenge by succeeding in his revenge plot and the old guy, inspired(?) enlightened (?) by him decides to fight back against the serial killer.

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Muito bem, maratonei The Frog! O enredo é muito intrigante e entrelaça duas histórias separadas no tempo em 20 anos, mas com um elemento em comum: uma hospedagem que acaba se tornando cenário de um assassinato brutal e as consequências que isso acarreta para os proprietários.

Incialmente fiquei totalmente chocada com a atitude do proprietário no caso que se passa no presente, porém conforme vamos conhecendo o que aconteceu no hotel do passado, comecei a entender (embora não concorde) porque Yeong Ha omitiu suas suspeitas.

Também achei bem interessante a crítica a espetacularização desse casos de assassinatos brutais por parte da mídia e da população que torna famosos esses assassinos cruéis dando espaço para eles falem sua história, enquanto as vítimas são esquecidas. E achei a vingança do filho do proprietário do hotel bem inteligente, não pela parte da violência, mas por destruir as memórias do assassino. Impedir que a autobiografia dele fosse publicada foi uma interrupção desse ciclo da espetacularização dos monstros.

Quanto a atuação dos atores, Go Min Si mostrou mais uma vez porque é uma das minhas atrizes coreanas favoritas, entregou insanidade e o arquétipo de femme fatale como poucas. Arrasou muito!

Enfim, gostei bastante do drama, da vibe de suspense, a fotografia impecável, a trilha sonora. Tudo digno de telona. Recomendo muito para os amantes do gênero suspense.

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