Twelve

So Bad its almost good

As a huge Don Lee (Ma Dong-seok) fan, I’ve loved or at least really liked almost everything he’s done. The synopsis for Twelve—12 zodiac angels fighting demons, epic battles, supernatural action—sounded like a total slam dunk. I went in with high hopes for something fun, action-packed, and heroic.
Through the first 6 episodes, this was one of the biggest disappointments I’ve ever watched. It takes until halfway through episode 6 for anything remotely interesting or action-oriented to happen—in an 8-episode season! The protagonists don’t even get their full powers until then, so for the first 5.5 episodes, they’re just getting beaten down by demons with zero real pushback. The pacing is glacial—scenes linger forever on nothing, world-building meanders without momentum, and by episode 4 I was checking out mentally. I slogged through 5 and the start of 6 just hoping for payoff.
The flashbacks are the worst part—they’re overused, thrown in mid-scene, and grind everything to a halt. They add almost nothing meaningful and kill the flow. Backstory dumps that should’ve been front-loaded (especially the big reveals in episode 7) feel like writing malpractice. Why wait so long?
The cast tries their best with the weak material, and most do okay (the ensemble has chemistry in spots), but Don Lee… this hurts to say as a fan, but he looks way out of shape for the role (Tae-san, the tiger leader) and seems completely checked out. His performance feels flat and uninspired. There’s even an embarrassing wig worn by Marok in the flashbacks—long white hair that looks ridiculously silly and takes you right out of it.
The last two episodes are better—decent action, some payoff, and at least stuff happens. If the whole show had that energy, it could’ve been mediocre. But it’s too little, too late. It ends on a cliffhanger, but honestly, after this slog, I doubt many will care about a season 2.
This had massive potential with the cast and premise, but poor writing, editing, pacing, and execution turned it into a huge mess. Recommend skippinhg unless you want to watch it for how bad it is and get some unintended laughs.

Read More

Another drama with high potential but poor execution.

One piece of advice: don’t approach Twelve with high expectations. If you watch it without much anticipation, you might find some potential for something better.

Unfortunately, I didn’t follow that advice. Yes, I had high expectations – not because of the hype before its release, nor because of the cast (though the actors were good), but solely because of the plot. The concept sounded fascinating: twelve zodiac angels fighting against evil spirits. The angels won, sealed the spirits away, but years later evil awakens again, and the angels must face another epic battle.

The drama has only 8 episodes, but the first 6 are a drawn-out introduction where almost nothing happens. The action is crammed into the last 2 episodes, leaving a rushed feeling – especially during the final battle.

The angels, who are left without any superpowers, spend six episodes running around aimlessly and causing more damage than they fix. You wait.. and wait.. and wait for the story to start.. and keep waiting.

I didn't even see the point of the love story between O Gwi and Mi Reu, who by the way got about 20 minutes of screen time.

The story was well-conceived but poorly presented. There should have been more episodes for the story to develop properly.

- Strengths: an interesting concept and, to some extent, the open ending that sparks curiosity for a possible continuation.
- Weaknesses: uneven pacing, underdeveloped characters, and a format too short for such a grand idea.

Despite my disappointment, the open ending intrigued me, so I’m curious to see how the story might unfold if they decide to make a sequel.

Read More

Way too short

I never thought I say a kdrama was too short. They do have a tendency to needlessly drag but this was pulled at a sprint that got confusing, and really really needed fleshing out.
The idea was great, the cast was enticing, the action and fight scenes in the first episode were good.
Up to episode 5 the back story was hopeful and the present time seemed like it would develop nicely. However, I had to look up who half the characters represented, I didn’t understand why they had the powers they had, and the back story was patchy.
Episode 5 then really confused me, after the credits the girls are camping, we’re told that the boys are in another country. Mirr has a vision of them all injured, the title page comes on and suddenly they’re all mid fight!!!! Some at their headquarters, some in the market. And from then on it was rushed and anticlimactic.

They went on about the awesome dragon power of Mirr, the antagonist wanted her power to be all powerful, yet she did nothing. She was like a simping, feeble lead in a bad melodrama. Her supposed power was never ever apparent.

The other angels were not utilised enough and Ogwi was an almost entirely pointless character.
It had so much potential; an episode dedicated to each angel would have been amazing, a closer look at their relationships with each other, including the dead ones, having it be a procedural ‘catch the baddies’ type show for the first half and then - characters cemented, relationships established, back stories explained - the demons return and they get their powers back to fight them again. But no…

And the dead ones coming back to them would have been more poignant had these things been shown and developed. But it was just meh…no peril because I didn’t really care. And the others coming back didn’t make sense nor was it moving.
The whole thing was quite disjointed - especially episode 5.

Just could have been so much better.

Read More

Disappointing

October 2025
I felt that most of the cast totally carried the story, to be honest.

There were some great moments, but overall I honestly found it pretty lacklustre.
How it missed the mark, I just don't know.

Possibly there were too few episodes in which to fit what was set up to be an epic story, so it became messy and lacked depth.

For 2 characters in particular, I expected to feel more, but couldn't. My emotions were never stirred to tears, unlike in some dramas, and yet I believe they were supposed to be.
I felt no attachment to any of the characters, really. At times I even felt the actors were simply going through their paces.

My least favourite character was Mi Reu, but I'm not sure whether was because she was played like a wet fish by Lee Joo Bin ~ zero believable emotions and no chemistry with PHS at all, which I never thought would be possible!

It's still worth a look for the cast, and as said, there were some great moments, but sadly not nearly enough.

Many of the wigs were AWFUL, too!!! I could not get passed that at all 🙄

Read More

WTF? I'm so sad about this

The entire cast is wonderful, with top-notch characters, which would indicate a truly excellent drama. It also features fantasy themes, which I love in Korean dramas. Considering all this, I honestly don't know what happened. It's as if these eight episodes were ripped out of the middle of the drama. The romantic element was completely destroyed. It's supposed to be clear what this series is about, but it still feels empty. I can't understand the concept of this production. Besides the Marvel-style special effects, this drama didn't bring anything to the table. I wonder how such well-known names agreed to star in this production. The concept is really good; if the story were told differently, it would be one of the best fantasy dramas. Overall, the rating is still overstated because of the wonderful Park Hyung Sik.

Read More

hello

To be honest, they could add more to the story. The acting is good, but each character has little value. I feel like all the supporting characters look the same, and the villain is only revealed after two episodes. The villain has no real impact—just dialogue, no good fights, no backstory. For me, it feels average. There are lots of doubts—why, for what, when, and where. In episode 6, the angel group appears, but since the total is only 8 episodes, it feels rushed. Even though the villain didn’t get any power, defeating them makes no sense because they have no strength or purpose.

Read More

This is my opinion.

I honestly don’t understand why so many people hate this drama.
If you want spectacular CGI, acting, plot, costumes, whatever — then go make it yourself. This drama is NOT bad. You just don’t match with the genre, the actors, or the style of storytelling. That’s on you, not on the people who worked hard on it.

You have no idea how much time, effort, and energy the team spent on this project. And expecting Season 1 to be “perfect” right away? That’s not how storytelling works. Also, watching it in 2x speed (or even saying you’d choose 4x if possible) — seriously? If you don’t like it from the beginning and you keep skipping scenes, then just stop watching. Don’t pretend you know the details of the story when you didn’t even watch it properly.

I genuinely hope this drama gets a Season 2.
Fantasy isn’t meant to follow the rules of mystery, thriller, or detective genres. Fantasy = imagination. And imagination is limitless.

About the makeup and costumes — hello? This is not a fashion show. Not everything needs to be “perfect” in your definition. Maybe the styling was kept simple so the actors could move comfortably and perform the action scenes without being weighed down by heavy outfits. And if you want characters who always look flawlessly beautiful or handsome, go read a manga or manhwa. They’ll match your expectations better.

Many dramas out there have worse writing, boring pacing, or bad acting. But they air anyway — because not everything needs to please everyone. So stop acting like you’re the producer, the editor, the screenwriter, the cameraman, or even the sponsor. You’re not.

Read More

Truly Disappointing

So long long long ago, twelve angels in the form of zodiacs were sent down to Earth to fight off evil. They managed to seal the evil spirits out but not with heavy price and casualty. Lost 4 of their comrades in the battle and they lost their powers as it was used to seal the evil. Somehow their God forgot to recall them, and they were stranded on earth in human form. After thousands of years, Taesan the leader has grown a deep hatred towards humanity due to incidents where humans had attacked them for being different. In the current modern world, this group of 8 fallen angels resorted to becoming loan sharks for criminals and they led a very wealthy and comfortable life until a human shaman from their past revived Ogwi, one of the evil spirits that was sealed thousands of years ago. The angels were forced to take action once again.

Y’know, this totally gives off The Eternals vibe, especially when Taesan mentioned the name Gilgamesh at some point of the show, which was his character in The Eternals. Sadly though, it eventually fell short and became the Asian flop version. And TBH, I decided to watch this solely for Ma Dong Seok, i mean he’s my favourite korean actor since I saw him in Train to Busan. I have watched soooooo many of his kdrama and kmovie, but sadly to say I had to admit this is his worst project that I ever watched, so bad that I couldnt even force myself to finish.

Coming from many of Ma Dongseok’s excellent action movies and dramas, I bet I was not alone in setting my bars high. But This show is not as impressive as I expected. Most fight scenes were in a too dark setting, even as i put my phone’s brightness to the max while sitting in a dark room. It has ‘batman’ish vibe where you cant make out squat due to everything being done in the dark. Especially those fighting. Urghhhh. This reminds me a lot of kdrama The Tyrant where I couldnt make out 80% of the show due to darkness.

As for the characters and fight scenes, well, theyre not too impressive either. I dont get why would the zodiac angels just stand around doing nothing when one of them (a human at that!) got attacked by the evil spirit? Are they really supposed to be the thousand-year-old angels that supposed to have beaten all evil spirits once upon a time? Cuz to me they looked like incompetent clueless fools who had just encountered evil spirits for the first time. So I get that they lost their superpowers, but come on, you should at least be able to fight decently better than other humans. I mean, you got thousands of years of experience so the skill should at least be superior and not disappointingly lame and easily subdued.

And I was surprised how messed up must a society be to be able to make a drama scene where onlookers would just look and point to a downed elderly man who had just been attacked instead of helping him up, checking for injuries and calling an ambulance or police for him. Like really? When that scene came on i thought the old man was dead. But then there he was stuttering to talk to Taesan. So he’s alive and even conscious! Is this really the reality in Korea? So scary.

Anyway, I quit this drama as I couldnt stand the dark setting. Honestly if it had only been a badly written story, I wouldve still made myself to see the ending, but when all I saw is darkness during fights, thats it. There goes my patience. Sorry Joe, you made a wrong choice with this one.

Read More

Stacked Cast But Flopped Hard

The show is only eight episodes long, yet halfway through, almost nothing meaningful has happened. It is frustrating to see such a stacked cast wasted on a story that fails to take advantage of their talent. The premise itself is interesting, but the execution falls apart almost immediately. What makes it even more baffling is that this is a Disney Plus series with several well known actors, yet the production feels as if the budget was exhausted within the first few episodes. The result is a project that looks and feels far below the level one would expect given the platform and the people involved.

Read More

Very Hollywood overall

This drama has the usual excellent cast & production values I expect in KDramas - the directing is a bit jerky. The OST is fine. Biggest problem is the writing. The storyline is all over the place, so hard to follow - I spent a good part of the fighting scenes trying to determine which zodiac sign each 'angel' actually was, so that kept me interested LOL Those fighting scenes were not really very interesting to me either. The back story also kept me watching, especially the love story - that at least felt like a KDrama plotline!
Overall, this felt like so many American superhero or urban fantasy shows - mainly excuses to have fights that tweens think are awesome but which didn't really resolve much of anything & where fighting abilities really wavered among all contestants.
Then the ending - ie the NON-ENDING! That was SO Hollywood :( If you watch this, turn off the TV before the last 5 minutes. You at least will get a decent conclusion.
Now, the really vitriolic hate for this drama baffles me. It's absolutely not anywhere near the worst KDrama I've seen - it's not as bad as Bride of the Water God (which was very flawed, but highly amusing), let alone some of the real messes like Missing Nine, or Oh, My Ladylord. It's entertaining, well-acted, with good production and decent music.
I think it's a case of people thought it would be a lot better, so are really dumping on it because of disappointment.

Read More

what the heck?!

I watch dramas to take me away from the real world and my problems. I love watching my dramas and being taken away to another world.

Nothing against the lead actor, but what?! They cast an old, overweight man as the ML?!? I just could not believe it. If I wanted to watch an overweight old man, I could do that in real life!

When I saw Seo In Guk and Park Hyung Sik were in this, I got excited. I love them both. Great actors and I loved their previous dramas. Very much so!

Despite the ML, I decided to give this a shot. I could not even make it past episode one. It’s like a mess! What the heck is going on?!

Then I decided to read reviews and saw others with similar opinions as myself, and decided to drop it all together. How disappointing. don’t even waste your time!!!

Read More