When the Phone Rings

Intriguing cliche ft. ridiculous plot at the end ?

This show came out of nowhere and took majority of us down the memory lane of swooning over wattpad romances.

I only want to talk about the MLs because honestly they are only whom I was fully invested in.... The main leads are typical: Seemingly cold, rich, and no-nonsense ML and a simple, softie FL. This is so wattpad-coded: Saeon showing redflag signs (thankfully he changed) and Heejo being a damsel in distress. I've seen a lot of this dynamic yet this one just hits different. Why? I believe that the actors played their roles so well and the show really tried to flesh out their characters, their personality.

Again, the usual trope of rich family, orphan, revenge, childhood connection... Nonetheless, the way the story unfolded was definitely gripping. The pacing of every episode was perfect - enough to feed my curiosity and enough to keep me wanting for more.

With all that, I really wanted to rate this higher but fell short all because of the last episode. The plot all throughout was pretty well-explained and the turn of events are fairly sensible except the last episode.
* Their relationship was already established. They expressed their feelings which made them stronger together. So, how can Saeon suddenly went MIA? They were opening up and trusting each other. A heartfelt conversation would've helped them.
* And out of all the places he could've gone to.....A warzone.....that Heejo went to....Argan.....also with the stereotypical color filter as soon as she stepped to that country...and they made love.....in a warzone...(will just pretend that that happened at their home, on Heejo's bed)
Yes, they followed the web novel but I wish they did not with that one. Yes, this is fictional but I wish a teeny bit of logic was still considered. I'm sorry but no matter how much someone will defend this plot, I will never change my mind that this is just straight up ridiculous, the worst.

I also want to list my nitpicks here.
1. When we first heard Heejo speak, when she was with the kidnapper, I wish she stuttered first. She was on a life-threatening situation + with someone who is dangerous + has selective mutism. I would've felt more if she struggled a bit with finding her voice and words then after few tries, had the courage to speak up. Also when she was on the police car. Similar case. I'd just imagine Saeon feeling and looking even more conflicted if he heard her struggle speaking first and then she screamed...
2. I honestly did not like how Saeon made Heejo go to the amusement park. (Lol just overthinking this) I mean Saeon was so protective and concerned with Heejo's rest after the cliff fall, and then he suddenly asked her to come out of the hospital alone on a cold night to go to the park??
3. Did the selective mutism trope just vanish? How did others take that she can actually speak? I wish they also included how Heejo able to overcome it, how she was gradually able to communicate with others and build confidence to voice out herself....


Overall, I greatly enjoyed this mainly because of their chemistry. I will never forget how intense the first few episodes were as much as I will never forget the crappy Argan plot.

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I thought this was gonna be part of my top dramas in 2024….

Summary: Happy ending, high on angst, cliche moments, not medically logical

My advice watch until ep 9 and just pretend the rest dont exist. For the first time I feel like I need to divide this review into 2 parts…

Review for first half:
I really clicked in without expecting much cause I just saw it one day on Netflix that a new drama has started. Initially I didn’t want to start it so early cause I prefer to binge watch it but that one clip from the first call made me give in.

I was actually so shocked by the plot and execution. Usually after a few episodes the intensity dies down and we start to predict what happens but wow for this one every call they made every dialogue they had was amazing. Eps 6 contained my most favorite calls. The execution was insane…

YYS and CSB initially I thought their chemistry will be a bit off but omg they are so good. Im so glad the role was given to them because I don’t think we would feel the same way if the acting was not executed to this level. However, I did feel CSB just looked much younger than him but I valued the chemistry and acting more so it was fine.

The second main leads were so cute as well. They tried to steer us away for one episode but the writers brought it back haha…

Review for second half:
Now with all this expectations set from the starting few episodes around ep 9 is where is started to go downhill…

The reveal of the “Teacher” aka mastermind behind all this was really very underwhelming…really barely any impact at all. I expected him to be a smart psychotic villain…in the end he was just fooled chasing after the wrong target all this while.

Now, the kidnapper always acted as if he was under the mastermind’s control. But suddenly once the mastermind was out of the story he became so ambitious and had so many plans to continue the revenge…

Ok all this I can close my eyes and just leave it to my imagination to develop but that ENDING literally what was that. It felt like all the effort put into the front few episodes were just wasted. I really hoped so much that it won’t be a lame ending where there is no justice served and they just kill off the villain…but that’s exactly what we got…another unsatisfactory ending for the villain…the last eps was just so bad it made no sense. Him disappearing okay I give it to him cause he needs to get a new identity. Why did he suddenly go rejoin the forces out of nowhere in a war zone state?? And why did the writers make HHJ go to that state alone in the middle of all the machine guns thinking she can just walk freely in the woods…like seriously I was just so disappointed!!

Basically towards the end that’s when it truly became a wattpad drama. Initially at the start it was still okay but the end really just purely for their romance with no sense in plot.

Really it was such a good opportunity for a clean closure but wasted….

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