Don't trust ratings.
All I have to say is don't trust ratings on this website because if you do you'll never find absolute gems like this show. I never knew Korean shows were capable of getting this dark but this has to be my favourite killer drama I've watched so far. If you like dark, graphic violence and a serial killer ML with an equally as psychopathic FL to match each others freak with a dash of "what the fuck is going on?" on the side, this is your show. That's all I can say without spoiling. <3 The soundtrack and acting was absolutely phenomenal as well, this is definitely one of those dramas where I'll be struggling to find something to fill the void for a while.Was this review helpful to you?
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Love it or hate it
I'll start off by saying I really like this drama, especially with how they used the soundtracks. I'm also a fan of the psychopath/serial killer genre and I like how the "cat and mouse" portions were executed. I just felt letdown by the pacing issues that resulted in some early episodes being a bit of a drag and the last episode a rush to tie up loose ends. Some of the writing wasn't great too, with characters (looking at you, Gi-Eun) making the world's dumbest decisions and putting themselves in harm's way repeatedly. Mok-Won's character also felt really random and underutilized, with the show taking pains to carefully carve out her backstory as a shaman, show her meeting girls in the club etc etc and all that just for her to basically not have an impact on the conclusion at all. Instead, I wished they would have tried to flesh out Fingers and Samantha more, as they had close to 0 screentime yet had a serious part to play in affecting the ending.The acting was amazing, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that the female leads are actually rookies. Kim Young Kwang was also excellent and he really embodied the character perfectly. The cinematography was next level and I really liked the arthouse vibe of it. Too often Kdramas devolve into the cliche "slow-mo" while staring at each other type scenes with the cheesy OSTs blaring in the background and I would say this drama stands out among the rest with its cinematography. The creative use of the soundtrack was also fantastic and I'm so glad to be introduced to Schumann's Vogel Als Prophet lol.
This is an extremely polarizing show and you will either love it or hate it. I can see why many have dropped it - plot that meanders aimlessly in the beginning, characters making horribly stupid decisions, excessive sex/nudity scenes, but I would still encourage thriller fans to give this a chance.
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...They confused the Socio vs Psycho traits
Sorry NOT Sorry but Somebody was dumb af, frustrating and uncomfortable and I'm gonna tell you why:1. I blame all this on the writing. The actors and actresses did the work and their job, they did it well but the writing is shoddy, confusing and was not thoroughly researched
2. It's either you're a sociopath or psychopath - you can't be both
3. Both traits are incapable of love or liking or holding a relationship or implying a relationship. It's distorted and not really love/like
4. They implied the police officer was more interested in d!k and not protecting herself and the situation around her by doing the most of nothing and nearly getting herself killed multiple times
5. He has been in these women faces time and time again and have not done anything - again it's either you're a sociopath or a psychopath you cannot be both
6. Nature vs Nurture hence Sociopaths are made and psychopaths are born And I was hella confused by this during the conversation he had with the little boy and the maze
7. They have confused mental illness with autism- she's autistic; on the asberger spectrum
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FAV DRAMA OF 2022
I have been seeing the picture of the drama on Netflix for a while and then one day, decided to give it a try. I wasn't expecting anything when watching the first episode but then I got really intrigued as the episodes passed by. the ML appeared and then I KNEW I would love the drama. I am fond of psychopath / sociopath ML or concept of stalking / obssession (Just as the american serie "YOU").I absolutely was amazed by the acting of the two protagonists, less by the female police officer. I thought it was really new to see explicit scenes in a Kdrama. I got very much bored of the amount of sex scenes to be honest. I can tell that this drama is not for everyone. I saw in the comments that a lot of people were triggered already by the "cat scene" in the beginning which I understand. I think it's really worth watching the drama even if you do have to skip some scenes for the most sensitives ones.
I loved how raw and real the acting and the atmosphere was. Really had a "Art et essai" vibe and the soundtracks were so great ! I'm looking forward the actress who played Kim Sum (FL) on other dramas. Same for Kim Young-Kwang (ML) who is, in my opinion, one of the best actor playing as an evil protagonist I've seen until here. I didn't know him until "Somebody" so, seeing him acting in "The Secret Life Of My Secretary" was weird to me.
To sum up, the best drama I've watched this year for the realness and darkness of the drama.
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Definitely something else
This for sure was an odd one. It started interesting and that is why I even continued; the whole AI/Someone theme was pretty nice but it went just downhill with hella weird ending.Story
Story was fine, but storytelling? Or rather lack of it? Not so much. Plot depended on illogical decision made by characters is a bad storytelling. So many tropes that were abandoned and never explored and to be honest unlike other series, I am not even disappointed by this since they were pretty unimpressive. I am mainly talking about things like Gi-eun and Seom relationship, what was even their problem? It was mentioned briefly and resolved in one scene after like the shortest dialogue ever or Yuno being abandoned by his mother (it was mentioned once and never brought up again). Some dialogues were very vague. Also, whole police theme was just waste of time and brought nothing to the table. Overall, it just felt pretty flat but pacing was good (with rather abrupt ending).
Characters
The biggest fault I have with this series are totally unrelatedeble characters and their decisions. But the worst character was probably Gi-eun. She did not bring anything to the table and her decisions were the worst. Yuno was also not it, just your typical psycho. Seom was just weird and annoying at some point in the story. The only interesting character was the Shaman and only her actions were logical. Oh, yeah there was also Samantha, her role probably should have ended with being in the company, because there was almost nothing coming out of her involvement.
Acting/Cast
What saves this series is definitely acting. I think cast did great job in trying to capture that odd, eerie vibe and this is what distinguishes it from the others.
Still even great acting cannot save so-so story and badly written characters. Music was fine, I guess but nothing out of this planet. I would rate it 6. I probably only finished this because it was quite short. There is nothing making me to want go back to it. I would only recommend if you are looking for something different than your average Netflix K-drama.
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A waste of your time
turn around, don't ever look back, the writer might be on crack, story dumb weird af, i know it is fictional, but a lot of the stuff you thought supposed to occur in real life following some of their actions, like police and normal civilian responses to things and no logic, no common sense situations. Watched with a group and everyone agreed that NONE of the characters are likeable and horribly written. Was this the intention of the writer? Who knows. But a bad way to write character plots, it's a Netflix series too, but it felt so minimal budget and quality, I have watched more than 50 K-series by now and this is by far the worst. If anyone claiming that this show is awesome, it's abstract, it requires deep understanding, go, continue to stay in your defensive corner and talk for this trash of a series.Was this review helpful to you?
Great Momentum...Poetic Ending
I utterly respect the acting, production value, and behind-the-scenes work that made this series possible. I would have to say that starting with the first episode, I was enthralled by this show. Up to Episode 5, the momentum was really great, but Episodes 6-7 were a bit rough pacing-wise. With Episode 8, I was a bit puzzled by the developments, but it was poetic in the end. All I have to say is that our main character Kim Sum takes the initiative, which makes for a sort of anti-climactic ending. It wasn't a battle and glory type of ending, but it fits right with the theme of this show. It resembles real life, with people that have strange personalities, troubled pasts, and capabilities to perform acts that strain the boundaries of nuance. It seems she's accepted that and closed the storybook on her own accord, poetically ending what was started at the beginning of the show. This may sound like sophistry, but for those that watched the show, this is the best way for me to express my feelings about the show without giving away any specific details. For those that are hesitating, it's a tough watch, but I found it compelling in the end.Was this review helpful to you?
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Interesting plot but lost potential
I decided to give this show a try simply because of the plot description, although the pacing was quite slow for my liking, I decided to give it a chance. But unfortunately, I lost interest fast. The plot started to stray away from the original idea that was provided. The idea of the shaman was quite random and had no influence on the story, nor did the random sex scenes, or the person who only showed their hands on video call.Even though the show is about a serial killer, there weren't many killings. I wish we had more insight into his background and possibly more interactions between him and the MC. They are supposed to be each other's love interests, but there weren't many interactions to account for that, so it just seemed unusual.
The three friends were supposed to band together to find the serial killer, and although they did (sort of) it was really underwhelming in terms of how they went about it. The ending doesn't make it any better either.
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So much potential but meh
As many others I was super excited after watching the teaser but,,,First 2 episodes were really interesting, good pacing and everything but it went downhill so fast.
Overall the pacing was very odd - some parts were brushed over way too quickly and others were unneccessarly slow. I found myself doing other things every now and then cause it was pretty boring at times.
I would have loved to get more backstory for most of the characters - I watched 8 episodes of this and know literally nothing about the male lead. The cop was annoying as hell cause none of her actions made sense; the shaman was kinda random but could have been super interesting with some more background infos. The lovestory was also kinda annoying imo cause it felt like it was just brushed over and from one moment to the next they were basically obsessed with each other?
Acting was great! Music and cinematography were good as well.
The teaser was the best thing about this drama tbh.
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Asperger's Ignorance
The whole team that worked on this show should be ashamed.They had the FL constantly lying, manipulating, enjoying killing - all contradictions.
Her killing the cat was way out of place and again, a complete contradiction.
Killing the man in self defense I could see - the 'euphoria in her heart' afterward, no.
And then the gruesome way she sliced the ML up at the end .. really?
Individuals with ASD have an increased risk of being the victim rather than the perpetrator of violence.
It's almost like they've never met or interacted with anyone who has this.
The app that was initially introduced in episode 1 was not the appt the show was based on.
The app presented at first seemed like an awesome way for non social people to be more social in chat.
The finished product was nothing more than a cheap knock off of Tinder - swipe left or right for a booty call.
The wheelchair bound detective was one of the most foolish characters ever written.
I was hoping she would get trapped in rubble the second time she rolled somewhere deserted alone. to meet up with the ML
And what was with the comments she kept making about him being a eunuch?
They clearly had sex, he was carrying her for most of it.
That was so off putting too - the whole scenario was not normal.
She (detective) shows up to go 'swim' in an isolated area and there's an empty pool.
ML is clearly not wheelchair bound yet she stays and even lets him remove her from the chair.
Then she is so overcome with passion she wants him t 'eat her'.
None of it made sense - none.
The gang rape set up was ludicrous.
The fact that this man kept going around screwing and killing without any sort of police work being done was laughable.
His DNA and fingerprints were everywhere.
Nothing made sense with his victims (other than the 2 that insulted his work and called him amateur).
We get NO backstory on the ML.
No reason for why he is the way he is, no story on who his first kill was or why he killed, no explanation as to why he 'loved' the FL (which he only proclaims seconds before she slices him up).
And then as if this hot dumpster fire was not already burning out of control, they add a lesbian shaman who drinks, smokes, and parties.
Yeah .. okay.
Netflix needs to have their Kdrama pass revoked.
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Watsed potential
the idea was killer (excuse the pun) but it dragged on for so long with no direction. the characters were unbearably flat and some scenes were EXCRUCIATING long with no value to the plot whatsoever. this would've been such a great drama if they had maybe done it in a docu-series type vibe or even a found-footage style. whatever happened here, was disappointed and unsatisfactory.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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An uncomfortable PLEASURE.
"Somebody" is gonna be a work that will remain in my memory for quite a long time for it's way of storytelling. Some disturbing scenes but yet so artistic for the cinematography.It might get a bit boring for those who don't prefer dark and slow paced thrillers. Few scenes were too long and few just ended abruptly which should've been stretched a bit longer. I did feel there loopholes here and there in the story which could;ve been a little more explained.
However, a real nice one! Something absolutely new in the industry. Cinematography...boom! Acting...top-notch! All should really give it a shot I believe... not for the story, but for the amazing performance delivered by each cast!
Kim Young Kwang, Kang Hae Lim, Kim Demi did an absolute wonderful job. KYK is seen mostly in rom-coms, son to rich family and all. But he really showed his A-Class performance by coming out of that zone...hats off to him!
Also, the BGMs all sat so perfectly. If anyone knows the songs that played in the BG, please lemme know TT
OVERALL, I did enjoy the series.
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