Nat

Oh boy, where do I even begin with this hot mess of a show?

As a big fan of Daou and Offroad, I was so hyped for The Wicked Game to drop, especially after loving their work in Love in Translation and one of my favorites—Century of Love. I mean, the chemistry between these two is off the charts, both on-screen and off.

But let me tell you, when I actually sat down to watch this latest offering, I was shocked at how hard it was for me to get through the first two episodes. From the very first five minutes, I was scratching my head, wondering if I had accidentally stumbled into some low-budget 2013 K-drama reject. The sound editing was like nails on a chalkboard, and the cinematography… I don’t even know. Seriously, who was in charge of the camera work and lighting? It looked like they had just grabbed the nearest intern to handle that!

And don't even get me started on the script. The script was the biggest problem with this show. Let's be honest, the premise had a lot of potential, with this whole morally grey character and ex-cop dynamic. They could have done so many great things with that story. But it felt like the writers just jotted down a bunch of random bullet points and then called it a day, without bothering to flesh anything out properly. Where was the depth for the rest of the characters? Some of the motivations of the main characters made little sense too, because there was not enough screen time to show/explain. I was expecting something like gritty realness we got in KinnPorsche.

I mean, sure, there were some decent moments sprinkled in here and there, but it just wasn't enough to save the rest of the drama. And for a show with such complex characters, I really think they needed more episodes to do it justice. Like, come on, how are you going to cram all that into a measly 10 episodes?

The romance part in the middle really suffered. It was just one or two episodes that they got together for, and then the fallout.

Honestly, I'm just really disappointed, you know?

Daou and Offroad deserve so much better than this. If only they had the same production team Khemjira had. Now that's the kind of quality I was hoping for in terms of camera work, sound and special effects and script. I mean, Khemjira had its own character arc issues, but that's not the point. The Wicked Game had no character arc issues, but script issues because characters were interesting to begin with. The writers didn't bother to develop them better.

Ugh, I don't know, maybe I'm being too harsh, but I just feel like this show had so much potential, and they completely squandered it with a script to begin with.

At least Daou and Offroad still have their undeniable on-screen magic to fall back on. But still, I can't help but wonder what could have been if they had a better team behind the scenes.

Also, what the hell happened with those hot scenes they gave us in the trailer? Final cut NC scenes felt like they belonged to a college romance drama. Not a crime drama. This was a bit of a letdown too.

Again, I love Daou and Offroad a lot. They did the best they could with whatever they were given.

Here's hoping their next project has a better team and a better script. I’ll still support them.