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We all know a IRL Dosan, or HJP, or even an Alex (the characters and struggles they embody). And I feel offended on behalf of all those very *real* people. :/

Everybody in the end had a dream/ purpose, including the 'rational dreamers' like HJP who came from nothing and is a self-made man, and In-Jae (the sister) who came from a privileged background, and yet decided to start all-over from scratch.
Why did the MLs get some questionable motives (by the writers) is beyond me! What's worse, is the MLs purpose of having his OWN business, his OWN thing, and NOT be a 'cog-in-the-wheel' employee flies RIGHT out the door when he sees the offer from Alex, to the point he is blinded and cannot foresee that an acquisition would mean SST would cease to exist, and they would lose their sovereignty and independence. Let's say they are noobs and made a mistake or got duped. WHAT made them stop looking for exit strategies after the 3-year bond period, and why did they not *actively make plans* with Dalmi to restart their own Tech-company, all over again?
Smaller businesses that eventually get engulfed by larger Tech-companies like Google/ Facebook often are backed into such a corner that they cannot retain their independence. Or it was their hidden agenda to impress the big-guns and be assimilated, and thus there is no question of going back. Clearly, if SST-boys were so unhappy and unwilling, WHY couldn't they plan to make a comeback??
Their motivation and purpose was clearly questionable, wonky and bizarre. :/ More than 'irrational dreamers', I would re-label the MLs as 'awfully contradictory'.

Netflix should fire their content-selection team for south-korea!

-Thinking she wants to build a start-up 'because she wants to take the elevator to the top-most floor' but doing it actually because 'she wants to make her sister regret the decision of ditching Dad'.
-Saying she wants an investment for the company, but ends up enthusiastically signing away the company, to be acquired by 2Sto.
-Pulling an all-nighter to discuss a brand new idea never discussed before among themselves (the self-drive car with their algo); instead of revising and re-reading the contract before signing.
-Instead of saving SST, or let's say SST was beyond saving, she should have planned out an effective exit strategy for her team as everybody was unwilling to have SST dissolved for good. She should have made plans to start over SST again after the 3-year hiatus, instead of pushing Dosan towards silicon valley for good, because 'he is an incredibly lucky genius who deserves it all'
-Dreaming of always following Dad's footsteps of being an entrepreneur, but picking AI/ Dosan for Sandbox instead of fulfilling/ realizing Dad's incomplete dream (his food-delivery business)

Dalmi was a bundle of contradictions. I am only happy she didn't turn out to be a player, stringing HJP along the way, and giving him false hopes. :)

I don't think this comment section is going dormant anytime soon. We'll be here to comfort you, should you come back to rant, post-watch! :3
Hwaiting for our Good Boy!! \m/

Well, now that I see you *just* started watching, and think back to Empress Ki, it's a LOT like start-up. The number of similarities are mind-boggling. Casting actors like NJH/ JCW for problematic characters seems like the sure-shot way to have people sympathise with characters dealing with issues; so the writers can laze off, and fuel a love-triangle instead of healing our ML, at the end of the day.
I switched out from Team-TaHwan pretty late, and despite being all out for SML towards the very end, I was enraged on the emperor's behalf, because the writers really did him dirty. :( :(
Hope I give you an idea, what's wrong with our ML here :D

As a KSH simp, I was like, 'heh, HJP's story is tragic, but somehow I want to cheer for this adorable puppy-like Dosan.'
Everybody has different 'breaking-points'...but mine definitely came when he no longer had shaggy hair. Such a shame. :D

The 'falling-off-the-treadmill' was my undoing.... :3
Then I was Team-Dosan, upto ep 4 because he was just so adorable.
And then we all know....what happened :)

As someone who got into it because of fan MV's just like you, the ending/ insta clips aren't nearly enough to explain *why* you'll land in SLS-hell. You have to experience the slow-torture of facepalming atleast 6 times an episodes post ep6. You have to know typical tropes like 'first love', and 'fate', are cheap excuses, and characters are exactly who they have been written out, to be. And while free-wheeling it sometimes is seen as romantic, that isn't nearly enough to support a bunch of kids who *never* seem to have any plan. -_-
See ya!~~

You'd think after ALL those years, he'd get over his issues... but nope! Another one taken down by imposter syndrome :/

16-hours is a solid time-investment, especially for Netflix-shows that keep shoving them in yo' face... you'd expect something better than a colossal waste of time :/
They OUGHT to pick up shows after they finish airing...and THEN review the show (not the script) to make their decision!

The funny thing is, the vocal ones here aren't even exclusively Ji-Dal ship/ endgamers. A LOT of us feel the couple endgame doesn't even matter and some even think Dalmi deserved to end up with Dosan and leave JP the **** alone. :D
However, ALL pissed people here are enraged at the writing/ plot direction. That's universally common among all of us ranting :)

It was problematic, the way Dalmi's initial (quite throughout) motivation to build a start-up was solely to 'prove to her sister she isn't any lesser, all the while trying to make her regret her decision of ditching Dad'.
I think the 'entrepreneur' in the Dad, would be tsk-ing from heaven seeing her questionable motivations.
The first CEO guy she sees, and she wants to randomly quit her job and open a start-up with him.
I am disappointed how since she was shown eventually to have the *skills and potential* and was willing to put in efforts (and not rely solely on luck, though a great part of her success was because of it).... I am disappointed because she had the potential to realize her Dad's unfulfilled dream, but NOPE. I felt super sad she decided to pick AI/ Dosan for her startup stint at Sandbox, and that's where it went downhill for me :/

I see you have a way with words. Would you mind writing a tiny FF for us? :)

Hmm, Dosan's character regression here, is worse than JCW's Ta-Hwan in Empress Ki.
And that's a pretty big task to achieve, considering you can't murder a human (the SML) in 2020. xD
Should this be under a spoiler tag? :O

Worst investment ever, time and effort wise :/
On the other hand, could you recommend some sane Fanfiction on this, diverging from ep 4 onwards? I really need to get over my disappointment :D
And while we're at it. could we fix the tags on this drama? Dal-mi isn't exactly a 'nice' FL, and also add 'problematic ML', 'psychiatric disorder'? Thank heavens, there isn't an 'underdog' tag to this :)

Practically-orphaned high-school girl jaded about the hardships of life, finds companionship in a Magician, who claims to be 'real'. She can't quite figure him out, if he's joking or serious, but eventually forms a solid bond with him, learning magic tricks, despite having lost faith in magic over the years. Her only 'friend' back at school is a boy, under immense pressure to perform academically well, from his wealthy parents, and succumbs to forming a relationship with the Magician, eventually ( despite initially being jealous of him, and the relationship the Magician shares with our FL).
As the trio move forward, and the story reveals interesting parallel between the students and the Magician, they finally end up discovering the truth behind him. The Magician ends up guiding them towards a life, where they are both inspired to 'stop by, and smell the flowers' occasionally! :)
The artwork is quite stunning, and full of metaphors, including colour-usage, character and background styling! It's only 27 episodes/ chapters long...you can give it a try! ^^

Well, if it's Netflix, then you can expect them to drop season 1, 2 & 3, each containing TWO episodes, releasing 1 season every year xD

His shaggy hair, the torn-flannel shirts, him knitting scrubbies....I have a niggling feeling his haircut at the end of ep2 was his undoing...
Infact, after the time-skip, it would have been more believable to see Dosan as a frustrated 'cog-in-the-wheel' employee, intoxicated out of his mind in SF, because he traded in his dream (having his name on the door- SST) after his judgement got clouded by money-lust and jealousy! -_-
I am enraged, how them being 'entrepreneurs' did not think of an exit strategy from 2Sto, after landing up in Silicon Valley. Why was there no active talks of restarting SST, after a 3-year hiatus? They seem to have spent those years being nerfed to the max.
A show named 'start-up' but majority of the its last quarter is spent on a time-skip and a wardrobe upgrade :/

I like your train of thought: 'Dosan became his own meme'.... and the writer made him that. I want to pitchfork-her so bad! Dosan didn't deserve that.
He had a debilitating disorder that prevented him from going about and achieving things he had the potential for, needing reassurance and validation at every step. That's already a solid foundation to build plot and character growth upon. Luckily, the writer had HJP to avoid stereotyping the generation as a whole, but the whole purpose of HJP as a character became cheapened to the max, to fuel a tired love-triangle! (ew)
I might have sighed so loudly, the neighbors probably heard :/