Potato the cutie

Many of us share very similar opinions on this drama so I wouldn't be surprised to see someone else comment about it and bring up the same points that I just talked about.
I do believe that the controversy played a big hand in the changes done to the plot, but I also still feel like the issue was in the situation this story is revolving around to begin with.
This setting was very tricky to begin with, and involving politics in anything becomes really controversial later on if not handled carefully and wisely, so the fact that they kept the original idea of the script with some changes done to it was just them digging themselves a deeper grave as this drama and almost everything related to it was bound to get them in trouble one way or another.

It all comes down to subjective viewing and how each person perceives certain things.
As many other reviewers said, such plot is usually more befitting for a movie rather than a 16 episode drama with extremely long episodes, objectively speaking. The reason why I personally don't like the idea of one setting throughout the whole series is because time here is just really not a main factor since you basically have unlimited time to plan out your story and narrative, so the writer starts trying to fill up what they consider to be extra time with filler scenes that neither take nor bring anything to the plot (this really depends on the writer and how they want to get their idea through as sometimes this length is not enough to do a certain plot justice, while it could also be an excessive amount of time where the writer doesn't know what to do with this much empty slots in their episodes in another show) hence it feeling draggy and potential boring for some, but at the end of the day it's just personal preference talking in here.

As I said before, each person looks for the things they enjoy and that suits their taste when it comes to watching any sort of shows/dramas. You just presented a very different perspective on this plot, and I think it's very much valid and reasonable, I personally don't enjoy a plot that revolves around one specific setting/situation, so I don't find this to be a satisfying storyline and neither do I find it as interesting as you do, but as I said, we all enjoy different things and if you like it, more power to you.

Agreed, but on a brighter note, the soundtrack on this is really good, so I guess we got something nice out of it no? I've been playing "wishes" by Jamie Miller and "if you're with me" by Sung Si Kyung every single day because of how obsessed with the soundtrack I am lol

Honestly if you like this genre and this is your type of dramas then go off queen/king (I really don't wanna assume lol), we all look for different things in shows and movies while watching them, I personally didn't like the direction of the storyline, but to those who like it, I say good for you, we might have different opinions regarding this but at least one of us is enjoying it.

Thank you, and honestly, same, I literally reached a point where I'm like, is *inster scene* still going? Oh ok, Imma skip 10 minutes and see if anything else happens......wait....IT'S STILL GOING?!

She definitely changed her initial script to......... whatever this is, to what extent was it changed tho, that I'm unsure of. I've also hear that Young ro was somewhat of a rushed last minute decision and honestly if that's the case, this plot would make so so so much more sense imo

Lmao, that's me with my brain turned off babe, imagine if I actually had it functioning enough to think about this Broadway show lol, I would probably combust from excessive heat and an overworked brain the instant I tried to think logically 🙃

A very sad case of wasted potential really.

Exactly! They failed to deliver a comprehensive relationship between two people who were stuck together for the eternity that is the 10 days before the election, tried to force their logic into our faces like we're 11 y/o incapable of thinking logically or sensibly and proceeded to push through with this sad dad, rebellious teenage daughter and her bad influence of a boyfriend sort of plot and just turn a blind eye to all the humongous red flags waving in their faces in the direction they went with in terms of storyline and plot. This is very much character driven rather than plot driven, and even the characters and their amazing physique and abs couldn't keep this hole infested boat from sinking, very saddening honestly

Since we're (finally) nearing the end of the dorm arc, I'd like to get this off of my chest, this plot has dragged on WAY too long. The amount of nonsense just seems to increase by the minute or so it seems, honestly if only they cut the dorm arc to like, 5 episodes and focused on presenting the political and scheming aspects of the plot in a logical, cohesive and thrilling way, developed the romance between the MLs in a natural sweet way instead of this absolutely unintelligible love story we were given, cut down on the excessive amount of characters and filler scenes, tried to bring out the comedic side of the characters more, then this whole circus raucous would've been turned into an absolutely amazing project. We know what the director and the writer are capable of considering their amazing work on SKY castle, why is it that when they've been equipped with such a strong cast and such budget, they failed to deliver or even try to live up to the standard they've set themselves? I'm just really curious as to why this drama turned out this way, especially since they had such an excessive amount of time to work on it, hell the writer worked on this for over 10 years, with this amount of time you'd expect them to make a ground breaking drama but we're left with a plot a 16 year-old is capable of writing, not to mention them stripping all their female characters of any significant role to play in this mess except for being a plot device for the male characters to shine through, peak misogyny here people, the only one that was somehow spared from this tragedy is Kang Chung ya, and even she was done dirty in the majority of the episodes she appeared in, with the exception of the last 3-4 episodes, but her character was still way better off than the absolute tragedy that is Ha na, Young ro, Ms Pi, Boon ok and the breakfast club led by Nam tae il's wife. At this point I'm just hoping for a slightly satisfying ending for us viewers who were robbed of the actual romance we were promised + a thrilling plot + basically any chance for this to be plot driven rather than character driven.

YES! THIS! I really hope this has a tragic ending, because let's be real, this story (especially the romance) was doomed from the very beginning, and the fact that Kang moo and Soo ho have more chemistry and more scenes than him and Young ro is just.....yeah 😶

Lol you're welcome

You're absolutely right about this, but honestly considering the fact that they promoted this drama as melodrama/romance, I expected it to have quite a few one dimensional characters especially with the kind of setting they were supposedly going for, so you have every right to be upset over their less than ideal decisions regarding this unintelligible drama, and as an action/thriller/spy/drama fan, I wholeheartedly agree with a lot of what you said

I see where you're coming from, and honestly I started side eying almost everything she and this show do at this point, as for her character, regardless of how horribly written it is, she still feels out of place in some scenes, that's what I meant when I said it fell flat, I probably should've phrased it better so that's on me

I guess it would explain things, some say that Young ro's character was a last minute decision done by the writer and they apparently sent the script to her company for her to decide if she wants to be part of the project or not

I mentioned this before, but I personally think that they gave her this role because she's an amateur, as it usually is for idols turned actors, they often don't do justice to complex layered characters (before any crazy fans come for my throat I'm not pointing out anyone, I'm talking in general) so considering how even though her role is pretty easy to tackle, she's still not fully playing it to her advantage, her acting does fall flat sometimes and because it's her first role we could let it pass, but replace her with another idol actress who has been in other projects before and see how everyone goes bananas over how "terrible" the acting is when in reality it's actually quite decent, not great, but not as bad as they make it out to be

She is a huge star outside korea, and the most loved member of her group nationally if I'm not mistaken, if anything they [mostly her fans] will probably tolerate this absolute mess of a plot for her, and by boost the ratings I'm talking crazy over 40 million people just hyping her up so you can probably see the picture here, and apparently she auditioned and they chose her out of the many others for her "talent" so do with this piece of info what you want

The writer?
The director?
Her die-hard fans?
YGE apparently?
Honestly tho she's holding up ok considering she has close to zero experience and the fact that the rest of the actors/actresses are giants in terms of acting.
And I still stand by my opinion that she landed the role for the FL mainly because she's a global star and her influence could really benefit the ratings, not just because of her "phenomenal acting" as everyone claims

I mean, it somehow gets better considering how terribly her character is written and the fact that she's surrounded by one of the strongest cast you'll ever see, but yeah, she does get a bit better going further down the road