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This review may contain spoilers
Empty vessels really do make the most noise
Just for my edification, I need to know who signed off on this. I would then like to snack some sense into them by travelling to a time before they agreed - and this stupid setup I've come up with is aces better than anything they did.
Who? Who thought this was okay? This is a masterclass on how to create lackluster hype and somehow ruin the lowest of expectations anyone has for you. Because even the combined forces of over ten seasoned professionals could not save this sinking ship.
The non - existent plot follows Tae San, who is the incarnation of the tiger zodiac. You may be wondering why I say that when the show is called Twelve.
Let me explain.
The story is mostly about Tae San, while the other seven zodiacs are basically reduced to his rag tag bunch of followers. And there are only eight zodiacs! Because the very first scene introduces us to their backstory, but we're left wondering for over two episodes why there are only eight of them.. when the show is called Twelve. This is because their absence was explained in a truly blink and you'll miss it moment. Seriously, blink and you will miss it.
Thereon, the entire setup of the show is that the Zodiacs were basically guardians of the universe, who are now living without their powers after they saved the world the last time around, which they lost when they sealed all the evil in something called the Hellmouth. So now all they do is lend money and eat. They spent more time eating than they did saving the world.
Of course if you have heroes - you need villains. Here it's a group of evil spirits who want to awaken the spirits of two ancient evil beings. I say evil because if you look deeply enough, you could argue that they were more than just villains. But the show didn't care to be anything more than superficial and I don't care enough to be dissecting their past and personalities.
The two evil spirits they want to awaken are Ogwi and Haetae, the crow incarnation and some random name they pulled out of a hat for reasons. Basically, they free Ogwi and they need to collect some soul stones to free Haetae, so they can all be evil again. Avengers knock off but not really so I'll forgive them. And they do it! All while our heroes are powerless and of course, they take over the town! This is six episodes by the way, this is all that happens in six episodes.
Then we find out that Ogwi was some angel adjacent and involved in a random soulmates storyline with Mirr, wanted to become a zodiac adjacent, couldn't for some unknown reason and chose to become a demon instead! Someone call the Academy, man, what a brilliant plot! You have conveniently thrusted every Kdrama trope into your trash narrative only to wrap it all up in the name of.. love?
After all that, we got the actual backstory in the final episode (which true to form made no sense), a bunch of corny and senseless fights and a return to mukbangs. It was all so bad. And if they were setting up a sequel with that, just ask them to read my review, because IT'S NOT NECESSARY.
This is an incredibly basic plot - and they couldn't even execute this properly. Episode after episode is spent watching our heroes eat, while our villains stand on rooftops sporting red eyes. They pretend like there's some plot - we have a bunch of moments where Won Seung (Monkey), Mal Sook (Horse), Kang Ji (Dog) and Jwi Dol (Rat) go on random side quests as debt collectors, to show off subpar fighting skills and terrible editing, Doni (Pig) and Bang Wool (Snake) are used as comic reliefs, and Mirr (Dragon) is straight out of a melodrama, like she transmigrated from some other series. None of it makes sense together, they're all in their own worlds, painstakingly held together by Marok (Manager) and his magic staff.
Episode after episode these people stand by and watch as Tae San attempts to deal with his emotional baggage, as Mirr deals with hers and Marok runs around trying to get them all together because some pendant they have notifies them that evil is back. Kind of like when your food is out for delivery, but you can't really track your driver because the app is broken. Their app is also broken because their powers are non existent, so they spend six episodes running around aimlessly and causing more damage than they repair stuff.
This may as well be the worst thing I've ever watched. You wait.. and you wait.. and you wait for the story to pick up.. and you'll keep waiting. All the episodes are spent setting up nothing, it's the continuation to a story we don't know because apparently we all had the script beforehand and knew the entire story, introducing random plots and characters like we're supposed to know who and what they are.
And I will complain about this, because this is one of the reasons I don't trust K Dramas, why the hell do you need romance??! Like this didn't already have ten thousand other genres to cover, romance?! I don't understand this obsession with forcing romance into a plot that has no substance, for what? To create some emotional connection? To make me feel for the characters? If anything, I felt more distance after that reveal, because on what level did they think romance between Ogwi and Mirr, two characters who had twenty minutes of screentime combined would be something enjoyable? STOP. FORCING. ROMANCE.
All the characters were terrible, just FYI. I hated all of them and for having actors with such name brand recognition, not a single one of them acted well. Half of them did not move their face muscles and the other half went to extreme levels of overacting.
If they'd spent just a shred of the budget they did on the cast on good writers, editors, costume design or VFX, this could have been watchable. There's no way I say it would have been amazing because this was rock bottom, but I genuinely believe there was a levél below they would've hit if it went on longer.
Do yourself a favour and do not go anywhere near this - it is irredeemable levels of terrible and even Seo In Guk couldn't do anything for me in this. And if you're watching for Park Hyung Sik, he had 10 minutes of screentime and his character is so forgettable, just do yourself a favour and stay away.
Who? Who thought this was okay? This is a masterclass on how to create lackluster hype and somehow ruin the lowest of expectations anyone has for you. Because even the combined forces of over ten seasoned professionals could not save this sinking ship.
The non - existent plot follows Tae San, who is the incarnation of the tiger zodiac. You may be wondering why I say that when the show is called Twelve.
Let me explain.
The story is mostly about Tae San, while the other seven zodiacs are basically reduced to his rag tag bunch of followers. And there are only eight zodiacs! Because the very first scene introduces us to their backstory, but we're left wondering for over two episodes why there are only eight of them.. when the show is called Twelve. This is because their absence was explained in a truly blink and you'll miss it moment. Seriously, blink and you will miss it.
Thereon, the entire setup of the show is that the Zodiacs were basically guardians of the universe, who are now living without their powers after they saved the world the last time around, which they lost when they sealed all the evil in something called the Hellmouth. So now all they do is lend money and eat. They spent more time eating than they did saving the world.
Of course if you have heroes - you need villains. Here it's a group of evil spirits who want to awaken the spirits of two ancient evil beings. I say evil because if you look deeply enough, you could argue that they were more than just villains. But the show didn't care to be anything more than superficial and I don't care enough to be dissecting their past and personalities.
The two evil spirits they want to awaken are Ogwi and Haetae, the crow incarnation and some random name they pulled out of a hat for reasons. Basically, they free Ogwi and they need to collect some soul stones to free Haetae, so they can all be evil again. Avengers knock off but not really so I'll forgive them. And they do it! All while our heroes are powerless and of course, they take over the town! This is six episodes by the way, this is all that happens in six episodes.
Then we find out that Ogwi was some angel adjacent and involved in a random soulmates storyline with Mirr, wanted to become a zodiac adjacent, couldn't for some unknown reason and chose to become a demon instead! Someone call the Academy, man, what a brilliant plot! You have conveniently thrusted every Kdrama trope into your trash narrative only to wrap it all up in the name of.. love?
After all that, we got the actual backstory in the final episode (which true to form made no sense), a bunch of corny and senseless fights and a return to mukbangs. It was all so bad. And if they were setting up a sequel with that, just ask them to read my review, because IT'S NOT NECESSARY.
This is an incredibly basic plot - and they couldn't even execute this properly. Episode after episode is spent watching our heroes eat, while our villains stand on rooftops sporting red eyes. They pretend like there's some plot - we have a bunch of moments where Won Seung (Monkey), Mal Sook (Horse), Kang Ji (Dog) and Jwi Dol (Rat) go on random side quests as debt collectors, to show off subpar fighting skills and terrible editing, Doni (Pig) and Bang Wool (Snake) are used as comic reliefs, and Mirr (Dragon) is straight out of a melodrama, like she transmigrated from some other series. None of it makes sense together, they're all in their own worlds, painstakingly held together by Marok (Manager) and his magic staff.
Episode after episode these people stand by and watch as Tae San attempts to deal with his emotional baggage, as Mirr deals with hers and Marok runs around trying to get them all together because some pendant they have notifies them that evil is back. Kind of like when your food is out for delivery, but you can't really track your driver because the app is broken. Their app is also broken because their powers are non existent, so they spend six episodes running around aimlessly and causing more damage than they repair stuff.
This may as well be the worst thing I've ever watched. You wait.. and you wait.. and you wait for the story to pick up.. and you'll keep waiting. All the episodes are spent setting up nothing, it's the continuation to a story we don't know because apparently we all had the script beforehand and knew the entire story, introducing random plots and characters like we're supposed to know who and what they are.
And I will complain about this, because this is one of the reasons I don't trust K Dramas, why the hell do you need romance??! Like this didn't already have ten thousand other genres to cover, romance?! I don't understand this obsession with forcing romance into a plot that has no substance, for what? To create some emotional connection? To make me feel for the characters? If anything, I felt more distance after that reveal, because on what level did they think romance between Ogwi and Mirr, two characters who had twenty minutes of screentime combined would be something enjoyable? STOP. FORCING. ROMANCE.
All the characters were terrible, just FYI. I hated all of them and for having actors with such name brand recognition, not a single one of them acted well. Half of them did not move their face muscles and the other half went to extreme levels of overacting.
If they'd spent just a shred of the budget they did on the cast on good writers, editors, costume design or VFX, this could have been watchable. There's no way I say it would have been amazing because this was rock bottom, but I genuinely believe there was a levél below they would've hit if it went on longer.
Do yourself a favour and do not go anywhere near this - it is irredeemable levels of terrible and even Seo In Guk couldn't do anything for me in this. And if you're watching for Park Hyung Sik, he had 10 minutes of screentime and his character is so forgettable, just do yourself a favour and stay away.
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