DramaAjumma

I don't think it's an unpopular opinion. At the very least half of us (more probably) think that the finale was unsatisfying to one degree or another.

I have many problems with the ending but this is certainly one of them. Throughout the drama we were given to think that Hyeon-woo was evolving into Do-jun. We had nothing to compare with. We had no idea what the original Do-jun was like so I naturally assumed that Hyeon-woo was Do-jun by the end of Episode 15. He'd fallen for Min-yeong too. I didn't think I was watching a body possession story like Two Cops where the two personalities are clearly delineated. So if we are to believe that the whole thing is a temporal loop then Hyeon-woo has to be Do-jun. But the way he talks about Do-jun at the end of the show makes it sound like Do-jun is a separate person to him. Unfortunately the show doesn't really explore this paradox is any interesting or meaningful fashion. It certainly didn't give itself time to either.

I think this is really what's confusing most people.

Of course. That drama is in a league entirely on its own.

It's good.

It's usually the case with most fantasy/sci-fi K dramas that there's little to no explanation of how the temporal device works. Even when they do, they mess it up and break whatever rules they've set up. I find that most K drama writers use temporal devices to push forward the plot with every little understanding of the ramifications of the genre or sub-genres.

Yes. A good ending.

If you scroll down further, there are people who have posted the novel's ending.

The Korean Life on Mars is really one of the best K dramas. It's a great adaptation and it's consistently good from start to finish. A great credit to the IP.

It is overall a very good show. The ending is not great but it's not the worst I've seen. The reaction to Min-yeong was a bit over-the-top but Shin Hyun-bin was pretty wasted overall. I personally liked the character and wished we could have seen more of her.

It was definitely the elephant in the room.

I think it has to be said judging from more recent comments that the conclusion to anything is vitally important -- arguably even more important than the set up. If we consider movies like The Usual Suspects, Sixth Sense or Memento as examples, the ending can completely change the way the audience sees and understands the entire story. Endings are crucial. In fact, more often than not people remember the ending more than any other part of the story. That's why a good ending is essential to a viewer's overall sense of satisfaction about the product.

There's a lot of talk about the drama's ending being more realistic. Frankly I don't find the drama's ending that realistic. In fact, the ambiguity surrounding Hyeon-woo's survival is far more problematic and conveniently glosses over real world implications. The writer did nothing prior to Episode 16 to earn that ending. The obligation is on her to justify that ending, not on the audience to accept it. The worst part is that she then had to tell the audience how to think about the drama because she didn't "show" it clearly enough.

If the writer wanted to use a Life on Mars style plot device then the writer had to consistently build up towards that. But she didn't.

I feel exactly the same.
And honestly I don't think there's anything inherently "realistic" about the drama's ending either. It not only creates more ambiguity about what happened to Hyeon-woo (It's not a dream but what was it?) but it also hand waves his "resurrection". There's nothing realistic about his recovery and then his speedy take down of the company. Consistency is far more important in this case than "realism".

If the writer was heading in this direction then she should have set things up much earlier. She didn't. So she got justifiable blow black.

It doesn't even make sense from a time travelling point of view.

https://40somethingahjumma.substack.com/p/reborn-rich-2022-episodes-15-16

The truth of the matter is that the writer did not do the work necessary to change the ending from the original. I haven't read the original web novel but it's not hard to see that the ending is rather sloppy and does a lot of handwaving. And if anyone is wondering, I watched Episode 16 twice just to be sure.
The rest of my thoughts... under spoiler tags below.

The production is fine as a whole. It's only the nonsensical ending that's the problem.

I would have preferred that than what we got.

Episode 16 was certainly not a fitting ending to what was otherwise a great drama. If the show really wanted to make this a redemption story for Yoon Hyeon-woo then his time as Jin Do-jun should have been shortened to make way for that. The show I watched from Episodes 2 to 15 was a succession battle but in one single episode the writer tells us that nope... that's not what we were watching... it was about Do-jun's atonement. I don't think that invalidated everything about Episodes 2 to 15 but it means that a lot of the financial tit for tat was really not that necessary. Ironically too that the romance was far more important in the last episode than it was in the episodes preceding it. But that recording... it just doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Talk about a deus ex machina.

It can't have been a dream because Hyeon-woo's feelings for Min-yeong is what influences his choices at the end.

I agree with that totally. They wasted so much time on the family squabbling if this show is supposed to be about Hyeon-woo's redemption.

My thoughts on Episodes 12-14. Minor spoilers.
https://40somethingahjumma.substack.com/p/reborn-rich-2022-episodes-12-14

Are they just showing one episode a week? Dangit. Should have waited.