Eleison

This was SO much fun. It does jump around from slapstick, to gut-wrenching, to horrifying, to grotesque, and to hilarious constantly, but it was a blast. Wacky and kind of bonkers, and just a wild ride from start to finish. There are so many parts where I howled, hooted and cackled with laughter.

Lots of heart, endearing characters, and some poignant themes without ever getting boring or slow.

It takes time to breathe, whether that's for comedy, character growth, or something serious, and doesn't sacrifice the scenes that build character arcs and world-building for spectacle. (I thought the world-building was really fun in this; it didn't feel ridiculously derivative or like a full-on rehash of something else and had its own flair).

(This is also one instance where an established screenwriter ventured out of her normal writing style, and delivered.)

It has elements that remind me of Star Wars, X-Men, Guardians Of The Galaxy (humor-wise and styling), and Sweet Home (styling, sets, unique tone and the morbid imagery/concepts), with a dash of Korean-specific humor thrown in. It's very stylized and has a retro feel throughout with music to match.

I loved our team of defective misfits. They were adorable, and flawed (except Chae Ni, but it didn't make her one dimensional for not having flaws, she was too stinkin cute to have an issue with 😅). Cha Eun Woo was... Cha Eun Woo. 😅 He definitely doesn't have a ton of range from project to project, but somehow he still always works for me. He has an on screen presence that makes me miss him when he's not in the scene (and not just because he's cute). Choi Dae Hoon (whose character was so freaking annoying and lovable at the same time) and Im Sung Jae (just a sweetheart) acted their hearts out and were GREAT. Loved them.

I have a few more comments about the story but I will put them below in a spoiler:

The smoking also felt random to me. 😅

This is the biggest discrepancy of Kdramas' presentation of Korea/Koreans vs. real life: the smoking. Kdramas (not ones made by Netflix or foreign platforms) very rarely have smoking in them, but I was absolutely shocked by how much smoking there was when I went to Korea. A lot of other things were accurate to Kdrama portrayals, but not this. 😅

Not supposed to donate or give away prescribed meds, though. They should only be used by the person who was prescribed them. Disposing of them properly would have been nice, but I think that's the least of Haeseong's worries at the moment. 😅

They seem about the same age because Un Jeong looked around 7 or 8 when the fire happened, and we know that Chae Ni was 7 when she got her new heart.

🤦‍♀️ That's when things started to not make sense, and similar moments continue to happen increasingly moving forward.

Thank you! I was wondering if it was going to be described as a projection of his grief to cope, but it's just a game fantasy element essentially?

Thank you!

I agree, but you do a feel a little less worried for him because a man can easily overpower a woman who pushes herself on him. Not as easy if things were reversed, which is why it feels less urgent/serious/scary.

I like that they also didn't just show him having no self control in the face of a sexual experience. He had no interest in her, he put up boundaries, and reminded the ex-girlfriend/fling why they existed.

I think this scene was included for a few reasons: 1) It was comedic, and set the tone for the hanky panky going on at this company; 2) it showed us the ML had a history with women and was not a newb to romance (which is important for his character); and 3) that the ML has values.

What is a "system webtoon"? 😅

Haha, picked up on the fact that you're a man, so no clarification needed. 😉 I just cringed over the oversimplification. I haven't seen this drama yet (but the fact that elsewhere you said Lovely Runner was worse made me think I might still enjoy it. 😅 I actually enjoyed Lovely Runner, and Goong, which was admittedly a toxic hot mess), and I'm not sure I'd agree with you that Yi An didn't have a "job" or "work"--I'd have to watch it and then decide, but all that aside, I still felt the comment needed consierably more clarification to not imply things you didn't mean. Hence, the facepalm. 😅

I agree that giving people a pass simply because they're pretty is silly (it drove me nuts on the Pursuit of Jade page, everyone freaking out about a gorgeous villain); on that we can agree!

The facepalm was reacting to the reduction of human dignity to usefulness. I feel like it's kind of a male version of this comment, "What's the point of a woman if she never has babies?"

Maintaining humans have value only when they're useful or fill a specific role is treading into dangerous territory, don't you think? And I would make distinctions between a "job" and "work." They are not exactly the same thing. I think all humans need some kind of "work" to find meaning in life, and for practical reasons, that's usually a job. But the implication in your comment was only certain types of job or work makes a man truly a man.

"I've seen you all calling other male characters losers who had a job and didn't have any big issues." I'm not quite clear on what this has to do with my comment, but by all means, if I'm one of the "you all" mentioned, I'd be happy for you to present a comment of mine where I've done this so I can be properly chastised for contradicting myself.

I also made no comment about the show, so I'm not sure why you assumed I was automatically giving a cute male a pass?

"What's the point of a man if he doesn't have a job?"🤦‍♀️

Yeah, if people say Goong was better they need to watch it again. 😅 It's a horribly flawed drama that I love to pieces in all its terrible glory. It has some great things about it, for sure but as a complete package it is a wreck. 😅

I thought that drama portrayed Christian elements REALLY well, too. It was a standout, for sure, amongst dramas. But yes, unexpected there!

I get a kick out of how literally everyone here calls Jo Jae Yoon's character "Jinmu"--and it needs virtually no clarification.

Poor dude's been irreversibly typecast. He'll never escape Jinmu. 😅

She didn't know until the last few episodes. 😅 But I think it worked out because thay was where all the tension from the plot came from, for the most part. At least HE knew.

This comment gave me so much joy (a breath of fresh air from the insult war in the comment section). So entertaining to read. 😅

You actually made me want to watch it because this "review" is giving me waves of old timey Kdrama flashback vibes (those from the good old 2010s and thereabouts). This sounds like just another of those problematic, terribly flawed dramas that I adore to pieces. 😅 (I love a lot of the clean, well-written, tightly plotted and acted innovative, polished Kdramas, too, but I've got a soft spot for the mixed bag of entertaining and ridiculously plotted glory that is the Kdrama). 😅

Ummmm... have you seen the trailer? This is going to be goofy. And Extreme Job, one of the screenplays of this screenwriter, was super comedic.

I thought the hanok village was really cozy. It suited Season 2, I think, and the kind of storytelling of this drama.

And I loved the added element of how those in a coma can come and go from the village, as well as the hint that Jonga can see ghosts now, too! I do hope they pull off a season 3 at some point!

While I love Captain Kang, I do miss Thomas. 😔 Have no idea why he's listed as a "support role." He should be in the guest roles section as I think he has three minutes if screentime in the entire season. 😅