EmmanuelVR

How good/bad is this for context?

When he was dying he saw on the public screen news of his suicide. When he gets the hypnotic treatment, the psychological counselor gets tipped in about it, and saves him the first time. Then the second time him regaining consciousness is meant to subtly symbolize he survives the operation since, symbolically, their deaths, and survival, are connected.

Don't take it literally, it's a figurative plot device meant for the audience. A pretty clever one.

Small error, the first Rurouni Kenshin movie is from 2012.

MDL has the staff picks the year, which have a pretty good selection (Though Misaeng was missing!). The MDL staff should probably do their own award entirely and leave this as People's Choice like you recommend.

IOTL, Misaeng, and Bad Guys should've won most stuff.

IOTL as a melodrama is really out of place, as good as it is.

It plays on the theme of their loved ones not being the people they thought they were. Dal Po's brother, In Ha's mom, and now second lead's mother. It also gives context to why the fuck the guy would have the cellphone (or be in the show at all). I think it was perfectly written in from all sides. I don't think she's going to take over as the main antagonist either, just the next arc and giving context to In Ha's mom's actions. In Ha's mom is still the focus antagonist terms of themes.

It's pretty decent but far from perfect, it has a lot of good things, but also a lot of bad things. The pacing feels off and some events that take entire episodes of build up come off as unimportant to the overall plot (fluff). So far I'd give it a 6 or 7. I don't really like Park Ki Wong's character even as an antagonist.

Currently at episode 14, and the acting in this drama ranges from good if not great to completely abysmal, even by the same actors. The pacing is fairly bad too. It feels like it has a good story on its hands (Basically a cross between Zorro and City Hunter) but it can't quite manage to tell it in a memorable and fast way. I'm hoping the second half gets better.
Also for an ex badass cop turned stoic freedom fighter he sure loves to cry a lot.

I just noticed something. Check the Jung Woo dying scene on the mountains in the first episode (that parallels the epilogue scene, and is most likely THE epilogue scene). He has TWO incense sticks, one on each hand. However it's cleverly disguised to make it look like one if you don't actually look for details. Notice his hands, both hands are holding incense sticks in two camera shots.<br /><br />I think this pretty much confirms SW2032 coming back for his brother who dies in the Himalayas again in 2012 (Instead of 2011). This makes so much more sense, because him dying in 2011 and being found in the river really didn't make so much sense if you consider where he (supposedly) died in the first scene.

What a disappointing ending. Their happy ending was basically handed to them, and only because the ex-boyfriend decided to not waste his time with her, otherwise she'd have been stuck and Haru would've done absolutely nothing. It took three off-screen years for him to do anything to get her. <br />It's impossible to say the characters didn't evolve. They clearly did. However Haru regressed as a character at the last second, Aki became a doormat, and any positive development after that happened off-screen into a three years later.<br /><br />The other two romances of the teammates were a ton more engaging and satisfying to see, particularly Yamato's.