Kill to Love desperately needed some breathing room to build the story
I really liked the concept, but Kill to Love really suffered from not having space to fully flesh out both the political story and the love story. I felt like I was watching a "Cliff notes" version of the story, and it fell short on both levels:
Political story: Character decisions seemed inconsistent, but I think this was because there wasn't room to show characters struggling with difficult decisions, consulting other trusted characters, establishing depth of relationship with family members, etc. I felt like I needed to call upon my knowledge of watching countless costume Cdramas to reason out why someone might make one decision and then change their mind or why a particular decision makes logical sense. I've definitely seen characters from other costume dramas make similar decisions and take similar actions, but Kill to Love was unable to adequately show the struggle, I believe due to time limitations. So, it just felt like characters were being inconsistent.
Love story: Everything felt sudden. Again, I think this is a problem with not having breathing room to build up the emotional depth. I felt like it was too much relying on "childhood lovers," but there wasn't enough in either the flashbacks or present day to establish a deep emotional relationship. It just needed more time to show sweet interactions, etc, that could then be used as flashbacks later on to remind the viewer why these two care deeply about each other. Same issue with the second couple.
Chemistry was meh, not bad, but also not great, but honestly, I've really enjoyed series in the past with mediocre chemistry when the plot is good, but because Kill to Love also couldn't deliver on the political story, it just couldn't carry the mid-level chemistry. I'm mostly leaving Kill to Love feeling disappointed that it didn't have the space (and probably the funding) to fully flesh out the story because the concept is really interesting and I see how it could've been really excellent if it had the more standard 30-some episodes to fully build out complicated political storylines and establish character relationships.
Political story: Character decisions seemed inconsistent, but I think this was because there wasn't room to show characters struggling with difficult decisions, consulting other trusted characters, establishing depth of relationship with family members, etc. I felt like I needed to call upon my knowledge of watching countless costume Cdramas to reason out why someone might make one decision and then change their mind or why a particular decision makes logical sense. I've definitely seen characters from other costume dramas make similar decisions and take similar actions, but Kill to Love was unable to adequately show the struggle, I believe due to time limitations. So, it just felt like characters were being inconsistent.
Love story: Everything felt sudden. Again, I think this is a problem with not having breathing room to build up the emotional depth. I felt like it was too much relying on "childhood lovers," but there wasn't enough in either the flashbacks or present day to establish a deep emotional relationship. It just needed more time to show sweet interactions, etc, that could then be used as flashbacks later on to remind the viewer why these two care deeply about each other. Same issue with the second couple.
Chemistry was meh, not bad, but also not great, but honestly, I've really enjoyed series in the past with mediocre chemistry when the plot is good, but because Kill to Love also couldn't deliver on the political story, it just couldn't carry the mid-level chemistry. I'm mostly leaving Kill to Love feeling disappointed that it didn't have the space (and probably the funding) to fully flesh out the story because the concept is really interesting and I see how it could've been really excellent if it had the more standard 30-some episodes to fully build out complicated political storylines and establish character relationships.
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