SO outdated and clichéd
Dreadfully dated.Bad soap opera feel to it, with cheap looking sets.
Outdated characters ~ supposedly 'hicky' working class family, with the usual debts caused by parents, reliant on the one sensible, more successful family member, who is pressured and leeched off; money grabbing mother of status seeking daughter, with long suffering father in another family; slapping of faces; class distinction (based on wealth, certainly not 'class'); controlling grandmother of wealthy family who seems sweet, but is cruel and callous; bitchy females; jealousy and vindictive characters; ffrom what I heard, a forgetful ost.
Just dreadful. I could not watch past ep4. The acting is so hammy, stiff and forced ~ almost farcical.
What was Ahn Jae-hyun thinking? I was so looking forward to seeing his first drama in too long, but whilst he isn't dreadful in it, sadly also not fabulous enough to make me stay. I hope he was paid well.
Anyone who loves soap operas, OTT characters and behaviour, with clichés by the bucket load ~ this will not disappoint. Sadly not for me at all.
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Messy.
Dec 2025Maybe it's a generational thing, but a Genie is not Satan (or Iblis in this case), and so the reference to that name just didn't fit, and bugged me throughout.
In folklore the Genie (or Jinn) was created by God/Allah, and could be good, evil or neutral. Naughty ones got imprisoned in containers.
All boxes ticked.
However, the merging of more religious content (as mentioned, plus the angel of death, angels at all, hell etc), ruined it for me, as it made the character nessy and blurred. If they wanted to make up a new fantasy character, then rename it.
What I also couldn't handle, was the way the FL lead character treated him. I get she was a psycho, but I found too much of it irritating and often uncomfortable.
The plot became frayed for me, and both the story and characters were often all over the place.
The personality of FL's grandmother was one of the biggest changes... yes we change/mature as we age, but her younger self was actually not easy for me to like at all.
Personally speaking, it was KWB that carried this drama.
The acting overall was good, it was the story/script that totally let it down.
Lovely to look at/visually, but very disappointing for me and I wouldn't rewatch.
KWB and other cast members, have been in far better dramas than this. It could have been superb ~ but wasn't by a long way.
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Very satisfying watch.
June 2026I loved this drama and the episodes simply melted away!
Yes it's violent, OTT, and causing controversy in its use of meeting fire with fire, regardless of the villains' age.
The pace is pretty fast and there's also humour to balance the tougher aspects.
A tragedy leads to a prominent politician setting up a specialist inspection team, that is sent into schools experiencing pupil issues that are out of control.
The main reason for doing this, is as much about protecting the right of other students to study and learn, as it is in providing them with a safe and protected environment in which to do that.
It's also about protecting teachers, who in many schools across the world now, can be in danger of losing their lives to a student, if addressing disruptive behaviour and violence.
It's not all about bad pupils, either; it's parents and teachers that stand in the way of these goals, that are brought to task too.
For me, the most difficult storyline was ep 6 on, and some completely evil juvenile delinquents, who hid behind their age, and were protected by an impotent legal system because of that. This, coupled with parents completely out of touch with them, who just wanted the atrocities of their offspring to vanish.
Parents who endanger their own children through emotional blackmail and control, or by actually supporting their behaviour, are dealt with, too.
A manipulative mother storyline was pretty hard hitting.
I felt this series is a platform that uses the beyond reality action scenes and story lines, to highlight the very real issues that exist for both good teachers and willing students, in schools everywhere.
Parents are shown as a sometimes major part of the problem, which is often all too true.
That the young are totally capable of manipulating, lying and being extremely capable in destroying the lives of others, is not fictional, either.
The team are so diverse, and whilst I initially thought Jin Ki-joo's character (Im Han-rim) would drive me 🦇💩 , I ended up loving her!
Seeing P.O (Pyo Jihoon of BlockB) in a drama again, makes me very happy, too... his character provides not a few giggles.
A totally captivating watch for me. Even yhough totally OTT it was so satisfying seeing those who felt no remorse, and had no intention of changing, get their just desserts, whilst others turned a page.
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