kara

maybe it's time to wrap it up?!

let me start off with a short rant about this season's writing. this will be an unpopular opinion but most of the new characters left me cold (since they were the replicas of season 1 characters), and so did their deaths. also, they decided to keep junho around but didn't know what to do with him, so every scene we got of him was him searching for the games' location (some of these scenes were insane fillers). the glimmering light of season 2's writing was the introduction of noeul, and complexity of guards. the introduction of new characters was boring to watch. i would have rather learned about their stories during the game. one thing i hoped for was learning more about HIH's background since he's also a previous winner (otherwise, it's hard to explain why he was organizing games in the first place). he even got a replacement, but we have no clue who that is. the cliff hanger of this season was so underwhelming. netflix harassed the hell out of SQ's screenwriter for THIS. overall, acting was great and song choices were fitting. however, i felt like this could've been a final season.

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s(e)oul healing

the only thing this drama seriously lacked was the spacing. don't get me wrong, i liked the beginning and the ending of the show, but in the middle, it almost lost my attention. i would've trimmed the series by one to two episodes to keep it up with the spacing. i consider the cast highlight of this series, especially park bo young's acting. i'm so glad that she left romcom days behind and now takes on the slice-of-life genre, which suits her way better. i never make a ship as my sole purpose to watch the series, so i really didn't mind slow relationship developments. for me, the most important things while watching the slice of life genre are feeling a connection to the characters and seeing them heal and grow throughout the story, which happened in this drama.

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hit or miss???

it faces the issue as majority kdramas released this year. it's too predicable. here are some examples:
- FL falling in love first and harder (in the scene where OWS admitted her feelings towards SDY , he looked like he could care less)
- SML /OWS's husband getting k!lled off after receiving typical redemption arc (i hated both of these things)
- the other brother kwording his brother and stepdad (they should've played around with this plot)
also, there were major issues with the writing in the second half. they focused heavily on the antagonists, instead of the leads. leads' relationship wasn't developed at all. the last scene they had together felt like they went back to zero.
honestly speaking, this series was heavily carried by the acting. so kudos to actors. if the cast was different, i wouldn't have finished it.

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headache at times...

I think when I'm writing this I'm speaking for the whole fandom. This series is far from perfect. I would say the best part of this series was the acting. Also, the chemistry was glowing trough our screen which was nice to see. Freen and Becky did a wonderful job on what they had to work with. I am looking forward to their next project together. Now, at first, the plot was promising but it fell flat and dragged out in the end. We hardly even got to see mon and sam happily together in peace. I won't lie. Wedding ending was nice but it felt rushed. I blame it on writer who focused too much time on sam's emotional abusive grandma and manipulative kirk

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Hot Mess

PS: it's my first time writing a review so bear it with me
I must say that I feel underwhelmed about the whole drama. The casting choice was good and the special effects were all well done but something important was missing from the plot.
I liked the topics that were addressed and how those were adressed. From the characters' pov, the story was confusing and jumpy. It felt like a lot of important scenes were removed from the script. Instead of those, there were only action scenes.
Regardless of this factor, I completed it. I don't know if it was the smartest move to leave this drama with an incomplete ending knowing how past netflix series have been treated. Would I rewatch it? No, because I would grow to hate it

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surprising news: netflix destroys yet another series to promote a remake

this whole season feels like "buy one get one free" offer. my criticism towards previous season felt really justified after finishing this dragged-out season.
no eul, in ho and gi hun heavily carried this season. i wish we could've learned more about in ho, since he's the most complicated character in the show. also, no eul was handled pretty poorly, but it was nothing compared to all other additional characters - or should i say, cannon fodder. they literally had no purpose other than to provide cute tiktok edits or pro-life propaganda (which no one really dares to bring up).
this season's saving grace was gi hun's character development. for the first time, viewers can see him struggle with the games in the way that has never shown before. in previous seasons, he had hope for a better tomorrow. after his failed attempt at leaving the games, gi hun becomes more vulnerable and unstable. unlike others, he never loses focus on why he first joined the games, which was to support his family financially. this is beautifully shown through him keeping jun hui's baby alive, which in the end cost him his own life. the scene where other players try to kill a baby to win the games was probably one of the most fcked up scenes i've seen in a TV series in a long time, but it was also so well written that i can't complain. as a viewer you can tell this scenario was written by someone questioning the future of the humanity.
honestly, i don't see anything wrong with the ending. there's no what ifs or buts. i'm just glad that the baby and junho survived. i had no hope for other characters. season 2 and 3 point was to promote the american remake anyway. hopefully, hwang can have a nice holiday on a remote island [without the games] as he wished for.

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the theme will expire if you keep going in circles

let's start off with the bad things about this drama. leads' story lines went in too many circles for my liking. this could've cut the series by 10 episodes at least. however, SY and LY acted the hell out of these characters. it's probably the best acting that i've seen from both of them. surprisingly, i enjoyed the side couples' story lines. the other story line that should've been shorter, was her mother passing away. k!lling an elderly person has become a standard so it ends up giving NOTHING to the story. the music was really off putting at the times. they were targeting international audience but it fell flat. i would've preferred if they used already existing english songs.

also, this drama have so many incredible one liners "the harder i work ,the harder i will fall", "the snacks will expire if you leave them out for too long", "it's your business if you you wish to stay in the past but i'm not obligated to wait for you in the same place" etc

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one of the best drama releases this year

this is what happens when you give great actors a great script. everything from the first episode until the last episode was thought through. also, i really liked that the divorce cases were portrayed realistically [court cases can last long and are often messy].
the only complaints i have are regarding two story lines. first, CEG forcing her daughter to interact with her dad, which felt out of character for her. secondly, the whole one sided crush trope between EG and UJ. it's as if writers threw it in the first episodes, but didn't know what to do with it in the final episode. overall, it's a great watch, and i'm thankful to whoever thought casting jang nara and nam jihyun as leading ladies.
PS: if you're a romcom enjoyer, you've come to the wrong place

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