Knavery

It's a super frustrating way to end a TV show. I know people are hoping for season 2 but 4 years later when a lead character has the person playing it change... it's just not going to feel like season 2.

Liked the start, the first half was good. The back half of the episodes slowly started to lose interest. Wasn't a fan of the Jiang Wu character. It felt like they made characters powerful and then didn't know what to do with them... so it was a circle of "and suddenly X character is much stronger than everyone else and that other strong character we said was strong is now weak". I mean OK they sprinkled in explanations but it felt like the writers and directors violated the rules of the universe they created over and over and over.

The ending was a little confusing. The last 6 episodes contained way too many flashbacks, unconscious mind/universe scenes, etc... and they would just cut to these scenes instantly without context.

I guess bittersweet is the way to describe it?

I mean the plot is ridiculous. The resolution is underwhelming. I liked the characters. It's a short web series. All in all it's watchable and there are worse ways to spend 2 hours. The writers of this show really need to come up with clearer endings. All sorts of hints and innuendo about the cure for Wan Jun but it was still unclear to me. If they had one more episode to show it resolved I would have appreciated the drama much more.

It felt like they could have introduced the wife's perspective earlier but they didn't so it felt rushed. The show is ok but I think I prefer Go Back Couple much more.

It's a pretty light drama all things considered. There's no serious punishment for the villains (who tried but failed to do horrible things), it's implied off camera that they receive justice but that's about it. No serious tragedy. The only reason to watch this is if you like the shy quiet beauty of either (or both) of the two leads. I really liked them so I enjoyed it.

I know it's not interesting for everyone but if you take away the ridiculousness of TV shows - they really nailed the concept of franchise/corporate in the retail industry. Yoo Yeon Joo knows what she's talking about - especially in the back half of the show. Her offer to Dae Hyun and his mother is super generous and would never fly in America (shareholders would shut it down immediately) but I could definitely see it working in a place like South Korea where nepotism, tradition, families as major shareholders and image are much more important.

When the show focused on the jobs and the business these women are in it fell short in a big way. They should have stuck with a simpler business like manufacturing companies or property management companies or retailers. Instead they tried and failed to make a point about internet companies.

This felt like a soap way too much. Episode 5 comes to mind as being particularly awful.

But aside from that I think the three female leads have different contrasting personalities in the show which make them interesting.

She's fine as an actress. The writing and directing team just made the character so unlikeable.

Lost interest at episode 3. I don't care to have them take half the show to figure out the basics while things happen and they just act confused.

I gave up a little past the halfway mark.

I wonder if they'll accurately portray corrupt officials covering things up because the central corrupt government led by President Xi encourages cover-ups. I have no doubt 10-20 years from now another disease will emerge from China and cause the world problems again. They have learned nothing from this. The word "accountability" doesn't seem to exist with the CCP. If you are proactive and find something, the CCP will fire you. It encourages bad practices.

The ending was weak. The explanation I see down below for the happy ending doesn't make much sense (even if that's the intent of the writing/directing team... it's still filled with holes). I think the fact he has a first wife complicated things. I liked her and the actress playing her but she became an afterthought way too often.

Oof. Thanks for the tip. I just saw two of these soaps appear on Kocowa new episodes and figured I'd give once a chance while I work from home. I guess I'll go with the other one for now and this one at some point later.

I'm kind of on the fence about starting this one. I like the cast but I'm not sure how you base an entire TV show off a concept that's usually a twist in a TV show or a ~1-2 hour movie.

I guess the question to ask is how much comedy you like mixed in with action?

A major part of the show is misunderstanding between the leads and other characters. A second major part of the show is the group of housewives and househusbands protecting their neighborhood and trying to help the female lead to funny results. A lot of confusion results for both the leads and everyone else.

There is a lot of internal monologue among the characters as they say one thing to try to get information and reactions but are thinking another.

I enjoyed it but it's not anywhere near as serious as Healer. The action scenes are fewer and far between but they do exist and happen. It does have serious moments. There are consequences for characters. But it's a blend of serious and comedy. Sometimes stuff is funny, sometimes stuff is serious, sad, happy.

It makes sense though. You'd have a King die and then you have a young man or boy ascend the throne... what happens next?

A modern example is Kim Jong Un inheriting North Korea in 2011 at the age of 25.

He killed or jailed over 200 top officials including an uncle. This took place over several years as he began to take control and consolidate power. At first Kim Jong Un put forward orders many of which were not followed... then he had to enforce it with violence. Soldiers were literally killed in battle for siding with their "advisor" they liked over the "king" in Kim Jong Un. A new king coming into power without strong military ties could easily find himself deposed. Especially when military power was more about manpower in ancient China (or anywhere) so a powerful advisor from a populous province of the empire/kingdom could legitimately threaten to march on the capital and kill the king by assembling men from the cities and surrounding villages he "owns".

I'm a big fan of Roman history so think about Rome. Caesar was a governor of a province north of Rome after he became too powerful and the Roman Senate wanted to exile him. He had troops loyal to him. He marched on Rome and seized it and quickly eliminated his rivals (killing them, exiling them and then stuffing the Senate with advisors loyal to him that would vote for him). Now replace Senate with King or Queen and it's the same concept.

So while it's not fun they're powerless I would say it's somewhat accurate. You're either powerless or ruthless and while neither one is particularly good... the young king slaughtering his uncles and brothers and advisors isn't likely to win over any modern audience.

Agreed. The show should have taken a more episodic approach. It started to drag because it was the same case over and over. The bad guy can predict the future and always act appropriately (and none of that gets captured on camera?) to escape and even when he gets caught there's some convenient way out to keep the story going.

It's one of my gripes with a lot of crime shows. The villain is always some super genius until he or she is conveniently not a super genius and gets caught. Most writers don't have the writing ability to write smart and flawed villains and pace it will enough so that they aren't stretching reality to keep things going.

Western TV kind of hides this where most crime shows are episodic with a bigger story and one big time villain that they slowly develop.

I like Chinese historicals the best of the China/Japan/Korea. I enjoy historical TV shows no matter the language.

I think Korean/Japan can come close to China when it comes to the comedy style and the "traveled back in time" genre but do less well with serious period pieces for whatever reason. One example is Nobunaga Concerto from Japan which is one of my favorite shows.

Female lead is still the worst lead I have ever seen in any drama anywhere. She's a bad person. You can be a victim and a bad person. A strong character is someone who can be empathetic and protect others and do the right thing. Read the synopsis up there. That's her character. Lies, cheats, steals and destroys innocent lives (intentionally, she chooses to destroy them).

Korean dramas are filled with leads - mostly men who are pretty bad, sometimes abusive but I just haven't seen anyone this bad. She would be the villain in literally any other story. She's a corrupt prosecutor who harms innocent people. She would be the big bad guy at the end of the show who needs to be taken out after the leads have worked their way to her. I'm not saying she doesn't jail bad guys - of course she does. But those corrupt prosecutor antagonists in other shows also jail bad guys. They just also screw over innocent people and try to jail them too (like our female lead).

Instead she's played as some sort of anti-hero but I still don't see anything redeeming about her character to compensate for the bad she did in the show. I appreciate there's corruption and you see this all the time in Western shows as well where cops or prosecutors bend the rules but it shouldn't be glorified - certainly not to the extent of what she does. Of course in TV shows it always works out... in real life innocent people get thrown in jail.

The posters look cool but I'm not sure about the story.