I knew Jung min was sus since the beginning... I mean who volunteers to clean a dead person's bathroom? He wasn't…
I mean, my mother's done that for close people dealing with a death in the family to spare them the emotional strain. But considering Jeongmin and Jian had just met for the first time in ten years, I did think, "This is either the kindest person in the world offering to do something so personal for a stranger or a ploy to destroy evidence."
OK, after finishing the series, I have a few random thoughts:
I clapped in front of my computer when Kim Youngho went berserk in the crooked lawyer's office and was able to beat up all of his thugs running on sheer crazy. At that point KYH seemed like the most victimised character in the drama, and it was particularly frustrating how Yoon Seoha was the person backing him into a corner and bringing misery upon him while fully believing she was the real victim. So I also felt a thrill of perverse satisfaction when Yoon Myunghee slapped Yoon Seoha in the final episode.
Speaking of which, Seoha did not get any more likeable as the show progressed—the opposite, in fact. It was refreshing in a way to follow a protagonist who is truly an average person, as opposed to TV's idealised version of 'average.' Seoha is a little stupid at times, bad at reacting to unexpected situations and good at overreacting, kind of selfish and annoying, and bad at predicting the consequences of her actions, which is how a lot of people end up committing crimes. Still, she isn't evil, and she learned a valuable and enduring lesson in the final episode, I think.
Re. the incest plot twist, I saw it coming a mile away, but it was well done. The sparse flashbacks to Yoon Myunghee and Yoon Myungho's youth showed convincingly how something like that might happen. Myunghee grew up in a poor, remote and brutally patriarchal environment where men, including her father, treated her like an object, and an unwanted one at that because of her physical defect. Myungho was the only man who showed her kindness and care, so she latched on to him, unable as she was to obtain or even imagine a life where she wouldn’t be under some man's authority and having no viable choice of male protector in her village but him. Under those circumstances, it wasn't such a massive leap for her emotional dependence on Myungho and her understanding of the hierarchical relations between men and women and how sex factors into that to get twisted up. (Of course, Myungho was also responsible for their relationship, but I'm talking about Myunghee's thoughts and feelings because we saw her perspective more clearly. As far as Myungho is concerned, the show implies he was sensitive and affectionate to a fault, loved his 'normal' family and was mostly reacting to Myunghee's pain and neediness where their sexual relationship was concerned, but I'm sure that's not the full story.)
Actually, I thought Yoon Myunghee really stole the show for someone who only really appeared in the final hour. Her characterisation and the actress's performance were top notch.
I also liked that there were several antagonists who appeared at different points in the narrative in a way that showed how consequences can snowball when (bad) people make bad decisions, attracting other bad people like flies.
Detective Choi was my favourite of the protagonists and I'm still not sure why he had to quit being a detective. Surely another unit within the police would have loved to snap him up when his station downsized? Everyone knew he was the brains of his team. It's good that he reconnected with his son, at least, though I have absolutely no idea how you repair a relationship like that.
The last 1-2 episodes tied together a lot of themes and brought out the importance of family, whatever that means and however ugly it may look. So the long setup in the first 3-4 episodes definitely paid off for me. (I'm not saying I agree with what the drama has to say or that it's a particularly original message, but it's well made and has a clear dramatic arc, so it will stay with me, which is more than I can say about most kdramas regardless of genre.)
A really good show that kept my attention throughout! I'm glad I watched it.
I'm on ep. 3 and I'm loving it so far, but I have to say Seoha's lack of interest in various very obvious questions (why is everyone obsessed with the burial ground, why is her brother so weird and what does he actually want, why are so many shady entrepreneurs taking an interest in her all of a sudden, why was the atmosphere at her uncle's funeral so inappropriate, etc.) is holding back the plot. It's like they made her totally incurious to ensure the important revelations wouldn't come too early.
Her passivity—her meekness in front of her boss and the building owner, her naive gratitude when strange men like the village head and the detective from the other station show up and start telling her what to do, and her lack of interest in this mysterious and sinister family drama she's at the centre of—is actually pretty believable when you consider how she's lived so far, all the shocking stuff that's happened to her recently and how she's trying to hold her life together, so I hesitate to call it bad characterisation or bad writing, but I'm used to protagonists who are more proactive when people around them start dying.
(The fact that the only person she allows herself to be confrontational toward, out of all the leeches and creeps around her, is a woman she perceives as a rival is also, umm... an interesting choice by the writer... that doesn't endear her to me. But again, maybe the writer did this on purpose to show how small and unpleasant we can be when we lash out at the world, even if we're victims of our circumstances. And it's not like it's unrealistic either, in social contexts where standing up to men is riskier and more unacceptable than standing up to women.)
In any case, I hope she'll wake up soon.
Other than that, as I said, I'm loving it. It's interesting, it's subtle, the direction is good, the soundtrack is really good, we haven't had a gritty crime thriller kdrama about small-town horrors and grim homicide detectives in a while and I love the genre—basically everything is chef's kiss. I like the complicated backstory between the two cops too.
Absolutely goated cast and a genre/type of plot Japan excels in (melancholic romantic mystery/thriller about a crime that occurred many years ago but still holds sway over the protagonists' lives). I will be SEATED.
Great! But where were all these powerful men in entertainment business and why they didn't speak up for Sulli…
They’re speaking up for their friend, who continues to be harassed even after death. When Sulli and Goo Hara died, their friends and supporters spoke up in similar ways. It’s true Korean society is extremely misogynistic, but getting angry at some men for caring about their friend’s tragic death is insane to me.
Celebrities don’t have to comment on every news story before they can be allowed to speak about things that affect them personally.
This sounds a lot like A Dream of Splendor, which had AMAZING chemistry between the leads/romantic tension in the first 15-20 episodes but went downhill after that. I hope Flourished Peony will emulate ADoS's commitment to mature characterisation and understated yearning while doing a better job with the plot and pacing.
An extremely stupid script elevated by good direction. Nothing about the disease, how it works, how people and institutions react to it or the development of the cure makes ANY logical sense from a medical, public health or sociopolitical standpoint,* the COVID-19 parallels already feel dated—let's make a cliché zombie show and have the characters compare the zombie virus to the novel coronavirus constantly but without making sure the comparisons really hold up or trying to make an actual point, great idea—every single character is a total idiot, characters' personalities and motivations change several times per episode to suit the needs of the plot, THE SHOW ISN'T EVEN SCARY OR SUSPENSEFUL—the only chilling moment came when the apartment complex resounded with the bangs and screams of all the infected people hiding away in their homes, but the show did nothing to build on that atmosphere—that one combat medic is simultaneously conducting cutting-edge medical research, butlering for her boss, raiding drug dens in SWAT gear, giving important press conferences on live TV and delivering quarantine supplies like those aren't at least four different jobs, the relationships between the Korean military, the civilian government, Korean corporations and foreign drug developers are never once explained or clarified, etc. etc. etc., but at the same time I'm having fun, so I'll keep watching. The soundtrack and musical direction are good.
*My favourite "this makes no sense, but we need to make our awful plot work, so just go with it" moment was when Lieutenant Colonel Military Doctor cum Private Corporate Spy cum Military Liaison for the Zombie Plague—again, why are a random active-service combat medic and a suit with a useless MD observing the infected and making the cure in an abandoned factory? I'm pretty sure there are more qualified biomedical researchers and more sterile labs in South Korea, let alone the world—said society needed to hold out longer because scientists were struggling to come up with a vaccine that could breach the blood-brain barrier. BITCH, YOU COMPARED THE VIRUS TO RABIES EARLIER (a much more appropriate comparison than COVID-19, by the way)! Rabies is still a deadly disease on a global scale, but it causes virtually no fatalities in developed countries like the US BECAUSE INFECTED PEOPLE CAN GET A SHOT AFTER THEY'VE BEEN BITTEN! As long as you get the vaccine BEFORE THE RABIES VIRUS REACHES THE CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM you'll be fine!
So it would have been totally worthwhile and actually mega useful to roll out a vaccine based on the antibodies they were already familiar with ASAP! It wouldn't have cured the people who were already showing symptoms, but it would have prevented further infections and saved infected people who were still asymptomatic (and don't forget the virus takes a few days to take over according to the show). That would have put a stop to the spread of the disease and allowed the authorities to focus on containing the incurably sick and rebuilding society while pharma companies continued to look for a cure. THAT'S HOW RABIES WAS SOLVED! But instead the military just let the infected rampage through Seoul and create more zombies everywhere they went because they were more interested in curing the already zombified (an impossible task at the time) than in preventing further infections in the first place. Brutal waste of time. Imagine if society had just refused to develop a COVID-19 vaccine until we knew how to cure it (which we still don't)!
Anyway, again, I'm having fun with this show, but you really need to turn your brain off while watching it. And don't get me started on how illogical everyone including the protagonists is!
This sounds like an updated version of Nirvana in Fire and the cast is gorgeous. I will be seated! I love me a scheming protagonist with a hidden identity on a quest for revenge. It’s not an original concept, but it always hits the spot for me when executed well.
I'm on episode 12 and I'm loving this drama so far, but it's hilarious to me that Lin Qiang has been working for a nasty drug cartel for months now and no one has asked her to 1. have sex, 2. do drugs or 3. kill a person yet.
If I got cucked by Sakaken I'd just say thank you instead of fronting like I was gonna get my girl back, but I guess they need to fill 16 episodes somehow...
I mean it sounds interesting and the genre is right up my alley, but i am worried this is yet again another in-sensitive…
I would bet everything in my bank account that her father was abusive and she killed him in self-defence (even if it was premeditated and/or excessive or whatever). That's just how kdramas are.
1 
I clapped in front of my computer when Kim Youngho went berserk in the crooked lawyer's office and was able to beat up all of his thugs running on sheer crazy. At that point KYH seemed like the most victimised character in the drama, and it was particularly frustrating how Yoon Seoha was the person backing him into a corner and bringing misery upon him while fully believing she was the real victim. So I also felt a thrill of perverse satisfaction when Yoon Myunghee slapped Yoon Seoha in the final episode.
Speaking of which, Seoha did not get any more likeable as the show progressed—the opposite, in fact. It was refreshing in a way to follow a protagonist who is truly an average person, as opposed to TV's idealised version of 'average.' Seoha is a little stupid at times, bad at reacting to unexpected situations and good at overreacting, kind of selfish and annoying, and bad at predicting the consequences of her actions, which is how a lot of people end up committing crimes. Still, she isn't evil, and she learned a valuable and enduring lesson in the final episode, I think.
Re. the incest plot twist, I saw it coming a mile away, but it was well done. The sparse flashbacks to Yoon Myunghee and Yoon Myungho's youth showed convincingly how something like that might happen. Myunghee grew up in a poor, remote and brutally patriarchal environment where men, including her father, treated her like an object, and an unwanted one at that because of her physical defect. Myungho was the only man who showed her kindness and care, so she latched on to him, unable as she was to obtain or even imagine a life where she wouldn’t be under some man's authority and having no viable choice of male protector in her village but him. Under those circumstances, it wasn't such a massive leap for her emotional dependence on Myungho and her understanding of the hierarchical relations between men and women and how sex factors into that to get twisted up. (Of course, Myungho was also responsible for their relationship, but I'm talking about Myunghee's thoughts and feelings because we saw her perspective more clearly. As far as Myungho is concerned, the show implies he was sensitive and affectionate to a fault, loved his 'normal' family and was mostly reacting to Myunghee's pain and neediness where their sexual relationship was concerned, but I'm sure that's not the full story.)
Actually, I thought Yoon Myunghee really stole the show for someone who only really appeared in the final hour. Her characterisation and the actress's performance were top notch.
I also liked that there were several antagonists who appeared at different points in the narrative in a way that showed how consequences can snowball when (bad) people make bad decisions, attracting other bad people like flies.
Detective Choi was my favourite of the protagonists and I'm still not sure why he had to quit being a detective. Surely another unit within the police would have loved to snap him up when his station downsized? Everyone knew he was the brains of his team. It's good that he reconnected with his son, at least, though I have absolutely no idea how you repair a relationship like that.
The last 1-2 episodes tied together a lot of themes and brought out the importance of family, whatever that means and however ugly it may look. So the long setup in the first 3-4 episodes definitely paid off for me. (I'm not saying I agree with what the drama has to say or that it's a particularly original message, but it's well made and has a clear dramatic arc, so it will stay with me, which is more than I can say about most kdramas regardless of genre.)
A really good show that kept my attention throughout! I'm glad I watched it.
Her passivity—her meekness in front of her boss and the building owner, her naive gratitude when strange men like the village head and the detective from the other station show up and start telling her what to do, and her lack of interest in this mysterious and sinister family drama she's at the centre of—is actually pretty believable when you consider how she's lived so far, all the shocking stuff that's happened to her recently and how she's trying to hold her life together, so I hesitate to call it bad characterisation or bad writing, but I'm used to protagonists who are more proactive when people around them start dying.
(The fact that the only person she allows herself to be confrontational toward, out of all the leeches and creeps around her, is a woman she perceives as a rival is also, umm... an interesting choice by the writer... that doesn't endear her to me. But again, maybe the writer did this on purpose to show how small and unpleasant we can be when we lash out at the world, even if we're victims of our circumstances. And it's not like it's unrealistic either, in social contexts where standing up to men is riskier and more unacceptable than standing up to women.)
In any case, I hope she'll wake up soon.
Other than that, as I said, I'm loving it. It's interesting, it's subtle, the direction is good, the soundtrack is really good, we haven't had a gritty crime thriller kdrama about small-town horrors and grim homicide detectives in a while and I love the genre—basically everything is chef's kiss. I like the complicated backstory between the two cops too.
Celebrities don’t have to comment on every news story before they can be allowed to speak about things that affect them personally.
*My favourite "this makes no sense, but we need to make our awful plot work, so just go with it" moment was when Lieutenant Colonel Military Doctor cum Private Corporate Spy cum Military Liaison for the Zombie Plague—again, why are a random active-service combat medic and a suit with a useless MD observing the infected and making the cure in an abandoned factory? I'm pretty sure there are more qualified biomedical researchers and more sterile labs in South Korea, let alone the world—said society needed to hold out longer because scientists were struggling to come up with a vaccine that could breach the blood-brain barrier. BITCH, YOU COMPARED THE VIRUS TO RABIES EARLIER (a much more appropriate comparison than COVID-19, by the way)! Rabies is still a deadly disease on a global scale, but it causes virtually no fatalities in developed countries like the US BECAUSE INFECTED PEOPLE CAN GET A SHOT AFTER THEY'VE BEEN BITTEN! As long as you get the vaccine BEFORE THE RABIES VIRUS REACHES THE CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM you'll be fine!
So it would have been totally worthwhile and actually mega useful to roll out a vaccine based on the antibodies they were already familiar with ASAP! It wouldn't have cured the people who were already showing symptoms, but it would have prevented further infections and saved infected people who were still asymptomatic (and don't forget the virus takes a few days to take over according to the show). That would have put a stop to the spread of the disease and allowed the authorities to focus on containing the incurably sick and rebuilding society while pharma companies continued to look for a cure. THAT'S HOW RABIES WAS SOLVED! But instead the military just let the infected rampage through Seoul and create more zombies everywhere they went because they were more interested in curing the already zombified (an impossible task at the time) than in preventing further infections in the first place. Brutal waste of time. Imagine if society had just refused to develop a COVID-19 vaccine until we knew how to cure it (which we still don't)!
Anyway, again, I'm having fun with this show, but you really need to turn your brain off while watching it. And don't get me started on how illogical everyone including the protagonists is!