When a Promising Flame Fades Too Quickly
This drama began like a candle lit in a dark room .. intriguing , full of potential, promising.
The Opening carefully laid the groundwork, inviting viewers into a world of moral conflict, emotional wounds, and unspoken truths. Unfortunately by the time the last 3 episodes arrived that candle had burned unevenly .. leaving more smoke than warmth.
The story’s greatest weakness lies in its ending. What started as a tightly woven narrative slowly unraveled, as if the writers rushed to close doors they had spent episodes carefully opening. Half of episode 10 , episode 11 and episode 12 in particular felt unnecessary. Instead of deepening the impact, it felt more diluted , making the finale feel stretched for nothing.
To begin with, one of the most disappointing missed oppotunities was Se Na's father murder case This storyline held immense emotional and thematic importance, yet it was confined to a single episode. Driven by her father’s wrongful accusation, she became a lawyer to uncover the truth, expose those responsible, and declare his innocence. The issue deserved deeper exploration, especially considering how central it was to Se-na’s internal conflict and sense of justice. Compressing such a heavy subject into one episode made it feel incomplete.
Byeong-gyun’s character arc suffered a similar fate. His sudden shift toward the “right path” felt unrealistic and unearned. A lifetime of manipulation, moral corruption, and selfish choices cannot be undone by a few moments of persuasion.
The romance, too, felt misplaced. Introduced late in the drama, mostly around episode 10, it lacked development and emotional depth. Rather than enriching the narrative, it felt like an obligation .. something added because dramas are expected to have romance. Idol i was strongest when it focused on broken dreams, friendship, and survival within a cruel industry. The romantic subplot was unnecessary and, ultimately, forgettable.
Another narrative inconsistency appears in Ra-ik’s storyline. As the first and primary suspect in a murder case facing the very real possibility of life imprisonment ... his sudden emotional availability feels deeply unrealistic. The drama asks viewers to believe that someone standing on the edge of losing everything could find the time and emotional space to fall in love. Instead of tension, fear, or psychological pressure, this arc shifts toward romance, weakening the gravity of his situation and breaking the story’s internal logic.
Ra-ik’s mother is another example of underused potential. Her character felt largely unnecessary, not because she lacked importance, but because the drama failed to give her a meaningful role. She could have been used to deepen Ra-ik’s internal conflict, explain more his emotional distance, or enrich the narrative with generational pressure and unresolved trauma. Instead, she existed on the sidelines, adding little to the plot when she could have been a powerful emotional anchor.
I could go on and dive much deeper into analyzing Idol i ,but I’ll stop here and focus only on what frustrated me the most. Funny enough, when I first started the drama, I rated it an 8. However, when i decided to write a review , that score slowly fell apart scene by scene, until it barely landed at 4.5 stars. Sometimes, reflection is more honest than first impressions, and unfortunately, Idol i did not survive that second look.
The Opening carefully laid the groundwork, inviting viewers into a world of moral conflict, emotional wounds, and unspoken truths. Unfortunately by the time the last 3 episodes arrived that candle had burned unevenly .. leaving more smoke than warmth.
The story’s greatest weakness lies in its ending. What started as a tightly woven narrative slowly unraveled, as if the writers rushed to close doors they had spent episodes carefully opening. Half of episode 10 , episode 11 and episode 12 in particular felt unnecessary. Instead of deepening the impact, it felt more diluted , making the finale feel stretched for nothing.
To begin with, one of the most disappointing missed oppotunities was Se Na's father murder case This storyline held immense emotional and thematic importance, yet it was confined to a single episode. Driven by her father’s wrongful accusation, she became a lawyer to uncover the truth, expose those responsible, and declare his innocence. The issue deserved deeper exploration, especially considering how central it was to Se-na’s internal conflict and sense of justice. Compressing such a heavy subject into one episode made it feel incomplete.
Byeong-gyun’s character arc suffered a similar fate. His sudden shift toward the “right path” felt unrealistic and unearned. A lifetime of manipulation, moral corruption, and selfish choices cannot be undone by a few moments of persuasion.
The romance, too, felt misplaced. Introduced late in the drama, mostly around episode 10, it lacked development and emotional depth. Rather than enriching the narrative, it felt like an obligation .. something added because dramas are expected to have romance. Idol i was strongest when it focused on broken dreams, friendship, and survival within a cruel industry. The romantic subplot was unnecessary and, ultimately, forgettable.
Another narrative inconsistency appears in Ra-ik’s storyline. As the first and primary suspect in a murder case facing the very real possibility of life imprisonment ... his sudden emotional availability feels deeply unrealistic. The drama asks viewers to believe that someone standing on the edge of losing everything could find the time and emotional space to fall in love. Instead of tension, fear, or psychological pressure, this arc shifts toward romance, weakening the gravity of his situation and breaking the story’s internal logic.
Ra-ik’s mother is another example of underused potential. Her character felt largely unnecessary, not because she lacked importance, but because the drama failed to give her a meaningful role. She could have been used to deepen Ra-ik’s internal conflict, explain more his emotional distance, or enrich the narrative with generational pressure and unresolved trauma. Instead, she existed on the sidelines, adding little to the plot when she could have been a powerful emotional anchor.
I could go on and dive much deeper into analyzing Idol i ,but I’ll stop here and focus only on what frustrated me the most. Funny enough, when I first started the drama, I rated it an 8. However, when i decided to write a review , that score slowly fell apart scene by scene, until it barely landed at 4.5 stars. Sometimes, reflection is more honest than first impressions, and unfortunately, Idol i did not survive that second look.
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