It's a fantasy, so you do need to somewhat leave your critical thinking mind at the door but there wasn't anything that made me just throw my arms in the air and go "but that's just utter nonsense" at all, it seemed like it was quite consistent with itself in a world that such an object might exist. I liked the presentation of it, the graphics and CG etc are done really well. The premise is also really interesting with the Abyss object and the powers it grants.
This one is difficult to fairly review without putting in spoilers, so I guess the non-spoiler summary of this one should answer the question - is this one worth watching. I'm going to say yes, but, be prepared for a less than satisfying ending.
The story goes really well until the end, and then suddenly it's over and you're left with the feeling of "what just happened". I re-watched the final episode again a second time because I was convinced that i'd missed something, but I hadnt, so it definitely feels like they took a 20 episode arc and put the final 5 in to the final episode of 16 episode arc, like it got cut short at the end.
I've seen commentary online that people feel the writer did a bad job because of the ending and honestly I don't agree, this one feels like it was out of the writers hands - the rest of the story stands up well, and it's because the rest of the story stands up that I'm happy to recommend this one. A good ending would have made it a solid 10 star for me.
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The Songs! Her Voice!
Park Eun Bin never, and I mean, never, fails to deliver and this is no exception - adding a whole new facet to her talents by having her knocking it out of the park with that stunning voice she has too, alongside her already award winning acting talent.The rest of the cast are great too, of course, and I particularly loved the interplay between Park Eun Bin and Kim Hyo Jin (who played Ran Joo), and Lee Re who played Seo Mok Ha when she was younger was an absolutely inspired choice - the two of them were a brilliant younger/older pairing and so often when watching the older Mok Ha I could see the little twitches or tells that were the same as Lee Re portrayed on the younger Mok Ha - this truly felt like a younger and older version of the same person.
This is a story of people who have lost their way, whether it's in their careers and dreams or literally on an island, and how those people find each other and guide each other to their futures.
The music throughout is spectacular, absolutely my taste and i'll be adding most of it to my playlist on Spotify, wait for the credits at the end of the last episode for a different video to one of the songs too featuring Mok Ha on the island, nice little treat.
Of course aside from Mok Ha on the island, you've got a number of other things at play, from Ran Joo losing her way as an artist, to the other things happening to Ki Ho, Mok ha's friend from home who tried to run away with her at the start that threaten to not just derail their futures but potentially worse.
Numerous times throughout watching this you'll get those big warm fuzzies, or ball your eyes out, depending on how you react - not spoiling anything but... Ran Joo and the balloons, that's all i'm saying. Sorry, i've got something in my eye...
Trigger warnings - abusive parents at the start, pretty tough to watch, but it all contributes to the story I thought and none of it was gratuitous.
I'd happily re-watch this one. The songs, the sights of seeing her grow and sing, the journey the other characters take, I don't think knowing what comes actually diminishes the value of re-watching it much if at all.
Right, i'm off to get a fair-use warning on Spotify for listening to the OST for this too much...
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Good for your Mental Health
I think beyond Romance, my favourite topic for a KDrama has to be Mental Health. Some of my favourite dramas fall into this category, and i'm gonna spoil the review (but not the show) by saying Daily Dose of Sunshine shoots to the top of that list.For a start you've got a great cast, led by Park Bo Young who never falls short. Lee Jung Eun is another favourite and is superb in this drama as well.
One of the writers, Lee Nam Gyu, was also one of the writers on "The Light in your eyes", another beautifully told mental health drama.
The basic plot of the story starts out looking like a "case of the day" type show but evolves rapidly.
My takeaways from this, were that the story was there to highlight that everyone, no exceptions, and without any warning, can start to feel under the weather. Whether it's the patients that come in - or the nurses and doctors themselves.
It pays particular attention to Depression and Panic attacks but there's a range of other ailments including self harm that are included as well.
On the warnings front, I would advise that there is actual suicide and attempted suicide as well as graphical depiction of self harm. Let that show you however that these are topics taken extremely seriously, and viewed from all perspectives.
The other aspect I liked was the "other side" of mental health, stigmas associated with those who have had treatment and are now classed as in recovery, but how they are so poorly treated by society - even by those who are themselves either getting treatment or are caring for those who are.
Each episode tugs the heart strings, beautifully acted and I loved how it was told. I've binged this over 2 days because honestly I just couldn't stop pressing "next".
I class this one as quite re-watchable too, there's probably more to see from a second viewing and while there are things that happen which obviously won't have the same impact the second time around, you'll see them from another perspective and perhaps see things building up earlier.
Highly recommended, there are lessons for us all here.
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Detailed:
So, the tags for this one include things like Infidelity and Corruption, and I saw others using words like "Revenge" - I must admit I hadn't seen this one as a likely hit for me. I like positive dramas and after watching a couple of Revenge ones I found they're just not to my taste at all. But... it was listed on a recent article on this site in a list of five dramas, four of which I had seen and agreed wholeheartedly with the article author - so I felt that surely this one must be a good bet. I thank the author, Devil's Advocate, for their recommendation!
The infidelity topic is a sensitive one, it's not something I'm normally interested in watching either because often it's somewhat sleazy or purely sexual - and while i'm certainly no prude, it's just not what I come to KDrama for. I was interested to see how this was portrayed, and also because dated in 2014 before Adultery was decriminalised (Korean Penal Code 241), how/if they would handle the criminal aspect of it.
This is a slow paced drama, it's about the imagery of what you're seeing, how you take in the emotions and feelings of the characters and understand what they are going through. Where this one takes it a step further however is through the use of music, particularly the Piano - my favourite instrument. It was a joy to watch the actors perform on the Piano, I don't know if they are as classically trained as it appears but at the end of the day that doesn't matter, they are believable in their performances with keystrokes matching the sounds and the raw emotion of the pieces expressed throughout their whole body movements as they played. When a musician plays a piece of music, they don't just play the Piano with their fingers or hands, it's played with the entire body, and that's exactly how they portrayed it. There was a particularly brilliant scene early on in the drama where the two are playing a two-person piece together on the same Piano and it's super obvious that it's a sexually charged scene with all the energy that implies and yet there's just two people playing the Piano.
Throughout the drama there are many times that you'll be sitting and listening to the music, whether it's because that's what is happening in the story or because there's something else going on and the music is accompanying. You're going to want to like slower contemplatory scenes with the music to listen to or you may find your focus drifting away, personally I was captivated.
The director has also done a magnificent job, the scene where they first get together in his home, with some seemingly random stationary camera shots at various objects around the room you almost feel like you're in the room looking around at anything you can to not look at the two, but you can't help but hear odd things that they say. It was probably one of the better ways i've seen of expressing that "they hooked up" without going anywhere near anything traditional for this. The rest of the drama continues with a similar quality approach.
The FL goes through a personal journey of discovery about what is important to her, and where she is in her life and her status. While the ML's character is great he is there to shine a light on her life, this is her story more than it is theirs.
They DO cover the criminal aspect of Adultery as well just to resolve the point I raised earlier.
Many recognisable faces in the cast but I absolutely felt that Kim Hee Ae was glorious in her performance and I shall certainly be looking out more from her (and indeed the director).
Only minor dent for me? and it really is minor given the weight of the rest of the story - I just like them to end a little longer, it was a nice ending but I wanted more. Maybe I just didn't want it to end. I'm like that when I get into good characters in a good story though.
I loved it and certainly recommend it.
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This one starts out with the actress Oh Yeon Seo taking on a 3 month role as a legal secretary to get experience for an upcoming drama she has been cast in. Her lawyer boss is forced to take her on and initially sparks fly, he comes off as a somewhat impetuous child and rather mis-treats her without any training expecting her to understand their telephone system and other processes. Yeon-Seo looks, sounds and acts like someone who has no life experience having been an actor for her entire life, bubbly, weak and essentially childish.
Yeon-Seo's character partly develops but is also partly revealed to be much more than you will stereotypically assign her at the start. You see some of the challenges that face actors, and that she's actually led quite a challenging life through much adversity and yet remains positive. Someone who starts out looking like a weak character, transpires to be quite a strong one. The scene where she's waiting with part excitement and part fear for the reviews of the drama to start coming in, along with comments from viewers, reminds us all that actors are just regular people who are hurt and rewarded by the things people say, just like anyone else.
The cast were great, I particularly appreciated that Lee Dong Wook's character wasn't as rigid as some ML's - often I see them delivering purposefully flat performances at the start but then as the drama continues, their attempts to loosen up really don't sit well - in this case LDW looks perfectly natural as he opens up and begins to smile more.
Side characters were all good too. The wacky characters of Choi and Dan were fun to watch as they stumble around their lives.
Music was great, several good tracks to enjoy when I pull the OST up later.
Overall a really heart warming drama with a positive note, there is the obligatory "stupid breakup" but they don't drag it out too long. I really appreciated that there are one or two times where "breakup-inducing-misunderstandings" could have happened but through simple communication they are easily handled.
Yes this one is full of cliches but... they worked, so...
Definitely worth a watch and makes for a good re-watch too, there's no real surprises to be spoiled on further re-watches, you can just sit back and enjoy the fantastic chemistry between the characters over and over :)
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Don't waste your time
I don't consider myself a "hater", I really like the cast generally (some really great actors in this in fact including the leads). I also don't subscribe to the complaints that were raised about the show and the cast having no chemistry or some really unpleasant things set about Gong Hyo Jin. I'm also not going to mention (beyond this) potential agendas the show might have had about pro-birth and such. I don't think it's necessary to get a view of the show tbh.Putting all that aside.
The story is absolute trash, in my view, of course.
I feel the actors did the best they could but the story was a confused mess, with the most bonkers ending.
It played with sequences and events to create drama and then dispose of it just as quickly. One minute he's yelling at her that she's a murderer - which was a scene I thought played actually *really* well - and within the same episode they're lovey dovey. Not just once, but *twice* in two different episodes.
The crew of the space station treat it like a frat house.
One time they need to get a rescue rocket up - it'll take weeks to get one ready. Another time, same day or so it seems!
In one bit, there's no health implications for being on the space station. Later, any more than a few days will be fatal, because suddenly he hasn't had the training (which he presumably hadn't had before). Then one says to him that his condition is now fatal - so come home. Why? To die? "fatal" is a word that has quite a specific meaning. But, let's just use it to mean "rather bad".
ARGH!
The ending is just completely abstract. When compared with some other things shown in the course of the ending that are then implied to be false you're kinda left wondering - so how did this *actually* end then?
The cast did they best they could, they're top tier actors, the production had one of, if not the, biggest budget in a KDrama to date. Turns out - you need a good story to make all that worthwhile, but this wasn't even a mediocre one.
I don't know what went so wrong in a production for it to end up this way.
Just ignore it, please, save your time. I watched all 16 episodes because I wanted to give it the benefit of the doubt until the end but honestly if I could wipe it from my memory and un-watch it, I would cheerfully do-so. I have not said that about any other KDrama ever and don't do so lightly here.
I hate saying something bad about a KDrama. :(
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Detail:
This is the second drama i've seen with IU, the first being Hotel Del Luna - and the second of her dramas that's gone right to the top of my "so glad I watched that" list. It also introduced me to Lee Sun Kyun who was an excellent actor in this, he has such a unique bass to his voice.
Whereas in Hotel Del Luna, IU is loud, proud and a bit of a brat, in this she's quiet. She probably doesn't say as many words throughout the whole drama as she does in the first episode of HDL but she doesn't need to, she proves beyond any doubt her acting skill through her actions and expressions, combined with the amazing story.
Ji Ahn (IU) is downtrodden, she's in the gutter, when you're the lowest you can possibly go you learn to distrust and dislike everyone around you. Everyone has let you down, discarded you and hurt you in the past so you learn to expect it from everyone else. She's in trouble with a Loan Shark who beats her up, and she has a no-good brother that she supports. Worst case scenario.
And yet... she soldiers on. If there was ever a story about a strong woman then this is it. She's lost the will to trust others, but no matter what life throws at her she just keeps pushing on. She hasn't lost the will to live.
Dong-Hoon seems to have it all, high flying in the corporate world all he wants to do is a good job, to put safety first in his role as a structural engineer. Corporate politics come knocking and the knives come out in his direction, suddenly he's being attacked from all fronts and then finds out even more devastating news that rocks him to his core.
This story is about these two completely different, but equally broken people who find and heal each other.
There are other characters such as the two brothers, I loved the relationship the three of them had together, they were good moments in the story.
There were a couple of side plots that just seemed extraneous for the most part, the actor and the monk - the actor I guess I kinda get as a motivation for one of the brothers but the monk was just out of left field and I don't think the story would have really differed if it wasn't there, so it was a bit odd.
The music in this drama is excellent, several really top quality tracks that were good to hear each and every time they came on and were on my mind even when not watching.
The general tone of this one is quite slow, it has a mix of high and low points, but overall I found that I wasn't wondering how it was going to end. For me that's always a high mark for a drama, if the journey is so good I just don't care how it ends that's a great thing and I put this one in that list.
Highly recommended.
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Detailed:
This story is all about grief and its many dimensions. When Yu-Ri is suddenly killed in a car accident leaving her husband and newborn baby behind they, her family and her friends struggle. Yu-Ri exists as a ghost, unwilling to move on to her next life until she sees that everyone is doing well. One day, suddenly, she becomes a real person again, and has 49 days back in the real world.
The story goes through a number of phases as more people discover she's alive again, you find out back stories about how each person dealt with their loss and the feelings and emotions that led up to it. No stone is left unturned, no matter how painful.
Performances from the cast are amazing, particularly the two leads but honestly nobody gets left behind in this one, and when you have someone like Kim Mi Kyung on board you already know you've got a strong cast.
It's not all sad moments, there are some moments of great hilarity like when the three ladies decide to even the scores with the busy body rumour spreading mums at the school, these kinds of moments are dotted around and are just the ticket between some tougher parts of the story.
When I say sad, I don't mean that it's all bad stuff either, it's uplifting in its way and tries to talk about how you deal with grief, it recognises that it's just all ok, however you handle it.
I found myself drawn to watch every episode as it aired but knew each one was going to leave me in a funk by the end because it's just that good.
I loved every moment of this drama, but if you're not in the mood for what this has to offer skip it and come back when you are.
Very much something you can rewatch too, if you need something to trigger (or cover...) the tears to help you get over something else, put this one on and binge it until you feel better. I found the plot generally predictable but not in any negative way, this one's about the journey, and that just makes it all the better for rewatching.
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If you liked Good Manager (Chief Kim, or whatever you want to call it!) then it's similar humour style to that.
Most of the characters are relatively "normal" but the main lawyer whose nickname is "Goethe" is quite seriously over the top and was the main reason I took a while to warm up - they hit you at full speed with his characters weirdness - but, stick with it, you will almost certainly warm up to his character and it becomes all the more amusing later on when other characters start imitating him to great effect.
Fundamentally it's a legal drama / comedy, there's no notable romance involved (not strictly true, but it's a total side plot), and it's about a law firm called B+G and one of their former team, an ace lawyer Go Tae Rim who is now out on his own and is all about the money money money.
Major high point for me - unlike so many other legal dramas this one excels at pointing out that a lawyers job is to represent their client as best they can, it is NOT to seek out "justice" and the show does a good job to highlight WHY a lawyer cannot do that. Whether the client is right or wrong is not your job to determine, it's the system, if you get a bad person off their charge you're not at fault, the prosecution are for not doing a better job. In this way, Go Tae Rim appears brutal and single minded - but one of the best "true" representations of being a lawyer i've seen in a show.
The FL is amazing, whether it's being serious in the court room, funny and delightful in other scenes or painfully hurt and suffering as she deals with a case she is involved in at the start, the range she shows is fantastic. I'm definitely going to be watching more of her work. She was also in Romantic Doctor Season 1 and a guest on Hotel Del Luna as well as a few others.
The ladies in this are great characters - whether it's the FL who develops from innocent inexperience to a strong willed, strong minded woman who can take on the world, or Director Min, who is already strong but learns how to let others in.
It's a good story, good ending, some good humour and some great characters. Definitely worth a watch.
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Brilliant fun!
Short: If there was ever a role that suited Hwang Jung Eum, this is it. Many good fun moments, general warm message of helping people through their "grudges". Some good music, and an original story with interesting characters played by a superb cast make this one an easy win.Detailed:
So much fun :)
It's 12 episodes, which allows it to remain punchy and stay on point. Many amusing moments come out of Wol joo's character being something of a brat, constantly acting up and bossing people around, particularly her faithful sidekick.
It just looks like the cast, directors, writer had a blast - there's a lot of energy in it and numerous times that some interesting scenes were in there that perhaps didn't even need to be (like one scene where she turns to face the camera, breaks the fourth wall and sends out some facts to the viewers, or another where they subtly introduce 'the new guy in heaven' - Steve Jobs of Apple, who's sitting there taking one bite out of an apple in just *that* place) - but the presence of them just made it all the more fun.
It has a good message, everything you do reflects on you later, whether it's big or small, good or bad, it will come back to you later.
If there was ever a role that Hwang Jung Eum's very extrovert acting style suited this one is absolutely it, even if you haven't appreciated her as much in other roles give this one a shot, it's spot on :)
I particularly enjoyed Jung Da Eun's character, Yeo Rin, the security guard. She takes no prisoners, she's tough, but she's still a person and shows warmth as well.
Highly watchable, definitely recommended :)
Why only 9.5 and not 10? It's not "goblin" good or "crash landing" good, but I can't bear to give it even a 9, so i've gone for 9.5 :) There's no science there at all! :)
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This one is going to take you into the offices inside a school and you'll be taken on a journey as the teachers go through their behind-the-scenes work to provide education for the kids and all the challenges they face.
Starting out with a horrible accident that changes the life of Ha-Neul forever as it inspires her to become a teacher, the story follows her early career as she joins a school as a contract temporary teacher and is immediately thrown into the middle of intense office politics.
While this drama takes place in a school, it's more of an office drama - the politics between departments, the power struggles of the power hungry, those who are going above and beyond to try and provide the best education to the students and those who come to work for a pay check.
I picked this one up because of Seo Hyun-Jin, i'll watch anything she's in because I enjoy her acting - but I'd re-watch it because of the story and all the other characters without a doubt.
It's really interesting to see the school situation from this perspective, as they are a struggling school that is really struggling to get universities to accept or even consider their students they start coming up with strategies to take their top students and push them further - but then this has other consequences. From an outside perspective you would no doubt share the students and parents view of them being single minded to the top 1% of students but seeing all the discussions, meetings and debates you see that things are always more complicated than that.
There's no romance here, not even the slightest whiff of one, so don't come here expecting it :)
Worth a watch!
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The Waffley Bit - The two main leads were amazing, having already seen Shin Hye Sun in "30 but 17" I was already expecting great work from her, but hadn't seen "L" in anything before. Shin Hye Sun was just fantastic showing a wide range of her character work from the stone cold ice queen, mean and cruel at the start, to the warm, loving and friendly character later and then to the hysterical, crying and pitiful character further on, with plenty in between. It's worth rewatching just to remind yourself how her character progresses so much - after you've seen her "lights up the room" smiles and "nervous breakdown" crying it's worth reminding yourself of the emotionless cold hearted character she rendered at the start. L was fantastic too, and if i'm honest I appreciated his work more than I expected I would, nothing wooden or plastic about his performance at all, it was spot on. Other characters were largely as expected, though I did appreciate the butler played by Woo Hee Jin, an interesting character who makes out that she is constantly put out of her way by Yeon Seo, but is always there beside her protecting her.
Music was just stunning, this one is all about a ballerina so you can expect some fantastic ballet performances and lots of classical music to go with it (but not enough to put off those who don't enjoy it, don't worry :) ). Where the normal OST style tracks are they were mostly brilliant, some really notable tracks i'm looking forward to hearing again separately. The only exception for me was one track that starts with "1, 2 and 1,2,3.4" in the vocals - at least a couple of times this was played over the top of someone talking and its mere presence simply highlighted to me just how often it got played (at least for a while anyway until they seemed to stop using it at all). Producers - don't talk over your actors!
Story - this bit is a bit mixed. Overall I really enjoyed it. It's not without its issues though. Some times things are just glossed over - you go from one state of relationship to another in the blink of an eye and there's no reason or explanation as to how it happened. One minute characters are at loggerheads and the next they've figured it out and made up... There's more good than bad, and the bad isn't really that bad it's more just a case of taking something on faith really. There's a heavy Christian religious theme to it - but that ought to be expected - and one of the things I was hoping they'd develop was the burden humanity places on God, why does He permit bad things to happen to good people? The question comes up, but it never really gets any kind of answer or development. There's plenty of fist shaking to the sky but then later on when Angel Dan narrates his final views it's verging on as "thats just how it is, and i'm suddenly fine with that where i wasn't before". I think this would have been a great opportunity to explore these elements further even if only in the context of discussing thoughts and views (I should say I'm not a religious person myself perhaps, but I still appreciate religious elements in stories, whatever religion it might be).
There's some similarities that can be drawn between some of the key elements of this drama and "You who came from the stars", particularly the two leads who get together but inevitably know there's a clock ticking where they will be ripped apart. Another element that I found good in this similar to "stars" was where the couple are joyously happy, but you, and they, know they are racing towards that cliff - it's a bittersweet time and represented well.
The conclusion is... there? But it wasn't particularly clear and as with numerous other times in the story - lacking even simple explanation, I mean they're standing under the tree, how about a leaf falling with a simple note from God to Dan and Yeon Seo just to put a "bow" on it. I also don't like how they left the butler's view of Dan shredded to pieces - given the final few minutes i'm sure it would have repaired, but that just left a sour taste.
So... finally? Yep, worth a watch, it's not flawless by any means, but it's still worth the time to watch it in my view. Rewatch is quite high because I don't think knowing the ending really affects your enjoyment too much, and in fact as I said earlier, watching the full range of Shin Hye Sun's performance again has to be worth the time.
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First major thing I noticed is that while this is a somewhat-medical drama, it focuses on a branch of medicine that is rarely covered anywhere - Psychiatry. Dealing with a range of characters that have a variety of different challenges to face in their lives, getting help is a key part of the message. You're never alone, no matter what, you can always ask for help, and the amazing people in Psychiatry are the ones to provide it.
The pacing on this one is absolutely perfect. The main lead couple is amazing, the chemistry between them is spot on. They have their disagreements and even misunderstandings - but there's not a stupid breakup in sight. They solve their problems by talking to each other, being straight forward and honest. On the one or two occasions they don't, a character is nearby to smack them upside the head and get them to deal with it right away and be honest. It was refreshing and allowed the author time to go into other more interesting areas.
One of the second couples - which had Lee Sung Kyung (whom I seem to be watching an awful lot of lately) was really good too, showed some good development in both the characters particularly hers as she moves from school girl to young woman and decides what she wants out of life.
Various mental issues are covered but primarily the topic of the show is the highly misunderstood Schizophrenia (which is NOT the same as Multiple Personality Disorder). Much like any medical drama, various patients will come by our characters and their stories will unfold over two or three episodes as the doctors help them to work through problems and open up their emotions.
There's a large message throughout this story about clearing up misunderstandings about mental illness and how Psychiatrists can help. One of the characters has Tourette's Syndrome and there's an exceptionally touching moment when Lee Sung Kyoung's character kisses him first - something that always triggers an attack - and where you're expecting the youthful and barely mature girl to freak out at what looks like a "eww" type response, she places her headphones on his head with some soft music and holds him - and he calms down in no time.
Haven't listened to the OST yet but the music throughout sounded great so I'm looking forward to having a proper listen.
Overall, I can only recommend this as something that must be on your "must watch" list somewhere near the top.
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This story was amazing, until it wasn't. It was gripping, and I really enjoyed the twisty paths the author takes us on trying to figure out who did what, who is who, who is who in the past, who knows who already and who knows what other strange questions are unravelled throughout. Really clever, a complex unravelling that I really enjoyed.
The acting was superb, Seo In Guk - who i'd seen previously in a radically different role (goofy, light hearted etc) in Shopaholic Louie was amazing in this role as a much darker character with clear "damage". He keeps you on your toes throughout trying to work out if he's just got baggage from the past, or if he's actually missing some key parts of his humanity. Jung So Min I saw previously in Because this is my first life, and in many ways it's a similar type of character so was instantly familiar. The third main character was Park Sung Woong who I saw last in "Remember" - plays Jung So Min's older brother and police officer, always delivers a strong performance and is key in all the unravelling that goes on, his character has to resolve and handle a number of complex things in his past and how he copes with them and I really believed in his character.
I was totally hooked on this all the way through, it made a nice change from some of the lighter fluffy ones (which this most definitely is not) and has quite a lot of depth - it's not just solve one mystery and all done, there's layers upon layers.
However after the 16 episodes are done, i'm left with a feeling verging on anger and frustration at the ending. For me that's why the rewatch score is so low, otherwise this would have been a definite rewatch. The ending just seemed unnecessary, there were options going forward hinted at earlier in the story that could have been used to make a better (IMHO) ending. As I warned at the start, the area I have the most critical feedback on I can't because otherwise it's a spoiler.
All I'll say is - watch it, it's definitely worth the watch, but brace for the conclusion.
Props for some supporting characters / actors - Tak (Jang Yun Nam) provides a great sounding board for Park Sun Woong's character, and I liked that she was a strong character in her own right (though I can't imagine anyone not being strong who gets to any kind of position in the police force). Im Yoo Ri (Go Min Shi) was another interesting character to watch and I really liked the journey of improvement she went on ultimately - which is kinda why I was more let down by the ending as I was really expecting that this was the blueprint for the way forward for the final ending as well... not to mention a flash forward x years to see her "reborn" and doing well with good support around her. Ah well.
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Cat/Person/Cat/Person/Cat/Person and "desperately needing the loo" are probably my favourite two funny-scenes but there are numerous sprinkled throughout.
The whole premise is a bit silly, the idea that a human could consistently fool another human by pretending to be a robot, however they do kinda nod to that at the end when things come out so it works out in my view.
Put that to one side and you end up with a funny story of Chai Soo Bin's character needing to pretend to be a robot (which was modelled on her in the first place) when the robot stops working. All sorts of shenanigans as he "tests" her abilities and her and the team try to cope with everything happening.
The male lead has a nasty condition that means coming in to physical contact with another person brings him out in a horrific life threatening rash, he's basically allergic to people, leading a life as a recluse - which starts to hint as to why having this "robot" in the house with him begins to mean so much to him
But wait - it's not a robot, it's a person, doesn't that mean he's allergic to her too? Sorry you gotta watch it to understand that but it was a really nice element. Related to it, I particularly liked when he got the watch that told him of his "allergy levels" and you then could literally see how much he valued being around the "robot" - even if he doesn't understand it, we're all nodding and winking at the screen going "uh huh" :)
As you'd expect with deception storylines, it all comes to a head and I thought they handled this very well, along with how this then develops to the conclusion of the story.
Brilliant, my first drama with Chai Soo Bin (Where Stars land was my second :) ) and i'll be looking out for more, she has a unique voice and presence that I enjoy watching on screen.
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