MidnightReader

Let's start with the parallel worlds, which, for some reason, everyone believed Mum about without question. We have the main world, which is Mum's, then Dew's world that exists parallel to it. The interesting thing about the parallel worlds in this series is that it only works in room 609 from 12 am to 1:05 am. The month and years are the same, but the days are different; for Mum, it all starts on the 6th, and for Dew the 24th, and each day forward for Mum is a day backward for Dew.

I both love and hate this late detail. On the one hand, it adds a layer of complexity that I hadn't seen before; on the other, it creates a couple of problems with the plot. First, because everything works backwards in Dew's world, that means at the starting point for Mum, Dew already knows everything that has happened to that point, especially when we learn that Mum told him everything on Dew's day one. Why didn't Dew tell him everything when he learned they were working in reverse order? Search me. To build suspense and tension? Didn't work. When I found out that Dew knew who killed him and why all along, I was so annoyed for reasons I will get to in a minute. The second problem is that it took the suspense and tension out of the 2 or 3 times someone tried to or thought about killing Dew (we didn't know it wasn't real at the time). We knew it wouldn't happen because we knew when it would happen. Dew's fate was sealed, and there was nothing that would change it because everything Mum was doing in Dew's world had already happened for Dew, just not for Mum.

Now, to the reason I was so annoyed with Dew when I learned he knew everything. I won't go into too much detail as I don't want to spoil too much, but to fix everything, all he had to do was break up with Mint. That is it. He didn't need to get An to keep her busy & avoid her. Just break up. It wasn't like he liked her as more than a friend anyway.

Mint is a good, if not overbearing and insufferable, sister. Honestly, I was confused when I learned she's the younger one. I get that she cares, and Mum is the only family she has left, but she was a bit much at times. That being said, Dew's world Mint has some mental problems. Not only does she badger him to date her for literal years, but she also fantasized about killing him when she thinks he might be cheating on her. Breaking up never entered her mind! Mum's world Mint was just as badgery, but she at least was happy that Dew was honest with her. I don't think Dew's world Mint would have been, not based on the amount of yelling and refusal to listen.

An should have been able to tell her that Dew wasn't cheating on her since he was following the boy. I mean, he would have told her he was, but his telling her Dew was gay didn't work out too well either. He was a headache; the only time I liked him was in the little time that he was helping Dew with Mint. He was an angry, drunk 95% of the time, who seemed to do nothing productive but follow Dew around. No idea what Joey sees in him.

Honestly, I hated both Mint and An's characters. An because of how entitled he felt he was to know everything about Dew and Mint's relationship, just because he liked Mint, and he accused Dew of a lot of stuff based on messages Mint posted on her social media. I didn't like Mint because she couldn't accept that Dew only sees her as a friend. After years of constantly asking someone to be your boyfriend, it should be obvious that they said yes, so you'd leave them alone. If I had a friend who wouldn't take no for an answer, I would simply cut ties with them. It could easily turn into something life-threatening if it goes on too long, or maybe I just watch too many crime shows and am paranoid. Based on Mint's reaction, I would like to think I'm not being paranoid.

If the goal was to make me hate Mint, Emi did a great job.

The last episode has an alternate ending, which I sadly couldn't find to watch. The canon ending, Wake Up, saw our characters getting their happy ending, but a lot of it felt unrealistic, and it happened too fast. Mint accepts that her brother loves Dew and helps get them together, and the parents are told about the relationship, and they are okay with it. To make it even more convenient, Mum's world Dew also somehow remembers things that happened between them in Dew's world, and after an encounter with a Mum from another universe, he falls in love with Mum. Almost no time went into building up the relationship between Mum and his world's Dew.

As a side note, these guys are having sex on the first meeting, 3 different times, and at least one of them each time didn't think they were gay . . . Why? And one of those times, life or death information needed to be given, but no let's bone first! I rolled my eyes so hard it hurt.

Probably my favorite thing about the series was Mum morning Dew, whether he knew what happened to him or not, is unclear, but regardless, he knew they wouldn't meet again. Then he picks himself up for the Dew of his universe, only for reality to crash in. His distancing himself from the situation and the people involved was very realistic. The ups and downs of Mum's emotions and mental state were well portrayed by Ohm.

I wish we could have seen a bit of the fallout in Dew's world. It's clear what happened, but I would have liked to have seen the other character's reaction, not just a fade to black.

I also liked Wee and Game as a couple. A was a grade A asshole, and I'm glad that Wee has Game to support and love him.

Overall, the series wasn't bad; I just couldn't stand a couple of characters, and that really brought down my enjoyment of the show. I also wish there had been some actual mystery to solve; we had mostly cute couple moments, not detective work.