MinJi23

I really don't get it. There was a time when one fantastic K-drama followed another, and these days, all I get is really good starts for the first few episodes, only to find myself annoyed and disappointed at around episodes 5 and after.
Same here.

This started promising, with rather nice and heartwarming storytelling, an idea of what might happen after death, and it had some great takes on what might come.
I first liked the idea that the writers acknowledged that pets might go to heaven too. I started to be bothered though as they only ever showed dogs, just once or twice a cat too for 30 seconds but there was never a follow-up. When they showed the rainbow bridge there was also only dogs, no cats, no other loved pets either.

Now having watched up to episode 7, it gets nonsensical for me. So, as there is talk about heaven and hell, and in that heaven there is only what seems to be a Christian church with a priest ( but nothing for any other faiths like Buddhism (which would make sense particularly for a Korean heaven) or any other possible faiths people might have followed while alive). Yet now we hear something about reincarnation doors. Not only does that not make any sense for the Christian faith, it also doesn't make sense to me that pure souls like those of dogs or cats would have to reincarnate , and they are told that they have to do so to one day become humans on earth themselves. In my personal opinon that would be a regression actually.

I also didn't like the fact that the dogs and cats in heaven had adult human form. If at all in human form it would suit the spirit of dogs much better to be shown as little, carefree childen, if at all in human form. So while there were some few good messages to actual pet owners watching this drama about their responsibilities, it just didn't ad up for me where they lead that part of the story meanwhile. And why would dogs have to go to human therapy sessions to be taught that natural dog behaviour is a bad and wrong thing?

Now for the humans: I get that this boss in heaven says that heaven is just a stage (which again contradicts that solely showing of this heaven being a Christian heaven) But our main FL having to meet her terrible mother-in-law again? How did an abusive mother-in-law get into heaven at all in the first place? Doesn't make sense to me. Also in the beginning they say that for meeting someone in heaven both parties have to consent to meeting each other prior, and our FL is now not asked and confronted with her terror-mother-in-law again even in that so called heaven and gets treated awful again? That is not heaven for sure. Also it totally contradicts the sequence in hell, where some schoolbully boys, (at least youngsters in their teens who, at least having the excuse of being very young and immature) go straight to hell for their bullying and burn in the everlasting fires, while a long adult, nasty bullying mother-in-law, who bullied her daughter-in-law all her adult life and enjoyed it, goes to heaven? Ok then ...Oo

Also the part of the story with Som-I? They drag it for way too long and now even start making it a potential cheating/affair story with the FL's husband? While before they say there is a special hell for adulterers? Also, how did Som-I get into heaven at all with no memory? How did she actually pass through that first office round where they ask everything (your name, your date of birth, and how old you want to appear in heaven) How did she get past that without answering anything? Who set her age for her if she didn't go through the first office? And she must have arrived there as the FL's husband was with her on the train, so she arrived at the very same spot all arrivals from the trains arrive. Some suggested Som-I is just a younger version of the FL - well, if so, why would her husband not have recognised her face in the train? Why would Sonya, the cat not have known immediately that Som-I is the very same person as the FL ? And so on... really sloppy writing from there already.

All in all though what I miss basically is the idea that in heaven (if there is such thing no matter for which faith) the souls, or spirits (or whatever you might call them) who go there should actually exist in some kind of elevated spiritual realm, where there is a higher conscience that frees them of human weaknesses and the miseries those weaknesses cause in humans' earthly lives.

But the way they show it there now is just no difference to earth at all, except for actual disadvantages in many aspects. Again, that would not be any kind of heaven I would imagine in any faith.
To me it seems they had some good initial ideas and started with those, maybe for the first few episodes, and then they started to just write along whatever came to them, maybe under time pressure, and not thinking about if it makes at all sense to what they set as frame in the first good few episodes.

I'll watch episode 8 tomorrow to see if they at least try to get back on any track with the storyline. If it gets even worse than episode 7 it'll be yet another drop for me.


Update: I drop this after episode 8. The storyline is totally ridiculous now. Christian churches and priests in heaven and then a boss of heaven who babbles about many lifetimes and reincarnation.

Not only that, the idea of reincarnation is showed so simplified and actually blames victims of any crime instead of the perpetrators. Following the logic of this show, it simply means (for example) that a 2-year-old girl who gets raped and brutally murdered by her own father is to blame herself because she did something bad in a prior life and so deserves this fate. I'm quite at a loss of words about this logic. Also this idea that blood-related families will have to meet over and over again in new life cycles - what a horrible thought for those children who have to endure careless, cruel, violent abusive and murdering parents. What a horrible thought that in this depicted 'heaven' they get only told that they have to meet these deranged foul souls over and over again, and there is no chance for them being reborn into good surroundings with DIFFERENT family member souls around them, an absolute, never-ending nightmare vision, that lacks any logic on top by the way. How should there be any possibility of progress in several life cycles, if a tortured child is reborn to the be the torturer instead? Which would mean, in the next life cycle the same soul would have to suffer terribly again for sinning in the last life and there would never be a possibility to break this negative cycle for anyone included.

This show should even have a severe trigger warning for people with PTSD, traumatic family histories and depression caused by family matters. What a load of....!