MiyamotoMusashi

Well comfort yourself that the actors of the two got together in real life i guess...
Anyway, i liked DT more for her, they had better chemistry, with JH it was more like she liked him back because he liked her.

There are other parts of the site for that, the newest, upcoming or recommendation section.
Ratings should be deserved for finished or nearly finished series, especially with Dramas that have a clear cut episode count.

And we both know that people will not use additional time to something they came to dislike in the meantime, that hardly happens.

Which is irrelevant since you still only judge the beginning of the drama

Had not even heard about this, definitely one of the best Japanese actresses.
Don´t want to theorize about her death or suicide, it would be disrespectful, nevertheless it is curious how many Entertainment industry people choose this path.

Could ratings be blocked for a drama until it has actually concluded?
How are you judging something based on the first or first few episodes alone?

Seems like a unfair treatment of shows that actually deserve these ratings.

Yep, one can only hope. Maybe it´s just referring to the mythical Sisyphus and his repeating of the same task over and over instead of Camus´ point of absurdism, so CSW´s character might do the same thing.
I have no particular feelings in regards to PSH, she is average, but average actors have provided well with a good script. I have seen on the drama page on this site though that many seem to hate her.

I have not met anybody not praising his acting in that show to be honest, even if they did not like the show itself much. The way he commands a scene, and the contrast with his actual personality and the character, just awesome.

I sincerely hope so, but they would need to create a sufficient reason for Si-Mok to return to Seoul. How Yeo-Jin rises in the ranks of Police HQ would be nice to see though.

It´s hard to do Slice of Life since, if you do not have suspense to carry the story and mask possible weak points, your dialogue and characters need to be very good for it do work, hence why many fail at one point. But the Reply series, for the most part, accomplishes that in my opinion, especially 88 with its themes of family, an d97 with its humor, the latter is still one of the funniest dramas i have watched.
Hee-Kyung really shines through her non-traditional and unique love shows, for example Padam Padam, or it´s okay that´s love. plus her dialogue writing is on point as well.
And yeah, Live was really great and realistic, but many seemed to hate the main leads for some reason, never understood that. Finally you get multi-faceted and realistic characters and people hate on them.
Tree with Deep Roots is one of the most underrated shows on this site, how it captures the historical context, plays with the characters, and provides an intelligent dialogue of political and philosophical concepts, it´s great. Many were turned off by something i do not want to spoil, but it was actually necessary for both the narrative and its themes.

I don´t want to be that type, but i still have to do it, if that´s truly what you think, you have missed a lot of things.
That´s like saying Sopranos was a gangster show.

I don´t want to be that type, but i still have to do it, if that´s truly what you think, you have missed a lot of things.
That´s like saying Sopranos was a gangster show.

He will be in another drama shortly called Sisyphus: the Myth, which is also the name of one of Albert Camus´ most famous essays about Sisyphus, so at least the name is creating expectations, we will see. The writers are pretty unknown though.

Yep, it was a loss for the cinema world really. Unfortunately he never had a prestige project on the big screen, but like i said, Soprano might be the single greatest acting performance ever.

Hope so, you never know with K-Dramas, especially since they are new to the whole season structure.

Anyway, writer Lee Soo-Yeon has joined the list of Drama writers whose works i will definitely watch, no matter what the story or the actors attached to it, besides Lee Woo-Jung (Reply series), Noh Hee-Kyung and Kim Young-Hun + Park Sang-Yeon.

Connecting cultural aspects of an entire country (or even continent since many Far Eastern cultures share this tradition) with the quality of the show is pretty questionable if you do not mind me saying so.
Having said that, this should be even more to your liking though, since both main characters actively go against that traditional culture while defending and pursuing their own values, so if anything, it supports my point even further.

True, Wire and Sopranos were groundbreaking in terms of television, but it is not like they were without their faults and negative points. It´s just that what they did well, they really did very well.
And within the medium of Drama, i think this applies to Stranger as well.

We agreed on Stranger for the most part, so that´s ok.
I liked this show a lot until episode 11, when for me a clear shift happened in tone and character´s behavior, which prevents it from deserving the rating it has got both in your review and on this site.
Until episode 11, very good, after that, not so much.

Overrated

I am currently at episode 7 and really can´t see why it has this rating, is it getting any better at one point?

I just watched it initially because of the classical music setting, but it feels like a immature high school love drama than fully professional people in their personal and work environment. The acting is incredibly stiff and stale, most scenes have them starting blankly with eyes drops as tears. The only exception is Kim Sung Chul whose scenes confronting the bitch were really emotional.

If you think about the actor i think of, i definitely agree.
But i really liked Cho Seung-Woo in that drama as well.

Plus Breaking Bad had a much more comedic tone in the beginning with ridiculous events and twists, but became much darker and serious later on. Sopranos was similar in that regard, the first few episodes were aimed more towards comedy really but after a while it found itself, a combination of the writer David Chase seeing the broader picture and also getting inspired by the main character/actor Gandolfini. Sopranos is one of my top shows and has, for me, the best acting performance i ever watched in any medium. There are definitely film and theatre actors who reach Gandolfini´s skills but they do not have nearly 60 episodes to so fully explore a character from any facets.

Yep, i am looking forward to what she will do next. I am definitely hoping for season 3, but i also take anything else.

Admittedly, Life had its problems, but in terms of showing the grey area of running a profit based hospital was depicted pretty well. Cho Seung-Woo´s character was not a bad man, he just fulfilled the responsibility that was given to him, and he otherwise had his good, or even cute sides. which is a stark contrast to the usual K-Drama in which you have a clear divide between good and bad, or heck most fictional stories out there.

Yes for me it is, if you take the time to delve deep into it, you get a lot back in return.
Well, the comparison to Breaking Bad does not fit completely, since i think the first season of it they still tried to find the right tone and approach (Sopranos was the same), plus they needed to prove themselves and did not get as much freedom.
Stranger on the other hand, the script was so good, all the actors really jumped in and pushed for it to be made, and they were ready to make sacrifices to be part of it, so they recognized the quality.

Yep it´s like a puzzle that is put together piece by piece, and in the end you see the full picture and it blows your mind, at least for me.

I kind of agree and disagree.

First, people who are influenced by nostalgia are not really the target of the show anyway, but it wants you to ponder both the themes and dynamics in the show, so in that sense, it does not rely on emotional attachment but mental effort which then leads to feelings in the audience.

I agree that there is a disparity between the two seasons though. The first season was a traditional crime mystery that lead to great repercussions and implications in both narration, but also morality and corruption. So in that sense, it was something that used a small catalyst to great effects, and that on several different layers.
And the journey from that small catalyst to the end had the two main characters as active participants, they were the driving force behind the story and its developments.
The second season, at least the first part to 10 episodes, had these two more react to the situation and environment they were thrown into, and thus they were only reactionary at first. And with that, the scope and scale was great and big from the get-go, which we then learn later, was actually influenced by small events and cases in the past. So like you said, the image of fog, something very grand but not something you can see through, became clearer and clearer the more we delved into it (nice one).

So they are two completely different approaches that are still interconnected by their themes of responsibility, morality and corruption.

She had her own struggle throughout the entire season, and it was executed superbly.
She was contrasted with what she wants do and fits her sense of morality with what people who she respects told her to do and feel, and that contradiction lead to great character development. And obviously Bae Doona is simply great.

There are different types of viewers on MDL, hence you get a very different list of ratings.
Many just look for cute romance stories with beautiful people in them, and there is nothing wrong with that, but it obviously distorts the rankings.

In other shows, the three cases that are the main catalysts of the events, would have been handled in 2-3 episodes tops.
But such a detailed and realistic approach to the investigation of the cases leads to implications in the narration on different layers (personal, philosophically, ethically and so forth) that those other shows will never reach.

Finally watched it, wanted to do it in one-go, so waited until it concluded and got uploaded on Netflix, and yep, it did not disappoint, 10/10.

The quality of the mysteries, the approach and behavior of the characters, the subject matter and how maturely the writer deals with them, makes this really a rare kind of show that can keep up with the complexities and execution of the best in the West (The Wire, Sopranos and so forth).
It does not give you a traditional good vs bad dynamic, but gives you a spectrum of characters that range from one that never considers his personal desires to people who have good intentions but do not care about the means to those that only do care about themselves and their position and do whatever they possibly can, while justifying their actions.
And it is never preachy in incorporating these archtypes of characters, but generally gives you food for thought and reasons why being morally compromised, even with good intentions, might lead to consequences both external and internal you can not foresee and you do not want. And it´s astonishing that this is accomplished three times now (both Stranger seasons and Life, the other series) by a writer that is new to the format, meaning television, since i do not know whether she has other writing experience.

The actors are top-notch and really the creme de la creme of what Korean acting can show.
Having said that, i feel Cho Seung-Woo´s performance here will remain very underrated since his character´s personality is very calm and low-key, thus it is not flashy and does not steal a scene, but it you really pay attention to him, you will see how he brings the inner world of the character, his thoughts, his morality, his way of investigating, with the smallest gestures to life, which is just brilliant. He is robotic in his investigating, meaning he collects facts and never brings his own preconceived notions to them (all the other investigators, whether police or prosecutors, do that), but his morality and feelings are used for what he does with those facts.
In that sense, in a world that is riddled with corrupt people both on small and big scale, he is the only one who knows what his prosecutor robe symbolizes and carries the weight without being pressured by it, but because he wants to carry that weight, which makes him really an idealistic and superhero like character, which sounds ridiculous at first in such a realistic and down to earth show like this, but looking at the whole dynamic, it fits.
And of course the hero needs a partner, who, unlike actual superhero stories, is not just a sideback but an actual partner that personality-wise, is the entire opposite of Hwang, but shares the same morality.

One could really go on and make an analysis on a episode to episode basis, one of the rare cases in drama or TV shows in general that deserve this, whether it´s the philosophical and psychological approach, or small time remarks that have deep consequences, the connection between events and characters and the list goes on, but obviously it needs a lot of effort. But like most of the time, things with a lot of effort required also yield a lot of enjoyment and prices.