Alchemy of Souls Season 2: Light and Shadow
53 people found this review helpful
Huge letdown compared to season 1
With S1 of Alchemy of Souls, you had a legit really good drama. The story was so interesting and intense right from the first episode. Like it had everything Suspense, action, amazing music, amazing romance, and phenomenal cinematography. Even the ending was so incredible and satisfying.S2 of Alchemy of Souls though, was nothing but disappointment. The feelings which we left from S1 were simply not there anymore, no excitement, no attachment nothing. The Female lead for S2 couldn't captivate. I mean she was all looks no acting. Jung So-min was sooo much better and she kept the show going. I couldn't find an ounce of Naksu in Go Yoon-Jung.
Now I don't think a season 2 was needed, because the screenwriter for Alchemy of Souls just extended the show with no intentions of giving it a superb ending. Nothing significant happened, and it felt like it was a good show with a bad ending, keeping it precise would've been better. I'm being super generous with my ratings because of how much I loved the first season, which I highly recommend. The second season not so much.
Was this review helpful to you?
Could've been better
I enjoyed the drama for a while. The romance and comedy was good until the mystery part came in. After that it became too draggy. There was also a villain in this drama, which I felt was unnecessary,The positives: the high schoolers, female lead's brother, and the male lead
The negatives: the female lead herself - her character was super annoying, like she'll always interfere in every issue and even justify her actions by shouting, she even failed to be emotional in situations like where to cry, being surprised all she did was covering her face with hands. There was very little to no romance at all between the leads, I'm not saying this because the female lead looks much older, I'm saying this because regardless of age one can express the love, that the viewers can feel, I never felt the romance.
I wished the story just stuck to the real storylines of these kids and their struggling through school at this crucial time and kept it a simple yet emotional coming of age storyline not only for them but for the adults in the drama.
Was this review helpful to you?
Just average
Pretty standard romantic drama, the two main leads meet and don’t get along at first. Then they find they actually like each other, but don’t start anything romantic at first. ML an ordinary college student and FL is a Kpop idol who doesn’t want to be an idol anymore. FL is also a troubling girl who's got a mix of PTSD and borderline.This drama goes into deep emotions and mental issues. Also second female lead syndrome hit me hard while watching this. She was ultimately the better choice for the ML imo they were perfect, but because of their situation and the multiple times they held themselves back led them to not being together.
The ending could've been done better. I was just expecting too much from this drama and ended up being very disappointing. Cast is great, but I don't see myself watching this again.
Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
Strong start, but ended so terribly.
Ep 11 & 12 would have been fine closing episodes for a different drama. Not sure why the writers took the story to this palace of cliches that they seemed to want to avoid for the first 9ish episodes. The stabbing and the coma tidied up and erased everyone's emotional damage neatly for a happily ever after.Viewers would have been satisfied with the explanation given about the bus company's boss. Jonghui's brother and bus company boss were not needed as returning characters. The main cast' lives had plenty of human drama without needing to add "thriller" aspect with two attempted murders. There would have been ample space for the main character development for the story to remain consistent to the first 9ish episodes so that any love story that emerges from the love triangle(s) feel somewhat understandable and relatable at a human level.
I enjoyed this drama up to episode 9 and it turned into what it turned into. All the actors did an amazing job though, too bad the 2nd half was mid at best.
Was this review helpful to you?
Light hearted
I just know for a fact that the second you saw the trailer to Love Untangled, you had 20th Century Girl war flashbacks. I understand your sentiment because that happened to me, but I’m happy to inform you that you will not be weeping at the end of this film, instead you might find yourself giggling your way through the whole thing.If you’ve previously seen high school Korean dramas or films, it’s likely you already know exactly how things turn out in Love Untangled. It could basically be the most predictable film of 2025, but that’s okay, because not everything needs to be a shocker or give you a love triangle so intense that you don’t know who to choose. This film clearly has a main lead, and you can’t even call the other guy a second lead, so don’t go in with high hopes of something intense here.
But, if you want something truly adorable and you like y2k youth-romcom type of film, then I recommend this to you.
Was this review helpful to you?
Worth Watching
This was pure joy to watch. I know it was also sadness, frustration, fear and a lot of anger and heartbreak, but it had all the good feelings too!It is of course a very passionate and sweet love story, one of those epic love stories that transcends time and space and no one can't stop from happening, but it is more than that.
This series is about a deeper kind of love. A deep love with that feeling of longing, of wanting to live the best things in life with the people you love, to share with them all their problems and worries and being able to give them hope and care for then when they need you the most.
That love that you need everyday to keep you going. The love that gives you that very warm feeling of belonging. It was such an amazing story full of learnings and beautifully written. The cast is perfect and all of them had amazing chemistry with each other.
Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
Train wreck
This drama belongs in the "great cast, terrible writing" category. Dong-ju went blind for a minute and then still is questioning why he has to go to the hospital. Like get this guy out of my face nothing about this endears me to this dude, it just make me think he's an unserious person... why did they have to write him like this.I'm glad I'm not the only one relieved this train wreck is finally over. It's such a pity because the cast have visibly worked so hard but yet there's only so much one can take of the constant fighting, Dong-ju's plot armour and the same thing happening every episode. What even was the point of them being former national athletes? I'm failing to see how it has been significant to the plot. How would the story have changed if they were just regular police officers?
There’s a clear lack of innovation in the writing. It’s the same old formula where law enforcers are consistently outsmarted by criminals. I’ll give this show one thing everything else flew out the window but they nailed the action and fight scenes.
Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
Wasted Potential
This show could have been so much better if it weren't for the lazy writing and screenplay.I was really excited about this series and had no issue for at least the 1st maybe 6 episodes even when the setting was a bit cliché (handsome rich guy falling for an ordinary girl after a casual not so great encounter). The issue I have with the drama is the cheating which is conveniently being downplayed. Sin-yu (who is of sane mind and a brilliant lawyer) is just casually cheating on his to-be wife because apparently a love spell was cast. I mean c'mon, who would believe that, let alone a well learned lawyer. Okay, let's even play the devil's advocate and assume the spell actually works- why on earth would he not just end the engagement and pursue his new love interest? Also, why do they have to try so hard to make Sin-yu's fiancé unlikeable (even giving her a man on the side too) so they can justify the cheating. What's even worse is this FML (who is also of sane mind, and an adult- and not under any spell) suddenly falls out of love with a capable, available man she has been eyeing and even confessed to (and he is also starting to like her back) and knowingly falls in love with a taken man (engaged to an old acquaintance) who is about to get married. Ridiculous and makes no rational sense for me. The plot had so much potential (or so I thought) from one Kdrama fan to another, save your time and don't watch this drama.
Was this review helpful to you?
Good start, fell to old tropes
Tastefully Yours was overall an ok show. Kang Haneul and Go Minsi both delivered good performances. The supporting characters were excellent as well, and really brought the comedy which was the strong point of this drama.What’s so frustrating is this show’s flaws were so obvious and avoidable. I really liked that the story was centered about food/cooking which is interesting. But some parts of the drama were like playing snakes and ladders. If you get a good roll, it progresses but most of the time in the middle was a bad roll. Given that it's only 10 episodes long, I was left craving for more romance between the leads that I feel like it was forced at the end. There was just so much more to work with in regards to the evil conglomerate mother, the recipe stealing, the relationship between the two brothers, and the male lead's backstory... so much wasted potential sigh.
Was this review helpful to you?
Not worth the wait
Season 2 was sadly, pretty disappointing. It's clear that the whole plot of the story was completely rushed, Netflix’s compiled 220+ chapters from the manwha into a 8 episode season, there’s clearly going to be problems when that happens. Major characters and story arcs were removed from the story, main characters didn’t get explored enough to actually care about them, and there was basically no emotional build up to events due to the fast pacing.The cast did a great job but looking back, it's just the same old story with slight twists. Nothing stood out. If you're a die hard fan of season 1 you'll probably turn a blind eye to this but season 2 had a lot of overly dramatic fights, slow actions that made me feel board at times and character development seems to be pushed down.
Was this review helpful to you?
Good start, but lazy writing happened.
I watched this show expecting a lot because of the hype surrounding it but was let down. People were even comparing it to Twinkling Watermelon which was a top tier drama for me. I could tolerate it for a bit hoping that it would get better, but ultimately the female leads character is extremely annoying and I didn’t see any chemistry between the two leads. The plot is confusing at times but also very cliche and corny. I was waiting for a different result with the many chances the main character was given to change things. However, with the exception of the first back in time, it was a repeat of almost the same thing every time after. It’s not that I didn’t like it, but it was hard watching the female lead keep making the same mistakes trying to push the male lead away just to get the same result.First few episodes are good, but there were so many plot holes in the storyline plus the lazy writing towards the end that just ruined this drama for me. Not a MUST WATCH! like what everyone is saying, but good for a one time watch.
Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
Boring, disappointing, and all of the above
First things first it was all predictable. You could predict almost everything while watching except the fighting sequence. The ending was spoiled by the director before the airing saying it is going to be a sad ending which already gave it away that Gi hun will die. The story was disappointing It felt like they just wanted to shock people by killing everyone. There was too much drama, especially with the kid. Netflix made it feel more like a money-making show than a good story. Season 3 was a complete disappointment to me. And I for sure knew this would happen. Felt like it was forcefully made and stretched cuz of the popularity. They should've just ended it after 1 season.Guys please save your energy & time and don’t waste it on this!
Was this review helpful to you?
Not my cup of tea
As a fan of the webtoon, the webtoon ofc establishes the characters and their motivations much more clearly and in a timeline that makes more sense. I haven't read the web novel so I'm not sure how much they pulled from there vs the webtoon. But I'm honestly unsatisfied with the changes they've made to the story at least from what I've read and known from the webtoon. It feels like they watered down a perfectly good plot and characters into something much more generic. Like the source material was great, handed to them on a silver platter, and they chose to make unnecessary changes like adding in this rival (Yura) for Jiwon, watering down Jiwon's character into someone much less resolute or ruthless with her desire to really take the reins back on her life, involving Eunho much more than needed to in order to exacerbate the "love triangle", taking away the accomplishments of the other FLs such as Juran and putting them all on Jiwon instead, etc.It just sucks because it's honestly a nice empowering narrative of independence and confidence in yourself and your choices, while also still sharing a message of the power in not being alone and being able to truly depend and have people who actually care for you. But all this was kinda watered down into a generic revenge plot.
A positive I can take away from this kdrama though is that the portrayals of the villains was perfection, Song Ha-Yoon and Lee Yi-Kyung deserves a lot of credit and recognition. All that said, while I highly recommend the webtoon, the kdrama might be a hit or miss especially if you're watching this coming from the webtoon.
Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
A Letdown
This was a complete letdown and I cannot stress this enough... a waste of time. The last two episodes are infuriating. Suddenly the FL is now this mellow, calm, sweet and understanding person, like for the past six episodes they did not have her behaving in such despicable manner. Suddenly she goes to see his grandma, after spending all through the time never doing so. Suddenly his grandma “loves” her, without absolutely no backstory scene of them ever interacting. The FL is so manipulative, so self centered, such a self- inflicting sufferer and this redemption arc they are trying to give her in these last episodes makes her even more unlikable, I’m so serious. Goodness.I also dislike how they wrote A-sol’s character in these last episodes. Made her look like she begging the ML for love. To be honest, she deserves better and ML is actually not worthy of her goodness. She is kind, empathetic, sweet, understanding, such a wonderful character. Now they’re making her look awkward in these episodes…nothing can ever make me dislike her. She was the best character in this show, hands down. Both ML and FL deserve each other…one is spineless, the other is always eager to break the little spine he gathers.
I’m glad this mess is over. If the writers think they’ve achieved something, they’re delusional. Never put Jinyoung in such a drama again please. Also If this was supposed to be a slice of life or realistic love then that’s really freaking depressing.
Was this review helpful to you?
High expectations led to disappointment
You know what’s crazy I know these actors can act. I’ve seen Jung Hae In provide stellar performances before, and I’ve watched Jung So Min have so much chemistry with Seo In Guk in The Smile Has Left Your Eyes that they make guest appearances together in new dramas years later. But this isn’t hate toward the actors, it’s hate toward the script or directors because the episodes are just too long and too slow. It feels like nothing is happening and everyone is running around in circles. We got so much of Seunghyo’s pov so we know how much he likes Seok Ryu. But we hardly get any perspective of Seungyho from Seok Ryu’s pov.We are shown one glimpse of her when she was a kid saying that she liked him, but that's genuinely it. Like their confessions lacked sincerity and if you’ve watched enough dramas I feel like you can tell they’re just following a script if that makes sense. There’s no casual skinship that a normal real couple would have. And jumping to marriage when we’ve barely even seen them date just feels jarring. It looks like Seok Ryu is just reluctantly accepting his feelings and only confides the truth when something huge happens to Seunghyo or when it’s convenient for her. Like her confession to this boy that’s been in love with her for years, is simply “I realised I’m bored without you for like a day so we might as well date”. And the main thing is NOTHING IS HAPPENING IN THIS SHOW. The plot doesn’t move forward and no one learns from their mistakes.
Was this review helpful to you?
