I completely agree. The strongest aspects of this show was how each side characters differences lead to different challenges to overcome. Toni experiencing racism, Hyun-yi's journey as a trans woman (including overcoming being outed without her consent), and Seung-Kwon overcoming his past as an ex-con. All these are pretty unique perspectives, especially from a k-drama, and allowed for unique stories and relationships to develop between characters. It's a shame we didn't get more of that as we saw these characters less and less as the series went on.
The main characters felt lacking and stale in comparison. Despite the story taking place over the span of 15 years Sae-Ro-Yi doesn't change and his beliefs are never challenged. His relationship with Yi-Seo feels forced along with a lot of the typical k-drama clichés in the latter half (the kidnapping really can out of nowhere). Yi-Seo's character is grating, despite harassing Sae-Ro-Yi (even when he says he isn't interested and is uncomfortable from her advances), taking advantage of Geun-Soo's feelings (and leaving him for dead as she runs away from the kidnappers), and her consistent disrespect and bigotry towards other characters, she never really changes or faces any consequences.
There was a lot of potential with this show and it's a shame that it fell into mediocre writing reliant on tropes and forced romance.
I do say I agree with you in some aspects and disagree in others. Just to preface, all of this is my personal opinion and experiences.
I think this is a wider issue with SK media. I read the original webcomic as well as watched dramas like 'Tomorrow' being the first one that comes to mind among others, that follow a similar tone of suicide being an individual 'selfish' choice to waste the life given to you, with those who go through with it being deserving of punishment rather than suicide itself being viewed as a symptom of many systemic societal issues.
This series could have definitely benefited from a shift away from the same action, drama and convoluted plans that we've all seen a thousand times before to instead focus on what lead to different people taking their own lives. This series could have really said something about the toxic high standards of conformity and excellence in the SK school and work systems, poverty, wealth disparity, chronic illness and mental health as well as exploring changes to address them. This is definitely seen in the lack of time given to ML's original life before his initial death, the highschooler who originally planned to take his own life due to school bullying, and especially the salary man who took his life leading to the events of the series . All of these could have been more greatly developed to explore the systematic issues surrounding their struggles and the pains that lead them to suicide as a form of escape.
That being said, I didn't hate the last episodes with the focus on ML's relationship with his mum. I know not everyone has those people in their lives to support them, but many people who suffer from depression and suicidal ideation do and I think that's still important to showcase. For these people being reminded that there are people who need them can help with grounding some of those thoughts when they're at their lowest, myself included.
(This part is pretty specific to me personally so feel free to skip) I definitely relate to ML to a degree that's kinda uncomfortable with some extra drama for spice that I won't go into. I lost one parent when I was young and for the most part have been raised by a single parent who was, and still is, constantly working to support me growing up and himself now. I have struggled with depression and suicidal ideation including attempts on and off for the better part of a decade and have often thought that my death would be a relief more than anything else to him. Eventually I realised that wasn't the case and he (and tbh my dog to a stronger degree) still needed me.
That's all to say I get the focus shifting onto the mum's perspective. I also totally get her actions as that also seems to be brought up a lot in these comments. No parent, especially one that still needs to work to support themselves, can be there all the time to emotionally support their kids, especially when they've grown up. And if that kid has a history of depression and low self-worth, they're probably not going to bring up those struggles as not not feel like they're adding onto the parent's burdens. I mean ML was so wrapped up in his own spiral of rejection and insecurities that he probably never mentioned his financial issues to his mum, and he only just got the eviction notice before his suicide so I think it's safe to assume that she wasn't aware of the depth of his struggles and would have given him the money she saved if she had known. Again, this isn't to blame ML but mostly to shift the blame away from the mum.
Apologies if this seemed like a rant. I totally get your perspective and agree with most of your criticisms. I think if this drama/webtoon were in a bubble it would be perfectly serviceable as a story with a decent message that can resonate with some who watch/read it. However, with so much SK media portraying suicide as a personal act of selfish sin, this show missed an opportunity to address that stigma in an empathetic way and explore the situations surrounding those who choose it. Would I still recommend it? Yeah. Apart from some questionable special effects and the slight tonal dissonance in the middle with the action revenge plots, the series is well acted, generally well paced and has some heartfelt moments, especially with the mum at the end. Your 7 is totally fair though I might personally bump it up to an 8 :)
The main characters felt lacking and stale in comparison. Despite the story taking place over the span of 15 years Sae-Ro-Yi doesn't change and his beliefs are never challenged. His relationship with Yi-Seo feels forced along with a lot of the typical k-drama clichés in the latter half (the kidnapping really can out of nowhere). Yi-Seo's character is grating, despite harassing Sae-Ro-Yi (even when he says he isn't interested and is uncomfortable from her advances), taking advantage of Geun-Soo's feelings (and leaving him for dead as she runs away from the kidnappers), and her consistent disrespect and bigotry towards other characters, she never really changes or faces any consequences.
There was a lot of potential with this show and it's a shame that it fell into mediocre writing reliant on tropes and forced romance.
I think this is a wider issue with SK media. I read the original webcomic as well as watched dramas like 'Tomorrow' being the first one that comes to mind among others, that follow a similar tone of suicide being an individual 'selfish' choice to waste the life given to you, with those who go through with it being deserving of punishment rather than suicide itself being viewed as a symptom of many systemic societal issues.
This series could have definitely benefited from a shift away from the same action, drama and convoluted plans that we've all seen a thousand times before to instead focus on what lead to different people taking their own lives. This series could have really said something about the toxic high standards of conformity and excellence in the SK school and work systems, poverty, wealth disparity, chronic illness and mental health as well as exploring changes to address them. This is definitely seen in the lack of time given to ML's original life before his initial death, the highschooler who originally planned to take his own life due to school bullying, and especially the salary man who took his life leading to the events of the series . All of these could have been more greatly developed to explore the systematic issues surrounding their struggles and the pains that lead them to suicide as a form of escape.
That being said, I didn't hate the last episodes with the focus on ML's relationship with his mum. I know not everyone has those people in their lives to support them, but many people who suffer from depression and suicidal ideation do and I think that's still important to showcase. For these people being reminded that there are people who need them can help with grounding some of those thoughts when they're at their lowest, myself included.
(This part is pretty specific to me personally so feel free to skip) I definitely relate to ML to a degree that's kinda uncomfortable with some extra drama for spice that I won't go into. I lost one parent when I was young and for the most part have been raised by a single parent who was, and still is, constantly working to support me growing up and himself now. I have struggled with depression and suicidal ideation including attempts on and off for the better part of a decade and have often thought that my death would be a relief more than anything else to him. Eventually I realised that wasn't the case and he (and tbh my dog to a stronger degree) still needed me.
That's all to say I get the focus shifting onto the mum's perspective. I also totally get her actions as that also seems to be brought up a lot in these comments. No parent, especially one that still needs to work to support themselves, can be there all the time to emotionally support their kids, especially when they've grown up. And if that kid has a history of depression and low self-worth, they're probably not going to bring up those struggles as not not feel like they're adding onto the parent's burdens. I mean ML was so wrapped up in his own spiral of rejection and insecurities that he probably never mentioned his financial issues to his mum, and he only just got the eviction notice before his suicide so I think it's safe to assume that she wasn't aware of the depth of his struggles and would have given him the money she saved if she had known. Again, this isn't to blame ML but mostly to shift the blame away from the mum.
Apologies if this seemed like a rant. I totally get your perspective and agree with most of your criticisms. I think if this drama/webtoon were in a bubble it would be perfectly serviceable as a story with a decent message that can resonate with some who watch/read it. However, with so much SK media portraying suicide as a personal act of selfish sin, this show missed an opportunity to address that stigma in an empathetic way and explore the situations surrounding those who choose it. Would I still recommend it? Yeah. Apart from some questionable special effects and the slight tonal dissonance in the middle with the action revenge plots, the series is well acted, generally well paced and has some heartfelt moments, especially with the mum at the end. Your 7 is totally fair though I might personally bump it up to an 8 :)