SKITC

How to Ruin a Timeloop Concept in the Finale aka The Dog Dies I Guess

Just in case the spoiler warning above was not noted, this review is almost nothing but spoilers for the final episode so be warned and proceed with the appropriate caution.

Briefly, "A Time Called You" has eleven very solid, consistently paced, smartly acted, lushly photographed and skillfully directed episodes. Jeon Yeo Been is better as Jun Hee than as Min Ju. Ahn Hyo Seop is as good here as he's been in any show. He's not an easy sell as a teenager, but in K Drama Land, that's just the part of the terrain that we trod. There's some other nice casting for supporting roles. In fact, there isn't a below the bar performance to be found. It is somewhat disappointing that Seo Ye Hwa and Jang Hye Jin don't figure more prominently in the meat of the narrative. But that is somewhat made up for by Rowoon's cameo.

And props to the writers, director and editor for setting up the finale with a deft minuet between the time periods where characters are hopping back and forth. Although familiarity with the source material seems to have dampened some reviewers enthusiasm, having no such background found this production to be one of the more consistently enjoyable ones of recent vintage.

Until the finale.

The finale is when the timeloop malpractice bomb explodes.

Grievances:

1. A timeloop is already a do-over. Once you get a single do-over, that should be it. No do-overs of part of the first do-over. But after the excruciating exposition of exactly how Min Ju dies which is directly tied to Jun Hee's time travel, Jun Hee gets to try again and this time saves Min Ju.

2. Once Min Ju is saved, with the aid of In Kyu by the way, these two have about twenty seconds of resolution where Min Ju seems to have been won over by In Kyu and like everything is just jolly even though she was suicidally depressed earlier in the episode.

3. While Min Ju and In Kyu get short shrift, there are painfully extended scenes in the past era of Jun Hee in Min Ju's body and Si Heon traveling to and cavorting at the beach in the sand and in the water and watching the sunset. It's a necessary part of the narrative, but it feels like it consumes the entire second half of the finale.

4. Well, except for the showoff sequence of CGI dissolves that follows that goes on and on and on.

5. So the leads reunite for a moment of silence (yes, no words are exchanged in the street as the snow falls) and credits roll. It is quite the anticlimactic moment.

6. Where are Min Ju and In Kyu in this new future? No idea.

7. Did Park Hyuk Kwon's uncle character still open a cafe in Seoul? No idea. If he did, are the two leads somehow connected to it? Obviously no idea.

8. If nothing else in the future matters, why does it matter that Si Heon is now running a webcomic startup? No idea.

9. The real gear grinder is that of all the dramas where there is a completely unnecessary, unsatisfying and unconvincing rehabilitation arc of the villain at the end, this is the show where THE CONTEXT COMPELLED FOR SUCH AN ARC TO HAPPEN. IS Min Jin Woong's Oh Chan Young still a psychopath? Presumably Oh Chan Hee doesn't end up committed to an asylum, but his fate is completely left up to the viewer to determine. And as Oh Chan Young before the magic CGI dissolve had already killed the family dog before his journey via cassette to the past, we have no reason to think that he didn't still do it in the new post no-suicide-timeline. And since Chan Young killed the family dog, then that means that the family Mom is still going to freak out and since Chan Young is a psychopath, does Chan Young eventually move on to killing his mom? Is that how the universes balance out? Min Ju lives but Mrs. Oh dies?

But after careful consideration, the only conclusion can be that the dog is definitely dead.

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The four horsemen of the borepocalypse

It’s not that “Peng” is short in how many episodes it has or that each of the episodes is short in duration, it’s that “Peng” is short on content of any kind.

Yoon So Hee plays the main character, Go Sa Ri, a divorced thirty year old woman. That she is divorced is her most defining element of her character. Otherwise, Sa Ri could float in or out or around in almost any drama as “Pretty young woman who is otherwise nondescript”. That she has apparently no social life one day and becomes the object of desire for four men the next day is supposed to be credible. It’s not but in the big picture of “Peng”, Yoon So Hee as an actress and Go Sa Ri as a character are not especially troubling. Sure, Yoon So Hee struggles with the occasional emotion-laden scene. And Go Sa Ri as a character engages in self-pity a bit too much. She's young and attractive and and smart and lives in an apartment and there's just not much more to her. But the actor and character are not wholly unpalatable and, if she were in the context of a more engaging ensemble, she would be a pleasant part of it.

What is so unpleasant about “Peng” is that the four male pursuers, played by Choi Won Myung, Joo Woo Jae, Lee Seung Il and Kim Hyun Jin, are all endlessly uninteresting and bland and interchangeably uninteresting and bland. The four actors have separate characters in theory but it would require detailed note taking to keep track of which one is on screen and how he is distinguishable from the other three. One of them is a not believable young, reclusive CEO. One is an only slightly more believable rich brat. One is a student or at least appears to be the age of a student and goes to clubs. If it were possible to not be believable in such a role, the actor playing this character would manage it. Which actor? Sorry, they all appear to be the same height and build and dress alike and have similar hair except for the one that mercifully has glasses. He’s the super not unique character of a cafe owner who moonlights as an artist. Watching these four all act together is like having only a salad for lunch. A salad that is entirely made of iceberg lettuce. Scratch that. Make it iceberg lettuce that has been left sitting out for a day so it’s not even crisp anymore. It’s just sad, wilted, soggy, room temperature leaves. A salad that is without any dressing. A sad, wilted iceberg lettuce dressing-less salad that has a bowl of plain, cold oatmeal as a side. And then eating that same meal again for dinner. That’s the level of blandness that these four bring. If it weren’t so tedious, it would be somehow backhandedly exotic for how far they have far that this quartet of dullness have collectively pushed the nothingness envelope.

It’s not that Go Sa Ri should have the dilemma of which of these four varieties of generic vanilla ice cream she should pull from the case or indeed even whether she should move on to anyone, literally anyone, else (side note: clearly she should run and run as fast as she possibly can), it’s whether she should be concerned that she is the subject of an experiment in some sort of unnaturally dull Matrix.

Also, the plot is basically Sa Ri bumps into the four flesh-colored statues. Sometimes separately. Sometimes together. Nothing much happens when she does. There’s some background work activities or drinking or some such, but this is the barest pretext necessary to excuse Sa Ri being somewhere where an ambulatory piece of cardboard will hover nearby and mumble at her. Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

The two best friends to Go Sa Ri, played by Bang Eun Jung and Baek Soo Hee, fortunately seem fun and a show that would be more about them and not four semi-corpselike male mannequins would be somewhat quality entertainment. Hopefully, these two actors find a vehicle where they have more than a few seconds on screen per episode and more than a handful of lines of dialogue. But “Peng” is not that show.

Other positives? It’s short. And…

[crickets]

Not recommended except for those viewers that really like plain salads for every meal all the time.

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The Devil Wears Preteen Fanfic

"The Fabulous" is such an irredeemable mess that it approaches a point that makes it almost impossible to review. An end-to-end mishmash of poorly conceived characters brought to screen through addled direction that is stretched across an excruciating eight episodes of barely plotted and rapidly increasing unrealistic action. There are scant positives to point at, but the fact that it somehow is relatively less awful than the other recent fashion-themed drama "Now We Are Breaking Up" is probably its greatest selling point.

As for background, it's four friends - Chae Soo Bin's PR exec Ji Eun, Choi Min Ho's photographer Woo Min, Lee Sang Woon's designer Joseph and Park Hee Jung's runway model Seon Ho - working in the fashion industry. Here's the spoiler - they all succeed with only Ji Eun encountering momentary resistance and difficulty. And they party and dance and drink and literally nothing remotely bad happens that isn't easily and quickly solved. The solution? No idea. But whatever the problem was, it magically goes away. At the end, it's like every character showed up the day Oprah gave out "Happily Ever After" lives to everyone in her studio audience. The flying car at the end of "Grease" was a monument to realism compared to this fashion fantasy land.

Chae Soo Bin plays the latest in a string of near identical characters - sweet and cute and clumsy but inwardly determined. It's a character that she plays well, but there's no side of Ji Eun that hasn't been portrayed multiple times before by this actor.

Choi Min Ho has barely a cardboard cutout of a character. He's had previous roles where he's demonstrated enough competence to earn a leading role, but he shows nothing here to indicate he can take a character beyond what is explicitly written for it.

Park Hee Jung has, by far, the most presence on screen and character with some shred of depth to convey. She's in many respects playing herself but she is modestly convincing when she seem to have the closest thing to an actual crisis - whether she should continue modeling or not. Of course, it's barely set in place before she's told how fabulous she is and her grand conquest is [checks notes] pretty much doing the same modeling thing she had been doing before. It falls a bit short of the transcendent metamorphosis in to someone who contributes more to the world than being tall and walking in a straight line on stage.

But it is Joseph that is a cringefest from start to end. The industry should be commended for making a flamboyantly gay character a lead in a major drama. This particular character, however, is an incredible misstep. A flamboyantly gay man is not a toddler. He can be professional and strong and an adult and not need to be constantly emotionally supported by every other person in their presence. That his sexuality and the stereotype associated with it is so obviously being lampooned for cheap laughs is insulting and everyone who is associated with this character should regret their part in bringing such a travesty to screen.

As for the supporting characters, Shin Dong Mi deserves better than this neurotically clueless CEO, Shim Do Young tries very, very hard but has no gravitas, there's a couple of one dimensional boyfriend types that appear and say things and then move offscreen and are immediately forgotten and Seo Soo Hee plays the most ridiculous stereotype of a self-important idol type of recent memory.

Lee Si Woo has a nice turn as Joseph's assistant Esther. Im Ki Hong is brilliant in a guest role. And Seo Hye Won makes a brief cameo. That's the positives.

Strike a pose? No. Not recommended.

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Strong cast stuck with scattershot storytelling

Need an actor to silently glare sideways at the camera and incinerate everything in sight? Kang Han Na should be the first choice. Maybe the second and third and even the fourth too. She’s a talent as an actor in general, but at this specific thing, she’s unrivaled. That “Bite Sisters” asks her to do this on a frequent basis shows a keen sense of self-awareness, to both good and bad purposes.

The cast is a legion of stardom for a web drama. Credits of the top four billed actors include a string of recent hit shows like “Crash Landing on You”, “Start-Up”, “My Roommate is a Gumiho”, “River Where the Moon Rises”, “Be Melodramatic” and “Mystic Pop-Up Bar”. The production most takes place them in a fashion boutique giving the wardrobe crew license to deck the cast in some of the most fashionable threads the screen (web or otherwise) has seen this year. Now make the three female actors vampires to add a little supernatural twist and this well-known cast that looks amazing should be a slam dunk.

A full length drama with sixteen hour long episodes can struggle weaving more than a single storyline and their supporting characters together coherently. In a web drama with only ten episodes averaging around ten minutes, it’s madness. “Bite Sisters” has a backstory, an arc where Yi Na (the main character played by Kang Han Na) blows up as an influencer on social media, there’s the youngest of the three vampires Ji Yeon who has multiple issues at her job outside the boutique, Yi Na’s old flame has been reincarnated, a cheating boyfriend of a customer, a young girl with a terrible father and even a neighbor lady that’s trying to feed a street cat. It’s a stew of undercooked, overused themes that don’t really get any fresh treatment. Instead of a show about all of these things, it’s much closer to a show about nothing because none of the narratives end up with a fraction of the depth necessary to engage a viewer.

Give it a good silent sideways glare because “Bite Sisters” is terrific eye candy. But it’s just a shiny veneer without any substance beneath the surface.

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Like the title character at the beginning, it doesn't know what it should be

"I can't sing" says Doona when asked why she stopped performing but it's obvious that the issue is NOT that she can't sing. It's that she doesn't know WHY she is singing. And that after the years of training and performing, she's lost any meaning to what had once been her dream.

That much is clear.

And equally clear is that a kpop idol interacting with Yang Se Jong's Won Joon is like a plunge in to an ice bath. He's such an opposite of her. He's beyond his years in maturity. He doesn't smoke. He's a rule follower. His emotions are as grounded as a concrete block building foundation. C'mon, he's a civil engineer. As a romance? Legitimately, there are some terrific, compelling scenes between Won Joon and Doona. But this is not a show where any rational viewer is expecting a fairy tale - they get together, leave the world behind and live happily ever after. Immediately upon solidifying their relationship, the clock begins audibly ticking before their troubles as a couple will consume them. Regardless of whether or not the lovebirds find a way to be together, the main issue that is dramatized is whether Doona falls for Won Joon because she needs someone and he's the one that happens to be there or is he legitimately her soulmate? But somewhat ignored is why has Won Joon fallen for Doona as a person? Clearly he's a straight male and she's stunning and seems interested in him and that should obviously be enough for a brief infatuation. It's not enough, however, to explain how he overlooks all the negatives (and there are many) in her and she becomes the only woman for him. So the romance is intermittently great but, in totality, is more just going where it was pretty expected it was headed from before the first frame hit the screen.

Moreover, the secondary storylines have promise. Park Se Wan and Kim Do Wan are a fantastic pair. Won Joon's got a potentially colorful hometown connections subplot. Ha Young's Jin Joo has a troubled family life. But the shorter episode run times and 9 episode duration don't give these diversions ample space to really fulfill what could have been. Park Se Wan, in particular, is wild and colorful but shows up halfway just as things in the main plot are gaining serious traction. Even just a single additional episode could have allowed more screen time to cultivate what were some potentially entertaining developments.

Where "Doona" really hits (and, in a way, misses) is that Doona herself is this fascinating, complex, damaged and brilliant character in the midst of discovering herself and her passion for music. And, for as much as no other man but Won Joon can make her happy, the reality is that not even he can come between her and who she is as an artist and a singer. It's her journey from being a woman in crisis to finding what within her gives her a purpose and meaning that captivates. How it misses is that it is clumsily obfuscated by the demands of the industry that she return to settle her contractual obligations and the effect that her return to singing has on Won Joon. These are certainly points worth noting in her growth, but they overwhelm what could have been a better exploration of her personal awakening, finding meaning in songwriting, realizing what she loved about performing and that a life without music, for her, would be a life without meaning. Instead, her internal development is captured in only brief moments. It's a pity.

Recommended but with forewarning that "Doona" isn't what it could be.

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Good job checking as many of the wrong boxes as possible

"Good Job" is less of an earnest attempt to create a traditional drama and more of a tutorial on how to pack an industry's worth of cliche's in to a single production.

Rich boy/poor girl plot? Check.

Wrist grabs? Check.

Preparing a meal for romantic interest? Check.

Rooftop apartment? Check.

Orphanage? Check.

Suicide attempt? Check.

Blind date scene? Check.

Turning the back on the bad guy to have the following exhcange "Are you ok?" "I'm ok" "Are you sure you're ok" "I'm ok" while the bad guy escapes? Check.

Police officers that never seem to have any backup? Check.

Young, rich, spoiled bully that hangs out at the club? Check.

There's a storyline although it's stretched thinner than the top of a snare drum. Impossibly young conglomerate CEO Eun Sun Woo plays hooky from his day job to secretly investigate his mother's death twenty years prior to present day action. He is joined by former orphan with supervision Don Se Ra. Together, they dress up in disguises and screw up and bail themselves out of more catch-the-villain schemes than anyone not accompanied by a talking Great Dane and operating out of the Mystery Machine. Oh and, of course, they're super attracted to each other but pretend not to be for what feels like half the duration of the Cretaceous Era.

But at least there's some nice diversions that pop up on a regular basis. Lee Joon Hyuk gets some nice comic moments as the ignored assistant to Eun Sun Woo. Eum Moon Suk and Song Sang Eun are given free reign to go as ridiculous as possible as the best friends to the leads and secondary couple. Award winning stuff? No but worth a few chuckles in a show mostly bereft of positive moments.

Neither Jung Il Woo nor Kwon Yu Ri fare as well as Eun Sun Woo and Don Se Ra respectively. In both cases, it's partially that neither have more than two or three expressions (1. bemused & feigning surprise 2. mildly annoyed and 3. overwrought concern for Jung Il Woo with 1. nervous half smile and 2. no expression for Kwon Yu Ri). Jung Il Woo at least has the athletic requisites for the fighting set pieces and Kwon Yu Ri absolutely is putting as much energy in to playing Se Ra as possible. And probably neither of these two are legit lead material. But the "probably" is an important qualifier because neither character gives these actors much to bring to life. What would make Sun Woo more interesting is if he was able to engage in his schtick of operating in disguise undercover. But after about three episodes, this habit only makes rare appearances. And the interesting trait for Se Ra is her supervision, but once Sun Woo finds out it drains her of her energy, she is forbidden to use it. Awesome idea to create these special skills for the two lead characters and then have them NOT USE THEM for vast stretches of the show.

Although the two lead characters are barely more than one dimensional cardboard cutouts, they're inifinitely more exotic and interesting than the villain of "Good Job". Not only does the writing team of Kim Jung Ae and Kwon Hee Kyung hit every element of Villain Writing Malpractice, they manage to discover entirely novel forms of malfeasance. The bad guy is revealed too late. Before he is revealed, his nefarious deeds are so far in the background that they barely register. After he is revealed, attempts to make him seem either crazy or evil are ineffectual. Neither his motive nor his goals make any sense. He has a nickname but it's so ridiculous that the production avoids any mention of it until near the climactic showdown where the thing that gives rise to the nickname does absolutely nothing. Upon being finally revealed, of course, he makes an attempt to bring down Sun Woo. This sequence of dreck features a blindfolded damsel in distress (shocking, right?), a monologue (no one on this team has seen "The Incredibles" apparently) and the villain inexplicably squandering the advantage he went cross country to create so that he can engage in a altogether ordinary fistfight with Sun Woo.

Good job? More like "Needs to Try a Lot Harder Next Time Job". Not recommended.

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Not exactly poetic

Imagine Robert Frost traveling along a path in the woods and finding a fork. On the right, the more beaten path. On the left, the proverbial “one less traveled by”. He chooses left and moves forward. But after a bit, reconsiders and returns to the fork. Then chooses the right and, again, proceeds further into the woods. Unhappy with his choice, he returns to the divergence and resumes his stroll on the left. But he is no happier on the left than he was on the right and retreats again, this time with certainty to take the path on the right. After multiple repetitions, he wanders aimlessly in a circle at the fork, traveling in no particular direction at all for any length of time. Not a particularly compelling poem had his most famous work followed this trajectory.

But this is a pretty fair metaphor for “Tomorrow”.

Like an aimless wander through some woods, it might not go anywhere meaningful but that’s not to say that it’s entirely unpleasant. There’s some marvelous casting. In his previous work, Rowoon has demonstrated a relaxed and natural vibe and he’s got a pretty full toolbox of skills to capably lead any tentpole drama. Kim Hee Sun is a terrific match for the role of Goo Ryun. Kim Hae Sook is a welcome sight in any production.

The concept is a refreshing mix of grim reaper and the Hollywood blockbuster “Men in Black”. Rowoon’s Joon Woong, through an unlikely chain of events, finds himself working as a not-yet-dead grim reaper assigned to the Crisis Management Team, a special unit that is tasked with helping souls on the brink of suicide. It’s very dark and heavy stuff, but the production manages to find some lightness and humor. Joon Woong’s childlike, adventurous personality aids the entertainment quotient enormously. There’s lots of Barry Sonnenfeld-style touches too like Kim Chil Doo’s multiple mute appearances. And the production value matches the need for outlandish hair and wardrobe, otherworldly sets and occasional specific effects.

The photography and OST aren’t award-winning but neither do they detract.

And where “Tomorrow” takes an approach as a procedural show, it has some exquisitely outstanding episodes. Several of the episodes in the first half of the series (which has a more procedural bent) are powerfully emotional. The characters and guest acting performances by the targets of the Crisis Management Team are wonderful. Rowoon’s interactions with these characters show off his acting strengths.

But this production can’t stay committed to this path. It’s got a serial narrative underneath and eventually the procedural approach dissolves and things go backward. Or south. Maybe down? It’s not clear.

Among the most problematic elements are some very awkwardly introduced backstories. There’s also too many of them as Kim Hee Sun’s Goo Ryun, Lee Soo Hyuk’s Joong Gil and Yun Ji On’s Ryung Goo characters all get period piece backstories. But none work well. Goo Ryun’s is in fragments that don’t fit together. Joong Gil’s seems to be threaded with Goo Ryun but it’s so haphazardly edited in to the present day storyline that it becomes an unwelcome distraction. The worst, however, is Ryung Goo’s episode-long slog well past the halfway mark. Had it been shorter and earlier, it’s conceivable it could have contributed. But Ryung Goo’s character is not exactly a breath of cool, crisp mountain air to begin with and spending an entire hour in a historical era where everything goes badly and then even more badly and then just goes downhill at an accelerated pace is simply unpleasant. Even had there been an overwhelming positive outcome in the present day, it’s not enough to balance out the misery of the backstory.

As for the present day, Joong Gil is a mess all-around. The character is dull. Lee Soo Hyuk’s portrayal is unwaveringly one-note which is an expression of no expression at all.

Kim Hae Sook has some lovely moments early on in the series, but as the episodes progress, she appears less and less frequently.

Rowoon’s Joon Woong is a solid character and has a perfectly good setup where his adventures put his mother and younger sister into a precarious predicament. Like with so much else though, after a promising start, the focus wanders away in other directions.

Most problematic is that the main characters, whether it’s just Joon Woong and Goo Ryun, or if the main characters also include Joong Gil and Ryung Goo, they simply don’t fit well. Chemistry is an overused term as professional actors worth their salary should be able to fool an audience that they genuinely have feelings for each other. But a lack of chemistry is precisely the most apt description of what ails these group. The characters just don't fit together and, frankly, "Tomorrow" doesn't seem to care that they are only somewhat interesting characters separately and wholly unconvincing as a team. Although some blame might fall on the actors or casting, more of it should be borne by the writing which introduces too many sideplots and the directing which invests heavily in creating a modern, quirky and fantasy setting and then jettisoning it to play it safe with worn-out themes.

“Tomorrow” has enough bright spots to recommend it but expectations should be tempered.

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Stellar acting with plot that can feel like advanced calculus

This is not Korean drama for beginners. In fact, the labyrinthine story is painfully difficult to follow and the narration goes to incredible lengths to keep the viewer off-balance and in the dark. Throughout the multitudes of characters, rarely is anyone portrayed as strictly good or purely evil. But the rewards for enduring this demanding watch are plentiful. There's no comedy. There's no snappy theme song. There's no happy hangouts at the tent bar drinking soju.

Kang Ha Neul plays Kim Yo Han, a young judicial trainee who is conscripted to help locate a valuable piece of intel for Kim Sang Ho's senior prosecutor. Things go wrong. Kim Yo Han ends up in prison where he's a pawn. Who are the real players pulling the strings? What are their plans for him? Neither question has a simple answer and even when it appears that a layer of illusion has been pealed back to reveal the reality of the situation, chances are that only a very small bit of truth has been unveiled. Kim Yo Han makes allies. And enemies. And sometimes the enemies later becomes allies only later to revert to enemies. And the allies are often only merely being used to further the revenge Kim Yo Han seeks.

Watching Kang Ha Neul play such a serious role is an enormous treat. He is easily among the most talented actors in the industry, with incredible range and a gift for delivering lines to maximize impact. Simply seeing him as Kim Yo Han is worth the mental fatigue from the brain-bending plot twists.

But to see Kang He Neul with a fellow lead that can match his talent? [chef's kiss] And Lee Yoo Young is exactly that. Her portrayal of Oh Soo Yeon, a fellow revenge seeker but one with a network of illicit connections, is both powerful and heartbreaking.

And there's more. Jung Man Shik is tremendous as a gang leader. Kang Yeong Seok is a mercurial gambler/prisoner that is both mentor and tormentor and a beguiling and simultaneously monstrous figure.

While the acting is as good as it gets, the writing and directing simply go too far to make "Insider" unnecessarily complex. Too many characters. Too many twists. Too many villains. Too many shady behind-the-scenes figures. Too many flashbacks to reveal the setup to what is about to happen. And as a result, Heo Sung Tae spends most of the show on the sidelines while pyramids of lower levels of setup gradually build to the point that he enters. And all of this excess means extra mental gymnastics when all that's needed is adding just enough color to the canvas behind Kang Ha Neul and Lee Yoo Young.

Put the spotlight on the talent. And then let them take over.

Highly recommended but with a warning that it's neither a casual watch nor for the faint of heart.

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Less of a traditional drama and more like an acting laboratory

For anyone that has not watched "Gangnam B-Side", enter the experience with the expectation that it is not traditional drama fare. Because of the characteristics that typically are associated with a drama, it is remarkably bereft of any of them.

Do not watch expecting some coherent story arc with humanlike characters with somewhat meaningfully fleshed out personalities and dialogue that contains the occasional complete sentence. This vehicle seems more interested in taking actors and asking them to do things to see if they work or not. Some of the things that the production team seemed interested in testing are:

Does anyone know who Jo Woo Jin is without having to look up his biography on MDL?

Would anyone believe it if the pre-release marketing said that Ji Chang Wook was cast as a true villain? Like not a bad guy that is still likable and sort of a good guy inside and immeasurably cool?

As a plot device, does it make sense to disappear the most compelling character from virtually the start to the end?

Might someone/anyone in the Eastern Hemisphere have a different take on how to portray a dirty cop or corrupt prosecutor?

Is there a noticeable difference in Bibi's approach to playing a drug lord's daughter/protege' and a street-wise call girl?

Can Ha Yoon Kyung sell a no-nonsense morally ambiguous prosecutor character after about a dozen consecutive roles as the painfully cute, syrupy sweet secondary love interest?

If Bibi and Oh Ye Ju's characters are put in almost identical predicaments, is there any entertainment value for the second time through the same subplot?

With respect, it's possible for some dedicated viewers or family members of Jo Woo Jin that the answer to the first query is "Yes" but otherwise, none of these emerge from the mess that is this production positively. Jo Woo Jin is not lead material. Ji Chang Wook is a bad guy, but not the villain. Bibi's Jae Hui is the most compelling character but is either missing or kidnapped or otherwise not around for almost the entire show. The bad cops and sleazy prosecutors are the same as any other drama. Bibi is great as this type of character but it's indistinguishable from her character in "Worst of Evil". Ha Yoon Kyung scores brownie points for trying, but she does not deliver the weight and intensity that this role needed. And this plot badly needed to go in a different direction for the second half.

Which is not to say that everything is bad here. Jung Ga Ram is surprisingly adept in his hyperbolic, bad boy night club denizen. Great? No, but much improved over the wooden, shallow type from his previous work. It's yet to be seen how much range Bibi has as an actor, but she has the desperate, lawbreaking, not-to-be-trifled-with, buttkicking maneater character SO DOWN. Jung Man Shik can play shady, slimy & icky like very few others can. And nobody shines as much as Ok Ja Yeon as a sort of den mother to the party girls (a better version of this production would have elevated this character to one of the leads with a full backstory).

The show has lots of blinking lights and bells and whistles. There's more collapsible batons than anywhere outside of the collapsible baton factory. And the martial arts coordinator has one of the few credits I've seen for that job on MDL so there's that little nugget.

And it's definitely got a lot of grit. There is no romance here. This is not a fairytale about nice people or nice places. With a capable group to write some actual dialogue instead of recycling profanity and generic threats of violence, choreograph a fight scene with a scintilla of connection to reality and just one character that an audience could hope emerges from all the trauma in one piece physically and emotionally, "Gangnam B-Side" could have been a taut, compelling thriller.

Even for ardent fans of Ji Chang Wook or any of the other actors, can not recommend.

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Nice guys are not boyfriend material

Somewhere in the depths of the internet is a video where, amongst a panel of speakers, an amiable seeming fellow is airing the usual nice guy grievance that women should be more interested in him and other men like him as they have a lot to offer. A woman on the panel quickly interrupts him and rather succinctly shuts him down (although badly prefacing it by stating that she does not intend to offend him), that despite his belief that he has a lot to offer, he does not. Nice guy is aghast at this affront. End of video. The whole exchange can be viewed in less than a minute. Although not exposited, clearly, a torrid dating affair is not about to ensue for said nice guy.

“Again My Life” is a 16 hour affair that can be rather comprehensively summed up in the same way. The fancy marketing images might seem like it will be a pleasing and interesting show on the surface. Timeloop! [lasers flash] Revenge! [fireworks] Justice served!!! [THUNDERING EXPLOSIONS]

It might seem like it has these many things to offer.

It does not.

In fact, the most memorable moment of the entire series by a country mile happens early. Cha Joo Young triggers the whole timeloop by appearing as a grim reaper that sends Lee Joon Gi’s Prosecutor Kim Hee Woo back to his teen years. It’s over quickly but there's some spectacle here highlighted by some terrific wardrobe for Cha Joo Young.

The next few episodes follow Hee Woo’s initial steps at setting up his revenge against Lee Kyung Young’s Assemblyman Cho Tae Seob, the power-hungry kingmaker in Korean politics. It’s a fairly lengthy setup as there’s no shortage of supporting characters that need to be networked to Hee Woo - mentors, female friends/allies, classmates, family members, pugilists and fellow prosecutors.

Then the revenge actually starts. Or so it would appear. There’s some meetings. And phone calls. And conversations over food. News gets announced on television. A couple guys get dragged in to be interrogated. The good guy pretends that he’s not in his second go-round through a timeloop so, even when he’s telling his friends and colleagues exactly what is about to transpire, he [checks notes] acts normal. How does he know these things? His friends and colleagues question him. He shrugs and offhandedly says he must be lucky or something. And his friends and colleagues buy it, shrug and move on. That’s the excitement quotient on the good guy end. This is practically two-headed, four-armed purple mutants riding flying motorcycles shooting flaming rockets compared to the action on the bad guy side. The bad guy is a graying middle aged man whose evildoings revolve around him having conversations in a living room mostly with other graying middle aged men. The bad guy sports some seriously frightening [checks notes again] cardigan sweaters. In the super suspenseful moments of these scenes, the bad guy will quietly grunt and NOD HIS HEAD EVER SO SLIGHTLY. Not exactly grab a giant tub of popcorn stuff.

As for other issues…

The amount of characters is ridiculous. There’s as many cast members as a zombie apocalypse but each of them are supposed to be ones with names and unique personalities and some sort of reason why the good guy or bad guy has them involved in all of this and why they have some affinity for Hee Woo. But it's all drowned in the sheer numbers of them. There isn’t just one hired muscle guy. There’s one for the good guy and one for the bad guy and one for the good guy’s bff chaebol heiress. There isn’t just one elder mentor. There’s one for the good guy on the private business side and another one for the good guy on the law side and one for the good guy’s bff chaebol heiress. She also has two useless brothers because apparently one useless brother made no sense? There isn’t just one prosecutor underling type. There’s the assistant from the countryside and the good guy’s classmate from law school and the good guy’s female classmate from law school has one too and that’s not counting the one that’s under the middle management prosecutor who is working for the next-level-up but still middle management prosecutor. They all end up faceless and barely distinguishable from each other. Slap some fake blood and gray makeup on them and it might as well be a zombie horde.

Lee Joon Gi is a fine enough actor to be a male lead, but not this male lead. Hee Woo isn’t just a prosecutor. He’s a prosecutor that likes to be on the front line and occasionally mixing it up martial arts style with bad guys. Athletically, Lee Joon Gi can get by. But it’s impossible to hide that he’s at least two weight classes smaller than every other actor on set.

There’s a brief snippet or two of internal dialogue in Hee Woo’s head of pondering what the butterfly effect will be by him altering the course of events. This show needed a heavy, heavy dose of this but opted instead for boring bad guy and his boring wannabes mumbling at each other. Or recycling another scene where Hee Woo and his crew sit and talk. Or they talk on the phone. Or two characters have a conversation where they decide that one of them will summon another character and ask them to do something. And then the other character will be summoned and the dialogue from the earlier meeting will be repeated. And the other character will be asked to do the thing. And the other character will say “OK”. End of scene.

As for character growth and development, Hee Woo is the same in episode two and episode four and episode ten and episode fourteen. Bad guy? Same. Female bff chaebol heiress? She actually says out loud that she is going to leave behind her normal life but does her personality change? Not even a little bit. Any of the not-zombies-but-might-as-well-be horde? Absolutely not.

Moreover, Kim Ji Eun seems about as natural an actress for a rom-com as a production could find. Why she and her management seem bent on appearing in spy and legal thriller genre pieces is mystifying. She's just not going to generate the emotional intensity that playing this kind of character requires.

Late, very late, the show attempts to generate action and move some of the supporting characters in to more of a spotlight. But it's difficult to get emotionally invested in a character that's been on the periphery and barely on camera for the past ten-plus episodes.

OST? Nothing out of the ordinary.

Interesting scenery? No.

Romance? Barely a hint of it.

Sex? Nope.

Gore? Zero.

Humor? None.

Tension? Intrigue? Suspense? Zip.

Most damning is that there is no element of “Again My Life” that can be raised as a “Yes but…” Something that when this laundry list of flaws is recited, could be brought forth as a counterargument. Something that when a critic would raise, for instance, how lackluster a villain is present here, a fan could reply “Yes, but look at This Thing. it also has This Wonderful Quality that makes it worth watching.” It has nothing of the sort. It excels at nothing. It’s not even interesting at being bad at so many things. It was meant to breathe life back into a hero and bring a horrible villain to justice. Only there’s no breath and no life in any of it.

Ok fine. It has Cha Joo Young in a killer, bright red pantsuit on top of a skyscraper for a few minutes.

If timeloops do exist, someone should take one back to the production meeting where this got pitched and stop it from ever happening. Obviously not recommended.

[author's note: Contrary to the headline, it's really not that nice guys aren't boyfriend material. It's that anyone that claims to be a nice guy is almost certainly not.]

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Want something never seen before? Keep moving. This isn't it. But it's a nice little light romance.

Producer: “Hey everyone, thanks for coming to today’s meeting. It’s good to have all our hair, makeup & wardrobe people together. We’ve got a big item to address today. As you know, tomorrow, we’re filming the high school flashback scene, right? You’ve all read the breakdown I trust. So the deal is, our main character, Yi Seo is supposed to be a loser and a nobody that Seon Woo would never even look at twice. We’ve got to make our star, Im Na Young, look terrible! I want your ideas on how we’re going to do that. Fire ‘em at me!”

Wardrobe: “We’ll put glasses on her.”
Hair: “We’ll put her hair in pigtails.”
Makeup: “Acne?”

[producer stays silent glaring for a minute]

Producer: “Guys. Seriously? We’re not trying to make her look even more cute than usual. She's supposed to be a LOSER. DORK. NERD. Not adorable!”

Wardrobe, Hair & Makeup: [blank stares]

Producer: “What’s our CGI budget?”

Production Assistant: “Zero”

Producer: [rubs face with both hands] “Ok fine, so she’ll be an unbelievably adorably cute loser.”

“Heartbeat Broadcasting Accident” is a web drama that, outside the context of faceplanting on their attempt to make Im Na Young not look stunning, isn’t going to break any new ground as far as novel plotlines and the character roster is nothing but stock, generic types. So its success rides entirely on how well its cast can charm the audience. Although it’s a mixed bag there, it has more positives than negatives.

Lee Hyun Joo is the antagonist, Yu Ra, a successful live commerce host with a thing for Director Cha Seun Woo. She’s the typical selfish, shallow popular girl. Lee Hyun Joo is fine here although deviating a bit from the all-unfriendly all-the-time might have livened things up. Had she been a backstabber on top of everything else, points for that. But with a web drama, there just may not have been enough run time to fit that in.

Points for Yang Hak Jin as the very creepy and terrible ex boyfriend.

The weakest of the cast is undoubtedly Jung Min Gyu as Kwon Hyuk, the friend who hooks up Yi Seo with a job at the live commerce company. The character seems written like he should be somewhat sympathetic, but he’s played so erratically and disdainfully by Jung Min Gyu that he is almost as much the bad guy as Yu Ra.

This show though, not all that unexpectedly, is about the two leads and the romance between them. Zuho plays Cha Seon Woo, the cool former high school heartthrob that’s now a director at a live commerce company and rival of Kwon Hyuk. It’s not the most arduous or novel character to play, but Zuho checks all the physical attributes for a male lead and he’s got credible skills as an actor. He’s given some bad dialogue and that he still is a mostly charming and charismatic character shows he’s not just a pretty face and singer.
Im Na Young is getting regular work but it’s mostly been as an ensemble piece where here she’s the one with unquestioned claim in the spotlight. Yi Seo is not a huge departure from previous characters and there’s certainly questions about whether there’s a lot of range in Im Na Young’s toolbox as an actor. Despite that, she has no problems playing the sweet and bubbly type and that’s what she’s asked to do in this vehicle. Is she leading material in a big production? Can’t tell based on this show but she is capable as an actor playing this type of character. So she gets to play to her strengths and the chemistry with Zuho is ok. And that makes “Heartbeat Broadcasting Accident” a better than average web drama.

Is it groundbreaking? No.
Amazing? No.
Memorable? No.

But it takes a simple concept and competently executes it and, for a bite-size show, is one of the 2021 better productions.

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Ms. Dentist should have brought more friends from Seoul

The show is part small-town ensemble comedy and part romance between leads attempting to overcome difficult childhoods. The foundation is there for a successful show. There’s some terrific actors in the supporting roles. Jo Han Chul, Lee Bong Ryun and and Cha Chung Hwa are excellent performers. It’s not uniformly great up and down the roster (In Gyo Jin as the district head and Lee Bong Ryun’s ex-husband flops badly), but it’s a serviceable group. Several of the supporting cast appear to function as comedic relief (Jo Han Chul’s Oh Yoon and Cha Chung Hwa’s Nam Sook particularly). The comedy, unfortunately, rarely connects. A great deal of it doesn't land because it relies on crudely portraying the locals as a group of hillbillies that has no fashion sense, no sophistication, can't solve basic problems, can barely operate modern technology and is semi-literate. Punching down isn't a good strategy to generate laughs and even if it were, the characters and cast used to attempt it here execute it poorly.

There's other issues too. Early, it appears that there’s some special connection between Chief Hong and Kim Young Ok’s Gam Ri, but her presence fades until there is a throw-in backstory moment near the end. There’s not merely one secondary romance, but a handful of relationships between supporting characters. None of them, however, get enough screen time investment to pay off. While Lee Bong Ryun’s Hwa Jeong is a strong character and gets enough screen time to develop an entertaining arc, the rest of this crew are not much more than one dimensional characters that only very intermittently entertain. Overall, the ensemble just never develops as it has too many characters, not enough character in those characters and a poor job of weaving the supporting arcs to the overarching narrative.

Which leaves it up to the leads to carry the show. And the leads are more than capable hands. Shin Min Ah is marvelous as the centerpiece character - a driven dentist with an inner warmth that isn’t visible through a normally prickly exterior. The character is far from perfect and frustratingly stubborn as she consistently finds ways to damage the tenuous relationships in her new seaside neighborhood. But the blemishes make her charms shine brighter as she begins to connect and find her way.

As for Kim Seon Ho, this is the most Kim Seon Ho style role ever. It is distilled, purest Kim Seon Ho and for viewers that are looking for what he's done in previous work only with more of it and taken to an even more natural, laid-back, "aw shucks" style, this role will probably never be surpassed. For viewers looking for something that would expand his range or show a new type of character, search elsewhere. But he works extremely well with Shin Min Ah and whether it was written with this intent or simply this actor found the right balance, his Chief Hong is the only resident character that doesn't end up being pigeonholed as a backwards simpleton.

Were it not for some missteps with the narrative setting up the conclusion, Ms. Dentist and Chief Hong would probably contend for best romantic lead couple of any drama this year. But the long-awaited unveiling of Chief Hong’s back story is teeming with cliches and reveals that should surprise exactly zero viewers. There’s also some uninspired dialogue in what should be a big emotional moment. It’s exactly when things should be building up to a grand conclusion that it deflates instead. To confound matters more, there's an explosion of crying and product placement in the final two episodes. Frankly, the last three episodes are a massive disappointment. While a less than stellar conclusion shouldn't completely negate what had been a worthy production up to that point, "Hometown Cha Cha Cha" nosedives badly. Badly enough that it does cast a shadow on the show as a whole.

Recommended but barely.

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Make sure the viewing platform has a "Skip Ahead" feature

Part slice/end of life drama, part murder mystery thriller and part odd-couple bff comedy, “The One and Only” attempts to bridge multiple genres. Unfortunately, it is successful only in proving that a fairly strong cast with a skeleton of an intriguing scenario is no match for a tag team of inconsistent writing and awful directing. Whatever promise this production might have had in its first few episodes comes crashing down in an unrelenting avalanche of tediously circular story arcs and terrible production decisions.

Ahn Eun Jin is the main character, In Sook, a terminally ill young woman that scrapes by working in a sauna who lives with her grandmother after she’d been abandoned by her father. Red Velvet’s Joy is Mi Do, a social media influencer with lung cancer and little to count on as far as friends and family go. Kang Ye Won is Se Yeon, another terminally ill woman who is a housewife who is left with caring for her mother-in-law with her questionable mental state.

The marketing for “The One and Only” gave the impression that the friendship between these three was the focus of the show. Perhaps the title should have given it away, however, as it is firstly a show focusing on In Sook’s discovery of her first love, Kim Kyung Nam’s Woo Cheon. As far as romances go, it’s lackluster at best. There’s little question that the two are going to wind up with each other. Once they are together, the two on screen alternate between rehashing typical drama fare or doing nothing much at all. What makes this even more dreadful is that In Sook’s most entertaining moments are when she is unleashing a lifetime of pent-up bitterness on whoever happens to appear before her at the wrong time. That this is her peak belies how unsatisfying In Sook is as a lead character. But once the relationship between In Sook and Woo Cheon takes hold, her anger is defanged and essentially so is she.

For Woo Cheon, he is initially best described as a Korean version of Jean Reno’s reclusive assassin from “Leon: The Professional”. He’s a misfit. He has only a single friend who feeds him his jobs. He likes dogs. But as the show progresses and he awakens, he only becomes more withdrawn but now with In Sook. So rather than opening up emotionally, he becomes more akin to Marvin the depressed robot from “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”. It’s as if the director was constantly yelling at him “LESS PERSONALITY! NO INFLECTION! NO EXPRESSION!” And this is the character with the second most prominent role [eyeroll].

Somehow, the crew finds an even less likable character for the cast member with the third most amount of time on screen - Go Doo Shim’s Seong Ja, In Sook’s grandmother. While the cranky and colorful grandmother is a stock character, most have some charm and warmth as part of the role. Here, sadly, it’s all obnoxious and annoying and irrational. Why the relationship between In Sook and her grandmother is so prominently featured when it’s unnecessary narratively is massively confounding.

As for the remainder of the roster of characters, it’s a mixed bag. Joy’s Mi Do is the figure who ultimately is the most intriguing as she faces a legitimate dilemma. Joy as an actress is not on the same level as an entertainer as she is a singer and dancer. She’s fine though and probably would have done better if the script hadn’t essentially skipped over when she finally confronts her dilemma. Instead, the plot shows an ample collection of evidence of why she must make a decision and then teleports to what happens after she’s elected which path to take.

Se Yeon is listed as a main character but is probably, at best, the tenth most relevant character. Like Mi Do, she has an intriguing subplot and it gets a bit of run in the middle episodes of the show, but it gets only perfunctory screen time after a certain point. There’s some more simply bizarre editorial decisions that are made with Se Yeon, but no discussion of them is possible without explicit spoilers. But it’s bad. Really bad.

Lee Bong Ryun is a police team leader that is a badly needed bright spot. It’s not a dynamic role, but she’s a solid casting selection and it’s not a typical police detective. Yoon Bora is a ray of sunshine as a nun at the hospice which is the primary location. She eventually takes a shine to Jang In Sub’s mixed bag of a detective. Kim Soo Young plays the daughter of another hospice patient and shows immense potential as an actor. Someone should make a show simply where she can play a younger version of Park So Dam with whom she bears an incredible resemblance.

There’s a bit of success with the OST but it’s not a prominent feature here. The photography has some nice outdoor shots.

That’s the comprehensive list of positive qualities in the two prior paragraphs. As for negatives, in addition to what’s already listed here, there’s…
-some terrible editing
-Han Gyu Won is brutally over his head in trying to play chaebol heir and Mi Do’s boyfriend Ji Pyo
-the lead investigator and relatively strong character is written off and vanishes
-a character is declared dead but turns out not to be and no adequate explanation is given
-Woo Cheon’s dog, a gorgeous animal, appears early on and then never again. Meanwhile, Woo Cheon is supposed to be an animal lover but seems to have nary a care at all about what has happened with his once beloved man’s best friend
-Great pains are given to demonstrate that In Sook has a severe loss of hearing in the first few episodes. Like Woo Cheon’s dog, it ceases to exist for no apparent reason.
-other than the mother of Kim Soo Young’s character, none of the residents of the hospice seem to have any ailments at all, at least if one were to view their outward appearance.
-Jang Hyun Sung plays In Sook’s father for the sole purpose of to show up every so often in a bout of planet-sized self-pity and to advance the storyline not a single iota.

It’s really a travesty because Ahn Eun Jin is an actor with every necessary quality in copious amounts to be the centerpiece of a blockbuster hit show. Hopefully this quagmire of awfulness won’t preclude that possibility in the future.

Not recommended.

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The spy is strong but spy show is weak

The spy genre has some of the biggest franchises in the global entertainment biz: Bond. Bourne. Jack Ryan.

“The Veil” takes being part of the spy family seriously, unwaveringly seriously. Namgoong Min as Han Ji Hyuk, ace spy, has all the physical attributes. He looks like he could step in any pro level MMA ring and hold his own. The business suit attire scarcely conceals Ji Hyuk's prodigious musculature. But playing a hero is more than muscle and while Han Ji Hyuk checks a lot of boxes (amnesia, rule-breaking persona, tactical genius, piercing glare), something is missing. He’s such a cold-calculating assassin type, the character ends up so robotic that he’s difficult to cheer for. The speech is monotone. The face is expressionless. The clothing is black and white. Even when he fights, he's so brutally efficient at it that there's not much entertainment value there either.

The other significant issue of “The Veil” is one of the necessary elements of any good vs. evil story - someone to root against. A worthy villain is indispensable. So here, a very bad guy (a drug dealer) pops up quickly early on. But the focus then changes as it turns out someone else is behind him. Then there’s a rogue NIS agent. No wait, it’s a whole secret gang. Or no, it's a secret faction in the NIS. And North Koreans are involved somehow? Wait, no there is some other bad guy pulling the strings. Not that one. Another one. But maybe let’s humanize the character.

[sigh]

Without someone to coalesce some healthy dislike towards, it’s difficult to care whether our not-so-symphathetic hero succeeds or whether the entire cast simply sets sail into deep space to never be seen or heard from again.

Plenty of spy show cliches too. The car chases. The computer hacking. The agency turf battle. Oy.

It’s not entirely bad. Jang Young Nam brings her typical intensity but this time to a more rounded character. Jung Moon Sung is strong as the rogue NIS adversary of Han Ji Hyuk but he hardly establishes a presence in a too brief appearance. Kim Ji Eun’s Je Yi is a fairly nondescript character, but she infuses Je Yi with a spark of humanity and warmth. Park Ha Sun doesn’t have Jang Young Nam’s gravitas to really sell a spy role, but her hairstyle is killer. Grasping for straws here? Seems to be the case.

“The Veil” has some good elements. There’s some fine actors. There’s good action set pieces. There’s some above average production in the sound and photography. But the pieces don’t connect thanks to a collection of one dimensional characters, an unnecessarily convoluted plot and dialogue that could be cut-and-pasted from any number of other entries in the spy genre.

Not recommended.

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Shin Hyun Bin is lights out. The rest is more of a flicker, but it's intriguing enough overall

Viewing “Reflection of You” may require a different mindset for viewers who prefer their shows with a clear good guy(s) versus bad guy(s) or at least someone in the character roster that a viewer might aspire to be like and relate easily to. This is not that production. The suggestion for those who might find this disconcerting is to think of “Reflection of You” as less like a work of fiction about a conflict between a rich family with a troubled marriage and the couple that becomes entwined in their affairs and more of a competition. But instead of competing in a sort of athletic superiority, it’s a race to see which character can be the most horrible person alive. Only it’s not just among the characters on the show, they’re competing to be number one awful human on the planet. And folks, this is a crew with Olympic level quality across the board.

A bit of a digression here. For those readers that have seen the brief marketing writeup of the show, it is misleading and should be wholly ignored. This is a story of two women who became friends through their painting. One married into a rich family and the other was romantic with another artist. The married woman, Hee Joo, begins an affair with Woo Jae, the boyfriend of Hae Won. Hee Joo and Woo Jae end up in Ireland together, then Hee Joo returns to Korea, Woo Jae ends up in a coma for three years and Hae Won begins to seek revenge for being wronged. There’s also a whole circle of other characters with axes to grind and knives to stab and grievances to air. Honesty is rare, kindness is served with a side of self-serving purpose and warmth has supply chain issues.

Hee Joo is the central character as she is the only character directly connected with the other major players, her husband, her former friend and her lover. For the present day events, she’s the target of revenge but Go Hyun Jung never satisfactorily sells the character as a sympathetic one. She crushes the scenes when Hee Joo drops the mask and her desperate anger and hypocrisy are on full display. But most of the time, Hee Joo is trying to act normal and it doesn’t connect nearly as well. That’s a problem as without a sympathetic character in the middle of everything, it saps the tension that should be building between the other three pulling her in different directions.

Woo Jae shows up late to the proceedings as he begins the show still recovering from a coma. Kim Jae Young doesn’t do anything particularly special with the character. He’s definitely got the brooding looks and has no trouble with the half-baffled state that Woo Jae spends much of the narrative within. But when Woo Jae regains his faculties, Kim Jae Young doesn’t muster the intensity and rawness needed to transform the character to what he should be.

Quality of performance is no issue for Shin Hyun Bin. She magnificently captures the most subtle expressions, changes in tone and cadence and Hae Won’s wearied posture. Hae Won has a maelstrom of anger and resentment internally but outwardly is measured and mysterious. Of all the characters that alternate between victim and agressor, she is the most compelling in either form. When she is the character that is moving the narrative forward, whether with rightful anger or morally questionable methods, “Reflection of You” gets serious traction when she is in the spotlight.

There’s also a supporting performance by Jang Hye Jin, who follows a couple of roles in comedy centered productions with a blistering performance as Hee Joo’s sister-in-law and an afterthought child under a powerful, cold mother.

Unfortunately, the arc must bend away at a certain point and the steam that Hae Won has generated slowly seeps out. Although the confrontations and arguments and unpleasantness continue to build as the players each seek widely disparate objectives, the emotional resonance over the last third of the show never connects at more than a half-fever pitch.

Despite some manner of imperfections, “Reflection of You” is a strong show and worth watching, but it is primarily for the masterpiece of Shin Hyun Bin’s performance. It is among a very few of the finest acting performances of 2021.

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