ShortCircuit

WYB's character (Baili Erlang?) looks a LOT like Tang Fan from The Sleuth of Ming Dynasty (foodie, not really involved into anything much yet.) The not-wanna-marry subplot better be important in the long term.

The woman guard - SiYue? - had a lot of action scenes and they were okay, I guess. Though I don't know enough about the period to know if there really were any kind of women in the Imperial Guards, nevermind high ranking. Also, the princess is really stupid - even with lots of guards around, it doesn't make sense to expose herself to the crowds if the Imperial family is under any kind of threat - unless she's a brat. I guess she IS a brat.

And the other MC - BingZhu? - WTF, is he supposed to be unhinged?! In a haha kind of way, like Cpt. Jack Sparrow, or in a lunatic kind of way, like off his rails, a bit cuckoo, with a few loose marbles, etc? I actually dislike him. His background story should rather make sense, or he's going to be what sinks this drama.

Other than the annoyingly CGI tower-of-babel thing in the middle of the capital city, the cinematography is crisp, I like it. The OP and ED are nice enough (the OP at least is not yet another sweet/sour pop song, though they forgot by the end of the episode, LOL). The story isn't gelling yet, but it's only the first episode, I'm willing to see more of it before forming an impression. There are a bit too many characters, but happily I've already read up on Wu Zetian's period (for other reasons) so it's not all completely foreign, and slowly revealed inner workings isn't something to scare me off. Unless they don't make sense by the end.

So far, so good.

Watching priority: 3/5, will continue, slowly.

Judging from the first episode only (so far)...

That was the strangest apprentice teacher I've seen in my life. Tell me teachers-in-training do NOT act like that...

Weren't there three people on the fallen tree rock? One was holding the end of the rope while Yang Sun went to get the ticket girl. The killer / suspect (maybe it just so happens he has black gloves, everybody there seems to have them) looks to be somewhere higher than them at that moment. Maybe he goes down and cuts the rope?

He's kind of young, isn't he? To have been involved in the 1995 flooding somehow, and to have some relation to the death of Kim Sol's mom in 1991... He also doesn't seem really all that fit for climbing and would definitely be noticed going around the ranger stations and shelters...

At this point, Kim Sol MIGHT be one of them (I mean, Se-wook seemed to be another killer-in-training and was definitely keeping in touch with the master planner, too), but not the first one, I don't think so. If the policeman would be another apprentice... he and the killer would have to related somehow too.

Until their motivation is revealed, we're all going to go in circles around the comment section :D

So, not Dae Jin, not Goo Young... Only Il-Hae is left. And he's up the mountain with GY and YK. Wonderful.

Unless it's the old chief, the one who resigned after the potato bomb incident.

If they kill off Hyun-jo after all this, I'm going to do unspeakable things to something in my path at that moment. Hopefully just furniture.

But whoever was on that mountain 1. had a shelter or 2. was there on purpose (didn't see Il-Hae with the rest of the people who had returned but at this moment, I don't trust anything more).

DAMMIT not again!! That preview scene is going to be the very last frame of the last episode, isn't it? #@$#%$^&*!!!!!!

Three hypotheses - 1. He wanted to draw out the killer and decided it wouldn't happen unless he was alone, as a target (or he didn't want to expose anyone else - cough, Yi-Kang - to danger), or 2. The killer could have set a trap for Hyun-jo, too (or else, how come he came to the mountain all geared up for snow and ready to kill? And 3. They actually went up the mountain together (for some probable missing person or whatever excuse the killer could have made up) and only then did Hyun-jo confirmed who he was.

The 1995 timeline was there from when YK's grandma first mentioned how she came to become a ranger. It's not new, the details on what happened are set in 2020, just before Hyun-jo was attacked, a he learned those details himself.

I'll say the scene in the preview happens at the end of tomorrow/today's episode LOL, just as I supposed. They do like to tease us... I'll be happy with it, as long as HJ wakes up.

We're not sure the killings stopped, because Dae Jin is STILL doing checks on the mountain (and presumably still gathering ribbons and discarded yoghurt bottles) a year after YK and HI's accident/attack. But if they did, it might mean most of the people the killer is hunting are already dead, except for Dae Jin, who lead them away from the shelter when the floods hit.

That was Kim Sol? He would've been 12-13 maybe in the 1995 flooding, who else would he have lost then? And why Sgt. Kim? It was his dad who died (or maybe because his father was gone, the target moved on to the son?)

But if it was him, he sure looks young for someone in his late 30s-early 40s. I thought he was some rookie we didn't see much, he didn't look like he was the one in the cave (that Hyun-jo met after the disorientation episode.) And YET there was someone else, an older person, who did something to Kim Sol's mother.

At this point in time... I just wish Hyun-jo woke up. And that we get a HEA/HFN for the MCs. To come so far and then die, even as a sacrifice to save others, would really make me not happy with it.

(The one mistake he did not make was not talking openly with the chief of police when he came bearing gifts. He learned quite late not to talk without a lawyer present, I wonder how well he was doing in school previously, LOL, well, just kidding.)

The flow definitely slowed, from the rawness of the first ep, this one got gritty only on the autopsy part. The rest was pretty on par with other crime/detective/lawyer/judicial system I've already seen in other kdramas.

I wonder how they'll manage the rest of the series.

I kind of (not totally) appreciate the lawyer - he's a bit jaded but he does seem to know his job. But he's a gross person, yuck (if that's the character, he nailed it.)

And I already hate the reporters (all of them, the one who has a speaking part and the others there just for the numbers.)

MC finally managed NOT to make one mistake (he did others, though.) I get it, he's panicked, still...

I'm pretty confused too.

So it's not related to the victims being poachers, but they were somehow linked to the 1995 tragedy. Then that would make Yi-Kang an obvious suspect, if she wasn't the FL and working with Hyun-jo to catch the killer. Who's that guy she was talking to next to the big stone before the alarms went off? Did he come before? I don't recognize him.

The winter incident (somehow) explained - who HAD those red hiking sticks?! I was yelling at her that it was a trap, she KNEW if Hyun-jo had such a thing with him it should be green, WTF Yi-Kang!! And I tried to see who went up the mountain for them - Dae Jin is exhonerated now, since he took the phone call and went up the mountain with the rescue team to get them both. But Il-Hae and Goo Young weren't.

Now I'm kind of suspecting Il-Hae very much, just because he gave Goo Young that blue water bottle and he drank from another. I mean, it's not yoghurt BUT GY is carrying YK up the mountain and is now in the know (presuming he was innocent). If something "happened" to GY and YK, PIH could pretend he couldn't do anything because his foot is hurt. At LEAST Hyun-jo seems to have awakened on the mountain, and could come talk to her. Just let him live, show (writer-nim!!!)

That girl with the lottery ticket sure is motivated, LOL. If she put as much effort into uni, she'd get a doctorate. Sadly, I foresee she won't have a HEA, what with the flood alarms going off. (And Goo Young's ranger love interest too seems to go off that bridge...)

Side note: You know, I rationally was aware clouds are lower in the sky than some mountain crests, and yet it never occured to me that would cause major rains if they accumulate too much. Makes me wanna go open wiki on meteorology, but I'll try hard to resist, there are some more drama eps I want to go through LOL.

Yeah, I was pretty sure we won't see the preview scene this ep. But still, DAMMIT!!!

I just realized this is the same writer as in Signal, and there's that ep in that series where I hoped against hope the detective in the past would stop a certain event and HE. COULD. NOT. Tearjerker episode for me. If this turns out the same, I'll be swearing like a drunk Englishman.

I am 8 hrs behind KST, couldn't add the series until about 5 hrs ago (just checked the time stamps). It's currently almost 8 PM in KST. So it's not JUST people "forgetting" timezones. LOL. (What I'm trying to convey is that the airing date seemed to conform to "my" set timezone, and not to the KST - the first kdrama that it happened with, too).

Not that I actually care. What I DO care and it's very good finally happened is that the content rating changed from 15+ to 18+. That first ep definitely didn't fit 15+ norms.

OMG I could have NEVER imagined KSH would agree to do such scenes - casual drugs, casual alcohol, nudity and sex... I'm Western and still was kind of worried about him already - is SK society all that accepting of this kind of scenes outside small-release gory movies?! This might fly well in the UK, but I wonder about SK...

How come this is just 15+?!

Anyway, I hope it gets a good word of mouth and high ratings, but I don't really expect it. And gritty and noir is good and well, but I do really hope there's a HE or at least a HFN. At this point in time, the MC is definitely looking at a life in prison or a death sentence.

Why can't I add it to my watching list, is it because it's supposed to start on the 27th according to the data on MDL? Who can change it?

RE: the series. I haven't watched the English original, so I have no idea where this is headed. But IMHO the MC did all the mistakes he could do in such a situation and THEN some. Wow. He didn't miss any bad thing he could have done, LOL.

Edit: according to this site, it's supposed to be 19+, which IMHO would definitely be more appropriate...

https://www.jazminemedia.com/2021/11/one-ordinary-day-to-be-rated-19-for-the-majority-of-its-run-time/

RE: the acting.

full of tropes, clichés and plot holes

+unlikable main character. What, was I supposed to root for the psycho killer? That was one of the worst dramas of the year for me, though I did drop it in the end, when the twists and lacks of logic became way too much. The atmosphere in the comments section didn't help it either. And I don't want Byzantine plots that lead nowhere and prove to be just sleight of hand designed to convince me it's some kind of masterful script of whatever.

Happily, Jirisan isn't like that one, though they're in different genres and so there's no need to compare.

Everything is based on personal taste anyway, and this one is very much up to my taste. Hopefully we get a satisfying ending (and maybe it's a HEA too :))

Nah, I think it'll be a revenge killer attacking poachers / tresspassers. After all, Hyun-jo's ability seems to be linked to the mountain and the stone pagodas, and so the mountain spirits seem to want the killer to stop.

Unless it's a gumiho, and it doesn't look like there'll be a gumiho entering the chat so late in the game.

Yeah, but a lot of times it's poisoned so... I wonder how that boosts sells :D

I thought the ghostlights would be hallucinations from inhaled gas of some kind - because it was always foggy when people got lost and fearful. I mean, even Hyun-jo and Yi Kang didn't stop for a second for a fallen radio that might have been vital, just because YK was freaking out from fear of (usually peaceful) bears? That's not her, unless her mind is somehow clouded.

The kid from way back and his black gloves mean nothing at this point, IMHO, if he didn't live near the mountains and had no way to check ranger stations and shelters. Because the killer sure did have a way. IMHO the new character, if he lasts, will be another victim, soon (well, in the past).

They didn't come back to the present at all, dammit - YK is still trying to get inside the park, Dae Jin is still questioned, all the clues still point at him being involved...

I still think it's Goo Young.