Spukhafte Fernwirkungen

Indeed. And the writer even threw in that whole cringe x10 "say goodbye to Hye Ri" dinner party scene to add insult to injury. I was honestly embarrassed for everyone involved with the drama when watching that.

My take on this is:

When viewed as a tragedy, episodes 1-10 were 9.5 out of 10 (only subtracting .5 because the Jeon Jae Yong character seemed so tonally out of place for me). Episodes 11 & 12 were 2 out of 10.

For me, episodes 1-10 were a wonderfully written tragedy that ends on a fairly depressing note, with little expectation the main characters will break free from the cycle of sadness and codependency ruling over their lives. Episodes 11 and 12 ended up ruining every beautifully sad thing I loved about the first 10 episodes with a silly, nonsensical, and insulting "love magically conquers all" ending - the final two episodes seemed to work from the idea that most viewers would willingly accept any happy ending, and essentially discarded all the complex issues raised in the first 10 episodes to supply that "happy ending". So, yeah, absolutely great first 10 episodes, absolutely awful final 2 episodes.

Aside from my complaints about the writing at the end, Shin Hye Sun continues to prove to me that she is easily among the best actresses in the world right now.

I'm not trying to drag out our comments, but I feel compelled to add one last thing because it's been bothering me ever since I read that article, so...

Another thing I found odd about what the writer said was that she thinks Hye Ri is happy. Neither iteration of Hye Ri seems very happy to me at all. The sister appears to only live for Eun Ho, while everything else in the world (aside from, apparently, fireflies) seems to make her miserable - if we took Eun Ho out of the picture, she'd be left with nothing. That doesn't seem like happiness as much as it does an incredibly unhealthy dependency. And when Eun Ho is Hye Ri, she comes across as having fairly flat affect verging on depression, which makes sense because, even though she's not Eun Ho at those times, the emotions (or lack thereof) are still rooted in Eun Ho's understanding of things. Given what the writer said in the article about the director and actors, she seemed pleased with the interpretations of Hye Ri they came up with. So, where in all of this is the happy Hye Ri the writer was talking about?

No need to send a link - I finally found an interview with her published on Soompi. Yes, you're right about the drama I'm watching being completely different from the drama she talks about in the article. Ah well, we'll see how the rest goes. I still love the first 10 episodes as a tragedy.

That's interesting about the writer. If you could please send a link, I'd like to read (or watch) what she had to say, if her vision for the drama is so far off from the drama I'm watching. To me, these characters have spent a very large part of their lives broken, and in ways that couldn't easily get a magical cure-all in two episodes, if that's her intent. Maybe it can somehow be done, but it would be difficult to do it convincingly in a drama that has undoubtedly (to me, at least) come across as a tragedy for 10 straight episodes.

As far as romanticizing goes, my take on the whole thing is viewed through the perspective of this drama as a tragedy and that them getting back together is just the cycle of codependency repeating, so I don't view it as romanticizing anything. I honestly view it as heartbreaking. None of the people in this drama are in a place where a relationship could be anything more than a hollow escape, and Eun Ho and Hyun Oh are starting the cycle again because it once presented a period of what they felt was relative happiness, at least for a little while. To me, it seemed that Eun Ho went off to the woods where her sister disappeared as a suicide attempt of sorts - she put herself in a position where she was doing whatever she could to conjure the Hye Ri persona and permanently kill off Eun Ho to end her pain, with her attempts to scar her arm being part of this desperate plan. With that being my view, I take her reunion with Hyun Oh as being the consolation prize to her failed plan, for the reasons previously stated.

I have indeed enjoyed the drama so far, but have definitely enjoyed it as a tragedy more than anything else. And as a tragedy, I think it's been incredibly well-written. We shall see what the next two episodes hold - the whole thing could completely fail for me if the writer unconvincingly tries to make me believe that these deeply damaged people have somehow managed to be permanently "fixed" and walk off hand-in-hand into the rosy glow of a sunset as if nothing ever happened. If her initial idea was to portray a convincing healing drama for characters as broken as this without viewers having lingering thoughts about how they're only together because they can't deal with their own personal pain and have settled with their comfortable-yet-dysfunctional relationship as a means to avoid that, then I'd think we would need quite a few more episodes. Anyway, I will wait until the final credits to see how this all plays out. You may find me agreeing with you about the writing at that point (or at least the writing at the end - it definitely wouldn't be the first time I thought an otherwise well-written drama completely failed at the finish line).

How it's promoted before it airs really has nothing to do with the writer. That's the responsibility of the production company/network/streaming platform trying to get people to watch their product, so I don't quite understand why you would try to pin that on the writer. As far as an unhealthy relationship being romanticized goes, I don't know what you've been seeing in the drama, but nothing here feels romanticized to me at all - it's ugly and damaged, and intentionally so. If one scratches even the tiniest bit below the beautiful cinematography and lighting, they'll find themselves confronted by a bleak landscape. Even if we end up with a "happy ending", we know enough about these characters now to know that they are all (SML included) looking for happiness in the wrong places and will likely live lives of escapism or misery until they realize that. Any "healing" this drama gives us will likely only be superficial and temporary, given what we've been shown with these characters.

Most Korean dramas rely heavily on viewers self-inserting so they feel connected and invested in the story, so it's understandable why people are upset with this drama. But this is not a drama that's ever wanted the viewer to self-insert - the director has used many different techniques (shooting through windows and mirrors, shooting from low or high angles, etc., etc.) to let viewers know they are supposed to be distanced from the characters and observing the emotional car crash of these three (or four, counting "Hye Ri") people coming in contact with each other. Taken from that perspective, I find this to be the best drama I've seen this year. I enjoy good storytelling, even if the story being presented is painful or ugly, and I think this drama is telling a very good story of some incredibly (and possibly irreparably) damaged people. I don't expect them to have healed by the end of this drama. And maybe that's why I'm enjoying this drama while you aren't - in your comment, you focused heavily on what you expected the drama to give you but didn't, while I expected nothing and ended up with a story that I think is really good.

Cool, thank you for explaining. I read about it after leaving my comment and it does look interesting. I primarily watch Korean dramas, but they're not the only things I watch, so there's a good chance I'll check it out. Plus, it has Jimmi Simpson in it, who's been a longtime favorite of mine (especially his role in Westworld).

I think lack of personal growth is one of the reasons the writer put them back together. Both of them are deeply damaged people who desperately clung to each other (even after breaking up) because the relationship they had made them feel less damaged and "happy". Should they be together? Probably not, because they both seem to be using the other person (and their relationship, in general) as a way to escape pain instead of dealing with it. But, does it make sense that they couldn't let go of each other and ended up back together? Completely. This is who these characters are.

I guess I'll have to check out Pachinko based on your comment. This drama and Atypical Family have easily been my favorites this year.

I think if people stop trying to self-insert, they'll realize this is a quite good drama about some incredibly damaged people who have spent (and likely will spend) the majority of their lives looking for things outside of themselves to fill an internal void.

I'd say what the show is aiming for is to portray the relationship between Cha Eun Kyung and Han Yoo Ri, and how they build a friendship where they can understand and rely on each other. While there are aspects of standard Kdrama romance in the show, I dont think it's intended to be at the forefront of the story or a focal point for most people watching.

Serious question - did the writer move on to another project or something after writing the first 12 episodes? The last 4 episodes felt like they were written by someone else who didn't have a good grasp of the story and didn't want to put any effort into dealing with questions raised in the first 12 episodes.

Like so many things at the end, it was never explained. For all the build up the cat had in the early episodes and its prominent presence in the opening credit animation, we are left with no information about why it was supposed to be important to the story.

Well said!

I guess I can see that. It seems I'm a little different because even though I love a good romance, it's not the only thing I'm focused on when watching something, so I don't have a problem with a lead being "bad". Besides, we know it's a romance, so it's a very safe bet there's going to be a redemption arc for the FL that satisfies most viewers if they just ride out the story. I guess it was just kind of shocking to me to see people coming out so hard with quick judgments about the FL and the drama itself when things have barely started and we don't really know much of anything about the characters yet.

Okay, I know it's personal preference, but I honestly don't understand the problem with having a "bad person" as a main character. Some of the most revered films of all time by directors like Orson Welles, Kurosawa Akira, Francis Ford Coppola, Imamura Shouhei, Martin Scorsese, Zhang Yimou, and Park Chan Wook have a "bad person" as the main character. Many of Shakespeare's plays are set in an environment where almost no "good people" exist. Even in the KDrama world there is no shortage of really good dramas with "bad people" as a main characters ('Vincenzo' instantly springs to mind, and that character never once felt remorseful for his actions). As I said, I know it's personal preference, but it seems a shame to me to cheat oneself out of some absolutely amazing storytelling by letting a "bad person" as a main character be a dealbreaker.

I'm already liking this. I love morally grey main characters, and I especially love a good con drama or movie. And everybody's been great in their roles so far. I'm really looking forward to watching all this play out.

Thanks for that - I actually laughed out loud a little at the thought of the Iron Man movies with Robert Downey Jr. edited out 😂

Thanks. Yeah, it just wasn't for me, haha. And having watched 'See You in My 19th Life' recently, I was a viewing it more critically than I probably would have if I hadn't seen a very similar story done in a way I thought was far superior with that drama.

Indeed. She was quite wishy washy at times. She was another one who I thought suffered from inconsistent characterization. I still can't buy that she was scared out of her wits when she and Shin Yu went back to the site of the house to bury the spellbook, but then a couple of episodes later she goes off alone into an equally creepy forest without a care in the world, and this is after she knows someone is after her and Shin Yu. There was just so much like that which didn't add up for me as far as character continuity, and, as previously mentioned, that made it really hard for me to have any connection to whatever the characters were going through.

Anyway, congratulations on making it through a drama that seems like it wasn't thoroughly satisfying for you, although satisfying enough to keep you until the end. I think most of us have had that experience (....flashes back to episode 16 of 'King the Land'....). And.... on to the next drama! Happy viewing!