Vicky_step_

I think the story had potential but it wasn't enough….

Although I like Kim So Hyun herself as an actress, she is always the same in all the dramas I've seen with her. This time she did not impress me with her acting. There was coldness and uncertainty.

Meanwhile, ML really surprised me. This was the second drama I watched with him and I could barely believe it was the same actor who played in Netherless. The difference between the two roles is obvious.
I think he did a pretty good job delivering some of the lines.

The overall chemistry between FL and ML was terrible. It did not feel sincere and lacked realism. They became a couple too fast… BFF just decides she doesn't like ML anymore because ML likes FL… Um… No…

I won't even talk about the appearance of ML's mother, which was completely unnecessary. It was really possible to arrange the story differently if there was a need for a fight between FL and ML. Although it couldn't be called a fight either, just a stupid miscommunication.

To tell the truth, I liked the second lead couple more.

What I liked most about this drama was the music, it really deserves all the praise. As soon as I started watching the series, I loved the music from the first minutes.

Read More

Strong Start, Weak Finish

I genuinely enjoyed the beginning of Drama Idol I. The setup was engaging and kept my attention, although the search for the real killer felt unnecessarily stretched out. Unfortunately, the reveal itself didn’t impress me much — the idea that the ML’s best friend was accidentally killed by his obsessive ex-girlfriend felt rather underwhelming and predictable.

The last two episodes were especially disappointing. They felt slow and somewhat boring, and instead of being emotionally gripping, they lacked the intensity I was hoping for. While it was clear that the writers wanted to neatly tie everything together, I felt that the storyline involving the FL’s father was left unresolved. I really wished to see some form of justice — particularly for the prosecutor who wrongly accused her father — even if the drama wasn’t primarily focused on that theme.

Another downside for me was the romance between the ML and FL. It felt underdeveloped, and I wanted more emotional depth and connection between them to truly believe in their relationship.

Overall, despite a strong start and some good ideas, the drama didn’t fully deliver on its emotional potential.

Final rating: 6,5/10

Read More

Potential Left Unused

I really enjoyed the first episode and had high expectations for this drama. However, after just a few episodes — when her best friend suddenly realized that he loved her, had always loved her, and couldn’t let her go — I already started questioning the writing.

I still watched the entire drama, but unfortunately it ended in strong disappointment. There was so much potential, yet the story was stretched almost entirely around the fake marriage trope and her working under the identity of a married woman.

The strongest character by far was Kong Ji Hyeok, and I truly wish the final episode hadn’t gone with the memory loss storyline. It would have been much more interesting to see the characters face real-life challenges, different social classes, and their consequences.

Ko Da Rim’s character also lacked strength in the final episode. I still don’t understand why she gave up so easily after he said he didn’t want to see her anymore.

The rest of the characters felt extremely unrealistic, so I won’t even go into detail.

I would have rated this drama an 8/10 based on the beginning, but after the final episode my score dropped to 4/10. I’m adding one extra point only because the first episodes were genuinely fun and kept me looking forward to each new release.

Final score: 5/10

Read More

From “Our Universe” to a Messy Love Triangle

For a long time I was debating whether to write a review or not. In the end, I decided it was worth explaining why my rating is so low.

First of all, I have to say that the teaser really impressed me. From it, it truly seemed like this would be a warm, cozy family drama, and the beginning was honestly very good.

However, after that the story turned completely upside down, and instead of watching “Our Universe”, it started to feel more like “I Can’t Choose Just One.” At first I tried to be patient and assumed the situation with the SML would be resolved quickly and clearly. But unfortunately my expectations were not met, and instead we got an unnecessary love triangle. The fact that there were more sweet moments between the SML and the FL than between the actual main leads definitely did not add any charm to the story.

I’ll admit that the last few episodes were a struggle to watch. I simply skipped most of the scenes with the SML because, in my opinion, they were completely unnecessary for the story.

Then there was the father storyline. While it at least had some purpose—since already in the first episode we saw the ML’s older brother worrying about their father being released from prison—it still didn’t feel properly developed. And then the child protection services appeared. This storyline should have been part of the plot from the very beginning, but instead it only showed up in the last two episodes. Everything about it felt forced and unrealistic. They had been taking good care of the child throughout the entire drama, and then suddenly—boom—the moment the child services appear, everything turns into unnecessary drama, and not in a good way.

It feels like the writers tried to include too many different storylines, but they never truly connected with each other, even though it would have been quite easy to do so.

I also don’t want to say too much about the acting, but I honestly wasn’t impressed. By the end, there was no chemistry between the main leads at all. To be honest, watching them together felt uncomfortable and even a bit cringe.

It was really difficult to finish this drama. If I had started watching it after all the episodes were already released, I’m pretty sure I would have dropped it. This time I did finish it, but I have to admit I skipped through quite a lot.

I have never rated a Korean drama a 1 before in my life, but this time I will.

Final rating: 1/10.

Read More

Captivating From Start to Finish

I’ll be completely honest — this is the best drama I’ve watched this year. Kim Yoo Jung is simply irreplaceable as an actress. I have no doubt that she will continue to show us even more of her talent in the future.

As for the story itself, I haven’t read the webtoon, though I’ve seen a few reviews, and I truly believe I’ll read it one day. But today, this review is about the drama.

From the very first episode, the series pulled me in completely, and I found myself eagerly waiting for each new week. That alone added an extra point to my final rating — as a viewer, it’s extremely important to me to look forward to the next episode and to keep thinking about the story throughout the week.

Even though some episodes were calmer, they were still so engaging that I barely noticed when they ended.

I truly believe that Kim Yoo Jung was made for this role, and it’s clear how much work and dedication she put into this character.

I’ve seen many discussions about the ending, and while I partly understand the criticism, after watching the finale several times I can confidently say that it carries a beautiful, poetic meaning. People like Ajin don’t disappear from life easily — they always find a way to turn situations to their own advantage.

This year, I struggled to get through most dramas, but this was the one I genuinely waited for every week — and it didn’t disappoint me even a little.

Final score: 10/10

Read More

From Cute to Cringe

The beginning was genuinely fun, which is what got me interested in continuing this drama. Yes, everything moved a bit too fast, and there wasn’t much real communication between the ML and FL, but at that stage it didn’t really bother me.

Unfortunately, things went downhill with the storyline involving infidelity. It felt extremely Hollywood-like — so much so that it was honestly painful to watch. I won’t go into detail about the sexual harassment and exploitation of the situation, especially since renmilktoast already explained this part very well in their review.

The lack of communication between conflicts and reconciliations was another major issue. Over time, it made the drama increasingly difficult to watch. However, what felt the most illogical to me was the ML’s mother’s character. All of her methods related to breaking up the marriage were never fully explained, and his forgiveness toward her felt completely unjustified and unrealistic.

Read More

A Powerful Drama That Deserved a Stronger Ending

I finished *Four Hands*, and I honestly still don't know exactly how I feel about it.

This drama gave me so much to think about that I could probably write an entire novel about it. While watching, I constantly found myself analyzing the characters, their choices, their relationships, and even imagining different ways some of the storylines could have developed. And I think that says a lot about how engaging the drama was.

But at the same time, I can't ignore how rushed the ending felt.

For eleven episodes, we watched a story built around trauma, jealousy, guilt, revenge, abandonment, family pressure, and two people whose lives had been painfully tied together since they were teenagers. The consequences were huge. The emotions were huge. The tragedy itself was huge.

And then the final episode almost felt like everything was gently smoothed over.

I want to make one thing clear though. I was genuinely happy that the drama chose a hopeful ending for these characters. After everything they went through, I wanted them to find some kind of peace. My problem was never that the ending was happy. My problem was that the journey toward that happiness felt too rushed for a story that had spent eleven episodes building so much pain and emotional damage.

For me, the revenge storyline had much more potential than what we eventually got. Jeong-Yo's anger made sense. His pain made sense. After everything he went through, I completely understood why he wanted revenge. But at some point, that revenge became an obsession and was directed almost entirely at Pi-O, another person who had also been deeply damaged by the adults around them.

That could have led to such a powerful confrontation about responsibility, guilt, forgiveness and the difference between justice and revenge. Instead, I felt like the drama reached the most complicated part of the story and then suddenly decided it was time to wrap everything up.

And maybe that is why the ending itself feels so open to interpretation.

Personally, I choose to see Pi-O and Jeong-Yo's relationship as an incredibly deep friendship, the kind of bond that doesn't fit neatly into ordinary friendship because these two people have shaped each other's entire lives.

They were friends, rivals, each other's biggest source of insecurity, sometimes each other's safest place, and sometimes the person capable of hurting the other the most.

Their relationship was never simple.

They knew parts of each other that almost nobody else could understand. Music connected them, but so did guilt, jealousy, admiration, fear, resentment and years of unresolved grief. Their bond became so deeply rooted in who they were that even after everything that happened, neither of them could simply erase the other from his life.

For me, that friendship is already powerful enough on its own. It doesn't need to be turned into something else for the ending to feel meaningful.

At the same time, I still struggle with the idea of searching for a friend for twelve years. First nine years, then another three. Emotionally, I understand what the writers wanted to communicate, that Pi-O never truly gave up on Jeong-Yo, but narratively I think this could have been handled differently. Twelve years is an enormous amount of time, and I wish the drama had found another way to show that devotion without making the separation feel almost unrealistically long.

One of my favorite parts of the ending, however, was Pi-O realizing that he no longer needed his name in order to play.

That moment meant more to me than almost anything else in the finale.

For most of his life, Pi-O's identity was tied to expectations, competition, his family, his reputation and the need to prove that he deserved his place. His name carried pressure. It carried his mother's ambitions, his grandfather's judgment, his rivalry with Jeong-Yo and everything he believed he had to become.

So seeing him reach a point where he could simply play, not as a name, not as someone trying to win, not as someone trying to prove his worth, felt like genuine freedom.

He finally didn't need external recognition to validate his relationship with music.

And despite all my criticism of the ending, that character development really worked for me.

Pi-O was never completely innocent, and Jeong-Yo was never simply a villain. That complexity is probably what made me so invested in them. Both were hurt. Both hurt each other. Both made choices that can be understood without necessarily being justified.

I also think that is why discussions around this drama became so interesting. Depending on which character you sympathize with more, you can watch almost the same scene and interpret it completely differently.

So, would I recommend *Four Hands*?

Absolutely.

Would I personally watch it again?

Probably not.

And strangely, those two answers don't contradict each other at all.

Something was missing for me in the ending. I wanted more from the revenge storyline, more emotional consequences, and perhaps a little more time for everything that had been building for eleven episodes to truly settle.

But the drama itself had me completely invested for weeks.

I loved having opinions about it. I loved discussing it with other viewers. I loved questioning the characters' choices and sometimes changing my own interpretation after thinking about a scene again. Very few dramas make me want to debate them this much, and for that alone, *Four Hands* deserves a very high rating.

The acting also deserves a lot of credit.

I've seen Song Kang in several dramas before, but this might be the role where I saw the most potential in him as an actor.

Pi-O required him to move between arrogance, jealousy, fear, guilt, emotional repression, vulnerability and complete exhaustion without turning the character into just one thing. And I think this kind of complicated, emotionally messy role suited him extremely well.

For me, this was an excellent comeback drama for Song Kang.

And Lee Jun-young genuinely surprised me.

This was my first drama with him, and I didn't really know what to expect. By the end, I was very impressed with how he portrayed Jeong-Yo, especially because so much of that character depended on emotions that were not always spoken directly.

He could make Jeong-Yo feel hurt, threatening, conflicted and still emotionally connected to Pi-O at the same time.

Now I definitely want to watch more of Lee Jun-young's dramas.

So no, I don't think *Four Hands* was perfect.

The ending felt rushed, some of its biggest ideas could have been explored much further, and I still think about all the different directions this story could have taken.

But perhaps that is also one of the biggest compliments I can give it.

It wasn't a drama I simply watched and forgot.

It made me argue with the characters, defend them, get angry with them, analyze them, discuss them with other viewers and constantly imagine what could have happened if the writers had taken certain storylines just a little further.

For weeks, this story had my full attention.

And even with everything I wish the finale had done differently, I am genuinely glad the story allowed these characters to reach a happier place in the end.

Final rating: 9/10.

Read More

A Pleasant Surprise

A Pleasant Surprise I Finished in Two Days

What I liked:
Light and easy to watch
Funny but still emotional at times
Great performances from the cast

I’ll admit that I started this drama without knowing anything about it. I only knew who the main actors were, but I had no idea what the story would be about.

I ended up finishing the whole drama in just two days. I went in with zero expectations, but it turned out to be a really pleasant surprise. The cast did a great job, and the drama had plenty of moments that made me laugh, as well as a few that even brought a tear to my eye.

It’s a light and enjoyable watch, and I’d definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a drama that doesn’t feel too heavy or emotionally draining.

Once again, I was reminded how much I like Seo In Guk. He’s such a great actor.

Ji Soo also pleasantly surprised me.



Final rating: 8.5/10

Read More