Now that i think about it, Ending of this drama is kind similar to erased (but poorly executed). Also the tags sucks, it have a open ending or atleast ambiguous ending tbh (maybe hopefully happy, but still open). It's not a happy ending and absolutely not a time jump happy ending.
This is the Best mystery k drama from whatever i have watched so far. Best aspect of this drama is plot reveal is extremely well executed and well timed with proper forshadowing.
First 12 episode were perfect , but for rest it kind of lost some steam and there are few point, it needs improvement in those episode- - fl went as bait to the copy murderer without any actual plan, things only worked out because real murderer helped them. This is pretty absurd and nonsensical. Fl should have had a plan which should have failed and either one of the ml should be the one who realise fl was in danger instead of real murderer
- police team should not the get played so easily by real murderer or act dumb. They got played twice due to hearing bug and didn't even use it to their advantage. But i guess, police behaving dumb towards last few episode made the final twist for catching criminal more surprising. Plus real murderer shouldn't be so lenient towards them or helping them (he didn't tell anyone about ml's identity and also didn't kill fl first time even after she lied about the pen, plus he helped with hiding kwang ho body and give them multiple clue and accurately did all the post mortems and even saved the fl from copy murderer)
- Ending required a proper timeskip to future to show the changed future. While ending was a bit better than what i though initially but it was still a bit open and unsatisfactory, with many plot threads (like if he caught actual murderer in past or how would things have changed because of it and ml returning) left to our own interpretation. Also kwang ho naming kind of doesn't work because his name was still same in the world where ml was absent too. They could have either shown a flashback of how he got disappeared detective name maybe through Jeon Seong Shik at early timing and then make this scene as parallel to that. Or it should have played out as a joke where pregnant mother says her baby's name is kwang ho and detective ml also simultaneously saying his name is same. Either of this cases would the made this same naming aspect better Finally tunnel supernatural aspect should have had a consistent rule to work. At first they kind of hinted that ml and real murderer need to be present simultaneously for time travel to work, but in last episode it happened anyways without any rule. I think they should have actually put some rule which meet requirement all three times which only becomes obvious third time. While using the other rule as a decoy. - this drama needed some amount of kiss scenes. It would have complimented to this show a lot. - the reporter/taxi driver plot line also didn't add any meaning to the story. They should have used that character for some trick.
It was a pretty good movie especially the ml acting and general direction. But I am not a sad ending fan, I wish it had notebook style ending (especially since they did bait it with the whole younger fl symbolism scenes at the ending). Even I would have preferred they both moving on with their own lives and reminiscing old days as more interesting ending than a outright sad ending like this one. Aside from that it does have few bothersome other problems too like the entire goat owner killing didn't lead to anything was kind of forgotten/kept aside/glossed over. Also i didn't like the fact that ml didn't age. A older werewolf would have been a interesting choice visually. I think they choose ml to not age as a symbolism to he never moved on and was still waiting. But ageless aspect itself just raised many questions which story never explored or never will explore. (Like was he ageless even before the guy conducted experiment?)
Anyways still a enjoyable movie but not my type of movie
Last episode definitely felt rushed. The entire amnesia plot was crap...at the very least they should have given it a few episodes to resolve it properly. The scene when we realise he bought his own house coincidentally, i felt some huge chunk of story was cut out and scrapped to adjust in the given episode....i still am blinking and frustrated. Obviously fl is going to Busan, plus did they Divorce?, she was selling the house to him unknowingly somehow, now they are gone get back together or maybe try? how is all these gone work out... I can't make sense of this shitty discount happy ending. Same case for secondary couple. I definitely am not happy or satisfied by it at all. Also for all the Kim mi-sook drama, we never saw her meet with her family.
Other criticism for this show are- - too many coincidences. This show's plot progression is entirely depended on coincidences, that it's pretty absurd . It's one think to makes the accident coincidences, but why are other things coincidences.
-ML start manipulative and intelligent but ends up being the guy who is most manipulated by everyone including his wife, antagonist, his fake parents and even by the reporter or smaller villans to some extend. His intelligence is also a act or facade tbh. If not for coincidences (like victim picking up his phone), he would have easily lost every time. While i am not against the "innocent traumatic guy who is wronged/viewed wronglly by everyone", the execution for it is just poor because he trying too hard to act all intelligent and he is portrayed too much pitiful.
- Also too much insertion of lawful correction. While it good he didn't become a murderer, but the writers are trying too hard to make him dark and then they make him not do it, so that he lawfully correct to earn that shitty rushed discount happy ending. Again poor execution (like for eg - villan tried provoking ml to become Murderer, but then villan started cowering in fear and ran away when so that ml doesn't become Murder at the end). Most laughable part was where he confirmed that his daughter is safe before deciding to be a murderer....that is not how u become emotionally broken
- fl didn't looked like she trusted ml ever tbh. She had gun first time, second time she was one to doubt him first (at least the show made a point that ml mentioned it) and finally at the ending fl is telling she is clinging to amnesia induced ml, but i hardly felt any such attempt (good eg of All talk no show). It undermines the romance so much.
- mystery part was also kind of poor. It was a serial killer murder at first, but then it became a bunch of loosely connect incidents groupped into one.
Positive points - -The child actress was really good, I wish she had more role. -Chemistry and acting of all character were good, even if plot was not upto the mark -Plot idea itself was also good, but need good execution to be good
Overall, hope the other versions are better than this.
Nice pr team theme comedy, but writing was kind of shallow. I really really wanted to like it more because it…
Positive points of this drama -pr theme - it was good enough outlook of how pr industry works and their day to day lives especially in early episodes. Character interaction for those aspect were pretty good
-comedy - this is the genre which was successful implemented in this drama unlike romance. funny and wholesome scenes were quite fun to watch
-multiple couples - finally a short k drama with more than 3 couples. I really liked that they paired the lawyer with news reporter. Infact the entire thing from love triangle to bromance to new pairing was also successful executed in my opinion. I do wish they have paired the female fan actresses and upcoming popular male actor too, but whatever i guess.
-kisses - i have never seen a drama with so many kiss scenes. This drama was worth while just to watch the enormous amount of kiss scenes
-ending - it was fine and serviceable enough, but a time skip with relationship progression was better
- having consistent epilogues every episode, beginning animation scene and pretty actors is another positive
Negative point of this drama -plot - this show was loitering around with no actual plot for most episodes and finally when it got some form of plot, it felt like written by a 5 year old. I wish this show had a competent writer
-villan- seriously juvinile anti fan kid, angry nonsensical reason giving managers and rich lady doing toxic pastime. Whoever wrote these kind of scenario and villan is clueless about even basic depth. I pretty much skipped the final talk between ml and organic bar onwer, because I couldn't take the bs anymore
-characterization and dialogues - not gone lie, almost all characters of this drama felt superficial to me even it they were a bit fun. There are many moments in this drama where I expected some deep and heartfelt dialogue, only to be beyond disappointing that there was not a single instance of it.
-Romance - in all honesty, while having multiple couple is fun, But romance itself is not really well executed. Almost all of them felt like just casual dating. The two managers romance was quite awkward to follow. How she came from..... casually asking exboyfriend a favor for her actor to suggesting and declining putting her exboyfriend's name to the actor to giving her superior manager's name to reveal of crush on superior manager to acting like a virgin when he said yes.... is beyond me. Even the ml manager who did't show any such interest uptill the tree part after confession. It just so ackward and wrong. Even their both respective explanation/dialogues to why they like each other is kind nonsense filler.
The reporter and lawyer romance was cool because it subverted clingy sml cliche of k drama and adding bromance. But i genuinely don't feel romance with lawyer was any different from any of the reporter's precious lovers. It just end up feeling like yet another of her flings. There was not much depth or character development to it.
The actor and actress romance was cool because it subverted the anguish cliche. But I wish they would show atleast little bit effort put forth in relationship. Everything just was so easy.
Also the new girl and assistant being a big reveal is nonsensical. A poor plot reveal which everybody guessed at the cost of no actual relationship portrayal (aside from few seconds) is just shit.
Even fl coming in terms with accepting her relationship with ml to public was so super casual!
Nice pr team theme comedy, but writing was kind of shallow. I really really wanted to like it more because it one of few shorter show which makes the multiple couple tag justified. But unfortunately it heavily lacks depth in all aspects including characters, dialogues and plot.
It's the contrary; the male lead delivered one of the worst performances I've seen in recent years. Unbearable.…
Na, it definitely the opposite. Fl was obvious the inferior one. Even if u compare there respective drama experience and show rating. It still show ml has more acting experience and most his work are highly rated incomparison to fl
Plus this show there is lot to be desired of ml. For eg I wanted to see more of corrupt version of ml but story didn't give much run time to that at all. Fl on the other hand was most time really hard to take serious especially in first world scenes where she was trying to do the naive young girl scenes
Direction and production was the strong point of the series.
Acting is decent, but chemistry is not there especially fl is kind of bland. I wish sfl actresses was given fl's role, she was so much better even though she didn't have much role.
Story was solid (well connected) untill the last part where it fell apart. I started disliking the story from the part where corrupt ML went back to his own world just after few minimalistic scenes in the first world. (They just scrapped the entire first world along with his redemption arc for sake of shock death.) Ok, even if story didn't go in the direction i preferred, it still was plot wise making sense and well connected. But they had to do that cheap final twist which made the story nonsense. First of all, fl is first world died due to supernatural intervention, it was not a natural death. So why should it be fate equivalent to chief's son's case? Secondly what were they even trying to tell with the umbrella scenes -world did split from the initial though. Even if ml gave umbrella to fl few minutes later or if he didn't gave at all, So how does that make any difference? Last scene was basically "I have a cool idea which I conjured last second. Let try it even if it doesn't make any sense"
Also side characters were kind of generic. They were neither fleshed out or given enough importance/character development in story. Story too much focused on main characters.
Overall i would say this show was really engaging and the main mystery reveal was pretty good. But they overdid it and made cheap plot twists for the sake of tension resulting in a average second half and crappy ending.
It a pretty good watch and extremely engaging. Blend of multiple theme is the strong point of this drama along with well executed main plot aspect of changing into better person.
Villan's were pretty good especially acting wise even if they were bit one toned evil. (some really great stand off scenes against protagonists)
But i do wish plot was little more compact. Lot of seperate case which are loosely related or unrelated. (Eg the main case due to which ml went to parallel dimension just ended up being insignificant/scrapped in his original dimension while the actual main case which continued from the parallel dimension was not shown having any resolution in parallel dimension). The fantasy aspect not only didn't really get any sort of explanation, but also it was not used sufficiently/effectively enough either.
Ending was pretty good idea, but executed in rushed/offscreened manner (atleast they should have shown a small flashback of how fl from parallel dimension survived and the villan's of that dimension got defeated).
Main Cast are extremely great especially ml and fl and their child and even main villans, but I wish side characters of the team were explored a bit more.
Also it was quite a brutal show tbh with all its serial children murders, tortures of disabled people and human Guinea pig experimentation. Protagonist hardly saved anyone inspite of advantage from fantasy aspect.
This adaptation part looked "phony" compared to the Korean movie. Korean movies is vastly superior to adaptation part of this series That Korean movie's strong point was everything in it looks very realistic including the action which was well choreographed in a otherwise generic plot. But this drama feels fake, action is low budgeted and acting of few side character is bad with many poor additional dialogue (like hero dialogue was cringe)
Basically 2rd and 3rd episode adapted the main plot of movie and 1st adapted the the initial accademy joining and training part with a different case scenario. Original case of episode 1 which is the brainwashing case was absolutely nonsensical - u expect me to believe some random mentally deranged girl with sad story became brainwashing specialist....what is this some sort of anime? Also the police accademy's ins and outs presentation felt too simplistic in comparison to movie. 2nd and 3rd episode with the main case, had that coat suit wearing local gangster as replacement of big guy villan from original movie. The change of appearance entirely looses the realism of our lead's struggle. There are multiple places in those episode where I felt scenes were poorly translated from movie into this drama (like eg the gang member ass poking scene turned into eye gauging threat with gang member casually giving them more info) and crucial part was missing (for eg - how they got to the bar where gang member was present) and poor rearrangement of scenes (eg - the effects of self defence drill scene) and even newly added scenes were useless (like inviting female colleague to go undercover to ear salon or how both academy teacher somehow accompanied to the crime area or added scenes of victim girl). I would say more scene of victim girl did indeed made the the ending bit more natural because in the movie she was barely relevant. But it still feels weird in drama because the additional scene in no way makes her connection to our lead any more prominent and also the earliest case had no such scene with the father character, so it just feels inconsistent too. Overall in the movie, it genuinely felt like the lead were very capable officers in realistic setting who have no other option because of circumstances of how things work, but in this drama it looked like bunch of rodies on adventure where crazy shit happens occasionally in a cartoonish world
Only positive point is personality of leads are fleshed out and properly differentiated compared to movie where at few times the lead felt like average joes. Few other characters were also fleshed out (but can't say it's all that of a positive point tbh especially because of poor acting skills )
Fillers were better than adaptation part Ok, docter plot part from movie never got adapted which doesn't matter i guess. Rest of episode which were orginal. The shovel case which was the main case was quite interesting with few plot twist, probably the best case of the series. But rest were pretty average. 1) nohara case was pretty okish but had generic ax crazy killer (well, at least better than supernatural of first episode). The twist itself interesting but wasted potential because third killer was never used in narrative. 2)jiro's sister in law case had slightly better action but the case itself was too straightforward. But biggest problem was there are many instances there where we were supposed to be in suspension of disbelief. (Like eg they how jiro dodged bullets and guns were pretty useless). Even the settings and presentation itself is hardly believable for gang wars that was shown. Also the sister in law had his brother's baby, so u would atleast expect jiro to keep in touch or atleast have her mention in future episodes, but unfortunately it was a one episode thing. Also the love angle was quite forced and creepy 3)the shovel murderer first part aka the hostage case was better than all previous case. But People getting into police accademy and walking around with harmful weapon is nonsensical tbh. But most of all what bothered me was we were shown the happy family photo multiple times even after this case... and most importantly even after they casually plot revealed that father was having a affair for alibi sake. Are writers really clueless people! 4)gun stealing case was another okish case. Highlight was the colleague character with police officer dad character development unexpectedly. Though gnarning problem that this case pointed out was Police officers are shown very unrealistic throughout this series and has been easily victimised than a normal civilians. Also the narrative should stop encouraging doing crime in the name of justice
Overall, poor adaptation but slightly above average fillers show. Ost were pretty good, sometimes poorly placed but still good
As I watched Reset, I came to understand that this is really about the FL's story and her journey. She is the…
That alone doesn't explain the supernatural though. In the end that connection also actually served more into father's characterisation (making him distinct from mother character) rather than fl if we see each character individually. Now that I think about it fl's backstory or situation was also never truely explored either.
As I watched Reset, I came to understand that this is really about the FL's story and her journey. She is the…
Technically it more of why fl is the chosen one or has this journey is the problem. There seems to be no given reason for that. If they have somehow connected fl with the dead daughter since they were in same college by some meaningful flashback it would have made the story much more better tbh. They anyways showed the hallucination of the dead daughter in the last part. So why not connect get to fl to make the time loop makes some sense. It felt like missed opportunity by not to do so.
There are even chances that original novel may have done such sort of thing too and this adaptation just did follow it as to fullest too. That's quite common thing among adaptions
Step mom plot is creepy as hell. Writer of this story sure have no self awareness about what they are writing. There are too make scenes of that first girlfriend mom. I can't even ignore it especially since she is portrayal as most loving creature in this world since she happens to be the step mom of fl. The way ml actually looked at his own stepmom in the beginning made this other step mom plot ever more creepy.
I wish all this stepmom fetishes would stop. It was already quite hard to digest the scumbag father portrayed as good and Loveable
Best and most unique thing about this drama is the ending (it started average and got really really good towards the ending). I have not seen any k drama yet with this much level of fleshed out happy ending. (Though I am still inexperienced in longer k dramas). Every plotline was beautifully concluded with with many of them going further to give extra amount of satisfaction . (We even got a entire one hour after time skip). Best and most enjoyable couple of this drama is definitely Song da hee and Yoon Jae Suk (everything about this is perfectly executed from start to finish). Highest point of this drama is sister reunion scene and wedding scene. The major characters i most enjoyed and found well written were Song Young Dal, Song Joon Sun, Yoon Jae Suk, Kang Cho Yeon and Song Da Hee.
That being said, there are quite a bit of flaws to especially at the beginning and middle portion- 1) Divorce - least interested part of the drama especially Yoon Gyu Jin and Song Na Hee. Wouldn't be a big deal if it was executed with consideration for both parties involved in marriage. But that was not the case, there was a heavy one sided Yoon gyu Jin blaming for some reason and on other hand Song Na hee was made out the victim and saint. It was quite distasteful because nothing shown in flashback or throughout series all that much indicates to his fault. If anything, the whole faulty person was song na hee. She was the one whose carelessness caused miscarriage, she was the one who assumed he is resenting her and grew distant, she was the one didn't try at all and asked for divorce, she was the one who was shown disinterested in him and even started dating some other guy, She was also the one who absolutely didn't try to connect with his mother (this thing was same even during the getting back together part untill dementia part where on one side Yoon gyu Jin is trying to get her mother's approval, but on other hand it was the his mother who called her to meet rather than she trying to connect) and finally most important she was not the one took the first step to get back either. Sure, Yoon gyu Jin is not flawless either but atleast his part of character development was shown. It's quite cringe, when on one side Song da hee and Yoon Jae Suk are telling sorry to each other over some silly mild love rival trouble, but on other hand Yoon Gyu Jin alone was telling sorry and song na hee is the forgiving figure. This entire execution problem was not just case for Yoon Gyu Jin and Song Na Hee, but unfortunately it was same for Song Joon Sun and Sung Hyun Kyung too. Atleast song Na hee did have some character development during dementia part, but even that can't be said for Sung Hyun Kyung. She definitely was quite non understanding and selfish is some ways. Especially this can be pointed out clearly when contrast of scene involving Seo Jin negligence occurred - when she showed negligence by working late and forcing Seo Young to babysit her sister which resulted in seo Jin getting lost, it translated as struggles of single mom. But when Song Joon Sun had no option and too seo Jin to shoot where accident happened, it translated as never changing and poor parenting from dad. Because of this flawed execution, the story kind of gave off a indirect vibe that if Song Joon Sun action company was not doing well, she wouldn't have got back together and if in future he struggled again she has high chances of leaving him again. Basically because there was no character development from Sung Hyun Kyung's side. She came off as shallow opportunity minded even if portrayed prideful (by not taking child support). Other divorce were pretty much one directioned cheating guy case so nothing to say about those
2)Love triangles - most faulty one were involving Kang Cho Yeon. First writers paired her with Yang Chi Soo with such daring and emotion attached confession, then he just moved on to another women like no big deal because of a kiss. That's was most absurd way to end a love triangle. Secondly she got pared with her own brother due rumors and misunderstanding which was a absolute cringe way to use her character. Other ones are love rivals of main couple - the hospital director and first love single mom. Hospital director came out as too pushy/ opportunistic and unlikeable while the single mom came out character to pity on especially because writers went out the way to make Yoon Gyu Jin connect with her son rather than her. Also even the minor stunt guys and kimbap store ladies plotline was treated/executed as joke rather than character development of that stunt guy. (That stunt guy kept on being treated as just joke even at the end)
3) Minor ending problem - even though ending was so fleshed out, there were still few minor problems in final episode like director lee didn't appear (was only given a minor pathetic mention), Song Joon Sun's family was barely given any focus and Park Hyo Shin was given only one scenes (they could have used his character a bit more to conclude that plotline more satisfyingly)
4) flashbacks/epilogue - there should have been more epilogue scenes (atleast one every episode). Flashback should use young actors instead of usage of costume to make characters look younger. That kind of gave a fake feeling even though the scene addition itself were great.
Pretty cool down to earth action movie (action reminds me of nobody and John wick style). But it's kind of a bit too standard overall. They could have played more with our two lead's contrasting personality. Also they could have developed the villan and female victim a bit more especially if female victim was made some sort of connection or shared screentime with our leads before kidnapping then the ending would have hit more meaningfully. Also the doctor's plot in the last part made the movie feel like multiple ideas mixed up together (though I am kind of neutral about it)
Thought provoking but narrative mess with rushed kind of ending.
This drama was weird experience overall. I have not idea what this drama was trying to do for most part of show due to flawed execution. On surface it's like a really great setup of a epic drama with deep themes, but half of the times the way things are executed just sucks eg - ml reporting about his brother's crime. I genuinely was hyped up for that moment, but the way everything led to that point, something died inside me along with all the interest in seeing that. Basically through coincidences and in contrived manner everyone surrounding the ML (FL, fl's father, SFL, cap, officer etc) somehow started sniffing around it and putting extreme pressure on ml with no choice other than to report. Instead of making ML naturally conflicted about truth vs family and coming to his own resolve, how did we reach such artificial progression! There are other instance too where such thing happened in the show. But most significant is this one.
There are few moments/points I genuinely loved about this show - 1) ml realising being a reporter is not easy and basically having that self reflection scene 2)fl questioning her mom in the seminar 3) dynamics of news industry seniors especially MSC captain's characterisation 4) the entire last arc dealing with department store chairwoman's corruption except ending 5)Jang Hyun-kyu and Im Jae-hwan ending 6) Ahn Chan Soo usage and development and also the reveal of his wife too
There are few moments/points I genuinely hated about this show- 1) artificial plot progression or execution (like how ml straight away told fl to shut her mouth to falsely accuse her mother untill the point where he had to suffer psychological guilt trip through hiccups to have any character progression. But that bus ceo arc itself is still great if we see from fl's mother's perspective instead of ml's perspective) 2) the whole uncle and niece scenario (there was no need for continuing such gimmick relationship after grandpa came to his sense, other than to produce artificial weirdness service). 3) rushed kind of ending (well ending is not actually rushed but what makes it feels like that are 3 points- the whole anguish of grandpa acceptance/uncle and niece gimmick, last minute Yoon Yoo Rae and Hwang Gyo-dong hinting which was left hanging and absence of ml's brother and fl's mother suddenly in finale) A) grandpa acceptence was so unnecessary, we are talking about the same grandpa who feigned ignorance over ml not being his son for years. It felt so unnatural. Plus the way they did it is really frusturating. Really! The Forced breakup at last minute with time skip and getting together last second.Because of this the run time only allowed that cop out wedding hint as end scene B)Yoon Yoo Rae was such a great actress and character, but the material provided for her was bare minimum inspite of being one of the major character of the show (she was treated as filler). They suddenly made her cling over ml which was distasteful enough then they started hinting Hwang Gyo-dong with her which was literally forgotten at last second. C)why don't the time skip include ml's brother or fl's mother? The whole grandpa making connection with ml's brother seemed like a forgotten plotline. They went out of their way to show SML's mother extended jail scene, but fl's mother who was such a major character and longest antagonist don't get a time skip scene. 4)Around the last part Lee Il-joo went and bitched to msc chairman behind everyone's back. I felt like the story just glossed over it. Sure there was the jealousy scene in the time skip, but I wish they actually focused over that actual part in depth. He kind of became a unlikable character offscreen which kind of feels shit. 5) the first fire incident felt kind of fake and cheesy. I am not sure if it's production quality/props or acting of factory owner or execution. But something felt off.
Also the tags sucks, it have a open ending or atleast ambiguous ending tbh (maybe hopefully happy, but still open). It's not a happy ending and absolutely not a time jump happy ending.
Best aspect of this drama is plot reveal is extremely well executed and well timed with proper forshadowing.
First 12 episode were perfect , but for rest it kind of lost some steam and there are few point, it needs improvement in those episode-
- fl went as bait to the copy murderer without any actual plan, things only worked out because real murderer helped them. This is pretty absurd and nonsensical. Fl should have had a plan which should have failed and either one of the ml should be the one who realise fl was in danger instead of real murderer
- police team should not the get played so easily by real murderer or act dumb. They got played twice due to hearing bug and didn't even use it to their advantage. But i guess, police behaving dumb towards last few episode made the final twist for catching criminal more surprising.
Plus real murderer shouldn't be so lenient towards them or helping them (he didn't tell anyone about ml's identity and also didn't kill fl first time even after she lied about the pen, plus he helped with hiding kwang ho body and give them multiple clue and accurately did all the post mortems and even saved the fl from copy murderer)
- Ending required a proper timeskip to future to show the changed future. While ending was a bit better than what i though initially but it was still a bit open and unsatisfactory, with many plot threads (like if he caught actual murderer in past or how would things have changed because of it and ml returning) left to our own interpretation.
Also kwang ho naming kind of doesn't work because his name was still same in the world where ml was absent too. They could have either shown a flashback of how he got disappeared detective name maybe through Jeon Seong Shik at early timing and then make this scene as parallel to that. Or it should have played out as a joke where pregnant mother says her baby's name is kwang ho and detective ml also simultaneously saying his name is same. Either of this cases would the made this same naming aspect better
Finally tunnel supernatural aspect should have had a consistent rule to work. At first they kind of hinted that ml and real murderer need to be present simultaneously for time travel to work, but in last episode it happened anyways without any rule. I think they should have actually put some rule which meet requirement all three times which only becomes obvious third time. While using the other rule as a decoy.
- this drama needed some amount of kiss scenes. It would have complimented to this show a lot.
- the reporter/taxi driver plot line also didn't add any meaning to the story. They should have used that character for some trick.
Aside from that it does have few bothersome other problems too like the entire goat owner killing didn't lead to anything was kind of forgotten/kept aside/glossed over. Also i didn't like the fact that ml didn't age. A older werewolf would have been a interesting choice visually. I think they choose ml to not age as a symbolism to he never moved on and was still waiting. But ageless aspect itself just raised many questions which story never explored or never will explore. (Like was he ageless even before the guy conducted experiment?)
Anyways still a enjoyable movie but not my type of movie
Other criticism for this show are-
- too many coincidences. This show's plot progression is entirely depended on coincidences, that it's pretty absurd . It's one think to makes the accident coincidences, but why are other things coincidences.
-ML start manipulative and intelligent but ends up being the guy who is most manipulated by everyone including his wife, antagonist, his fake parents and even by the reporter or smaller villans to some extend. His intelligence is also a act or facade tbh. If not for coincidences (like victim picking up his phone), he would have easily lost every time. While i am not against the "innocent traumatic guy who is wronged/viewed wronglly by everyone", the execution for it is just poor because he trying too hard to act all intelligent and he is portrayed too much pitiful.
- Also too much insertion of lawful correction. While it good he didn't become a murderer, but the writers are trying too hard to make him dark and then they make him not do it, so that he lawfully correct to earn that shitty rushed discount happy ending. Again poor execution (like for eg - villan tried provoking ml to become Murderer, but then villan started cowering in fear and ran away when so that ml doesn't become Murder at the end). Most laughable part was where he confirmed that his daughter is safe before deciding to be a murderer....that is not how u become emotionally broken
- fl didn't looked like she trusted ml ever tbh. She had gun first time, second time she was one to doubt him first (at least the show made a point that ml mentioned it) and finally at the ending fl is telling she is clinging to amnesia induced ml, but i hardly felt any such attempt (good eg of All talk no show). It undermines the romance so much.
- mystery part was also kind of poor. It was a serial killer murder at first, but then it became a bunch of loosely connect incidents groupped into one.
Positive points -
-The child actress was really good, I wish she had more role.
-Chemistry and acting of all character were good, even if plot was not upto the mark
-Plot idea itself was also good, but need good execution to be good
Overall, hope the other versions are better than this.
-pr theme - it was good enough outlook of how pr industry works and their day to day lives especially in early episodes. Character interaction for those aspect were pretty good
-comedy - this is the genre which was successful implemented in this drama unlike romance. funny and wholesome scenes were quite fun to watch
-multiple couples - finally a short k drama with more than 3 couples. I really liked that they paired the lawyer with news reporter. Infact the entire thing from love triangle to bromance to new pairing was also successful executed in my opinion. I do wish they have paired the female fan actresses and upcoming popular male actor too, but whatever i guess.
-kisses - i have never seen a drama with so many kiss scenes. This drama was worth while just to watch the enormous amount of kiss scenes
-ending - it was fine and serviceable enough, but a time skip with relationship progression was better
- having consistent epilogues every episode, beginning animation scene and pretty actors is another positive
Negative point of this drama
-plot - this show was loitering around with no actual plot for most episodes and finally when it got some form of plot, it felt like written by a 5 year old. I wish this show had a competent writer
-villan- seriously juvinile anti fan kid, angry nonsensical reason giving managers and rich lady doing toxic pastime. Whoever wrote these kind of scenario and villan is clueless about even basic depth. I pretty much skipped the final talk between ml and organic bar onwer, because I couldn't take the bs anymore
-characterization and dialogues - not gone lie, almost all characters of this drama felt superficial to me even it they were a bit fun. There are many moments in this drama where I expected some deep and heartfelt dialogue, only to be beyond disappointing that there was not a single instance of it.
-Romance - in all honesty, while having multiple couple is fun, But romance itself is not really well executed. Almost all of them felt like just casual dating.
The two managers romance was quite awkward to follow. How she came from..... casually asking exboyfriend a favor for her actor to suggesting and declining putting her exboyfriend's name to the actor to giving her superior manager's name to reveal of crush on superior manager to acting like a virgin when he said yes.... is beyond me. Even the ml manager who did't show any such interest uptill the tree part after confession. It just so ackward and wrong. Even their both respective explanation/dialogues to why they like each other is kind nonsense filler.
The reporter and lawyer romance was cool because it subverted clingy sml cliche of k drama and adding bromance. But i genuinely don't feel romance with lawyer was any different from any of the reporter's precious lovers. It just end up feeling like yet another of her flings. There was not much depth or character development to it.
The actor and actress romance was cool because it subverted the anguish cliche. But I wish they would show atleast little bit effort put forth in relationship. Everything just was so easy.
Also the new girl and assistant being a big reveal is nonsensical. A poor plot reveal which everybody guessed at the cost of no actual relationship portrayal (aside from few seconds) is just shit.
Even fl coming in terms with accepting her relationship with ml to public was so super casual!
I am very conflicted about this drama.
Plus this show there is lot to be desired of ml. For eg I wanted to see more of corrupt version of ml but story didn't give much run time to that at all. Fl on the other hand was most time really hard to take serious especially in first world scenes where she was trying to do the naive young girl scenes
Acting is decent, but chemistry is not there especially fl is kind of bland. I wish sfl actresses was given fl's role, she was so much better even though she didn't have much role.
Story was solid (well connected) untill the last part where it fell apart. I started disliking the story from the part where corrupt ML went back to his own world just after few minimalistic scenes in the first world. (They just scrapped the entire first world along with his redemption arc for sake of shock death.) Ok, even if story didn't go in the direction i preferred, it still was plot wise making sense and well connected. But they had to do that cheap final twist which made the story nonsense. First of all, fl is first world died due to supernatural intervention, it was not a natural death. So why should it be fate equivalent to chief's son's case? Secondly what were they even trying to tell with the umbrella scenes -world did split from the initial though. Even if ml gave umbrella to fl few minutes later or if he didn't gave at all, So how does that make any difference?
Last scene was basically "I have a cool idea which I conjured last second. Let try it even if it doesn't make any sense"
Also side characters were kind of generic. They were neither fleshed out or given enough importance/character development in story. Story too much focused on main characters.
Overall i would say this show was really engaging and the main mystery reveal was pretty good. But they overdid it and made cheap plot twists for the sake of tension resulting in a average second half and crappy ending.
Villan's were pretty good especially acting wise even if they were bit one toned evil. (some really great stand off scenes against protagonists)
But i do wish plot was little more compact. Lot of seperate case which are loosely related or unrelated. (Eg the main case due to which ml went to parallel dimension just ended up being insignificant/scrapped in his original dimension while the actual main case which continued from the parallel dimension was not shown having any resolution in parallel dimension). The fantasy aspect not only didn't really get any sort of explanation, but also it was not used sufficiently/effectively enough either.
Ending was pretty good idea, but executed in rushed/offscreened manner (atleast they should have shown a small flashback of how fl from parallel dimension survived and the villan's of that dimension got defeated).
Main Cast are extremely great especially ml and fl and their child and even main villans, but I wish side characters of the team were explored a bit more.
Also it was quite a brutal show tbh with all its serial children murders, tortures of disabled people and human Guinea pig experimentation. Protagonist hardly saved anyone inspite of advantage from fantasy aspect.
That Korean movie's strong point was everything in it looks very realistic including the action which was well choreographed in a otherwise generic plot. But this drama feels fake, action is low budgeted and acting of few side character is bad with many poor additional dialogue (like hero dialogue was cringe)
Basically 2rd and 3rd episode adapted the main plot of movie and 1st adapted the the initial accademy joining and training part with a different case scenario.
Original case of episode 1 which is the brainwashing case was absolutely nonsensical - u expect me to believe some random mentally deranged girl with sad story became brainwashing specialist....what is this some sort of anime? Also the police accademy's ins and outs presentation felt too simplistic in comparison to movie.
2nd and 3rd episode with the main case, had that coat suit wearing local gangster as replacement of big guy villan from original movie. The change of appearance entirely looses the realism of our lead's struggle. There are multiple places in those episode where I felt scenes were poorly translated from movie into this drama (like eg the gang member ass poking scene turned into eye gauging threat with gang member casually giving them more info) and crucial part was missing (for eg - how they got to the bar where gang member was present) and poor rearrangement of scenes (eg - the effects of self defence drill scene) and even newly added scenes were useless (like inviting female colleague to go undercover to ear salon or how both academy teacher somehow accompanied to the crime area or added scenes of victim girl). I would say more scene of victim girl did indeed made the the ending bit more natural because in the movie she was barely relevant. But it still feels weird in drama because the additional scene in no way makes her connection to our lead any more prominent and also the earliest case had no such scene with the father character, so it just feels inconsistent too. Overall in the movie, it genuinely felt like the lead were very capable officers in realistic setting who have no other option because of circumstances of how things work, but in this drama it looked like bunch of rodies on adventure where crazy shit happens occasionally in a cartoonish world
Only positive point is personality of leads are fleshed out and properly differentiated compared to movie where at few times the lead felt like average joes. Few other characters were also fleshed out (but can't say it's all that of a positive point tbh especially because of poor acting skills )
Fillers were better than adaptation part
Ok, docter plot part from movie never got adapted which doesn't matter i guess. Rest of episode which were orginal. The shovel case which was the main case was quite interesting with few plot twist, probably the best case of the series. But rest were pretty average.
1) nohara case was pretty okish but had generic ax crazy killer (well, at least better than supernatural of first episode). The twist itself interesting but wasted potential because third killer was never used in narrative.
2)jiro's sister in law case had slightly better action but the case itself was too straightforward. But biggest problem was there are many instances there where we were supposed to be in suspension of disbelief. (Like eg they how jiro dodged bullets and guns were pretty useless). Even the settings and presentation itself is hardly believable for gang wars that was shown. Also the sister in law had his brother's baby, so u would atleast expect jiro to keep in touch or atleast have her mention in future episodes, but unfortunately it was a one episode thing. Also the love angle was quite forced and creepy
3)the shovel murderer first part aka the hostage case was better than all previous case. But People getting into police accademy and walking around with harmful weapon is nonsensical tbh. But most of all what bothered me was we were shown the happy family photo multiple times even after this case... and most importantly even after they casually plot revealed that father was having a affair for alibi sake. Are writers really clueless people!
4)gun stealing case was another okish case. Highlight was the colleague character with police officer dad character development unexpectedly. Though gnarning problem that this case pointed out was Police officers are shown very unrealistic throughout this series and has been easily victimised than a normal civilians. Also the narrative should stop encouraging doing crime in the name of justice
Overall, poor adaptation but slightly above average fillers show. Ost were pretty good, sometimes poorly placed but still good
There are even chances that original novel may have done such sort of thing too and this adaptation just did follow it as to fullest too. That's quite common thing among adaptions
I wish all this stepmom fetishes would stop. It was already quite hard to digest the scumbag father portrayed as good and Loveable
Best and most enjoyable couple of this drama is definitely Song da hee and Yoon Jae Suk (everything about this is perfectly executed from start to finish). Highest point of this drama is sister reunion scene and wedding scene. The major characters i most enjoyed and found well written were Song Young Dal, Song Joon Sun, Yoon Jae Suk, Kang Cho Yeon and Song Da Hee.
That being said, there are quite a bit of flaws to especially at the beginning and middle portion-
1) Divorce -
least interested part of the drama especially Yoon Gyu Jin and Song Na Hee. Wouldn't be a big deal if it was executed with consideration for both parties involved in marriage. But that was not the case, there was a heavy one sided Yoon gyu Jin blaming for some reason and on other hand Song Na hee was made out the victim and saint. It was quite distasteful because nothing shown in flashback or throughout series all that much indicates to his fault. If anything, the whole faulty person was song na hee. She was the one whose carelessness caused miscarriage, she was the one who assumed he is resenting her and grew distant, she was the one didn't try at all and asked for divorce, she was the one who was shown disinterested in him and even started dating some other guy, She was also the one who absolutely didn't try to connect with his mother (this thing was same even during the getting back together part untill dementia part where on one side Yoon gyu Jin is trying to get her mother's approval, but on other hand it was the his mother who called her to meet rather than she trying to connect) and finally most important she was not the one took the first step to get back either. Sure, Yoon gyu Jin is not flawless either but atleast his part of character development was shown. It's quite cringe, when on one side Song da hee and Yoon Jae Suk are telling sorry to each other over some silly mild love rival trouble, but on other hand Yoon Gyu Jin alone was telling sorry and song na hee is the forgiving figure.
This entire execution problem was not just case for Yoon Gyu Jin and Song Na Hee, but unfortunately it was same for Song Joon Sun and Sung Hyun Kyung too. Atleast song Na hee did have some character development during dementia part, but even that can't be said for Sung Hyun Kyung. She definitely was quite non understanding and selfish is some ways. Especially this can be pointed out clearly when contrast of scene involving Seo Jin negligence occurred - when she showed negligence by working late and forcing Seo Young to babysit her sister which resulted in seo Jin getting lost, it translated as struggles of single mom. But when Song Joon Sun had no option and too seo Jin to shoot where accident happened, it translated as never changing and poor parenting from dad. Because of this flawed execution, the story kind of gave off a indirect vibe that if Song Joon Sun action company was not doing well, she wouldn't have got back together and if in future he struggled again she has high chances of leaving him again. Basically because there was no character development from Sung Hyun Kyung's side. She came off as shallow opportunity minded even if portrayed prideful (by not taking child support).
Other divorce were pretty much one directioned cheating guy case so nothing to say about those
2)Love triangles -
most faulty one were involving Kang Cho Yeon. First writers paired her with Yang Chi Soo with such daring and emotion attached confession, then he just moved on to another women like no big deal because of a kiss. That's was most absurd way to end a love triangle. Secondly she got pared with her own brother due rumors and misunderstanding which was a absolute cringe way to use her character.
Other ones are love rivals of main couple - the hospital director and first love single mom. Hospital director came out as too pushy/ opportunistic and unlikeable while the single mom came out character to pity on especially because writers went out the way to make Yoon Gyu Jin connect with her son rather than her.
Also even the minor stunt guys and kimbap store ladies plotline was treated/executed as joke rather than character development of that stunt guy. (That stunt guy kept on being treated as just joke even at the end)
3) Minor ending problem - even though ending was so fleshed out, there were still few minor problems in final episode like director lee didn't appear (was only given a minor pathetic mention), Song Joon Sun's family was barely given any focus and Park Hyo Shin was given only one scenes (they could have used his character a bit more to conclude that plotline more satisfyingly)
4) flashbacks/epilogue - there should have been more epilogue scenes (atleast one every episode). Flashback should use young actors instead of usage of costume to make characters look younger. That kind of gave a fake feeling even though the scene addition itself were great.
There are few moments/points I genuinely loved about this show -
1) ml realising being a reporter is not easy and basically having that self reflection scene
2)fl questioning her mom in the seminar
3) dynamics of news industry seniors especially MSC captain's characterisation
4) the entire last arc dealing with department store chairwoman's corruption except ending
5)Jang Hyun-kyu and Im Jae-hwan ending
6) Ahn Chan Soo usage and development and also the reveal of his wife too
There are few moments/points I genuinely hated about this show-
1) artificial plot progression or execution (like how ml straight away told fl to shut her mouth to falsely accuse her mother untill the point where he had to suffer psychological guilt trip through hiccups to have any character progression. But that bus ceo arc itself is still great if we see from fl's mother's perspective instead of ml's perspective)
2) the whole uncle and niece scenario (there was no need for continuing such gimmick relationship after grandpa came to his sense, other than to produce artificial weirdness service).
3) rushed kind of ending (well ending is not actually rushed but what makes it feels like that are 3 points- the whole anguish of grandpa acceptance/uncle and niece gimmick, last minute Yoon Yoo Rae and Hwang Gyo-dong hinting which was left hanging and absence of ml's brother and fl's mother suddenly in finale)
A) grandpa acceptence was so unnecessary, we are talking about the same grandpa who feigned ignorance over ml not being his son for years. It felt so unnatural. Plus the way they did it is really frusturating. Really! The Forced breakup at last minute with time skip and getting together last second.Because of this the run time only allowed that cop out wedding hint as end scene
B)Yoon Yoo Rae was such a great actress and character, but the material provided for her was bare minimum inspite of being one of the major character of the show (she was treated as filler). They suddenly made her cling over ml which was distasteful enough then they started hinting Hwang Gyo-dong with her which was literally forgotten at last second.
C)why don't the time skip include ml's brother or fl's mother? The whole grandpa making connection with ml's brother seemed like a forgotten plotline. They went out of their way to show SML's mother extended jail scene, but fl's mother who was such a major character and longest antagonist don't get a time skip scene.
4)Around the last part Lee Il-joo went and bitched to msc chairman behind everyone's back. I felt like the story just glossed over it. Sure there was the jealousy scene in the time skip, but I wish they actually focused over that actual part in depth. He kind of became a unlikable character offscreen which kind of feels shit.
5) the first fire incident felt kind of fake and cheesy. I am not sure if it's production quality/props or acting of factory owner or execution. But something felt off.