This review may contain spoilers
offensively bad
there's good dramas with sophisticated plots, there's good dramas with simple plots, and then there's bad dramas that try so hard to be sophisticated that it makes them 10x worse. this is one of them.
this drama is a disgrace against all women, lesbians, and queer people. the women of this drama are put through perpetual abuse, sexual assault, etc., for the sole purpose of dramatisation and/or character development for the male lead. this is a well studied phenomenon known as the 'women in refrigerators' trope, i highly recommend reading up on it.
as for the queer aspect, just because they included a lesbian character doesn't mean we should be applauding the writers for representation. this drama exploits the hardships of sexual minorities for nothing more than shock value. throughout the entire story, sangah is mentally and physically pushed to the limit, but no attempt is made to send any meaningful message with any of this.
towards the end i began to wonder, who are we even supposed to be rooting for here? taeseob is just as manipulative and power hungry as the elites he strived to take down.
they try to frame taeseob and sangah as equally evil and equally sympathetic, which is NOT the case. sangah wasn't responsible for the murder, and even if she was, it would've been justified. she can't be blamed for cheating either as she was coerced with drugs. taeseob on the other hand, as admitted by himself in the first episode, only saw sangah as a means to climb up the social ladder. sure, you could argue he fell in love with her later, and he did try to 'protect' her overall, but he wouldn't have gone to such lengths to protect her image if it wasn't crucial to his own reputation. not to mention him forcing himself onto her after their big fight which is completely irredeemable. mind you he was already irredeemable to me when he did nothing to help jisoo.
the last episode is its own disaster:
- slow motion montages were excessive and anticlimactic, whole episode could've been 40 minutes if they cut those out
- everything played out way too smoothly all of a sudden
- the focus suddenly shifts onto politics and we're expected to keep up with all these names and lore that were only mentioned in passing in previous episodes
- the "cliffhanger" they left to tease a second season felt sooo forced and rushed
overall, a low quality drama that takes itself too seriously, much to its own detriment.
this drama is a disgrace against all women, lesbians, and queer people. the women of this drama are put through perpetual abuse, sexual assault, etc., for the sole purpose of dramatisation and/or character development for the male lead. this is a well studied phenomenon known as the 'women in refrigerators' trope, i highly recommend reading up on it.
as for the queer aspect, just because they included a lesbian character doesn't mean we should be applauding the writers for representation. this drama exploits the hardships of sexual minorities for nothing more than shock value. throughout the entire story, sangah is mentally and physically pushed to the limit, but no attempt is made to send any meaningful message with any of this.
towards the end i began to wonder, who are we even supposed to be rooting for here? taeseob is just as manipulative and power hungry as the elites he strived to take down.
they try to frame taeseob and sangah as equally evil and equally sympathetic, which is NOT the case. sangah wasn't responsible for the murder, and even if she was, it would've been justified. she can't be blamed for cheating either as she was coerced with drugs. taeseob on the other hand, as admitted by himself in the first episode, only saw sangah as a means to climb up the social ladder. sure, you could argue he fell in love with her later, and he did try to 'protect' her overall, but he wouldn't have gone to such lengths to protect her image if it wasn't crucial to his own reputation. not to mention him forcing himself onto her after their big fight which is completely irredeemable. mind you he was already irredeemable to me when he did nothing to help jisoo.
the last episode is its own disaster:
- slow motion montages were excessive and anticlimactic, whole episode could've been 40 minutes if they cut those out
- everything played out way too smoothly all of a sudden
- the focus suddenly shifts onto politics and we're expected to keep up with all these names and lore that were only mentioned in passing in previous episodes
- the "cliffhanger" they left to tease a second season felt sooo forced and rushed
overall, a low quality drama that takes itself too seriously, much to its own detriment.
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