Tomorrow4.7/10What can say about this drama, without the leads I wouldn’t even have watched it, the premise…
Overall, I totally understand if the show is not some people's cup of tea and can agree that magically 'solving' suicide/mental health crises is pretty simplistic. But considering the entire premise of the show is that the main leads aren't really "people" but grim reapers who change the thoughts people have about themselves (see ep 2 where Koo Ryeon explains this) is important. Notably the Red Light doesn't mean people won't ever commit suicide again or fall back into old harmful patterns it just means they are not in immediate danger.
It is super crucial that ultimately the person that Koo Ryeon has to save in the end is herself: it's her process of reconciling that all of the horrible things she said to herself (that she internalized) were not her fault and that she has nothing to make up for (isn't going to hell again). The fact that Joong Gil apologizes for making her think her suicidal ideations were selfish and acknowledges that he acted more to preserve his pride than to protect her is an incredibly subversive depictions of suicide in popular culture.
This isn't a show about interventions and its not a show romanticizing suicide like 13 reasons Why. Its a show about changing the prevalent negative moral narrative around suicide as 'something a weak person or sinner brings upon themselves,' because such narratives make it impossible to ask for help (as in the case of the anorexic character you talk). This is something the show, for all its flaws with pacing around the character development of the main characters, does incredibly well.
Rather than the aftermath, the show's focus is on what drives people to suicide and is a social commentary on stopping the prevalence of those things (the root causes) rather than outlining a proper mental health intervention. So it's more a show against bullying, structural debt, sexism, sexual harassment and assault, fatphobia, mistreatment of pregnant women, etc, than a show about how to "solve" trauma, insolvency, anorexia, and the psychological trauma of miscarriages (among other issues.)
I've seen some people claiming that ep 13 was just a "filler" that detracted from the storyline of Koo Ryeon and Park Joong-Gil's shared past. I disagree. Narratively the screenwriters needed to show the horrors of war towards women (as something that didn't just end in the Joseon period either) to contextualize what happens to Koo Ryeon in ep 14.
It's not a "filler" unless you think vignettes of the past are the only way to do character development. The screenwriters likely didn't want to show Koo Ryeon going through such extreme violence with only 2 episodes remaining so they used characters we don't know to imply the horrible abuses she suffered without diminishing the gravity of them. This allowed them to focus on her past life holistically, good and the bad, without undermining the trauma of sexual assault victims (in and outside of war).
My biggest criticism of the show, as some people have pointed out, is the fact that they decided to push the protagonist's storyline so close to the end of the drama. This is an issue not with episode 13 but with the pacing of the first half of the show where we get two episodes on Joon-Woong's friend and on the first bullying case but only one for the entire backstory of two of the four leads.
I have enjoyed every episode in the drama overall, but as a cohesive piece, I am worried that they have too many loose ends to tie in 2 episodes/ 2 hours while also developing a new case. Unless they are planning on making a second season, I really don't want any more half-hour backstories for characters who are only in one or two episodes.
It is super crucial that ultimately the person that Koo Ryeon has to save in the end is herself: it's her process of reconciling that all of the horrible things she said to herself (that she internalized) were not her fault and that she has nothing to make up for (isn't going to hell again). The fact that Joong Gil apologizes for making her think her suicidal ideations were selfish and acknowledges that he acted more to preserve his pride than to protect her is an incredibly subversive depictions of suicide in popular culture.
This isn't a show about interventions and its not a show romanticizing suicide like 13 reasons Why. Its a show about changing the prevalent negative moral narrative around suicide as 'something a weak person or sinner brings upon themselves,' because such narratives make it impossible to ask for help (as in the case of the anorexic character you talk). This is something the show, for all its flaws with pacing around the character development of the main characters, does incredibly well.
Rather than the aftermath, the show's focus is on what drives people to suicide and is a social commentary on stopping the prevalence of those things (the root causes) rather than outlining a proper mental health intervention. So it's more a show against bullying, structural debt, sexism, sexual harassment and assault, fatphobia, mistreatment of pregnant women, etc, than a show about how to "solve" trauma, insolvency, anorexia, and the psychological trauma of miscarriages (among other issues.)
It's not a "filler" unless you think vignettes of the past are the only way to do character development. The screenwriters likely didn't want to show Koo Ryeon going through such extreme violence with only 2 episodes remaining so they used characters we don't know to imply the horrible abuses she suffered without diminishing the gravity of them. This allowed them to focus on her past life holistically, good and the bad, without undermining the trauma of sexual assault victims (in and outside of war).
My biggest criticism of the show, as some people have pointed out, is the fact that they decided to push the protagonist's storyline so close to the end of the drama. This is an issue not with episode 13 but with the pacing of the first half of the show where we get two episodes on Joon-Woong's friend and on the first bullying case but only one for the entire backstory of two of the four leads.
I have enjoyed every episode in the drama overall, but as a cohesive piece, I am worried that they have too many loose ends to tie in 2 episodes/ 2 hours while also developing a new case. Unless they are planning on making a second season, I really don't want any more half-hour backstories for characters who are only in one or two episodes.