A Dramatic Mess of Plotholes
Let’s get one thing straight before we begin: "Night Has Come" is not boring. It’s not. That’s the secret sauce that makes all the disasters hit harder. It keeps you hooked. You binge it like popcorn—you gasp, you side-eye, you yell at the screen, you clutch your metaphorical pearls. But once the adrenaline fades, once the fog of red lighting and haunting background scores lifts, you realize… wait.
Nothing makes sense.
Not a single. Damn. Thing.
But we’ll get there.
THE GOOD: LET’S GIVE FLOWERS WHERE THEY’RE DUE (BEFORE WE RIP THE REST TO SHREDS)
Cinematography: AMAZING. If vibes were currency, this show would be a billionaire. Every frame is dripping with eerie school-horror nostalgia. It knows how to play with light and darkness. The glowing screen, the empty halls, the slow push-ins—it eats.
Concept: Mafia, but make it trauma simulation. GENIUS. A class-wide murder game that tests morality, loyalty, and trauma responses in teenagers? That’s basically every ethics professor’s wet dream.
Sound design & music: Carrying the tension like a worn-out grandma carrying her grandkids. They put their back into it, and it shows. The atmosphere owes 80% of its tension to the music and sound cues.
Casting: The cast is well-picked. Pretty people doing suspicious things with sometimes good microexpressions? We support that. SOME of the acting genuinely lands—especially when things get chaotic and desperate.
NOW. THE BAD. AND BOY, IT’S A MAZE
Let’s start small and snowball into rage.
If the game was meant to punish people, why make it so convoluted? Why let randoms die? Why not just mafia wipe everyone out in one night? It’s giving convenient writing just to drag the story. Also was mafia the best game? I can think about some good reasons for it being chosen for example, letting the children experience the hurt of betrayal and pain. But I do believe there could have been better alternatives. Not really a complaint tho
Jungwon being mafia instead of citizen?? Like okay your daughter was the victim and you want revenge, but you’re forcing her to kill people too? What kind of twisted character arc is that? She should've been the sole citizen in the group of mafias. That would’ve made so much more sense. Why would you not make her the citizen and put her in real danger to heighten the stakes and make her survival mean something? Like seriously, from a story perspective, it would be 100x more interesting if Jungwon was the last citizen standing while everyone else is a predator. The way they’ve done it just kills the emotional weight of her being the “survivor.”
Back to the game: the mafia could’ve also pulled a power move and just taken everyone’s phones, yeeted them into the forest, and forced everyone into death by default. No votes? No problem. Boom — everyone dies. Now imagine if someone had risked their life and crossed the border to get those phones back. That would’ve been so much more gripping and deep and could’ve added an entire new layer of moral dilemma, sacrifice, and suspense. But nope. They opted for dragging things out in the dumbest way possible. From a story perspective, it doesn't make any sense.
Okay but, Cha Woo-Min’s character Ko Kyungjun? Surprisingly the only one I liked. Usually I find Cha Woo-Min’s roles unbearable, but here? He actually ATE. He had more depth, more nuance, more complexity than the rest of the cast combined. He was still a villain, yes, but there were scenes where you could see the cracks — the vulnerability. There’s one where he’s on the verge of tears, and it’s subtle but powerful. He wasn’t just cartoonishly evil. He was the only character with an actual emotional arc that made sense. He had presence. He had layers. He had consistency, which is more than I can say for the rest of them.
Now Lee Jae-In’s character Lee Yoon-Seo? Girl… I can’t. Her acting was so flat it made drywall look emotional. She had like, two emotions, max. Maybe three if we’re being generous. The only time she actually stirred emotion was when she pulled Junhee out of the pool and said she wished she’d confessed before he died. That hit. That one line. That ONE moment. That’s all. Everything else? Zzz.
Kim Jun-Hee? Kim Woo-seok I LOVE YOU BUT, I’ve seen cardboard cutouts with more emotional range. His backstory — the whole swimming trauma thing? Unexplored. Unresolved. There’s so much they could’ve said about it: Was he a champion swimmer? Why is he scared of the water as in what what was his relation to the situation of someone else drowning? We don’t know. We never know. Because guess what? This drama doesn’t believe in explaining anything. It just throws vague clues and says, “Figure it out.” No closure. No arcs. Just vibes and death.
And the rest of the cast? Forgettable. Underdeveloped. Annoying. Let’s talk about Kim So-Mi’s character, who I swear was written just to test my patience. Her blaming Na-Hee for the video leak and Seeun's death? And people believing her??? Girl is literally known to be OBSESSED with Jun-Hee. Na-Hee says she’s being framed, and everyone acts like that’s a wild theory? As if So-Mi’s obsession isn’t public knowledge? Be so for real. Why does no one in this universe use their brain? Although, when at the end Na-hee revealed her role, it was pretty cold.
And theres this thing — this drama pretends it’s a character study. But it's not. It wants to explore trauma, morality, fear, guilt, but does it through weak character development, vague plotlines, and open-ended nonsense. Like “what if?” but with no effort to actually answer the question. And honestly, that’s what makes it frustrating.
TLDR for upcoming lines; these are just small nitpicks but it HEAVILY effected me during my watch and was so annoying.
1. Yoonseo biting Da Beom only when the cavalry arrives?
Girl.
You were being held hostage by a clearly unhinged dude with a weapon, and you waited to bite him?! What happened to fight-or-flight? You chose stall-and-dramatize. Survival instincts turned off for plot convenience, I guess?
And let’s talk Da Beom real quick—
2. WHY DID DA BEOM WANT TO KILL JUNGWON?!
This is a hill I will die on.
His entire character was “revenge for bullying,” right? Okay, fine. But he has zero beef with Jungwon. None. Nada. She’s not even remotely in his radar. Yet suddenly he’s like, “Yes, I must kill this random girl.” Why? Is she too composed for his liking? NO. It’s lazy writing. They just needed drama and pulled names out of a hat. “Hmmm, we need tension. Spin the Wheel of Murder—oooh! Jungwon. Let’s do it.”
3. The NEON PAINT CLUE?
That was less detective thriller and more Dora the Explorer.
They find neon paint on the SIDE of Mina's shoe and suddenly that’s the big Sherlock Holmes clue that leads to her being caught? I don't know why this show makes all its characters stupid and gullible. The characters fall for this stuff even after it has been shown that the mafias plant evidence on others!? YOU see that there's no paint on the back of her shoe, yet they are still on her neck.. WHY??
4. Jungwon: The "Mastermind" or the Script's Favorite Child
So I'm just being supposed to believe that she knows how everyone else will react and she knows everyone's moves like that's just plot convenience at peak. You could argue that its just programmed into the game but for me it seems like lazy writing.
And don’t get me started on how—
5. Wooram is mafia but Mina ISN’T?!
Wooram’s entire role in the show was to exist. No real bullying backstory, no real emotional weight, no motive. Just vibes and sad boy expressions. But MINA—who actively bullied Seeun—gets to skate by?? How does that make sense in a game supposedly designed for justice? Oh wait. It doesn’t. BECAUSE NOTHING MAKES SENSE.
6. The Ending: A Plot Twist Powered by Copium
Three wires, a yellow capsule, and BAM! You’re in a fully immersive life-or-death simulation with memory erasure, emotional realism, and possibly AI ghosts.
Be honest. This isn’t sci-fi. This is science-lie.
They use “advanced technology” like a toddler uses glitter: to cover every crack and make you think it’s pretty. But if you ask literally any questions, the whole thing collapses.
How are the students alive? Are they eating virtual food or real food? Does eating virtual food feed their real life selves? Where are their parents? How long have they been in there? Are their parents just casually chillin’ like "oh yeah my kid’s doing a five-day school murder VR project, no biggie"? WHY ARE THERE NO STAKES OUTSIDE THE GAME?
You know why they don’t tell you?
Because they don’t know either.
7. More Seeun and Jungwon plot convenience
So… Seeun becomes an AI ghost because of her love for Yoon-seo? And she somehow overrides the system to let Yoonseo win? And then everyone's memories come back because the host’s name was revealed?
EXCUSE ME???
So all the previous games ended with no justice. Just more trauma. Jungwon was always the winner. No one remembered Seeun. So they just… played this sick death game and left. Repeatedly.
This was the first time justice accidentally happened and we’re supposed to be happy? Like oh yay the dead girl finally got her wish after dozens of runs that failed? This isn’t a plot twist. This is Stockholm syndrome in a box with glitter on it.
8. The Ghost Disbelief Gave Me Actual Brain Cramp
“You think it’s a ghost? No way. That’s unrealistic.”
BABE.
You are in a locked youth center building, playing a high-tech killing simulation, with kids dying in real time, with eerie things happening all the time and AI voices speaking through speakers… and a ghost is where you draw the line???
The show wants to be sci-fi and supernatural and psychological and philosophical and horror and thriller—but it ends up just being a Jenga tower of genres falling over itself.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
This drama is literally the definition of wasted potential. The cast? Great. The concept? Revolutionary. The execution?
Y’all… I fear it flopped.
"Night Has Come" has the aesthetic of a prestige drama but the internal logic of a dream you forget two minutes after waking up. You feel like you watched something important… until you try to explain it to someone else, and realize you sound insane.
It’s a drama that screams it wants to say something, but in the end, it only delivers half-formed ideas buried under mood lighting.
Verdict:
Beautiful. Addictive. Incoherent. The best worst thing I’ve ever watched.
Rating: 6.5/10
(+2 for tension. -1 for logic. +1 for pretty faces. -2 for plotholes. +1 for the high I felt while watching. +5.5 for Cha Woomin)
Nothing makes sense.
Not a single. Damn. Thing.
But we’ll get there.
THE GOOD: LET’S GIVE FLOWERS WHERE THEY’RE DUE (BEFORE WE RIP THE REST TO SHREDS)
Cinematography: AMAZING. If vibes were currency, this show would be a billionaire. Every frame is dripping with eerie school-horror nostalgia. It knows how to play with light and darkness. The glowing screen, the empty halls, the slow push-ins—it eats.
Concept: Mafia, but make it trauma simulation. GENIUS. A class-wide murder game that tests morality, loyalty, and trauma responses in teenagers? That’s basically every ethics professor’s wet dream.
Sound design & music: Carrying the tension like a worn-out grandma carrying her grandkids. They put their back into it, and it shows. The atmosphere owes 80% of its tension to the music and sound cues.
Casting: The cast is well-picked. Pretty people doing suspicious things with sometimes good microexpressions? We support that. SOME of the acting genuinely lands—especially when things get chaotic and desperate.
NOW. THE BAD. AND BOY, IT’S A MAZE
Let’s start small and snowball into rage.
If the game was meant to punish people, why make it so convoluted? Why let randoms die? Why not just mafia wipe everyone out in one night? It’s giving convenient writing just to drag the story. Also was mafia the best game? I can think about some good reasons for it being chosen for example, letting the children experience the hurt of betrayal and pain. But I do believe there could have been better alternatives. Not really a complaint tho
Jungwon being mafia instead of citizen?? Like okay your daughter was the victim and you want revenge, but you’re forcing her to kill people too? What kind of twisted character arc is that? She should've been the sole citizen in the group of mafias. That would’ve made so much more sense. Why would you not make her the citizen and put her in real danger to heighten the stakes and make her survival mean something? Like seriously, from a story perspective, it would be 100x more interesting if Jungwon was the last citizen standing while everyone else is a predator. The way they’ve done it just kills the emotional weight of her being the “survivor.”
Back to the game: the mafia could’ve also pulled a power move and just taken everyone’s phones, yeeted them into the forest, and forced everyone into death by default. No votes? No problem. Boom — everyone dies. Now imagine if someone had risked their life and crossed the border to get those phones back. That would’ve been so much more gripping and deep and could’ve added an entire new layer of moral dilemma, sacrifice, and suspense. But nope. They opted for dragging things out in the dumbest way possible. From a story perspective, it doesn't make any sense.
Okay but, Cha Woo-Min’s character Ko Kyungjun? Surprisingly the only one I liked. Usually I find Cha Woo-Min’s roles unbearable, but here? He actually ATE. He had more depth, more nuance, more complexity than the rest of the cast combined. He was still a villain, yes, but there were scenes where you could see the cracks — the vulnerability. There’s one where he’s on the verge of tears, and it’s subtle but powerful. He wasn’t just cartoonishly evil. He was the only character with an actual emotional arc that made sense. He had presence. He had layers. He had consistency, which is more than I can say for the rest of them.
Now Lee Jae-In’s character Lee Yoon-Seo? Girl… I can’t. Her acting was so flat it made drywall look emotional. She had like, two emotions, max. Maybe three if we’re being generous. The only time she actually stirred emotion was when she pulled Junhee out of the pool and said she wished she’d confessed before he died. That hit. That one line. That ONE moment. That’s all. Everything else? Zzz.
Kim Jun-Hee? Kim Woo-seok I LOVE YOU BUT, I’ve seen cardboard cutouts with more emotional range. His backstory — the whole swimming trauma thing? Unexplored. Unresolved. There’s so much they could’ve said about it: Was he a champion swimmer? Why is he scared of the water as in what what was his relation to the situation of someone else drowning? We don’t know. We never know. Because guess what? This drama doesn’t believe in explaining anything. It just throws vague clues and says, “Figure it out.” No closure. No arcs. Just vibes and death.
And the rest of the cast? Forgettable. Underdeveloped. Annoying. Let’s talk about Kim So-Mi’s character, who I swear was written just to test my patience. Her blaming Na-Hee for the video leak and Seeun's death? And people believing her??? Girl is literally known to be OBSESSED with Jun-Hee. Na-Hee says she’s being framed, and everyone acts like that’s a wild theory? As if So-Mi’s obsession isn’t public knowledge? Be so for real. Why does no one in this universe use their brain? Although, when at the end Na-hee revealed her role, it was pretty cold.
And theres this thing — this drama pretends it’s a character study. But it's not. It wants to explore trauma, morality, fear, guilt, but does it through weak character development, vague plotlines, and open-ended nonsense. Like “what if?” but with no effort to actually answer the question. And honestly, that’s what makes it frustrating.
TLDR for upcoming lines; these are just small nitpicks but it HEAVILY effected me during my watch and was so annoying.
1. Yoonseo biting Da Beom only when the cavalry arrives?
Girl.
You were being held hostage by a clearly unhinged dude with a weapon, and you waited to bite him?! What happened to fight-or-flight? You chose stall-and-dramatize. Survival instincts turned off for plot convenience, I guess?
And let’s talk Da Beom real quick—
2. WHY DID DA BEOM WANT TO KILL JUNGWON?!
This is a hill I will die on.
His entire character was “revenge for bullying,” right? Okay, fine. But he has zero beef with Jungwon. None. Nada. She’s not even remotely in his radar. Yet suddenly he’s like, “Yes, I must kill this random girl.” Why? Is she too composed for his liking? NO. It’s lazy writing. They just needed drama and pulled names out of a hat. “Hmmm, we need tension. Spin the Wheel of Murder—oooh! Jungwon. Let’s do it.”
3. The NEON PAINT CLUE?
That was less detective thriller and more Dora the Explorer.
They find neon paint on the SIDE of Mina's shoe and suddenly that’s the big Sherlock Holmes clue that leads to her being caught? I don't know why this show makes all its characters stupid and gullible. The characters fall for this stuff even after it has been shown that the mafias plant evidence on others!? YOU see that there's no paint on the back of her shoe, yet they are still on her neck.. WHY??
4. Jungwon: The "Mastermind" or the Script's Favorite Child
So I'm just being supposed to believe that she knows how everyone else will react and she knows everyone's moves like that's just plot convenience at peak. You could argue that its just programmed into the game but for me it seems like lazy writing.
And don’t get me started on how—
5. Wooram is mafia but Mina ISN’T?!
Wooram’s entire role in the show was to exist. No real bullying backstory, no real emotional weight, no motive. Just vibes and sad boy expressions. But MINA—who actively bullied Seeun—gets to skate by?? How does that make sense in a game supposedly designed for justice? Oh wait. It doesn’t. BECAUSE NOTHING MAKES SENSE.
6. The Ending: A Plot Twist Powered by Copium
Three wires, a yellow capsule, and BAM! You’re in a fully immersive life-or-death simulation with memory erasure, emotional realism, and possibly AI ghosts.
Be honest. This isn’t sci-fi. This is science-lie.
They use “advanced technology” like a toddler uses glitter: to cover every crack and make you think it’s pretty. But if you ask literally any questions, the whole thing collapses.
How are the students alive? Are they eating virtual food or real food? Does eating virtual food feed their real life selves? Where are their parents? How long have they been in there? Are their parents just casually chillin’ like "oh yeah my kid’s doing a five-day school murder VR project, no biggie"? WHY ARE THERE NO STAKES OUTSIDE THE GAME?
You know why they don’t tell you?
Because they don’t know either.
7. More Seeun and Jungwon plot convenience
So… Seeun becomes an AI ghost because of her love for Yoon-seo? And she somehow overrides the system to let Yoonseo win? And then everyone's memories come back because the host’s name was revealed?
EXCUSE ME???
So all the previous games ended with no justice. Just more trauma. Jungwon was always the winner. No one remembered Seeun. So they just… played this sick death game and left. Repeatedly.
This was the first time justice accidentally happened and we’re supposed to be happy? Like oh yay the dead girl finally got her wish after dozens of runs that failed? This isn’t a plot twist. This is Stockholm syndrome in a box with glitter on it.
8. The Ghost Disbelief Gave Me Actual Brain Cramp
“You think it’s a ghost? No way. That’s unrealistic.”
BABE.
You are in a locked youth center building, playing a high-tech killing simulation, with kids dying in real time, with eerie things happening all the time and AI voices speaking through speakers… and a ghost is where you draw the line???
The show wants to be sci-fi and supernatural and psychological and philosophical and horror and thriller—but it ends up just being a Jenga tower of genres falling over itself.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
This drama is literally the definition of wasted potential. The cast? Great. The concept? Revolutionary. The execution?
Y’all… I fear it flopped.
"Night Has Come" has the aesthetic of a prestige drama but the internal logic of a dream you forget two minutes after waking up. You feel like you watched something important… until you try to explain it to someone else, and realize you sound insane.
It’s a drama that screams it wants to say something, but in the end, it only delivers half-formed ideas buried under mood lighting.
Verdict:
Beautiful. Addictive. Incoherent. The best worst thing I’ve ever watched.
Rating: 6.5/10
(+2 for tension. -1 for logic. +1 for pretty faces. -2 for plotholes. +1 for the high I felt while watching. +5.5 for Cha Woomin)
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