cry0nic

From the plot synopsis, you may think that that this is the standard run of the mill political thriller that gets shown every year. A man with ambitions to become President gets tangled up in the corrupt machinations of the elite yada yada... Alas, if you have come in expecting that, you would be sorely disappointed. What this show is, rather, is a convoluted mess of lackluster revenge plots, half-baked social commentary and a somewhat weak(debatable??) attempt at LGBT representation in a conservative Asian society.

Writing/Plot - The politics plotline of this show is really thin. And when I mean thin, I mean that if you combined every politics-related scene from the whole show it probably wouldn't be enough to fill the runtime of ONE episode. The show spent way too long setting the scene in the first few eps, resulting in a mad rush to close things up towards the end. The whole "I'm gonna try to get elected plot" basically kicks in after ep6?or 7? which is not enough time to fully develop this plot considering that this is only a 10 ep drama. I actually liked that the show was leaning into the whole "show, don't tell" method a lot, but the whole mad rush resulted in the political angle veering to the "TELL, DON"T SHOW" extreme towards the end to make up for time which was jarring.

Characters - I really really liked that almost EVERYONE in the show is morally grey and basically pieces of shit to varying degrees. Too often we get Mary Sue FLs who can do no wrong but in this show, the FL (Chu Sang Ah) is basically an expert liar and manipulator, who instigated 2 separate murders (both of which failed lol). She went through hell of course, but wow am I amazed at how manipulative she is. To me, she is probably the most complex character in this show. Her motivations were never clear to me - fame? wealth? popularity? Does she love anybody? The only genuine relationship she seems to have is with her (girl?? more on that later)friend Jisoo, and it is ambiguous if she even likes the ML (Bang Tae Seop), who she married. Which honestly, I never understood why she married him of all people. Surely she has had richer and more powerful suitors than a low ranking (at that time) prosecutor. I don't feel like she truly likes Jeong Won either, and was just making use of her right till the end. Others seem to interpret her last conversation with Jeong Won as sort of a confession of feelings; rather I interpreted it as more like an attempt to manipulate Jeong Won to come clean about her leaked sex tape. She knew from the start that Jeong won likes/is enamored by her and would do anything (even murder!) for her. And through that "confession" she was hoping that Jeong Won would help restore her reputation. I'm pretty sure Jeong Won would have agreed to (she was shown wavering after the confession) if she weren't murdered so unceremoniously. Even the scene where Sang Ah wails over Jeong Won's dead body comes across as contrived - they had literally acted out that scene previously (foreshadowing?) in that Four Seasons movie which Lee Yang Mi bankrolled! It was almost like for like with Jeong Won lying bleeding in Sang ah's arms.

Bang Tae Seop on the other hand, is more of the standard "guy from a humble background with political ambitions" character. His motivations from the start were quite clear - to get into the Blue House no matter what. Even getting married to Sang Ah was part of the plan, though he seems to have caught feelings for her. He goes to great lengths to save her and her career, and literally all of the revenge plotting/scheming are masterminded by him. Sang ah is merely a pawn in his game (something I didn't like - wish she was written to be more of his equal intellectually instead of relying on him to strategize).

To be honest, I felt like Jeong Won was the most badly written character in the whole show. Her character development completely turns on itself with the whole leaked sex tape plotline which made no sense at all. Like firstly, why would she even allow herself to be blackmailed for Park Jae Sang's murder when she didn't actually murder him?? She literally entered and exited the room almost immediately upon seeing him already dead? And secondly, WHY would she even agree to set up Sang Ah when it is shown that she seems to be enamored/obsessed with her? If you liked someone enough to want to KILL for them, would you even agree to effectively DRUG AND RAPE them later?? Geez. And the way she was just killed off ... I just... not sure if the writer/director chose to do so because they want to "close" the LGBT plotline.. which brings me to my next point - LGBT representation(?)

I was debating if this show would be considered queer-baiting but I'm honestly not sure as this show was never marketed as a GL. None of the characters explicitly call themselves "gay" and there is some degree of plausible deniability with Sang Ah being married to a man. Sang Ah and Jisoo were never confirmed to be anything more than "friends" and some of the kiss scenes were effectively censored. The revenge porn plot is essentially Sang Ah being drugged and raped against her will. The only other consensual intimate scenes between Sang Ah and Jeong Won are due to "show within a show" plotline with them filming the movie together, and not because the characters themselves are in a relationship with each other. I must say that Jeong Won seems to feel something for Sang Ah - just that it is unrequited. To me, Sang Ah probably feels some guilt (she is not without a conscience...) towards Jeong Won and that was why she imagined Jeong Won in the audience clapping for her at the end. And then the ending with Sang-Ah and Bang Tae Seop holding hands and walking out like a political power couple... a heteronormative closure for the conservative crowd? I guess this is still an improvement for LGBT representation...?

Acting wise this show really is a masterpiece in acting. There are MANY MANY closeup shots of the characters and both the ML and FL really had the acting chops to pull it off. The micro expressions, the eyes, the smallest tremble in the lips, it was just perfection acting wise. I love Nana, but her acting was the weakest among the cast. She wasn't as expressive and her over filled lips were distracting lol. Cha Joo Young's acting here was a bit exaggerated but I'm not sure if it was due to the bad writing. Her character was a very one dimensional, cliche mistress character that had absolutely no character development so I don't blame her for that. The cinematography was beautiful and some of the scene transitions were just brilliant. I was getting arthouse movie vibes lmao. There was some attempt at social commentary about celebrity culture and elites looking down on the commoners but never properly expanded on. The writing was really the weakest link. I liked that the ending was sort of bittersweet - showing the leads sort of succeeding but at what cost? And how the cycle of political struggle would never end. HOWEVER, this type of ending also hints at a potential season 2 which this show does not need. Unless the writer is able to think of more sophisticated strategies that do not include constant blackmails and online video leaks, there is NO NEED for a season 2!!!!!


TLDR: WOW this turned into a whole ramble. Watch for the phenomenal acting, or if you're a Ha Ji Won fan who wants to view her return to dramas. DO NOT watch if you dislike unrealistic/shock value plots or if you dislike potentially gay characters. I treated this drama like some absurdist makjang comedy(!) and actually enjoyed it.