cwinterbrisk

Entertaining but lacking

Overall, a pretty entertaining show with some good visuals and action. Love the premise of the show, just wish it was executed differently. I haven't read the webtoon, so I'm reviewing solely the show itself.

First off, I agree with many other people who think that adding the Imagine Dragons song to dramatic scenes was a little unfitting to say the least. Ruined some of the dramatic moments, but still, not that big of a deal for me. My problem was with the way they develop Song Kang's character, Hyun-su.

I was under the impression that Hyun-su was going to be the main character and have a lot of scenes. Unfortunately, with such a large ensemble cast, he was often pushed to the side in order to focus on the other 10 main characters (not to mention the side character's screentime). They gave Hyun-su a very sad and dramatic backstory that looked like it was going to develop as the show progressed, allowing him to overcome his demons and possibly utilize it to help others. Although he does help others intermittently throughout the show, he rarely gets any satisfying scenes where he saves the others and is often the one who is needing saving in the first place. Most of the main cast were given strong characters who are capable and have their moments to showcase their strengths, whereas Hyun-su didn't really get any satisfying moments (except at the very end).

Even at the end of the show (spoiler warning), I was expecting Hyun-su to do something dramatic and possibly sacrifice himself to save the others, showing them that he was a good person even if he was labeled a "monster". This doesn't really happen, and his climactic ending moments are overshadowed with the "sacrifice" of the other main character, Eun-hyeok. Speaking of, I don't understand the need for Eun-hyeok to even sacrifice himself in the first place. He could of gone with the others to safety, but instead he decided to sit in a room and die for no reason? I don't know, maybe I'm missing something (I was often confused by the plot). This just overshadowed Hyun-su's part that could have been so much more impactful.

In general, that is my biggest complaint about this show. I understand the need to showcase all of the characters in this large cast, but I feel like they could have done so much more with Song Kang's character. There was so much potential to develop him into something great, like having him transform at the end and sacrifice himself to save the others as a clear indication of him accepting himself and having grown as a person, but instead he just leaves. Not really a sacrifice, no recognition or satisfying ending, and doesn't even get to prove to the others who judged him that he was truly a good person and could control his inner demons. Even the whole relationship between Hyun-su and Eun-yu could have been more impactful at the very end if they didn't unnecessarily throw in Eun-hyeok's death.

Overall, decent story with some hard to follow plot progression and plotholes, great acting, questionable music choices, good effects and animations, good action, but with the unrecognized potential of the character of Hyun-su.

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Maybe a waste of time? Maybe not...

Starts off strong, keeps you watching just to see what happens next but not necessarily in a "this is a really good drama" way. More like "wait... who is she going to end up with?" Keep in mind I did not watch the first season since the reviews weren't too great and I have not read the webtoon/comic it's based off of, but I decided to give this season a chance since I wanted to see Jinyoung and Kim Go-eun together. I was still able to understand and pick things up pretty quickly despite not having seen the first season.

Positives:
- The cells were interesting and mostly fun to watch, although they can be a bit "in the way" when you just want to see what happens next to Yumi and Babi. Fun to see how they visually represent emotions and feelings mostly everyone has gone through. It does make typically short scenes drag on though.
- Acting is great, whole cast played their roles well.
- Nice to see Jinyoung and Shin Ye-eun together again, even if it wasn't the best of circumstances.
- Cute moments, heart fluttering moments, funny moments, dramatic moments
- Keeps you engaged for the most part
- The soundtrack for this show is great and fits well

Negatives:
- Some scenes drag on for a while since they have to show how the cells react to the situations
- Can obviously tell it's based on a webtoon given the way things play out. Ending is a set-up for another season?
- The show makes you go through two whole seasons with two different guys, only to have both of them discarded at the end in order to set up another love interest for the next season.
- By the end of the show, Babi and Woong are still not over Yumi, yet she's already off trying to find another guy. I wish they could've at least had Babi and/or Woong move on or find another love interest. Just seems weird to go through entire seasons with these characters and their relationships only to have them tossed to the side anyway (other than being swayed for a moment, Babi was such a great guy, and Woong seemed okay too despite being kind of stalkerish and overly-obsessed with Yumi, yet neither of them get a real happy ending).
- Some unrealistic moments that scream "webtoon plot progression" and unnecessary side plots. Woong suddenly becoming successful and rich, Ruby and Control Z's sudden relationship that I didn't really care for, editor Ahn Dae-young's plotline that was admittedly funny but not really necessary.

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