Hime

I hate people who do that. Even when I am not into a drama I always give it a few episodes before I decide if I want to keep watching. Some dramas start slow and get better later on.

This one I judged after watching the whole drama and based on my previous experience, which is of thousands of dramas watched over a period of almost 15 years.

Some of the things that bothered me were the pacing which felt a little too slow for my taste, the FL character that was given little importance, specially in the last episode (what happened after she went back, she did not even show up until the last moment) and how the things the ML changed in the past made life so convenient for him and his family in the future that it made all the suffering him and his family went through worth nothing. Our past experiences influence the type of people we become, and all that was taken from them. The ending was very superficial for a drama that was supposed to have a deep and emotional message.

I am just ranting at this point, but yeah, even if we have different opinions, you can be sure I am not one of those haters that do not even bother watching, I watched the whole thing. ^^'

You might be an exception to the rule. I am about to turn 30 and would have also enjoyed this drama if it was done better. I have previously enjoyed many youth and high school dramas.

The pacing was not the best, it was full of plot holes and the way it ended made all the struggles worth nothing. The FL’s character was also what writers call "cardboard character".

It could have been a great drama, it had some great ideas, but the execution was just average.

This feels like it was made for tik tok or something because of how short it is and how long it takes for each episode to come out. The editing is tik tok level too, choppy like I have never seen.

The only reason the rating is this high is because of the kisses and we all know it. ^^'

You are not wrong but I am not talking about blood, knives, tattoos and "normal" stuff, there was brain matter, eyeballs, boobs, sex scenes, naked butts, all things that were unnecessary. They were not needed to make this a great drama.

Creative freedom is good but it still needs some limits. Freedom itself is a very abstract concept and I remember a teacher telling me something like "our freedom ends where someone else’s freedom starts".

The reason why I, and most people I know, even got into kdramas was because they were not full of sex scenes, profanity, drugs and all that trash you find in western entertainment, not just American tv shows.

Like I said in my previous comment, the gore part did not really bother me and it makes sense since this is a pretty violent plot, but I did not need nor wanted to see boobs, sex scenes and a fat old man’s naked butt.^^'

I still think this was pretty well done and will definitely watch the second season when it comes out.

I thought I was going crazy because I was pretty sure I had added it to my currently watching list and when I went to set it as completed it was not there anymore. ^^'

2 years later I finally watched it. Back when it had just aired I was bombarded with so many spoilers all over YouTube and social media because of how hyped it was that I did not even feel like watching anymore. I mean, without watching I found out the winner, the plot twist, everything.

But finally I decided to give it a chance and try to enjoy the process, the games, the acting, without caring much for the surprise element.

The plot is quite interesting BUT the reason why it became so popular all around the world is the same reason why I think this was good but not great.

The truth is this is a kdrama tainted by American hands.

Of course with all the deaths it is going to be violent but it had unnecessary gore just for the shock value (which personally does not really bother me but I am sure bothered a lot of people).
It also had nudity and sex scenes that honestly just made it feel even more like an American TV show rather than a Korean drama.

So yeah, good but not great. Would have been much better if it kept its true Korean drama essence.

I have literally watched thousands of dramas in the past 15 years, you can check my profile if you don’t believe me, so it is hard to just pick one to be the best.

I have a few as reference in different genres from historical, to thriller, to youth, and the list goes on. It would take a while to list them all.

Some wise words. I thought that I was the only one who noticed how hyped this one was. Some of the best dramas I have watched are not even rated as high as this one. ^^'

To say this is overrated is an understatement.

You might have enjoyed the music, the father-son bonding, and other things but plotwise this was far from being a great drama. The current rating (9.2) puts this drama next to if not before some of the best k-dramas of all time, the ones that we might even call masterpieces.

My guess is most of the watchers are teenagers and young adults which is why this drama had so much hype. It is not the first hyped drama that came out in 2023 that I was not impressed with, might not even be the last. ^^'

This is just my honest opinion, don’t be offended by it.

haha, I don’t know why people would think it was too much after watching the first episode. Her dream is to be a singer, she is good at it, it was expected for it to be an important part of the drama.
I guess we all have different preferences and expectations. ^^

It is not that being predictable is necessarily negative but since I was not really interested in most of what was going on with Yoon Ran Joo and Seo Mok Ha’s part of the story was developing too slowly I wanted something that would keep me invested in the drama so I wanted something to not go as expected, I wanted to be surprised.

But yeah, you are right, this is not a mystery thriller so I don’t know what I was expecting. I guess I was just bummed we did not see Mok Ha sing more often. ^^'

Yes, it was well written and knew how to move the viewers. It just was not what I was expecting and I was not in the right mood when I watched it so I could not appreciate it as much as most people did.

I have also realised that my mood and expectations influence how I feel about a drama.

I was mislead by the synopsis and drama title and I was in the mood for something exciting and fast-paced.

I have literally watched a Chinese drama not long ago that had 40 episodes, a bunch of main characters and was super slow paced and loved it. So I guess I just was not in the right mood or had the right expectations when I watched this.

I still felt like it had many positives and loved the music and most of the characters.

But this is exactly what led me to write my first comment. I wanted to make sure that people had the right expectations going into this instead of being mislead into believing this was something that it was not and then be disappointed and give the drama a low rating.

No way, please let this be real. I miss the whale attorney. That is what we call her at home, but in our native language - a advogada das baleias. XD

Sure, there are other dramas that needed a second season more than this one, but I definitely do not mind a second season as long as they are able to make it as good as the first season.

True. The title of the drama itself also gives off the impression the drama will focus on her. I really liked the first episode. It put the bar high. I felt like most of the other episodes were not on the same level. There was so much focus on other characters that I was bored at times.

I was never a fan of plots with many main characters. When too much is going on I feel like nothing is going on. I know, I‘m weird.

That is what I told my sister. Even if they used auto-tune, she has to be able to sing ok at least, because if she was terrible they would not be able to achieve this end result.

Damn, I need to stop, everything I say seems to be a spoiler. lol

Since the moment they appear Kang Bo Geol and Kang Woo Hak are introduced as brothers. I never said they were biological brothers or that any of the 2 were Jung Ki Ho. And when I mentioned the father, I said Jung Ki Ho’s father and never metioned the brothers in the same sentence. Maybe I made it too obvious, which is why I marked the comment as spoiler. ^^'

I personally felt like I knew who Ki Ho was from the moment they found her on the island. I have been watching Korean dramas for a long time so I catch onto little hints here and there. I was certain it was him by episode 2 or 3. There was just something about the look on his eyes, his voice and personality that reminded me a lot of Ki Ho and throughout the first few episodes they threw quite a few hints here and there. I was so sure it was him that if the writers had revealed Ki Ho was someone else, I would probably not buy it.

Wait, what? Saying that the drama is focused on Yoon Ran Joo and the brothers instead of Seo Mok Ha is not telling the plot. It is just letting people know not to expect the plot to focus on Seo Mok Ha cause it doesn’t. That will allow people to have the right expectations in case they are coming and expecting to watch the protagonist grow as a singer like is implied by the drama title and synopsis.

But since everyone’s perception of what is a spoiler is different, I will mark it as a spoiler. For me a spoiler is revealing the identity of a character or saying a character dies or something like that.

I was pleasantly surprised too. And she is not even a singer. I know it’s her voice because I can recognize it when she sings and I have also read the actress sang herself. But my sister told me there is a lot of auto-tune involved and that she heard her sing during an interview and her voice was not that great so I am not sure what to think.

Either way, auto-tune or not, whatever I heard was pretty amazing.