luckz

Used Substital to use alternate subtitles on Netflix and noticed the following obvious content cuts:

ep1: missing less than ten seconds of FL's brother & friends playing League of Legends (with some character dialogue).
ep8: missing an entire long scene with conversation between the leads, product placement, and the FL sort of singing.

First time I got "second second lead syndrome".
Please send help.

So the SK prime minister's objective is to gain political power, escaping all of his chains. Why he needs NK help for that doesn't really get explained (considering all the other wild acts he's capable of), but I'll let that slide.

Ostensibly NK would receive some financial aid from the SK schemers, but is that really all they want, and what makes them think SK's PM will keep up his end of the bargain?

In the episode where the prime minister's right hand holds a gun at the FL's head, I got the impression that the NK agents had some plan of their own to accomplish that ran contrary to the SK scheme. However, nothing like that was ever revealed, or my translation missed it?

Outside of those first two episodes, every second she is on the screen Jin Se Yeon looks like someone forces her to be there against her will. I kept wondering if she hated LJS after something that happened early on or if she was being blackmailed or...

I saw many comments that complained about a drop in quality in the second half, but I could not empathize with that view at all. I agree with you that the quality drop is precisely after the setup episodes.

Could someone explain North Korea's "plan"/objective/mission to me? I don't exactly get it.

There's similar weak romance build-up/presence in King2Hearts (going by the North Korean FL connection).

What dramas would you consider to have good medical scenes? This and Live Up To Your Name (in the same hospital) seemed to put much more effort into them than others I've seen.

I thought LJS was much better than the other actors.

It's not nearly as unsatisfying as that of the most popular NK show, and not as rushed as some other shows (you know, the <5 minutes wrap-up type), but the ways arcs are resolved and futures are presented is indeed not what I'd call satisfying?

There isn't actually much of that (IMO).

What did you find stressful about it? The intrigue/competition/backstabbing parts?

What made the writing so bad for you? I'm genuinely curious what the mid-way drop-off is that people complain about. I thought it was fairly mediocre after the two setup episodes, and I didn't feel that it got much worse as it went. There's quite a bit of dumb stuff in the second half, but from my POV there's similarly much dumb stuff in the first half.

You might want to check out Live Up To Your Name, set in the same hospital.

Netflix version (not currently available?) has some cuts / censorship that TV & Amazon do not have. Dunno about Viki. Episode 1 scene where ML/SML argue about royalty being 'figureheads' / 'scarecrows' is cut by 30+ seconds for example.

The first half is noticeably stronger than the second.

Eventually the writer can't stop adding more and more unnecessary and overly exaggerated melodramatic elements everywhere. A cuter, fluffier TLotBS would also be a better one.

For me it never was as good as Black, and yet the last episode was as pointlessly dumb as Black's.

Killing the father, having the step brother go full on murderous villain, mind-wiping the primary killer, having the modern FL die 1.5 times, and yes, just abusing the memories of all of the FL's "friends" were *all* unnecessary.

Hell, in some ways the very first ML mind wipe wasn't necessary either. She did not even wait to see how he takes it.

Make sure to add Black to your not-interested list. It's worse than this with regard to the conclusion.

Today it's gone like I said, right?
In a few hours it should be removed from USA, Canada, South/Middle America, Philippines too.
(I don't see it with USA IP either so it's quite possibly already removed there as well)

Could someone explain the point of the ML seeing his father in his dreams? (for example sitting there fishing)

I thought the medical stuff was very well done, but the romance buildup was laughable (ML chases FL first, then nothing happens, then suddenly they are in love), the comedy didn't work, the characters were boring, and the ending was the usual "five minutes budget" thing.