m5m

First, the bad: This show would have deserved a higher ranking from me, but has to take a hit due to a serious mess-up in the plot in episodes 13-15 when the story just goes down the crapper with a completely unrealistic evil-mommy-returns-from-the-dead sub-arc. Not only is the premise for this particular arc completely implausible, the show implements it by using just a ton of really bad, cheap, stereotypical plot devices. In particular, they lean heavily into 'misunderstandings'. due to excessive lack of communication and 'white lies' between the various protagonists and support characters. The show through the first 12 episodes is so good that the hard turn into the ditch of cheap drama tropes in 13-15 is very jarring. Fortunately, the 16th & final episode returns to what made the rest of the show so good.

Now, the good: This show's real plot premise is wonderful and interesting. They flip several classic plot tropes over, in particular by having the female lead (Seo Yea Ji, as Ko Mun Yeong) be a sociopath - yet one the audience actually loves and sympathizes for. Usually, her sort of sociopathic character is either the villain or at best the annoying unrequited love interest. SYJ is absolutely wonderful in this role. Her character's eccentric mannerisms are simultaneously rude and frightening and yet also incredibly endearing. Your heart goes out to her more and more as you understand the pain her character has been forged through. Another trope flip is that the ML, Kim Soo Hyun as Moon Gang-Tae, is, well, kinda often useless due to his own heavy emotional baggage. He's incredibly frustrating and often and emotional coward (he's called out for this repeatedly by multiple characters) and as the series progresses actually outhunt becomes less and less useful for even the 'physical' heavy lifting. But again, despite behaving in so many ways that irritate and frustrate you, his character still gains your sympathy and you want him to survive, thrive and be happy.

Finally, gotta mention Oh Jung Se's brilliant performance as Moon Sang-Tae. He delivers a brilliant performance that just has to be seen. My words of praise wouldn't do it justice.

The rest f the cast is excellent as well. Every character is interesting. The production values are also top notch. The wardrobes, cinematography and music are especially all great. My only quibbles would with the directing, tending to dwell too long on characters just staring into space a lot - that happened far too often in this story and felt like it was often just filling screen time.