This review may contain spoilers
This drama tries to sell itself as something bold and original, but at its heart it’s just a recycled formula: a desperate family, a terminal illness, financial ruin, and drugs as the “solution.” That setup has been done before — and better — so the show already struggles to stand on its own feet.
The female lead is introduced as a middle-class housewife facing her husband’s hidden debts and cancer. Instead of dealing with reality responsibly, she quickly slides into crime. What’s most disturbing is how the story treats her actions as sympathetic or even empowering. She isn’t some tragic antihero — she’s choosing to spread poison to young people while her husband is still alive, turning his illness into a shield for her criminal choices. That doesn’t make her strong; it makes her reckless and selfish.
The most absurd twist comes with the daughter’s art teacher doubling as the drug dealer. This isn’t clever shock value — it’s disturbing. He isn’t just a shady figure from the streets; he’s someone trusted to educate teenagers. Putting him in this role raises chilling questions: if he’s selling in nightclubs, what stops him from selling to his own students? The fact that the show brushes past this risk is careless, and pretending it’s “exciting chemistry” between him and the female lead is even worse.
Performance-wise, Kim Young Kwang does a good job shifting between friendly teacher and calculating dealer. His acting is believable, but strong acting can’t fix weak or ethically rotten writing. A well-delivered performance doesn’t excuse a story that normalizes crime while ignoring its victims.
The pacing so far is quick, but “fast-moving” doesn’t mean “good.” When the plot is predictable — the husband will die, the daughter will inevitably be caught in the fallout, and the FL will keep spiraling deeper into crime — then rushing to the end only exposes how shallow the twists really are.
If this drama wants to deserve real praise, it needs to stop glamorizing the FL’s decisions and show the consequences of her actions. Not a neat escape, not a romanticized criminal partnership, but genuine karmic justice: accountability, shame, and the destruction that drugs bring to young lives. Anything less would be a betrayal of the very world it pretends to portray.
My score so far: 4/10. Strong acting wasted on a story that mistakes shock value for depth and crime for empowerment.
The female lead is introduced as a middle-class housewife facing her husband’s hidden debts and cancer. Instead of dealing with reality responsibly, she quickly slides into crime. What’s most disturbing is how the story treats her actions as sympathetic or even empowering. She isn’t some tragic antihero — she’s choosing to spread poison to young people while her husband is still alive, turning his illness into a shield for her criminal choices. That doesn’t make her strong; it makes her reckless and selfish.
The most absurd twist comes with the daughter’s art teacher doubling as the drug dealer. This isn’t clever shock value — it’s disturbing. He isn’t just a shady figure from the streets; he’s someone trusted to educate teenagers. Putting him in this role raises chilling questions: if he’s selling in nightclubs, what stops him from selling to his own students? The fact that the show brushes past this risk is careless, and pretending it’s “exciting chemistry” between him and the female lead is even worse.
Performance-wise, Kim Young Kwang does a good job shifting between friendly teacher and calculating dealer. His acting is believable, but strong acting can’t fix weak or ethically rotten writing. A well-delivered performance doesn’t excuse a story that normalizes crime while ignoring its victims.
The pacing so far is quick, but “fast-moving” doesn’t mean “good.” When the plot is predictable — the husband will die, the daughter will inevitably be caught in the fallout, and the FL will keep spiraling deeper into crime — then rushing to the end only exposes how shallow the twists really are.
If this drama wants to deserve real praise, it needs to stop glamorizing the FL’s decisions and show the consequences of her actions. Not a neat escape, not a romanticized criminal partnership, but genuine karmic justice: accountability, shame, and the destruction that drugs bring to young lives. Anything less would be a betrayal of the very world it pretends to portray.
My score so far: 4/10. Strong acting wasted on a story that mistakes shock value for depth and crime for empowerment.
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