This review may contain spoilers
Nearly Perfect~
triggerwarning: Abuse, violence, an instance of gore, SA.As the headline says, it was nearly perfect, i loved the concept, the camera work, the plot, and the actors (more towards the end, but ill get there later).
I'd say the drama is very much so more a typical crime/action drama with a gay couple rather than a traditional bl, which personally i loved. We need more wish fufillment, perfect happy endings depicting gay people and we will for a long time to come, but we also need dramas that are more grounded and protray these kinds of characters in a similar way to straight folks as well.
The twists were also glorious, They started off kind of obvious but as the story progressed, they just kept getting juicer and juicer, especially when you consider all the foreshadowing that is laced through the show (Jihoon, the icon you are).
The chemistry was chemistrying though the main couple needed more time together.
The story managed to keep me fully engaged all the way through and the characters made me feel something (love for some and immense hate for others)
My only real gripes are character agency and clarity.
The show does an interesting job at giving everyone a decently fleshed out personality but has an issue with agency. The characters with the most agency are very much so Sun, Joe and Jihoon while everyone else feels like a passenger at times which isn't a good look when you consider Peace is also a main character alongside Sun. Speaking of Peace, he's a big example of this you see elements of a well made character there, a smart, capable, artistic person with alot of emotional intelligence and charisma but who barely gets to show it because his trauma causes him to shut down and become stoic, passively allowing others to control his life despite how much he hates what his family is doing and resents himself for being apart of it.
Theres so much flavour there but it feels unsatisfying as his relevance is cut down by the fact the writers makes him feel like a damsel in distress at times even though he's a capable. He gets put through the wringer due to his father's abusive antics and he has unresolved issues with his mother but he never once stands up to his father or makes a connection with his mother and once everything is over and done with, we don't see his reaction to what has happened to his family.
It also struggles with clarity at times, the biggest example of this being Madame Yao and her motivations. On one hand, you have a woman who loved and is grateful towards a man and thus wants to protect his kids yet she pulls a gun on one and potentially allowed the other to be kidnapped and SAed by her righthand man and others. This also goes for Peace to an extent as i only clocked his emotionlessness was coping mechanism by episode 11 of 12, until then it felt more like inconsisent character writing, which is sad considering how good is actor is.
Overrall, a great drama, i can't wait for season 2 and i hope it goes further beyond that as it has the potential to be a very good long running drama.
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