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Has everything except for the plot
I really loved the first few episodes — there wasn’t much of a plot but the “city girl escapes to the countryside” premise promises comfort and I definitely felt that. There was the overarching plot of Samdal’s career, the yearning of an exes-to-lovers romance, and the three sisters providing the family aspect — all of which I loved.And then as the show went on it started to drag, and I found that there weren’t that much of the countryside vibes, and they introduced plots that were detrimental instead.
First there’s the love triangle, which is the most unnecessary part of the show, and I’m saying this as a love triangle trope defender. The love triangle where the second lead has zero shot, who the FL never once considers a potential love interest, and who has no plot other than the romance and standing in the shadows looking at the main couple steadily progress…we have to leave that behind because all it does is waste screentime.
And then there was the reason behind the main couple’s initial breakup: parental disapproval. It’s a common trope in kdramaland too, and one that I also think is really outdated and frustrating, especially for a drama like this where there’s really nothing else going on.
A third thing that got too much screentime was the gossipy old ladies, who were frustrating even if they weren’t completely horrible by the end.
In terms of the subplots, I think they started out strong but also fizzled out a little. The eldest sister’s romance with her ex-husband was really funny but I wish it was more serious at times rather than making it all so slapstick. The youngest sister’s romance and relationship with her daughter was the best part of the show, especially in connecting the theme of motherhood throughout the show. It’s a fantastic theme that I wish had a better throughline rather than coming in and out, because the mother-daughter scenes always hit really hard.
I also actually really like the focus on Samdal’s career and her adversary, and I wish it didn’t come so late in the show. I also wish they didn’t lean so much into one character being downright evil, and it doesn’t quite give you the satisfaction of karma getting her in the end due to lack of screentime. The plot line of Samdal rediscovering her love for her hometown and photography was really heartwarming still.
Another thing I wish got more screentime was the friend group. We had some at the start of the show when Samdal returned and some at the end when they were helping her, but overall the show leaned into the love triangle and other scenes instead and I felt like we never really got to feel how close they were the way we grow to love the friend groups in dramas like the Reply series.
Overall, it ends on a satisfying note and wraps things up in a neat little bow, but I feel like I didn’t quite get as many comforting vibes I wanted.
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Does the journey matter or does the ending?
Okay, if you're one of those people that think "how it ends doesn't matter, it's the journey that counts" then you'll probably rate this really highly and love it from start to finish. If you're the type of person who needs things to be wrapped up cleanly with closure — me — then the show will leave you with a lot of mixed feelings.To start with, the vibe of the show is pretty much perfect. I really loved Heedo's character and how the themes were incorporated into the show — dreams, efforts, happiness, friendships, different types of love, supporting each other from afar...it was all just really beautiful. I still love all the friendships in this, and for the most part the time jumps were done really well with us seeing how the characters grew into adulthood and went about their lives after growing and learning from each other.
It's the last few episodes (15 & 16) that really take a different turn. There were really multiple ways to write a "realistic" story and the writers picked the one that, to me, felt as though it went against a lot of the inspiring hope that we had gotten in the rest of the show. There were crazy time jumps in the last episode and the past and present timelines never felt like they converged with closure. The last episode was just kind of miserable, except for a few side characters that really saved it.
Speaking of which, I felt like present timeline was just really unnecessary from start to finish. The characters never felt like themselves (even if they were the same actors) and it really felt like it was included either to (1) show how time passed and Heedo's daughter Minchae was dealing with the same thing (to which I would say nobody really cared about her story and everyone only cared about the 90s timeline) or (2) to purposefully throw off the audience. Either way, it felt disjointed and unnecessary. It didn't provide closure either — the questions we started with still persisted, and we never saw the other main characters again.
Overall, this was still such a comfort show for me for so many weeks. There are some iffy parts that I wish it touched more on but overall I thought all the character arcs were thought out thoroughly. It just kind of sucks that the writers picked the route they did.
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How second chance romance should NOT be done
I never really liked second chance romance (after all, what's interesting if the characters already know they like each other?) but then The First Frost came out and I realized how good the angst could be, so I tuned into this one, thinking it would be a great melodrama.Unfortunately, I did not click with anything here at all.
In the main leads' story in the past, the FL was just really pushy and the ML really bland; their relationship happens at the speed of light without any sort of good build-up.
And then in modern day, their reconnection just really made me angry. The FL is extremely self-righteous and rude, while the ML just sits there and takes all the snarky comments she makes about him because he's supposedly so in love with her still. It gives pathetic more than it gives yearning and I just cannot fathom a person ending up with someone who seems to have such little respect for them.
The reignition of their romance is portrayed as a "I just couldn't help loving you" type of situation, but it comes across as codependent and unhealthy instead of romantic. I ultimately just don't see any reason why these characters could, should, or would end up together and not break up again, especially since they just don't communicate at all, even until the last episode, where we're given ANOTHER separation and time jump that makes even less sense.
The plot doesn't help much. Corporate warfare is a very common trope and I found certain plotlines — the poisoning of the sister — interesting, but ultimately we end up with a hodgepodge of tropes and antagonists, none of which are really clear: the lady who is in jail, the mom who started out evil but then I guess was okay, etc.
The last episode was the nail in the coffin. They separate again and then are brought back together by a random side character death. While the side characters were just okay — they weren't memorable and lovable but also weren't annoying — it just felt very random and made it seem like there had to be an external reason for the leads to reconnect; they couldn't do it on their own. The final scene...well let me just say that excitement and big grand gestures such as an airport chase scene will never sell me on the feasibility of a relationship. It's too short-term and just doesn't provide much depth.
2/10 (instead of 1/10) because the cinematography was nice.
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A quiet drama about how life goes on
Let me start by saying that I think the amnesia trope is one of the worst tropes out there — it's convenient, it's tired, and it's a lazy way of forcing characters to go through character development all over again. But there are some dramas where amnesia IS the plot, to which I have no choice but to just wait and see if it's done well.In this case, it's...okay? The event itself and the fallout immediately after it is almost laughably early 2000s drama cliche, but the entire drama somehow does a good job of staying grounded in its melodramatic vibe and I think that's the part that makes all the difference.
At its core, this drama is very nonconfrontational, which I kind of have mixed feelings about. On one hand, it feels like there are scenes missing, especially discussions between characters that I wanted to see but didn't.
On the other hand, it feels like that's part of what gave this drama its mellow, realistic vibe. There are some things in life that you don't say, some unsent letters that will never be read, some decisions you can never undo. But life goes on.
Overall, this was a comforting watch and I admit I'm partial to the younger timeline (as I expected) simply because of how innocent, fun, and full of life the characters were. There are some side characters that got more screen time than I would've liked, but the leads did the job and stole my heart, all to the the tune of a fantastic OST.
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With that being said, Anna felt like an afterthought. She barely showed up in the first few episodes and never really had an active role in the plot (No, K2 watching her cook ramen badly through the CCTV doesn't count). All that fashion show stuff and the Barcelona Angel stuff...it felt unnecessary.
A lot of the political terminology went over my head (STONKS?) and I honestly felt like the reason for "revenge" really wasn't strong enough. I never felt connected or cared about the girlfriend that was killed, and I think all the Kumar-gate talk was confusing. It probably could've been stronger it had been connected with CYJ/Anna's backstory.
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Messy
In theory this had a lot going for it — but execution was super messy. It felt like characters were introduced haphazardly and it was hard to link all the subplots and backstories together. A lot of things just made no sense and I hated that the rules of the Abyss kept changing. It just felt too convenient and really made for a lot of plotholes. The same really goes for the ending, which is my biggest issue because a lot of the resolution just makes no sense.A plus is that the main leads are really cute together, even though there's some parts of their relationship that is just really confusing.
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So close
This one took me REALLY long to get through, and I'm not sure why. On paper it has everything I love — a strong female character, mental health, tragic backstories.But I really just couldn't connect to the female lead. Insecurity is something I understand, but when every other line out of her mouth was "did you do this with all your girlfriends?" or "are you breaking up with me?" or "are we even dating?" it just made her very overbearing and unlikable.
I really liked the main plot about JJY dealing with his abusive childhood, but it really could have come earlier. There were some subplots that I felt didn't really add much to the story, and more time could've also been dedicated to Hae-soo's sexual fears, which I thought was never addressed as much as I wanted it to. The second ship was also kind of out of nowhere for me and didn't make much sense.
Because of all those criticisms, I was pretty much stuck on episode 8 for months and just never felt the urge to watch. Once I did, it was the last few episodes where we really fleshed out JY's plot that really had me buy into the drama.
Ultimately, this was still a pretty good watch, though I'm surprised it's rated so highly. My favorite part is undoubtedly the OST.
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Cute at first...but falls off
I had pretty much completely bought into this drama in the first two episodes — the main female lead was timid but not a pushover, bright but not stupid, and the main male lead was stoic but not rude, smart but not condescending. It was really quite a cliche dynamic but it was still enjoyable to watch especially because there were moments where they were equally hilarious and chaotic despite seemingly having such opposite personalities.As the drama went on it it did start to drag a little with the very typical "does he like me or not" and the "I'm going to step aside for my 'friend'" — but that wasn't my main gripe with it. In fact, I like a good slow burn and I never thought these misunderstandings got too extreme and frustrating.
One thing that did get increasingly annoying, however, was how the main male lead's "social awkwardness" manifested when he got jealous; the number of times he consciously CHOSE to sabotage the female lead's work...it got very frustrating and was neither cute nor amusing especially when it was played off as an inability to express himself.
I also found both of the side ships either boring or over-the-top annoying; one of them didn't have any stupid miscommunications but the side characters also didn't have any sort of backstory or personality. The other one had a female character who was very clingy, a male character who was essentially the same as the male lead, and just no sensible development between the two of them.
Overall it was kind of a light-hearted watch and there were elements of a healthy relationship and great communication, but it was also a drama that just felt very trope-y and average.
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Comforting and fun, but has pacing issues
So I still enjoyed this quite a bit but definitely not as much as everyone else.To start with the good things, it's definitely a really heart-warming and inspiring show about following your dreams, connecting with loved ones, and finding what sparks your happiness in life. Every single character ends up in a better place than where they started and for that reason alone I think this drama is worth the watch.
To nobody's surprise, my favorite plot in this story was the story of Cheong-ah and Yi-chan. It's so much more than a romance; it was also about the importance of communication and how people with hearing disabilities can stay connected to the rest of the world, and about how Yi-chan would learn to face the world again after losing his hearing, this time with more people who cared about him in his life. Or rather, it should've been more about the latter.
It seems like most criticism of the plot surrounds the last episode being rushed (which I do agree with) — we get the big accident, some hugging and deep talks, and then jump back to the present day, all without any interaction between Yi-chan and Cheong-ah, who should've been the most important person in his life and the one who would've most understood what he was going through.
Which brings me to the biggest issue I had with this: pacing. Eun-gyeol's main goal to prevent his father's accident and stop him from losing his hearing goes all the way up to ~episode 15, while he also tries to get his parents together and Yi-chan still chases after Se-kyung until about episode 11. I was definitely getting really tired of the same plot points by this point and could start to see the ending coming.
By these episodes I felt like it was pretty obvious that the accident was not going to be prevented because one, it would've gone against the ethos of the show — Yichan does not have to hear for his life to be good, and to let his son follow his dream of playing music — and two, there was just not enough time to explore a brand new timeline by that point.
I really think they should've had the accident happen earlier and shown just a little bit more of the aftermath and interaction between Yi-chan and Cheong-ah and everyone else; I understand the counterpoint of not needing to show it because we've already seen Yi-chan's development and can infer how the future would change, but for me it would have been preferable to see this over a faux love triangle plot that started to get really repetitive, and then wait for Eun-gyeol's perspective shift to happen as late as the 15th episode.
The side characters were fine — I liked them as a whole but only a few of them had interesting subplots. And antagonistic side characters like Cheong-ah's brother seem to come in and out of the show when it was convenient. Eun-ho was a side character I expected to be a main character and I still wish he had gotten more screentime, whether it was with Eun-gyeol or with the parents.
Overall, none of this is a deal breaker by any means, and I still really enjoyed this drama throughout and would say it's worth watching. It's light-hearted and cozy, but I would be lying if I didn't say it stopped being plot-driven and started fizzling out for me.
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Action-packed — but rushed and without the charm of S1
So I really enjoyed the first season and decided to read through the webtoon before S2 came out. I enjoyed it thoroughly and grew to love the gigantic cast of characters. I was really excited to see how it would be adapted — all while keeping in mind that it’s very different.With that being said, I don’t mind when an adaptation takes creative liberties, but I think this season is not only missing the structure of the webtoon but also the charm of the first season.
I think it’s pretty obvious that eight 40-minute episodes is not enough to go through the complete journey the main character goes through in the comics. It’s an epic journey of going to a new school and slowly learning how to make friends again, as well as fighting for them — starting from defeating the mindless bullies, to taking down the one at the top and dismantling the entire system.
The drama just goes through everything WAY too fast. It feels like we’re speed-running through fights, dropping backstories in 5-minute conversations, and going from place to place and defeating antagonists without even establishing who they are. It’s unclear why one plot point is leading to the next, and the final fight is so short and so quick, and the drama never established WHY we had to do everything to get to that point.
The webtoon really gets us deep inside Si Eun’s mind as he learns who’s who in the hierarchy and how to face each one. Choi Hyo Man / Colton Choi is the first fish — the one whose bark is larger than his bite. Geum Seong Je / Wolf Keum is second — the arrogant and prideful one who is quick to start fights and enjoy them. And finally the story works its way to the top, where we have Na Baek Jin / Donald Na — the charismatic leader and the mastermind fueled by his own tragic backstory.
In the drama, it feels like these antagonists run in parallel, and either their motivations aren’t fleshed out well, or they just feel underwhelming. The different schools/factions blur into each other, and the fight against the Union feels more surface level and small-scale — we’re simply shutting down an illegal business and beating an ex-friend, instead of dismantling the entire power structure.
Still, Geum Seong Je (played fantastically by Jun Young) is probably my favorite antagonist. Na Baek Jin has great visuals and great acting too, but the changes to the backstory made it too cliche for me, and I also don’t think the show did a great job of establishing how powerful he was and why.
As a sequel series, I also think it doesn’t quite have the charm of the previous season.
While S1 really focused on Si Eun’s personality of carefully observing personalities and surroundings and implementing science/math into fights — which is what made it stand out in the first place — this season feels a lot more simple, punch-punch-kick-kick. His calculated personality isn’t shining through in the fight scenes anymore, and even outside of fight scenes, he feels a lot more passive and a lot less intentional. Pacing has been the main issue so far and that affects this as well — Si Eun is just not given time to “study” his opponents. And when he does…I think we were in desperate need of more internal monologues because from the outside, it seems like he’s just running around, doing whatever the next plot calls for.
I like that we are seeing him go through grief and guilt though and the drama doesn’t shy away from reminding us how much Su Ho shaped his identity — the show is strongest in those moments.
I also think the friendships are just a tiny bit less strong, although I love the casting for every single character and I actually REALLY buy into them as a friend group when I see them together. Once again, though, they’re hampered by the short runtime. The group chemistry is fantastic when they’re having fun, but I just can’t buy into the more emotional moments.
Compared to season 1, it’s also pretty obvious there’s a new production team, The color grading and cinematography are a little off sometimes, and I really miss the gritty and darker vibes from the first season. This is minor compared to my other issues, but when you take a weirdly satured color scheme and combine it with the glaring pacing problem, it just feels like we lost a lot of tension.
One last gripe: I will never like the car accident trope lol. K-drama writers…stop it.
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Binge it if you can
I’ve never read the webtoon so this is based off this show as a standalone drama and not as an adaptation. I started watching this 4 episodes were out because I saw that hair-tying scene on my Twitter/X timeline and it completely convinced me. And the show proved me right — I binged all the released and couldn’t wait for next week. The main leads had amazing chemistry, the antagonists felt like actual threats, and I couldn’t wait to see how the revenge would play out.As the weeks came around, I still enjoyed the episodes, but I did feel like the show started losing steam.
First, the main leads’ screentime dwindled and we got more and more scenes of our antagonists (of which there were many). It added good tension to see things from their perspective, but it also added frustration. The leads had so much chemistry and tension and we only got to see a few minutes of that every week.
And as more episodes went on, we ran into a different issue: we did get screentime for our leads, but it didn’t necessarily feel like they were progressing. We’d get the same hugs and conversations where they talked about being there for each other and fighting together against the bad guys. These scenes were cute but it felt got sort of repetitive, especially now that we’d gotten all the tension-filled conversations out of the way earlier and it seemed like the next plot development wasn’t happening anytime soon. I still really enjoyed scenes where they cared for each other, but all the stakes felt a little lower by this point, and I started to feel like the revenge was almost too easy. Sides had been chosen, secrets were already revealed, and most importantly, the main antagonists had stayed quiet or had lost too many battles in a row.
Honestly, I was pretty lukewarm on the entire plot by then. Looking back, I don’t remember a singular satisfying moment where our main female lead got to face off against her mother in a moment where I felt like they were on equal footing, where the stakes were high and I truly didn’t know who was going to win. The revenge plot seemed to delve into smaller moments where they would address this one thing first and then that other thing, and I wasn’t sure there was a climax. Even the build-up to some other reveals and to the ML’s perspective felt overdue and a little underwhelming.
Episode 11 was a turning point. Things that needed to be revealed had been revealed, it felt like the revenge had been finished, and the antagonists had been out of the picture — most of which was off-screen, I might add, which made the story feel somewhat incomplete — long enough for The Time Jump to happen. Yes, the dreaded time jump. I’ve never been a fan of the time jump. It’s fine as an epilogue but I’ve never once enjoyed it done in the middle of the story and this was no different. It just felt kind of…weird. Like they didn’t know what to do after all the villains were put away, so they had to bring them back, but had to wait some time for them to be able to. Story-wise, it was a bit confusing to have it happen after everything was seemingly over, but ultimately I don’t think it was blown out of proportion, which was good.
I think part of the plot simmering down also had to do with the female lead, who was really proactive in the first half and then started being more aimless in the second half. Still, I liked the message the drama left us with — that the best revenge for her was having a happy marriage, a healthy family, and a good life. Despite the slowdown, I think this drama had a really good finale episode.
Overall, it was still a pretty good watch — this was my second favorite watch behind Castaway Diva during its runtime, but if I were to recommend it to someone I would suggest binging it rather than watching it slowly. You might be able to retain more momentum that way.
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All problematic stuff aside, still boring
I feel like I have to discuss this drama in two parts — one covering the problematic issues that it has and one covering it as a drama and nothing more.On the first part —it's insane to me that in 2022 we're still dealing with the issue of the so-called "Third World" being portrayed like this. The story starts with Gong Tae-sung in Africa for some charity work, and right off the bat it was problematic that they not only kept referring to his presence in Africa (no specific country) as if the continent was a monolith, but also that the charity work that he did was digging wells, building schools, and "bringing water to Africa." I felt like I was thrown back in the early 2000s with this sort of outdated stereotype, not to mention the yellowish filter that was placed over all the shots in Africa, as if the entire continent was nothing but mud and dry dirt.
This all took place in the first episode, and I was grateful that GTS came back, hopeful that there would be no more mention of Africa if that was how they were going to portray it. Unfortunately, there was, and every time Africa was mentioned it just completely took me out of the show. It was always either in the context of saying how great of a person GTS was for his charity work, even saying something super weird like how there was an African child that did not have a father and so GTS "became his father." All of these mentions just felt utterly unnecessary — there are much better ways to show that someone is a good person and I can't believe that all those scenes, with dialogue about how Africa now has water and education because of this savior character, got through the writers, the directors, the actors, the editors, etc. and made it all the way to air.
Now, all that aside, I felt like I didn't connect with the drama at all either. Immediately I realized that there were far too many characters. I rarely like ensemble dramas and this is a perfect example of why. Every subplot felt half-assed and incomplete, and every character felt boring and cookie-cutter. There were several romantic ships and my interest in each of them went up and down; the writing for them just felt boring.
At the start, I was most interested in the main leads — after all, enemies-to-lovers is a great trope when done well, and I definitely liked some of their bickering scenes and their flashbacks to college. But even though the chemistry was quite good, the development for them was awkward and almost sudden. Another thing I really hate is when two characters completely alter their personalities and dynamic with each other after they get together; it often makes the relationship suddenly boring and that's exactly what I felt about these two. No more bickering (not even playfully) and while some scenes were still sweet and fun, it got old very fast.
The two main side ships were okay but I definitely felt like they were just THERE and going through the motions of getting together; I started feeling that way about a lot of side characters individually as well, even when there started to be a backstory plot with GTS's mother and also a friend who had died. Both of these plotlines felt like they could individually take up the entire 16 episodes if the right depth and emotion had been dedicated to them, but it just wasn't and combined with a bunch of anti-fan and drama-filming subplots it all just felt like a big hodgepodge of plots where none stood out.
It's funny because despite how much I was watching for the main ship at first, my favorite part of this drama ended up being a very minor side ship that had all but a few scenes every episode together — Jaehyun and Yuna, the actors from Be My Boyfriend who now play two actors. They captured the enemies-to-lovers really well and I really loved how cute the arc of their plot was.
Overall, I just felt like this drama was really messy. There were some funny scenes and interesting characters but the writing of the plot really didn't allow any of them to shine. Along with the problems that the drama had, I felt like this became something that I just watched without feeling any sort of emotional investment whatsoever.
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Messy, but addictive
The premise for this honestly caught my eye, and I've been super excited for it for ages. It turned out to be nothing like what I'd expected, and to be honest it was kind of a hot mess. AND YET, it was addictive and I felt anxious watching it.It's messy because it basically threw all the cliches into a pot and used all of them—rich man/poor girl, best friend love triangle, characters screaming their emotions into the void, backstabbing best friend, Cinderella's step-family...but the way they did it was completely unexpected and not in the order you'd expect.
I was really annoyed with all the characters' actions right off the bat: Jo-Jo for being a cheater, Sun-Oh for stabbing his friend in the back, and Hye-Young for being a creepy stalker. I felt like people were only rooting for him because they saw his perspective, but from Jo-Jo's point of view, he barely even talked to her and just creepily followed her everywhere.
Because of all the characters' immature personalities, for once I felt like the time skip was in the right place. And as someone who usually DETESTS all time jumps, I really liked how it was inserted, and how the characters changed during that time. I do hate that noble idiocy is such a huge plot point, but the fact that it took place in the time skip made it a bit better, even though I still found myself frustrated with the flashback scenes.
The time skip was also helpful in getting me to not hate Hye-Young, because I liked his character development and how he finally took action, instead of always looking from afar. Even though his character is growing on me though, I still definitely have second lead syndrome and am rooting for Sun-Oh.
The cinematography and visual effects were the best part of this entire thing. I loved the sound effects. how the app looks, how everything was filmed, and how the 10m radius is edited. EVERYTHING.
I really wish there was more sismance and bromance. The bromance was nice, even though it crashed and burned near the end. On the other hand, there was ZERO sismance, and I hated how all the female characters (other than Kim Jo-Jo) were portrayed as boy-obsessed, shallow, gossipy, etc. Honestly, Jo-Jo's minor scenes with her wedding work friend were so refreshing—and more friendship is needed in this entire drama, which would work out to balance all the romance drama.
Because it was so romance heavy, I also found myself loving the scenes that delved into more Black Mirror territory and talked about heavier topics, like the protests, exploitation, suicides, etc. I really wished that that was a bigger part of the story, because there's a lot of potential for the characters to get involved in more than the melodrama cliches.
I also appreciate the lowkey LGBT mentions and how it's addressed with "It's not like you can control your feelings." MORE, please!
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Forgotten plotlines, Frustrating people
I was a pretty big fan of Part 1. The large cast really grew on me and I quickly felt emotionally attached to the entire class, intrigued to see how they would face the "new world" together. Part 2 really dropped the ball on a LOT of plotlines, and they did it in exchange for shock factor.Sergeant Kim, who I thought would have a vital role to play after the events at the end of Part 1, isn't in this at all, and there's not even a name drop or throwaway line that explains why. The lovelines are kind of fun to watch at first but it devolves into nothing. The characters never get anywhere physically, which means you never get to see how the larger society has changed and how our characters would fit into it. It feels like aimless wandering. The hints from Part 1 about the spheres getting more intelligent is not addressed at all — in fact, the aliens are barely a part of these episodes, leaving you with more questions at the end.
Instead, it's a lot more about in-fighting and worst of all, doubling down on that one annoying, selfish character.
Don't get me wrong, I think that character is necessary in survival shows because it reveals the worst of human nature, but here's the thing: you need your OTHER characters to adapt and push back. If you don't, you just get one really annoying person dictating the plot. Essentially, they made the most unlikeable character even more unlikeable, and then they gave this character everyone else's screen-time. Evoking empathy only works if that character is going to develop or at the very least have some redeeming qualities. Without that, it's just frustrating.
The second issue is that shock factor is always temporary. What happens once all the adrenaline wears off? What are the consequences of being alive? That's always the most interesting part of survival shows; I can forgive the drama for starting off with a time jump but I can't forgive it for ending with one. We never got to see how characters might get their strength back after the worst days of their lives. That would've been the most powerful character development, had we gotten to see it.
And part of that is really just an issue of personnel; some of the survivors are the most random, unimportant people (I promise you, there were much more worthy characters to keep). Combined with all the other issues of the time jump and misplaced screen-time...the ending just feels abrupt and you finish the show feeling unsatisfied.
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