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Great premise but....
The acting on this is great. Basic synopsis is a cop with less than clear morals and has multiple personality disorder tackles police corruption. I'm dropping it not because the acting isn't great (Lee Dong Wook and Wi Ha Joon are both fantastic) or that the story hasn't got promise, and it is slightly humorous. But for me, I just don't like police corruption shows. The good guys can never catch a break and I will probably have to preserve till maybe episode 10 to see any come-uppance. The plot doesn't have a lot of twists and turns either. I'm currently watching another 7 other shows so I'd just rather shelve this for next time.Was this review helpful to you?
Best thriller with a social conscience
I don't know why the rating for this is so low, although I have found that crime dramas and without an idol tend to do more poorly on this platform.For me, this show was a surprise sleeper hit. I hadn't expected much of the two female leads, as their past shows hadn't left me much to be inspired. Lee You Mi in particular surprised me given her past less than useful outings. Later on, Lee Ho Jung as the self-serving sister also put in a stellar surprising performance. In contrast, I have been following Jang Seung Jo for a while now but this seems to be his first baddie role and I was blown away. Without giving away too much of the plot away, his acting was multi layered and dramatically different from his other dramas. Overall, the show was fast paced and had so many twists and turns, 8 episodes was really just nice.
But at the heart of it, it's a show with conscience. The show highlights a chronic blindspot in Korean society. Until I watched the show, I did not know that their laws and society at large mostly ignore domestic violence and adopt a "don't ask, don't tell' approach, possibly to cover up the family shame. I later read up and was shocked. I know that even the West is coming to terms with sweeping domestic violence under the carpet and I hope that K society will too, as more shows such as this emerge.
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Trope and juvenile
This is a juvenile drama and should be watched as such. It is trope and adolescent to be crushing someone. It is very innocent (or naive depending on your viewpoint) and pure as some reviewers have commented. It is refreshing even compared to some other teen dramas which nowadays focus on difficult themes like bullying or the stress/pressure of academic excellence or suicide ideation. However, I couldn't help but get vibes of paedophilic grooming especially in the first episode with the 14 yo Sang Zhi and developed a strong 'ick' factor.I seriously don't know how this drama can rate so highly compared to real meaty dramas. I watched hoping it would get more 'adult' and meaty but finally gave up. I really liked Zhao Lu Si and her portrayal of a high school student was spot on. Young love is pure and juvenile and one has to be in the right mood for it. Unfortunately, I'm not.
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Same story as season 1
But draggier. It took 3 episodes to get to the game, and the set up of why our hero wanted to join the game makes no sense.This season should more accurately be called part 1 because it just drags out to set itself up for so called season 3, which is really just part 2.
The show is repetitive - same games, sub-plots, etc. The only highlight is the many well known actors.
When the writer said he spent 10 years writing the original and didn’t want to film a second season, he should have stuck to his guns. This is s show about money grabbing as a money grab.
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Raw cinema
First off, I need to confess that I really like period drama. I'm a real nut when it comes to period drama so I'll watch even the most boring period drama/movie to the very end (I think I've only ever dropped one - some forgettable pained movie with lots of over-acting that was made in 1983).This wasn't the most boring period drama I've seen but it was tedious - but that was (in my opinion) entirely the point of the movie. It was meant to depict the rawness of life during that time and especially the war, without any of the gloss that you've normally come to see in the recent movies/dramas that are filled with idol actors meant to pretty up the show, or breath-taking cinematic scenes comprising stirring music, beautiful costumes and makeup, glorious scenery, or perfectly choreographed fight scenes. Rather, it paints a realistic (notice I didn't say accurate because this is not based on historical events, just based OFF historical events) depiction of life back then. Lots of blood and gore, plain underwhelming costumes and even brutality and barbarity.
I'm in it for Kang Dong Won and Cha Seung Won and they didn't disappoint. Not something I'd re-watch in a hurry was it was just ab emotionally exhausting albeit fulfilling (and somewhat long) ride.
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Confusing watching
Many other reviewers have written fantastic in-depth reviews so I'll keep this short. I wish this show would make up their mind. It comprises action, mystery, supernatural, and crime. What exactly does it want to be? There is so much flitting back and forth between two timelines that it's confusing.This could have been a great action show that highlights and gives insight into the important work of mountain rangers - episodes around finding missing people, stopping mountain-related crime (eg trespassing, illegal logging, etc), and saving people in danger. That is, make the series semi-educational in the vein of what Forecasting Love & Weather did for the Korean Meteological Administration or what Where Stars Land did for airport operations. (I do have a beef with Where Stars Land and the ridiculous turn it took but that's another story). But it had to attempt to be different. There is no need to because the subject matter itself, Jirisan and its dedicated rangers, is already unique and different to so many other dramas, so focusing on that is enough.
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Wasted potential
The main premise was good, that she was able to see the future. There is so much more that could have been done with that, for instance, trying to find out how she developed her 'power', trying to 'solve' the power, or more interestingly, trying to prevent an undesirable future from happening. However, the actual execution was a total disaster. There are way too many Kdrama tropes and plot holes to count.The first few episodes were so boring that I nearly gave up. However, after they got together, it was fun for a few episodes as it was funny and sweet as a rom com. The last 2 episodes were a disaster. Why did they suddenly need to insert a mystery? Surely they should have put far more clues and plot points in earlier episodes to suggest some mystery? It's as if the writers changed halfway or they suddenly wanted to improve their ratings.
The whole drama was Schizophrenic at best - romance, comedy, fantasy, mystery, and office drama. I'm only giving this an 8 because I enjoyed the middle episodes. Thank goodness this ended at 12 episodes. I would have given up at episode 4 if I wasn't a Disney Plus subscriber.
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Love and hate are two sides of the same coin
I have a masochistic relationship with this show. I hate what it does to me yet I can't stop watching. The show is about a couple who are in an abusive and messed up relationship. Things go so badly wrong yet they stay together because of their messed up pasts. They don't want to be together yet they don't want to be apart. They have no one else and so they stay together. They miss each other but don't want to see each other. They love each other for all the wrong reasons and their love often turns into hate. It is often said that it's worst to have no feelings for someone than it is to hate because hate is an extreme (though unhealthy) form of love.Similarly, I am abusing myself by watching it. So many times I've wanted to stop because the show was so messed up - not because the story didn't make sense (ok, at times it didn't) but because this love-hate dynamic is confusing. And I hate the show for what it did to me - despite wanting to tear myself away from the show, I couldn't stop myself from watching. Why? I already know the ending thanks to some of the reviews here and I know I'm going to be sad yet I still want to finish it. That's the power and the lure of this show that no show has had on me recently.
This show is a study in contrasts. The show is an examination of internal strife and conflict and is tantamount to self-abuse. It is a tortured love. Love it or hate it, it's worth a watch to decide.
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Disappointed
I tried so hard to like this show. I like Jang Na Ra, I like Jang Hyuk, and I like spy/thriller/action. I even like comedy. What I can't stand are family shows (the 50 or 100 episoder type). I thought I could tolerate the little kids altho I'm not usually a fan, but the daughter was cute enough. However, after 4 episodes, I am throwing in the towel because there are just too many better shows out there (Black Knight, Good Bad Mom, True to Love) which I love far more than Jang Hyuk and Jang Na Ra's chemistry.As usual, this show was trying to be too many things, often a fault with underperforming shows. To me, the greatest fault was in emphasising the family drama angle. It was cute in the first episode but soon got tiresome by the second episode. While the spy/thriller angle was there in the background, it was never interesting enough for me to want to know more or to get to the bottom of the overarching mystery (there was none).
It tried to be a Mr and Mrs Smith remake, and if it had the same spy pacing as that movie, maybe it could have worked. Right now however, I'd rather watch spy-thriller only dramas than this mixed genre. Maybe I will come back to this one day when I have nothing else better to watch because I have Disney subscription anyway. But for now, it will languish in my list of dropped shows.
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