It had a good concept and it started off actually decent but it derailed unbelievably hard and quick after episode 2. As If there was a switch flipped. It almost seemed as if the writer lost interest and handed over the wheel to an intern. The drama got seriously dumbed down to the nth degree and the cheese meter got turned to 11. The performance of the younger cast was weak, and the older cast seemed to take the easy way out, delivering lackluster performances for their relatively insignificant and undemanding roles. Cha Tae Hyun is usually good but somehow he's unable to show an expression other than him pouting all the time. The plot surrounding the villain was poorly developed and ended up being lame, as expected. The whole romance in the drama was nothing but childish. The portrayal of the police life was dull and uninteresting. The drama is a strong contender for the worst love triangle out there as well. The last episode was solely dedicated to pair everyone with someone forcefully because reasons?!
The earlier parts were dreadful to get through, they did an awful job trying to hook the viewers but it got a lot better later on. Around episode 5-6 it started getting interesting and enjoyable. However, that didn't last for too long as there was a big downtime and disconnect in the story after episode 12. Meanwhile the ending was good enough but I hoped for something better. On the other hand, the drama had a decent selection of cast but I wish we got to see more of the support cast like Park Won Sang instead of filling it with redundant scenes. The drama was promising and good enough but it left a lot to be desired.
It's an oversaturated manufactured cheap emotional bait that lacked the genuine human connection and necessary depth but rather opted out for easily digestible cliches. Most of the cast, especially the younger ones, were desperately overacting in an attempt to translate the youth energy to screen but it came off as fake most of the time. The actual sports scenes were average at best, it's themed around the sport but not the sport itself. Most scenes with a sweaty face, the sweat looked as fake as it can be. It's so damn laughable that some scenes the neck was sweaty but the face was perfectly dry! The cast didn't do a good job in showing the physical exhaustion of performing the sport whether it was while training or competing. Again, making the sports scenes even more fake. What's up with the drama trying so hard to pair every boy with a girl? Really unnecessary. This drama would have fared infinitely better as a standalone one-off movie. The drama really highlighted the "bad" in badminton. Going into this I had the slightest tiniest bits of hope to get something that can be remotely and ever so slightly similar to "Ping Pong the Animation" but I quickly realized within a few minutes it wouldn't be the case.
It started off weak with the most generic start of a time altering media. It got better for a short time once the time shenanigans started until things became really sloppy and predictable. There was too much focus on the butterfly element which left no room to work on the characters. Then for the last 1/3 there was no more time shenanigans and it became purely lukewarm politics while trying poorly to figure out how to stir it towards the end. I didn't expect anything from the ending anyway. Lee Seo Jin was alright I guess.
It's disappointing when a drama have potentials but falls apart quickly because of lousy writing. The subpar acting by the kids diminished its value even further. The male lead pulled a tremendous effort to help keeping the drama afloat. The villain was poorly written and cartoonish for this genre. There was a necessity of a better dynamic between the wife and husband given the type of story they were telling. Forget the thriller/mystery bait, it quickly turned into another comical melodrama that lacked any real emotional impact. The last episode was seriously sloppy and rushed it will certainly leave you with a sour taste. On the bright side, the OST was pretty good.
It took forever before the story started progressing. It could've been easily condensed down to 7-8 episodes without sacrificing anything. The amount of plot convinces was unbelievable. A common example is whenever a piece of information is about to be revealed, it magically get sabotaged in the most blatant way there is. Throughout the entire drama it felt it was building towards something big but it never got there and the resolution of the culprits was underwhelming anyway. The drama in general was riddled with all kind of problems but the big cast was pulling it up so damn hard.
The drama was embarrassingly lackluster in all aspects. The writing was its biggest downfall, especially how the characters were written, nothing but a major disappointment from otherwise a capable cast. I wouldn't recommend unless you're a die hard fan of one of the cast members. Keep in mind that Gong Yoo isn't the main male lead here.
The story was so soulless and shallow it made the 12 episodes runtime so damn dreadful. The whole trio main cast were lackluster from all angles, both the actors and their characters. This drama was nothing but a cheap BL bait anyway. It should have been a short drama thrown on some random streaming services instead of being a full TV broadcast.
It started off good until we had the first trial involving the first student. The drama didn't do a good job laying out the information in an effective way, but rather delivered it in monotonous big chunks. I didn't find the cases appealing. The pattern became clear after the second case. Cycling through the students while revealing more of the main case along the way. Somehow they made everything and everyone very conveniently connected to the main case. This resulted in an over-complicated mess for the sake of building something grand and complicated. Despite of their attempt, they also created too many plot conveniences because they had no clue how to progress otherwise. The students' personal stories weren't good to begin with and cliche at best. There were just too many shortcomings in the writing department to count. The cast was okay but there was a lot of overacting going around, exaggerated expressions, motions, phrases and unnecessary edge-lord-like quirkiness. You may think the professor was the main character but shortly after, he became a support one. Some episodes passed while barely saying any lines. The director was trying his damn hardest to patch up this hot mess. If he were to be replaced, the drama would flop so damn hard. Thanks to him we got something kinda watchable.
It seems the drama excuses itself way too much and too often under the umbrella of "real life events" which denotes for a lazy writing. Moreover, the antagonist in the drama is portrayed as an omnipotent being who possesses an uncanny awareness, insight, and control over everything and everyone. Practically a god! It undermines the believability of the story and weakens the conflict by eliminating any sense of balance or potential for meaningful character growth and development. This kind of characterization is only passable for makjang shenanigans, mindless action or goofy adventure flicks. Instead of crafting a compelling tragedy, it turned into an extensive series of self-inflicted misery, unreasonable maneuvers and forceful entanglements. This is not how to make a tragedy!
The brothers playing the big turning point for the climax were only brought to attention in the last 2-3 episodes. How do you expect the viewers to care? While some of the support characters may receive attention initially (or eventually like the brothers) but they ended up being underdeveloped and lacking depth. Their presence feels inconsequential and fails to contribute meaningfully to the overall story. Either give them a proper investment or don't waste unnecessary scenes. The 12 episodes run already feels too long! Despite dealing with potentially emotional and poignant themes, the drama fails to delve deeply into the emotional lives of its characters. Instead, we got a superficial, quick and dry cuts that were barely sufficient to progress the story.
It had a promising start but ended up being another incoherent and illogical mess just like its predecessors from the same genre. It would have been somewhat fine if they didn't go the sci-fi route and kept it pure mystery/horror with a strong emphasis on escaping the horrors instead of trying to explain it. Even with 12 episodes only it felt long because they didn't do a good job handling the mystery. The cast was fine but nothing special.
Soulless and dry. Not a good office romance. All men were creepy and cringe while women were selfish and entitled. Not to mention the dead chemistry with all of the three couples. The story was practically dead on arrival. Painful progression and dreadful execution.
It's good enough but not that good! It's highly rated so it's only natural to get into it with high expectations, unfortunately, it became quickly evident what kind of show I'll be getting. As a life drama, it lacked the essence of genuine human connection and eventually dipped in mediocrity trying to achieve that artificially by adopting quick, dry and cutthroat life cliches lacking nuances, depth, relevant characterization and thematic attachment. Aside from the 2 main characters, none of the side cast was interesting the slightest and clearly had the absolute minimal amount of effort put into them which is why the drama may come off as boring sometimes. Speaking of effort, the soundtrack was abysmal if you are watching it from Netflix! They clearly didn't give any attention to it and slapped in some royalty free default tracks because it's easier for Netflix to distribute it world wide. The TV version had real music and songs which is really important for a drama of this theme. Stupid Netflix as always. One more thing, the drama has this habit of sprinkling in a handful of random mini stories for the side characters that doesn't get attention for more than 2 scenes or contribute to the overall narrative in a desperate attempt to buff up the drama. The only noteworthy thing about this drama is having an elderly cast getting the spotlight which we don't see often, otherwise, it's a bland collection of life drama cliches with the occasional nice moments.
This was a bad Sci-Fi! Lousy plot, weak writing and unbearable characters. It progressively kept getting worse with every passing minute. It shamelessly tries to be serious but came out as nothing but goofy. The cast performance was meh and the visual effects were passable enough not to look cheap. There were no redeeming qualities to be seen here, nothing but a downward spiral.
This is a classic example of what I like to call a waste of carbon emission. It's impressive how a drama can fail on every metric there is and still get to finish its full run. It's fundamentally dysfunctional even if we were to disregard the epilogue. Yikes! On another note, Nana needs to figure out how to turn on her facial muscles appropriately with the scene.
Seemed attractive at first but it fell apart shortly after. Shamelessly poor narrative and storytelling all the way through. Egregious amount of twists and turns that always backfired. Most of the characters weren't appealing especially the baddies. The last 1/4 was painfully rough to get through, mostly because the drama didn't do a good job building up the story.
The brothers playing the big turning point for the climax were only brought to attention in the last 2-3 episodes. How do you expect the viewers to care? While some of the support characters may receive attention initially (or eventually like the brothers) but they ended up being underdeveloped and lacking depth. Their presence feels inconsequential and fails to contribute meaningfully to the overall story. Either give them a proper investment or don't waste unnecessary scenes. The 12 episodes run already feels too long! Despite dealing with potentially emotional and poignant themes, the drama fails to delve deeply into the emotional lives of its characters. Instead, we got a superficial, quick and dry cuts that were barely sufficient to progress the story.