Park Min

I can't think of another actress that could've played Da Li. She brought a lot of character and identity to the drama and made it stand out. The same thing can be said about the ML although him being too loud began to get on my nerves over time. However, I found the romance in general to be questionable. At every transition and development in the relationship, there was a clear unnatural progression to their romance. From their first kiss to opening up to traumas and the subsequent events of their relationship. I really liked that one signature background soundtrack that they kept playing but they completely stopped using it in the second half which was really unfortunate because it fit the the vibes perfectly.

The cursed case-of-the-week format! I was more interested in the FL's mother case which is the main case that was developing in the background than whatever case the ML threw himself in. I really wish this was a one big coherent case to follow or at least have the side cases directly connected to the main one. What made matters worse was the poor dynamic between the leads, they just didn't bounce off each other well. There was a weird constant disconnect between them. Thank god they didn't add romance into the mix. The side characters were an embarrassment to label them as a supporting cast. They were just a white noise blended in the background, completely forgettable and faceless. One of the most important things about horror is to set up the atmosphere which this drama forgot to do most of the time. It was more like a flashy horror with some horror elements. This was probably my least favorite Jang Na Ra drama.

The bad prosecutor didn't live up to his name, at least not for the entirety of the drama. The first 4 episodes were decent but the rest were an imitation of its previous spark. Everything up to the final confrontation of the first guy was enjoyable but everything turned into a generic prosecutor/team drama afterwards. No more of the bad prosecutor attitude and his appeal almost diminished, there was a small recovery around the end but it was already too late. Speaking of teams, the sidekicks were pretty bad at being a sidekick especially Baek Eun Ji, just horrible! The team in general lacked a good dynamic, the ML was pulling all the weight by himself. It could've been something decent if more care was put into it.

There was something to be said along the lines of "it's about the journey not the destination" but there was no journey or destination to speak of here. At first, it seemed to be a worse version of Encounter (2018) but it turned out to be much worse than that with a stinky trashy tag engraved to its title. Usually Song Hye Kyo doesn't step this low but this proved to be otherwise, it was undeniably her worst project ever. The genius writer shamelessly adapted the deplorable trope of constant interruptions with any hints of a real conversation or dialogue at sight. I have no respect for creators who pull such moves. The drama was filled with the type of dialogue and cheesy one-liners that you would read in a fanfic, it was even filmed from the point of view of a one. Anyway, the drama was an unwatchable junk from a modern lens.

It's obvious I wouldn't be talking about levels without double-checking the video renders & decoders and checking other sources as well, here's a quick frame capture comparison of 5 different sources: https://slow.pics/c/2KUsiSIC
Anyway, most people wouldn't care or know why it looks a certain way and just watch it. It was just something that stood out to me and wanted to mention.

And no, I'm not lost from all the 100 episode daily k-soaps. I wouldn't be making such comments otherwise.

There were definitely a few things to like here with the obvious main attraction being the kids interactions. The main lead had a good enjoyable dynamic going on outside the supposed "romance". Speaking of which, the romance was underdeveloped and made me wonder if it was necessary to begin with. They surely had plenty of time to give it more attention if they wanted to. Which brings me to my next point, it was a tad bit too long. Once the male lead transformed into someone who cared for the children and the kindergarten, things started to get draggy and less enjoyable. The 2nd half was mostly defending and protecting the kindergarten but it wasn't interesting and didn't have the same vibes of the 1st half. If the drama had more side characters and side plots it would have had rectified the problem. The drama made me wanting to see the leads reuniting in a modern drama.

Although its earlier parts were better than the rest but the initial set up needed more time and thoughts to be put into it. They wanted to kick start the premise quickly but they rushed things along the way which made later parts to drag instead of having a better investment at the start. The first 5-6 episodes kept you interested and had a good amount of intrigue but things slowed down significantly after that and it began to lose its attraction even when Derek began to be involved in the story heavily. They had a lot of elements lined up perfectly to create something good but never committed to one theme. Derek was an interesting addition to the dynamic but his character was never consistent, his character was forcefully bent 3-4 times to fit whatever narrative the writer wanted to steer the story towards. This also affected how the triangle played out. Again, they had a lot of time to better allocate and divide the runtime to make it more natural. There were a few attempts where the drama tried to get preachy and profound with dialogue and inner-monologue but once you zoom out it turned out to be condescending nonsense. I would say the drama was partially fun but not all the way.

Although its earlier parts were much better than the rest but the initial set up needed more time and thoughts to be put into it. They wanted to kick start the premise quickly but they rushed things along the way. The first 5-6 episodes kept you interested about the plot and had a good amount of thriller but things slowed down significantly after that and it began to lose its attraction even when they attempted to add story-altering twists. The story itself got sloppier for no reason in the second half and the villains turned out to be underwhelming. The characters never felt like they had a good dynamic or chemistry going on, not even with the most obvious main mother-daughter or father-daughter relationship. Their lack of appeal made it hard to root for anyone. Something was missing, none of them clicked.

There is a comment to be made about psychiatrists dating, loving, diagnosing, healing their patients but, technically, she wasn't a patient during working hours. The writer brushed that off by having ML to pull up the "If you were my patient, I would have asked you this...." By no metric this should've been longer than 8 episodes. The slow dreamy scenes and extensions didn't serve a purpose, they didn't enhance a scene, build an atmosphere, have a cinematic purpose, or contribute to the story. I think they wanted to associate pretty nicely shot slow-mo scenes with it being a cute show? Such things would only work if they struck at the right moment, not every moment. Some cognitive things didn't need to be portrayed on screen to convey a piece of information, like the ML lead forgetting the fridge door open to tell us he was distracted. It's okay to have a few sprinkled here and there but the drama was infested with such scenes. The first 3 episodes were a bit too boring but I stuck with it to see more of this supposed "mystery", of which, there was barely any mystery after that. This was supposed to be the secondary main plot but ended up being less important than most of the insignificant side plots like Da Jung's mother or Ga Young's trainer (btw what happened to the trainer?). The drama didn't know what it wanted to be so we had an uneven mix of genres and themes. Observing the characters, there was something off about their behavior, like an imitation through a fancy lens. Not only through their portrayal but also through their driven narrative. The drama had a lot of inner monologue and self-narration to fill its time but most of them were a hit or miss and didn't provide a deeper connection as they hoped. The drama was supposed to show the healing process but both leads didn't have more than a couple of scenes where they properly talked.

Nope, it's not my problem, that's not a valid argument to make when most of my favorite shows are slow-burn paced. Netflix didn't do a good job in planning the entire story of Kingdom which is why we got this huge disparities between S1 & S2 & the movie, in regard to pacing and other aspects as well. The slow atmospheric shots with eerie background music were pleasant at first, as I said, but they became heavily reliant on them overwriting their artistic purposes over time.

This turned out to be a lot of fun. Don't be so hung up on the details and the ridiculousness, after all it's a mix of black comedy and satire, and it did a good job in that regard. It showed a lot of interesting ideas but one thing irked me was its lack of commitment to some themes, sometimes it kept it tame and didn't go all the way through. Although the trio had a great dynamic but Chae Hee Soo always ended up being the third wheel in the relationship and in the allocated screen time which is unfortunate because there was a lot of room to get her more involved. Right at the very beginning the drama tell us that one of them will die but it was a bit obvious who. That small section involving the departure and grief at the end was a bit too brief, I wish the drama gave it more focus because it fit the theme just right. One more thing, it was a bit long and some elements got stale.

The drama started on a decent pace with few things to look forward to. It was somewhat fine for the first 5 episodes until the drama made its biggest mistake with the reality show plot. It killed the story, romance, characters and ruined the overall vibe of the show. Completely shifting the structure and tone to something different entirely. The reality show plot became the center focus and didn't give room to let the characters work on their problems, instead we got a handful of cheesy lines that lacked any sincerity. Somewhere along the way they forgot to add romance for the leads but, regardless, the leads relationship was the farthest thing from being healthy and would eventually lead to misery. They never really worked on their relationship like adults but instead the whole thing was drenched with empty sweet talk. What I'm trying to say, the drama failed to offer a serviceable comedy, romance, slice-of-life or human drama. Lee Da Hee charms weren't enough to carry.

The first 4 episodes were dedicated entirely for their backstory and they did an outstanding poor job in that regard. These first 4 episodes were painful to sit through, unbelievably boring, lacking any interesting or gripping elements and it failed to lay the groundwork for things to look forward to in the future episodes. If that wasn't enough, the main story was mostly shelved and the subsequent episodes turned into side cases with slight relation to the bad guy until it returned to the main case in the last few episodes. Although the male lead was labeled as a genius and has super powers but his character proved to be otherwise. Namkoong Min playing a pathetic low-life chaebol playboy villain was definitely a miscast. It would more suitable for him to play a smart cunning merciless villain but the director was blind. On the other hand, Jeon Kwang Ryul playing the main victim with Alzheimer and being a good loving father was weird, another miscast and oversight from the production. The trend continues Park Min Young playing a prosecutor, it's just not it.

The whole drama felt like a short web series that was pushed too hard and stretched too thin to be molded into a 16-long-episodes chunk. There was a big tremendous missed opportunity to genuinely create something unique and special about exploring the Webtoon industry with all its intricacies and nuances but what we got was a bloated melodramatic superficial cheap one-dimensional cookie-cutter cut of a mix of poorly structured sappy stories themed around Webtoons. I though we might get something similar to Shirobako but it wasn't remotely close. The drama was grasping at straws to keep itself rolling. A few cases made some good valid points but the majority were bad and embarrassing to include. The drama gave the impression that every Webtoon creator in the industry is a problematic individual that needs constant tinder love and care to function as a human. This drama might be themed around Webtoons but I wouldn't label it as a drama about Webtoons. One thing in particular that became more problematic and annoying as the drama went on was the female lead, her revolting attitude and extreme overreaction with every single breath made her unbearable to even hear her voice. There was an attempt to give her backstory but that was handled with 2 poor scenes. On the other hand, the other main character Goo Joon Young had one singular facial expression that is a wide static smile. Even as a character his role was negligible. One question remained to be answered, why did they end the drama with a love confession?! Huh?

I wish the Kdrama industry would grow out of this conglomerate high-class trend, it's been over done to death now and each iteration is worse than its predecessor. In the first episode, the drama had a lot of flashy elements, big bold statements, bloated itself with trendy topics, and cast its net as wide as humanly possible; however, all of that was done and came across as nothing but tacky. Despite boasting a stellar cast, the drama turned out to be a colossal disappointment, a bloated spectacle that collapsed under the weight of its own ambition. Although the drama had a lot going on all the time but the infidelity was always its loudest and trashiest plot, overshadowing everything else. It occupied all of the tension the drama had to offer. There was also this narrative of all "men" are bad that the drama kept pushing for some reason. One more thing, at the end of episode 5, there was a ridiculously comical hacker-like-scene that immediately abandoned the slightest suspension of disbelief the drama ever had. It was a goner at that point.

It's a really cheap, lazy and outdated copycat that had no soul or identity to speak of. This shouldn't have been released in 2022. The cast were fine but they should've had some standards when picking up their projects. The synopsis emphasized on the drama having a love story and romance but that doesn't happen until the last 1/4. During which, the drama pushed their romance into our faces to a sickening level without actually being romantic but more like children discovering attraction to the opposite sex type of romance. The story and writing were practically nonfunctional on a literary level that it made me feel ashamed for finishing it. I wanted to draw some parallels between it and orange cats but I would be insulting orange cats. It was broadcasted by ENA, I should've known better.

The drama had a good and gripping start with the trial and everything surrounding it but it was the only trial in the drama. The rest turned out to be something different. I wish we had more like that trial. Although the silliness and slacking around was fun at first but it got a little tiring later on and padding the drama with 3 full episodes of flashbacks with a serious tone wasn't enough. Despite its shorter runtime there were big inconsistencies rooming around, it's like they had 3 dramas with 3 different ideas shoved into one. However, the drama always felt like there was something missing to formula. I really liked the concept, it had much more to offer than we were shown. The characters and their dynamic had a lot of potential to be expanded upon. The cast also brought up a good performance to the screen. I found the murder case to be the weakest part of the drama and somewhat boring, it also took too much time before moving on to something else. Right just when we started to get real development the drama ended, that was really unfortunate. I don't think this will get season 2 based on what they've done with these 12 episodes.

The very first scene we were introduced to generic high schoolers that left a sour first impression. Right off the bat we were hammered with the deplorable trope of bullies and rich kids that both were done in the most tacky ways possible. I hated every second but I kept my patience waiting for the fantasy/supernatural tag to kick in and change the scenery. It certainly did for a little while during the first half despite being very slow, especially with the insane 80 minutes runtime per episode. However, the drama started to fall apart around episode 7 and it became an unwatchable piece of utter junk after the insane 10-years time-skip in episode 9. Any potentials it had were evaporated.

The story had insane gaps that were impossible to patch. There are a lot of points to be made about the mystery, secrets, reveals, decisions, and transformations but I would be repeating myself. It was really frustrating watching the golden spoon's rules change and evolve to fit the story's new development and narrative, a very strong sign of amateur writing! It's possible to blame the writers' heavy reliance on the source material and doing the bare minimum to script it. Since the source material is a Webtoon, it wasn't surprising seeing strange behaviors and random elements starting to seep through. It's hard to trust a Webtoon story to translate well into screen without competent writers unless the Webtoon creator was exceptionally brilliant which in this case he wasn't.

The drama was a big hot mess I don't even know where to start. The synopsis turned out to be a bit misleading from what we were presented. The family wasn't really involved as the journey was mostly one-sided led by the father. Right from the beginning we were introduced to this broken-beyond-repair family but they don't "band together" as the synopsis suggests, they just tolerate each other in this sticky situation. There were a lot of points to pick up from the story but everything boiled down to having one of the sloppiest writing efforts, this might have worked for a mediocre action flick bloated with action scenes but not for 10 episodes drama. The drama had the chance to get on the right track by episode 4 but they doubled down, and then tripled down around episode 7 when they introduced the father. They also quadrupled down when they attempted to shove in a lot of backstory in the last 2 episodes to make the climax emotional. They slapped in the +18 rating just so that they can light up a cigarette in every single scene, in particular, Kang Joo Hyun was lighting up a cigarette in every scene she had. Their lack of creativity was apparent. The most frustrating thing about the entire drama was Dong Ha never letting off some steam. He never lost his nerves or screamed out loud through the entire thing despite his world collapsing from every angle, except that one time at his students which was totally irrelevant. The last episode was mostly a very fast wrap up with no room to talk or do anything, they were cleaning off the cast that they won't be including in the sequel. With all of that, Netflix had the audacity to tease for a continuation!

Although the twin had different styles with different clothing to make them distinguishable enough but I found it a little tiring to keep making a conscious effort to differentiate between the two. Maybe throwing on some glasses would help or I'm just too lazy. The first episode felt too tame and didn't show enough gripping elements. That scene in the forest at the beginning of episode 2 really sat the overall tone of the drama moving forward. At that point, it was obvious it's going to be the type of show that would waste time on nonsense, fail to deliver the information and dance around aimlessly. I though I would give them the benefit of the doubt; they might deliver on that with clever plays but they never did. Not even the twins element was utilized enough. After about 4 episodes, the drama lost most, if not all, of its engaging elements. The mystery turned into a snoozefest. This was beyond what's considered a slow burner. It took 11 long episodes for something noteworthy to happen. The ending was underwhelming after all that wait and they had the audacity to set up some teasers for possible continuation.