6
Steve Jobs on Crack
Where would you even begin with this crazy hot mess? The first 3-4 episodes were acceptable despite moving too fast and creating many gaps. However, as the drama unfolded, it became clear that it was biting off more than it could chew. Right off from episode 5, the drama became an irrecoverable mess. The pacing was erratic, jumping between weak fabricated plot twists, jarring narrative and bloated segments with no sense of cohesion. The drama was throwing everything at the viewers to see what sticks. Action, thriller, fantasy, sci-fi, mystery, melodrama, the drama couldn't decide what it wanted to be nor it managed to mix any of them well. The characters felt like caricatures rather than fully developed individuals, and their motivations often seemed arbitrary, inconsistent and generally weak. If the drama wanted to go for stupid ridiculousness then why not raise the stakes to match? Not even the ending could measure up to its intent despite its "supposed" twist.Was this review helpful to you?
Dali The Helpless!
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.Was this review helpful to you?
Modern-Day Delusional Liberation
The cinematography and visuals were great although they went overboard with tilted shots and angles, surpassing their creative limits. The drama had a decent melodic score that blended with the shots just okay but no particular track stood out. Enough technicality, no matter how I look at it, the drama boiled down to be a cheap mix between Thirty-Nine (2022) & My Mister (2018), lacking soul and a unique identity. The self narration bits were a hit or miss, some lines were brilliant and fit the mood, while others were just nonsensical pretentious scribbles. There was a good opportunity to give these narrations to other characters as well but these were mostly done by Yeom Mi Jung. The end of episode 2 made it seem like a tacky show in a fancy wrapping, signaling that it wouldn't stay grounded and would resort to impractical moves to progress the plot forward and grab attention. This is one thing the drama constantly kept contradicting itself with. I didn't like their approach for the ending; they should've just wrapped it up instead of sneakily dancing around it for way too long. Don't excuse its shortcomings by calling it a slow show. Both the writer and director have succeeded in creating slow shows before, but this one missed the mark and sacrificed other important elements along the way. Even with a very relaxed 16 episodes, most of the characters didn't get the development they deserved, but I guess some slice of life scenes were more important. That one major transition around episode 13-14 was embarrassingly poorly done and was a real cowardly move by the writer to escape the writer's block. It left an unerasable stain for what could've been a decent show. Although there were aspects to like and appreciate, the drama didn't quite reach its potential.Was this review helpful to you?
A 5 episodes story turned into a full 16 episodes drama!
Ha Ji Won is one of my favorite actresses, on the contrary, both male leads (Lee Jin Wook & Yoon Kyun Sang) are amongst actors I hate. Both of which I've seen most of their filmography, they always put up artificial expressions, borderline cringe and overact.This drama was quite disappointing, lackluster writing full of incoherent and jarring flashbacks, plus a sleazy shitty love triangle. The drama was heavily reliant on the ML's secret (why he can't love FL) to construct a story and this is its biggest downfall. The secret wasn't even that grandiose, it was just some insignificant bullshit from the teenage days. What a way to fucking blueballs the viewers.
I would say 3.5/10 and I'm being generous. By the end I wanted a miserable ending just for a final fuck you to the viewers.
Was this review helpful to you?
The bullshit starts after the first 1 year time-skip. It's impossible for Se Kyung hair to grow this long in a year lol. The drama hit the shitter after episode 32. It's impossible for someone as rich as Pil Mo to be this dunce, the dude got a single digit IQ. Kang Ha Ri is a main character but she almost doesn't show up in the second half, 5 episodes can pass without seeing her.
Worst time-skip ending in a long running drama ever, I'm not satisfied with this half-assed outcome. This 6-years time skip was awful, none of the stories ended up as I hoped. Not a single pair ended up together "officially". The pairings were awful altogether anyway. Dal Hee didn't get punished enough.
Random remarks:
Hong Shi smile will resolve any conflict in a second. Since I saw Byun Jung Soo in "Manny (2011)", I can only remember her as Janice as she screams "I'm Janice!". Lee Yoo Ri cameo around the ending was superb.
Some serious illogical assery in spoilers:
- Dal Hee/Sera Park, Miss Lee and Tae Soo all were alive and barely punished at the end but Se Kyung is dead. In what absurd logic does this make sense!!
- They built up Ha Ri and Gi Chan to be together for +50 episodes, they confessed their feelings to each other, their parents in law agreed to give them their blessings, yet somehow for whatever bullshit reason the love interest shifted towards Se Joon in the last 5 episodes. They didn't even have that many scenes together, let alone the none existent chemistry. Kang Ha Ri got robbed, barely any screen time and shitty love path.
- Eun Hyang and Hwan Seung not ending up together is another random bullshit. Oh Yoon Ah put 200% in her performance.
Was this review helpful to you?
The Slipperiest Time Slip!
This drama turned out to be a reverse harem in disguise. A handful of princes with varied flavors happened to meet a mentally handicapped girl to start their quest of hunting this wild female from a different timeline. All of these princes have the edgiest troubled teens behaviors with a mix of daddy/mommy issues. Out of all of them, the male lead took the edge in being the ultimate dark and mysterious bad boy, literally. Zooming out, all of this was done for a trail of pathetic emotional baits with no substance, they were begging the viewers for pity points. The moment the female lead knew about them, she approached every single one with the mentality of "I can fix him". While the princes were intentionally irrecoverably broken by the writer to serve a purpose for the female lead, she equally had her own set of problems. Within the span of a few episodes she became weirdly too attached to all of them and going even further to offer sacrifices, while neglecting her brief arrival and the fact that she was transferred to the past, but I guess shirtless bois are irresistible. The romantic entanglements in general were agonizing to tolerate, it kept you wishing the worse for all of them. Although it was bad as is, but why did they decide to make it worse with each passing episode in the second half? It's just too painful knowing the writer is making fun of us. At least the cinematography was okay and I watched it on BluRay.Was this review helpful to you?
...
No one will give you the tune of despair like Jang Hyuk does. If you're expecting a father-daughter focused drama then don't even bother because that was less than 5% of the drama. Even the sport theme felt secondary. There need to be a supernatural tag/genre instead of adventure. It's about an evil pharmaceutical company making a drug that gives superpowers. Not even Jang Hyuk heavy lifting the entire drama on his back could've saved it. I wish this was only family/boxing themed, it would've been great.Was this review helpful to you?
There was an attempt, I guess...
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.
Was this review helpful to you?
Not that good!
It's 10 episodes too long, cut it in half! Feels like a copy from every other time-travel joseon era drama, especially "Queen In Hyun's Man (2012)" which shares great similarities. In comparison, "Queen In Hyun's Man (2012)" was better than this thin lukewarm copycat.A lot of things are thrown at you and you are meant to accept them without questioning or whatsoever. Se Na is a generic pitiful villain with no character. Diluted story, poorly executed. The chemistry is often too awkward between them. Don't get me started on the script/romance/characters/editing, all of which were distasteful. It's a shame, these kind of drama are the ones that get popular. 4.75/10
Don't watch it from NETFLIX, they cut scenes from every episodes. Watch the TV or Blu-ray version.
Was this review helpful to you?
Actually Deceitful
The drama fell short of its promising premise, stumbling through a maze of poorly executed plotlines and lackluster character development. It didn't take more than a few episodes, after the first couple of cases, to show its cracks, the narrative was disjointed, as if the writers couldn't decide which direction to take. Once the main case with Kyung Ja & Jay was brought to the front, the story went haywire. The drama failed to maintain a cohesive storyline after that. The main antagonists motivations were a total joke of a writing, let alone, the unhinged obsession of an adult over a little girl. While it's clear the creators aimed for a clever blend of mystery and drama, the execution fell flat, leaving more frustration than entertainment.Was this review helpful to you?
Joyless Jingles
Police officer Joy taking us on a joyless ride around the village. The fake cozy and small-town vibes failed to capture a convincing portrayal of small-town life but rather padded it with cheap cookie cutter village NPCs with bubbly visuals. The attempts at romance felt superficial and unconvincing, the female lead was always coming off too strong on the new guy in the village despite having little to no sufficient time to develop a romance, but rather relying on her ever long lasting impression of each other when they were kids. The transition was off. The case is even worse with the male lead. Anyway, it was a forgettable and uninspiring zero calories short drama.Was this review helpful to you?
Oof...
Within less than 3 minutes going into the first episode we were presented with these goofy and silly sound effects for every motion and laughter. My expectations were nullified immediately which definitely helped to endure it. The interactions between the characters were painfully artificial and static, which made the dreadful cheesiness even worse than it already was. This is how it seems from the surface but the content is much more revolting and ugly. Highly not recommended!Was this review helpful to you?
Dissapointment!
Interesting premise but horrible execution. Unfortunately it ended up being disappointing especially with how they handled both leads' characters. Aside from the main story, the side cases, investigations, and side villains all were mediocre anyway. The team doesn't matter, they were rarely shown, they had no existing persona, everything was led by and from the perspective of Tae Seok and they don't have any meaningful contribution even for the small cases. Which is why you can't consider this drama as one of those team investigation ones. Dare I say the drama was "less than average"!Was this review helpful to you?
A tough one to get through....
Misery stemmed from uncontrollable oppression is justifiable but self-inflicting misery is questionable and down right annoying and exhausting to sympathize with, which this drama absolutely love to slap the viewers with. Needless to say, the writing is definitely not its strongest suit. Still an attractive piece from the 90s. Korean production was still primitive compared to the pioneers at the time, and this drama was amongst the first big breakthroughs. Which makes me wonder why wasn't it remastered yet despite being a significant piece.Was this review helpful to you?
Meh...
The thing with the cast is that both male leads actors don't seem to be a good fit to be leads, I mean they always occupy 2nd-lead/support roles in their other projects for a reason. The mother-daughter relationship and dynamic was average at best and was only brought up in the last chunk of episodes probably because the main focus was on hiding the other unrelated secrets. The ending was too short and quick. It bothers me with these 50+ hours daily drama that the director can't just push for a proper send off despite having all the time in the world.Was this review helpful to you?
