6
Was this review helpful to you?
Nope...
Well, to sum it up.... it's bad! It's one of those cheep tv-novels with no care or budget. It you look at some corners on the set you'll see it falling apart. They even use digital zoom and cropping instead of optical zoom in 2020!! If you were to use ChatGPT to generate a kdrama script it would totally crush this drama. BTW, it's called "Mom Has an Affair" but no affair to be seen anywhere!Was this review helpful to you?
Barely serviceable....
Personally, it was a little rough to get through because I really don't like "Zo In Sung" as an actor. Tedious, annoying and predictable love triangle. The moment the "accident" happened, I knew the drama was a goner and I was 100% right. Ngl a bit annoyed that it went on for 20 episodes just to get this conclusion, didn't like the finale pairing either. The female lead classifies amongst the unlikable female leads in Kdrama world. Anyway, Go Hyun Jung & Ji Jin Hee deserve to be in better projects.Was this review helpful to you?
It's a miss...
I'm a huge fan of older drama but this one missed the mark for me. It was unnecessarily over-complicated for every relationship in the show. For every character and relationship the writing was good enough just to fall flat and flop around episode 11 without being able to recover at all. You may think the reunion plot-line of the sisters is the main focus but unfortunately it was given the bare minimum of attention, even the climax of their reunion was underwhelming. If and only if the ending was slightly tiny bit better. It just felt like this type of ending that they went for was unwarranted. At the end, it was too big of a let down, not a single thing went as I hoped for. At least let the bad guys win just to spike some interest in the drama.I asked my friend, who is an anthropologist, and he confirmed to me that Lee Seon Woo is a newly undiscovered human species; they may resemble conventional modern humans but they differ with one particular characteristic that is their empty cranial cavity. Truly a spectacular discovery, how could they function? A mystery that would never be solved.
Was this review helpful to you?
Was this review helpful to you?
One of the draggier ones.........
The drama had no right to be this long for the amount of content it provides. Small limited cast, thin story, some side stories left underdeveloped and eventually were brushed off, limited number of side stories/side couples considering this is a family drama not a makjang. The main story was stretched too thin with extreme drag, 20 episodes can pass without the character making a decision. The kidney plot line was like 60+ episodes or something.This is one of the most unlikable male leads in a long running drama. The female lead life was falling apart, her mother was on the verge of death, along with a handful of problems from her in-laws, son and grandma. YET despite the ML knowing all of that, the insensitive selfish prick all he care about is himself and no one else. Chasing the female lead, trying to kiss her, pressuring her why she doesn't love him back or marry him. He didn't even care about her son, how can he be a father? Judging by his overall behavior, I doubt their "happily ever after" story would last very long. One more thing, there's absolutely zero chemistry between the leads anyway.
The other male to hate is Noh Tae Wan, he's excessively authoritarian over FL in a seriously creepy and uncomfortable way. Never seen an in-law in k-drama behave this aggressively and obsessively towards a brother's wife. The later plot line about the in-laws arguing over the child was also nauseating, childish and plane stupid.
The drama lacks a lot in general, doesn't deliver a worthy experience and it's a heavy investment to get into, don't watch it unless you care about some of the cast members.
Was this review helpful to you?
Bad...
This is the worst long-running drama I've seen from SBS usually they are serviceable, no wonder they canceled the time slot. It's really unfortunate that Choi Jung Yoon came back from 7 years hiatus for this awful project. This is one of the most brainsmooth stories in kdrama I've seen, absolutely mind numbing. This is the writer's first drama and it's showing big time. Amateur writing, cheap production, bad stylists and horrendous cast performance. There are kids shows better written than this, it's hard to believe a human wrote this. A production value from 20 years ago, awful lighting and sound design. These stylists need to be fired, look at the characters' faces, a thick mask of whatever make up they have is about to fall off. Finally the cast, which consists of 85% of unknowns who can't act and are always awkward. For the same reason, the few side stories we had were uninteresting and lacked and characterization. I think what contributed to the death of this drama the most is the lack of familiar faces, the size of the cast and the side stories.Misleading poster, the redhead was only there for the first 25 episodes then turned to brunette/dark.
Was this review helpful to you?
Kinda watchable...
Don't watch it for the romance, this is 90% politics/business/drama and 10% romance. Most of the couples don't get together until around the ending. Speaking of the ending, last 15 episodes was a one big event that got stretched for way too goddamn long. The ending itself was really lame, this weak-ass ending isn't fitting for a 64 eps drama. Many characters didn't get a follow up or update at the end, like Soo Hyuk's mother and her love interest.The drama also lacked consistency, its pace is all over the place especially the writing quality, as if there are more than one writer going against each other. Episodes 30 to 50 felt like a dry batch. The excessive time skips were another weak part of the drama and a prime example for how not to do a time-skip. Every time there was a skip the drama created a jarring big disconnect with its content and flow. The action/fighting scenes look too staged and artificial. The dramatic thunder clap sound effect radiates extreme cringe energy.
It's weird for Jung Hye's father to feel this entitled for a daughter he didn't raise for 30+ years. He was introduced around the end and his sole purpose was to create some tension with the baddies, another reason why this drama should have been only 50 eps. Speaking of female leads, imagine if the writers gave both female leads more than 1 singular brain cell! That would make the drama a bit more tolerable.
Cha Soo Hyuk (Lee Pil Mo) is the worst part about this drama, this pathetic leech of sub-human with severe inferiority complex and victim complex. He deserves a worse ending, how he ended up wasn't enough.
Was this review helpful to you?
Great love story.
What's love? This is a mature story about people falling out of love, searching for love and are afraid of love. Great character writing and smooth exchange of dialogue. The subtle comedy was done wonderfully. The drama had a unique sense of direction at times where it expands beyond the conventional realm of drama, it even steps into film territory briefly with film-like shot compositions and witty dialogue. This is the type of drama where whether the couple came back together or not is irrelevant, their love story is what made it worth it. The drama isn't perfect by any means, but it succeed in delivering a well made package. Although I wish if they merged Mi Yeon and Yoo Kyung into one character/story instead of giving each a section in the drama.Lee Ha Na, this is her first acting role in drama or film and she absolutely nailed her performance. She even outshone Son Ye Jin every now and then. I find her, as an actress, is better fit in casual roles like this one over action ones like in "Voice". It would be nice if Voice would just end with season 5 and Lee Ha Na would move to bigger and better projects.
Was this review helpful to you?
Passable, I guess?
The opening scene is a teaser from episode 17, I hate when a drama pull this kind of stuff. It's okay to tease a couple of episodes in advance but not a teaser from the ending. Speaking of the ending, the last two episodes were bad, they were leaning to heavily on old melodrama themes/cliches that doesn't work in the context of this drama. Most of the cast did a half-assed job, their performance came out as awkward and immature, especially from those who work in the campaign. The candidate's son Jang Sung Min was the worst character/actor in the dram, replace him with a stranger might be better.Regarding the story and its events, there was no real big escalations that you might expect in a political focused drama, it was mostly the known generic jabs in a political context. They forced "In Yeong" and "Min Ki" plot line but then proceeded to brush it off aside without much regard. Their screen time appearance was very limited after that. The drama was passable at best.
Was this review helpful to you?
Poong, the Joseon Psychiatrist Season 2
3 people found this review helpful
Poong, the Joseon Virgin
The earlier episodes of the first season were decent and promising but there was a clear and undeniable pattern slowly starting to emerge after a few episodes. The drama was heading in a downward spiral throughout its both seasons. There was no clear direction to its story, I wanted it to remain as a slice of life but even that was not attractive on its own. Each passing episode felt like a downgrade of the previous episode. By the end of 2nd season, my interest had plummeted and it lost any remaining appeal. The only plausible reason for this drama to get a season 3 is if the studio wanted to commit some kind of money laundering/tax fraud scheme. It's never a good sign to adapt something and have its serialization based on public perception. This will most likely result in incomplete stories and padded semi-soft endings unless its creators were to pull through and be the exception. In more than one way, the Anime sphere shifted mostly towards this scheme in the past 6-7 years and it turned into a survival of the fittest type of race. The Kdrama is slowly heading in the exact same direction.Was this review helpful to you?
What were they even thinking!
Coming to this drama after finishing Im Kkeok Jung (1996) is such a disappointing shitty experience in comparison. This drama was fundamentally flawed in every imaginable aspect. The cast members are usually competent in other projects but the directors did such a poor sloppy job in handling the cast. The drama had 3 directors and still managed to fuck up! They must have been busy fighting each other over working on the drama.Was this review helpful to you?
BAD
Where to even begin with this mockery. It's as appalling as it sounds. The journey of a dickless simp following a clown king who can't control his dick. They could have explored the world of eunuchs in many different and interesting ways but they choose to go through the absolute worst possible route and interpretation of eunuchs. I wonder which is easier, finishing this drama or castration? Writing, story, direction, cast performance, sound design, cinematography, production, and characters were all abysmal by any measure. If you were to look through the last few episodes you'll realize even the writer was fed up with the drama and turned it into a hate writing. Even if you were a big fan of one of the cast members, I don't see this being worth it.Was this review helpful to you?
I had some expectations...
If you're looking for a historical drama about the foundation Goguryeo then this drama is NOT it. This drama was mostly about the in palace melodrama and conflict. Furthermore, it's important to know that this drama included a handful of fantasy elements sprinkled around all over it, so don't expect it to be grounded to reality. Han Hye Jin who played the female lead as Soh Seo No was a poor cast choice. Soh Seo No needed a more rigid and stubborn looking actress to better fit the character.A weak incapable king, a greedy prince and an underdog illegitimate prince going aimlessly in circles. Wars, fights and action were surprisingly and disappointingly scarce for a never-ending 81 episodes historical drama about the founders of Goguryeo. Which is why we had little to no planning or strategy for these wars. That one big war at the end against another nation that we waited ages for, was condensed down to just 1 singular episode of utter disappointment. In fact, the entire last episode was extremely rushed and we were given a joke of a wrap up. They had all the time in the world and they couldn't make a decent send off. The last episode was absolutely stripped off genuine emotions. It robs you the wrong way after you had gone through 81 episodes. Speaking of which, they were trying too hard to reach the 81 mark with prolonged uncut full-scenes repeated flashbacks! You would lose your mind watching it serializing.
Was this review helpful to you?
Pain is temporary
A poor fantasy that failed to establish a reasonable foundation from the very beginning, it even did a worse job with its brittle world building. The low budget visual effects weren't helping its case either. The cast may seems to be fine on the surface but the characters were as one dimensional as they could come. Its second biggest selling point after fantasy is the romance, of which was the least appealing aspect of the drama. By the end, I couldn't care the slightest about either of the leads and their fate. A cheap Chinese knock off fantasy with gods and dragons would have been better than this.Was this review helpful to you?
