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Witching!
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.Was this review helpful to you?
It's safe to assume it's the worst drama themed around Webtoon
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 was a love confession?! Huh?Was this review helpful to you?
Thomas the Time Engine
First impressions are important and this one didn't have a good one. The drama really needed a better introduction for what they had, the first episode was just plain bad and it didn't serve its purpose. While I appreciate the shorter runtime of 12 episodes that OCN usually offers with their thrillers but even in this case some scenes and episodes were redundant. It didn't help its case repeating that one specific flashback of the night when male lead met Seo Kyung and lost his father about 20-30 times throughout the drama. The story had its usual plot holes just like most thriller/mystery of its kind but at least there wasn't anything outrageous. One more thing, it felt like it was the type of show that would benefit greatly from a custom made good OST.Was this review helpful to you?
Not About Eve
It didn't take more than half an episode to set your expectations for what about to come. The set up was very poorly done, it was extremely detached from reality and the characters molded themselves around that for the remainder of the drama which became seriously problematic later on and an impossible hurdle to overcome. The characters kept displaying bizarre behaviors at every corner that it made it difficult to connect with the narrative. They should've embraced the cliches and amplified them instead of tiptoeing around them awkwardly. The characters couldn't hold a single decent and coherent conversation or a piece of dialogue, it's just bad writing and an insult to the viewers! Yun Hyong Chul character felt extremely robotic and lacked real emotions beyond setting sadly while drinking & smoking. The drama treated him like a clown anyway. The pacing was dreadful as well, these 20 episodes felt much longer than a regular 20 episodes drama. Chae Rim did a lot of melos in the 2000s but I think this drama turned out to be the worst one of them.Was this review helpful to you?
The Scam Cafe
Right off the bat the technical problems were too glaring to ignore. The washed out black levels were a true eye sore that I had to make a custom color profile for it through the media player. A big portion of the drama was shot in direct bright sun light which amplified the problem even further. Enough technicality, the drama was supposed to offer a mix of romance, comedy and law, although hints of these genres do exist but the drama did an outstanding job in failing miserably with incorporating and mixing each one of them. They may throw some cheap lines within the legal field but that wasn't enough to qualify it to slap the law genre tag, let alone its name. I find it hard to believe that someone would find this funny. I think even our primitive ancestors would have a hard time with it. Finally, anything involving the romance as a concept was unquestionably broken. They couldn't even have a chemistry running despite being the first step for any kind of romance. Lee Seung Gi shouldn't have accepted this project. For dramas that waste 90% of its runtime on absolute nothingness, this drama would have a strong placement in my Top 10. With all that being said, unfortunately, this drama isn't the worst of its kind; I've seen worse.Was this review helpful to you?
Greedy Youth
My first impression is that these 2 male leads weren't suitable to play this type of scenario in this "youthful" setting. It's hard to see them attempting romance even when they were in their 30s. Something doesn't click no matter what! Although the drama was long but it kept you entertained watching the car crash. The revenge was tame, it never went too far but that was the drama's intent to begin with. You can get the gist of that just from reading the synopsis. However, there were some cruel parts in the process which helped selling the injustice, better than a lot of modern ones who attempted similar approach. The dialogue was fairly good, usually we don't get extended dialogues that let the characters to actually talk even if it got a bit melo along the way. The opening theme was good but when I listened to the full version I wasn't a fan of the rest. The characters went through a reasonable development without neglecting the secondary ones which typically get neglected because of their wrong doings. It did such a good job showing the wrongful side being genuine in repenting. The drama wrapped things up better than I expected, it gave an actual proper conclusion to its leads. While the drama isn't perfect but it offered an appealing package.Was this review helpful to you?
Not That Cold of a Winter
It wouldn't have been an old drama if they didn't give us the ending as an introduction at the very beginning. The even took it a step further to narrate to us that this is how it ended exactly. It kinda took away from the show when the ending is spelled out to you this blatantly. Anyway, this is a less than average love story between the trio leads without anything interesting going on. I had a few ideas at different points were the story could've taken a better direction but none of that happened. The male lead Son Chang Min didn't do a good job playing this shy and innocent kid at the beginning. It was too weird and awkward. They wanted to show a big contrast to his transition later on but they could've done it in better ways. On the other hand, Jung Sung Mo did pretty well for his character, I even think it's better than most of his modern roles. Anyway, the drama as a whole felt super limited and they didn't do much with what they had.Was this review helpful to you?
A bad spinoff
I really liked their gradual introduction to the theme and the zombies but this kind of introduction felt too long and lasted for several episodes without any pieces moving in the story. It was a bit obvious this was done on purpose to delay progress for Season 2. Meanwhile, Season 2 took a step back and tried to develop its characters even though there was no room for that. Although Kingdom as a whole is relatively short but it needed a more precise cut to suit what we've been presented. Maybe cutting it down to 8 episodes in total would be ideal. The slow atmospheric shots with eerie background music were pleasant at first, but they quickly became overused to death and an abrupt change was needed but never happened.The movie Ashin of the North was an unnecessary addition that felt empty, out of place and was missing something to make us care. In traditional Netflix fashion, always make sure to lay the groundwork for endless possible future seasons/iterations at the end of every turn. Despicable greed!
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Joseon of The Dead
I really liked their gradual introduction to the theme and the zombies but this kind of introduction felt too long and lasted for several episodes without any pieces moving in the story. It was a bit obvious this was done on purpose to delay progress for Season 2. Meanwhile, Season 2 took a step back and tried to develop its characters even though there was no room for that. Although Kingdom as a whole is relatively short but it needed a more precise cut to suit what we've been presented. Maybe cutting it down to 8 episodes in total would be ideal. The slow atmospheric shots with eerie background music were pleasant at first, but they quickly became overused to death and an abrupt change was needed but never happened. The movie Ashin of the North was an unnecessary addition that felt empty, out of place and was missing something to make us care. In traditional Netflix fashion, always make sure to lay the groundwork for endless possible future seasons/iterations at the end of every turn. Despicable greed!Was this review helpful to you?
Joseon of The Dead
I really liked their gradual introduction to the theme and the zombies but this kind of introduction felt too long and lasted for several episodes without any pieces moving in the story. It was a bit obvious this was done on purpose to delay progress for Season 2. Meanwhile, Season 2 took a step back and tried to develop its characters even though there was no room for that. Although Kingdom as a whole is relatively short but it needed a more precise cut to suit what we've been presented. Maybe cutting it down to 8 episodes in total would be ideal. The slow atmospheric shots with eerie background music were pleasant at first, but they quickly became overused to death and an abrupt change was needed but never happened. The movie Ashin of the North was an unnecessary addition that felt empty, out of place and was missing something to make us care. In traditional Netflix fashion, always make sure to lay the groundwork for endless possible future seasons/iterations at the end of every turn. Despicable greed!Was this review helpful to you?
Live Up to Your Shame
Things can get really muddy when talking about the science of acupuncture, although this is a fantasy but to try and push one narrative over the other this desperately is a tough sell in this scenario. I don't think the drama managed to navigate mixed medicine practices from a modern medicine point of view successfully. In fact, the entire thing was dropped very quickly a few episodes later without being brought up again. So why did they ever bother? The first 5 episodes were enjoyable without overbearing time-travel cliches. However, everything turned to worse with episode 6, that's where they introduced your typical mundane cheese of someone who traveled in time. At this exact point, there was a harsh shift in the story, everything slowed down, and a plethora of extreme suspension of disbelief elements in contrast to the world building they had established were thrown in. Although we got brief hints of the story at the beginning from her grandpa and that one prisoner but it felt like it won't address these points until the last few episodes and that turned out to be true. Although I enjoyed the first 5 episodes but the rest were just disappointing.Was this review helpful to you?
Salamander-Man
The idea of a gang pretending to be fortune-tellers to scam people sounded promising, but the show had a hard time keeping up a consistent comedic rhythm throughout. It tried to mix in this absurd humor and wacky scenarios, but most of the jokes felt like they were pushed and stretched too thin. They turned more stale the longer they kept going. While the characters may have been acceptable but they lacked in verity, more archetypes were needed to bring the comedy to life and create a more interesting dynamic. It could've been a bigger problem if the runtime was to be longer. Anyway, even though there were some moments that showed off creative thinking and quirky charm, it just couldn't keep that interesting premise going.Was this review helpful to you?
Joseon Ex-Exorcist
I noticed it started and ended without accomplishing anything, it just went over a singular small event that wouldn't even fit a movie format. Then I realized it was a drama that was cancelled. Regardless of the cancellation, I didn't see anything appealing or interesting in these two 70-min episodes. These possessed creatures were your generic screechy zombies with no life in them, no pun intended. The drama didn't provide a good introduction to set up the story or a good introduction to establish the characters in these two episodes, which should have been an enough duration to do both things easily. It got cancelled but at least the cast got paid.Was this review helpful to you?
Your Country: The Imaginary Age
I have a thing or two against impervious plot armors that goes to the extremes and this drama was structured around that. The way these characters shrugged off serious injuries and strong poisons without a hitch was just plain comical circus performance. It made the whole series lose its credibility and left this sour taste lingering in your mouth. The characters transformation and development marred the story with crazy inconsistencies and illogical character arcs for the sake of forced progression. Everything went downhill after episode 4, it relied on these outlandish situations that made it way too hard to remain invested. It strained our ability to suspend disbelief way too often to be forgiven. One of the action soundtracks was straight up just a Eurobeat soundtrack, really odd and unfitting choice. Kinda ruined some action scenes. On the bright side, we had Jang Hyuk and some nice action scenes.Was this review helpful to you?
The First Attempt
At first glance, the cast was stacked but that alone wasn't enough. The drama was obviously some kind of a parody on the genre but it didn't embrace its nature. It made me realized the complete lack of parodies in Kdrama in general which is really unfortunate. Hyper intense, extreme overreactions, deranged morals, illogical by design, fueled by insanity, and unhinged characters. However, for this formula to work, the drama needed one of two things, either add more self-awareness, commit to the theme and double down or create a structure amidst this entire madness. Both of which the drama didn't do. Which left us with a half-arsed attempt to what could have been a unique experience. It would have benefited greatly if it had been cut down to 12 episodes. Will remember it for the potentials it might have had.Was this review helpful to you?
