6
Wasted potentials (as always?)
It's really disappointing to see a drama with a good and enjoyable start just to wither away later on, that includes everything even the cast. As if every single person that was involved in making the drama got tired of the project. Although the earlier parts were enjoyable but I was rolling my eyes every single time Je Yi & Soo Yeon show up on the screen and broke the momentum. They were both easily the worst part of the drama in general. As expected, by the time we got to see the real culprit, it turned out to be a caroonish joker knock off with zero effort put into writing him. To state the obvious, Namkoong was doing an unbelievable amount of heavy lifting to keep this drama afloat. The OST was decent at the right time, while other times it was just some background noise. It's still a decent watch and the slightly shorter runtime was helpful but temper your expectations a bit.Was this review helpful to you?
Lazy
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.Was this review helpful to you?
Good
Great casting choices, all of them were a good fit for their character. Doo Na is such a natural she always stand out. Glad to see Cha Tae Hyun in more main roles. It's hard to find a mature drama that isn't overly melodramatic or infested with tropes. It started off as a slice of life to get us accustomed with the characters, their backstory and their current status. It took until the last third before the characters began to spill out their guts and get serious. Aside from the supporting cast, all of the four leads were elegantly written, well developed and interesting on their own. It's a solid drama and I thoroughly enjoyed the journey, however, there were a few things that held it from reaching higher. I wish the cinematography would have been better with tighter compositions and theme. I also wish there was more investment in creating a suitable soundtrack. Upping the production value in these two areas would have helped the drama in creating a memorable atmosphere and nudge it to be one of the best of its genre. One last thing, I wonder what Hwi Ru whispered to Seok Moo in the final scene?Was this review helpful to you?
Bad police drama
This drama was hands down the worst portrayal of police force I've ever seen. They were unbelievably bad at their job, even for 'police' drama standards. This is the most important aspect the drama needed to nail but failed to do so and resulted in a lukewarm detective/thriller drama. Both Soo Young's backstory and the main villain were lame and disappointing. The only redeeming quality was its cast, specifically the main cast, other than that the drama is straight up a failure. Not even Jang Hyuk contribution helped it. Speaking of which, Jang Hyuk looking like professor Snape in the poster lol.Was this review helpful to you?
Failure is an option
For a slow drama to work you need a tight and controlled storytelling otherwise it will turn into a tasteless picture of which this drama fell into constantly. This notion was only amplified further by poor character writing, poor plot devices, and poor attention to details. The writer must have been utterly delusional thinking she was writing something "good". The final blow was delivered with cutting down the number of episodes. On the bright side, it ended early!Was this review helpful to you?
Big yikes...
Just from watching the first 5 episodes the story was too thin and I was wondering how this will keep going for 103 episodes. It seemed impossible. The answer became apparent 20 episodes later.These relationships were seriously fucked up and what made them frustrating is that the characters over complicated everything on themselves to create "the" story. That's one of the worst ways to write a story. Everyone is fucking everyone, everyone is pregnant, everyone is lying, everyone is swapping DNA tests, everyone is swapping partners back and forth, everyone got a baby, everyone is the father and everyone is a sociopath. At the end, everyone hanging around with each other like nothing happened after all the vile acts against humanity and the nastiness they went through. I can't even!! Both the writing and the actors failed to show remorse.
Finished the drama and the frustration and disgust didn't wash off. To get through this, you'll need a strong stomach.
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Definitely overrated.
Misty - mist - fog - tunnel, they were trying to be artistic and poetic for the ending but it didn't land at all, comically over dramatic hideous ending. Excruciatingly slow, not only the pace but also as if it was shot in slow motion 0.8x speed. Style over substance with this joke of a script. I wish they kept it pure murder mystery rather than adding a political angle to it. Speaking of mystery, there is hardly any, quite predictable and linear.The actress Jin Ki Joo doesn't fit her character, she doesn't look like an anchorwoman unlike the female lead who had a perfect portrayal of an anchorwoman. The detective always looked exhausted and about to fall asleep. Give the man an energy drink or something! I swear Lee Kyung Young plays the exact same character and have the same energy in every drama he ever been in.
With all that being said, it's mediocre at best.
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High potentials, fails to deliver!
Let's state the obvious, the comedic moments weren't good, it always felt forced. I assume they wanted to do that to lighten the mode? It took what felt like an eternity to kick start the story. Teasing the viewers constantly about the "tape" for the entire series was kinda annoying. How many times you can save Ha Ram's life became a personality trait for the male characters in the drama lol.When you over complicate a story, things get out of hand real quick really fast. Maybe dedicate some of the budget to hire a team of skilled veteran writers instead? Many convoluted plotlines were brushed off eventually. Half of the death cases weren't interesting. The last 2 episodes in general contain some serious unsalvageable nonsense. The writer turned off her brain and started writing willy-nilly. Starting from the beginning of episode 13 there was a big disconnect with the story and the momentum.
Abysmal ending. The ending goes into my list of "I'm a special quirky little writer so I'mma pull an ending out the depths of my ass". They tried to make it "poetic" but ended up shooting themselves in the foot. The writing department was really lacking and barely functional that by the end it leaves you with nothing but pretty visuals. This is a real case of a drama that had high potentials but fails to deliver.
In conclusion, it got a visually appealing atmosphere, good enough cast, and it's entertaining enough to be passable. Definitely doesn't deserve the hype. The series was from Netflix I should have known better. This is a 5.75/10 on a good day.
P.S. Kim Won Hae is always a treat to watch.
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It's just good
Excruciatingly long and pointlessly slow until the last two episodes where they speed up everything, yet the last 2 eps were underwhelming for an ending, especially the last 30 minutes wtf was that! It's full of fillers and mundane conversation. These conversations don't contribute in any meaningful way other than prolonging the series, if they were to serve a comedic purpose or to further develop the characters then sure keep them going. Also, 25+ hours of workplace abuse/politics is utterly exhausting and mind numbing. Massive missed opportunity to utilize this "empty" time to present a better story. Most of the drama is focused on Geu Rae & Sang Shik while the side stories are brushed off and barely given any attention.Nonetheless, it's a good package but not as good as I was expecting. Looking at ratings/reviews my expectations were too damn high.
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To polish a turd
They tried to sprinkle in some fake scripted bland romance in the beginning but they forgot to add the chemistry to the mix and develop it gradually, so it ended up being too delayed to care about. The same thing can be said about the mystery once it dwindled, like it lost its mojo in a heartbeat. The trend continued until the end without ever recovering. To put it simply, the story was dead on arrival from all angles and salvaging it was near impossible. As if that wasn't enough, we had to endure it for 18 episodes. Which leaves us with the saddest part, the cast, specifically the leads. What a fine collection of disappointing soulless performances. I guess FL was kinda passable to a certain degree but the other trio boys were a lost cause.Was this review helpful to you?
Problematic
This is the first (I think) and worst mental-illness/psychiatrists focused drama! It's common for the patient to crush over their psychiatrist and fall in love, because they are mentally unstable and vulnerable, but once the roles are flipped and the psychiatrist is the one imposing their feelings on the patient then there's a big problem at hand.The first obvious problem is for a psychiatrist to fall in love with his patient. It would probably be less of a problem for a doctor in another field but not a psychiatrist, a professional dealing with mentally vulnerable people. With all that being said, I could easily turn a blind eye to the whole ordeal if the drama was comedic/light/romance and never took the serious and professional route, of which this drama tried so hard to go for. The second big problem, there was a blatant attempt to stir the narrative in that direction while disregarding any coherency at the same time. We can clearly see an example of that right from the beginning in episode 1 with everything happened with the cop incident.
This drama had nothing to offer other than a pretty cast. Anyway, they failed miserably in handling the concept and ended up producing a very poor product. A disgrace to real professional psychiatrists!
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Real Estate Scam
As per design, this is the usual love square quarrels from the 2000s, following the blueprint precisely but with one major unforgivable flaw. It's expected from this formula to have a loose story not adhering to reality, common sense or logic, in one way or another it blends and enhances its entertaining value to push forward the narrative and dynamics. However, this drama went beyond what the viewers may deem passable in that regard with how they snowballed the setup involving the FL's friends, and her friends existence in general, pure atrocity. I refuse to believe that the writer spent more than 1-2 minutes thinking about the initial setup. Admittedly, the cast is what kept it alive and watchable, from the main leads to the elder cast, absolutely excluding the duo friends. The resolution and the romance in general felt quite distant from the characters, probably because they held it off for too long before establishing a clear communication between the leads which only happened in the last episode. Overall, the drama was just alright.Was this review helpful to you?
Our Gloomed Youth
The story kicked off with the female lead getting falsely accused of murder and the prince is connected to the incident. So how would they structure the drama around this narrative? They had the female lead spend most of the drama hanging around the prince waiting for something to pop up for the story to move again, which didn't happen until the last few episodes. Unbelievably long and draggy for little to no story or character development. Everything can be summed up with 6 episodes without compromising anything from the narrative. The romance and the secrets were too delayed to care about, instead of laying them out evenly. Which made romance redundant by the end. Aside from the initial few episodes, I don't see anything appealing in this drama.Was this review helpful to you?
A cheap flick
Went from promising to disappointing real quick. Cults and hypnosis/mind-control is the worst combination to make a mystery/thriller/horror drama. It gives the writer an unlimited pass for a lazy writing and this is what we got here. The cast was alright tho.Was this review helpful to you?
YIKES!
It's exactly as bad as the synopsis made it sound and its execution was 10 folds worse. I feel sorry for older cast such as Ahn Nae Sang and Kim Hee Jung to have this drama in their resume. The entire drama was disastrous enough but the leading cast was the worst part of it. The actors/actresses themselves and their respective characters were failing and stumbling every step of the way with no chance of recovery.Was this review helpful to you?
