6
Decent
Turned out to be a decent story. I really appreciated how it focuses on the individuals with a reasonable scoop while taking into consideration their surrounding rather than throwing in mindless connections to make the story more grand without relevant purpose such as wars/nations/kingdoms/factions. Although it started to lean a little bit into the other side towards the end, unfortunately, this is the fault of its runtime. Which brings me to my next point, the drama is definitely too long for its content and it would benefit greatly if it were to be condensed down to ~25 episodes, it would make a much more compelling package. Because of this, the drama had a serious issue with flashbacks. There was a one piece of dialogue that was repeated almost every other episode for its entire runtime, a bit too much! I liked the first 2/3 more than the last 1/3, things were changing at an unreasonable pace as we were approaching the end, you may say it was rushed. The last ~10 episodes were full of rapid changes where the drama felt like it lost it direction and didn't know how to stir it towards the end. The production seems to be passable despite its flaws even when taking into consideration that this was made in the early 2000s. Some scenes you will notice some great attention to details while other scenes you can see the tape of their fake facial hair.Was this review helpful to you?
Decent
The drama has its appeal despite the handful of small annoyances sprinkled throughout. Every single character has a trait or two which was over-amplified a bit too much that it came off as overbearing and annoying. The writer was trying too hard to force the viewers to sympathize with In Soon that it took away from her value as a character but it got better later on or maybe I just got too used to it that I subconsciously ignored it. The conclusion could've been better, some characters were brushed off just to wrap it up quickly. Where this drama shines and gets its appeal is with a handful of moments here and there where the writer shows his prowess with its dialogue away from the goofiness. Moreover, my favorites are the ones where the silence surrounds everything, no background music, no dialogue, no movement, everything is consumed by the void while some static images play in succession.Was this review helpful to you?
Dry
As dry as they could come, lacking creativity in the silliness and diversity in the cast. There was no appeal or whatsoever in both leads right from the very beginning. More often than not, it felt like a bunch of cosplayers fooling around the set.Was this review helpful to you?
Lazy!
This entire drama was like babysitting children. The amount of fights and ear piercing screams was mind numbing. Having a loud fight for every other scene is one of the worst ways to create tension. Its weight and impact diminish and become redundant the more they result to the same tactics.Was this review helpful to you?
Eh...
The same rancid formula we love to hate from these daily dramas except this one stinks more than the others like a swimming pool full of expired milk. Scummy through and through. That 10 years time skip ending had me sighing in agony.Was this review helpful to you?
A bag of air
The first 2 episodes were good enough for an introduction but the rest didn't hold up and ended up being a boring slice of life. The plot may seems interesting on the surface but they ended up being more like a mother-daughter relationship defying its original premise. They simply neglected the unique situation we were presented at the beginning. Regardless, it still didn't do a good job carrying its message despite having a very relaxed 16 episodes. It's still watchable, Yoo Hyun and his father were the most appealing part.Was this review helpful to you?
Disappointing
The production seems to be as bare-bones as they could come from the 2000s. A drama can still be functional even with the roughest cuts if other aspects held up which, unfortunately, isn't the case here. The writing was a big sloppy mess, incoherent, disconnected from reality and unbelievably corny, especially the older cast. The drama ended up with too many loose ends, these plot threads left untouched despite constantly building them up throughout the drama. For example, the story constantly hinted that Yoon Young and her husband were going to have marital problems and that was going to be their story but we never got to that point, making all the scenes including them leading up to that moment completely redundant. The writing definitely affected the cast's performance. You may have been excited to see the leads to be different from the typical young-blood dolled up faces but they don't bring much to this specific project, in fact, it's embarrassing to watch them here when you they're definitely more capable than that. They were in their 50s at the time but were acting like the typical shy 20s boy-girl for their romantic scenes. Speaking of cast members, I ALWAYS hated how Kim Hye Ok sounds when she screams or cries but this drama turned it up to 11. You may or may not develop tinnitus from the unbelievable intense screeching.There was a transgender subplot and let's just say that the drama handled it as you would imagine Korean writers would do. The drama may seems promising from the surface but it's a big let down.
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Poor mystery
The first episode won't encourage anyone to continue, it started off everything on the wrong foot. It relies heavily on flashbacks which makes the story continuity poor and loose since the writer can stir the mystery in any direction without much consideration on it being coherent or whatsoever. It's too long for such an insignificant piece of mystery. Things didn't get any better once all the mystery was revealed because of poor build up and a joke of an antagonist. I wouldn't label it as a mystery drama anyway, the majority of the drama seems preoccupied with portraying arrogance and high-class lifestyles, leaving only a minimal portion of the actual story and mystery. Even then, we didn't start to get much information until episode 9-10 which is too late. They made the FL's kid narrate most of the last episode like an adult which was weird. Cha Do Young was an utterly useless character, her character was meant to be a comedic relief and a filler but she was nothing but a horny bait. It's probably the weakest drama I've seen from Cho Yeo Jung.Was this review helpful to you?
Meh
It started off weak with the most generic start of a time altering media. It got better for a short time once the time shenanigans started until things became really sloppy and predictable. There was too much focus on the butterfly element which left no room to work on the characters. Then for the last 1/3 there was no more time shenanigans and it became purely lukewarm politics while trying poorly to figure out how to stir it towards the end. I didn't expect anything from the ending anyway. Lee Seo Jin was alright I guess.Was this review helpful to you?
Okay...
It started off good until we had the first trial involving the first student. The drama didn't do a good job laying out the information in an effective way, but rather delivered it in monotonous big chunks. I didn't find the cases appealing. The pattern became clear after the second case. Cycling through the students while revealing more of the main case along the way. Somehow they made everything and everyone very conveniently connected to the main case. This resulted in an over-complicated mess for the sake of building something grand and complicated. Despite of their attempt, they also created too many plot conveniences because they had no clue how to progress otherwise. The students' personal stories weren't good to begin with and cliche at best. There were just too many shortcomings in the writing department to count. The cast was okay but there was a lot of overacting going around, exaggerated expressions, motions, phrases and unnecessary edge-lord-like quirkiness. You may think the professor was the main character but shortly after, he became a support one. Some episodes passed while barely saying any lines. The director was trying his damn hardest to patch up this hot mess. If he were to be replaced, the drama would flop so damn hard. Thanks to him we got something kinda watchable.Was this review helpful to you?
Weak
It had a promising start but ended up being another incoherent and illogical mess just like its predecessors from the same genre. It would have been somewhat fine if they didn't go the sci-fi route and kept it pure mystery/horror with a strong emphasis on escaping the horrors instead of trying to explain it. Even with 12 episodes only it felt long because they didn't do a good job handling the mystery. The cast was fine but nothing special.Was this review helpful to you?
Not even trying
This was a bad Sci-Fi! Lousy plot, weak writing and unbearable characters. It progressively kept getting worse with every passing minute. It shamelessly tries to be serious but came out as nothing but goofy. The cast performance was meh and the visual effects were passable enough not to look cheap. There were no redeeming qualities to be seen here, nothing but a downward spiral.Was this review helpful to you?
Poor
Seemed attractive at first but it fell apart shortly after. Shamelessly poor narrative and storytelling all the way through. Egregious amount of twists and turns that always backfired. Most of the characters weren't appealing especially the baddies. The last 1/4 was painfully rough to get through, mostly because the drama didn't do a good job building up the story.Was this review helpful to you?
Not even trying
It seems impossible for writers to do a decent reverse harem drama without relying on awful tropes and this drama was no exception. Well, at least I didn't have any expectations going into it so that definitely helped. The entire story was built around a single misunderstanding which is nothing but lazy writing, instead of building a proper story. Out of the four men, Yun Woo was the worst addition, he always felt out of place and doesn't contribute much. None of the pairings were appealing, not even the non-romantic ones. The drama was so dry and empty that they didn't know what to do for the last episode so made up something just for the last episode. The cast members may be decent individually elsewhere but not here. This drama was as bad as "Three Dads One Mom (2008)" and "To All The Guys Who Loved Me (2020)", they even share the same flaws!Was this review helpful to you?
Barely watchable
The drama main goal was to hit as many makjang tropes as possible even repeating some of them across multiple characters. Almost every single character has a hidden past/birth secret, even the support characters. The revenge was bad, there wasn't actually a revenge. The romance/relationship of the leads was as childish as you can imagine. The actress Jung Young Joo who played the mother as the main antagonist did a truly awful job. Her reactions/interactions were laughably bad. The four leads' performance was fine but nothing note worthy, they've done better elsewhere. There's nothing appealing about the story either since they don't even try. Also, I didn't like the ending or the entire last episode in general.Was this review helpful to you?
