6
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?
Meh
It's okay. Hyun Woo was unbelievably stiff. I wonder if he can show more than two emotions even under some laxatives. If you really want to force a break up there are plenty of easier and quicker ways but I guess it's a drama and they can't do that ¯\_(ツ)_/¯Was this review helpful to you?
Meh
It had a decent start setting up the atmosphere. The drama was shot nicely too, try to grab the UXN 4K version if you can. The action was good although it was scarce. There was a lot of downtime between each event which almost ruined the drama. It was clear they had an abundance of free time that they started supplementing it with slice of life/comedic moments which were straight up bad and unfitting. The story wasn't as engaging as it was at the start, it somehow lost its direction midway through. Too many plot holes to count even when excluding the supernatural elements. The drama lacked a meaningful connection between characters. The least you would expect from a military themed drama is some comradeship which this drama failed to show. It's a hard watch since the drama doesn't have much to offer other than a good cast.Was this review helpful to you?
There was an attempt
The first half is what the drama should've been and the second half is what the drama shouldn't have become. The start was decent enough with a compelling concept and characters, however, everything began to crumble down after the first half. The pace significantly slowed down, an overwhelming amount of repetition and flashbacks was shoved in, the mystery was over at that point, the cat and mouse chase became boring and there was a general decrease in the collective IQ of the masses. Nonetheless, the story itself was weak and didn't explore any interesting ideas. The whole thing was infested with plot holes even after excluding all the supernatural elements. The inclusion of romance was a hit or miss at times. I'm disappointed that Park Won Sang didn't have a bigger role in the drama.Was this review helpful to you?
Too dry
The drama sits in a weird position of not adhering to neither the long daily drama segmented formula nor to the standard 16-episodes weekly ones. It's closer to the latter except being a poorly stretched one. There were a handful of couples but most of them were bland without much chemistry or dynamic. The main story was too thin for the drama to function and it's clear that they didn't intend to invest much in it but rather just let it be driven by whatever the couples were doing. You can't consider it as a slice of life either because of the direction it took. It's hard to recommend when it's too dry.Was this review helpful to you?
They didn't even try
A very bland and uninspiring office romance drama. Absolutely nothing stands out about it, not even the chemistry. The backstories were boring as well. They sprinkled a few side stories at the beginning but only gave attention to the main one while the rest ended up being neglected. Even the main couple's story ended up being underdeveloped. On a side note, it's another drama where they draw parallels with Kim Tae Hee for being the beauty standard. For the past 20-something years, Korean writers are still placing Kim Tae Hee as the benchmark of beauty and I still don't know why.Was this review helpful to you?
A bag of air...
It started off like any other daily drama but somewhere around episode 60 everything stopped and almost nothing was happening anymore. The pace slowed down considerably, and the storyline became unbelievably tame and mundane. After which, there was no conflicts, no plots, no goals, no real progression, no real tension, no major events. Any events that did occur were swiftly resolved within 6-8 episodes, this included the conflict mentioned in the synopsis about the feud between the 2 families. It's unfortunate because I liked the set up and the characters. It would have been better if they turned it into a sitcom, they had enough characters and material for that.Was this review helpful to you?
