6
A sloppy mess for an interesting setting
It became quite apparent right off from episode 2 that this was a massive flop. The drama would have worked wonderfully and masterfully as a movie or at least as a 3-4 episodes short drama, otherwise, it's absolutely riddled with problems in its current condition and format. The unique setting and scenery weren't enough to help its case. It ingeniously transformed the art of storytelling into a chaotic, avant-garde mishmash of disjointed scenes that left me pondering the deep mysteries of life, such as whether the writers had ever heard of structured narrative or if they were just operating under the belief that plotlines are mere suggestions for lesser beings. Each plot twist, if one could even call them that, was a tantalizing leap into the abyss of narrative incoherence, leaving me on the edge of my seat not in anticipation, but in a desperate attempt to maintain my balance amidst the swirling vortex of plot holes and character motivations more elusive than a unicorn at a camouflage convention. I can't thank the creators enough for their valiant efforts to reduce character development to a cryptic crossword puzzle that nobody asked for, but we apparently all deserved, according to them. I wish to see better attempts going for a similar setting and theme from more competent creators. It's hard to recommend this drama unless you're a diehard fan of some of the cast members. Jun Ji Hyun disappearing for ~5 years then coming back with this project was nothing but a disappointment. It made it harder to be excited for her next project "Polaris (2023)".Was this review helpful to you?
Pain
The story was so soulless and shallow it made the 12 episodes runtime so damn dreadful. The whole trio main cast were lackluster from all angles, both the actors and their characters. This drama was nothing but a cheap BL bait anyway. It should have been a short drama thrown on some random streaming services instead of being a full TV broadcast.Was this review helpful to you?
BAD!
I was expecting mature human drama but I got stinky rubbish. Stupid story, stupid writing, stupid demented delusional characters. How was this even approved? This drama is actually the worst of its genre. It's impressive how bad it was. At least it serves as a good example of what not to do.Was this review helpful to you?
The mask
Truly inconspicuous! The drama made me mentally and physically drained and exhausted with each single episode from the ridiculous godly amount of insane lousy shouting. I went to an ENT doctor and he told me I needed a new brain transplant since the old one was incapable to perceive any type of sensory stimuli. Huh. This drama was the equivalent of a nagging little spoiled brat roaming around you non-stop for no purpose other than seeing you losing your sanity or equivalent to a fleet of mosquitos determined to penetrate you as the last human left with suckable blood. What I'm trying to say, if the director was really entranced by vibrating vocal cords then he should've brought a real man to do the job. On a small side note, I find this period and setting of Japan/Korea to be the worst to watch through any media. They "almost" don't know how to go on about it. I can count a few rare exceptions on one hand.Was this review helpful to you?
Not Much Love
The drama can be classified as one of those mid-to-low tier dramas, doing the bare minimum to keep its storyline somewhat functional. It felt strangely empty, and it was not a slow-burn as some might claim, just unjustifiably and unapologetically slow. The plot lacked proper support, and it seemed like the second male lead was added merely to fill in some space. Occasionally, the show attempted to use this emptiness for introspective reflection or a shift in perspective, but the execution felt clumsy and ineffective. The dialogue often meandered into mundane, trivial irrelevant matters. While these small details can sometimes enrich a character, their excessive repeated use became nothing more than soring background noise. Flashbacks were used a bit too often, cluttering the space even more. The entire plot could have easily been condensed down into a movie without losing any essential context. In fact, the drama even ended with a movie-like ending. The only redeeming quality was the nostalgic '90s melodrama vibes. On an unrelated note, if you casually opened files from emails in the '90s, you'd probably be the easiest victim of a cyber attack!Was this review helpful to you?
Too late to cook...
On average, about 2/3 of all the guests and their stories were pretty solid, but the remainder were a total snoozefest. I was also hoping for a more personal story from the master chef to give more impact to his craft. Even more, the regulars definitely needed more work put into their existence rather than being a vapid filler, especially that woman who couldn't stop yapping about nothing. The food preparation and shots were decent but not much focus put on them beside serving as transition shots. There was a small missed opportunity to tie the food with the guest's stories. Only that vampire one had some hints of doing so.Was this review helpful to you?
Money
The formula of daily makjang is well known and typical but this one follows after the cheap and factory produced ones. You can tell by just looking who are the cast members. No disrespect to the cast but this is what you might call a leftover cast. At the very least, they could've brought a male lead that's a little bit more flattering and more lead-fitting-persona. Being a lengthy 150 episodes, it wasn't surprising to stretch everything as thin as humanly possible. While it is also expected to have a negative IQ writing but it's really painful when clear real-world laws are blatantly twisted just to push whatever narrative they want. Anyway, there is a lot to be said but everything can be boiled down to this drama being shamefully bad because that's what Ajummas like to watch.Was this review helpful to you?
Barely Advertisable
At the surface it may seems it's the type of show that goes through workplace cases one after another, while that was slightly true initially, but it was just a drama themed around an advertising agency, or so I thought, initially. After the introduction, the drama began with an advertising assignment then followed by a bigger one with more tension, stakes and clever plays, however, this all happened in the first half while the second half became a regular melodrama/power struggle in a corporate setting, no more advertising assignments. This was unfortunate because the second half couldn't carry the same impact, especially the last 4 episodes. Ah In & Han Na & Young Woo had a great dynamic between each other and those around them. On the other hand, Han Byung Soo was the worst character, his character didn't fit any scene, he lacked a good dynamic and story given that he was close to the female lead, even the actor himself was out of place and a big mismatch to his task. The personal stories were a hit or miss, take for example the female lead story, the writer put little to no effort into her childhood/trauma, everything started and ended with a few scenes which led to a weak resolution to her trauma. It was really disappointing in this specific case after building up her trauma and problems for so long. Han Na and her secretary might be a highlight for some but Eun Jung and her child were a highlight for me. The final wrap up felt a bit strange after just 1 year time skip, an obvious uncalculated afterthought for the sake of it. The drama offered a decent package with a lot more potentials on the table but it also left a lot more to be desired.Was this review helpful to you?
Aged Way Worse Than Milk
There's an obvious case to be made around the exploration of the ups and downs of being a young adult, but this drama was an excruciating exercise in superficiality, offering nothing but a hollow shell of what could have been a worthy experience. From its cardboard characters to its cringe-worthy dialogue and moments, the drama failed to maintain an attractive hook, opting instead for a glossy, saccharine portrayal that felt more like a caricature than a digestible imitation. The stories were equally pretty shallow as well, its attempts at drama fell flat, overshadowed by its overwhelming lack of substance, conviction and commitment between most of the characters, relationships and dynamics. Its surface-level approach with everything left no room for any proper investment to be had. By every metric possible, the 2nd season was a significant downgrade to what was an already struggling piece. Yoo Eun Jae was undeniably the weakest link in season 1, recasting her actress to someone who's struggling to play it, made things 10 folds worse. The replacement was trying really hard to mimic the original while the actress facial expressions, fluency and intonations were the polar opposite. It doesn't take a blind man to be appalled by the comparison, not like the original was any better. Unfortunately, things got even worse, her continuous story, background, conflicts, motives, and character writing were a nauseating concoction of utter literary incompetence and creative bankruptcy, a slap in the face to anyone with even a modicum of taste. To be fair, both Ye Ri & Eun Bin brought a much needed improved performances into the 2nd season, their characters as well had a better fit. Overall, the drama was a disappointingly bland and forgettable entry that failed to leave any lasting positive impact. If you care, streaming services like Netflix cut off any inner songs/tunes/humming/reading-lyrics-out-loud, the first episode is +3 minutes shorter than TV.Was this review helpful to you?
Gradually Insulting Its Audience
Aside from the weak introduction, the first episode also had loads of exhibitions of the ML smarts through the typical genius character stereotype, however, the drama proceeded to treat the viewers like idiots for the remainder of the drama. Initially, Detective Cha Ji An, and most of the police force, were physically capable and adequate enough, however, they suddenly became as effective and incompetent as useless civilians. The mystery and thriller elements were generally bad, the drama didn't waste a second in revealing everything immediately. The romance was nothing but forced. The main story and entanglements of the brothers and the psycho man turned out to be disappointing and dumb, which led to a rubbish ending.Was this review helpful to you?
A Man In The Hole
Not the first drama with time travel to chase a lost love and not the best either. The first few episodes introduced us to the concept and up to episode 3 it seemed promising. The first time travel was to the past and the second one returned to the present to see the consequences of his actions. He did something minute in the past but resulted in him turning into a gangster once returned. The drama hinted into creating these radical scenarios for every round trip which sounded like fun. Unfortunately, this was a one off thing and the subsequent events were utterly disappointing. The entire plot device of this manhole was handled poorly. There were obvious coherency problems and plot holes, pun intended. I think the writer realized this problem which is why he didn't include any traveling between episodes 11-15. Speaking of which, these episodes got significantly dumbed down and became soulless and out of touch. They made the love rival blatantly bad and psycho to open the way for the main lead to have a clear black and white cut, avoiding any moral ambiguity the viewers might run across. That was the only way for the writer to glue them together without performing mental gymnastics. There were other remarks to be said about characters' reasoning, underlying theme, chemistry, side characters, story structure, and romance, but maybe on a later time.Was this review helpful to you?
Big Sadge
Cancer sucks. Kim Ji Soo did great. All episodes that focused on the main character were great but the other episodes that shifted the focus to other characters took away from the main character instead of building these memory blocks around him. It was a short 9 episodes, the last 1 didn't count, there was no room to explore around. It felt they wanted to build a much bigger story but there was no time, again, should've kept the focus on the main character and maybe give him more screen time. The addition of the store clerk not only was cringe but also redundant and could've been better spent somewhere else. Although the animated parts of each episode were alright but the voice over quality was less than subpar, sometime it came off as if the speakers were reading from a script. The last episode for some reason was just a collection of these animated parts stitched together.Was this review helpful to you?
Balloons For The Circus
The drama kept teasing us endlessly to what might have happened in Italy but it never revealed it. Sure, you can make some obvious assumptions but that's not as satisfying especially with the constant teasing. Makjang shows are designed to push your buttons through what's obvious from the observer perspective and this drama does exactly that but also eases the pain by making every character to have an unadjust trait or 10, including all of the leads. By doing this, it also makes it easier for the viewers to go softer on some of the wrong doings. You end up watching it to see how the car crash will end. In this case, a lot of fast and big changes happened in the last 40 minutes despite the drama having all the time in the world to approach its resolution more gracefully. Although it the drama was somewhat alright, but the harsh shift in the last 4 episodes made it really bad and unbearable. The main confrontation of the involved parties in the cafe was an example of that. The writer just wanted to amp it up as high as possible to squeeze the last dribbles of broadcast ratings. One thing I didn't like is how the drama forced every character to be connected to one another, it pushed the improbability of interconnected stories a bit too hard that it became ridiculous even for a makjang drama. If I had to pick one thing that irked me the most, it's how Da Ba's mother react differently between her daughter and Eun Gang on the suspicions of potential infidelity despite her daughter is the one doing it 10 folds harder in front of her face. A true bruh moment right there. Looking into the writer's previous projects, she's consistently decent except for a few outliers and this drama was part of these outliers.Was this review helpful to you?
Wannabe Aspiring Actor
A lot of names were thrown around in the beginning with not a lot of context, so you had to make a mental note to connect them later on—a really annoying practice, to say the least. Supposedly, the male lead was in China before coming to SK, but the drama made it a running joke for a couple of episodes that he was a caveman. This made the whole family meeting and living together a bit too cringe. There were many ways to approach such a scenario, but it seems the writer took the lazy route. Some scenes were stretched really thin and became too awkward to continue, like that one scene of both leads and Sang Chul talking about the old hotel staff photo. The drama would've benefited from having more grandchildren and better interconnected stories between them. Although there were three grandchildren, the middle one was an insignificant sidekick and didn't contribute to the dynamic as much as I hoped. The ending brought a change of heart to all of the opposing characters, but some of them didn't seem genuine in the slightest.Was this review helpful to you?
Better off not remembering
The first 4 episodes were dedicated entirely for their backstory and they did an outstanding poor job in that regard. These first 4 episodes were painful to sit through, unbelievably boring, lacking any interesting or gripping elements and it failed to lay the groundwork for things to look forward to in the future episodes. If that wasn't enough, the main story was mostly shelved and the subsequent episodes turned into side cases with slight relation to the bad guy until it returned to the main case in the last few episodes. Although the male lead was labeled as a genius and has super powers but his character proved to be otherwise. Namkoong Min playing a pathetic low-life chaebol playboy villain was definitely a miscast. It would more suitable for him to play a smart cunning merciless villain but the director was blind. On the other hand, Jeon Kwang Ryul playing the main victim with Alzheimer and being a good loving father was weird, another miscast and oversight from the production. The trend continues Park Min Young playing a prosecutor, it's just not it.Was this review helpful to you?
