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The Lawless Empire
I wish the Kdrama industry would grow out of this conglomerate high-class trend, it's been over done to death now and each iteration is worse than its predecessor. In the first episode, the drama had a lot of flashy elements, big bold statements, bloated itself with trendy topics, and cast its net as wide as humanly possible; however, all of that was done and came across as nothing but tacky. Despite boasting a stellar cast, the drama turned out to be a colossal disappointment, a bloated spectacle that collapsed under the weight of its own ambition. Although the drama had a lot going on all the time but the infidelity was always its loudest and trashiest plot, overshadowing everything else. It occupied all of the tension the drama had to offer. There was also this narrative of all "men" are bad that the drama kept pushing for some reason. One more thing, at the end of episode 5, there was a ridiculously comical hacker-like-scene that immediately abandoned the slightest suspension of disbelief the drama ever had. It was a goner at that point.Was this review helpful to you?
Something-Something Inflation!
The drama had a good and gripping start with the trial and everything surrounding it but it was the only trial in the drama. The rest turned out to be something different. I wish we had more like that trial. Although the silliness and slacking around was fun at first but it got a little tiring later on and padding the drama with 3 full episodes of flashbacks with a serious tone wasn't enough. Despite its shorter runtime there were big inconsistencies rooming around, it's like they had 3 dramas with 3 different ideas shoved into one. However, the drama always felt like there was something missing to formula. I really liked the concept, it had much more to offer than we were shown. The characters and their dynamic had a lot of potential to be expanded upon. The cast also brought up a good performance to the screen. I found the murder case to be the weakest part of the drama and somewhat boring, it also took too much time before moving on to something else. Right just when we started to get real development the drama ended, that was really unfortunate. I don't think this will get season 2 based on what they've done with these 12 episodes.Was this review helpful to you?
Spoonless Mindset!
The very first scene we were introduced to generic high schoolers that left a sour first impression. Right off the bat we were hammered with the deplorable trope of bullies and rich kids that both were done in the most tacky ways possible. I hated every second but I kept my patience waiting for the fantasy/supernatural tag to kick in and change the scenery. It certainly did for a little while during the first half despite being very slow, especially with the insane 80 minutes runtime per episode. However, the drama started to fall apart around episode 7 and it became an unwatchable piece of utter junk after the insane 10-years time-skip in episode 9. Any potentials it had were evaporated.The story had insane gaps that were impossible to patch. There are a lot of points to be made about the mystery, secrets, reveals, decisions, and transformations but I would be repeating myself. It was really frustrating watching the golden spoon's rules change and evolve to fit the story's new development and narrative, a very strong sign of amateur writing! It's possible to blame the writers' heavy reliance on the source material and doing the bare minimum to script it. Since the source material is a Webtoon, it wasn't surprising seeing strange behaviors and random elements starting to seep through. It's hard to trust a Webtoon story to translate well into screen without competent writers unless the Webtoon creator was exceptionally brilliant which in this case he wasn't.
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ADAaaam....
Although the twin had different styles with different clothing to make them distinguishable enough but I found it a little tiring to keep making a conscious effort to differentiate between the two. Maybe throwing on some glasses would help or I'm just too lazy. The first episode felt too tame and didn't show enough gripping elements. That scene in the forest at the beginning of episode 2 really sat the overall tone of the drama moving forward. At that point, it was obvious it's going to be the type of show that would waste time on nonsense, fail to deliver the information and dance around aimlessly. I though I would give them the benefit of the doubt; they might deliver on that with clever plays but they never did. Not even the twins element was utilized enough. After about 4 episodes, the drama lost most, if not all, of its engaging elements. The mystery turned into a snoozefest. This was beyond what's considered a slow burner. It took 11 long episodes for something noteworthy to happen. The ending was underwhelming after all that wait and they had the audacity to set up some teasers for possible continuation.Was this review helpful to you?
100 Days of Patience
The drama was mostly a slice of life drama with minimum story. The concept is fairly simple and was done before, "Save the Last Dance for Me (2004)" comes to mind immediately. The leads had a good characterization and received an equally fulfilling performance by their cast. Which also why the leads had a good dynamic going on. However, its biggest problem is its lack in variety. Since it's a slice of life, the cast felt limited in size while jumping between the same few members of cast. They also lacked a unique variety in their archetypes to help keep the drama lively and vibrant. The same thing can be said about its lacking length of 75min x 16 episodes. There were too many slow and uninteresting sequences that dragged each episode too far. A slice of life doesn't equal boring when they're done right. If this drama were to be cut down to 6-7 episodes it would have been much better.Was this review helpful to you?
Grim Prince
The spoiler/teaser introduction and that first episode in general left a bad taste in my mouth. There was no need to show moments from 10 episodes later this early, if their intent was to try to hook the viewers by showing spoilers then they failed. And don't even get me started on that loathsome love triangle that seemed to stain the entire drama. The pacing was all over the place—slow moments that dragged on forever and irrelevant sidetracking. The whole sibling rivalry angle was given a generic development. The not so good brother tried to justify himself but the writer didn't put an ounce of effort into that. On another note, Yoon Shi Yoon looked weird with his baby beard.Was this review helpful to you?
Saimdang, Really Boring Long Diary
The drama, on paper, had potential. A mix of historical and contemporary narratives sounded intriguing, but the execution fell flat. The pace was slower than a snail's crawl, and the plot dragged on without significant development. The portrayal of the female lead's life in the past often felt overshadowed by the mundane occurrences of the present, causing a lack of focus and direction in the storytelling. While attempting to blend history and modern storytelling, the transitions felt disjointed, leaving me disconnected from the characters and their journeys. The drama's portrayal of the protagonist's life and the historical context lacked depth and failed to evoke a genuine emotional connection. The overall quality felt subpar—amateurish directing and filming made it hard to believe people were doing their jobs professionally. It's like they were clueless and just pretending. Such a shame that a big budget ($18+ millions) ended up wasted on this drama. The poor broadcast ratings weren't surprising at all. They even chopped off two episodes, probably to cut their losses. It shouldn't have been longer than 12 episodes max. It's almost like Lee Young Ae went on a very long hiatus to the point, when she returned, she no longer had any negotiation power and her agency just picked up whatever project they managed to get.Was this review helpful to you?
The Three Bores
The drama made my skin crawl from this godawful screenplay. Yikes. No wonder why it received poor broadcast ratings, honestly well deserved. It was infested with problems too glaring to ignore. In addition, a general distasteful feeling was always roaming around. None of the characters and their interactions felt natural. The romance was too embarrassing to even call it a romance. The sound design was poor in general, from the OST to the mixing and dialogue. Although it was 12 episodes, the story barely moved; not much was accomplished.Was this review helpful to you?
My boyfriend Is a Gumiho!
The introduction wasn't encouraging at all with this extremely superficially imaginary cuts of pseudo romance. Even after the time-skip it didn't improve much in that regards. The romance throughout the drama was overbearing with prolonged dreamy shots that made the lengthy runtime even worse. The drama featured your typical low-level boring villain to keep you bothered. Bae Suzy was too soft to play the role she was given. No matter what she does, she doesn't look intimidating or fierce enough. Sung Joon's acting is usually better than this, I don't why he was so bad here.Was this review helpful to you?
Kidsters
Literal kids playing mafia. Anyway, the drama was full of cardboard characters and you may expect an amateur level of performance, editing and writing to match it. The plot felt convoluted and disjointed, struggling to maintain a coherent narrative throughout the show. Characters lacked depth and development, making it challenging to emotionally invest in their arcs or connect with their journeys. Their personal relationships didn't intertwine well with the story either. I was looking forward to see Uhm Tae Goo but the drama wasn't worth it. 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 could count a few rare exceptions on one hand.Was this review helpful to you?
Horsing around
Why the hell do we need a love square in a horse/medical drama?! Really trying to inflate the 50-episodes runtime as much as possible for such a straightforward material. The drama itself was too vanilla and bland. I wish there was more to the drama than that, maybe exploring more interesting medical cases/areas. Speaking of medical, this is another drama with a godlike doctor and a godlike acupuncture skills that can resurrect the dead and create new life with little to no room in having reasonable stakes. Other dramas with godlike acupuncture skills that comes to mind are: Heaven's Order (2013) and Hur Jun (1999)/the Original Story (2013).Was this review helpful to you?
Good cop, bad cop
Not enough "duo" action when taking into consideration the 32 episodes runtime. I don't feel the drama managed to accomplish anything with its story. The entire drama was structured around the duo but we barely got a few "duo" moments. Their paths don't intertwine as often as you might think. On the other hand, I found the romance quite problematic. It overshadowed big parts of the story and ruined some plots more often than not. Love interests and romance rivalry were two poor elements the drama tried desperately and continuously to shove in our faces. Of course, the ending was terrible as expected.Was this review helpful to you?
A downward spiral
I liked it initially until they did the 14 years timeskip introducing the kids at episode 3, even less so after another timeskip when they grew up, and even further much less around exactly midway through. The rest was just painful to get through. Don't even get me started on whatever that last episode was.Was this review helpful to you?
A useless damo...
Reading the synopsis and taking a look at the cast, the drama seemed promising but, unfortunately, that wouldn't be the case.It obvious the drama was gonna flop just from the first episode. The edgy action sequences were too painful to endure. Every single character was too insufferable to follow. Almost any other Ha Ji Won drama was a better watch, including What Happened in Bali (2004) despite how trashy that one was.Was this review helpful to you?
Not good
The drama was infested with cheap drama/melodrama tactics to keep it alive for too goddamn very long 134 episodes because otherwise it can't reach that milestone. Which turned it into a mind melting irritating watch. These details were highly unlikely to be historically accurate. Looking back at it I don't recall a lot of big events/moments happened during these 134 episodes, it feels empty for what it tried to achieve. The bothersome experience doesn't stop here but extends to its production also as if that wasn't enough. About +80% of the entire filmed footage were extreme face close ups. You're most certainly guaranteed to feel nauseous being subject to that for too long. My guess is that it was done purposefully to hide the background and cut on the budget. Cheaper to film and easier/faster to edit. The more I watch Choi Soo Jong the more I realize he isn't suitable for historical dramas.Was this review helpful to you?
