6
Sungkyunkwan Snoozefest
The drama felt like it was held together with duct tape. Unbelievably long and draggy for little to no story. Everything can be summed up with 6 episodes without compromising anything from the narrative. The drama was infested with pointless repetition that didn't serve any purpose other than stretching it thin. The romance, the identity reveal, and the secret all were too delayed to care about, instead of laying them out evenly. By then, you would be bored out of your mind with no interest left in anything. On another note, the directors weren't paying attention to Yoo Ah In at all, half of his dialogue was muffled and barely picked up my the mics. This isn't not how to make a character speak quietly.Was this review helpful to you?
2 weak 2 die
The drama had no right or reason to get the full 16-episode lengthy runtime. Zooming out to look at the drama as a whole, they turned a movie plot into a fully-fledged 18+ hours of redundant episodes. This was quite apparent, watching the writer struggling immensely at every turn. It's also why the writer incorporated cheap antics to get around the plot, the worst of which were the cowardly sneaked-in time-skips, a deplorable trope. Anyway, the writer must have been wearing his clown costume while scripting the last episode. This drama had no respect for the viewers or their time. We were promised an oasis but we were left stranded in the desert.Was this review helpful to you?
A-sassy-nation
It ended up being a parade of tired clichés and an absolute rollercoaster of inconsistency. You have to abandon the most basic display of homosapien intellect capabilities before going into this drama. The leads were useless which made the baddies invincible and the only thing that was able to stop them was the production reaching its end. The leads' relationship was as if someone threw them together and said, "Okay, now act like you're in love!". It was one of the most unnatural displays of affection and progression which, subsequently, killed their romance, in this supposed "rom-com". How many times did the male lead roll to both sides and sighed while being doubtful of his feelings like a child being teased for liking girls?Was this review helpful to you?
If ony they put some effort into it...
Nice radiohead intro and nice pink aesthetics but that's where the nice things end. The drama threw at you an enormous mixed emotional package that was never untangled adequately, not even remotely close. The shorter than usual runtime isn't an excuse, 7-8 hours should've been enough to deal with it.Was this review helpful to you?
If only...
The characters were its biggest downfall. All the characters were insane, demented, deranged and devoid of integrity. There was no layers to their madness. You'll have to humanize them first before stripping it away. Skipping the first step would devalue their actions and take away from the watching experience. Aside from the characters, the drama was excruciatingly slow for no apparent reason other than filling the contracted runtime. Slow burners are acceptable when they serve a purpose to either immerse the viewers into its world or to seamlessly build up the tension. The drama failed to do either. The twists were overdone for the sake of it rather than adding to the narrative meaningfully. Even then, they weren't appealing nor interesting. Once the memory was restored the drama took a sharp and sudden turn for the worst going against what it tried to build up to, this includes the ending. One more thing, there was an attempt to have a play on artistic symbolism but none of which landed well. Partially because of the two aforementioned points.Was this review helpful to you?
At least it wasn't as bad as Eun Hui
Whenever you see TV Novel in the title of a drama here, make sure to not have the slightest expectations, it's really helpful. One particular feature of these "TV Novels" dramas is having single digit IQ characters and this drama was no exception to the rule. At the end of the day, it's done purposely because it's easier to digest and provoke. The cast was barely average, however, it's hard to stomach when almost every single character was selfish and trashy without proper character building and motivation. The love square seems to be identical to most of the other TV Novel ones, two good vs two baddies. Speaking of which, the two main lead were such a bad pair with no chemistry. Lee Min Woo looks older than his real age and this only made the age gap much worse.Was this review helpful to you?
Were they even trying?
The entire drama and the main couple's relationship was built entirely around bonding over their each others trauma. Not necessarily bad but it felt it was purposely designed that way to manipulate the viewers' emotions forcefully. This was pretty obvious from the very beginning with how they portrayed and handled the female lead's boyfriend. You would fell for their trap if you were a newcomer. The music choices were odd and mostly cheap, in addition, the dubstep soundtrack was completely unfitting. Anyway, if it wasn't for the forestry scenery then the drama wouldn't have had much to offer. Throwing in two attractive leads together isn't enough anymore.Was this review helpful to you?
Weak
Good concept, nice first episode and a decent selection of cast. However, for a thriller/mystery drama, the writing was unbelievably moronic to the nth degree. Blatantly mocking the viewers every step of the way. Every minute decision was deliberately stirred away from any sense of reason for the least optimal result possible. It even failed to deliver something with its climax, the whole last few episodes were the weakest in general.Was this review helpful to you?
Man!
It had an interesting concept and I liked the first chunk of episodes but that was such a poor storytelling. It irks me to no end how this was utterly wasted after a good start. Also, it doesn't make effort in building the world nor in setting up concrete rules. Logic is completely neglected and everything is made up along the way. The later parts were just not good.Was this review helpful to you?
Hot mess!
The drama's biggest problem is that it's overly ambitious with its concept. It wrote itself in a corner that was impossible to get out from. Which resulted in making the whole thing a convoluted mess. Right from the beginning within 2 episodes, you can tell this had a really poor world building, it didn't even care, shamelessly! The whole thing was unbelievable edgy especially the antagonist, he was the definition of edge lord. Let's just hope that we do NOT get a second season of this mess.Was this review helpful to you?
!
It was doing well and heading in a good direction until they decided to reveal too much and kill the mystery halfway. It also got pretty predictable at that point. Everyone got pretty sloppy and started to slip left and right, also killing any creativity it built earlier. It was a matter of waiting for it to just finish. It also tried so hard to set itself up for a season 2 which is just distasteful. First half was good, second half was bad.Was this review helpful to you?
.
An interesting mini series with a wide range of stories each one is unique with a small twist. Some of them were good enough that they can be turned into a full featured movie. Each one had a different theme and feeling, some took the comedic creative route while some took more of a serious one. Some of them had the vintage feel of early 2000s Korean horror movies. Overall, it's interesting watch.Was this review helpful to you?
Decent tear-jerker
It's pretty clear what you are getting yourself into and it delivers just that to a certain extent. I personally found it unnecessarily long. Which is why it took a more melodrama route than a familial/drama route. Which is also why it took some time to get to the point. It does nothing new, however, it remains a decent tear-jerker. That final scene on the motorcycle was a nice touch.Was this review helpful to you?
Yikes!
This is the worst "I fell in love with the organ recipient from my deceased lover" type of drama. They pushed the subject of "cellular memory" way too far, making the girl a clone of the donor. The fact that Kam Woo Sung looks older than his real age and Choi Soo Young looks younger than her real age, made the entire thing worse than it already was. The relationship was too iffy regardless of that. I watched four dramas from the same writer and it seems she has a consistent record in fucking up the later parts of her projects. Good to know.Was this review helpful to you?
Too empty....
One of the most boring love squares ever! There was no need to even have it. It would have been infinitely better to spend the time in developing each couple individually since Bo Ra & Dae Ro were the weakest part in the drama. Speaking of which, you can't even count Bo Ra & Dae Ro as main characters, they are more like support characters throughout the entire run. Meanwhile Ah Ri and Joon Soo are the real leads. Speaking of characters, the adults' story was dull and uneventful. The same thing can be said about the other side stories. The drama just feels too empty. Too much time was wasted on Ah Ri's life that there wasn't any room for any development elsewhere. I wanted to see real development between the step sisters. Anyway, the drama had a decent start but there are just too many shortcomings.Was this review helpful to you?
