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Teacher Mechanic Accountant Pilot
You know they began to run out of ideas when they start to merge professions. It makes me wonder what might come next, but the entire law genre had plateaued, and coming up with new unexplored ideas got only more difficult. The entire hearts swapping operation at the beginning of the drama was flawed and didn't make any sense. Instead of giving us a cohesive storyline, we were left with this mishmash of abandoned subplots and forced plot turns that were hard to sell. You may expect a lot of highly implausible scenarios and you gonna nod your head and just accept it. Neither of the main leads brought any appealing character or performance making it difficult to empathize with their struggles or connect with their motivations.Was this review helpful to you?
The Incompetent Naive Detective
Regarding season 1, I liked the earlier episodes and I was looking forward to the upcoming ones but things didn't go as expected. They had a really poor mix of investigators and journalists/reporters working on the case. Not even the involved characters from that side were appealing to watch. You often hear in any police/investigation drama how they keep information away from journalists/reporters to not hinder the investigation, it turned out they were right. I liked how Oh Ji Hyuk didn't stand out as a main lead too much to allow those around him to have a space, he blended in nicely. Him and Do Chang had a nice dynamic but they started to drift apart a little bit later on. Moving on to season 2, the main case was definitely less interesting. The involved parties were boring. The investigation was slower and much simpler. There was barely any tension, not much action and thriller anymore. Most of the time they were slacking around. Less budget maybe? Throughout both season there was a very small side plot in the background regarding Oh Ji Hyuk and finding a meaning in living but the writer didn't allow for such development and, eventually, after 2 full seasons, everything boiled down that he found a meaning in life through being a workaholic detective. The way they handled that after 32 episodes was the most disappointing thing about the whole thing.Was this review helpful to you?
Justice Not Served!
The bad prosecutor didn't live up to his name, at least not for the entirety of the drama. The first 4 episodes were decent but the rest were an imitation of its previous spark. Everything up to the final confrontation of the first guy was enjoyable but everything turned into a generic prosecutor/team drama afterwards. No more of the bad prosecutor attitude and his appeal almost diminished, there was a small recovery around the end but it was already too late. Speaking of teams, the sidekicks were pretty bad at being a sidekick especially Baek Eun Ji, just horrible! The team in general lacked a good dynamic, the ML was pulling all the weight by himself. It could've been something decent if more care was put into it.Was this review helpful to you?
The Queenless Queen
While the series set out to explore the comedic possibilities of a modern soul trapped in a historical queen's body, the formula turned out to be very limited to spin it for a very long 20 episodes. I enjoyed its earlier episodes but it kept repeating the exact same gags with every single episode. How many times they repeated the same kitchen/cooking gags? I don't understand how they thought that would work. The cast size was limited as well, it could've definitely helped in coming up with new material. However, its biggest flaw was trying to add plot to its bare-bone formula. It's one of the rarest sights to see this level of shameless attempts. They didn't even know how to include it so they dedicated separate episodes for it in the middle parts while reallocating the comedy to different episodes separately, again. Cutting and editing it down into an 8 episodes package could've solved most of its issues. I wouldn't have rated it this high if it weren't for its set up, characters, and some of the gags.Was this review helpful to you?
The Loathful Emperor
It started off on a fast pace with big cuts, jumps and gaps. We were thrown right into it with little to no explanation or a breathing room. Sure thing that was attractive enough to hold onto the viewers' attention but that was only for a brief period before the drama hit the brakes at full force yanking the viewers from the realm of existence. Halting its momentum to an irrecoverable state which affected the set up we were given, negatively. Not only the momentum but the story as a whole took a shift for the worse. That shift happened to early to be forgiven, after 7-9 episodes I think? If the writers intent was to write Ta Hwan as an unbearably pathetic whimp then they have achieved an outstanding success! Upon a second look, there were too many males to count who were obsessed with the female lead, this drama was a complicated reverse harem in disguise. Some characters had cool story arcs, while others were just stuck being one-dimensional, making it hard to care about them while the drama kept giving them more screen time. Even worse, most of the characters that died were given a cheap death, even important ones. Anyway, the drama had an enjoyable start despite the chaos but it never managed to recover after slamming the brakes.Was this review helpful to you?
Ja Must Go
Well, I had a little higher than usual expectations from looking at the cast members but at least it didn't take too long to show what it had in store for us. The drama kicked off to a bad start leaving an ominous bad impression. The first 1/3 of the drama was set in the past giving us a ridiculously boring and generic backstory of the leads, starting with their parents and moving on to their birth, early childhood, and teenage years. These kids turned out to be the worst part of the drama, totally unlikable – both the characters and the actors playing them. And it didn't get any better when we were introduced to their adult versions. The romance and love triangle were downright despicable, filled with self-pity, sappy motivations, and a bunch of whiny kids. A wild suggestion, why not take the drama from the beginning of episode 39 into a different direction? Extend it with another 20 episodes, remove the romance, have the FL be the empress of her nation, and conquer neighboring nations.Was this review helpful to you?
The Crowned Clown Clone
I usually dislike Yeo Jin Goo in historical roles but this was one of his better ones so that's nice for a change. While the story may have been interesting at first but it didn't quite live up to its premise. The clone needed to have a better introduction and build up. The king was useless and had no role other than to kick-start the narrative. We only had brief interactions between the clone and the king. The drama would have been infinitely more interesting and enjoyable if it wrote the king as a prominent character and had a consistent dynamic with the clone. The last episode was awful in all regards, a significant downgrade compared to any of the previous episodes. No thought or care put into it at all. An outsider must have wrote the last episode alone, there's no other way! With all that being said, I found the drama to be a decent watch with a handful of interesting elements, if you were to temper your expectations you'd find something to like about it too.Was this review helpful to you?
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?
Magic Knights!
I wanted Lee Kwang Soo to take on a meatier role in that drama, but alas, he was just there as a guest. I usually like Choi Won Young in serious roles but I hate Choi Won Young when he pretends to be looking serious which was what he went for in this drama. Don't expect a 20-episodes worth of content, it was mostly a boring slice of life cosplay-drama with little to no story. As shallow and thin as the slice of pizza you would get from your teacher shared between 40 students. You technically ate, I guess? The gags, the tomfoolery and the pizazz that filled its content were all unpleasant to watch. The romance and the relationships aren't even worth talking about, a total joke!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?
A steady downward spiral
It had a strong first episode that made the drama seems promising and interesting but turns out that the first episode was its peak and the subsequent episodes were heading in a steady downward spiral to never recover after that. The story was barely functional for a full length 16-episodes drama. The writer should be embarrassed to label this as a comedy but that wasn't even the worst part that goes for the romance. The drama would have been slightly better if they were to cut out the romance without changing anything. Not only our leads were lacking in chemistry but the romantic moments were tasteless.Was this review helpful to you?
Another lazy one...
This is not a good writing. Overdosing on misery will only backfire in this case. Subjecting a single character to all of the common tropes of sadness will lose the emotional impact and genuine human connection. This is also resulted in making the drama feels infinitely longer, you'll keep wishing they just die already. Yet, that wasn't the worst part about the drama. The entire murder/mystery/investigation element was effortlessly bad. At one point the entire nation was chasing them until they gave up, no one cared and no proper follow up. The drama could've been easily cut in half without affecting the narrative at all.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?
