Kate

it was going so well up until today's episode 🙃

Mame is literally unable to write ONE BL without rape in it 🤣
I am kind of amazed by her lack of sensibility in that area.

Shi De's schemes were on some pro level 🤣

"This is also meant to be a tear-jerker yet my eyes remained dry the entire time." For me it was even worse, coz I could not stop laughing at the deep sad scenes and dialogues...

Completely agree. They wanted to break from stereotypical young adult romance, but at the same time they kind of ended it on the typical cliché note.

For me, the best and only truly good part of the show was the soundtrack 🙃

I dropped dramas 8 minutes in 1st episode if I didn't feel them. Watching 2 episodes is a lot for me, if I don't enjoy it 🤣
I go by a simple reasoning - why watch more episodes of a show with hopes that maybe I'll start liking it more, when I can start a new show that I will enjoy from the first episode :)

I'm just not feeling it? I guess it's not my type of depressing.
I'm more of a "laughing through tears" type of person 🙃

It's a well produced and written show, but if you don't feel it, then you don't feel it and it's ok.

Honestly speaking, there is a valid space for Kim Eun Sook and her shows. They are great introduction to kdrama show, good for a pure entertainment and as a background noise type of deal, when you do your daily stuff.

I have to say tho, she is lucky with directors, who makes her shows just simply beautiful. Descendants of the Sun, Goblin and Mr Sunshine were all directed by Lee Eung Bok, and it shows. That said, she is a hit or miss for me. I loved A Gentleman's Dignity and Mr Sunshine. Liked Secret Garden, Descendants of the Sun and Goblin, but disliked The Heirs and The King: Eternal Monarch A LOT.

I think Hong Sisters are one of the "writing mainstream dramas for general audience to like" type of deal.

This rating is just a sad joke 😭

I feel like maybe this show was just not for you. Showing the good side along the bad side would take away from the message and would allow people to say "see, it's not as bad". The whole point was to show all the bad, and how the system allows it and there is not real way to fix it at the moment, since military is its own bubble disconnected from the outside world.

As for the things they did not explain.. they did. ML had a bad relationship with his mother coz he blamed her for not leaving the abusive father, which ended up with ML getting abused himself. He also had bad relationship with her, because he himself felt guilt for not trying to protect her and stop the father.

The stories of the soldiers are also quite clear. They explained the motive of them running away clearly.

As for the ending, it's more on the metaphorical/hinted deal - on one side one can understand it as Joon Ho deserting form military. But for me it also represents, how you cannot fix the system, you can only try to run away from it. How Joon Ho lost any hope and motivation, and the only thing for him to do is run away like other soldiers. But the ending is left for interpretation. That's usually the case with open endings, so maybe that's just not the type of endings you like.

I see a lot of people wanting a 2nd season, but honestly i cannot think of a way this story could progress. They can either make it even more tragic - the system only gets worse. But that could easily turn into some unrealistic over the top dystopian stuff, which would take away from how real and raw D.P. was.
They can just "redo" the format of this, with new cases. But then what's the point?
They can follow Joon Ho as he deserted, showing the other side perspective (compared to them looking for deserters), but it would make it completely different show. + honestly not sure I can handle seeing Joon Ho suffer even more, and there is no way it would end well.
Or 4th case they could show how the system slowly gets better after all the tragedy, but giving Disney change of heart would be just insulting to the story.

So yeah, I honestly don't see how they would make a successful 2nd season, and for me it's not even necessary.

Well, there is a romance, but it's not a romance show. There is a divorced couple, but the romance is not between them. They are done deal.

There is a hint of maybe a possibility of romance, but it never leads to anywhere and takes no more than few minutes from the whole 16 episodes.

The romance is never the main plot nor that important. But since it is part of a daily life, and this show is more on a realistic note, it would be impossible to completely avoid it. But I would say it's not to the level that it would bother anyone who is not a fan of romance. It's not the "we fall in love oh so cute" but more on the "how it can affect work, and how work can affect a couple". but it's like a side plot os a side plot 🤣

Same. Good casting can make or break a drama. Glad they did such a good job here :)

his face just made me angry. Even when he did not do anything 🤣

I appreciate the nice comment :)

Great review, agree 100%. The casting was phenomenal here. I would not want to recast one person. Also "one you'll particularly hate" is a really nice way to put it. I wanted to smash my laptop few times, and had to pause the episode because I was too pissed off to continue 🙃

it's a movie version, it does not present all the stories that drama version does I guess.
Movie version only has 5 chapters.

I'm impressed with your fast reading skills 🤣

Good to hear I'm not the only one with views like that, but looking overall on the reviews, I guess many people share this sentiment hahaha

He literally did a 180 in last 2 episodes without any reason.