Came for Chun Woohee scamming people, left with a very YA feeling plot in both good and bad ways. Way darker than the title and marketing surrounding it seem to suggest, but not really in a way that felt narratively unearned. It's nice that we get actual reasons to sympathise with the cast and understand their actions instead of simply leaving them to be what they are when we first meet them, but I definitely feel like some of the backstory got a little muddy. I also needed way more of Lee Tae-ran chewing the scenery as the character she knew this drama needed instead of being sort of sidelined for much more boring villains. You can only have so many mysteriously evil older guys in suits before it gets both confusing and cliched.
Really, these characters deserved a better plot overall, obviously Chun Woohee is a real treat to watch no matter if she's a con artist or a vulnerable girl who never really got the chance to either grow up or have a childhood, but the side characters on the protagonist's side are also quite well defined and feel like actual people, which isn't always something that's easy to achieve. I really like the way characters like Nasa and Dajung are developed, Lee Yeon specifically needs a lot more roles, she definitely brings out a vulnerable and sympathetic side to a character that so easily could've just been some awful one note cool girl hacker. I can't say I liked Ringgo though, he starts annoying, he remains annoying. I do wish, however, despite liking how his character ending up, that Mooyoung started in a less wooden place. Kim Dongwook is a good actor and brings a lot of nuance, but it's brought eventually, and the character just isn't interesting enough to care about his scenes at first, which is a stark contrast to Ro Um.
Definitely echo the criticisms though specifically about pacing and product placement, the two most glaring flaws in the drama. Like, you just got done with one of the most emotionally resonant scenes and it just cuts to a Chilsung ad with absolutely no self awareness. It gets really bad in the otherwise really good finale, I'm guessing because they knew that people would be paying attention to other things. There's probably about a dozen worthwhile episodes of content stretched out into sixteen, given my criticisms about some of the villains, you can probably infer what parts I thought were worth keeping and which were worth getting of.
The romance is a surprisingly tender slow burn, which I appreciated. It's in the background the whole time and it doesn't feel rushed like it sometimes can, like they just shoehorned it in because audiences want two characters to get together. "Turn your brain off" is such a dumb thing to say about any media but the sentiment is probably there when I recommend this to others, though not literally, because you definitely need to pay attention at basically every moment. It's an okay to mediocre drama elevated by good performances and honestly some pretty fun plot beats here and there. Worth a watch if you like that sort of thing, but not worth your absolute love and devotion, unless you do love it in which case throw away everything I've said.
Really, these characters deserved a better plot overall, obviously Chun Woohee is a real treat to watch no matter if she's a con artist or a vulnerable girl who never really got the chance to either grow up or have a childhood, but the side characters on the protagonist's side are also quite well defined and feel like actual people, which isn't always something that's easy to achieve. I really like the way characters like Nasa and Dajung are developed, Lee Yeon specifically needs a lot more roles, she definitely brings out a vulnerable and sympathetic side to a character that so easily could've just been some awful one note cool girl hacker. I can't say I liked Ringgo though, he starts annoying, he remains annoying. I do wish, however, despite liking how his character ending up, that Mooyoung started in a less wooden place. Kim Dongwook is a good actor and brings a lot of nuance, but it's brought eventually, and the character just isn't interesting enough to care about his scenes at first, which is a stark contrast to Ro Um.
Definitely echo the criticisms though specifically about pacing and product placement, the two most glaring flaws in the drama. Like, you just got done with one of the most emotionally resonant scenes and it just cuts to a Chilsung ad with absolutely no self awareness. It gets really bad in the otherwise really good finale, I'm guessing because they knew that people would be paying attention to other things. There's probably about a dozen worthwhile episodes of content stretched out into sixteen, given my criticisms about some of the villains, you can probably infer what parts I thought were worth keeping and which were worth getting of.
The romance is a surprisingly tender slow burn, which I appreciated. It's in the background the whole time and it doesn't feel rushed like it sometimes can, like they just shoehorned it in because audiences want two characters to get together. "Turn your brain off" is such a dumb thing to say about any media but the sentiment is probably there when I recommend this to others, though not literally, because you definitely need to pay attention at basically every moment. It's an okay to mediocre drama elevated by good performances and honestly some pretty fun plot beats here and there. Worth a watch if you like that sort of thing, but not worth your absolute love and devotion, unless you do love it in which case throw away everything I've said.
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