This review may contain spoilers
Don't have high hopes, just try to enjoy the ride if you can.
I had to fight my way through this k-drama, because for the life of me, I did not want to watch it. It was painful to get through, but I finished it. So here we go:
The plot was all over the place. :( I had high expectations since the writer worked on Strong Girl Bong-soon and the director on Meteor Garden, but apparently that level of quality was a one-time thing. The premise had so much potential: they freeze them then thaw them out in the future! I was so excited to see how they would navigate the modern world. But after maybe one episode of acclimation, they had zero problems. Not once did they seriously mess something up because they were from the past. They barely showed it. Occasionally they threw in an old-fashioned phrase, but mostly they just said they were from the past without ever showing it. Such a wasted trope.
And the ending? D: Wow. They froze Go Mi-ran again, widening the age gap from 8 to 11 years. They should have frozen Ma Dong-chan instead, so they would not be so uneven in age, experience, and workplace hierarchy. They could have made Mi-ran a fulltime producer instead of an intern, or even a chief because fo her unique skillset with hit shows. Instead, they made everything more unbalanced. Then she suddenly wants to go abroad to study after he waited three years for her? Come on. The YouTube channel felt like a band-aid solution, and they did not even get married. Completely unsatisfying.
As for the acting: I love Ji Chang-wook, but this was easily his weakest role I've seen... the army must have drained him completely. Ma Dong-chan was a painfully bland character, like a wet tissue, and even Ji Chang-wook could not save him. He abandoned his girlfriend of 20 years based on an unconfirmed assumption, had no real relationship with his mother, and barely any meaningful connections beyond his niece. Criminal underuse. This character might honestly be worse than Noh Ji-wook. Lucky that he is so pretty.
Won Jin-ah, on the other hand, was the saving grace of this drama. She played Go Mi-ran beautifully. Her character was interesting, grounded, and genuinely enjoyable to watch. Her relationship with Nam-tae was adorable, and their bond surviving 20 years apart was one of the few things that worked fro me. She was a good daughter, a good sister, and had a far better reason to be frozen than Ma Dong-chan ever did. Her only mistake was falling in love with him.
The supporting cast, though? What a mess. Overacting, overreacting, tonal whiplash, and so much cringe I had to look away. The show could not decide whether it wanted to be serious or comedic. Na Ha-young’s storyline was treated with heavy seriousness, while Byung-shim's was played for absurd laughs, and neither approach worked. There were no real consequences, no emotional payoff, and they just sent Na Ha-young's character away when things got inconvenient.
My favorite part of the drama was Nam-tae! He opened his own bakery. I love seeing good people get good endings. :D
The plot was all over the place. :( I had high expectations since the writer worked on Strong Girl Bong-soon and the director on Meteor Garden, but apparently that level of quality was a one-time thing. The premise had so much potential: they freeze them then thaw them out in the future! I was so excited to see how they would navigate the modern world. But after maybe one episode of acclimation, they had zero problems. Not once did they seriously mess something up because they were from the past. They barely showed it. Occasionally they threw in an old-fashioned phrase, but mostly they just said they were from the past without ever showing it. Such a wasted trope.
And the ending? D: Wow. They froze Go Mi-ran again, widening the age gap from 8 to 11 years. They should have frozen Ma Dong-chan instead, so they would not be so uneven in age, experience, and workplace hierarchy. They could have made Mi-ran a fulltime producer instead of an intern, or even a chief because fo her unique skillset with hit shows. Instead, they made everything more unbalanced. Then she suddenly wants to go abroad to study after he waited three years for her? Come on. The YouTube channel felt like a band-aid solution, and they did not even get married. Completely unsatisfying.
As for the acting: I love Ji Chang-wook, but this was easily his weakest role I've seen... the army must have drained him completely. Ma Dong-chan was a painfully bland character, like a wet tissue, and even Ji Chang-wook could not save him. He abandoned his girlfriend of 20 years based on an unconfirmed assumption, had no real relationship with his mother, and barely any meaningful connections beyond his niece. Criminal underuse. This character might honestly be worse than Noh Ji-wook. Lucky that he is so pretty.
Won Jin-ah, on the other hand, was the saving grace of this drama. She played Go Mi-ran beautifully. Her character was interesting, grounded, and genuinely enjoyable to watch. Her relationship with Nam-tae was adorable, and their bond surviving 20 years apart was one of the few things that worked fro me. She was a good daughter, a good sister, and had a far better reason to be frozen than Ma Dong-chan ever did. Her only mistake was falling in love with him.
The supporting cast, though? What a mess. Overacting, overreacting, tonal whiplash, and so much cringe I had to look away. The show could not decide whether it wanted to be serious or comedic. Na Ha-young’s storyline was treated with heavy seriousness, while Byung-shim's was played for absurd laughs, and neither approach worked. There were no real consequences, no emotional payoff, and they just sent Na Ha-young's character away when things got inconvenient.
My favorite part of the drama was Nam-tae! He opened his own bakery. I love seeing good people get good endings. :D
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