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The story of a woman who doesn't need saving and the man who insists on coming to her rescue
I recognize the irony of writing a review this long about a short drama, so here's the takeaway.
This is a not-too-serious but fun action-fantasy series with comedic undertones. The writers/producers seem to have a good handle on the strengths and weaknesses of the vertical format, and provide an entertaining experience. The story presents the FL as overpowered, and maintains her capabilities and confidence throughout, with some enjoyable dynamics between the leads (although the romance, if it is coming, does not arrive in this first season).
If you enjoy action-fantasy and enjoy or are looking to dip into the world of vertical dramas, this is a pretty good place to start.
I gave this series high points for coherence, charm, and interesting characters. (In general I would consider the average vertical to be in the 4-6 range)
Charm and Interesting Characters:
The lead couple is quite hilarious. We have the FL, a transmigrated soul with superpowers and significant military experience from an apocalyptic future, and the ML, a prominant CEO/royalty??? (the "present" is not our world and the political structure is a little unclear). The FL is disciplined, restrained, and uninterested in romance. She was recently betrayed by a trusted ally and she gains the memories of the "original owner" and realizes that the life she's in now has also experienced betrayal by family memebers. She's ultra-confidant, and seems to be biding her time (an building her strength) before deciding what she wants to do in this life, but she's also not taking shit from anyone.
The ML is immediately taken with her. He recognizes from their first encounter how overpowered she is and is fascinated by her. He launches a (hilarious) campaign to make her his wife, which includes showing up at oportune moments to grab the spotlight in situations she has total control over and then claim that he has helped her. While this could be a very irritating dynamic, it is made fun by the fact that he seems to recognize how outrageous his claims to help are, and while he aggressively pursues the commitment/alignment that would go with marriage, he is respectful of her bodily autonomy and general independence (in other words, he's persistant but manages to not be creepy). He also has many opportunities where he holds back from "helping" her because he very quickly realizes that she's even more awesome than he first thought.
There's a bit of referencing classic high school comedy set-ups (the ML's mother is reminicent of the mom in the Kiss series, and the FL is in class F). There are some fun side characters who emerge to form a team.
The first half of the drama is a pretty standard rebirth and take revenge on abusive family sort of situation, but they mostly wrap that up and we get a taste of where our FL is going next in the second half.
Coherence:
If you've watched any number of vertical dramas (or even the short form non-vertical ones), you'll know that writers seem to struggle with plot coherence. There is a heavy reliance on tropes, but *even so* you often find yourself saying "how does this make sense?" Stuff like when things happened (I watched a show recently where literally everything that happened in the past happened 4 years ago. Like, a pilot was recovering from brain surgery and was blind in the hospital for 6 months, but also he was flying a plane when a disaster happened. Also he had started a relationship with the FL four years ago, but also he had lost touch with the FL and didn't know she was secretly pregnant and taking care of him while he was blind and they started their relationship after he recovered. All four years ago. Anyway, I digress.)
This drama has a suprisingly coherent plot. There are some things in the world and the backstory that are left unexplined, but in general, what's happening in a given episode is sensibly related to what has happened or been explained in previous episodes. There are no really big gaps in the in-world logic or out-of-left-field changes in direction. Pretty much all the characters who are relevant to the story are given at least a brief introduction before they become relevant, so you don't have characters popping up out of nowhere. While watching there is a clear period of establishing the FL and what she can do before the introduction of the challenge she faces.
At the end, I was like "this feels like an origin story" and indeed, there is a second season planned.
This is a not-too-serious but fun action-fantasy series with comedic undertones. The writers/producers seem to have a good handle on the strengths and weaknesses of the vertical format, and provide an entertaining experience. The story presents the FL as overpowered, and maintains her capabilities and confidence throughout, with some enjoyable dynamics between the leads (although the romance, if it is coming, does not arrive in this first season).
If you enjoy action-fantasy and enjoy or are looking to dip into the world of vertical dramas, this is a pretty good place to start.
I gave this series high points for coherence, charm, and interesting characters. (In general I would consider the average vertical to be in the 4-6 range)
Charm and Interesting Characters:
The lead couple is quite hilarious. We have the FL, a transmigrated soul with superpowers and significant military experience from an apocalyptic future, and the ML, a prominant CEO/royalty??? (the "present" is not our world and the political structure is a little unclear). The FL is disciplined, restrained, and uninterested in romance. She was recently betrayed by a trusted ally and she gains the memories of the "original owner" and realizes that the life she's in now has also experienced betrayal by family memebers. She's ultra-confidant, and seems to be biding her time (an building her strength) before deciding what she wants to do in this life, but she's also not taking shit from anyone.
The ML is immediately taken with her. He recognizes from their first encounter how overpowered she is and is fascinated by her. He launches a (hilarious) campaign to make her his wife, which includes showing up at oportune moments to grab the spotlight in situations she has total control over and then claim that he has helped her. While this could be a very irritating dynamic, it is made fun by the fact that he seems to recognize how outrageous his claims to help are, and while he aggressively pursues the commitment/alignment that would go with marriage, he is respectful of her bodily autonomy and general independence (in other words, he's persistant but manages to not be creepy). He also has many opportunities where he holds back from "helping" her because he very quickly realizes that she's even more awesome than he first thought.
There's a bit of referencing classic high school comedy set-ups (the ML's mother is reminicent of the mom in the Kiss series, and the FL is in class F). There are some fun side characters who emerge to form a team.
The first half of the drama is a pretty standard rebirth and take revenge on abusive family sort of situation, but they mostly wrap that up and we get a taste of where our FL is going next in the second half.
Coherence:
If you've watched any number of vertical dramas (or even the short form non-vertical ones), you'll know that writers seem to struggle with plot coherence. There is a heavy reliance on tropes, but *even so* you often find yourself saying "how does this make sense?" Stuff like when things happened (I watched a show recently where literally everything that happened in the past happened 4 years ago. Like, a pilot was recovering from brain surgery and was blind in the hospital for 6 months, but also he was flying a plane when a disaster happened. Also he had started a relationship with the FL four years ago, but also he had lost touch with the FL and didn't know she was secretly pregnant and taking care of him while he was blind and they started their relationship after he recovered. All four years ago. Anyway, I digress.)
This drama has a suprisingly coherent plot. There are some things in the world and the backstory that are left unexplined, but in general, what's happening in a given episode is sensibly related to what has happened or been explained in previous episodes. There are no really big gaps in the in-world logic or out-of-left-field changes in direction. Pretty much all the characters who are relevant to the story are given at least a brief introduction before they become relevant, so you don't have characters popping up out of nowhere. While watching there is a clear period of establishing the FL and what she can do before the introduction of the challenge she faces.
At the end, I was like "this feels like an origin story" and indeed, there is a second season planned.
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