Reviews

To me, this show was unwatchably bad. I went into it expecting some mindless romantic fun (which is a great thing, don't get me wrong). I expected melodrama, hammy acting, one-dimensional characters, etc. Unfortunately, it was like watching a bad, anti-feminist cartoon.

The only (ONLY) likable characters were the dog and Han Dong Jie. Seriously, that is it. The male lead is a self-centered sociopath that treats people, even his supposed love, like trash - even after he "reforms" and the actor portarying him constantly grimaces like a cartoon villain. The female lead, while initially likeable, seems to have no real personal goals, is incredibly immature, and allows herself and her younger brother to be (rather obviously) abused and manipulated. What is more, if she is really interested in family, love, and caring - she chooses the wrong guy by a mile!! The "Aunt" and "Uncle" come off like children. How do they even function in the world? Can they even tie their shoes?? The Grandfather (the second villain of the piece) is inconsistant. He comes off by turns as greedy, heartless jerk and a simpering fool. I just do not believe that any of them have any busienss sense at all. How did they become rich? Sure, he stole a popular formula, but how could these morons run a business? The cousin is just a second thought character that is never really developed or explored. It is too bad, because he could have been likable. The Granny's life story makes absolutely no sense. She knows a guy for a few months, nurses him, and falls desperately in love with him, but when he leaves her she makes no attempt to find him or contact him. Then she marries someone else, has his babies, etc., but never mentions or thinks about her actual husband, because she is too busy pining for a jerk that stole her family's recipe? BTW, why did she never hear about the stolen pill and then sue the pants off of the wealthy family? None of this makes sense at all, and the Granny's sanity and values are seriosuly questionable, since chooses to risk her life for a watch rather than be there for her grandkids.

Beyond all of this, the show treats herbal medicine like magic. While there are some merits to alternative medicinal practice; it isn't magic and a certified doctor is better to treat major illness than a girl raised in the woods by a love-obessed old lady that never thought to pick up a phone book to look for her long lost love.

If you want to watch idiots and terrible characters make selfish choices, abuse eachother, and degrade the concepts of family and love, this is the show for you. If not, then stay well away. Blech.

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I have no idea why I thought this drama was going to be a Chinese version of “Goong” one of my fav manwha turned drama. This really reminded me of Inuyasha, maybe a little romeo and Juliet. Anyway this a really pleasant historical treat. As you have already read the synopsis, this drama is packed with plotting (come on the are in a palace), love triangles, misunderstandings and trickery.
The working theory is that this chick goes back in time, inuyasha style, bringing modern ideas and a knowledge of how history will play out. I really enjoyed how the main female lead was head strong the whole time, and how she was inventive. I also really liked how it showed the two main characters loving each other and spending time together. This is one of the very first times I have ever seen a lead couple trust and be completely honest with each other- I thought it was wonderful. Get ready for a lot of overacting, fake laughter, bad hair pieces, backstabbing and just melodrama. The acting was poor for most characters but the main actors seemed to nail it.
No matter how much I liked the leading couple the plots were essentially the same as all other historical dramas. The palace maids are shady, the eunuchs need bribing and all of the concubines are scheming to get their kids ahead of the rest. The female lead kind of got annoying with her flawless trust in everyone who shook her hand getting her into situations where she nearly dies. I mean really how many times can you fall for the same tricks?
At anyrate this drama is long but it has some cool fights, and keeps you interested because it seems to move at a good pace. I only really had to skip 4 episodes and it had a really good ending that makes you want to know more. There is a lot of romance and not a lot of comedy, but it wasn’t very dark themed. Take some time and watch when you have a chance.
p.s. the lip syncing on all of the songs was just God awful- i mean really!!?
p.p.s. the fighting was really fake looking too.

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To be honest had higher expectation and currently its not meeting it! Finally like at episode 18 he confesses his love!!! It was driving me nuts that the first 15 episodes, was contemplating on dropping. I mean its only 24 episodes....

Male lead is cute but i find he is kinda slow to relationship and doesnt like to show that he likes the female lead. I mean you can just straight tell her. Female lead , is also very slow to relationships , and to be honesty nothing of her personality really stands out besides the fact that she is super strong and was once a tomboy. Thus causing the male lead to think that the person he had a crush on when he was young was a boy but it was the female lead with short hair. I kinda of find it hard to believe that if that was your crush you dont find out their name and if they are actually a boy or girl? Fast forward They meet again in University , and finally through various occasion he finds out that , she's a girl. She also has liked him for a long time. They just never had the guts to tell each other. The first 16 episodes I would summarize as "I like you but Im not brave enough to tell you face to face, not sure if you like me, miscommunications....

Others:
Second male lead is hot!!! but a playboy character. His character hopefully will change due to the female lead's best friend ( aka second female lead(
THird female is second male lead's cousin and she is a stuck up bitch, who has two faces to her. She's in love with the male lead because they grew up together. They both play piano together. she's initially a bitch but changes for the better.

Fingers crossed it will get better fast !!!!

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One of the most illogical romance ever

This drama just proves that the writer has never been in a relationship or in love before.

The first season started off well with the introduction of an interesting-but-yet-realistic creation of a love alarm app along with the infusion of aesthetic visual elements and the intriguing storyline stemming from the mystery of the missing creator of the app, Duk Gu. Hwang Sun Oh and Kim JoJo were made to be the main leads in this season. Despite the interesting storyline, the puppy love was undeniably weak and unconvincing. I simply couldn’t understand why Sun Oh and Jo Jo were attracted to each other. It made Jo Jo looked like an indecisive cheater. She had a boyfriend but she liked Sun Oh. Their chemistry never made sense because she couldn’t reason out why she liked Sun Oh and it completely didn’t even make sense as to why she decided to end the relationship with Sun Oh when she actually liked him. She ended the relationship by using the shield that Duk Gu gave her exclusively to download in order to lie to Sun Oh that she never liked him. It hurt Sun Oh as he did not understand the reason why it happened that way and he never got proper closure. Perhaps that’s the essence of puppy love. Nevertheless, I shipped the two because the director wanted it that way. At the end of the first season, Duk Gu was hinted to be alive, Sun Oh having a new girlfriend he did not love and Hye Hyeong courting Jo Jo. The episode ended with Sun Oh’s new girlfriend ringing her alarm for Sun Oh while Sun Oh and Hye Hyeong ringing their alarms for JoJo; signifying the love triangle. Jo Jo’s alarm didn’t ring because of the shield that conceals her feelings which was why she later desperately wanted it to be removed and was so obsessed with the findings of missing Duk Gu.

Season 2 made the whole storyline went downhill. We expect the drama and jealousy of the second leads arising from Jo Jo being honest with Sun Oh. However, that wasn’t the case. In season 2, Jo Jo decided to give Hye Hyeong a chance by giving the relationship a try even tho she did not like him. She flinched when Hye Hyeong kissed her at the beginning but let Sun Oh kissed her in the later part. This shows how confused, indecisive, and needy Jo Jo was. She looked like a lonely and needy girl that that didn’t mind dating a guy she did not like. In this season, you are going to be confused as to who you are going to ship because Hye Hyeong became the male lead of this season with greater screen time. Sun Oh became the second lead and the screenwriter decided to make Sun Oh a fool who was drunk in his family’s situation. Perhaps the screenwriter wanted to explain that his obsession for closure with Jo Jo was due to the ill relationship between his parents. In this season, Jo Jo is desperately trying to find Duk Gu so she can have her shield removed, be honest with her own feelings, and hope to ring her future boyfriend’s alarm. I thought the reason that Jo Jo wanted to have the alarm removed because she has always wanted to reunite with Sun Oh by being true to him. Because she was always triggered whenever she bumped into Sun Oh. But no, she wanted to get it removed because of Hye Hyeong. She wanted to use it to ring Hye Hyeong’s alarm so that Hye Hyeong will know how she feels about him. The ending was evident that Jo Jo chose Hye Hyeong and Sun Oh going back to his ex-girlfriend. This storyline is basically telling viewers that as long as you make an effort to love someone who loves you and treats you right, you will love them eventually. Sounds illogical right?

I waited almost 2 years for season 2 because I was curious if Duk Gu had actually taken his life because of a rejection. It hinted that he was alive. I thought the revelation of his disappearance was going to be way more interesting in season 2. Turns out that he has been hospitalized for 4 years and his brother was the one running his love alarm app business. Duk Gu later woke up and gave Jo Jo an armour to download so she could ring Hye Hyeong’s alarm. Yea I just wasted my time on season 2.

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FUNNY , CUTE

Story - Simple story with recognized GMMTV actors . There are so many scenes which were so funny and cute .

Visuals - Always great .

Cinematography - Top tier .

Music - Background music is not funny at all but annoying .

Acting - Great cast with super cool acting .

Room for Improvement- This series is same as We Are from GMMTV. They should change same types of school engineering/ medical BL series and try some new story.

Schedule - Schedule for broadcasting of this drama is definitely not good . They should air two episodes per week instead of one episode which will take six months . We have definitely not that much patience .

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Good premise that runs out of steam

I like morally grey protagonists and I was really excited to see Lee Dong Wook take on this role, especially after his stellar performance in Strangers From Hell. The first few episodes didn't disappoint. The story of a corrupt (but not evil) detective being forced down a more righteous path by his own split personality was an original one. However, about halfway through the drama transitioned into a typical "main character uncovers mystery from his own past" type thing which has been done to death. A lot of things were also left unexplained. While I'm ok with having some things left ambiguous, you at least have to explain enough that the story makes sense. Unfortunately, especially in the last 2-3 episodes, there was a lot left out. So while the premise was interesting, the execution didn't live up to the potential of the story.

There were some positives: The acting was pretty good from all involved. There were a few funny moments. Great OST. I liked the more lighthearted tone of it.

Overall, this would probably make a pretty good weekend binge, provided you don't think too deeply about it. On the whole though, I have to say I was slightly let down by this drama.

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Slice of life that was just too slow for me.

First I'll say what I liked...
Great acting, diverse characters, intelligent lines (dialogue), which were brought together really well and perfectly executed.
Understated acting in a drama that contains little action or romance to fill in gaps and quite a few scenes that involved little or no dialogue, really tests an actor's abilities.
Viewers will have their own take on what this drama represented. For me, it was about regrets, being stuck in a dead-end life and reaching a point where that hits you and questions then raise their heads about what the point is and if that's it. One's own worth is even questioned.
The pace, however, killed it for me.
There are slow, gently unfolding dramas, that I have loved. I don't need murders, horror, steamy romance or laughs-a-minute. I do need SOMEthing to pull me in though.
If I had watched this drama after it aired, I would have dropped it.
Watching it air, however, I stuck with it, as 2 eps a week I could watch.
I do feel it picked up, but only in the very late episodes. The rest were like watching paint dry.
It was claustrophobic, often miserable and with some horrible characters. I couldn't stand Ki-jung, the older sister; even outside the house, where she seemed to be supposedly 'quirky'. I felt sorry for her once and that was short lived.
Tae-hoon's sister, Kyung-sun, was also repulsive ~ totally selfish and a complete martyr, who made a decision in her life and then used it to whine and bitch.
Chun Ho-jin as the father, was excellent, although I don't think he'd have had a problem learning his lines.
Lee Min-ki's character of brother, Chang-hee, was my favourite. Terribly immature in his behaviour at times, but very self-aware. I think all the father's dialogue was allocated to that character too!
The ending felt abrupt, not so much because of unanswered questions, but because I found 2 storylines really odd in how they were left. It was almost like the script writer couldn't be bothered. Perhaps they didn't know where to go with those aspects, or were trying to be life-like... which doesn't always make sense. I don't want that side of reality in a drama though, thanks, as it's just frustrating!
I don't think I chuckled, never mind laughed, once.
The title that represents what the drama portrays, is tenuous, to say the least.
I found the story and script very disappointing and it is definitely not one I would ever watch again.

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Theatrical romance that lacks genuineness

I can understand why BL drama fans love this drama. As a BL costume drama, this drama gets an A but overall as a drama its pretty average. BL dramas are usually pretty poorly done with very poor story and acting so this drama is definitely a step up from all those crappy dramas.

Lot of BL interactions and scenes which I am sure BL fans loved. Sometimes it was fun and cute but most times felt forced and not very natural. The b/romance felt pushed in to our faces a bit. Wen Ke Xing's character is fun and flirty, showing his dark side and his playful side when with Zhou Xu. I don't see the appeal of Zhou Xu, seems very boring. Did not seem menacing enough to be a leader of a ruthless group. Very forgettable and bland character. I failed to connect with either characters.

Nothing comes to my mind when I think of an scene that I could see true feeling expressed by these characters towards each other. There are lots of over the top dramatic, flirty, forced romantic moments but just lacks genuineness and sincerity. Chinese costume dramas always have many theatrical scenes, but in this drama there was something very theatrical and fake about the couple, which really disappointed me.

The story was very decent/average. I can similarities with Legend of Fei since its the same author, characters with hidden pasts, old characters who think they know better than anyone else, some powerful book/ object every one wants, mazes, royalty making appearances for no reason. I often felt that our BL pair was a side story just watching the drama unfold around them. I really didn't care for the main plot with the sects and sect wars and leaders. There are so many characters just talking, talking, talking. This drama believes in telling not showing. The whole childhood friends plot is so overused.

The acting was ok, Gong Jun's character was so overdubbed at the start, it was painful to watch. Though it did improve tremendously. Zhang Zhe Han was very average . I think Gong Jun acted better than I expected whereas Zhang Zhe Han did not meet expectations that I had for him. They can do flirty, cold and concerned but can't convey true emotions. The little boy was adorable but overall tolerable level of acting from the rest of the cast.

I conclude that this is a good BL drama but average drama.

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A Warm, Simple Family Everyone Asked For!

This is the very first drama I'd write a review even before the drama has pass it half.
This is also the very first drama I gave 10 ratings for it's flawless and perfect storyline, cast, ost, editing, all!

Everyone in this drama really makes me want to hug each of them.

I do find it's quite interesting because the lead ages are reverse from their actual age.
But they nailed so perfectly. The child actors also do their roles perfectly.

Usually, I find the childhood times are boring so mostly I skipped the timeline, but, I never skip a single part of it!
The young Jian Jian is such a cutie. She is like a sunshine around Ling Xiao and Zi Qiu- who has difficult childhood.
I love how the young version grows to be a teenager, who is there for each other.

The three of them really have different charm and personality, but the sync between the three is really beautiful.

< Characters >

+ Ling Xiao; a boy yet a man.
Even tho his character is like usual main lead in other dramas, experienced awful incident that makes him have nightmares like everynight, but he always make a reasonable decisions. He grow faster than child at his age, but doesn't make him act like old man in such young age. He can be mischevious, naughty, yet an elder brother you can depend on.

As the youngest of three, Song Wei Long potrays the oldest; handsome, gentle, and lacks nothing.
But as the story goes on, you can see how weak, hurt and broken Ling Xiao is.
Song Wei Long do awesome job to potray this one.
Like, you always seeing him shining; suddenly you are afraid you'd broke him just by touching him.
I would said that, Ling Xiao were made to him..
and it's his best character yet so far.

+ He Zi Qiu; forever a baby.
He long for loves from his family since young age. He also devoted child especially to his foster dad. He is Jian Jian's shield yet her partner in crime. He has the most difficult childhood between the three. He is sensible, yet insensible to other feelings. So sometime his acts or words can hurt others; but no one can hurt his family. He is definitely a brother you are wished for.

Xin Cheng is given to act as Zi Qiu with most funny yet most sad scenes.
You feel like want to protect him and make him smile most of time, since his smile is so precious.
He may be hot-headed and act harsh sometimes, but you can't stop him.
But despite all his misfortune, he always give us good laugh with his innocent and pure soul.
Xin Cheng really touch our heart with his acting. Bravo.

+ Lin Jian Jian; rays of sunshine.
She is the purest soul I've ever meet. She looks like a troublemaker, but she is actually the one that care her family the most. She always be true herself, show what her likes or dislikes and never hidden her own feelings.
I love how Jian Jian's character is growing, especially when she was apart with her brothers.

Honestly, I love how Jian Jian can be a child yet mature to her given situation.
Song Yun really gives us the positive vibe from Jian Jian and make everyone love her (even in bts, she is as cheerful as JJ).
I like how the fact Song Yun can play the 16 and 25 yo JJ with perfection.

Not to mention the Fathers role are so important to the three, especially Papa Lin. I was really touched by how he is brought up the three and always regards Ling Xiao and Zi Qiu as his own child. Even tho Papa Ling doesn't have much roles to the kids, but he is kind and good listener to Papa Lin. They have such great synergy and become each other back. They just like actual husband and wife would be.

The bound between family is so strong that no one can break them apart.

< Storyline >
Neat, cut perfectly, the pace is right.
I really don't like most family drama has draggy pace especially when they are argue, separate, or in an angsty situation. But I don't see any draggy moments in this drama. You can laugh and sad at the same episode.
The portion of each pace is 100! The time jump is also in a right placement!
1999 to 2009 to 2019. the dynamic is good.

Even the characters changed in thru years also relateable. And Jian Jian's narration also make more senses.

In Cdramas, usually we can see how the storyline goes based on opening or ending song, but I got clowned each episodes. This drama really have an unpredicted story with heartwarming story each episode.

< OST >
The OSTs are beautiful and rightly placed. There is no misplaced BGM or sound effect, I would give standing ovation to the music director. Never did I got annoyed by BGM or sound effect.
I also heard the OST like everyday as daily routine.

I also hope everyone who is watching (and reading my review), would have their own happiness and feel warm at heart as our three musketeers strive and chase their own happiness~♡

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intriguing start - confusing middle - unispired ending

Storyline:

this one started promising with the lead actress being a special kind of introvert autist forced extrovert if needed, being beautiful and highly intelligent in the field of programming. The idea of the new chatbot she invents fits the current times and often hopelessly automatized behaviours of modern humans.
She herself uses her chatbot and one evening decides to meet the creepy chat match instead of the normal nice guy she is talking to at the same time.
Meeting that obviously creepy guy is weird and intense for her, the cinematography and music in the first episodes is really good, artsy and fitting the entire mood it wants to transport.
So while we find out the very first episode that the creepy looking guy is indeed a creep and crazy serial killer for that, we undertand that somehow he likes our female lead too and does not intend to kill her (or at least most of the time I guess).

So the pictures, the tension and the music are really well done in the first few episodes. The side characters are - ok.
The shaman friend seems interesting but her story isn't well explored, sadly she remains pale because that lack of background.
The other friend of our progammer lady is a female detective who, after an accident, is wheelchair bound.

Our serial killer seeks the cop lady out specifically on the chat bot luring her in with pretending he is in a wheel chair too. (how he is able to do that we don't know) For some unknown reason he does not kill her though, but leaves her out in the wild without her wheelchair. I did wonder though why did he not kill her as she could have easiyl intentified him? Also, why did she not check the police records for his face she being a police woman?

By the middle of the show it gets all rather slow and several things that happen seemed forced and incoherent to me and I started feeling a little annoyed.

It seemed like the creators wanted to put certain things into the story no matter what and how.
So the shaman woman is into women and it seems kind of forced that they almost artificially create a situation for her to meet a woman and get it going with her. No problem with that if it fits the story and you feel a connection to the character. That chance was missed in my opinion and so it just seems like they wanted this to somehow happen in that show.

Same thing goes for the handicapped cop lady. So she is a cop but although being in a wheelchair and thus comparably helpless she goes to a blind date with an unknown guy she just talked to per chat for a bit, and she doesn't meet him in public but is gullibly being lured into the wild to a forsaken swimmingpool sowewhere in the great nowhere? Would a cop, let alone a handicapped cop do such dumb thing really?

So then you have to just accept that quite accidentally, in a multi million city like Seoul, the serial killer gets involved with programmer girl and at the same time with her disabled cop friend. Not enough accidental things, he is even able to orchestrate a kind of rape game in a vacant industry hall at night, where programmer girl unknowingly meets a group of men who where made to believe she is meeting them for that rape role play. She doesn't know of course and despite being a very petite, untrained small woman she is not only able to escape all of them (unlikely) but even kills one of the with just one strike of a razor blade (very unlikely).
Meanwhile Mr. serial killer goes on killing while the police... hm, well it seems he can just go around killing in Seoul, the CCTV extreme city, and not only not being caught, but not even being sought after. (very, very unlikely).

it starts on dragging then, feeling like the creators couldn't decided what to do with the characters.
All of a sudden our autistic programmer girl is obsessively in love with the serial killer, but we don't really get to know why that happens all of a sudden.
The handicapped cop lad is out for revenge and instead of this time being wiser and getting backup when she wants to confront the serial killer, she - again - is dumb enough to be lured to a remote place, this time a whole vacant housing estate that is about to be demolished when she is there. And she really goes there alone again, with her wheelchair, into uneven demolishing ground, where this time she almost dies and is just being rescued the very last second. That was when I was annoyed because I thought how could someone with the police be that idiotic two times in a row? How did she even get to the police with that lack of intelligence in the first place?

Anyways, it then gets more artsy and abysmal, serial killer killing, programmer girl acting like a 12-year old obsessively in love with him ignoring all sensibility, and in the end deciding to kill the killer. That, sadly, wasn't done in any realistic way.
She still just has that small razor blade, and with it is able to make a slash through one eyeball, the nose including bone and the other eyeball. For this she would have neede something else, a mere small razor blade is not able to do that. But again, the creators wanted that effect of cut eyeballs, physics out the window. And again, no police while in a few weeks there are brutally murdered people everwhere and programmer girl happily celebrated with her friends.

Conclusion:

I did not know this was an adaption of a book and I do not know that book so I can't say if the adaption went well or not.
As mentioned in the beginning, this was promising and it could have been rather good, but somewhere in the middle the creators somehow lost their own plot. it got more and more confusing and the characters acting unlogical or plain dumb.

Creating a good storyline with this content is probably comparably difficult, but the downward tendency was just too steep for me from the middle of the show.

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The story has great potentail and was realy well built until all the mystery started to reslove honestly I was kind of disappointed and the writer focused so much on the love line and kept dragging the love triangle until the last minute it realy affects alots of the chrachter development

The acting and the cast was amzing everyone is a perfect match to the role the actress who played sooyoung was realy amazing it's hard not to hate her Kim Sohyun surprised me she is that good and she's only fifteen it take only one gaze to differentiate between the twin Sungjae did well he made taekwang too lovable joohyuk was decent too.

the ost are realy good it's one of the best especaily reset and return

rewatch value I don't realy rewatch drama unless it was super good it only happened 2 or 3 times before so I shouldn't judge this category

overall it was fun to watch this drama

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Where are all of these 5-star and 10+ reviews coming from???

This show was the most drawn out, repetitive and absurd thing I've watched in a while.

I genuinely wanted to give this show a chance, but by ep 25, the ML STILL doesn't know the woman he's given up his career for and has fallen in love with multiple times, is an alien. Not even an inkling. There is SO LITTLE transparency with this couple. No communication ever.

The female lead has also yet to even say the words "I love you" to him. Not once! This couple has more chemistry when they're not together than when they are lMAO. the kiss scenes are awkward at best, and it's ironic that the ML, who is married irl, was putting more effort into their scenes than the FL in all her scenes combined. I can understand why it would be awkward, but their kisses are hard to watch, and I would have much preferred 1 or 2 excellent ones, to numerous bad ones where her eyes are wide open and their lips are pressed together while the camera spins around for 5 minutes. But anyways, I always forget to start with the positives so here we go.

I LIKED:
- chemistry. Their on-screen chemistry was good, mostly due to the ML. he was very convincing. I can appreciate the effort he put into seeming like he was genuinely enamoured by the FL.

- The story-line, I guess? While not unique, it was very promising. It's a shame it was pulled down by unnecessary tropes like greedy-in-laws, sinister exes/second female lead, mad evil scientist, and many other minor things. You can't ask me what any of them have said, or even what their motives and personalities are like. I've skipped about 70% of each episode since reaching the 10 ep mark, and the time spent focusing on these boring, melodrama tropes, could have been spent fleshing out the FL's feelings, motivations, and logic. She doesn't want to be discovered as an alien, yet in at least every ep, she's using her powers. ;-; Something's not adding up.

I DISLIKED:

- The supporting cast. Every single supporting cast member was a stumbling block, with the exception of 3. Mr Han, Dr. Zheng, and FL's Jie. Oh right, the FL's Jie, and basically a sister/mother figure at this point, DOESN'T KNOW SHE'S AN ALIEN EITHER? This show could have been a deep, profound exploration into the differences between human and aliens. She could have developed even deeper relationships with those around her. It could have covered Xiaoqi coming to terms with the fact that she might have to stay on Earth forever, and making life-long companionships, confiding in humans, and growing to love them. If not the ML, her jie, making deep, life-long bonds. But nO.

- The FL. This is no fault of the actress who played XQ. Xiaoqi was just all over the place, and at the end of the day, she feels, empty? Not full? Like something's missing. Anticlimactic. She hasn't grown, she hasn't changed fundamentally since ep 1, and frankly, I'm disappointed in this character.

- EXECUTION ON A WHOLE.
THIS SHOW HAS MADE ME WANT TO WRITE MY OWN SPIN-OFF OF THIS DRAMA, AND RIGHT EVERY WRONG THAT WAS COMMITTED. That's how aggravated and disappointed I am with it.

Long story short, My Girlfriend Is An Alien, was a show with a simple premise, that could have been so much more. So much more profound, and heartwarming, but instead became a shallow romance, with an ambiguous female lead, and too many plot points, to know what it really wanted to do.

DNF @ep 25. Maybe I'll return some day. Maybe not.

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Unexplainable thriller, and definitely not a social commentary

I'm going to be honest, I started this movie only because of Siwan, and since the plot seemed interesting, I thought it would be worth watching it beyond the fact that I love to watch Siwan's shows and movies. However, I must say that his performance (and Chun Woohee's) in this movie was the only thing that kept me watching it.

If you want to watch 'Unlocked' looking for a movie that criticizes our society's dependence on smartphones and technology, don't. This is not a social commentary and it doesn't approach the topic like that. This is a movie about a psychopath with no background story or reason to kill, and once again, shallow female relationships that make you wonder if these writers have ever seen women in real life.

I'm going to start with the fact that it bothers me personally that psychological thrillers these days - and by these days I mean in the past several years - are all about male psychopaths with a nonsensical obsession to kill young women. No, I'm not saying that we should give these psychopaths a troubled childhood in order to justify their actions as adults. I'm saying that a story should have a reason to be, whatever it might be. But lately, kdrama writers, and those at Netflix in particular, seem to be making these stories about killing women just for shock value and nothing else. The fact that the reason 'Oh Junyoung' killed these women was just because they dropped their phones is the weakest and most boring reason I've seen in this type of dramas, and that's a lot to say considering that I keep thinking about the drama 'Somebody', which I feel the same way and worse about (if you watched it, you would know what I'm talking about).

Now, another bothersome plot point about this movie is the fact that the killer is always smarter than everyone and can anticipate every move, action, and thought from his victims, making it impossible for them to ever escape their fate. But then again, this wouldn't be so irksome if the writers provided the psychopath with at least a reason to kill or an explanation as to why he's doing what he's doing and why he's so good at it. In this drama, however, we don't even have a name for our killer, which wouldn't be that much of a problem if we at least had any type of information about his background or what he did before the movie started rolling. The only thing that we know is that he impersonated the detective's son and wanted to frame him for his murders. But why? Why did he start impersonating this man? How did they meet? Why was the detective so mad at his son? Why do the writers give us information about the detective's wife and their family situation in general, when it won't even be resolved or explained, or even shown what the link between all this is? The killer wasn't even actually the detective's son, so why do we even need to know this, when we won't know who our killer is or what his reasons are at all? Who did the killer have a grudge against to be going around doing all this, to begin with? There's absolutely no explanation for anything ever and the more I think about this movie, the more questions pop up in my head that will never be answered.

Moving onto the female characters, this is probably what makes me the most upset. The female lead had her phone hacked and discovered it, but the first thing she does is blame her best friend after consulting a man that she met two days ago, and against whom her father warned her. It's kind of annoying how she dismissed the very reasonable concerns of her dad, but I won't even get into that. What I will question, though, is, why do you live in a house without a code? Why does your best friend scare you about having someone breaking into your house? Why do you believe a man you met two days ago over your best friend since middle school? Why does your best friend get immediately upset with you and decide to cut contact with you for a misunderstanding you had in a moment of extreme distress after your life was literally ruined by some psychopath? I don't understand why they made their friendship so shallow and ridiculous that you would decide to cut contact with your friend. Yes, I would also be absolutely hurt if my best friend suspected me of pulling such a horrible thing on her, but to go beyond that and warn her to never contact me again, and leave her all on her own to deal with such a dangerous situation... It pisses me off to think that these writers think women would do that.

Also, after the female lead finds out that her phone was hacked, she simply decides to keep using it as if nothing was happening. Girl, the first thing you needed to do was throw it away. At least she came up with a reverse strategy eventually, but I just kept thinking about why she simply decided to keep using her phone after everything that was happening to her.

These dramas and movies written by men about psychopathic serial killers that outsmart their victims all the time, and in which said victims are the dumbest people you'll ever see really gives me an unsettling feeling considering the incredibly high rates of this type of murder in South Korea.

Overall, this isn't the worst movie you'll ever watch, but it's only a movie to watch if you don't have anything else to do and if you don't feel like watching a complicated story. Don't let the thriller tag deceive you into thinking you're down for an actually good psychological thriller because you are really not.

At least Siwan did amazingly as expected, and Chun Woohee was a very good actress. In general, the cast is pretty good and there are many familiar faces if you watch a lot of kdramas, but other than that, this movie is very weak and not really worth your time.

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It was good but it could have been great!

A solid 8/10 for me.

General Remarks:
Excellent writing, brilliant acting and a suspenseful story that keeps you on your toes.

1. Story about 3 sisters with absentee parents.
2. A mystery surrounding a girl who stole 70 billion won and left it in the account of one of the sisters before she was killed.
3. Main focus is one of the sisters trying to find out what happened to her friend and why she was killed.
4. Characters mysteriously being killed and willing to go to their graves to find this stolen money.
5. The interconnected storylines and drama in each of the sister's and their enemies lives.
6. Mystery behind the blue ghost orchid and the people wrapped up in a society that pledges their lives to it.

Let's start with the positives:

I really enjoyed the storylines of all the sisters. I felt like In Joo and In Kyung always had to be so strong for In Hye and tried their best to take care of and provide for In Hye because of again. absent parents.

I thought the plot was amazing and unlike any other drama I had ever seen or watched. I didn't know so much about orchids and I thought it was refreshing to see a show centered around a rare species of orchid (the orchid of death) and the whole group of people wrapped up in the organization.

I found In Joo battling what to do with all that money to be a realistic portrayal because really and truly most persons wouldn't know where to begin if that amount of money somehow fell into their hands.

I like how everyone's storyline became interconnected and it was like each character was serving a greater purpose in Song-A's "play" of sorts. They were all like her little dolls and she basically called all the shots. At first I was led to believe that she was being forced and coerced by Park Jae Sang but soon it became apparent that everything she was doing was a ruse. She believed herself to be an actress and presented herself differently to each person. Each person was treated like a new canvas or stage of sorts.

Personally I think Sang A was the most interesting character because she was a truly evil serial killer / psychopath. She had no qualms or regard for other people or their feelings (typical sociopath behavior). Finally, a villain being a true villain without any regretful backstory as to why they became that way. Song A was just born that way and though they tried to justify her actions by saying she killed her mom on accident and was living with the guilt and the trauma in her "closed room" (ie. the door that she never opened) Imo her recreating that tragedy was sooooo sick and I loved every minute of it. She was downright horrible and at a point I believed she was going to try and take everything away from both In Joo and In Kyung. I thought In Hye would have never escaped her and she was gonna get rid of Hyo Rin and mold In Hye in her image – creating the perfect daughter. Thank god that didn't happen though!

In Joo and Do Il left much to be wanted at the end – I am disappointed that we did't even get a kiss or a hug lol! The chemistry was there and despite everything they went through you could feel the sheer care they developed for one another. They may not have ended up together but I believe important lessons we learned. No amount of money in the world could make In Joo happy / satisfied and that she would give it all up in a heart beat to protect her sisters and the people she truly loves and cares about. Through In Joo, Do Il too realized that there are some people worth fighting for and more important than money.

I never thought In Kyung would give Jong Ho a chance but I lwas literally so happy at the end when they finally got together and admitted their feelings for one another.

Though In Hye was a really complicated character I thought her message at the end was sweet and behind her depressive and cold hearted exterior was a troubled teenager with a heart. She did care for In Joo and In Kyung but just had a sh*tty way of showing it. Her message to her sisters was sweet and I could kind of understand her reasoning for being distant and wanting to find herself first before appearing in front of them again. Even though she appreciated all the sacrifices they made for her in her life she needed to go her own way and find independence.

Negatives:

I could not stand their mother. She was awful and didn't give a singular f*ck about her kids and it was so infuriating to watch. She took her daughters field trip money and just ran away with the sh*tty excuse that In Hye is young and has so many opportunities to travel and that she needs to go now because she's "old" essentially. That was just soooo absurd to me considering the fact that the mother knew damn well that was In Hye's dream and the thing that would make her the happiest????? Imo she stifled those poor girls and was not fit to be a parent, not to mention their good for nothing father who the mother ran away to help and barely heard from ever since. In Joo and In Kyung practically raised themselves with the help of the great aunt who raised in Kyung for a while and then them turning around and raising In Hye.

I found In Hye to be ungrateful and selfish and the fact that she chose to find herself and travel the world with her friend rather than stay with her sisters even when the danger was eminent left me shocked.

I wish In Kyung's alcoholism was tackled more and we could see her path to recovery not like she just woke up and magically got over it. It's a touchy subject yes but I feel like many people struggle with alcoholism and it would've been nice to see a kdrama tackle such an important issue in the midst of all the mystery and chaos going on.

I wish we saw more character development but I understand it was hard to do so in 12 episodes.

I thought the last episode was rushed but again it was hard to fit everything into 12 episodes. I felt like Sang A died a quick and mildly painful death but she deserved to suffer wayyy more for her crimes... so it was upsetting seeing her die without having to atone for any of it while Hwa Young was badly burnt, survived and still had to go to prison. Imo Hwa Young has mental issues that also need to be taken care of because I don't know how someone can endure all that + their fake death and still be mentally sound. Also I am not sure how I feel about her getting involved in another gardening program (like especially if it has anything to do with orchids) like that was strange and it gave me the creeps. Hwa Young has the perfect demeanor and makings to be a villain / antagonist so it would be interesting to see her character arc in S2 (if there is one) Honestly I feel like she wasn't able to fully get her revenge and have peace of mind so I kinda do hope if there is S2 that opportunity presents itself.

Final Remarks:

Kim Go Eun really puts so much into her acting and you can feel that translate across the screen no matter what role she undertakes. Wi Ha Joon's character was mysterious and throughout watching I couldn't quite place him. Was he evil or was he good? It became clear that he was a morally grey character (which I ate up btw) essentially a wildcard that could swing either way depending on the situation.

I hope there is season 2 with a whole other mystery that the sisters are swept up in. Maybe this time it can start with In Hye and her friend Hyo Rin and then the others have to help save her. I would also love Hwa Young to make a reappearance and help them from prison if she can or this mystery finally frees her as we meet an even bigger contender / mastermind than Sang A was.

I liked it so much as I am still thinking about it and wishing there was more even though it's finished. I would definitely recommend it to others :)

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