Reviews

At the start of the story it was interesting and the plot was really good. The main characters have chemistry and I could just feel the emotions. It was addicting to watch as the plot thickens and everyone unweaving their own issues.

The reason why I dropped this is I feel like after episode 28, they are dragging the drama for too long. I feel like episode 29 onwards is just to add extra time for the drama with no plot. It's very repetitive and just lost the plot at this point.

Slight spoiler, after Wen Yifan saw her uncle (gonna get death sentenced) and aunt being in jail and Sang Yan is safe in the hospital, they should've ended there because its a good point to end but they just keep on dragging and dragging the story so it gets boring.

One thing that i would also like to comment is that i don't really feel the chemistry between the second couple. It just feels forced and there wasn't anything that was tying them together. Its just always about the guy's family and issues. The girl would always have to check up on the guys family and help to resolve it. So it kinda feels like every time they spend their time together its mostly like going to include the guys family problems.

I'm done ranting, Thank you for listening and reading :P

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Sad in misery

Spoilers ahead!!
I’m gonna be honest, I watched this because I saw Sea was playing a role in this series. But then again I did see a bunch of edits on TikTok saying that this is quite a fun series to watch. I do agree that this series has a lot of comedic scenes but the thing is there wasn’t any plot.

Expanding on my reasoning, I can see that there are 3 main characters in this series and I don’t mind that. Starting with the first episode where the first main character explaining how him and his boyfriend gets together through a flashback. Can I just say that it’s a long ass flashback bro. Like what do you mean it took almost 4 episodes for a flashback and then it went back to the present for a few minutes only for the scene to go back to the past again because they haven’t explained it completely like it wasn’t even halfway done.

This would be a good series if you don’t really care for the plot, you’re just there to watch a certain actor or just for the fun drama. In my opinion, this just narrows down to your own preference cause I prefer strong characters with a well written story and this series doesn’t fit into that category. But this series does have a good ost y’all so that’s a plus!

Other than that, I don’t really have much to say. I was kinda disappointed that I never get to see PerthSanta (I’m 8 episodes in and it’s still talking about ForceBook relationship). But anyways I would I go continue to watch this? Maybe, it’s not a definite no.

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Spoilers ahead!
I think that this series is good don't get me wrong but i think once the male lead and mc got together and slowly have their happy ending I couldn't continue watching cause i know that they are gonna be happy together. I think episode 34 confirms it as everyone in the family knows that mc is dating the male lead, the mc's father realised that he's being used by his "mistress" and their project is going smoothly. I believe that the last two episodes is just going to be buffer episodes and also trying to wrap things up. Ending it in episode 34 is a good end for me because i feel like there's not much lore going on, just some fluff and extras. This is my personal opinion so don't take it to heart.

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Spoilers ahead!
I'm going to start by saying that this series does not hit my expectation but I do think that it is an interesting concept. It doesn't hit my expectation because I feel that each character doesn't really have a backstory and their personalities are quite similar to each other. They are funny, they like hanging out with each other but there isn't much plot to work with to drive the story deeper.

Honestly out of the four couples that played within the series I think Q (Winny's Character) and Toey (Satang's Character) has the most sufficient story writing. Like how the characters first met and how they bring that to the present is quite interesting. It's the main reason I stayed to watch and get this far. I feel that Tan (Aou's Character) and Khaofang (Boom's Character) could've pushed this series further but It felt as if they decided to cut that off.

I would like to say one thing Peem (Phuwin's Character) and Phum (Pond's Character) their love story was not executed well. I just feel that the chemistry between them doesn't feel real it feels forced. I do understand what the writers are trying to show which is enemies to lovers but the way the characters acted in the series is like putting a dynamite in a dark room.

Overall, I wouldn't recommend watching this series. I feel that their other series is wayyyy better compared to this one. I'm not sure why its executed in this way, perhaps the writers just wanted to put a lot of BL actors in one show so they have to cut down in some scenes but this is not my cup of tea like this is not how it should be. All in all, this is just my experience when watching the series, don't take it to heart, its just my opinion on it. Thanks for reading, goodbye :)

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Holy SMOKES!

This is one of the most disturbing drama I’ve watched on Netflix. The acting was alright but the relationship between the characters was so bad I had to dropped it. Theres like 0 chemistry between thr mc and female lead.

There was a scene where one of the character had a fling with one of her students and that just made me want to dropped it completely. Mind you that they are 17-18 years old and this teacher is probably in her late twenties. It just sort of disgusts me especially when they indicate there was a intimate scene in the show.

Not just that but the female lead feels like she was kinda a gullible character but not a likable one. I also don’t think she is a strong female lead. I didn’t finished this series as I dropped it. Cause i don’t feel like the need to finish the series as i sort of know how it would end.

Do I recommend you to watch this? HELL NO! Its honestly a waste of time cause u could be watching something better fr! But if ur curious suit your self!

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A Pleasant surprise with great twists

At first, I was one of many viewers who were still hesitant about whether to watch this series because of the age-gap issue and moral concerns. However, I waited until it finished, and many viewers said it was watchable and didn’t feel awkward at all, so I started watching. Since I didn’t expect much from it, this series really surprised me—it was much better than I had hoped.

The story starts in an engaging and fast-paced way. Every time you think someone is the villain, the plot twists and introduces new elements that make you suspect someone else instead. This keeps the story interesting throughout. Both lead actors gave excellent performances. The male lead, Xiao Wuyi, is intelligent, cunning, yet kind-hearted and gentle. Hou Minghao fits the role perfectly—he looks cool and imposing, making people fear him, and he handles the action scenes well, making them feel realistic. The female lead is a clever inventor girl, Xie Jiayu. She is very smart and quick-witted. Ai Mi is adorable in this role. It’s a pity that the age gap between the two actors means there are almost no romantic scenes, but both still performed well enough to make us feel that the characters deeply love each other. The supporting cast is also good. The music matches every scene perfectly. The costumes are beautiful, especially Ai Mi’s outfits—each one is gorgeous. Many of the scenes are also visually stunning.

Overall, this series really surprised me. If you’re a fan of Hou Minghao and Ai Mi, I highly recommend watching it because both of them shine brilliantly in their roles. The age-gap issue won’t make you feel uncomfortable at all since there are almost no romantic scenes, yet the two leads still delivered outstanding performances. The story progresses well—neither too slow nor too fast. The supporting actors performed excellently. This will be one of my favorite series of 2026 and is definitely worth watching.

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Namkoong Min, the Best Part of the Drama

“The Husband" had an interesting premise and a cast that could have made it really compelling, but unfortunately, the final result left me feeling quite mixed. The drama had potential, but I felt that the writing and especially the pacing didn’t always allow it to reach that potential.

The biggest positive for me was definitely “Namkoong Min". As always, he brings a lot to his character through his acting. He manages to convey emotions very naturally, even in scenes where the writing lacks depth. I particularly enjoyed the way he handled the more intense moments and gave his character a strong presence.

Namkoong Min has this ability to make a character captivating simply through his expressions, his eyes, and the way he conveys emotions without overacting. You can tell that he fully understands his character and tries to give him more complexity, even when the script doesn’t necessarily give him enough material to work with. For me, he was easily one of the strongest aspects of the drama.

The rest of the cast also did a decent job overall. The performances were generally convincing, and some scenes worked mainly because of the actors’ performances. However, I sometimes felt that the supporting characters weren’t developed enough and lacked depth. This made some of the relationships and conflicts feel less impactful than they could have been.

That was ultimately my main disappointment: “the performances were better than the writing". There were good ideas, talented actors, and especially Namkoong Min carrying a large part of the drama, but the script didn’t always live up to them. Some slow parts and certain writing choices made it difficult for me to stay fully invested in the story.

I wouldn’t say “The Husband" was a bad drama, but rather a drama that could have been much better. With stronger writing, more developed characters, and better pacing, it could have been far more memorable.

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A Beautiful Tragedy That Frustrated Me More Than It Broke Me

I really wanted to love Love in Pavilion more than I ultimately did.

There is so much to admire here: the cast, the production, the costumes, the scenery, the CGI, the music, the multiple relationships, the friendship among the Masked Group, and especially the restrained romance between Dongfang Huaizhu and Wangquan Hongye.
For most of the drama, I was genuinely invested.

But by the time I reached the final few episodes, my frustration became stronger than my sadness.

And that is unfortunate, because this could have been a much more satisfying tragic story.

🌿 A promising story with a genuinely interesting premise
One thing I really liked about Love in Pavilion is that the story isn't simply about defeating a villain.
At its heart, it is about the conflict between humans and demons, the resentment created by generations of hatred, and whether people can actually break the cycle that keeps producing more hatred.
The Black Fox works very well within that theme because she isn't simply an evil character who wants to destroy the world for no reason. She feeds on resentment, hatred and grief—the very emotions produced by the conflict between humans and demons.
That is why the concept of the Black Fox manipulating people into killing one another is actually brilliant.
Unfortunately, the execution of the final battle doesn't live up to that premise.

💔 Hongye × Huaizhu — The romance I actually enjoyed
I genuinely liked Dongfang Huaizhu and Wangquan Hongye.
Their relationship isn't the typical xianxia romance where the leads spend half the drama misunderstanding each other, breaking up, getting jealous, and repeating the same cycle.
Their romance is quieter and more mature.
They gradually learn to trust one another. They fight together. They support each other's decisions. They communicate. Even when they disagree, their relationship feels based on partnership rather than childish romantic drama.
I especially enjoyed the little moments between them—the hand-holding, the quiet conversations, the fireworks, the marriage proposal, and the way they gradually became each other's emotional refuge.
Their romance worked precisely because it wasn't excessively dramatic.
And that's why Huaizhu's eventual death hurts.
But it also made me ask:
Was all of this development really worth it if the final resolution barely gave them a chance to live the life they fought for?
Hongye survives.
They get married.
They have a child.
And then Huaizhu dies anyway.
I understand the thematic intention. Their love was never meant to erase the cost of the world they were trying to change.
But emotionally, I still felt cheated.
Not because I demand a happy ending, but because I wanted their sacrifices to produce a more meaningful change.

⚔️ The Masked Group deserved so much better
This is probably my biggest complaint about the entire drama.
I became attached to the Masked Group.
The drama spent so much time establishing them as a powerful and loyal group. We learned about their abilities, their relationships, their masks and their bonds.
So naturally, I expected the final battle to be the ultimate showcase of their teamwork.
Instead...
They were wiped out in essentially one battle.
And that battle wasn't even a satisfying display of their abilities.
The Black Fox manipulated them.
They turned against each other.
They killed the people they were supposed to protect.
One by one, they fell.
And suddenly, the legendary Masked Group that the story spent so much time building was practically gone.
I wasn't angry because they died.
I was angry because they died without getting the battle they deserved.
Give me one great battle where every member uses the ability we've been introduced to.
Let their formation actually matter.
Let them strategize.
Let their sacrifices weaken the Black Fox.
Let each death feel like the culmination of that character's journey.
Instead, their deaths mostly became fuel for the Black Fox's power and emotional trauma for Hongye.
That is such a wasted opportunity.

😭 And the 20-year future made this even more frustrating
This is where the story lost me.
They had something most dramas would kill for:
They already knew the future.
They literally traveled to a future twenty years later and saw what would happen.
They knew the Masked Group would be destroyed.
They knew people would die.
They knew Yang Yitan would lose control.
They knew the final battle would end in tragedy.
So what did they do with this information?
They still walked into almost the same fate.
This should have been the most strategic part of the story.
Instead, I kept thinking:
“You guys had twenty years of spoilers. HOW DID YOU STILL NOT PREPARE PROPERLY?”
😭
I understand the argument that fate cannot simply be changed.
But there is a huge difference between:
“We tried everything and fate still defeated us.”
and
“We knew what was coming but somehow made almost the same decisions anyway.”
The second one is simply frustrating.

🤦‍♀️ Why did the Masked Group even follow Hongye?
This is another decision I couldn't accept.
Hongye himself understood that they shouldn't all enter the Beyond the Boundary.
He tried to go alone.
The others followed him anyway.
And what happened?
Exactly what the future had shown them.
They were manipulated.
They killed each other.
They died.
Their deaths didn't meaningfully weaken the Black Fox.
In fact, their deaths and the hatred and grief they generated only contributed to the Black Fox's power.
So I kept thinking:
Why did they even follow him?
If the original plan was for Hongye to confront the Black Fox alone, then perhaps the smartest thing the Masked Group could have done was stay behind and protect the others.
Their decision to follow him feels heroic on the surface, but strategically it makes very little sense.
And that is a problem because these characters were supposed to be intelligent and capable.

🗡️ And then... the formation was basically useless?
YES.
This one really bothered me.
The story spent so much time preparing us for the Masked Group's formation.
Their abilities.
Their teamwork.
Their coordination.
Their masks.
Their preparation.
And when the actual final battle arrived, it felt like:
Black Fox: “I can manipulate you.”
Everyone: “Okay.” 😭
The formation that should have been one of the biggest payoffs of the entire story barely mattered.
Ultimately, it was Hongye's sword, together with Huaizhu's help, that became decisive in defeating the Black Fox.
So what exactly was the point of the Masked Group's elaborate preparation?
I don't mind if the formation fails.
But if it fails, the story needs to explain why it failed and make that failure meaningful.
Instead, it simply feels wasted.

🦊 Black Fox was actually a good villain
Ironically, I think the Black Fox is one of the better-written aspects of the story.
Her greatest weapon isn't brute strength.
It's manipulation.
She understands people's weaknesses and turns their love, guilt, grief and resentment against them.
That is exactly why watching the Masked Group destroy themselves was so painful.
But then we reach the biggest problem with the ending.

🙄 Black Fox is finally defeated... and then the senior disciple?
This was where I felt the story took a downgrade.
Not necessarily because the senior disciple is objectively weaker than the Black Fox.
The downgrade is dramatic, not necessarily power-scaling.
Black Fox is connected to the central mythology of the entire story.
She represents centuries of accumulated hatred between humans and demons.
She is connected to Jia Lan, Jiu Huo, resentment, the Grief Tree, the Beyond the Boundary and the larger conflict.
She is the villain the entire story has been building toward.
Then she is defeated...
And suddenly, the senior disciple becomes another major antagonist.
Except we've spent most of the drama seeing him as an irritating side character whose primary motivation is his obsession with Huaizhu.
So instead of:
Black Fox → culmination of the entire human-demon conflict
we suddenly get:
Black Fox defeated → surprise, THIS GUY is still a problem.
It felt less like a satisfying final escalation and more like the story needed one more villain before it could end.
His role isn't inherently bad.
The problem is the lack of buildup relative to the importance he suddenly receives.
He simply doesn't carry the same thematic weight as the Black Fox.
So yes, personally, I felt it was a downgrade in the final stretch.

😭 The deaths were tragic—but were they meaningful?
This is where I differ from some of the more positive MDL reviews.
I understand why some viewers appreciated the tragic ending.
I understand the argument that the deaths emphasize the inevitability of fate.
I understand that the source material itself is known for tragedy.
But knowing that the ending is supposed to be tragic doesn't automatically make every tragic event good writing.
For me, the question isn't:
“Why didn't they all survive?”
The question is:
“Why did they have to die this way?”
Zhang Zheng and Qingmu Yuan's story is heartbreaking.
The Li brothers' sacrifice is heartbreaking.
Yang Yitan and Wangquan Zui are heartbreaking.
The Masked Group's destruction is heartbreaking.
Huaizhu's death is heartbreaking.
But when almost everyone dies in such a short span, tragedy can stop feeling profound and start feeling mechanical.
At some point I wasn't thinking:
“Oh no, they're dying.”
I was thinking:
“Okay, who's next?” 😭
And that's not the emotional response the drama should have wanted from me.

🥀 Zhang Zheng and Qingmu Yuan deserved more
Their story is one of the more interesting side romances because of the identity issue.
The real Zhang Zheng dies, while Anran assumes his identity because of their resemblance.
Yuan eventually falls in love with the person living under Zhang Zheng's identity, while Anran himself develops genuine feelings for her.
That is actually a fascinating premise.
It raises questions about identity:
Do we love someone's name and face, or the person they have become?
Their tragedy could have been one of the strongest emotional arcs in the drama.
And then their ending is rushed too.
Again, the problem isn't that they die.
It's that the story doesn't give their tragedy enough room to breathe.

💀 The tragedy became repetitive
This is ultimately why I couldn't give Love in Pavilion the high rating some viewers gave it.
Almost every relationship eventually follows the same emotional pattern:
They love each other → they try to protect each other → something manipulates them → sacrifice → death.
Once you notice the pattern, the later deaths lose some of their impact.
The drama keeps telling us:
“Look how tragic love is.”
But sometimes I wanted the story to show me something beyond tragedy.
Give me consequences.
Give me strategic victories.
Give me characters learning from what happened.
Give me a meaningful alteration of fate.
Give me proof that their sacrifices changed something.

🌸 The ending with Hongye and Huaizhu's child
I did appreciate that Hongye survived and that they had a child.
That at least proves that something changed from the future they originally witnessed.
Hongye surviving is important.
Their child represents hope.
And the continuation of the human-demon conflict gives the ending a sense that the story is part of a larger world.
But then Huaizhu dies.
And because she dies so soon after they finally obtain their family, the happiness feels painfully temporary.
I understand the symbolism.
They couldn't save the world without paying a price.
But I still wanted the drama to make that price feel more connected to their choices.
Instead, it felt like the tragedy was predetermined and the plot simply rearranged who would die.

Acting, visuals and production —undeniably strong
Now, I have to give credit where it's due.
The production is beautiful.
The costumes are gorgeous.
The scenery is gorgeous.
The CGI is generally impressive.
The action sequences are visually appealing.
And the cast is one of the show's strongest assets.
Liu Shishi carries Huaizhu with that restrained elegance that suits the character perfectly. Her ability to express emotion through small changes in her eyes and expressions works particularly well for Huaizhu.
Zhang Yunlong also impressed me, particularly during Hongye's emotional breakdown after losing the people around him.
The supporting cast is strong too.
Wu Xuanyi and Zhai Xiaowen had a very sweet dynamic as Wangquan Zui and Yang Yitan.
Ryan Ding and Meng Ziyi had one of the more interesting and tragic arcs.
The Li brothers' relationship was another highlight.
And the Masked Group, despite how poorly their final battle was handled, had enough chemistry that I genuinely cared when they died.

And then there's Hou Minghao's guest appearance.
I wasn't expecting to see him: “WAIT—IS THAT HOU MINGHAO?!”

The music fits the drama beautifully.
The melancholic OSTs work especially well during the emotional scenes.
There are moments where the music almost makes the tragedy feel bigger than the writing itself.
And that's a compliment to the production.

⭐ Final thoughts
Love in Pavilion is a frustrating drama because I can see the excellent drama hiding inside it.
It has:
✔️ A strong cast
✔️ Beautiful visuals
✔️ Great costumes
✔️ Impressive CGI
✔️ A mature main romance
✔️ Interesting side couples
✔️ A compelling central conflict
✔️ A genuinely threatening manipulative villain
✔️ A strong friendship/brotherhood element
But it also has:
❌ A painfully rushed final act
❌ A wasted Masked Group
❌ A future-knowledge plot that wasn't utilized strategically
❌ Too many deaths compressed into one battle
❌ Sacrifices that often feel avoidable
❌ An underdeveloped late-stage villain
❌ A senior disciple storyline that feels tacked on
❌ A climax that doesn't fully utilize the abilities and formation built throughout the drama

And that's why my biggest takeaway isn't:
“I hate this drama because everyone died.”
It's:
“I hate that the drama made me care about these characters so much, only to waste them in a climax that didn't feel worthy of them.”
I don't need every character to survive.
I don't even need a happy ending.
But if you're going to spend 30+ episodes building the Masked Group as an elite team, showing us their abilities, their relationships and their determination to change the future, then their final battle should feel like the culmination of everything we've watched.
Instead, they were eliminated one after another, largely through manipulation, in essentially one battle.
And after all that...
Hongye survived. Huaizhu died. They had a child. Black Fox was defeated.
So what actually changed?
A little.
But not enough to justify how much the story promised us about changing fate.
Beautiful? Absolutely.
Emotional? Definitely.
Memorable? Yes.
Satisfying? For me, unfortunately, no.
Love in Pavilion made me cry—but more importantly, it made me frustrated.

And honestly, I think that's a bigger disappointment than simply making me sad.

A gorgeous, emotionally ambitious tragedy that had all the ingredients for something exceptional—but lost me in its final act by sacrificing narrative payoff for tragedy.

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Awesome show! I hope more people will give it a chance!

I really liked this show, and I hope more people will give it a chance. Almost everything was good - the story, acting, music, production, editing. There is mystery, suspense and plot twists. It left me guessing all the way to the end.

The first couple of episodes were confusing, but I was hooked by the conclusion of Episode 2. The show is about a group of women who come together to solve crimes: Wu Yue, a psychic; Yao Zhidi, the only woman in a misogynistic police department; Yang Moli, forensic medical examiner; Qiu Ya, daughter of a wealthy family who dreams of being a newspaper reporter; and Wei Qing, a sketch artist.

The show centers on unusual crimes weaving together two themes: one about a serial killer and the other about a secret immortality cult. The first episode is about a rickshaw driver whose late night passenger mysteriously dies. When the driver comes back with help, the dead passenger has aged 20 or 30 years.

The only drawback and what kept me from rating this an overall 10 is that the English subtitles were occasionally confusing. Most of the time I could figure out what was going on. The most common problem was that it got the pronouns mixed up. Like someone might be explaining a crime that they witnessed. and they would say, "He did this and that," but the translation would read "I did this and that." Also, when the characters talked about complex things, the subtitles would get confusing. Luckily, both the English and Chinese subtitles are displayed simultaneously, so when the dialogue got confusing, I used my translation app to read the Chinese subtitles. If you can live with this issue, the show is really worth watching.

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I talk too much about Sunny, sorry!

Trigger warnings for rape, SA, nudity, alcohol & drug abuse, violence, bullying, death, murder, & self-harm

I may have missed some triggers, but I think I got the most important ones.

I have not read the manhwa, but I plan to when I have the time.

I was super excited about this series from the moment the trailer dropped. Going into this series, I was the most excited I've ever been to watch something outside of a Spider-Man or Harry Potter movie in theaters. I went into this series expecting to give it at least a 9/10, but I quickly came to realize that that wasn't going to happen. I still love and enjoyed the series, but it wasn't without its problems.

My first problem was with the OST. It was really good, but for the first 3 episodes it would randomly blow my eardrums out with loud violins or piano and completely overpower the characters specking. Thankfully, it didn't happen again after episode 3, but the fact that it happened at all was annoying & honestly painful since I have sensitive hearing. So while the OST was one of my favorite things about the series, it also started as the thing I hated most.

The acting was really good; I have no complaints. I think Shogun did a great job with the panic attacks. (I've had many panic attacks, so I like to point out if I think a person has done a good job or not.)

The Chemistry between all the actors was great, especially our main leads. Toptap and Min had really good kisses, and the NC scenes are like something I've never watched before. I'm not sure if that is a good thing or not because I still feel a little traumatized by how real they looked and felt. I normally clock out a bit during NC scenes because I'm honestly more interested in the kissing and cute/sweet moments (especially cuddles), but there was no clocking out for me in these scenes. My eyes were glued to the screen in disbelief and fascination. (Honestly, I'm the girl who was standing beside them in the bus scene.) I'm also a big fan of size differences~

The pacing of this series was really good, but the ending felt very rushed compared to the rest of the series. This is one of the Thai series that should have been longer. Again, I didn't read the manhwa, but I feel like they could have easily made this series 12-14 episodes long. It felt like a lot was missing that could have been shown to us. For example, how Jay's mother died, everything Sunny was going through after the deaths of his backers, what drove him to go to a loan shark, and whether he faced public repercussions that made him unable to work in entertainment; for some reason, I also felt like we missed some things in Jay & Sun's relationship. These things may not have been in the Manhwa, but I felt we should have seen a bit more of them.

The way the old men were handled also felt incredibly rushed. The pervert with the pacemaker death was fine for the most part, but I would like to know what video was sent to the police since Two-O never got to send the one to Sun. (Who was that boy, by the way? I thought it was Wave, but it wasn't, and we don't get a name. He deserves that at least after being killed by Sunny.) Is the one who shot the other old man the boy who was signed onto Dream by Jay's mother & then raped by the pervert? If he is, I feel like that flashback would have worked better in this moment instead of where we got it. Everything happened all at once with no buildup that would make you think things are going to end with murder. And as I said above, I would have liked to see more of Sunny during the events at the end. He was such an important person to our main character, but he felt brushed over even before Jay started things with Sun.

The whole show was building up to these 3 being taken down after all the lies, manipulation, and vile things they've done, only for it all to come to a head and conclude in like 15 minutes. It truly leaves you feeling dissatisfied, and the writing is very lazy.

Since I'm on characters, I've heard a lot of people say that Jay was toned down in this series, and if that's the case, I really wish they wouldn't have. He's a red flag, and if you're going to do a red flag character, you should take it as far as the work you are adapting did. Also, Jay wasn't as big a part of the show as I thought he would be. He wasn't really there for a good majority of the show, and when he was, it was just in small bursts. It's just weird that it felt like the supporting cast got more screen time than one of our leads. This made it hard to know anything about this man other than that he wants revenge and is obsessed with Sun. If Toptap and Min's chemistry weren't so good, this show would have been a major flop because Jay's lack of screen time makes it impossible to make this relationship believable. I believe they are sexually attracted to each other and compatible, but nowhere near love.

Sun, red flag or not, was a doll, and I want one for myself. He's so serious and awkward. The only annoying thing was when people said he looked 'ordinary' when he was downright adorable. I loved Sia Jo & Kajorn; Sun is definitely going to make them go prematurely gray. They were the comic relief that we didn't need, but I'm glad we had them. Besides the panic attacks, I don't really have many feelings about Sky. He was there, he was helpful, & he was traumatized. I also thought they were going to pair him with Boat's character at one point, & I'm still not sure if I'm disappointed that they didn't. Two-O wasn't a very present character, but they did a good job of making me worry about him.

Sunny. I wanted more of Sunny. To me, this man was more of a red flag than Jay, but with zero power to back it up. He pulls so much shit in the past & the present, and I didn't see enough. Sun was living a normal, albeit emotionless, life when he learned the role Sunny played in his brother's death, but the most we get from Sunny himself is just words. Most of them bragging. I wanted to see if there was any mental struggle in the decisions he made. If he ever once hesitated (sans murder) in the things that he did or had others do. He is the second most irredeemable character in the whole show and is Sun's target, yet he felt one-dimensional. After everything he has done, I didn't expect him to change; I just wanted to see some kind of internal struggle. Even if it was only for a moment.

I feel like I did nothing but complain about the series, but I really did enjoy it; I just felt like it was wasted potential. If they had made the series longer and given the characters, mostly Jay & Sunny, more depth, it could have been much better.

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Couldn’t stop watching.

Note: spoilers start in the 4th paragraph.

I watched Stranger and Stranger Season 2 back to back. I liked them both but TBH, I think the former was better.

Si Mok. Oh, what a character! I’ve thought about him the most of any KDrama character I’ve watched. What would it be like to live without emotion? What would it be like to know a person like him. I’d try to understand him. I believe I’d respect him for his brilliance and dedication but I also think I’d be just as frustrated as everyone else was. Cho Seong Woo embodied Hwang Si Mok to a T and didn’t falter in his portrayal through both seasons even though they were 3+ years apart.

I don’t think I’m smart enough to respond to some of the social issues brought up in both seasons, just to say I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about them since I finished watching both seasons. I believe that’s why I give Stranger a 10.

Spoilers

Seo Dang Jae should not have been given a pass for his assault on Yeong Eun Su. Sorry. I found it difficult to warm up to him after that, even in the second season.

I know it made the plot that much more realistic (maybe) and intense, but I was taken aback by Eun Su’s murder. Her death was especially sad.

Minister Yeong was a coward in the end, basically hiding in fear for 3 years. If he was such a great man, whom so many considered their mentor, surely he could have figured out a way to take down Chairman Lee. And then he lets his daughter go right into the fire pit, begging Si Mok to protect her. I wasn’t impressed with him at all.

Far too often KDrama culprits give a sob story about why they did what they did. And that’s pretty much all the viewer gets. Yoon did the same thing - but it was refreshing that Han Yeo Jin did not let him get away with excusing his revenge.

I’ve spent some time thinking about Prosecutor Yoon also. From his son’s death, the grieving he and his wife went through together and separately (not to mention the other families) the breakdown of his marriage which lead to their divorce, and the 2 years of investigating Park’s actions would have been a story in itself. Killing Park as he did, did nothing to avenge the lives of those innocent children. In the end Park (or the corporate thugs) never had to face the families and take full responsibility for his actions. Yoon actually robbed all the families of their opportunity to see justice served. If he had taken Park down through the legal channels, his son would have been proud. What a waste of Yoon’s life.

Chief Secretary Lee Chang Jun rightfully assessed his life when he laments over where his path to compromise and illegal alliances first started. Si Mok’s assessment was correct, he was a monster and IMO a coward for not facing the people and taking responsibility for his crimes.

This was my final thought about Season 1. Stranger depicts many issues with incredible realism. Does it also depict what the criminal justice system is really like in Korea, at least in part?

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