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Sweet Home korean drama review
Completed
Sweet Home
0 people found this review helpful
by cwinterbrisk
Sep 24, 2021
10 of 10 episodes seen
Completed
Overall 7.5
Story 7.5
Acting/Cast 10.0
Music 7.0
Rewatch Value 6.5
This review may contain spoilers

Entertaining but lacking

Overall, a pretty entertaining show with some good visuals and action. Love the premise of the show, just wish it was executed differently. I haven't read the webtoon, so I'm reviewing solely the show itself.

First off, I agree with many other people who think that adding the Imagine Dragons song to dramatic scenes was a little unfitting to say the least. Ruined some of the dramatic moments, but still, not that big of a deal for me. My problem was with the way they develop Song Kang's character, Hyun-su.

I was under the impression that Hyun-su was going to be the main character and have a lot of scenes. Unfortunately, with such a large ensemble cast, he was often pushed to the side in order to focus on the other 10 main characters (not to mention the side character's screentime). They gave Hyun-su a very sad and dramatic backstory that looked like it was going to develop as the show progressed, allowing him to overcome his demons and possibly utilize it to help others. Although he does help others intermittently throughout the show, he rarely gets any satisfying scenes where he saves the others and is often the one who is needing saving in the first place. Most of the main cast were given strong characters who are capable and have their moments to showcase their strengths, whereas Hyun-su didn't really get any satisfying moments (except at the very end).

Even at the end of the show (spoiler warning), I was expecting Hyun-su to do something dramatic and possibly sacrifice himself to save the others, showing them that he was a good person even if he was labeled a "monster". This doesn't really happen, and his climactic ending moments are overshadowed with the "sacrifice" of the other main character, Eun-hyeok. Speaking of, I don't understand the need for Eun-hyeok to even sacrifice himself in the first place. He could of gone with the others to safety, but instead he decided to sit in a room and die for no reason? I don't know, maybe I'm missing something (I was often confused by the plot). This just overshadowed Hyun-su's part that could have been so much more impactful.

In general, that is my biggest complaint about this show. I understand the need to showcase all of the characters in this large cast, but I feel like they could have done so much more with Song Kang's character. There was so much potential to develop him into something great, like having him transform at the end and sacrifice himself to save the others as a clear indication of him accepting himself and having grown as a person, but instead he just leaves. Not really a sacrifice, no recognition or satisfying ending, and doesn't even get to prove to the others who judged him that he was truly a good person and could control his inner demons. Even the whole relationship between Hyun-su and Eun-yu could have been more impactful at the very end if they didn't unnecessarily throw in Eun-hyeok's death.

Overall, decent story with some hard to follow plot progression and plotholes, great acting, questionable music choices, good effects and animations, good action, but with the unrecognized potential of the character of Hyun-su.
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