Perfect 10 for the perfect heir to Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones

This drama (all 3 parts) is perfection and I'm not saying this lightly. But once in a while, stars line up and back in 2019 stars lined up and gave us Arthdal Chronicles drama that combines the best aspects of LOTR and GOT while remains its own unique thing.

Everything about this drama is fabulous. World building, acting, characters, story, OST, locations, costumes, cinematography. I'm blown away so much so it's hard for me to review because words don't do it justice. It has to be experienced because it has such an incredible sense of wonder and discovery that transports the viewer.

So short version: just watch it and be amazed. Honestly, cannot give it a bigger compliment than recommending it to all lovers of epic fantasy. Go in cold and it will change your life.

Warning: Arthdal Chronicles (3 parts, 18 episodes in total) is Season 1 ONLY. It ends with events that the season built up to and it's really a perfect season ending. However, it isn't the end to the story so don't be frustrated when you get to the end of the finale. Season 2 is announced.

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Hunger (For Money) Games Deliver Battle Royale

Wow! What an incredible, tense drama! You will be at the edge of your seat all the time, and just when you think you figured out everything, new twists are revealed. I'd say the only tiny drawback is that the ending seems set up for Season 2, but I couldn't dock points for that. It's still a self-contained story that wraps up nicely and answers the main question.

Cast is absolutely fantastic and they play well-defined characters with clear motivations. It's an excellent study of human nature under pressure. There are precious cameos by 2 big name actors but I won't reveal who they are, who they are playing and when they appear. Discover for yourself. You'll go "No way!" I promise.

The plot is a great take on games to the last man or woman standing so fans of Hunger Games, Battle Royale and Alice In Borderland should enjoy this. It's thrilling, but most importantly, emotional beats hit you hard. Episode 6 in particular is a weeper.

Use of The Blue Danube that signals the beginning of the games is a stroke of genius. So familiar and yet so chilling given the context.

Netflix money makes a difference. You will be amazed when you see production design. It's incredible.

I'm shocked that the rating is only 8.2 atm. WTF, MDL? Is it because there's no romance? Only that could explain why drivel like True Beauty is rated higher.

I finished 9 episodes in a day and a half. What are you waiting for? :)

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All of Us Are Spread (too thin)

It's hard to review a drama that I generally really like but cannot help get hung up on its numerous flaws. In order to explain this conundrum, I will go into HEAVY SPOILERS. Avert your eyes unless you watched all 12 episodes or, like myself, are spoiler junkies.

SPOILERS in T minus 5...4...3...2...1...LETS GO!

Half plot armor, half cop out...but worse than either

Like any genre, zombie genre has cliches and that's perfectly fine. They exist in storytelling to move the story forward cause stories aren't real life. So once in a while, a character will have to do something stupid to change the status quo. Also, all stories that put characters in peril will bestow plot armor on those whom the story needs to hang on a bit longer. These characters will survive the unsurviveable situations, while the ones without the plot armor won't, even though everyone should have been dead by that point. This is fine too unless it's used to an excess, which this drama does.

That leads me to the concept of "halfbie". This is a portmanteau for half zombie but it really means half plot armor half copout. It basically breaks the universe - a bitten character doesn't become a mindless zombie but keeps human appearance and intelligence, gets super powers (abnormal strength, enhanced hearing and smell, fast healing, basically hard to kill) and, if Mary Sue or Gary Stu, is able to reign in hunger for human flesh. You can see from the very description why this sucks and doesn't fit in the universe where there are living and the walking dead. It's a cliche created to spare writer's pet (in this case Nam Ra) and make existing villain more intimidating (in this case Gwi Nam). However, the effect is opposite. Gwi Nam, aka the Evil Plot Armorie/Cop Outie, became an unintentional comic relief. You could get really sloshed if played a drinking game every time he survived a fall from the rooftop, snapped his bones back and muttered "f***er". Nam ra, aka the good Plot Armorie/Cop Outie, mostly stood on the sidelines gazing into nothing unless her love interest was attacked by the Mullet'd Cockroach of a villain (since he kept coming back like a roach) and occasionally would hear zombie footsteps about 30 seconds before the herd swarmed the safe place. But in numerous instances when the gang hit the hard-to-break locked door (another drinking game that would get you hammered in no time!) , she would forget she was abnormally strong. And given that zombies cannot distinguish between themselves and halfbies, she could have safely run errands, which would have saved lives, but never did. Basically, the whole point of her "evolved" status was for romantic purposes. Her love interest defied his friends because he trusted she wouldn't harm anyone, while she repeatedly saved him from Mullet'd Cockroach. That's really all there is to this plot device. Romance enhancer. No real consequence for the plot. Just something for shippers to drool over. Ooooh, he tied them together with the red string of fate! Oooooh, she was about to bite him but he said "do it cause then I will be like you!" and she kissed him instead! SWOON! :insertvomitemoji:

Spread the butter so thin til there's no butter

Another problem with this drama is really a typical K drama problem - too much filler, too many sideplots and characters that don't add up to the whole. Two cops and the baby and a little girl added up to nothing. It was a bathroom break. Ditto Youtuber subplot. Ditto Assembly Member subplot. Even On Jo's father's quest to reach his daughter could have been scrapped. 12 episodes spread the story too thin. It worked when it was focused on the highschool survival. It came to a screeching halt when it was about outside world and characters. It could have made the point across in half the running time.

Bromance and womance >>>>>> romance

As is always the case in dramas, romance is the inferior relationship. This drama has a love quadrangle in its center that is just there but doesn't actually impact the plot. Cheong San is motivated to protect On Jo, who doesn't reciprocate his feelings, but he also protects all his friends so you could have the same story without unrequited love. In the end, he would have sacrificed himself for everyone because he's that kind of a character. Love interest or not.

On Jo is in love with Soo Hyuk (who is in love with Nam Ra and vice versa) and that's it. Again, it adds up to nothing. She is stoically tolerant of Soo Hyuk/Nam Ra romance right before her eyes, is supportive of both, so that she is in love with him is just a throwback reference. Kind of like, this character has no real personality we might as well give her an unrequited love to stand out.

Soo Hyuk and Nam Ra romance fares a little better cause they at least had the enemies to lovers thing going when she became a halfbie. But since they are side characters to leads Cheong San and On Jo, there was no real impact there. And, weirdly, the ending forgot about it, so when the gang reunited with Nam Ra, she and Soo Hyuk didn't have a moment together. Instead, she had a moment with On Jo. :facepalm:

But on the bright side, bromance (Woojin and his "brother in law", Cheong San and Soo Hyuk - get a room you two! , and any combo of boys) and womance (Mijin and Ha ri) were excellent. I also enjoyed Jae Ik and Seoul Student banter even though they were in a bathroom break filler.

A Star Is Born

Park Solomon aka Lomon aka Soo Hyuk lit up the screen every time he was in and it wasn't even close. He bursts with genuine charisma and charm on top of amazing visuals. And he has range. I found acting to be a mixed bag but he was consistently strong.

That Ep 3 twist - Aigoo!

Really have to commend the drama for how Geong Su got infected. My jaw dropped on the floor and I still didn't pick it up. Wow!

Some really well directed set pieces

The library fight and escape from zombies with falling book shelves was OTT but so memorable.

Hit me in the feels

Deaths packed the punch as did reunions between the living and the dead (Cheong San and his zombie mom, nuff said). As is always the case with survival dramas, the choice of who died is controversial. Did Woojin have to die? No. His death added nothing so he should have stayed alive. Did Cheong San have to die? If I had my way, I would give him the halfbie arc instead of Nam Ra. He was the lead and his unrequited love would count for something if On Jo realized she loved him but they couldn't be together because he was a halfbie. Oh well.

Namra Sue Spin-off or Will there be Season 2?

If you read I Am Legend and/or Girl With All the Gifts, than you know that halfbies (any human-zombie or human-vampire hybrid) cannot be trusted. In the end, they choose their kind over humans and go as far as to exterminate humans so that they wouldn't be hunted by them. Even if one of them likes a human or two. So whatever the gang saw when they look down to where Nam ra jumped, disturbed them. It cannot be good. Genre rules prevent coexistence.

That said, the ending felt too much like a set up for Namra Sue spin-off which I have no interest in. The appeal of the drama was in ordinary teens trying to survive extraordinary circumstances, not in zombie X Men fighting each other.

Overall

Plot armor cannot protect from simple pleasures of this drama. You'll be engaged, emotionally wrecked, you'll laugh and cry with characters and feel many deaths. Warts won't go away but they aren't all that is there.

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Kissable Kink Will Make You Think About Blood Drink

Look, this drama is a web cheapie so I give it points for being focused on the main plot - no 1000 subplots and extraneous characters that dramas tend to suffer from - and moving at brisk pace despite uninspired directing and meat axe editing. I also really liked that kissing was hot for a change - no stiff fish kiss foolishness - and there's strongly implied sex which is great and realistic, unlike having 30somethings contemplate whether they should hold hands in public (another tired drama trope). And the leads, especially the vampire, are easy on the eyes. I have seen two Viki vampire dramas with Kim Ji Woong so far, and this one is way better than The Sweet Blood. For one, he is the lead here which is a huge plus since he was the most charismatic and good looking actor on The Sweet Blood yet stuck in a secondary role. Two, where Kissable Lips is focused, The Sweet Blood was all over the place weighted down by dull subplots and too many characters that didn't add up. Three, Kissable Lips has better mythology, that's easier to follow, and is much more appealing.

That said, I would have rated this higher - I shredded some big budget big name dramas precisely because they could have done much better with all the money at their disposal unlike web cheapies - had it not been for the last 2-3 episodes. So now we are diving into a spoiler territory. Avert your eyes if you haven't finished the drama or have no desire to pick it up but want to see how it ended anyway.

I liked the romance between Jun Ho (vampire) and Min Hyun (human) and the set up where Jun Ho was dying because he (accidently) killed his human lover and could only save himself by becoming a human from drinking blood of a pureblood human who fell in love with him. It's pretty interesting take on vampire lore, not entirely unique but more in line with fairytales than vampires. Love conquers all and all that. It works within this context. So Jun Ho is of course beautiful so it isn't hard for adorable teenager Min Hyun to fall in love with him. And vice versa. So far so good. Up until episode 6, the drama was squarely focused on the two falling in love with each other, with some minor side complications coming from Min Hyun's overly protective older brother and Jun Ho's overly concerned human guardian/surrogate mom/whatever. But episode 6 introduced a love triangle - arrival of another vampire who was Jun Ho's BFF secretly in love with him - that didn't add up to anything. What it did give us was absolutely bizarre murder in episode 7 where Jun Ho strangled his vampire friend for threatening Min Hyun. This scene was very uncomfortable to watch because BFF passively kneeled with tears running down his cheeks while Jun Ho was squeezing his neck for what felt like hours. All the while Min Hyun watched without trying to do something, I dunno, save his boyfriend from becoming a friendicidal maniac? And after it was over, they went home to have sex! Min Hyun was, like, I've heard you killed your human lover and I've just watched you strangle your BFF to death, that's so hot, man! You made me so horny! Drink my blood, bang me, I'm yours! OK who am I to judge other people's kinks? So if Min Hyun is turned on by snuff than I guess he should knock himself out. I just thought it was pretty strange to take this turn so late in the drama because it left no room for actual drama to come from a) hearing that your boyfriend snuffed his previous lover during unrestrained blood drinking and b) watching him snuff his BFF even if was for your safety. And then came the utterly unsatisfying finale (ep 8) which ended with a flashback from the same episode so there's only one conclusion: sponsor's cheque bounced! Quick, we need some recycled footage to end the drama!

I honestly think that they had to cut the chitchat because they ran out of money. After Jun Ho died in the finale, they teased us a potential twist involving the dropped promise ring. That went nowhere. I thought that Jun Ho would appear as a full human for basically sacrificing himself for love - he refused to drink from Min Hyun because it could have killed him like it did his other lover. Like I said already, this vampire lore has more in common with fairytales where love and sacrifice bring a happy ending. Heck, Min Hyun was crying buckets while holding the dying Jun Ho and one of most popular fairytale tropes is Healing Tears (see Rapuntzel and Beauty and the Beast). Or even better - Kiss of True Love/Kiss of Life (see Snow White and Sleeping Beauty). Hello, Kissable Lips! This trope should write itself with the title like this! Alas.

I would have given this drama a higher rating had it not been for last episodes ruination that even cheap production and bounced cheques cannot excuse. I'm happy to see Kim Ji Woong become Viki star so I'll check out more dramas with him. Just fix the writing. My man deserves better.

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The Silent Wash

Look, maybe I'm too harsh on this in the title but disappointment after a pretty good set up was just too much. So let me start with the good:

The drama is set in the future where water shortage is killing life on Earth. The hope for reversal may come from the top secret discovery - lunar water - but there's a really good twist. The lunar water infects and kills the host by overwhelming his body with water so that the host drowns from the inside. Scary eh? You either die of thirst (Earth) or of self-drowning cause even your blood turns into water. I really liked this dichotomy of drought and drowning, the presumed solution to the problem that turn just as deadly in a really ironic way.

Special effects and sets were good - Netflix money delivers - and cannot say anything negative about acting though characters were seriously lacking. More about that in a second.

The bad:

After the good twist, comes the bad twist or bad trope. Or both. To control the lunar water, heroes need a savior and she appears in the form of a hybrid human/lunar water girl who, like all Star Child cliches, is faster, stronger, smarter, has self-healing powers, can breathe in Moon (lack of) atmosphere, doesn't feel cold, is basically indestructible. Short version: Total B movie rubbish. Shorter version: hogwash. Shortest version: wash. So no, the title of this review wasn't too harsh after all.

Once this trope entered the fray, predictability ensued. Of course that she's a product of cruel and forbidden experiments on 70+ other girl clones. Of course that characters who shouldn't have died die to protect her. Of course that she creates mother/daughter bond with FL and becomes FL's top priority, etc. All that stretched in 8 episodes. The whole thing could have been a solid 2 hrs long movie. At 8 x 1 hr episode, it became a chore.

There's no one that you could call a character. Po-faced actors served only as plot-forwarders, moving from A to B to C. By the end, we didn't know these characters, just who did what, and some background information such as that so and so had a sick daughter which was info dump not a characterization.

Overall, Netflix money + cast boasting Gong Yoo and Bae Doo Na should've had a better, tighter, and most importantly, inventive script. Instead, we got prettily produced but lazy and lifeless B drama void of anything that makes B cinema entertaining.

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Yung and Restless

Story: Yung/Afterlife politics and real world politics don't gel thus giving this drama a feel that it's 2 unrelated dramas awkwardly stitched together. You can feel the 2 fighting for supremacy instead of complementing each other. Unfortunately, dire real world got the upper hand.

Acting: The Counter set does commendable job and their chemistry is palatable. Jo Byung-gye is the cutest actor ever and such a star presence so watch out for him. But the unsung MVP is Lee Hong-nae as the tortured baddy with a fabulous six-pack. His unusual face framed with a hoodie is the most iconic thing about this show. It's OTT politicians and sedated Yungsters that dock the acting points, however.

Music: Main theme is catchy from the first hearing and goes really well with Counters superhero posturing.

Rewatch value: Low given the drop in quality but Shirtless Shin (episode 16) deserves a freeze frame.

Overall: This drama wanted to be several things that didn't have any real connection. Evil spirits just randomly moved into high powered people without an attempt to harness the power for world domination or something. Which rendered the boring political plot pointless and swapping Shin for Evil Mayor as the big bad hurt the last batch of episodes. Still, finale delivered some genuine emotional beats thanks to Counter cast likability that never faltered even when the writing did. I will not return for Season 2, however, since Season 1 finale does a good job with wrapping everything up.

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Nothing ever happens except for male eye candy

Story: This drama should have been 6 episodes long and I'm generous. A pretty girl hides her acne under a heavy make up and spends 14 episodes out of 16 in fear that someone will see her bare face, although the most beautiful boy in the world (played by the most beautiful actor in the world) loves her for who she is. That's literally the story and it's stretched beyond any reason by having the characters repeat the same beats (she's scared, he cares, rinse repeat) over and over and doing some heavy padding with side stories involving her comic relief parents, her younger brother's crush on another acne girl, her unni's romance with the teacher, scheming BFF, her boyfriend's music past, his rivalry with his former BFF-turned-romantic rival. Everything ends just as you predicted after watching episode 1. You only had to wait for 16 to see it play out exactly like you knew it would.

Acting: Solid all around though FL (Moon Ga-young)'s OTT comical reaction to everything (including not-so-comical things) starts to grate early on and never evolves from that repetitive shtick. It is also annoying that ML and SML care for FL much more than she does for either of them which makes it hard to root for her to end up with either. Her slapstick reaction to everything makes her seem fickle and not as emotionally invested as her male counterparts who, while play their roles with some levity, are not comedians. And they are really easy on eyes. Cha Eun-woo is probably the most beautiful man in the world and while his acting started off stiff, he warmed up into the role and we saw both character progression and an acting one. But true standout is Hwan In-yeop whose his charm, charisma nd impeccable comic timing left a long lasting impression. Supporting cast is good I guess but I had no patience for exaggerated comedy of FL's parents and romance between FL's unni and teacher so I skipped those parts.

Music: sugary sounds, nothing memorable except the same song that played in Crash Landing On You (I'm missing you, waiting for you yadda yadda) so I remembered it from there.

Rewatch Value: No thanks. Way too long for so little content. Barely anything happens and that's all massively predictable. The ending does not stick the landing.

Overall: Poor Man's My ID Is Gangnam Beauty, a show that knew how to pace itself and deliver a satisfying ending. True Beauty wrote itself into a corner when the leads became a couple and then spent the next 8 episodes or so building SML as a worthy suitor who just might be the endgame for FL...except that would be unpredictable and out of character for this rote show. No wonder ending soured many fans.

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Watch Netflix The One instead

Watch superior The One instead. Similar concept but void of typical drama limitations.

Netflix was pushing Love Alarm on me so I watched S1 before the S2 drop and got bored. FL is annoying, classic drama Mary Sue - overachieving orphan/poor girl that the hottest, richest guy in school inexplicably falls in love with even though she's supremely obnoxious and totally average (the actress lack of chin is distracting). I don't know why this girl is such a big star (I see she's in that River show that had a recast scandal recently).

ML is a classic drama Gary Stu - rich, unhappy with mommy/daddy issues, super hot so everyone falls in love with him (cue ridiculous scenes of girls swooning). But at least Song Kang earns his star status unlike FL. See I bothered to learn his name, I didn't bother with hers.

Love triangle is a drag and one can see from miles away how the story would end (read: not how it should which is ML and 2d ML getting together since their bromance is the only thing that really works).

Underwhelming, predictable, forgettable and dull.

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North Korea sticks the landing but South Korea crashes this drama

Story: pretty SK heiress with mommy issues literally crash-lands in the arms of a very dashing NK Army captain. While the premise itself - a SK citizen finds herself illegally in the NK and in the hands of NK army no less - is dramatic enough, in an infamous drama tradition, this is complicated with several convoluted subplots to pad the mandatory 16 episode format, most of it with zero consequence to the main conflict. Still, ML and FL are as likable as it gets and have a nice rapport between each other and the winsome supporting cast of NK soldiers and ahjummas who are the main reason why NK proceedings outshine the SK ones.

Acting: Very good. Hyun Bin and Son Ye-jin carry this drama like pros but Captain Ri's Fab 5 (4 soldiers and a spy) and NK ahjummas steal the scenes. Didn't care for Se Ri's family and Captain Ri's unnecessary, stony fiance aka SFL but the unnecessary SML won me over as his character got more charming and likable as his (side) story progressed. No wonder Kim Jung-hyun scored a ML role in Mr Queen.

Music: Nice and hummable. I also liked that they incorporated it in the plot for captain Ri is a pianist who also composed the main theme.

Rewatch Value: Yes but with lots of skips. There are moments of immense beauty that deserve to be revisited SPOILERS the scented candle scene at the market, first snow, farewell at the no man's land, any piano play in Switzerland scene, just to name a few SPOILERS END but episodes got longer and longer and filler content bigger and bigger and the less said about product placement terror of Subway and that friend chicken restaurant the better.

Overall: See what the hype is about cause there's a lot to love. However, NK portion is much stronger, for bringing the conflict from that side of the story to SK didn't work and there are just too many side plots SPOILERS Ri brother's murder, Ri's fiance, Se Ri's scheming siblings, SML's involvement with mafia, Se Ri's mommy issues SPOILERS END that could have been scrapped altogether. Being stuck as an illegal in NK is dramatic enough and didn't need banality to make it more dramatic. However, those grievances aside, the ending sticks the landing and gives many earned closures which has become increasingly rare in dramaland.

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Only For Lovers of Red Drivel

This drama started promising thanks to supernatural elements and story set among painters. But it didn't take long to devolve into typically bad romance, unnecessary love triangle, court scheming that doesn't go anywhere and ridiculous revenge sideplot that no one cares about. It peaked with really thrilling Ep 5 and 6 featuring a painting contest and now it's downhill from there in the Filler Zone where nothing ever happens and characters only regurgitate old talking points and endlessly remember the same peach picking from their childhood It's all so tiresome so I dropped it sometime after the 30 min mark of Ep 8, right after ML and SML declared romantic war over FL who loves toxic ML that leads her on and then plays hard to get. ML is the albatross around this drama's neck:

Ridiculously written - blind but never misses anything, the richest man in the kingdom that talks down to everyone, skilled martial artist/poet/horoscoper/musician, a masked vigilante plotting revenge for his family downfall, possessed by an evil God who gets activated whenever ML touches FL with whom he shares destiny (don't ask!), in short a textbook Mary Sue

Ridiculously styled - his red contacts make him look cross-eyed rather than blind, his V for Vendetta cosplay is laughable but his Evil God transformation that looks like a tree-hoppin Jack Sparrow takes the cake (read: character is as wild as his hair)

Toxic beyond redemption - emotionally manipulative, selfish, wishy washy, possessive, jealous, scheming, whiny, hateful...look, I enjoy so-called toxic romances cause they are entertaining but this OTP is toxic and boring, repetitive and redundant, takes itself too seriously and has no awareness how bad it really is. That's inexcusable. It doesn't help that the actor plays the character as if he's a robot - slow whispery speak, slow head movement (no, real blind people don't act like that) , creepy half smile, overall stiff posture as if he has a stick up his butt.

The rest of the cast is fine and give engaging performances, in particular FL, secondary ML who plays the youngest Prince and the duo who play FL's painter BFFs. They all have a great banter so too bad that the drama is ruining the Prince by saddling him with the love triangle where he cannot win because he doesn't check enough OTP Tropes. Childhood sweethearts? Nope. Destiny? Nope. Etc. Since ML checks them all (eg. you can play drinking game or go on a bathroom break whenever ML or FL relive the childhood memory of ML picking peaches for FL, or ML goes into demon possession convulsions because he and FL touched) , it's a game over so why drag a character who won't move the needle into this, and pivot the drama away from really compelling world of painting and toward generic drivel that we've seen in million other dramas? Missed opportunity.

Dropped without looking back.

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Extra-boring-ular

Story: Sex trafficking without sex and trafficking. That's the premise downfall right there.

Acting: Everyone was so unlikable I was rooting for all of them to die. I guess that means good performances cause their characters weren't supposed to be likeable. Yet I have hard time praising anyone cause no one was engaging. You can be a bad guy or a girl and be engaging, these actors and characters were just blandly dull.

Music: honestly can't remember.

Rewatch value: Zero. I awarded 1 star cause the system won't let you post a review without any star. I wouldn't recommend this even to insomniacs cause I honestly think that this drama is so dangerously boring it could put you in coma.

Overall: Talk about a massive bait and switch. What's advertised as an intriguing "highschooler runs a sex trafficking ring" is really, "highschooler spends 10 overlong episodes fretting whether he'll get caught, trying to get his phone back". You learn nothing about the world of sex trafficking and that's bad for a supposed cautionary tale that ends every episode with "call 911 if you've heard about this happening in your school". The real message of this drama is that losing your cell phone is the worst thing that can happen to you.

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Twilight with foxes and snakes

Story: This is Twilight knock-off - supernatural beings, a fox and a snake (but both looking like hot human men of course) fight over a human woman below their league - but without a proper love triangle and with much older ML and FL which is the main problem. You can't have characters in their 30s behave like teenagers and expect that to work. The romance in this is beyond awful and drags the whole thing down. ML and FL have zero chemsitry, are very unlikable and their romantic montages are diabetes inducing and cringe. They worked OK when they weren't romantically linked (yet) but were more of Mulder and Scully in the earlier episodes. But the show rushed to make them a couple without a proper foundation and then proceeded to make their romantic scenes more and more inane and senseless. Cases in point: SPOILERS The couple takes a romantic getaway while ML's brother is lying in coma on the verge of death. They also take numerous dates in restaurants and amusement parks during a deadly outbreak. SPOILERS END

Not all is this bad which is why the show is so frustrating. The bromance between 2 fox brother is really compelling and should have been the main story, without romance preferably, or with romance as a side not focus. This is also the reason why first 9 episodes (some lagging in episodes 5 and 6 notwithstanding) are stronger than episodes 10-16. They are more focused on brothers and Ep 9, which is the best in show, brings their relationship to a satisfying closure. If only the show ended there.

Acting: ML and FL are awful. Maybe it's because they play characters who should be much younger than their age. The constant and nonsense vows to save one another as if no one else matters (his brother and friends, her parents and friends, people who were dying because of them) are tiresome but at least understandable for teen characters. Not so for 30somethings, one of them being a career woman who should know better.

I'm sorry LDW fans but he is just playing himself, always acting self-conscious "ain't I the hottest thing?" with repetitive smugness, pouting and one brow raising. I have a feeling that this was meant to be his Goblin where he was ML not SML like in Goblin. And indeed, the show panders to him so much, more than dramas usually pander to their MLs, that I'm positive that this is a vanity project. Not only that every character who isn't his got shafted in order to make his character always look cool, but SPOILERS the last episode is literally one long LDW praising reel. It even ruins secondary characters' wedding for they and guests are asked to praise LDW('s character) which takes attention away from them. SPOILERS END

Jo Bo Ah is both miscast and awful in this. She just doesn't cut it as someone who would have a Mountain God spend 600 years pining for her and who would get a teenage or barely out of his teens Snake God-posing-as-an-intern horny for her (especially when truly beautiful fox Yu Ri is right there). Also, there's no real difference between Ji Ah and Jia Ah Imugi. They both bulge their eyes a lot as if crazy, but I guess Jiah cries a lot while Jiah Imugi laughs a lot so that's the distinction.

The standout and the reason to watch this is Kim Bum. He is just terrific, giving a layered, believable performance that's much stronger than many awarded ones from more popular shows. Skip the romance and watch for Kim Bum is my advice.

The supporting cast runs circles around ML and FL despite having nothing to work with for all characters were massively underwritten. I honestly can't say a bad thing about about any of them for they did the job and made characters out of nothing and had a strong rapport. Also, Kim Yong-ji is so beautiful and likable, she would have been FL with Kim Bum as ML. Now that would sizzle.

OST: Amazing. Together with Kim Bum and supporting cast, it's the show's strongest link.

Rewatch Value: Low. Rewatch for Kim Bum. He gave a tremendous performance that deserves to be seen. Skip ML/FL drivel. It's really that bad and there are good romances in other dramas so why waste time on a terrible one?

Overall: Squandered potential, a drama that starts as X Files but ends up as Twilight and even butchers that premise. There is no reason to make the (much younger) villain horny for the heroine if there is no payoff. Though the noona romance tease is more interesting than vanilla crap with ML and FL and at least the young villain conveys that he wants to jump in the sack with FL. Something that is entirely absent from ML and FL interplay. They are too busy making vows to save each other and crying 5 times per episode than actually looking like they want each other. I know that dramas are super chaste but many actors know how to convey real desire unlike these two. They are all platitudes and no passion.

Also, too many characters that don't add up to anything. As enjoyable as they may be in a vacuum, about 50% of them had no consequence and no real role in the main conflict between the heroes (ML and FL) and the villain. And speaking of the latter, you cannot have an effective villain if you don't let him move the needle. He has to do something that raises stakes for the heroes and creates a serious setback for them. Instead, he was given nothing because it was mandated that ML had to be the smartest man in the room every time. Imagine Avengers: Endgame without Thanos winning in Infinity War. There would be no Endgame. You have to let the villain win, and win big, to have a big payoff. This drama has no payoff cause there were never stakes and there were never stakes cause ML was too cool, smart, always prevailed in every episode and thus killed any suspense and stakes that could have arisen from villain's actions. In short, drama without drama.

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Love so secret you can't see the affair on the screen

Story: Noona romance gets an ultra chaste makeover in this drama that is bent on showing everything except the affair itself.

Acting: Yoo Ah-in is a real deal. Unfortunately, the drama is heavy on business scheming nobody cares about so I skipped those parts (it's a lot of skipping!) and can't say anything about actors involved.

Music: classical music stands in for sex and climaxing.

Rewatch Value: For insomniacs only. Yes, it's that boring. Too much politicking, too much piano playing, not enough affair. If you are into noona genre, watch properly steamy Dark Desire (Netflix Mexican drama) instead.

Overall: Like Extracurricular (drama about sex trafficking without sex and trafficking), Secret Affair wants to broach a taboo subject (well, taboo in SK I guess) without being controversial. Hence chastely implied that the couple in question is having an affair without showing sex, while wasting its overlong running time on politics of running a concert or something. Do or don't. If you can't do subject justice due to PG rating requirement perhaps leave it to foreign television that has no such restrictions.

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Deeply Powerful

Wow. Before this drama came along, I had trouble finding a drama to hold my interest, for so many suffered from problems I'm no more willing to tolerate (makjang, bad romance, overlong episodes, overlong season). However, D.P. is a perfection. At only 6 well-paced reasonably long episodes, I binged the whole drama in a day thanks to captivating, heart-pounding story that balances action with drama and some comedy, realism and great acting. The previews didn't do this any justice for they made it look like a buddy cop comedy, and while there's a great bromance with levity, the story is actually an unflinching look at bullying in the military that will make you positively disturbed.

I've seen speculation that this could get another season because of how it ended. However, while they could build from the ending, I thought it was well contained and that "ambiguity" was just symbolic. SPOILER I took it that the hero is running away from his mates because he symbolically doesn't want to be the part of the bullying and bullying cover-up cycle rather than that he actually deserted. After seeing that desertion didn't pay off nor change the system, it wouldn't make sense if he did. Moreover, we know that he saved the last deserter when he attempted to shoot himself cause TV host said he was in the hospital. And the "fatty" friend shooting his rifle was a warning shot cause you could see that he didn't aim at the side where other soldiers were gathering. So all of it is symbolic, like standing up.

Highly recommended.

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A Homerun (pun intended)

Story: Monster epidemic that turns our desires into literal monstrosities (both malevolent and benevolent) sweeps Korea if not the rest of the world. A group of tenants are stranded in their building with danger lurking both inside and outside. As in every good zombie/similar story, it's all about human condition with monsters (of any kind) being the commentary on humans.

Acting: Impeccable. From children to seniors, everyone did a bang on job. Deaths hurt us because characters are so engaging and earned our care. It's hard to praise individuals when everyone gave it all. Also, male eye candy ahoy: Song Kang, Lee Do-hyun, Lee Jin-wook and very special mention MASSIVE SPOILER DON'T SAY I DIDN'T WARN YOU Hyun'soo's transformation into winged monster/angel of death sooo hot OMG! SPOILER END

Music: I honestly don't remember. Some death metal?

Rewatch Value: High or even Mandatory. There are many things that are worth revisiting especially episodes 7 - 10 and a scene that I strongly recommend pausing and watching frame by frame to understand the twist . MASSIVE SPOILER AHEAD DON'T SAY I DIDN'T WARN YOU The very last scene reveals the true identity of the Goo Monster who posses dead bodies. That's the rich student who bullied Hyung-Soo in highschool. I noticed that some fans didn't get this and only figured out that Goo possessed Sang-Wook's body but not who Goo really is. To prove that Goo is the Bully, I paused the scene showing how Goo came to be (the experiment scene) and played it frame by frame. It's the same actor who played the Bully. They deliberately keep his face in the shadows, but when you pause and study frames you'll see it's his hair and face. Also, he is the only one who knows that Hyun Soo's full name is Cha Hyun Soo. No one in the building calls him by his family name Cha, only by his given name Hyun Soo. SPOILER ENDS

Overall: After a somewhat rocky introduction, the drama picks up the steam from episode 4 and gets better and better with 7 - 10 being exceptional. It's a rollercoaster ride that will leave you emotionally drained and annoyed that you have to wait for Season 2 after THAT cliffhanger.

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