They were right when they said "there will be no glory"

I was promised a dark, gruesome revenge drama where the FL spent 10y+ planning how to hit back the perpetrators who provoked her such intense pain during her teenage years and left marks deep enough to push her to suicide, so she has no limits and boundaries when it comes to what she would do for revenge.
What I got was a moderately entertaining drama whose value consists in the gorgeous acting of the villains and the heartwarming subplots of the side characters. The main issues I noticed within this drama were:
1) LDH's character was pretty much out of place for this entire drama (and I LOVE LDH, so this was particularly disappointing for me); it's like the writer was following the drama recipe where there needs to be a male lead obsessed with the female lead that she can count on, so they just added him into the mix and tried to add a backstory that would link him to the revenge plot, but it just felt overall out of place and not fitting with the rest of the story; the romance was also unnecessary, but I didn't particularly mind it;
2) not much emotional expression from SHK; I was really contemplating for a while whether maybe I'm just biased based on her previous dramas and this is just how her character is supposed to be, or whether her acting was really lacking in this drama as well; what made me lean towards the second option is that the actress who played the younger Moon Dong-Eun really KILLED the role and made me feel her pain and despair and consuming need for revenge in every moment, which I didn't really feel with the adult Moon Dong-Eun;
3) not that much.. revenge? almost all the villains' "punishments" came from their own doings and 'karma', I didn't feel like the FL did much to inflict pain upon them; this is not inherently a bad thing, but it didn't feel satisfying to me because I thought that the FL would have a more active role in taking revenge against these people, but in the drama she just played some strategic moves and let them push each other to their own downfall; again, this is not a bad thing, but it ultimately felt unsatisfying to me because I felt like I was promised cruel, merciless revenge and what I got was just the mere consequences of the villains' own actions, without SHK playing a significant role; this, combined with the acting points I've mentioned, made the villains' characters shine the brightest in the whole drama, while the FL was pushed sideways and wasn't in the center of storyline; honestly, I feel like if they removed the FL and ML, the drama would've been even better, the centerpiece was the villains' terrifying actions followed by their well-deserverd fates provoked by the consequences of their wrongdoings.

Overall, I can't say it was a bad drama, but definitely not a masterpiece and it didn't feel satisfying enough for me to even call it a "revenge drama". It's a decently entertaining watch though.

Read More

Just another chaebol + ordinary FL bland love story with an extra shock factor

I have had this title on my watchlist for a long time now and was excited to one day give it a try after seeing all the high ratings and good reviews, all which seemed to be solidly justified by the interesting premise of the show.
The first episode was interesting and got me hooked. Loved the main OST title ("Hallucination"), although after being overplayed at every single "dramatic" scene with flashbacks from the past (which was like 20 times per episode) it got rather lackluster. Loved the switch between personalities and was impressed with Ji Sung's acting, as this was also my first time watching one of his shows. Despite not initially liking the FL (and I don't understand exactly what it was, maybe the hairstyle, but it looked so weird to me when she was fighting with her brother and him mentioning he's older than her so she should call him oppa because to me she seemed way older than him like they were noona and dongseng), I was hoping it would get better. Oh boy, was I wrong.
The writing for this kdrama was so generic and bland, it seems the only times the screenwriters took any steps away from the traditional kdrama recipe was when the other personalities of the ML were involved, but ultimately only Shin Se Gi's actions actually had any sort of impact on the plot. The original ML personality was pretty boring and felt like he had little to no character development, along with the FL. The love story was also bland, full of tropey scenes that instead of bringing comedic relief, only managed to bring the quality of the drama even lower, once again relying on the "childhood connection trope" which is obviously enough for 2 characters with very few meaningful interactions to become soulmates (/s).
There were no real resolutions regarding the 'villains' of the drama and to be honest they were so unmemorable I already forgot their names.
Her brother was such an unecessary character I don't think he was in any meaningful scenes in the last few eps. And his storyline with being a secret writer didn't add anything to the main plot. Not even mentioning that at some point it's revealed that he's actually in love with the FL.. wtf was that? I know they're not blood related, but still, they grew up as siblings.

Overall, if I were to make a pro-cons list, it would look like this:
pros:
+ very entertaining acting from Ji Sung taking on 7 different personalities (more specifically impressed with Shin Se Gi, Perry Park and Ahn Yo Na).
+ Shin Se Gi everything
+ the main OST.
cons:
- sort of everything else.
Overall I wouldn't recommend this drama unless you're a big fan of Ji Sung or you're not necessarily interested in a good watch, just something to have on the screen when eating.

Read More

Obnoxious male lead beyond redemption

I really wanted to enjoy this drama, but the male lead's behaviour is soo obnoxious that I just can't go on with it anymore; he'd better be freelancing for the rest of his life because no people deserve to deal with such an asshole at work. The fact that the female lead is helplessly swayed by such an obvious walking red flag and tolerates him abusing his classmates made me lose respect for her as well. The only character I'm rooting for is Gao Jian (the SML), but I've a feeling the writers will somehow make him out to be the bad guy, so I think it's best for me to drop the drama here (after 12.5 episodes). The ML's sob story wasn't that impressive either and definitely doesn't justify him being such a bully. Everytime he opens his mouth I seriously want to punch him, I can't even enjoy the "flirting" scenes when all he does is act condescendingly towards the FL.

Read More