Alice (2020)

Worst time travel story

It's my first time making a review out of disappointment.

The story started good but gradually went down the hill. I thought they are using Multiverse theory of time travel, but in the end it was really a Time loop. If you change something in the past with Time Loop it has butterfly effect in the future unlike Parallel Universe it will create another timeline and does no changes on your reality. Are they making it a hybrid? The writers simply don't know what they are doing. It started with Science and did some research and stuff but in the end they messed it all up and completely relied on what is written on the book of prophecy where science is absolutely disregarded. They set rules and on the later episode they break those rules and call it a plot-twist. They shouldn't have mess with Physics' Quantum Theory in the first place if they can't stand with it. If all those gadgets were excluded it shouldn't be Sci-fi but a pure fantasy.

The only good thing about the story is that is that is that... Ok I'll write it later on if I come up with something. Yes I'm biased I know. The ML was the only person I saw getting old haha and oh did they said he has Alexithymia? I completely forgot cause he really got so emotional everytime.

Let's not forget about how everyone is losing their mind because of that lost piece of nonsense from the book of prophecy where they can actually get a copy of the whole book by time traveling as many as they want.

Extreme Spoiler:
They actually went bloodbath and almost eliminate all the characters in the story, but hey no worries, for everything would set to be undone all thanks for the holy reset. And there goes their happy ever after incest-no-more ending. (but still disgusting.. peace out)


Anyway the acting was good, that is why I'm more disappointed for it was a waste of casts talent.

Music was kinda so-so, but it somehow annoys me every time a romantic music plays between the leads.

I personally don't want to watch it again and certainly not recommendable.

Therefore after watching I would like to travel back in time where I haven't started watching this mess.

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Maybe the most underrated gem of the year

Writing this review after having posted many comments on this as i binged on this for 2 days. I kept off this as it aired for 2 reasons -1 )Didnt want to wait as it aired and 2) It was getting terrible comments as it progressed
The rating has reached 7.6 as of writing this review and it may dip further as this show seems a target of MDL commenters lately for negative comments.

Coming back, I found this incredibly entertaining,fast paced,emotional and topical hopeful drama.It deals with costs that come with time travel and is hence quite different than many fantasy dramas that promote this concept. Every episode starts with a quote on time and its importance for lives..

Am a fan of Joo Won esp in intense roles and his turn as Lieutenant Park was like a superb fit..As the show progresses you feel for him a lot..One of the most memorable Kdrama ML characters now for me.
Kim Hee sun ,esp the mom aced this one.I dont remember any other Kdrama showing a mother son bond so beautifully.She basically sacrificed her entire life for her son,had an utterly tough existence and the end she kept getting repeatedly was so unfair.. As Tae Yi,she was a diff character but her fondness for the Lieutenant was beautifully shown..Many people are disgusted with this Otp (Both Mom and Tae Yi have identical faces) but they are fine as per me..She is NOT his mom,period.
Kwak Si Yang as Min Hyeok was another tragic character and while he didnt get the end i felt he should have ,he was superb throughout
All other supporting characters were awesome..
Melodious OSTs,BGM, beautiful cinematography,production are all pluses for this drama.
The PD and writer really made a beautiful show..The ending has plotholes ,but is very serviceable..I was just happy to see Joo Won living a good life and with a hopeful romance to follow..
Maybe the MDL raters would rate this better if it ended with a sad ending ..I love happy endings though.

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A Wasted Journey Down The Rabbit Hole...

Filmed by director Baek Soo Chan ( A Girl Who Sees Smells, Reunited Worlds ), written with a fairly, fresh unique storyline by Kim Kyu-Won and having brilliant casting choices of Joo Won ( Bridal Mask, Good Doctor), Kim Hee Seon (Room No.9, Angry Mom) and Choi Won Young ( Sky Castle, I Remember You and Mystic Pop- Up Bar) , Alice truly had all the given possibilities of being an avant- garde masterpiece.

So, what went wrong with such a good show? Well, it would seem that there were a couple contributing factors for the show’s own demise, not least; characterisation, inconsistent plot and lacking dramatic tension.
To give the show some credit, the beginning did build- up a lot of intriguing plot for viewers; a nearly apathetic detective ( Joo Won) who after witnessing the death of his mother nearly ten years ago, is confronted with the past and the future with the mysterious meeting of his mother’s doppelgänger , a physicist interested in time travel, and apparent time travellers from the future who may have played a part in the death of his mother . Yet, one thing which did grow slightly apparent about this show from episode one, was the lack of creativity with cinematography, something which for a show about time travel ( apart from the old “freeze in time” scenes), there was little added to express this.

Additionally, a lot of drama watchers that I’ve talked to about this show, have seemed to sugarcoat a lot of the inconsistencies which began arising the beginning of this drama ( not least the exact extent of the laws of time travel and the strength of Gyeom’s powers), however, it can perhaps be overlooked slightly in the beginning with the abilities of our acting cast ( well, to an extent). As per usual, Joo Won was brilliant within his portrayal as an intelligent detective yearning for the truth behind his mother’s death. In fact, there is little to really fault about Joo Won in his portrayal, but, rather how the scriptwriters decided to continue onwards with Joo Won’s character, Park Jin Gyeom. There were a lot of moments which the scriptwriters didn’t even try to explain to us as viewers; Gyeom’s random emotional outbursts as someone apparently apathetic( yet his lacking emotional relationships even with the possibilities that could have been explored with his own father ), his lacking intelligence within moments in the show ( such as his inability to draw the conclusions of a simple DNA test with his mother’s doppelgänger)and of course the exact extent of his powers; something not explained even by the confusing ending of the drama and Gyeom’s character twist ( equally making little sense in regards to Gyeom as a character or the exact reasons behind his actions).

En par with Joo Won as an equal , undeniably was Kim Hee Seon. Whilst I’ll be honest in saying that I had to watch a couple of clips from older dramas/ movies to know her past works, Hee Seon was certainly was well-cast within her dual role in the drama. Whilst Joo Won also had to conflict between playing a younger and older- self of his character in the series, Hee Seon had to go one step further in the more complicated matter of playing two carbon copy characters with ( though not specified)presumably different ages and personalities. This is a hard feat for any actor, and it’s fair to say that it was believable upon Hee Seon being two different people here; a mother/time traveller and, of course a young and intelligent scientist . Sadly in a similar manner to Jin Gyeom as a character, there were too many plot holes associated with both Yoon Tae-Yis. Whilst the show offered some explanation towards how these two characters are identical copies of the other, there was little rational or plot build- up for viewers to this moment, in a similar manner to the emotional context of whether Doctor Yoon played a part in the discovery of the agency as a consequence of her works, her questioning intelligence and the revelation of her emotional trauma seemed to not truly flesh her out as a character at all in the drama . (This also adds on a side note, what exactly happened to the Book that the characters stressed as important by episode 16, seemingly disappearing from the storyline until last minute.) Then of course there’s the additional “ platonic, yet mutual feelings angle” the drama took between the relationships of Jin Gyeom and Doctor Yoon. Whilst to an extent it was easy to understand where Yoon’s misunderstandings came from before learning more about Gyeom , Jin Gyeom’s own misleading assertions towards Yoon being somehow linked to his mother, took the show on a slightly disturbing ( though thankfully only suggested) factor when considering that Doctor Yoon is still identical to his mother.

Thankfully, the show didn’t extend too much into this near-incest relationship, but, it is noticeable in later episodes how the driving action of the plot drives to a near halt in order to focus on their “ affectionate” relationship rather than actual plot development like earlier episodes . However, in order to appeal for viewers, the writers did attempt to present a love interest for Gin Yeom through the introduction of Lee Da-In as Kim- Do Yeon. Whilst Da-In certainly wasn’t awful within her portrayal, her character was simply unnecessary to the plot; She had no character development and most importantly, no actual contribution to the plot as well.

On a more positive note , Kwak Si-Yang’s performance as Yoo Min- Hyuk , a time- traveller and agent for Alice , was brilliantly angst-ridden, adding to some complex and emotionally- driven scenes between his character’s horror and realisation with his actions after he finds out a shocking truth. Although undeniably Min- Hyuk probably had some of the best ( and possibly only ) decent characterisation in the show on his road to redemption with Gin Yeom, the scriptwriters didn’t give Min- Hyuk any justice as a character. This is something which felt quite detached both emotionally for viewers and the scriptwriter, with the decision for the relationship between Min Hyuk and Gin Yeom to be carried out with little build-up or development, apart from the cycle of Gyeom being weary of Min Hyuk, beating him up and repeat. ( For viewers who know this secret, I am sure that you can agree with me that the ending which could have been emotionally touching, completely killed this relationship with little sense considering Gyeom’s reaction.). Additionally, of course, Kim Sang Ho and Choi Won Young’s roles on the sideline added some emotional angst and sincere questions throughout the drama through their performances .

Overall, Alice had a lot of intriguing premises and ideas, and a fairly good cast yet, lacking characterisation, inconsistent plot and a rushed ending with little sensical plot ( especially regarding the laws of time ) and emotional deliverance, added to the wasted potential for a good show by becoming dire .

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value time

Hello this is my first time visiting here.

I want to fully thank the writers and the team who worked on this film. For me this is so amazing, I can't say anything but "This is so cool !!".

A story that already represents what I think.
There are many lessons that we can take from this story, one of which is about "Appreciating Your Time at this Time" It is not easy for some people today to understand, but for me personally in this story it can take a lesson that, human greed can destroy everything, for that we must always respect those around us. Including time, because it is impossible for us to repeat it.

I hope this work can provide lessons for all of us.
Thank you, success is always for you.

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tkem's twin

I think the future world would've been more interesting, the power and the struggle, the need of the people who pay to time travel as if it was a drug to relive and change the past they can't touch......
right now, Jin Gyum world is just another boring world against an evil corporation with flashy guns and nothing more...

in train they had such different lives in each universe so each decision made a huge difference, and though they were so unlike their counterparts they treated the "travelers" like the same person.
here they are not showing anything beside 1 universe and 1 parasite (ie alice). so even if they say "the past is not the same person" we can't really relate. they feel like the same people following the same exact pattern with minor changes because of alice's existence.


Alice is using this Jin Gyum world as a dumping ground for their evil corporate scheme to gain money and power while they ruin time and space quantum by adding more and more universes, tbh I feel like if a project like that exists they would ban time traveling just becasue it ruins the balance of the world..


it's like Alice now doesn't care if they are exposed in this universe, and they are practically just living in a different universe, but why is everything Alice does is in one universe? why aren't they moving through different ones? why when they choose to go back in time do they all end up in that one universe?

are there only 2 worlds? one where alice is created, and one where alice messes things up? so each past change doesn't result in a new universe it's just building on that 2nd mutant world?


I'm sad that I dropped a kim hee sun drama, the actors all did so well but the plot was as bad as tkem.. it's sbs and their writers' fault..

I've lost interest after that old lady mom coming back, the drama lost it's footing when they chose to make it full of romance cliches (between mom and son) instead of trying to write a decent time traveling drama, or even a revenge drama, and by ep11 I didn't even care anymore, but to hear that the writers made the fl feel "disappointed" that she really looks like the ml's mom? the heck?!

honestly, I've been keep track on this and I'm 100% glad I dropped this, it's so obvious the writer had no solid plan and just used one ridiculous move after the other and called it a "shocking twist"


I did not watch this past ep11 but I read a full rant from a friend I trust and I wish this never existed ;)

circle was lower production but better writing. also watch woman of dignity if you watched this for kim hee sun, like me ;)

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ummm extremely illogical

First of all if you like time travel dramas you can watch this, but if you like logical stuff, thinking and analyzing things you might not like it. If you like romance you might not like it either but there are romance hints here and there...

What I liked:
The openings with nice quotes.
The message of time travel not being that much of a good thing.
Acting.

What I disliked:
Everything else lol, to be precise, the plot/story
the inconsistence
the forced hints of romance
the forced "shocking twists"
ages!!

First of all, the Time Theory, that they are using. It's not the linear theory when your action changes the future. But a theory like a tree or something where there are multiple universes and each your action just creates another universe.... well this seems like an excuse to cover up all this inconsistences in-between. Make the writer's life easier. But! it would have been alright, and even very interesting if this whole thing was consistent in itself? but by the end of the drama the time theory get's messed up and sometimes we get a linear one, sometimes not, then again a linear one.
They treat people from the other universe as "different people" with same DNA. then "same people" then "different people" again.... Drama "Train" did much better with universes than this one.

Down here are SPOILERS mostly on the ending. so Beware! But in one word the ending was bad:

The last episode was complete disaster for me as everything explained was going into nowhere. The big mystery was trying hard to be impactful but was there just for the "shock" value. Because there was completely no explanation why was he killing the mother all the time. Why was he in agony? what exactly wanted he to end? If it's like he said and he shouldn't have been born, then just killing himself once would have solved it. But he just kept going to that one day to kill her and not him... why? just because writer wanted a "shock value" on her death. Who wrote that book in the first place? and WHY exactly they kept doing what was written. lol I mean if it's a prophecy it should happen one way or another, but they were just "deciding" to make it the way it's written and nothing in the world was actually forcing them. At least nothing they showed.
I will ignore the fact that all Alice employees suddenly conveniently disappeared just to make a nice battle ground for them for a second.

Now they tell that everything resets (well this was expected thing from the very first ep) BUT somehow that rule doesn't apply to certain people? Why is mother left there when she is a time traveler? Why is he left there when he is a son of time traveler? WHY is born in the first place when his father disappeared into thin air? Why is his personality a little bit changed? Why is the Team Leader Ahjosshi still there when the real one died even before the case with Jin Gyeom's classmate happened? Why he doesn't remember Jin Gyom when everything reset from the birthday, meaning after the whole case with suicide (if we ignore both of them shouldn't be there in the first place)? Why reporter Do Yeon doesn't know him when they were classmates? Why the present Tae Yi remembers him even though she lived a completely different life?? (how is she going to live if she doesn't remember where she went on seminar, what work she has to do now etc etc etc) And more importantly WHY does she even exist if her mother was a time traveler in the first place?? Why is she with her adoptive parents when her father shouldn't have died (if we ignore her mother shouldn't have been there so she shouldn't have been born at all) ? Again why is she adopted by them when they went to that orphanage, but she was taken there by the JG mother and they shouldn't have met in the first place because no time travel anymore?? And WHY does he not thinks that she looks exactly like his mom when he sees her? All he thinks later is "oh it's a girl from my dreams" and then Ta-Da slightly romantic ending.

Like Laugarza said in the comments it would have been a little bit more decent and made more sense if she had met his father Min Hyuk in present day and got pregnant so she could give birth to Jin gyum in 2020. That is of course if we forget Tae Yi was also daughter of a time traveler and should have been reset too!

Also the seem to have spent their whole CGI budget on the first two eps. And then coulnd't even show us the disappearance and appearance of people who are time travelling. Then they spent a little for the last ep. Oh and of course they didn't forget to spend all the remaining funds on the Year Captions. I'd rather have interesting time travel then an interesting caption. lol but this is just random addon, it doesn't affect the drama much.

And Last but not least, the ages. The just said that people there come from 2050. Well, okay. but there are 30-40 year old versions of themselves living in 2020. And they are shown as their past. Well now explain me please how come people from 2050 look like the are 30-40-50 when they have to be 80-90?? And out of all the people the one who actually got old was only the ml? lol If you are 90 in the future and come back to the past, even though that past is a different universe, okay well if you are super futuristic healthy you will live till 120, but look like a 40?? or not die? lol I just don't understand anything at all.

Acting was good, Music was good.

FINAL THOUGHTS:
first of all if you don't want spoiler don't read all the above. Second, I think this drama choose another version of time theory to avoid plot holes but in the end has fallen into a bigger plot hole.
and third, It's not THAT bad. lol It's still an Okay-ish drama that you can enjoy. I was just expecting a lot, plus i love logical stuff, plus the first ep was too promising. I also don't exclude the possibility that it was just me who didn't understand anything and my lack of understanding lead me to not liking this drama.
So you can take a risk, start watching and see if you like :) But I don't think I would recommend this to a friend. But if the friend would still be interested i would say to try it and just beware and not expect much.
"Train" that ended not long before this one did things much better. Though I didn't like it much too, but compared to this one, it worked perfectly with different universes.

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Unfair review

this could be unfair review because i'm writing it after i finish and i'm so mad over this drama and i wasn't that mad on drama on along time maybe none of 2020 drama made me that mad.
let's start with the good things so i can calm down. the plot itself was good and interesting. all characters was also interesting and enjoyable to watch expect the Present Tae Yi. acting was amazing from everyone. and that's it.

the drama start so promising with time traveling where we don't say just one want to solve a crime and the usual thing in kdrama, but focus in the time traveling work itself and effect in people and that was so amazing but then they got lost fast and we are stick in 2020 when the lead meet with the time travelers like they don't travel any other year and when they travel they only go to that one day on 2010.

they got lost in the same time line no one think to go back like the father or something?? why present tae yi didn't work at all in stopping time what was her role again?? why jingyeom have emotion illness but he cry, scream and get mad a lot. the romance was so forced in the story like it's the thing ruin it all.

let's go to the main character the fl lead they interduce as intelligent professor TaeYi but we see only girl sticking to the lead because he protect her and act some forced romance didn't do anything intelligent in work just their to wish his hair and make him food and when she know he will die she take him to park lol so stupid, didn't even understand she is his mom other self even through everyone tell her he protect her because she look like her and when she know the only thing she care about oh he didn't see me as who i'm??like she don't understan or care about everything going around she just stick to that guy and that's it. professor Taeyi the worst character in Alice. so useless.

And that move us to the ending they don't know what to do to make the lead end together after we saw that she his mom other self so they just was like what ever we will let them met anyway, if time reset his mom should disappear too so why she still have the other Jingyeom and he grow up normally?? if time reset the only one should be in the world is the present Tae yi and she will met his dad and life go on and then he come to life in the future. but they be like whatever Jingyeom live with his mom (Tae yi) then he meet other Tae yi because we should make a happy ending to a couple everyone see as mom and son.
and why the present Tae yi remember him and how Doyeon didn't remember him while they are school mate even if they didn't become friends after the reset. she the only one know the original jingyeom they just want to end their relationship like that?... i really wish they give us minhyuk/taeyi ending with normal jingyeom who meet doyeon! that was the best thing they can do after messing around for so long. and that what normal happen if reset happen but they say NO we will force this couple in you anyway.

this drama make me so mad but i enjoyed the acting so i will give them a better rate for that.

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Hey Korea! That Dark show was good, wasn't it? Really broke our minds and broke our hearts. The timey wimey of it all. The tragedy! The emotion! The incest!

Let's try to remake it but in a way that's, you know, Korean.

So what would that look like?

Well, for a start our plot has to make no sense. Like absolutely no sense. Because for the plot to make sense and for time travel to be eliminated then our male lead would have never been born. We can't have that though! He's the male lead! He's supposed to beat the bad guys and win the girl! The girl is his mother but Dark told us incest was okay! (This is the opposite of what Dark told us by the way. All of Dark's incest was unintentional and tragic and doomed and what show did you watch?)

So our male lead's mother invents time travel and then travels through time not knowing she's pregnant. She raises him back in the 90s and he becomes a super special magic snowflake (well, he is a Korean man) and his mother raises him the very bestest she could despite the emotional problems caused by radiation damage (due to the aforementioned in utero time travel).

She's murdered when he's 19 and he becomes a cop to find out who did it and then a decade later he meets a woman who looks exactly like his mother. Because she is his mother. She is his mother from this timelime. But even if she wasn't, she looks exactly like her. As in a carbon copy of her.

There's a brief moment of powerful emotional resonance around this. His mother was the only one he had any semblance of emotion for due to his brain damage and her death affected him more deeply then he's capable of expressing. And suddenly this doppelganger is before him dredging up all that inadequately processed grief, loss and guilt.

But, hey, this is a kdrama. So what does it need? It needs romance! It needs a crazy second female lead! It needs cohabitation and hijinks! So what does the show do with this powerful emotional moment between a man and the doppelganger of his dead mother?

It turns it into an inexplicable, utterly gross cohabitation romcom. Sure, he knows this woman IS his mother from this timeline but the show still devotes episode after episode to the romcom version of incest. She walks in on him topless! She treats his wounds! She gets stuck in a store room with him and accidentally removes his shirt! All of this is of course misunderstand by the obligatory psycho second female lead. She knows this woman looks exactly like his mother but still freaks out over him spending time with her. Not despite her looking like his mother. BECAUSE of her looking like his mother. It's weird, it's creepy, it's gross. I have insufficient synonyms to express its awful.

And to get sidetracked for a moment by the second female lead, she's one of only four female characters in this show - the male lead's mother, her alt-version in this timeline, his best friend who's always liked him and an agent in 2050 who's in love with his father, (who still working for Alice). Written out like that, you can sense a theme here. Every single one of these female characters is defined solely by her relationship to a man. Mother, lover, spurned psycho. The writer can conceive of no other role for a woman: no aspirations, no second dimension, no real depth or character. She's either trying to get a man, in a relationship with a man or taking care of her children in a way that's utterly self-sacrificing. This show could have been written by Moffatt, it is that rife with embedded misogynism.

By the end, his mother's invention of time travel becomes some kind of offensive allegory for pregnancy, as though she gave birth to it when she gave birth to her son (everyone knows this is a woman's only real skill so even her amazing scientific achievements are framed as such). The woman invented fucking time travel but it's still used as a metaphor for life coming out of her womb. Does she kill this life or not? Well, of course she can't! She's a mother! So now the whole thing is merely an anti-abortion screed. It's offensive and sexist and misogynistic and it also makes no sense. She invented time travel, not her son. Killing him is irrelevant to its invention and to the establishment of Alice. So as well as being offensive it also doesn't make any sense.

Anyway this show is supposed to be about Alice. So what about Alice? Obviously our male lead's mother is Alice or maybe time travel is Alice. Or maybe he is Alice. Oh who knows. Alice is the name of an organisation based in 2050 that sends people back in time to help them resolve their emotional traumas - for money of course. The male lead's mother helped invent time travel but who set up Alice? Where did it come from? Who runs it? Where is it? None of these questions are answered. And since this show becomes about destroying Alice as some kind of proxy for destroying time travel then this matters. It matters a lot.

We find out early that there are other players in time travel. Rebels who let people travel outside of the network set up by Alice. A prophecy that predicts the end of time travel. A mysterious figure who seems to be trying to kill our male lead or his mother-girlfriend. (Oh at one point we discover that his mother was planning to adopt her alt-universe version and raise her as her own, which makes her also his adopted older sister - Yay for incest!).

None of this is brought together in any way that makes sense.

For those who haven't seen Dark, I don't want to spoil Dark. I'll just say that the outline of this plot is very obviously inspired by Dark. But those elements have been ripped from it thoughtlessly and without context so the whole thing comes off as glossy, nonsensical and shallow. There are some nice themes hiding in here and even some nice dramatic moments as well. The acting at certain points is absolutely top notch.

For a brief moment, the show's grasp of the multiverse theory of time travel isn't too bad either and you start to wonder if the show might pull this whole thing off (and you've fast forwarded all the bizarre romcom cohabitation tropes between him and his mother so you're just pretending that didn't happen). But as the show heads into its final two hours you soon realise it's not going to make any sense. And then - like almost every other time travel show coming out of Korea - it opts for utter nonsense in its pursuit of a 'happy ending'.

And since, in this case, the 'happy ending' involves a romance between a man and his mother, I wish I could burn the whole thing from my brain.

The shorter version of this review.

Just watch Dark.

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The Time Travel Drama That Shot Itself in the Foot

It's been a long time since I've seen a drama fall over its own feet as hard as Alice did. Well, not that long. Eternal Monarch also did a spectacular job at that. But while both shows suffered from lazy writing and poor decisions, Alice is fresh in my mind and the disappointment hurts the most.

Alice is a time travel sci-fi with a unique twist and an interesting set-up, and while my bitterness leaves me feeling like it has no redeeming qualities, it does. The first half of the drama was good with a solid cast, well-shot opening episodes, and a unique twist to an over-saturated genre that left it feeling new and exciting even when it wasn't. Time travel is a tool in literature and film that you have to take with a grain of salt. There's no known real way to time travel, and the possibility of it is low to nil, so we have to rely on our own imaginations to interpret how it would function and what would happen if a person went from one time period to another, so when writing a story with time travel there are always going to be inconsistencies. Sometimes they're more noticeable than others, but there's always something. Relying on the multiverse theory or the butterfly effect can minimize those, but they're not quick fixes and they can only help solidify the concept of time in a story if the writers, well... follow through. And boy does this drama not do that.

Before I get into that mess, I really do think there was something here, and I really liked a lot of the characters for most of the drama. Oddly, my favourite character in all of this wasn't one of the leads, but PJG's father, Min Hyuk. He may not have been the most likeable person throughout the series but his character reflected the role of the estranged father perfectly. There was conflict and regret in his actions and emotions and I could believe everything that the story was telling me that he felt. PJG himself, while likeable, didn't make a lot of sense to me. A core part of his character background was his alexithymia, which seemed to be a non-issue less than halfway through the series as he quite easily expressed and seemed to understand his emotions, even more so than other characters. I didn't really hold that against the show, though, because characters with traits like that often don't show much of them the further they progress through the story, and I could chalk it up to him getting better with time, which the show also mentioned. He was enjoyable to watch and his awkward behaviour was endearing. I wasn't fond of his childhood friend as she was just a bit annoying every time she showed up, and both past and present Tae Yi were just okay.

The show starts with one glaring issue: the prophecy. That book and everything about it is a stupid, nonsensical plot point that doesn't make any sense if you think about it for a bit. It opens with Tae Yi going back to 1992 to get the book and specifically see the last page, but they get there too late. But they can time travel. Why not time travel to the day before and confront Tae Yi's father then to get the book? Or a week before? A year? There are also alternate dimensions, an infinite number of them, many likely also containing the book. If the book was so important, they could have gotten their hands on it. There's no excuse. The prophecy held no place in the story except as an anchor to direct it, so it really should have been left out.

Now we get to the ending spoilers, so be warned!

The first half of the series was pretty decent, but it declined fast at that halfway point. The writers proceeded to break every rule that they set until they turned the ending into a mushy pile of goo. They say that their world works off of the multiverse theory, so the past can't be changed because any changes will cause it to break off into another timeline, but they decide that if one version of PJG disappears, they all do, because for some reason killing him resets all of time and he's a product of time travel. But then they decide that only the versions of him who traveled through time, i.e. his future self and the present self that we've been following, will disappear. The high school version of him, though? Well, he gets to avoid non-existence because plot. That's all well and good for a happy ending... but it really doesn't make any sense. Even less sense that this version of him gets the memories of the original version!

Let's focus on this one rule: killing PJG will end time travel, and will reset the world to how it was before time travel. Why does this happen? I don't know. Doesn't matter. Let's say he's become a god or something, who knows? I could let that non-logic go if the story followed through with it. But who are the time travelers? Well, him of course. All of Alice. We saw them disappear, so that's fine... except for the fact that the chief was also a time traveler from another time/dimension, who is alive and well and in that same time period at the end of the story. Well, it's another dimension! Probably. Maybe. The show isn't 100% clear on that. So maybe it works differently because it's another world, not another time. Okay, that's fair. But because every attempt to change the past results in another timeline, that goes for every time traveler. All of them. That includes PJG, who was born after being exposed to a wormhole and time traveling from the future. That includes his parents, specifically his mother who, despite time resetting, is still left in 1992 with her son. That is not her original time. She should have been magicked back to the future where she belonged. Then, there's the father. We don't even know what time he was originally from because it wasn't mentioned in the story. Likely he isn't from the same time as Tae Yi, so PJG shouldn't exist at all. But let's say he is. Well, then he and Tae Yi should have met in their time, and PJG should have been born after that. But somehow, someway, PJG grows up with his mother in this terrible attempt at a fix-it.

There is one way to explain this, which I think it's possible the writers could have been going for: killing the future PJG and saving the mother meant that they branched off into another timeline, so all of the time travelers were left where they were. The only one erased being the original PJG. But that goes against was his mother told present-day Tae Yi, that all of the effects of time travel would be erased if they stopped time travel, and that time would be reset. That was a rule that they created for their story. So either they decided they didn't care about that rule anymore, or they didn't bother to think through what resetting time would mean for all of their characters. Either way, it's half-assed writing.

Normally, a drama's ending doesn't affect my enjoyment overall. If a drama has a bad ending, the journey was still worth it. If the ending was good, I love it all-the-more. But the ending they gave this drama, and honestly the plot reveals over the entire second half of the series, make me feel like I wasted 16h of my life on something that pretended to be good until it wasn't when I could have been putting that time towards a drama that was better written, or funny, or even some wild and crazy makjang that might not make a lot of sense, but is so ridiculous that I wouldn't care.

But this is the year of time travel and there's always more to come. Let's hope Kairos can wash away the bad taste that Alice left behind.

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A Messed Up SCI FI THRILLER which is ENTERTAINING and quite UNIQUE

Okay so let's be honest it was quite unique till episode 14
There are some majoe flaws in this drama
But still it keeps us engaged throughout the 16 episodes
Acting 10/10 by each and every characters
Music 9/10 especially the ost
Cinematography 8/10 some shots where brilliant but at the same time some scene where underwhelming
Editing was not up to the mark
Writing it was good in the scientific and physics perspective also to the quotes at the beginning of every episode plays the major role
But at the same time writer also messed up a lot of things to be more precise let's say 70% writing was good but at the same time it was 30% was bad
Even though there are so many flaws this show kept me invested from the beginning till the end and I enjoyed
In short it's a time travel mess and if you want to enjoy this show just don't search for logic because at the end it is a drama

In one line this show is a sci fi thriller which gets converted into a messed up melodramatic love story by the end and I am seriously confused should I recommend this or not because even if I enjoyed this show everyone does not have a same taste like me so watch at your own risk

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Welcome to travelling in time!

I loved this show because it was unique and I'm also a fan of time travel. Not one cliché is used throughout the entire 16 episodes and it does indeed twist and turn throughout. Time travel as a subject can be quite confusing as there are "multiverses" created and time loops that I still can't wrap my head around. As far as acting goes, Park Jin Gyum is unbelievably good as is the rest of the cast. There is very little romance involved in the plot and what little is hinted has become quite controversial with some. I just take the story at face value and try not to read something into familiar affection. I recommend "Alice" for everyone who is a fan of the genre as I am.

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