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Head aches watching this
Yes, I am at the 14th episode and my head aches with all this traveling through time. The jump from one timeline to another gets too confusing to the point that you start to question something you thought you understood in the first place.I started watching this because of the promising trailer. The first few episodes were OK but as it progresses, I started disliking almost everyone on the show. Over lapping dimensions, doppelganger, AAARRRGGHHH.....
The last few episodes are too much for my mind's level of understanding LOL. Much as I loved the idea of going back in time to see a loved one, watching this turned out to be torture for me.
I am planning to drop it but I'm almost done so would probably see it through till the end
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Sizzling beginning but fizzling ending
After investing longer than 16 hours, as a sci-fi fan, all I can say that the drama started with a bang. The opening was mesmerizing especially with the impressive acting of Kwan Si Yang. He outshone the male lead and the female star every time he appeared on the screen. However, after the 6th episode, viewers are hesitant to go on watching as it is not clear whether they are watching the multiverse or the butterfly effect of the time travel as these two things seem to merge into each otherin the drama but they are different aspects in theory. The importance of the family bonding especially mother-son relationship takes so much time that some audience may find it repugnant to see the over emphasis on the romance between Tae yi and Park Jin Gyeom, mother and son in another time line.If the script were written a bit more meticulously with a solid background of physics and some logic, the drama would have been very inspiring and aspiring. However, except for the acting skills of the main leads especially the top notch acting style of Kwak si yang, who wonderfully expressed the anger , sadness and frustrations of a father in micro details, there is nothing to recommend about the series. It is such a pity that a good opening which had the potential to have sparks on many fronts such as sci-fi, fantasy, alternate universe, multiverse, family bonding, present versus past lives sizzled so much that even the ending came out as non sequitor as to why after the reset it is only Tae yi who has not lost memory but the others all forgot everything in this new alternate universe. In order to have an open ending, the director and scriptwriter wasted both the talents of the actors and storytelling.
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Plot:
The main premise of Alice is time travel, which in itself is a very complicated topic to incorporate. Because of this, I give stories involving time travel the benefit of the doubt, just as long as they keep to the formula. For Alice, I understood the way time travel was being portrayed, and even give props to the writer for going in-depth with many things. But overall, the plot fell short in multiple ways, some of which I believed could have been different. As I mentioned earlier, the first episode was no doubt one of the best first episodes I have ever watched, and the episodes that followed were strong as well. The half of this drama is no doubt the weakest part, but not to the point where it ruined the drama for me. I think many scenes could have been removed and replaced with either more backstory or more scenes with other characters, but that's one of the only things I would change. For a sci-fi fantasy drama, I think Alice did a good job with its elements. Of course, no drama is perfect, but it gives a good sci-fi fantasy feel throughout the drama.
Characters:
Alice is a drama that involves multiple characters in order to tell its story, but at the same time only values two characters: Park Jin Gyeom and Yoon Tae Yi. For Jin Gyeom, I really liked his character and how he was set up. I found his relationships with others very interesting. For Tae Yi, it's a bit different. She's not a character you want to hate, but a character that you find yourself, or at least I did, wanting to hate but couldn't. She's annoying sometimes then okay for other times, but overall, I don't think she's a bad character. Do Yeon and Min Hyuk were two characters that I found myself rooting for the most. I loved every scene Do Yeon and Jin Gyeom's were in together and thought they were cute together. The other supporting characters did a great addition to the story and I enjoyed watching them, even if some made my blood boil. Overall, the cast was excellent and I don't think I could find better actors for most characters.
Other:
The acting was fantastic, especially on Joo Won's part. I even give props to Kim Hee Sun for portraying two different characters, which isn't always easy to do. For the music, I was sad we only got 5 songs, but all of them were fantastic, especially The Star by Onestar. The cinematography was wonderful and I enjoyed the beautiful scenes we got.
Final Thoughts:
So why do I give this an 8.5? Simply because I enjoyed this more than I probably should have. I was happy, sad, angry, and frustrated while watching this, which are emotions I want to feel while watching dramas. I think the biggest problem I had with this was certain things that took place during the halfway point, but not to the extent where it ruined the drama for me. The first and last 6 episodes were the best for me, but the other 4 episodes in between weren't bad, just lacking in a way.
Do I recommend watching this drama? Yes, but no. This is a type of drama that certainly ain't for everyone, and that is okay. It forces you to pay attention and keep track of characters and decisions being made in order to fully grasp what is happening. For me, I have no problem with these types of dramas so I usually like them. If you are interested in this drama, I'd say go for it. It does a good job with twists and makes you anxious and not knowing what to expect, so if you're up for those dramas then you might enjoy this.
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Confuse, yet interesting and exciting.
Once they explain what is their theory of the time travel, things start to make more sense and you can enjoy the drama better.Since the story allow it, it has a bunch of plot twists, which makes hard to predict what comes next or who is the person behind of all.
The amount of tension is on point. It's addictive. At the end of each episode I was anxious to watch the next.
The only point that bothered me it was when they tried to add romance on it. Due the main character past, it becomes quite weird to watch.
Overall, a good drama.
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Worst time travel drama and worst drama for 2020
I don't even know where to start my review.. I'm disappointed with too many things specially the end. I wasted 16 hrs of my life to watch this bad drama. it's full of nonsense events.let me talk about few things then I will write about the end.
First of all, they but rules in this drama, then they act opposite of it. For example , when the time gate is closed, all time travelers will disappear, so what happened when it was actually closed? Alice disappeared, but Yoon Tae Yi didn't!! ..why?? not only that, but she's the only one who remember what happened..again, why?????
Park Jin Gyum stays with his mother as high school student after he finally succeeded in preventing her death. So, what happens when became an adult in 2020..he passed by Yoon Tae Yi , but didn't recognize her..she looks like her mother, but didn't react when he saw a person who looks like his mother????
About the ending, why the writers stole the end from the famous German series (Dark)?? the old and bad Park Jin Gyum is the mastermind who prepared for all these events to happen..why he became bad to kill his mother? we don't know..it's like when Jonas "in the German series "DARK" became bad old Adam who planned for everything including killing his love "Martha"..etc
I can't even describe how much I'm disappointed :(
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Great until last couple of episodes
This show was great for episodes 1 to 13. Up until 13, it had me on the edge of my seat the whole time. It almost made it easily in my top 10 shows. Then, came that sloppy, what the heck happened ending. It was like the writer was replaced by someone who wanted to sabotage the show. The acting was great throughout the entire show. The OST was fine. The writing was great for episodes 1 through 13. Then, episode 14 came. That was when things got sloppy. I held on for hopes that my ending would be a happy one. It was satisfactory in one way and totally unsatisfactory in the way it left so many questions unanswered. It was one of those endings that leaves you scratching your head and thinking “ What the heck was that?” I really think that the writer had no idea how to make it end. I gave this show a rating of 8 just because the first 13 episodes were so great.Was this review helpful to you?
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Wasted potential
Oh Alice, you have such an intriguing overarching scifi thriller mystery, why that messy ending that is hard to overlook? Oh well, the writer already showed his fixation beforehand, I was just too stubborn to drop it.Spoilers:
Joo Won is good in action, I really wished the show just stuck to be a straightforward thriller, and did not insert all those almost 'otp' scenes between Jin Gyeom and Tae Yi. It's plain weird and the worst part of the show for me, which is sad as they are the main leads and the focus of the show. Why show?! Such a waste of Do Yeon and Min Hyuk too.
Jin Gyeom was a bit uninteresting until that twist, which of course Joo Won always delivers. He is wasted on goody goody straight roles. I felt the show lacked the right comic actors too. I also felt more scared with that young evil Jin Gyeom, than the old teacher one (probably because of that weird makeup). 2020 Jin Gyeom warring with young evil Jin Gyeom inside 1 body was so fascinating, the show should have stuck with it more.
Well, all those can be forgiven, but that last part where they have to force the Jin Gyeom-Tae Yi OTP when it doesn't even make sense anymore, just NO.
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Keeping it shorter: No, don't waste your 16 hrs to this.
This mess is a combination of bad writing and directing. The first time they used the disturbing kdrama romance tropes to show TY and JG motherly connection, I already knew the other aspects of the show would be that bad and it was a result of bad directing. The writers used scientific terms like quantum entanglement without really knowing what to do with it like "this term sounds cool, let's use it" to make their viewers feel genius with the unfamiliar and fancy terms used in the drama.How I wished they have only used Alice as just a mere plot device to help explore more of the characters instead of delving too much into it because in the end, everything did not make sense.
The ending really threw everything that has happened in 15 episodes out in the garbage bin. The show itself is bad, but maybe worth a look if your only reason of watching is for the actors because they did great.
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Sci Fi Story
I was confuse with the last 2 episode. But, I'm happy with the ending.The story itself can not be understood, especially the last 2 episodes.
It was unpredictable who the killer was and also looks weird.
Love Joo Won and Kim Hee Sun. They look good here.
And the makeup of Korean Movie Industry is so good. Both Kim Hee Sun dan Joo Won look differently in the scene past and present time.
But overall, despite of the weird story ,I really enjoy this drama, It makes me stay to finish this drama in 4 days .
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Just my opinion though :)
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Fascinating take on time travel
Unlike most time travel dramas which assume a ripple in the past will change nearly everything in the future, Alice takes a more intriguing multiverse dynamic to spin its story. It would seem that you can be alive and dead in different realities that appear to be the same reality. Perhaps I haven't explained this well and truth be told, I've only seen 3 episodes but I am completely hooked. The characters are richly drawn and well-acted and the implausible premise become plausible thanks to fine writing. Kim Hee-Sun is predictably superb as the main time traveler but the complexity of her relationship with her son (in one reality) who suffers from an inability to feel emotions makes for some very dramatic moments. The chemistry with her son, well played by Jee Won and their quest to understand the truth that surrounds them is powerful. I'm not a binge watcher, so it will be a few weeks till I finish Alice but it is taking me on a very promising journey.Was this review helpful to you?
Confused Mess
So much promise. Looks like they've set up something really clever."Traditional" time travel is single dimensional - go back in the past, change, and it affects the future instantly, you know, good old cause and effect. Back to the Future where Marty and his family start disappearing from the family photo when he accidentally messes up how his mum and dad meet? That kinda thing. It's classic, it works. Is it the only thought line for time travel? No, definitely not, but it's the one usually covered in stories.
There are other thoughts on Time Travel like - maybe it's multi dimensional, now instead of progressing along a single line back and forth, now you're moving through *time* in two dimensions, which means you can go back to the future version of a past and changes you make there don't affect *your* past because that's a previous version of it! Confusing? Quite a bit... but... wouldn't it be cool if someone attempted it?
I thought that's what we had here.
Nope, turns out the writers just don't get time travel at all. It all just becomes a confused mess, going back to the same moment and playing it out differently (that's multi dimensional!) but then also having cause and effect (that's one dimensional) and maybe not entirely because.. well.. argh. Mess, mess, mess.
... and... is this a love story? because if so it's... wrong. This is mother and son! If it's not a romance, what's with all the romance music (which I liked, hence the good score on the sound track, just really confusing how it was used!).
Apparently the main character has alexythemia (where you have no emotional response, basically) - except, he's crying and feeling bad and so forth lots and lots, so you have to come to the conclusion that he actually is just a bit of a miserable so-and-so and covers it up by saying that. I'm going to try that later I think see if anyone buys it :)
I really enjoyed the actors work, they were the highlight of this drama, some great cast here and they do a great job.
I'm MOSTLY gutted because this had some real potential. I want to think that the writer had a great idea and it got hacked about and corrupted somehow, because there's the nucleous of something great. It's not that the ending was rushed and didn't make sense (though, honestly, it barely made sense) - it stopped making sense about half way through and you begin to realise that... hmm... i'm not sure the Captain of this plane is firing on all cylinders...
I'm going to stop here. Not recommended. Cast were fantastic, music was great, production values were really good too, but... story... the story... yoikes.
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