Dark Hole (2021)

Flawed but still worth a watch

If you're into zombies, definitely give this a try. It's a hard to find fresh take on the genre with great effects and good performances from the leads. It kept me engaged the entire time and the tension and action in every episode was really great.

That said, the plot did fall short. It got a little repetitive with characters doing what felt like the same thing over and over, walking around the hospital and fighting zombies with a shaman acting sus every time. They should have left the hospital after a few episodes. A lot of characterization was missed too at the expense of cramming in action scenes; the barely-there romance/chemistry between the leads should have been fleshed out more, and there was at least one great opportunity for character redemption that was missed - I would have loved to see Dong Rim's bully become good, and then redeem himself and get together with her. We were given the brief impression this might happen when he was impressed with her standing up for herself and then volunteered to help them. But no, what did they do? They had him betray them as predicted and then just killed him off. What a waste. It felt like a lot of characters were wasted this way.

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My first review.

I am not sure about anyone else that is currently watching this series but I am enjoying every moment of this series.
I dont se a problem with the actin, and i am enjoying the storyline.
the mutants are creepy and look great, and the fog with the black smoke is a nice touch.
I also like the flashbacks showing parts of the survivors lives, it give a little understanding about their character.
So i would like to suggest giving this series a chance, not everyone has the same likes and dislikes, you wont know if you like this series by just reading someone else's review on it, you might end up liking something you didn't think you would.

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bad writing

it's a dark hole alright. True to it's title, watching this drama felt like plunging into a bottomless hole of boring badly written script. I feel bad for the actors, truly. The acting is actually quite good, so sad that they had to follow a script that really insulting human logic. The way the character respon to the whole thing is just stupid. Some character does bad things for no reason other than just because they have to be the bad people that add more problem to the story. If you like zombie movie, go watch Kingdom, it's 100x better, don't waste your time on this.

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This vs Sweet Home

there's no need for comparison, but I'll do it anyways~
for the plot, this was a flat mess, they had too many characters with zero emotinal attachment...

the main reason I stayed was Kim Ok Bin. I've only seen her before in The Villainess and briefly in Children of a Lesser God. I can't remember her in the 1st one though I briefly remember the plot and I dropped the later cuz of her (and the ML's) high pitched tone, so here I actually really appreciated her beautiful calm voice and persona. as a cop I approve

in sweet home, they had so many characters but each of them felt real, from the sweet church boi to the horrible wife beater, each were a piece in the big puzzle

here, they had the cop, the ex cop, the kid (added for cheap emotinal grab), the teen (added for cheap sad lonely misfit), the teacher (that was connected to the teen for cheap revenge plot), the doctor (for cheap last minute conflict), the shaman and her annoying inferiority complex, the creepy self centered human monsters, another kid, another teacher, a police dude and his pregnant wife, and basically my point was, everyone was a piece of a puzzle cut in a square just to make the picture bigger (ie more ep count) and easy skippable plotlines


this was one of those cases "less ep cuz they knew they couldn't drag it out too much"


the ost is beautiful and I never rewatch stuff

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So I had to write a review because of the bad ratings on MDL and bad reviews dropping it and stuff, first rule on this site is to never trust the ratings on MDL, this got 7.7 but it doesn't mean it's bad, sometimes you have to give it a try, many underrated shows on MDL is actually good, ok so this show is somewhat similar to Sweet Home, not trying to compare these two but yes both had almost similar vibe and story. I think you somewhat have to be emotional vulnerable to inhale the "black smoke" and become a mutant just like in SH where your greeds and desire are the ones that turn you into a monster. I agree that they somehow stretched the story and it became draggy but I think they wanted to create more tension and atmospheric vibe to it and more chasing scenes that's why it became draggy, but it's okay. Everything was okay, the OST was nice as well. But it was quite disappointing that they couldn't save Dong Rim :(( And that post credit scene where they show that a new sinkhole appeared in Yeouido.. I'm not sure if that's an opening to a Season 2 but I'll be glad to have one more. It's not that it's a cliffhanger but it's fun to watch yknow? I think Yujin (Dong Rim) did a great job here after acting in True Beauty, she looks damn pretty here. I also do agree that there were many unnecessary sub plots in the show, but I guess it did come all around in the end because it was related to Dong Rim with the hit and run and stuff. But I think we could have easily finished the show with like 10 episodes.

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idk how to feel...

As stated in the title.. i'm not sure how to feel. I was curious when i first started this show how everything would play out between chasing a serial killer and fighting off supernatural beings. However at times, the plot fell through. It felt very lacking and i feel like they could have done a better job building up suspense between hwasun and her husbands serial killer.

we could have gotten it to where hwa sun explored different areas and found different clues leading up to her husbands serial killer all while finding out about the creature. i honestly thought the creature and the serial killer would've has some connection but there was none other than a lackluster "revenge" plot that dies off quite quickly one the serial killer dies.

There was also alot of unnecessary deaths, lots of characters who the audience felt zero attachment to because there was no reason to feel attached to them SPOILER AHEAD: for example, mr.choi died and while i felt some pity the only sympathy we should have felt for him was that he felt guilty his father killed dongrims father ? SPOILER END. honestly there was alot of empty characters, plots, etc. And as for locations, most of the characters mainly stayed in the same 2 locations which just felt kind of lazy imo. if there's going to be limited locations, at least make it more suspenseful like train to busan for example.

I do believe though that the soundtrack is pretty good, i absolutely love Shadow but that's expected of the dreamcatcher girlies. I also quite enjoyed the casting and acting and i think they all portrayed their characters quite nicely.

I just wish the series could've expanded more on the plot and it never really explained why the creature specifically targeted hwa sun

SPOILER : The ending was also quite lacking as all it took was dongrim fighting back ? I understand her character hardly ever fought back in the past so maybe that was supposed to be a huge courageous moment for her character but it felt empty and lacking.

In other words, everything was decent except that i just felt empty watching it, there wasn't many highs or lows or emotional moments to get me highly invested in these characters lives and emotions. And the plot overall could have been better

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Impressive storyline for a zombie show.

It’s a survival story of a group of townspeople who had been attacked by black smoke that came from a sinkhole, which can turn people into super athletic zombie-like mutants upon inhalation. In the chaos, ML, a towtruck driver met with FL, a detective from Seoul on the hunt for a serial killer whose among victims had been her husband, although they got separated in the beginning of the disaster, they eventually cross paths again and joined hands in their quest to find a safe place for the survivors.

First off, I am not a fan of zombie stories. I especially dislike korean zombies cuz once turned, they instantly become superhumans. When i clicked this title, i thought it’d be a sci-fi mystery show of some sort. Nuh-uh, in fact this show has the highest functioning zombie-mutants of all, some of them can even read, speak, think with vengeance! Wth man. Almost dropped it when I realized it is a zombie show, but decided to stay on cuz I was curious to see the showdown between the FL and the serial killer, and how the mainleads were going to defeat the shaman who can control zombies, and the thing in the smoke that controls everything that got infected.

I must say, Lee Hwa Seon the FL, is the most combatworthy Kdrama female detective I’ve ever seen. Other policewomen ive seen so far usually rely on brains and wits while pretty bad at hand-on-hand combat. Not Hwa Seon. She’s not No Mercy type of fighter who does the martial artist kind of fights, but a realistic ordinary person who fights with brawn and wits. She also doesn’t give a second thought at going against higher ranked elders. One pet peeves of mine on kdrama is as asians are people who puts high regards on our elders status, we rarely talk back to them, let alone fight with them. And the elders with power and status (especially those despicable chaebols) in kdrama are usually exceptionally loud, foul-mouthed, super domineering and really love to hit people. It’s satisfying to see FL standing up against those types for once. She’s not rude or anything, she’s just brave and firm. Lee Hwa Seon has become the most badass female detective in kdrama in my eyes.

I really like the chemistry of the main leads. They do not have any romantic relationship, but the chemistry is damn striking. Both are willing to go out of their ways to save strangers, even at the risk of their own lives. In earlier episodes I couldnt understand how this tow truck driver suddenly becomes a hero ready to save everyone around him disregarding his own safety without even giving it a second thought, i even got annoyed and thought this character as reckless. then they revealed who he was before and then only everything falls into place. Pretty neat, really.

The screenwriters are also really good at suspense building. Else how can anyone explain how someone who hates zombie shows like me got hooked? How humans can be desperate and sinister enough to stay alive even if it means to kill others in the name of cult sacrifice. How each characters’ dark secrets are thrown into the plot is also rather brilliant. As each secret is revealed, I got impressed even more.

One thing i noticed about kdrama is that they do so many flashbacks! I get it that it’s to build background of each character, but the flshbacks on this show is just waaay too much. For example, The scene of ML telling his partner that he got fired from the police force, was shown at least 4 times. I mean come on, 4 times? It’s no longer character background building, it’s background overload! I think if the repetitive flashbacks are compiled they couldve filled up an entire episode (or more!).

Also, I really dont get the staring contest in kdramas. They stare at each other in fights when there are still enemies around and they stare after the fights when time is essential. It’s really getting on my nerves. And when they do it in zombie shows where people can get attacked from literally anywhere, it becomes annoying af.

I can’t shake off the thought of how the enemy in here is somewhat like a combination of Train to Busan and Stephen King’s The Mist. Scary right? Superhuman zombie plus mysterious monster in the smoke. However I am glad this show has better and much more satisfying ending than the two shows.

If youre someone who love zombie or disaster survival shows, then this is definitely for you. Those who arent, well it doesnt hurt to give it a try. You can always drop it if u dont like it. Personally it has been an entertaining ride for me.

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I download this drama long ago, but i didn't watch it.. i don't know why i did tht.. it is soo cool. 'oh what going to happen next' Tht sentence always in my mind while watching this drama... when i start watch it i could not stop.. they give us points to think 'why was this happen', 'why mutants did that' 'is she the one' etc etc... their r lot of curiosity.. I remembered sweet home while watchng this.. plot is bit like sweet home for me.. whole drama is superb n well writen. Writer is smoothly line up story..

I feel like last two episode is bit a drop. I really dont know where is the drop point.. but i feel somthing is off.. even story is well written and line up last two episode is out of somthing.. one thing is monster he looks so fake.. writer little bit mess the last two episodes.. i mean while watchng movie for adult n it suddnly become kids movie, i feel somthing like that.. but itz ok not too much harm..

And one more thing i told this is like sweet home, but this one is not dramatic like sweet home.. for example both dramas have some lead good characters death seens, when it come to death of good character sweet home made me cry but actually this drama didnt even make my heart ache while good character die.. acually it is not a fault of cast or plot itz the background.. sweet home has superb background music n they dramatically made the scene. It feel like it happens to us.. this drama dont hve tht... even i like this drama i never feel i'm one of them like i did while watchng sweet home..

Whole cast did thire best, no mistakes at all.. averall must watch drama...

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Could be better

Watching this you can tell it was HEAVILY inspired by other shows in the same/similar genre which is one of the reasons I can't give a higher rating. It manages to bring it's own uniqueness to the genre but in the end it is just telling the same type of story. I liked that it focused on grief and anger, how people deal with fear and how easily people can be manipulated but their fears and blinded by their anger and lust for power and control, the way it handled these things was very well done. However, I did not like the way it ended, I feel like it needed more of a resolution to it and there needed to be a bigger change shown in the surviving cast.

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Plot + review

Plot: This drama tells the story about a group of survivors who have to fight for their lives against zombies that are created when humans breathe mysterious dark smoke from a sinkhole. Lee Hwa Sun is a police detective in the Seoul regional investigation unit. Her life is turned upside down when she receives a phone call from her husband’s murderer, telling her to come to “Mujishi.” However, the people in Mujishi have been transformed into monsters. She must not only fight to survive but also battle her fear in order to capture her husband’s murderer. Yoo Tae Han is a native of Mujishi and a wreck car driver. He has a carefree personality and likes to joke around, but he has a strong sense of justice. He quit being a police officer due to a scandal caused by a misunderstanding, but he is proud of his days in the force. When he meets Lee Hwa Sun in the chaos of Mujishi, he devotes his life to saving others from danger.

Review: It was quite good. I always loved survival dramas or even movies. But i don’t like when the lighting dark in the drama, it needs a little bit of light. And this drama was as dark as the title ‘Dark Hole’. It was a little bit difficult to understand, but in the end I understood. The ending was a little sad, but good.

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The only Dark Hole here is the black hole of boredom this drama opened up as it sucked me into a soporific coma.

That's saying something considering the insane parade of elements and genres the show rained down upon us from the beginning. At one point a zombie film, a monster flick. a post-apocalyptic survival tale, a revenge melo, and a crime thriller, in the first episode alone, the show gave us:
A hole
Solar flares
A serial killer
Black crazy CGI mist in a mysterious crystal
Zombies
A tentacle monster

And that was only in episode 1.

Kim Ok Bin is quite good as the calm and rational, emotionally-controlled detective, Lee Hwa -sun, who gets caught in the small town apocalypse while hunting down her husband's murderer (the ever present Korean serial killer). And Lee Joon-hyuk is also good in his now-patented role of restrained no-nonsense badass, Yoo Tae-han. But their characters and performances are not enough to save a show that quickly degenerates into a mindless morass of elements ripped from other shows.

A strange mix of 80s monster flick, Stephen King novel, and Korean drama elements, Dark Hole is pretty much a mess. And while the first week shoots for moody and atmospheric and almost makes it, week two degenerates into a boring succession of post-apocalyptic cliches that mostly involve people running around in the dark. It also makes little sense since the mist that people inhale makes them hallucinate and act in response to a a traumatic memory. But by episode 3 they're just lurching around like classic zombies, hunting down and killing those who are uninfected.

I'm wondering if we have Stranger Things to blame, since many of the elements in this are taken from the same classic 80s scifi, fantasy and horror film sources of that show. But Dark Hole doesn't have its charm, its genuine sense of menace nor its appealing characters. And weirdly it also doesn't have the usual OCN gloss.

So rather than dropping it because it's a bit of a mess, I think I'm mostly dropping it because I don't care.

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