Adamas (2022)

Disappointment

Started the series with high expectations given the synopsis and that Ji Sung is part of the cast. While the first half of the series was not without flaws, I believed there was an attempt to build up suspense (albeit slowly), which would be fine with me if the story built up well. Unfortunately, in the second half of the series, some characters seemed to display behaviour that seemed contrary to how they were written at the start, and developments became increasingly unbelievable.

For example, some characters seem to always escape the detection of the security despite acting in an overt manner, or how characters armed with pistols seemed to prefer hand-to-hand combat despite being in life-threatening conditions. This would lead one to wonder how these gaps would be closed as the story passes (hint: it does not).

We reach the rock bottom of the series in the finale, where the ending failed to address any of these plot holes and successfully created more questions on how a good 16 hours was wasted to watch this series. Like what some of the other reviewers pointed out, the acting fails to rescue the disastrous plot.

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A slow journey with gradual build-up and a face plant end

One of the rare times that I'm dropping the rating of a show post the finale. Adamas isn't for everyone and I'm most likely included in that list. The show had a very promising start and suddenly started to drag it's heels at the beginning making it a hard watch.

I was excited to see a dual role but by instantly separating the twins and shooting scenes separately for most of the show undid that excitement. It might as well have been played by 2 actors. The camera work that excited me at the very beginning of the series was no where to be found. The writer twin spent majority of his time roaming around the mansion repeatedly which I would just watch at 2x speed. At the time, I found the role of the prosecutor twin more exciting. But soon that too felt like it was heading nowhere.

Most of the excitement starts around episode 9 onwards. By then a lot of the secrets about the mysterious Adamas are exposed. The people fighting the bad guys all seem to be helpless and powerless despite their status and connections. It is frustrating to see them failing so badly at times and you have to wonder why they have no result to show for all the work and manpower they've put in.

There was a rare opportunity to wind everything in a positive and thrilling way but it was a disaster after disaster for the good guys. In fact, episode 14 may have been the best episode. The ending leaves you scratching your head and wondering what happened? The satisfaction that one might get from watching a crime drama is nowhere to be found here. Do some bad guys get punished? Yes. But it's so underwhelming. And one of the characters realises, "truth holds no power". This is the entire theme of Adamas.

Acting and production is good quality but if the story telling fails to enthrall you, the hard work of the cast and team is meaningless.

SMALL SPOILER:
They tease an open-ending and if just makes you think, do I want to put up with that again in the second season? Probably not, in my opinion.

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