The Killing Vote (2023)

Solid Antihero Thriller, give it a try

first of all this is way better binged so you who haven't watched it yet are lucky ones however,

in my opinion no matter how far i stayed away from this it kept maintaining the level of good and thrill that it had, it always had me so emotional it's a good one .. for me to stick around for more than a couple of months, and with such a long wait and bad airing schedule and i watch the first ep as soon as it aired and kept on going but it was all worth it in my opinion .. i was so invested in the story and ep 12 killed me ...

so i highly encourage you to watch it if you're a fan of the antihero tope and if you like unpredictable thrillers ... of course there is stuff you will predict but like I think this one was a drama that wasn't like one of those dramas that were safe ... like each eps is packed with some " nothing ever going according to plan " elements which i really liked when I'm watching a thriller not to mention good acting .. (except one thing that went down that i'm heartbroken about )

and regarding the ending in my opinion this was a good ending tbh i like the fact they somewhat gave us a vage ending it made much more sense because had they actually tried to wrap it up i wouldn't believe it .. they did not have enough time to answer all our questions so it was smart of them to finish it off the way they did .. which also leaves a possibility for a season 2 which i will gladly watch ( if ever ) beecaauseee the show was so good

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Started off to an amazing start and as it kept going... it crashed hard and never recovered. It hooked me instantly with the premise of a national vote for criminals who skate by on their charges due to legal loopholes or money. It slowly turns into plot hole after plot hole and a jumbled mess of questions and story webs that never got connected. The writers tried to keep you guessing as to who Gaetal was until the very end, but the mystery is pretty obvious as it goes on. The twists-and-turns are not even good and just give you whiplash with how unnecessary some of it was.

The good thing about this drama is the actors. It is stacked with big names and they deliver on their parts. Everyone from the leads down to the side characters do a fantastic job with their acting and it really helps keep you watching because the story does not. I liked the dynamics between all the characters and the way they interacted, but even within those relationships were messy, unfinished storylines. The decisions of Seok-Joo were so questionable and I just want to leave it to the bad writing. His character and story could've been so good, but they really butchered it for him.

I was hoping the ending would leave me feeling a little better with the overall story, but that made my rating fall below an 8 which I was going to give. While in other crime dramas within the final episode we are completing and wrapping up storylines for a smooth or open ending, this one just created more questions than answers. It seems open ended leaving you with: "There will always be another Gaetal." + "Another Gaetal will appear." I'm not sure I'll be tuning in if there is another season.

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A Mess

I really had to push myself to finish this one and with them delaying the *final* single episode by a couple of weeks just added more pain to the injury. Finished it today, nothing that would change my mind happened.

I went into this one not really knowing quite what to expect other than the premise sounded interesting - someone called Gaetal organises a vote for whether to execute a criminal that the justice system has failed to handle, and they'll happen regularly. Sounds super interesting.

First couple of episodes go by and i'm starting to build up a picture of where I think it's going - and i'm *really* getting hyped for it to go there. This is a bad thing to do, and leads to disappointment. Don't do that. In my view, they were setting the foundations for a really good discussion about vigilantism, why the system exists, that they'd move on to say that "Gaetal" was a concept rather than an individual and there isn't just one "bad guy" here and so forth. It really looked like it was kinda heading that way. Debate about "if you click yes, are you an accessory to murder" etc. What happens if they get it wrong etc. Lost of really interesting things to discuss here.

Then reality dawns and their goals are far less aspiring and much more plain. I mean it's not bad, it's watchable, but I just feel so let down by it and the potential it had. This had "squid game" level capability written all over it, I could see those dog masks becoming as iconic in modern culture as the masks of the guards on SG.

The ending... it's finished, it's a conclusion, but it leaves you with implications for what would happen next and... i'm sorry, it didn't earn enough credits with me to justify that. Had it been more bold it would have been absolutely ripe for it, and even a potential sequel or even series of series! :)

I guess i'm mostly grumpy that it just feels like so much potential lost, a real opportunity to have a challenging discussion.

Is it watchable and entertaining? Yes. If you like your crime dramas then you will probably get into this. But don't get swept up in the incredible hype set out in the first two or three episodes and you will probably enjoy it more :)

Cast are fantastic - some really great crew here no complaints there at all. Music I don't recall at all (so, not good not bad :) ).

Bah humbug. Etc. :)

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Justice that is extremely rational

There are largely 2 main points addressed in the story.
1) What happens if someone creates a fast lane for all the public to deliver justice as they see fit?
2) What happened 8 years ago and how is it relevant to everyone involved?

Now whether what happened or happens is right or wrong, that's up to the viewers. They just tell you both stories. I'd say it's a well done show. From the practical case & investigation part, it's as good as any decent thriller out there. Nothing more though and nothing less either. As for the concept itself, it's a part vigilante / part revenge style story. But this wasn't an all-about-oppa show and with more people on different sides falling under the limelight, it's kinda hard to pick sides.
I have a strong bias for Park Hae Jin and one of the things many of his roles have in common is they give me a hard time seeing things as black and white. Everyone's performance and acting was good, Park Sung Woong, Kim Kwon, Im Ji Yeon (if she irritated me at times, I'd look at her outfits instead, they were good) and all the supporting actors as well, and so I was swayed this way and that and most importantly had a good interesting time watching this show. Certainly had its set of plot twists, big reveals, decoy plot lines and such. Beware of the last fake out is all I'll say.

Post that, the last scenes are setting up for a follow up story but that is none of our business until it's officially announced. This season reached its own conclusion. So can be watched for now.

Overall, 9/10 from me.

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In one word: disspaointed.

If you are wondering if to watch this show - the answer is that if you really don't have anything else to see right now and you like crime shows with investigation, sure. Would I highly recommend it? No.

Most of the cast did an amazing job, and the story begins so promisingly, with great chemistry and tension between our hero and the villain.
I won't get into what happened as I want to keep this review spoiler free for anyone thinking of watching this show, but they focused on so many characters and minor story that really didn't add up to anything, a plot that in my opinion didn't have enought or any 'big revels' and really sloppy writing. They focus less on the actual invatigation and more on the characters (most of them annoying and have flat personality) that again, seemed to lead to nothing. The first couple of episodes were great and then everything seemed to go downhill. A shame really because the start of this show was so good and I was ready to love that show.

Maybe I'm too harsh. Maybe I came with high expections, compering this show on first glance to Mouse or Hannibal, two shows that I really like. But, as someone who sees a lot of k-drama and other crime shows from worldwide media, this was not a good enough show, in my opinion. I will rank it somewhere beneath middle. I gave it 6 because to be fair it's watchable and if don't you have anything better to watch than it will be fine to see it but honestly, if I wasn't watching it one episode a week I probaly would have dropped the show by now.

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What did they even think before ending it like this!!!!!

What i lookout for in a suspense thriller is for the last few episodes to unveil the hidden puzzles and to have a good wrapup, This series is faaaaarrr from being it.

Only the first 4 episodes were interesting to me but later i was confused and at the end i was disgusted. Why the hell did i even waste my time on this ,

I saw park hae jin anf sungwoong in man to man and was super excited to see them together in yet anither drama. I have no doubts nor complaints on any of the actors in this series, they portrayed their roles flawlessly. But just good acting couodnt save this drama, the writters messed it up.

MuChan is the most foolish main leads i have ever watched. Now i dont even want to think about this series anymore. This will be perfectly erased from my memory with no traces left.

There are much more interesting and well written thrillers out there, better go and watch those rather than wasting your time here on this drama.

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Mist disappointed drama of 2023 so far

Firstly i would like to mention the good things.
It's the Acting of the cast. Most of them did a wonderful job. My most fav is the one who played kimJiHoon.
Story : the concept of the main plot was good
Now dissappoinments - I can write an essay for several pages. It started off so good . I was really hooked up after a couple episodes. But then I started to get irritated more and more. I was like ,How come all the good people got screwed up and only bad people live a good life. But then I realised that's how the world we live in works.it's the real life. The drama depicted what happens in real life I guess.
But hoped atleast KimJiHoon would live.but they killed him too. I wanted to drop this drama early on. But I forced myself to every episode in hope that it will change.
Now I regret I continued on.
Park Hae Jin character looked so dumb most of the time. He shouldn't have chosen this project. And female lead too. Her character had no significance at all. I am sorry for the actress that she ended with a dumb character. Another dumb one is the professor. All the leads were dumb ,but they are alive and well. The only well written sane character was KimJiHoon and they killed him.
It seems there will be another season and HongJong Hyun joined the cast. It's his come back drama after so long. But he ended up with messed one

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Intriguing yet frustrating, worth the watch

To start off I had a really hard time starting this drama. I watched the first two episodes when they aired. I’ve only now completed it as a posting this. The first two episodes are pretty good, I had a hard time understanding what was going on to the point where I had to rewatch episode 1 twice. Even on my second viewing, I was still kind of confused, which is why I stopped watching on the second ep. That being said, if you’re anything like me, and it takes a while to gain your attention. Please give this drama until episode 3 to fully bring you in.

For the plot of this drama I think it’s really solid. There are some things that could have been adjusted, but I think that’s all due to how the characters acted and their motives. I don’t have much to say on the story most of my worries and problems with the story are from the characters. I will say though, the ending being opened for a season two made me annoyed, but also curious on how a season two would play out. as well as whether they will fully develop the characters that needed improvement.

I think the cast are super awesome. They all did a great job at acting and you can see that by how annoyed and frustrated I got with their characters. But my biggest complaint is how the adults in the story seemed more childish than the characters that were supposed to be the children. Almost every adult character acted in ways that I would think that the teenage characters would act. I know the situations that they are being put in were very strenuous and emotional, but for the two main teenage characters to have more composure then the adults that were police was very jarring to me. I think that this was very prevalent in any scene that had action, all the adults seem to be very hesitant an not in a safety or percautious way. The way they acted almost seemed like they didn’t know what they were doing and they didn’t have a protocol to follow. The perfect example of this is during the Hospital scene that situation was very difficult to figure out a solution, but in that moment, all the adults seem to not know how they should go about things. Although the teenage characters weren’t very prominent in that scene, they still seem to have more composure, emotionally, and with their ways of going about things. You can say that the two teenage characters have so much composure, because of trauma and having to grow up early and I can agree 100% with that. The things that they had to go through and witness, they are most definitely going to be very mature for their age. But for the adults that have had the same experiences and more, while being in position of power, acting more childish was very frustrating to watch.

Besides how the adult characters acted, I don’t have any more complaints. It was a really solid drama with a good plot and frustrating characters. But with the content of the drama, you almost expect to be frustrated, which is what made everything that happened in the last two episodes very impactful.

✧If you’re contemplating watching the drama or not, I would say go for it 100%. It’s 12 episodes super short in drama world and it has a really intriguing and emotional story that pulls you in and makes you want to know more.

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An Interesting Watch

I was keeping up with this drama’s updates since it was announced. I kinda wanted to read the original Manhwa but then I thought otherwise because I didn’t want to spoil anything for myself.

The first half is interesting to say the least. There’s lots of characters, we see a bunch of side stories and the the cat and mouse game begins. But right after that it almost felt like they were just dragging the storyline a bit too much. The underage characters annoyed me so much to the point I went through the comments to check if anyone else was finding them annoying. Lo and Behold, some people did.

I really wanted to see character development for some characters especially Mu Chan. Man it hurts so much to see him being the way he is 😂 even in the end. If I were to say the ending just brings us back to square one then it wouldn’t be an understatement. We basically end up at a dead end. Unless they’re planning a s2, it was a very half assed ending in my opinion.

Coming back to the characters, Kim Mu Chan my boy you let me down. The FL was okayish. The professor’s character was good and my favourite has to be the teacher guy (don’t mind me I finished watching this like a month ago so I cannot remember their names)

I shipped the main protagonists 😂 and loved their banters in the beginning. When she goes to his house, how he experience a “nightmare”, when she picks up a gun and decides to shoot the villain guy. I really wished they had more moments together because in the later half they started acting like strangers. All that chemistry just for them to be estranged? tsk tsk

Now the plot. I hate how Korean cyber unit couldn’t trace the IP address for the life of them. The whole steaming thing was very unrealistic but I get it, it’s fiction. I let it slide but still it was just hard to swallow.

The character motivations often didn’t align with their personalities. I hate how they killed that ONE character in the end. It was so unnecessary. (unless they’re planning on playing a trick on us??)

Where’s the backstory for our protagonists?? Kim Mu Chan lost his mother but what happened next?? What’s the story behind the FL’s scar? Why do we never find any closure for their traumas? Maybe they’re planning all of that for S2. 🤷🏻‍♀️

But this Kdrama did bring me out of my Kdrama slump. I feel like 2023 was a bad year for crime-thriller genre. This was a good addition to it and a good way to end such a terrible year.

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