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Aesthetically pleasing and that's it

Shine on me was the drama I ended 2025 with and started 2026 with. I started this because I was bored, simple as that.

The only engaging plot that pushed me to continue to watch was the storyline between the female lead and 2nd male lead. I was curious after all, because what happened between those two to make them look at each other with such sad gazes filled with pain? The more we came to find out, the more we realized that it was because of misunderstandings and an inferiority complex. It reached a point in the story that I felt so bad for the female lead because she kept getting accused and misunderstood by her friend group, that I wish she wouldn't have forgiven them easily.

The second male lead is the perfect example of needing therapy and a hesitant trash, because he was so indecisive. One part he was caring towards the female lead and protected her, the next second he decides to throw insults towards her about being lazy and being a silver spoon. It was frustrating to watch because he was projecting his insecurities onto her, and even when she decided to move on, he couldn't accept that it was really over, when he never did anything in the beginning to start a relationship with her. He was acting all high and mighty about being the real victim of his relationship with the female lead when he self-destructed it himself.

The only time the story was engaging was when they focused more on the drama of the relationships. Besides that, whenever the female lead was working at the company and talking about the job, I couldn't help but get bored.

I don't have much say about the acting, to be honest. ZJM doesn't disappoint, especially in scenes needing emotional expression, but when it comes to romance, I just really can't get engaged when she is in romantic scenes because I don't feel like she's in love, and her acting doesn't convince me much.

SWL acting isn't that noteworthy in this drama either. He plays the perfect green-flagged male lead who has a tragic incident, which is why, when he's so perfect, there are no flaws, and in turn, makes his acting boring and his character less engaging. The chemistry was fine.

LWM acting was decent; his character was cold and distant, so it worked in his favour, but when it came to crying scenes, he wasn't bad and delivered it quite well.

I still haven't finished this drama despite it already being halfway through 2026 lol, but maybe I'll finish it someday or not, but until then it's on hold for me cause i just can't finish it.

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A reminder of how scary humans can be

I had this drama on my plan to watch but didn’t get to it until I needed to play something whilst I was working. It wasn’t until episode 5 that it really got me interested.

When we start the story, we see two narratives in play: one of Lawyer Baek and Yoon Soo. We start to wonder which one is the truth? Is it that of the lawyer saying she killed her husband or Yoonsoo's narrative that someone masked killed him.

Frankly, I believed that this would be your typical story of the main female protagonist who gets abused and kills her husband, then finds a way to dodge jail, but I was wrong .

This drama also tells us how strong of a story the so-called lawyers and police officers can tell the public and how easily we, the public, are swayed by such words of confirmation from authorities that plan to run with a side of one story that seems the most likely.

It once again shows how weak and easy the justice system is, how many people have been wrongly accused by such “authorities”, how once again this so-called justice of the system fails many people more than it can save and serve the justice that it is intended for.

At first, I kinda believed that Yoon Soo did kill her husband. Then comes out the 2nd key player, Moeun
I don’t remember if she mentioned specifically why she helped Yoon Soo and why she did that, but I really thought she might have been the main villain of this story in the beginning.

Later, we find out that the family she killed was the family of the son who abused her little sister and made her jump.

As the ball of yarn starts to unravel itself by the final episodes, I can’t help but feel it started to get rather overwhelming because of the characters introduced, which caused the final revelation to be rather underwhelming, which a lot of shows, whether western or Asian suffer from (some example are why she chose to film herself and go on livestream and the grandpa being rather random).

The acting from Jeon Do-yeon and Kim Go-eun did not disappoint at all
I saw some comments saying how the killer's motive wasn’t a motive at all, and I very much disagree because, as much as this is fiction, this part does happen in reality.If you have ever seen any true crime stories or cases, you would be very shocked to hear how many of the killers' motives were rather petty.

I’ve heard some stories from social media in the news, such as a South Korean man sexually assaulting a random woman simply because he didn’t like how she looked at him- crazy, right? People just don’t realize how scary we as a human kind can be and how just small words and the simplest stuff can be such a trigger to many people, and they resort to violence. Such as the wife snapping and killing Yoon Soo's husband simply because Yoon Soo's husband told a lie, and the wife’s husband had to suffer at work due to his boss believing Yoon Soo's husband.

Many people don’t realize just how scary pent-up emotions, especially frustration and negative emotions and how that can be a ticking time bomb.
So I would just say a killer can have a very petty and emotional reason to kill someone over the simplest thing, as well as we also suffer from mental problems, which can be a very big deciding factor on how the person will act in that moment without realizing it.

Overall, it wasn’t bad; it was rather interesting, but the 2nd half does fall short like many kdramas nowadays. The acting from the main female leads was great and it’s a rather slow story that picks up eventually.

With the amount of dramas I’ve watched within like last year, such as Law and the City, Speed and Love, Typhoon Family and this, Thailand is really getting its spotlight lol it’s so popular.

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How do you let reuters make your own drama better than yourself, director?

Overdo was one of my most anticipated dramas of 2026. The millions of leaks from videos to photos made me more excited, and that pairing? everything. Quite a surprise to find out the production team used AI and the bad directing and editing, etc.

It's my first republican drama and I know it's supposed to have a messy plot that is filled with drama and betrayal, but it doesn't really create any sense of that. I agree with others; this really does feel like a short drama with the lighting, editing, etc.

Im on episode 12, I think, and it's just hard to get into. I think the drama tries to evoke an emotion in viewers by making the story have a big dramatic effect, which makes the scene overdramatic instead. The editing honestly makes me feel like im watching a reality TV show instead lol. Sometimes certain scenes come off rather sarcastic as well.

Not to mention that this drama had billions of leaks during its shooting last year and it felt like I watched the whole drama lol, tho it did kill some of the excitement.

It's a shame that the production wasted such leads on a very badly executed story, and for those saying "it's a republican drama what do you expect?" it doesn't excuse the bad execution.

The styling is definitely very pretty; WCR looks stunning in each episode, and ZLH looks dashing. Besides beautiful visuals, the story doesn't offer much as of right now. I do hope ZLH and WCR get reunited for a new drama tho in the future.

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The depiction of the ugly side of friendships

We all have a definition of toxic relationships whether it may be love or friendships, or an images of what a toxic relationship can be

I considered this a toxic story.

When I first saw the trailer, I knew we were gonna be in for a toxic ride.

In the beginning, it was kinda hard to watch because it didn’t really interest me. The thing with melodramas is that they can be really well done or disappointingly boring.

Story-wise, it was decent. I did find it a shame that the guy was a pushing factor in the drama of the friendship and that once again it's romance that is used as a plot tool to separate and cause drama among the two female leads. I rather wish we got more focus on the two women instead of a trio, a good majority of the time

I know sang yeon was the antagonist this whole time, leading to a lot of people hating on her, but I would say that the world isn’t always in black or white but morally gray, and that can also apply to characters and stories.

I’m not saying sangyeon deserves redemption; she rightfully got what she deserved by the end of the series.
I myself relate a lot to sangyeon cause I share that sentiment of loneliness all too well but also the feeling of inferiority.
We could see that she drove herself to the results of her life by the end of the series, a.k.a self-sabotage. I felt a lot of pity for her because all she wanted was to be loved and accepted.

I consider their friendship to be rather mentally abusive. They both had their wrongs during their friendship and college years but ultimately it was sangyeon who choses to end it due to her jealousy and envy. Also, if an ex-friend like her reached out to me like that after what she did, I would be mad!

I myself went through a toxic friendship with someone I considered my best friend of 6 years, so the betrayals that hurt the most are always the people who are close to you.

I think it portrayed it rather realistically on how ugly friendships between humans can be and how emotions like envy, jealousy, etc can be such a driving point to crumble that structure built.

I noticed how, when they met up for the third time in their lives (office), Sangyeon grew out her hair and became more social whilst Eun Jeong sported shorter hair and tomboyish clothes, as if sangyeon was trying to imitate her in a sense? idk if it is intentional or not, but that wig was cheap as hell.

I think 15 episodes were enough to tell and depict the three stages in their lives and how their friendship impacted each other's lives.

To end this off, it was interesting but I would not rewatch it. The acting was done really well and I saw comments about the two leading actress were not being convincing enough as young adults during those college years but I think otherwise cause Kim Go-eun looked so young!

I wish that no one, like Eun Jeong or just people in general, finds themselves in these sorts of friendships that will hurt them deeply cause it is hell!

I hope that people can be more kind and understanding towards one another because sometimes our worst enemies are ourselves and we fail to notice before it’s too late.

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