Another victim of fan-requested second seasons

Don't get me wrong about the title - I am one of the fans that wanted this season to happen. I loved S1 and I wanted to see more of this amazing crew kicking bad guys' asses and avenging victims of several different crimes. However, based on the theme of these first 4 eps, I fear this is not what we're going to get.

I feel like at this point, the only thing that keeps me watching Taxi Driver 2 is Lee Je-hoon because he is an incredibly flexible actor with many faces that are always exciting to see. I have seen multiple of his works and he has never once disappointed me. He is a great actor and watching this show for him alone is totally worth it. Good thing that he's not only the main character, but actually the center of the show, so we get to see him a lot in all his different facets.

Other than Lee Je-hoon, I'm also curious about Shin Jae-ha's character, as he is so far the only thing that fits the "mystery/thriller" tag in the show (and whatever the sniper guy is on). These two plot points are (for me!) the only interesting thing going on, and honestly, it's disappointing.

While I do enjoy the whole crew and their dynamics and jokes, this season is so comedic and light that it feels like it was written for middle schoolers and it has completely lost its essence. Taxi Driver S1 is one of the darkest kdramas out there (or in recent years), and it serves well all the tags. We had a lot of action scenes with actual skilled fighting (I feel like the actions scenes in this season skip a lot of the action part and just show the results of the ass-kicking, which is underwhelming), and said action scenes were actually graphic and violent (tags of the show!), so we were in for the actual promised content. Action, thriller, mystery, and crime were present in every episode and they never felt forced or extra (even with Doki's unrealistic superstrength).

Not to mention that S1 had an incredibly thick plot and it developed accordingly since the very first Ep. It was dark and at times uncomfortable to watch, which is what made it so special and innovative. The cases were all connected to the major plot, and even the main characters' own storylines served a purpose to the plot. Now, I obviously understand why the characters don't have a deep storyline anymore because pretty much everything about them was resolved in S1, but I feel like this season has such a shallow approach that it even made me wonder if the mystery/thriller tags were there in this season at all (had to double check). They should add a comedy tag, and if they continue hinting at this romance between Doki and Goeun, might as well make it a romcom. I personally oppose this romance subplot because I know it won't be subtle (as it should be for this type of dramas, in my opinion) and because I know that at some point, there will be a damsel in distress situation in which Doki will suddenly realize his feelings or whatever reused plot accessory. Really hope I'm proven wrong there.

I guess you can say the crime tag serves its purpose, as the whole show has so far been about avenging victims of different crimes, but other than that there's really nothing about actually solving crimes, on top of the fact that the way they avenge the victims is not even satisfactory at all like it was in S1 - at least to me -, which is why this show was so appealing with its first season. I would say that the reason why the vengeance isn't even satisfactory is likely because the way they solve everything is based on nonsensical hacking (with very lame "hacking mode" floating screens that, in my opinion, are way too outdated and overused now), nonsensical luck (relying on external and unpredictable conditions that oh so happen to occur at the perfect timing), and nonsensical stages in which they manage to outsmart and/or overpower all the bad guys in the simplest and most mediocre ways.

Also, another thing that I feel is way too overused is the hero background music. I feel like they play it way too much even when no hero situation has happened yet, so when they actually do something hero-like, the music doesn't hit how it should because it's been overplayed too much at that point that you don't feel the 'momentum' anymore.

But anyway, I will still stick to the end of this season because, again, I love Lee Je-hoon and there are things that keep me watching other than him (even if that's the reason I listed at the beginning), and there are still 12 Eps left, so I'm hoping that the show will pick up and live up to S1, at least a bit. But it makes me genuinely upset that this season is so bland because Taxi Driver S1 is really one of the best shows out there, and evidently one of my favorites too, but I have to admit that this season is yet another victim of second seasons that weren't needed and only exist because of fans and viewers' requests.

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Classic Romcom done right... with some flaws

I binge-watched this show in one sitting, which is something I hadn't done in a long while (due to lack of time or engagement with a show/some shows I watched while airing, etc.), so it's needless to say that I loved 'Love to Hate You' to bits and was hooked since the very first ep.

I really liked the whole idea and concept, I'm personally a huge fan of the fake dating & enemies to lovers trope, and I am a feminist who advocates for women's rights and speaks up against gender discrimination, and all topics related to it. So you can definitely say that this show catered to me quite well. I don't really have many issues with it because I think the characters were well-built and the plot, although uncomplicated, advanced smoothly and didn't leave any loose ends.

However, there are some things that bothered me throughout the show and I haven't seen anyone mention them. The whole show is built around feminism, gender discrimination, and misogyny presented in different environments and situations, and I think they did a pretty good job at it, but at some points, it felt like the show was trying to give a "not all men" type of narrative. It's very subtle, so it doesn't surprise me that people haven't mentioned it or even noticed it, but there were some dialogues and actions that felt contradictory considering what the drama is essentially about. An example of this is when Miran tells Naeun not to judge handsome men anymore based on her past experiences because some handsome men are actually alright. I'm not saying this is wrong, but it gives this "not all men" vibe that I don't think matches the theme of the show. Wonjun also said something like that at some point and it rubbed me the wrong way as well.

The other thing that bothered me about this show is that the entire plot is based around the concept of "I'm not like other girls." We have a sexist male lead who was attracted to this very odd and particular woman, which is completely fine and I absolutely loved her character, but even after they got together and were already lovey-dovey, he kept saying things like, "you're not like other women, all the women I knew were like this or that, women are usually this or that," etc, etc. Of course, this was his own personal experience with the women that threw themselves at him, but I thought that would be dropped at some point in the show, or that maybe Miran would say something like, "just because I'm not like that doesn't mean I'm better than them, or that they're bad women," or something along those lines. They made Kangoh a victim of the evil women and after a while, it was very overused. Actually, the only women in the show that aren't evil or airheads or gold-diggers, or similar, are the female lead and the actress. Even Miran's friend was first "too soft for her own good," but this is a trait attributed to "weak" or "dumb" women. That Grace girl was shown as only being Wonjun's friend because she wanted to be something more one day. The ex-girlfriend was, well, the main evil. And I could go on and on about the supporting female characters. I just think that pretending to make a show about feminism and anti-sexism, but adding so many stereotypically flawed female characters is, once again, contradictory to what the show attempts to speak against.

Still, I think this is one of those rare romcoms done right that are very scarce today, unfortunately, even despite my criticism. I really loved it and enjoyed every second of it (I literally watched this all night long back to back and I'm writing this review in the morning at a time when I should've already slept and woken up, but alas).

So if you're a sucker for simple shows that will give you butterflies, and make your heart flutter, this is definitely for you. The characters are good-looking, they have great chemistry, and the plot advances fast and doesn't drag out anything. I personally enjoyed it a lot despite my little complaints.

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Unexplainable thriller, and definitely not a social commentary

I'm going to be honest, I started this movie only because of Siwan, and since the plot seemed interesting, I thought it would be worth watching it beyond the fact that I love to watch Siwan's shows and movies. However, I must say that his performance (and Chun Woohee's) in this movie was the only thing that kept me watching it.

If you want to watch 'Unlocked' looking for a movie that criticizes our society's dependence on smartphones and technology, don't. This is not a social commentary and it doesn't approach the topic like that. This is a movie about a psychopath with no background story or reason to kill, and once again, shallow female relationships that make you wonder if these writers have ever seen women in real life.

I'm going to start with the fact that it bothers me personally that psychological thrillers these days - and by these days I mean in the past several years - are all about male psychopaths with a nonsensical obsession to kill young women. No, I'm not saying that we should give these psychopaths a troubled childhood in order to justify their actions as adults. I'm saying that a story should have a reason to be, whatever it might be. But lately, kdrama writers, and those at Netflix in particular, seem to be making these stories about killing women just for shock value and nothing else. The fact that the reason 'Oh Junyoung' killed these women was just because they dropped their phones is the weakest and most boring reason I've seen in this type of dramas, and that's a lot to say considering that I keep thinking about the drama 'Somebody', which I feel the same way and worse about (if you watched it, you would know what I'm talking about).

Now, another bothersome plot point about this movie is the fact that the killer is always smarter than everyone and can anticipate every move, action, and thought from his victims, making it impossible for them to ever escape their fate. But then again, this wouldn't be so irksome if the writers provided the psychopath with at least a reason to kill or an explanation as to why he's doing what he's doing and why he's so good at it. In this drama, however, we don't even have a name for our killer, which wouldn't be that much of a problem if we at least had any type of information about his background or what he did before the movie started rolling. The only thing that we know is that he impersonated the detective's son and wanted to frame him for his murders. But why? Why did he start impersonating this man? How did they meet? Why was the detective so mad at his son? Why do the writers give us information about the detective's wife and their family situation in general, when it won't even be resolved or explained, or even shown what the link between all this is? The killer wasn't even actually the detective's son, so why do we even need to know this, when we won't know who our killer is or what his reasons are at all? Who did the killer have a grudge against to be going around doing all this, to begin with? There's absolutely no explanation for anything ever and the more I think about this movie, the more questions pop up in my head that will never be answered.

Moving onto the female characters, this is probably what makes me the most upset. The female lead had her phone hacked and discovered it, but the first thing she does is blame her best friend after consulting a man that she met two days ago, and against whom her father warned her. It's kind of annoying how she dismissed the very reasonable concerns of her dad, but I won't even get into that. What I will question, though, is, why do you live in a house without a code? Why does your best friend scare you about having someone breaking into your house? Why do you believe a man you met two days ago over your best friend since middle school? Why does your best friend get immediately upset with you and decide to cut contact with you for a misunderstanding you had in a moment of extreme distress after your life was literally ruined by some psychopath? I don't understand why they made their friendship so shallow and ridiculous that you would decide to cut contact with your friend. Yes, I would also be absolutely hurt if my best friend suspected me of pulling such a horrible thing on her, but to go beyond that and warn her to never contact me again, and leave her all on her own to deal with such a dangerous situation... It pisses me off to think that these writers think women would do that.

Also, after the female lead finds out that her phone was hacked, she simply decides to keep using it as if nothing was happening. Girl, the first thing you needed to do was throw it away. At least she came up with a reverse strategy eventually, but I just kept thinking about why she simply decided to keep using her phone after everything that was happening to her.

These dramas and movies written by men about psychopathic serial killers that outsmart their victims all the time, and in which said victims are the dumbest people you'll ever see really gives me an unsettling feeling considering the incredibly high rates of this type of murder in South Korea.

Overall, this isn't the worst movie you'll ever watch, but it's only a movie to watch if you don't have anything else to do and if you don't feel like watching a complicated story. Don't let the thriller tag deceive you into thinking you're down for an actually good psychological thriller because you are really not.

At least Siwan did amazingly as expected, and Chun Woohee was a very good actress. In general, the cast is pretty good and there are many familiar faces if you watch a lot of kdramas, but other than that, this movie is very weak and not really worth your time.

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love is about adapting to each other

i feel like the story was unnecessarily dragged and that there were too many filler scenes, especially considering this was a 10 eps drama with very short runtime. i ended up fast forwarding eps 7-9, but obviously watched ep 10 in normal speed. i loved it very much, the chemistry between the leads was just as good as in s1 and the fluff filled my heart, but one ep of fluff will not make up for the dragged story that the rest of the eps were. i feel like it was unnecessarily angsty as well, although i definitely understand where jiwoo's feelings came from.

i have some complaints about it and i prefer s1 a thousand times more, but i liked how they resolved their issues by healing themselves on their own first and facing their own fears and complexes. i really liked the line that said "there is no perfect person or and there is no perfect form of love, it's just a matter of understanding and adapting to each other through love. it's about learning to speak one's mind rather than putting one's pride ahead." i've always felt like this is the most accurate definition of love and the way they portrayed it was very beautiful.

still, i don't think i can give it more than 7.5 because the story felt too dragged.

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Is this the only topic that can be written about women?

'Why Her?' is a drama I had been looking forward to ever since it was announced, mostly because Seo Hyun Jin is one of my favorite actresses, but also because it was going to be Hwang In Yeop's first major leading role, and it had Bae In Hyuk included in the cast, both of which are new actors that I'm keeping my eye on. I hadn't read much about the plot when it was announced, nothing more than it being a story in the legal world and about a professor and student relationship. I don't really have a problem with teacher-student plots, as long as it's not set in a high school with a weird romanticization whenever they cross paths, or just look into each other's eyes, especially while solving math problems with a borderline psychopathic enthusiasm *side-eyeing Melancholia*.

Oh Soo Jae is a confident woman, who has escalated high up in the ladder by her own means, surviving in a tough male-dominated field, despite not having the expected educational background for people in her position. I'm still not sure about how to feel about this because the drama has not explained yet how she managed to land such important positions in a top 10 law firm as only a high school graduate, and I don't think a person with her qualifications can actually land a teaching job at a law school, but then again this is 1) fiction and 2) she was given the position, so it's not like connections can't solve everything in this case.

Then we have our male lead, Gong Chan, whose age we are still unclear about and I would personally love to have it addressed because I can totally ship him with a successful professor in her early(?) 30s if he's above 24 years old, maybe? But if he's any younger it would make me a bit uncomfortable. He spent one year in prison and it looks like he was already out of school when the murder of his step-sister happened, so he must be at least 22 years old, I would say? It would be nice if they throw in that he already served in the army, so that he would meet my desired age of 24, and then I would have peace of mind while watching the show.

But anyway, my problem is not really about either main character, or the story so far at all, but with a recurrent topic not only in 'Why Her?', but also thrown into many Kdramas nowadays.

Ep 1 starts with Oh Soo Jae's character introduction, showing the viewer she is a tough woman with no support from her coworkers or other colleagues even outside her law firm, except for her assistant and some guy that looks like he would kill on his boss' command, whoever that is. We see many graying middle-aged men (boooo) despising our female lead over the littlest things, and basically, just for being a capable woman in the industry, some of those trying to use her to their own convenience. We also see Oh Soo Jae on two occasions (if I recall correctly) sitting alone in the middle of her fancy apartment, once again showing the viewer that she may be tough on the outside, but she feels the loneliness of her lifestyle once she is all on her own.

The plot continues with a case of a woman suing her client over sexual harassment and this is where my problem starts. In order to understand why I find this so incredibly unnecessary and problematic, we would need to contextualize this drama in the place from where it comes: the South Korean society, where women's rights are violated multiple times, and —as mentioned in the Ep about three times, and inappropriately (in my opinion)— where the law is never on the woman's side in sexual harassment claims, as well as a place where sex crimes against women are one of the highest in the world, from 'developed countries', and where women have it overall really bad in this sense.

So we see our (flawed) female lead shaming the alleged sexual assault victim, giving her 'reality checks', making her feel even more miserable, despite the victim's attitude not being the particularly stereotyped attitude of a victim, and here is where I have another problem. Sexual assault victims are expected to be ashamed of themselves, to be depressed, to be in mental hospitals trying to recover from it, and overall visibly suffering, but if a woman is confident and recovered speedily from this horrible situation, then questions arise over whether she was actually assaulted or not. And we see this quite clearly in the show. Park So Young had a nonchalant attitude, quite relaxed, giving off a vibe that she's actually a gold digger and not a real assault victim. Now, I have two problems with it. One, as mentioned, sexual assault victims react differently to their assaults, some and most, actually, take it really badly and will need a lot of time to recover from it, if ever, but some are actually able to continue with their lives and it doesn't mean that they did not suffer from the assault, or that they do not deserve justice. Just because a woman is not suffering doesn't mean the predator doesn't deserve to be thrown in jail. It is unclear whether the sexual assault actually took place or not, but this is just overall dangerous to the already very stigmatized view of sexual assault victims.

Now, if Park So Young was actually lying and was a gold digger, I really don't think this is something that should be shown on dramas either. Not only in South Korea, but everywhere in the world victims of sexual assault are always questioned, doubted, shamed, and re-victimized when they come forward to raise their voices and confess that they are victims, so to raise the question in a drama where an alleged sexual assault victim is suing a powerful man perpetuates this idea and reinforces it, showing that "women can also lie about sexual assault". Now I'm not saying that this can't happen, but the percentage is very low, compared to actual assault victims that are still dismissed and never believed. It's disappointing that this drama is both written and directed by women, yet they use this problem as a plot accessory.

Actually, I have another problem with this. I don't think South Korean women, or women who watch this drama in general, need to hear from another woman the horrendous things that Oh Soo Jae told Park So Young when facing a sexual assault lawsuit. Yes, I'm sure this is just to show that our female lead is flawed and to set a standard about where she needs to start changing (which we see in Ep 2), but I personally can't really see a reason to use this specific 'flaw' on a female lead to show the viewers that she will change in the future.

Not satisfied with the female lead shaming her, the victim ends up killing herself by suicide (as we know so far), and becoming 'the flaw' of our female lead's career. Making a woman in a high position become the target of public shaming because another woman allegedly committed suicide after being raped and shamed about it really doesn't sit right with me. The drama entirely forgot the main point, that a woman being raped, and completely focused it on the female lead shaming her and leading her to suicide. I know this is how people would view it in real life, that they would shift the blame from the predator to the other woman because it's easier to blame women than predators. I know it's all true, but again, I just don't see why *this* needs to be the starting point, or the breaking point, for our female lead.

Now we have an awful start for our drama (in terms of content, not really that the drama started off badly), and we continue the drama with not only one or two, but three more cases of sexual assault. All in one ep. All to different women. Our female lead is groped and sexually harassed by a disgusting professor, then a female student is again groped and sexually harassed by said disgusting professor, and on top of everything, our male lead was previously and falsely convicted of raping and murdering his step-sister. The drama started with a sexual harassment plot, and continued with three more because obviously, that is the only thing that can be written about women, right?

This is exactly my problem: I really don't understand what's the recurrent fixation of Kdrama writers with including so many sexual assault instances in the plot. It feels like all or most recent dramas have a sexual assault minor or major plot point, all on different levels, but all there. I just don't think women need to be reminded of this when we see it all the time in the news, and it's not like it exactly helps with the 'raise awareness' attempt, because sexual predators are not the ones watching these shows so it will not prevent anything, and men who could help either already know this happens, or don't care at all, so showing this constantly on dramas will not really produce any impact in their lives. So at the end of the day, the only people being affected by this are women watching these shows, despite having to see this in our daily lives, reading news about femicides all the time, and overall facing sexual assaults on different levels every day.

Also, I might be wrong, but more than having 4 cases of sexual assault in 2 eps of a drama, I think not hiring an ex-convict of sex crimes would make a more powerful statement against sexual predators and would help to build safe places for women in the industry, so that the risks of being sexually harassed while working would reduce at least one bit, but that's just me, I guess.

Anyway, this review of only two eps is already very long, but I needed to get it out of my chest because it's something that has been bugging me a lot from dramas lately (lately being like, 2 years), but this drama was really just over the top with it.

Overall, the show looks promising if they focus it well on the romance part without neglecting the law part, but I really hope we don't have to see a certain graying middle-aged man too much (preferably not ever again), or just too many powerful, middle-aged men trying to screw our female lead over. Also, on another, totally unrelated side, I think it's funny that our female lead has not only one younger romantic interest, but two, which is uncommon because we usually see only one younger love interest in noona romances, while the love triangle develops with another, older and successful, daddy-like second male lead. But here we have two, both of which have a past connection with our female lead, and who look like they will form a nice brotherhood, so I'm actually looking forward to future eps of this drama, and I hope my complaints disappear quickly and my expectations are met so that I can enjoy this drama fully.

TL;DR: Our female lead is the perfect successful femme fatale with two completely eye-candy younger romantic interests, but our Kdrama writers have a passion for sexual assault victims and cannot go one day without including sexual assault in their works.

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not dark enough, but not exactly light

gonna be absolutely honest here, i would've never watched this if not for guanghan. i did not pay attention to most of the story because it was boring for me, even tho i like dark shows. but i think it was actually because this show wasn't dark enough for my taste, despite the concept? like there was not enough blood, not enough [proper] action scenes, not enough fighting. the 3(?) action scenes were very lacking and too coordinated that they didn't look like fight scenes. the female characters are accessories, which pisses me off always, and the male leads were dull and not really the type of characters i would care about. idk, in general i just couldn't bring myself to care enough about non-guanghan scenes.

his role in the earlier eps was minimal so it was hard for me to pay attention, but as his character became more important i also became a bit interested in the story. I know this is a completely biased opinion, but I really think his role was the only interesting one. he portrayed it PERFECTLY, and did an absolutely amazing job as lin ji/zed/xiao qiu. his performance in the last ep honestly deserves an oscar and i'm being 100% serious.

other than that, the production is outstanding and i absolutely loved it, despite not being into the story at all. the cinematography, color editing, pacing and length of the scenes showed that the people behind the scenes really know how to do television, but the problem was that the story wasn't very catchy, which is also reflected on the fact that the storytelling and development of the story was really good, with this indie style characteristic of eastern asian autonomous productions (i know this is a netflix show, but you get me). tho the music wasn't very fitting to the concept of the show at all.

on another note, i think the main cast was really good and their acting is also worth mentioning, despite the characters being mostly a bit dull.

lastly, i really wouldn't have watched this if not for my newly-found love for guanghan, but even if the story was very weak i do not regret starting it because ep 8 alone is the only thing that actually mattered. i know many people think it was unnecessarily dark, but i personally don't even find it particularly dark, so i may have liked this one more out of the others because it had the closest dark theme to what i imagined. would not rewatch the show at all tho.

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Refreshing and fun concept with a very good cast

The first two episodes definitely set this drama to a good start. We've seen many types of Grim Reaper-themed and similar kdramas but I personally hadn't seen any focusing on Grim Reapers that actually protect people from death before. It's a very unique concept and has a lot to explore.

We have many things to look forward to with this drama, starting from the backstory of Koo Ryeong - where she came from, what she did to end up there, what her purpose is - to Choi Junwoong's adventure as a "half-half" Grim Reaper, as well as who Ryunggoo is searching for, the story between Koo Ryeong and Joonggil, and of course the side stories that we'll be getting with every new case.

I personally enjoyed the first two eps a lot, but also think that this could be a bit hard to watch for someone who is struggling with suicide, or has suicidal thoughts, like the content warning at the beginning of ep 1 stated. The bullying scenes in the first eps were a bit too much, even for me who has seen many high school-themed kdramas where everything is about bullying. So I'd recommend you to be careful with this drama if these topics trigger you.

About the bullying scenes - it bothers me that nowadays it's very hard to avoid bullying scenes when watching a kdrama. Even something unrelated to high school or bullying (like a Grim Reapers kdrama) will have at least one scene or mention of high school bullying. Of course it's not present in every kdrama, but it is in a considerable amount. I know bullying is a serious problem in Korea and that's exactly why they show it, but I wonder if they really do anything positive by doing it. They're just showing how much the victims suffer, but in reality it doesn't really contribute much in preventing any more bullying.

Anyway, that was just a random thought. 'Tomorrow' is definitely raising my expectations as there are many things to look forward to in the plot, and that's what I will be doing for sure!

PS. All the main characters' names are very similar to each other and it looks funny in Korean (구련, 준웅 중길 령구).

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just watch it and judge by yourself

imo reviews and comments are too extreme - i agree it isn't the best saeguk out there. it has several flaws in the writing and the plot sort of fell off after ep 10-12. if you came in looking for a politically-driven drama, this was definitely not it since the beginning. if you read the synopsis of this drama and expect strong politics, that's on you tbh because it screams romance-centered. "political" is not even a tag here, so judging it for having weak politics is out of place, since it wasn't even part of the main plot. the plot is clearly about how the female twin survives as the CP and develops feelings for her royal teacher, and that's pretty much what delivered. now, again, i agree it wasn't the best after the leads got together and the second half was underwhelming and draggy, but most of the reviews are focusing on things unrelated to this particular drama, and bringing up plots from other saeguks. the fact that it's a saeguk doesn't mean it needs go be politics-centered.
that said, it would've been better off if it had 16 eps as the regular format so that some of the writing mistakes wouldn't be so noticeable or bothersome. i feel like the writer forgot about certain characters throughout the drama and remembered them only by the end (tho they did have a purpose), which shows kind of lazy writing. it feels like the writer ran out of inspiration in the second act and didn't know what else to throw to the plot, but kind of recovered by eps 19-20 and produced a nice 3rd act (for me). these two were the best of the second half and gave a nice closure to the drama. overall, i did enjoy it but i'm also a rowoon stan, so i'm aware that my judgement isn't completely unbiased, lol. tho i wouldn't really recommend it to someone who isn't into saeguks, and maybe only if they like a lot of romance and rowoon, lol.

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The perfect drama to glorify toxicity

Just why in the world would they make Jaeeon in ep9 show his true colors and how he was never serious about Nabi, how he was absolutely shitty towards Dohyeok, how he asked her out just because he wanted to "win" over Dohyeok, make him yell at her, twist her wrist, actually harass her, sl*t shame her for being in a fwb with him, mock Dohyeok and so much more, AND she even threw him off her life, just for this crappy, mediocre and incredibly dangerous ending?
This isn't even about which ship won at the end or shipping anymore at all, it's about an awfully dangerous message that this drama sends. They're saying "it doesn't matter if they guy you like is toxic, a potential abuser and player, and if you're gonna get hurt, just go for it because he has a nice d!ck!!"
This is seriously such a huge waste of cast, potential, and everything. This drama could've been one of the best if they properly showed how NOT to act in a toxic relationship, but at the end of the day all they did was literally glorify an abuser and cheater. Like someone else said, the writers were progressive enough to write about same sex relationships, friends with benefits, open relationship, but were unable to give the leads a proper ending? If the writers of Love Alarm couldn't make Sunoh end up with Jojo even though Sunoh was a thousand times a better option than Jaeeon, why would Nevertheless writers do something like this, and why would the webtoon creator even allow this, AND why would Song Kang and Sohee do this too? From the interviews, they looked like they didn't approve of Jaeeon (as they should) and kept rooting for Nabi to snap out of it.
Honestly, this is all so disappointing. Someone should cut out all Soljiwan's scenes for anyone interested in the Girl Love plot without having to go through the painful experience of this drama. Bitna and Gyuhyun had so much more development than Nabi and Jaeeon despite the awful screentime cut. A seriously awful drama. Only giving 2.5 stars for Jonghyeop and each supporting couple only (and .5 for the sunbaes).

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Amazing and light fantasy romcom

Not planning to leave a long review but just to let anyone doubting whether to start it or not, you totally should. This is one of the best romcoms, the leads have great chemistry, the characters are mature, the FL is one of the best FLs ever: she's a strong woman with a great personality, decided, independent, stands for herself, outgoing, true to herself... And she doesn't have the typical "femme fatale" image that kdramas associate this type of woman with, which makes her even more outstanding. All the side characters and stories are very interesting and nice to see, the second romance is super cute and lovable. The drama stays strong till the end, I was personally never bored with it, not even after the MLs get together, which is when dramas usually start dragging the plot. MRIAG managed to stay funny, fun, exciting till the end. Even though it's a fantasy drama and the fantasy is a main part of the show, it's easy to forget it's actually a fantasy drama because of how realistic and relatable all the characters are. The last ep had like 20 minutes of drama but it's not a big deal. I usually like light dramas without villains or unnecessary dark plots and MRIAG is exactly that. If you are looking to watch a light romcom with great romance, characters and plot, this is definitely for you.

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Unfulfilling youth story

I wrote this as a comment before but I decided to put it as a review too and see how my opinion changes after the drama ends.

It's painful to watch because Jun and Soohyun's story develops in such a much deeper way, they're literally always there for each other when they need someone the most - like they have said, they keep showing each other their worst and what they want to hide the most, both Jun and Soohyun have had outstanding character development thanks to each other, the time spent together and experiences lived. Sobin is sadly an accessory of the ML that literally doesn't contribute anything to his growth. She's surely done things for him and has helped him be more open, but most of his growth is thanks to what he's learned after spending time with Soohyun and growing together.

Soohyun's entire development is thanks to Jun and how Soohyun himself has become more open in front of him. I just really don't see how there's room for a het romance between Sobin and Jun when their relationship is absolutely shallow and simple.

It's also painful to see how dull and poorly written every female character is. Sobin had a backstory and something going on for her but ever since Jun helped her overcome her childhood trauma there is nothing else to make her an interesting character on her own. Like I said, every action of hers at this point simply leads to something related to Jun, showing she's nothing more than a plot accessory of the ML even though she is "the female lead."

Miju is completely shallow, not because of her personality but because everything they made about her is simply having a crush on Soohyun. She lacks any type of depth and character trait, all her screentime is just her having a ridiculous crush on a clearly uninterested guy that has way too much to deal with his life to be even thinking about a relationship.

Youngran is probably the most interesting female character only because she has a personality other than liking a guy, but her screentime is little and she doesn't do much either in the show. Still, her biggest trait is having a crush on her childhood friend too, so it's not like she's properly written or built either.

Chanki being on the drama poster is ridiculous since they don't even give him enough screentime or, again, other personality than being the FL's childhood friend who realizes a bit too late that he also liked his best friend back, which makes no sense anyway because even if you like someone you wouldn't be dating *that* much and doing your friend so dirty even after knowing she had a crush on you (this doesn't make any sense to me).

I can't say I'm not disappointed with the way this drama is developing because I really liked it at the beginning and sadly (and naively) hoped for a romance between the two male leads, but they keep simply bating us and making us believe they will develop something between them, even though their relationship is a lot more interesting than any other character or relationship in the whole drama.

I'm not even talking from a webtoon fan because I didn't read the webtoon (I did see some caps just to confirm it's actually BL), but from a viewer who has eyes and clearly knows that the story between Jun and Soohyun is much better than anything else. I'm not even getting into the fact that they completely stripped a the sexuality off a main character and how the erasure of LGBTQ+ in adapted dramas do a lot more damage than kdrama stans seem to think, I'm literally just complaining about the development of the drama itself as a story on its own.

I was excited at the beginning and liked it a lot, but this week's eps really showed a drop in quality.

-- UPDATE --

So I just finished it and confirmed that many things I wrote above were spot-on and pretty much predicted how this drama would make me feel: unfulfilled.

The way the conflict between the brothers resolved was the most boring and predictive thing in the drama. Jun is supposed to hate his brother because his memories tricked him into thinking that it was his brother who used to beat him up, but it was actually his father. Okay, I understand our memories can trick us and distort our past, affecting our present. That part totally makes sense and I wouldn't complain if they hadn't done Junwan's implication so lazy and mediocre. You're telling me a 10? 12? year old boy told his younger brother that he didn't have a family, traumatizing him forever, just to "protect" him? Wouldn't it have been easier if he just... protected his brother? He could've told him the same thing, that he didn't have a mother or father but he had a brother to rely on, the two of them would've been able to get through the abuse of their father and pressure of their mother in a much better way. This part alone didn't make any sense. On the other side. they left Junwan's story in the vast. Jun told him to live his life from then on so the writers took him off the show.

Jun's reactions were so weird too. The fact that he just kept screaming all the time and had a very scary and aggressive reaction all the time was a little bit off-putting. I can't say it's completely random because I understand that's completely part of someone's trauma, but it kind of put me off sometimes. Also, the fact that his mom never apologized to him or anything at all... Trash.

I don't really want to get into much detail but among the many things that bored me about this drama and made me feel like it was a waste of time was how poorly written the female characters were in this show. None of them had any depth whatsoever other than liking a boy. Sobin had some background story but once her boyfriend helped her overcome her childhood trauma, suddenly her little story disappeared and she became nothing more than The Male Lead's Girlfriend. Every one of her scenes was either with Jun or about Jun (after ep 7. sort of). The last 3 eps could've gone without her with no issue because the writers simply didn't care about her at all.

Also, the way they completely took Miju off the show as soon as she decided to get over her crush is so incredibly mediocre. She started liking Soohyun because she saw him ONCE working, he picked up something she dropped (as it was his job), saw him 4 times more, confessed, got rejected and suddenly her whole world came to pieces. The way she literally told Youngran he was "her everything" even though she new virtually nothing about him other than being a smart sunbae in the business department? That was soooo shallow and unnecessary. Her character was the worst and not because she was a bad person, but because the writers literally gave no fvcks about her after a while either. They based her whole personality in having a crush, so when she decided to get over the crush they plainly and simply took her off the screen. Outrageous.

As I said before, Youngran was the most interesting female character, but even so the only personality they gave her was Having a Crush on her long-time friend. At least they didn't completely remove her from the picture and actually gave her another friend (glad they didn't actually start dating but just stayed as friends) to get over her crush with and show some growth.

I will never stop complaining about how this drama did Jun and Soohyun so dirty. I get it, it's KBS, it's a major TV channel, it aired in prime time, Korea isn't so open to LGBTQ+ stories, the original webtoon doesn't develop a romantic relationship between the two, etc, etc. Yes, all those points are true, but it doesn't make it any less annoying that the whole show could've had more depth and been more interesting if they developed a romantic relationship between these two characters. I can settle with the fact that they were good friends and cared for each other fondly, helped each other grow and all that. I was a cute sight and I won't say I didn't enjoy their friendship. But it would've been so much better, interesting and definitely riskier if they went with a gay romance that wouldn't hurt anyone.

The only way I won't feel robbed and like I wasted 12 hours of my life in this is by thinking that Soohyun was implied to be gay. Wait, I have arguments! Well, first of all, he had two female love interests and chose none. Okay, it may mean he was just not interested, but it's kind of rare to find things like this in a kdrama. Second, Soohyun did admit he liked a person in that field trip. Although the question explicitly said "lower your finger if you like any *girl* here, he rejected the two girls he could be interested in (because he obviously was not into Sobin), so my conclusion is that he actually had a crush on Jun but would not act on it because 1) they're friends, 2) Jun has a girlfriend, 3) he's way too busy with his life to date - of course, this could also be applied to explain why he didn't accept either Miju or Youngran, but this is my coping mechanism and one must do what makes them happy. In my heart, Nam Soohyun is gay in the drama too.

Overall, this drama had great potential and it hooked me well with the first 5 eps, ep 6 was ok but from ep 7 onwards it just got more and more boring. I won't lie, I watched the last 3 eps in 1.5x because it was very lame and boring, especially since they resolved Jun's trauma in such a lazy way that made me simply not any more interested in the show. I fininshed because I love Bae Inhyuk, Park Jihoon's acting was pretty good, and I came this far and good or not, I got invested in the story. However, I will mark it completed here and hopefully forget about it because it was incredibly disappointing.

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Fun short story

This is quite a nice story to watch in a lazy afternoon without expecting anything from it. It's not the greatest but it's not the worst thing you'll watch ever. It was funny and had a sort of consistent plot. I liked the idea of deities of the destiny that write your destiny as they please, and the idea of lazy deities that just copy and paste the same old story over and over again.

The cast was absolutely eyecandy, from main leads to supporting characters. They had great acting and fit for the type of drama, as well as good chemistry between all the characters. The OST was nice and the scenarios were pretty nice, the whole drama was well-filmed, so it showed it had good budget, a nice director and writers.

The angsty parts were actually very funny for me and when Chaekyung was crying at the sheep farm I was actually laughing because they suddenly turned it so angsty and dramatic. Despite that, the story developed nicely and I liked the open ending hinting a repeated cycle of Hoyoon finding himself falling for her over and over again.

If you ignore the fact that many things weren't properly explained (who lets the deities be born again, why do they disappear if they're going to be born again, why could Chaekyung get to the penthouse after 5 years, how could Chaekyung and Bareum write their own destinies other than being "their own") due to the length of the drama and overall simpleness, it was quite a fun short fantasy drama and I would definitely recommend it to get a break from longer-running dramas.

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Biggest waste of cast and ridiculously high ratings

This was the biggest disappointment in a while, a huge waste of cast and an initial good story. 8.5 is absurdly high for such a mediocre drama. The only good things were Inguk and Boyoung working their ass*s off to try to save whatever mess this was and even their great chemistry and acting couldn't save it. Such an incredible waste of time, resources and cast.

Dawon's character was one of the rare good things in this drama, along with her aunt and Nam Dareum's character. The side romance was weird as f*ck, most boring and laziest I've ever seen. Jiuk was a creep, I never understood why his actions were so encouraged and even romanticized. Him kissing her when they didn't even know each other and only because he "pitied" her is sexual harassment and this drama failed miserably to even hold him accountable for it. Hyunkyu was a literal teenager when he ghosted Jina, and I'm not saying he did the right thing or he "deserved" to end up with her, but he was way too blamed and cornered for an action he did years ago while being an immature kid, whereas Jiuk was already an adult when he kissed 1) a teenager, 2) his younger friend's crush. And no one EVER pointed out how wrong that was... Absolutely ridiculous.

Jina was a great character in every aspect EXCEPT when it came about Jiuk. I don't understand how such a strong and capable female character like her would become stupidly weak and docile with such an annoying man like Jiuk. In real life, a relationship that (1) started like this (2) with a narcissist like Jiuk would never be healthy. My only complaint to Dongkyung is that she liked Jiuk as a boss (when he was weird as f*ck as a boss too) AND supported him to date her friend. Just what the h*ck did this guy do to get people liking him at all. He's a massive creep. I skipped/fast paced most of their scenes ever since ep 12.

The story had so much potential and could've been developed in such a much better way, I bet even Inguk and Boyoung thought this was going to be better and that's why they signed up for it.

The fact that it took about 6-7 eps to properly introduce the story and explain the characters' actions (some people even needed up to ep 12 to understand why Myulmang wanted to destroy the world) clearly shows how poorly written this was and the mess the writer created. So many people were excited about this and even taking notes on the plot because that's how promising it looked, but it soon showed that it would be a hot mess and it was. Inguk is my favorite actor so I had a hard time acknowledging the fact that this drama was awful, but I eventually let my bias aside and embraced that fact.

Inguk and Boyoung looked amazing in every shot, not only together but in their separate scenes. They were both highly likeable characters with great chemistry and realistic actions and doings. I really liked these two together but I wish their pairing would've been in a different and better written drama.

The only reason why I would recommend this drama is for the great chemistry of the leads, but other than that there really isn't anything worth watching about this drama and I seriously can't understand why anyone genuinely liked the story or the ridiculous rating on this website. I'm only giving 1.5 stars (3.0) to the story because it did have great potential and came from a great idea, but the terrible execution won't let me give it any more than that, no matter how much I love Inguk. And my final rating being 6.0 hurts because I really anticipated this drama a lot and Inguk, again, is my favorite actor so it's difficult to be so hard on one of his dramas but nothing could save.

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"Give us the power and courage to swim safely throughout this life"

It's the way everyone knew since the very first ep that Myunghee would be gone and Heetae would be left alone exactly like it was portrayed, YET we still kept watching till the end... Masochism. I don't know what broke me the most but I know I had been crying since the second half of ep 9.

When older Heetae took off his watch and his scars showed, when he tried to drown himself... Wow. I don't think there are many dramas that portray failed suicide attempts in such a subtle, respectful and realistic way without romanticizing it.

I projected a lot on this show since my country has been in protests similar to Gwangju Uprisings, although ti a lower extent. But still, police and military abuse is shown. So seeing Sooryeon being so eager to help even though she knew that her individual actions wouldn't change much... It's so inspiring. When she said "even though we can't change what's happening, there are things that we can do." Those small actions save lives. Even if they don't change the future or the current situation, there still will be at least one life saved. And that will make it worth it.

When Soochan said he felt ashamed that he was released because of connections, that he felt comfortable in his cozy and warm bed while he didn't even know if the people arrested with him were alive or not and that made him take the decision on his hands and serve and help the wounded... I'm so glad both of them survived.

Towards the end when Heetae sees the posters attributing the protests to North spies... I can't imagine how much things like that hurt the people that suffered through the protests, those who lost loved ones in the hands of their own army.

Also, when Myungsoo's immediate reaction to seeing soldiers hurting their own people was, "the North has invaded us" and wondering, "why would our own army hurt our people?" Such a realistic way of showing how the government turns against all logic and harms their own people they sore to protect.

This was such an incredibly beautiful story, and it had the perfect length to finish it in an amazing way without including unnecessary or filler scenes.

They approached so many sides of the Uprising, so many victims in their own jobs/labors/activities, so many people helping each other to believe in a better future.

"In the face of the storm, the only thing we could do was hold each other's hands so that we won't lose each other."

I really cried my eyes out to this.

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