CLICHE, POORLY WRITTEN, DRAGGY

story- romcom for the first 4 episodes then for the next 15 episodes it just rising action (building conflict) and then an episode with the climax and falling action. and just when you thought the resolution will comes next they decided to bring back the conflict just before everything ended. with a poorly written conclusion the writers just destroyed everything that they were trying to build for like almost all of the series' time. on the other hand, the viewers will feel like they just wasted their time watching this because their wasn't a clear and logical outcome from the conflict. the conflict was just like their as a vehicle to lengthen the story and not as a device to develop the characters. they shoul've just sticked to their rom com genre. well all of this could've happen because the writers couldn't think of anything to do to strecth the story so they started screwing things up by making this a cliche, poorly written and draggy series.

acting- well the acting is the only saving grace of this series. if you managed to watched this up until the end, it's most probably because the cast acted really well.

music- nothing memorable

rewatch value- this series took so much time building up a conflict to only ruin it without having any resolution. you're just gonna question how the writers managed to drag a conflict for so long and then made you felt like it was all for nothing, because literally nothing happened after the conflict. rewatching this is just a waste of time all over again.

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It's good but it's not for everyone.

I guess I am one of those few people who actually liked this show. It's not the best but it's a good watch. The acting was great and everyone acted their parts really well. However, the lacking thing with this drama comes from the writing of its story. I think I kind of get why a lot of people were frustrated with this drama. Before this show began, it is obvious that if ever there is going to be a love story in this drama it will be about the characters of Nam Joo Hyuk and Suzy and how their characters will end up together. However, when the actual drama started to began, the character of Kim Seon Ho was fleshed out a lot more and better than the character of Joo Hyuk that it became a lot harder for some to digest the romantic couple that was made out of the main characters. Second lead syndrome is real and this drama does that quite well. Additionally, I think another disappointment that some people may have comes from the fact that they expected this drama to be about the business world and yet that became just a setting and a plot device for a love story. Obviously this drama doesn't offer anything new nor it tries to present one. It's a love story that some may find entertaining and some do not. Furthermore for those who finds a love story to be entertaining enough, this drama posed another challenge to be lauded and not panned by giving the second lead guy a lot more opportunities to be beloved by the audiences. As I said earlier I liked this show, it's not perfect but it's entertaining. It's good but it's not for everyone.

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an okay kdrama

final review: so i decided to finish this drama and i can say that it's just fine. nothing new and nothing fresh. personally, the ending could have been better. the second lead guy should have been more happier after respecting the lead's relationship. the resolution of soojin's character with other characters were abrupt. she disappeared then return and that's it. this kdrama would have been better if the last episode is more polished or a little more episodes were aired to develop the ending that they want. overall, this drama is okay. the ending was a little bit dissapointing.

initial review: 5/10, 6 episodes seen
"going to be a disappointment if the story continues to go around in circles"

the preview for the episode 7 proves how this drama is going around in circles. basically the plot is the guy and girl like each other but every single chance they have will be ruined by an annoying thing that will separate them apart. seriously, they keep on dragging this for a few episodes already, and when it looks like the leads are patching things up in ep 6, that ep 7 preview showed up and it looks everything will go back to the start where they will misunderstood each other and separate AGAIN. it's especially frustrating and disappointing since you have to wait every week for almost the same thing you already saw the previous week. like wtf, give us something new. and boy, cha eun woo needs some acting lessons when crying. it looks half assed. it seems he is confused of either crying completely or just doing that poker face while crying. well i guess, i'm not surprised with everything that i've said since many people have already said that the webtoon itself is cliche and goes around in circles. it's hard to make something good out of a mediocre/ bad source material. if they want to redeem this drama, they better hire a new writer/ go a different writing direction.

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It was good however the ending was bad. There was never really an explanation to why the male lead act the way he does so his redemption in the end felt very cheap and unearned. The story was too one sided solely focusing on the female lead when what drives most of the exciting part of the story was the male lead. The ending was fairytale like. However, given the circumstances that the male lead never really got to open himself up to the female lead, it is more realistic if they didn't get back together in the end. On the other hand, their happy ending would have felt good if the male lead just had a proper redemption.

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The Penthouse: Stupid and Evil People in Life

basically, a bunch of demons + a main character that became stupid over time = 21 episodes of no redemption nor catharsis kdrama

It's like a waste of time watching this since no character developed for the better. Almost 24 hours of your life will be drained for nothing since no redemption nor catharsis happened. The story itslelf is over the top. The characters are comically evil. The main character who was presented to be smart suddenly became stupid at the last minute. This show is so frustrating to watch. Glad I watched it at a higher speed since the story progressed for nothing. That ending was disappointing.

The only good thing with this drama is the actors. They saved this from going down the drain.

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WELL WRITTEN AND ACTED

story- I would've made it a 10/10 however I recently read another review that pointed out a loophole w/ regards to the mother of the lead character and although I forgot about it, the review is actually right. Other than that, I can say this drama is well written. The writing is grounded in reality that it prevents the story from becoming over the top. Which is great for a kdrama that talks about different mental health issues, since certain creative choices might tarnish the pereception of the audience towards the actual topic and the people who experiences it in real life. The writing also made the characters fleshed out, not like any typical dimensional character that's prominetnt in a lot ofther kdramas. Lastly what I love about the writing is that it was able to make a long enough resolution that felt real after all the hardship that the characters experienced. Unlike other kdramas that had a conflict / conflict again at the last episode and try to resolve it at the same episode as well *coughs: My ID is Gangnam Beauty, Fight For My Way, The Tale of Nokdu, etc.*

acting/cast- Everybody acted really well especially the three leads. Although personally I think the two leads (the romantic couple) could've had more chemistry on screen.


Music- It's good. I'm not korean so i don't really understand the lyrics but I can It's bad that I remember it for being awful. The music did it's job properly.

Rewatch Value- The whole series is rewatchable since the story is well written. Personally though I will not rewatch as a whole becuase it's too serious.

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SHORT BUT SWEET

story- with such limited minutes and episodes , this series managed to develop the plot to such lengths

acting/cast- i can say the acting is commendable considering that the story required a variety of emotions. you can really see in their eyes what they are feeling and their chemistry is phenomenal, it's burning. for the cast, i was really surprised that they have a 9 year age gap, they look like of the same age making the casting great.
*edit - while reading other reviews i agree that the acting of tae joo with his father was kind of cringey

music- considering this drama is short in terms of hours, it contained a lot of ost which is effort. and the songs are actually good as well.

rewatch value- becuase this drama is not that long and the plot progress really fast i think you will not be bored if you are gonna decide to watch it again

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BETTER THAN S1

story - a lot happened compared to the first season. althought the beginning can be a litle bit draggy

acting/cast - still the same the actor's actions looked realistic so it's fine. nothing mind blowing though.

music - the important scenes used a variety of songs compared to the last series, so that's good.

rewatch value - as a whole season, this is more rewatchable than s1 because a lot happened compared to the first one. while if ur gonna watch certain lovey-dovey scenes, i am not so sure because this season had more serious tone than the last one. it's just based on what ur gonna rewatch.

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JUST FINE

story - nothing out of this world. it also progressed really slow specially at the first episodes. i can't help but watched many episodes at a higher speed

acting - the actors acted fine. their reactions to their situations looked realistic

music - the same song was repeated at almost every dramatic scene. considering this series have a lot of episodes, they could've added more songs instead of just repeating the same one over and over again

rewatch value - it's 50/50. just depends on what your going to rewatch. some are rewatchable and some are just unbareable to be seen twice.

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Story: At first one will think how the team of this series will manage to extend the story given that the premise of the series is about a girl who accidentally crash landed in North Korea and her journey in trying to go back to the South. For many k-dramas their is a tendency wherein you are given an extraordinary plot into the first half of the series and then it will start to come crashing down when the second half comes in. However that wasn't the case for CLOY because they were able to make the story interesting even after overcoming the introductory premise they showcased. With that. think that was one of the strong points of this series' plot. The only downside of CLOY's story is its cliches. Namely, the overstretched failures of the female lead's escape and the seemingly one dimensional antagonists. Realistically, it will be hard for somebody to escape North Korea, CLOY made it felt like an easy task to do so because the male lead that was helping the female lead is a pretty powerful man there. And although this was the case for CLOY it took the main leads so many attempts before achieving this goal, thus I think the reason why it was overstretched a little bit. And for the antagonists of the story, they come off as one dimensional because they seemed to only exist to be evil and oppose the protagonist. Their motivations were not explored that much up until the last episodes of the series, making them completely superficial and shallow for most of their screen times.

Acting/Cast: I believe a key point of a good acting is that if the actors have made me believe that they are actually going through with whatever their characters are going through. And in CLOY the actors, especially the main and second lead were able to do this. Both couples' chemistry were believable. Also, they were able to flesh out enough vulnerability and rawness to their performances to make the audience feel for what their characters are going through. For the cast, I believe I have not been exposed to too much k-dramas that will give me a thought of an actor that will fit better than the cast itself. Or I can say I haven't thought of any because the acting performances even of the supporting cast were good enough to not make anyone believe that their is someone better fit for the role. CLOY worked because even the chemistry between the supporting cast and their acting performances were good.

Music: I am not a Korean, so for most of the times I remember and OST from a k-drama when I have heard enough of it and their are some English lines that I can sing along with. In the case of CLOY, I really don't remember any of its OST. Maybe the songs don't have much English lines to it or maybe it wasn't used repeatedly throughout the series. I really don't know. To put it in simple terms, it was not memorable (at least for me). But I believe their OST is still good and anyone who will choose to listen to it with English subtitles will surely remember it and how it resonated to CLOY's story. Well obviously I haven't done that but that's just because you know their are certain dramas that doesn't require its audience to do this because they were already able make their OST memorable to its audience by just watching the series itself, like DOTS (no comparison intended and please stop the argument that DOTS or CLOY is better than the other because they're both different and god in their own ways).

Re-watch Value: Personally, I don't really re-watch anything completely because I feel like it's a waste of time but I believe CLOY is a k-drama that is highly re-watchable. If your going to look at YouTube and the videos of CLOY in it, you will see that their is so many engagement towards this videos. And this is not only because of the series popularity but also its re-watchable aspect to it. I guess the reason for this is that CLOY makes you feel good for most of its parts because of it romantic comedy aspect and the great chemistry of the main leads.

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Another annoying ending

Ep 1 - Ep 11: Main Lead doing revenge
Ep 12: Revenge becomes successful
Ep 13: F*ck another misery

Why can't just the main character live in peace? Is it because there's another season? They did the same thing in season 1. They should've ended this in a different way that still hooked the audience for season 3.

Almost everyone is a demon.

This season is better since the plot is tighter but it's frustrating how the writers are extending the misery of the main character so they could write another season.

Again, the only thing that never disappoints in this drama is the acting.

Season 3 should be the last season, considering other people are already loosing interest and the story is going in circles.

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BORING

story- for a 15 episode story this drama sure took a lot of time to even develop a LITTLE BIT, emphasis on little because although they have alot of episodes to work on developing the plot nothing much really happened.

acting/cast- the normal scenes the actors acted fine but with the dramatic ones you can see that they still lack the experience, well they were relatively new during this time so it's kind of understandable. for the leads they actually looked good together so the cast is fine as well.

music- nothing sort of memorable

rewatch value- considering that this series wasn't even that long (based on total hours) but felt so long because of the very slow plot development i don't think this is even rewatchable

overall: kind of sad that this was banned and the actors were banned from being together again :( a season 2 could have made things a lot better, the discrimination in china is so bad i can't, i'm sad for the leads because they seemed really close off cam

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