Bad Mess Of A Show

This is just not an interesting show; a potentially great story about rich and poor in Korea got lost in the messy four-way love saga that left me actively resenting the male lead protagonist for how he treated his girlfriend whilst pining for someone else. I would not recommend anyone to watch this as it's just not very good.

Moon Ka-Young is great but she stands alone in her acting. Her peers just aren't very good and their characters lack depth or nuance. Kdramas and their love triangles are tedious. The best kdramas are the ones that don't make this subplot the front and centre of the show.

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Wholesome and fun

This was a very cute and wholesome kdrama show which I'd recommend people to watch; it's easy to get into, the female protagonist is cute and likeable and it has the charm of a typical korean small town story that it delivers quite well on. Some of the plot threads are predictable but this isn't always a bad thing. The chemistry between the lead duo was also good and this is sometimes all a show needs to compensate for the absence of an overarching plot that is wholly interesting.

Overall, I'd recommend this show. it balances different tones quite well and I had a lot of fun watching it. I might feel differently rewatching it but on first glance, it was really fun for me.

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Worth your time, but not very memorable

This show will leave you with mixed feelings. It's both brilliant and disappointing, poignant and underwhelming. There are moments charged with emotional intensity sandwiched between scenes of unreal cheesiness. Sometimes the show trips up over its own habitual need to make the characters look cool. Other times, it sells a human story of how grief and vengeance can share an unhealthy relationship with each other.

I should start, perhaps, with the things that I enjoyed. The highlight was always going to be Park Seo Joon because how could it be anyone else? I watched him in Fight for My Way and he is even better here. His character is a sympathetic one, struggling to hold onto his principles because that is the only way he can honour his late father. Their relationship seemed interested but would have been better had it been fleshed out over an episode or two. Understandably, a lot needed to happen so this could not be done.

Kim Da-Mi as Jo Si-Yeo grew incredibly on me. Her character was the heart of the show in that as the story did, so did she as a person, learning to see the way as Park Saeroyi did. The show wrote her character - for the most part - really well and the scenes with her never disappointed.

I also appreciated how the show tackled tropes both in the social sense and how a kdrama show is meant to be. It delved into what it was to be transgender, as to whether ethnicity constituted nationality, rather too simply sometimes but quite well. The humanity of the protagonists shone through here. I also liked that the first love isn't the one he ends up with - although I'll get onto the problems of this later.

The music also complemented the show's tone quite well and bears similarities to Start-Up. But now, let's get onto the problems of which three existed:

1) the show moves too fast. A single episode can sometimes cover years. It leaves characters seeming static. Or sometimes a problem is encountered and then resolved too efficiently. Other things are not actually shown but swept alongside too quickly. How did they first fare as a new pub with customers was sped along. The business plan to go global wasn't shown but just told through an accelerated process. His time in prison. Throughout the show, there was this nagging sense of things rushing at a ludicrous pace while the characters themselves didn't change much.

The next problem is the love triangle. I liked Soo-ah's character at first. As an orphan, her need for survival as an independent woman was understandable. But we never saw her backstory so it was a case of telling rather than showing, which this show suffered from. The whole thing about her joining Jagga Co never added up to me and it culminated in her becoming increasingly hard to sympathise with. Had she joined to protect Park Saeroyi, it would have sufficed as an explanation, considering her own affection for both him and his father. But it was done by her need to survive. Which seemed strange because she could have done that anywhere else.

The show's rapid progress through time actually worked worse for her too. While others around her changed to some extent, she never did. She remained the quiet, silently suffering secretary of a boss she hated, a deeply immoral man who she wouldn't break away from. And so you come to realise that the love triangle wasn't really a triangle because there was no way she could have ever deserved Park Saeroyi. She never did anything for him, but instead for years waited, made him suffer, continued to wait, continued to serve a man who covered up the murder of someone who looked after her, and became increasingly difficult to sympathise with. Her conversation with Yi-Seo towards the end of the show highlighted this: whereas Yi-Seo was doing everything for Saeroyi, she did nothing. She might have been there with him from the beginning but she wasn't there for him. This was the underlying difference between both the women and why the love triangle, though done with nuance, became clear as to who would deserve him.

The final problem, which I'll keep brief is the conflict of the last couple of episodes. It was an unnecessary way to tie up everything because it didn't fit in with what the show had been doing. It was ridiculous and damaged my view of the show.

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Spellbinding, captivating stuff

This is a show that will linger in your mind long after you are finished with it. It is captivating, heart-wrenching, beautiful, devastating, cruel and agonising. The story of two detectives connected by an old walkie-talkie solving cold cases is a fantastic concept and this show did not falter in exploring how far it could go. I've never watched a show that has finished as strongly as it started.

Signal deserves a longstanding reputation as one of the greatest TV shows in Asia. For that, the writers and the actors deserve so much credit. They delivered with each episode. There was no silly subplot, no silly love triangle. This show was coldly ruthless in telling the story it wanted to. The magical realism imbued it with excitement but it was the human story, the struggles involving the characters, that won you. They were all good people trying to fix the old wrongs. At the heart of it was Lee Jee-Haan, the old detective guided by a an unmoving moral compass always pointing the right way. His emotions, the intensity of his resolve and ethics, was beautiful. The music complemented the show superbly too and accentuated the tone of every scene, adding rather than diminishing.

I would recommend everyone to watch this show. You will cry, you will sit in despair, your heart will ache for them. But you will watch it all the way through believing in them as Lee Jee-Haan did in justice. This might just be the greatest Korean show i've ever watched.

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A majestic show of two parts

I can't describe my feelings about this show without a deep lingering sense of confusion. It is simultaneously one of the greatest Korean dramas I've ever watched and one that undermines its own magic at times. It is a show with an incredibly beautiful set of personalities, moments, dialogue set against wonderful music. It explores with thoughtfulness and care, and shows Son-Yeji at her absolute glorious best.

The story across the first ten episodes or so is wonderfully warm and with tension. You find yourself engaged with every character. Everyone has some sort of a story. CLY tells this well. It makes you fall for the chemistry, makes you think that it's all real, that perhaps this is a documentary of a real life incident where a South Korean woman parachuted into dangerous terrains and was saved by a stout soldier. The acting is powerful enough to make you think that. The music is gorgeously appropriate.

Whilst set in North Korea, this show in the first half moves from amazing episode to amazing episode. But then afterwards, everything feels rushed. The magic of the show wasn't in what would happen when she finally reached South Korea. It was if she would reach. Understandably you couldn't drag this out for 16 episodes, but once they brought her back and she was no longer in North Korea, the main premise of the show had been solved. Everything after that felt a little anticlimatic.

Overall, the show finished strongly and remains one of the best I've ever watched.

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Acting is better than the story

I haven't actually finished this show but nothing I've seen so far suggests to me any major changes lie ahead. The show is carried at a stumbling pace by the warmth of some genuinely nice characters in that no-one is really rotten. The three main characters have some endearing qualities to them but it's their flaws that make this a show that's about killing time rather than enjoying.

Let's start with Hwan-gi. The socially awkward introverted boss was a concept I liked and I found him a very sympathetic character. It's clear his problems came from being emotionally tormented by his father's relentless drive for perfection. I thought his relationship with Jhi-hye was surprisingly beautiful in the flashback episode - which for me was easily the standout episode and built on some great writing - partly because it was platonic and not romantic. She being the only person who understands his introverted difficulties and helps him really conveyed a sense of what she meant to him as a friend.

But the show struggles because of his relationships with his teammates. We see at different points he lets his guard down with them individually and shares some poignant moments, yet in the next scene, they remain awkward and fearful of him. It made no sense that having had a touching moment with his secretary early on in the show, that she remains super awkward around him and doesn't even try to help others understand him. I thought they could have built a great platonic bond but the show didn't tap into that.

The big issue is Chae Ro-Woon. Her motivations for joining the company are strong but never fleshed out to the point they become weak. I don't find it plausible that her inner mechanisms leading her to that company melt away within a few episodes. She never really seemed like someone in pursuit of revenge and was too easily sympathetic to Hwan-gi despite viewing him as the cause of her sister's death. This was so weakly developed it was disappointing. Having said that, I must also add that her character was still pleasant and the acting for the role was sublime in my opinion.

The music didn't often fit what tone the scenes required. I think this show tried to tell a serious story through a comedic lens and that was a bad mistake. It's no surprise that the flashback episode was really good because it was stripped away of all that extra gloss and was a bone-bare episode of human realism, hope and suffering.

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An unforgettable show made by a stellar set of characters

I've just finished watching this show and there's a lot to unpack so bear with me.

I think what I love about this show is it's not written with any grand plot or story conflict. It's a show about life. There's no overriding antagonist in this show, no villain. The enemy is simply life, and the circumstance with which you might find yourself in. Bad things happen to our characters because of life's unpredictability and they adapt reluctantly because that's the reality of growing up. This is a show about teenagers stepping into adulthood and facing some harsh choices in life.

I like that the story is set in the nineties because the world was full of excitement and uncertainty as to what the future would look like. Internet had not made communication as frictionless as it is today and so relationships were more face-to-face rather than online. All of that, combined with a very interesting sport to use, made for the perfect settings for this story to grow.

A show can have an amazing plot and fail because the characters are boring. Or you can have a show with a technically mundane plot thrive through its characters. This is what Twenty Five Twenty One does. It creates an amazing story not through the plot but the characters. They are all, each, lovely people with their flaws and quirks that make them worth spending time with. The support cast are fleshed out enough that you don't need to constantly see Na Hee-Do because you enjoy their stories too. These are real, human beings.

And because of that, the strength of the show was during the first act. Her rivalry with Ko Yu-Rim was intense and beautiful - and it worked because we were allowed to empathise with Yu-Rim. She is a working-class girl barely able to afford anything compared to Hee-Do, with the weight of a nation's expectations on her. She watches her family struggle and sacrifice and knows she needs to win. Even though we are introduced to the show through Na Hee-Do and see Yu-Rim as her opponent, we never see her as an enemy because we are allowed to see the real humanity in her, and that ultimately she's a young woman besieged with so many problems.

Their rivalry drove the show, culminating in that match and then events bringing them together. Once they formed a friendship, the show did really well in making their bond plausible. But its retreat into the backdrop was detectable as sometimes the show lacked an overarching conflict driving anything forward. The show instead became about the five of them as a friendship group and it worked in that the episodes remained enjoyable and we were treated to moving scenes, but it didn't carry the punch that Yu-Rim brought when she was more focused on. That's the other thing; fencing as a theme in the sport didn't really matter as much once Hee-Do and Yu-Rim had that epic match. And when they rematched in Madrid, I thought narratively it would have made more sense for Hee-Do to lose finally to her friend. When it came to fencing, Hee-Do's character was a little too polished. It would have been more interesting seeing her lose yet happy for her friend who had suffered so, so much.

I will also say, episode 14 centring on Yu-Rim was possibly the show's best episode, it was marvellous.

Na Hee-Do was a tremendous character. I loved her energy, resilience, humour and ferocity. She was the highlight of the show, of course she was right? Everything about this character was so good and what I really liked was the show addressed her naivety as simply her still being young. Sometimes when characters do silly things we berate them for it. But with Hee-Do, there is an acknowledgement it's because she's still young and is growing up. I found her relationship with her mother to be a really beautifully crafted one. Again, the show knew how to handle characters and relationships.

Back Yi-Jin was an interesting character. He promised to never be happy yet even when freed from that oath and he had gotten the dream he wanted and the girl he wanted, he was never truly at peace. The nature of his job wore him down and there was a really sincere and realistic portrayal of the slow withering of his spirited nature, until he became quietly depressed and beyond being consoled. We knew his relationship with Hee-Do was never going to last but it still hurt once you could see the writing on the wall, and more so that he wasn't even trying to save the relationship, perhaps aware it was finished.

Regarding the final episode, I've seen a lot of people with mixed opinions. I did enjoy it and thought it was well done but I think that final scene of Hee-Do reading his message in her diary and emotionally reconciling with how they broke up in the tunnel would have been better had they not cried in each other's arms at the bus stop. It would have made their meeting on TV and the final scene far more emotionally satisfying because it would have been the first and final closure they had ever gotten from how they had broken up with each other. That was where the show sort of fumbled its landing but I did still enjoy it. No tears though. Again, maybe that's because I think the emotional punch was sort of tamed by Hee-Do and Yi-Jin finding each other at the bus stop before he left for New York.

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A comedy that was more than a comedy

I picked this show because it broke the kdrama tradition of being 16 episodes ninety minutes long. It was a rather swift show but one that nonetheless delivered a deeply moving story.

The story of two mentally troubled people living next door to each other with all the comedic encounters set the tone early for what our lead pair - and the town they lived in - were like. Lee Min-Kyung suffered from OCD and an extreme anxiety that meant she had difficulty trusting anything and anyone. Hwi-oh's anger issues was what landed him in therapy and the way these two interacted early on *through* their mental illness was done really well; this is a comedy show but it didn't insult people's mental illness. It was funny without being disrespectful.

As the story progresses, the comedy becomes less prominent and you understand why it has to: the backstories of both Min-Kyung and Hwi-oh make it difficult for the show to remain completely light-hearted, especially where it concerns the abuse Min-Kyung went through. As the show progresses, her ordeal tells a good story of what it is like for women in abusive relationships, the fear of trusting again. Her relationship with Hwi-oh was done organically, built over a gradual trust sprung from his genuine decency and devotion to keeping her safe and happy. The way they first kissed sort of alluded to that; she is totally fine sleeping with him around because she trusts him. Because he listens to her, because he believes her.

Which is what this show is really all about. It's about Min-Kyung needing someone to believe her, to give her that feeling of safety and reassurance her ex-partner took from her. Throughout the show she struggles for that, but finds it in Hwi-oh. We see the importance of why believing her is better than not. The show tells a good message there; sometimes in a relationship, what's not important is whether your partner is right or not but whether they think you believe them or not.

Hwi-oh in turn finds something in his life he can now lose, and it puts him always on the verge of erupting, of reverting. She thinks she's broken him, but the beauty of the show is how they both subliminally helped each other grow and heal a lot, but the final part of the recovery needed to be done by themselves.

The last episode was a little rushed in that some of the subplots seemed wrapped up too quickly - maybe that's the drawback of being a short series, but I enjoyed this show a lot. It was sold by the terrific acting, particularly on Oh Yeon-Seo's part. I feel like this is a feel-good show I can return to a lot and still enjoy it.

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A show sold by the characters and the actors

I was rewatching I'm Not a Robot when this popped up and I decided to give it a go. Maybe because of that, I was drawing comparisons between two shows that consisted of a human being falling in love with something artificial, or seemingly anyway. But the comparisons end there. This show has characters and a setting that, by being less comedic, is more rugged and realistic. The characters are all sort of broken, and it doesn't take much for something to revert them back to their damaged selves. This is what they fear the most. This show was good at detailing how the warmth of human relationships can fill up one's life like decoration and although the plot wasn't very complex, it was made worth watching by two things: the characters and the acting performances.

I really really enjoyed the chemistry between the lead duo. I really enjoyed their characters too. These are people who simply want to live quiet lives, don't have grand ambitions, but just are fundamentally good people. This is what made me like the show a lot.

If I have any criticisms, it's that the show could have told a story about how relying on technology as a crutch to compensate for absent relationships. I also wasn't sure about the backstories of some of the characters, but every show has its fault and I wasn't complaining too much.

I'd highly recommend this to someone.

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A sombre apocalypse

Calling this an enjoyable watch feels wrong given I was holding in my stomach for most of it, either at the nail-biting tension or the exploding moments of gore and blood. But it was an excellent show. It built up the sense of crisis, the hopelessness and through it, the characters. The relationships that were formed were organically done and realistic, and thus made you root for characters sometimes simply because of what they meant to everyone else. This show did really well in highlighting the importance of family and social rootedness because people are stronger when compassion is plentiful. I've always found Korean shows to be thoughtful in the social analysis of these things and this show hinted well at that.

The other thing they did well with was the issue of survivors' guilt. Living on felt very difficult for characters but giving up was a betrayal of the memory and sacrifice of those who died for them to live. I thought the show was beautifully written in that way. The casting was good and there was an innocent charm to a lot of these characters, who ultimately, were just teenagers having a very rotten school week.

The standout character was Nam-ra and her ending was beautiful and deserved. Her struggle for clinging onto her humanity manifesting in that feral shriek of despair at the end really underlined the sheer goodness of her character, her overwhelming desire to hold onto the essence of who she is and not give in. I give the show 5 stars for how it wrote her, she quickly grew into the most interesting character.

The show had some excellent sections. Moments when they were trapped in one place for too long only to escape and get trapped elsewhere within the school and then during the second half of the show when their movement was more fluid and constant simply because staying in one place, they realised, was just delaying the impending doom. The final two episodes of the show blew me away because many things I did not expect to happen took place. Even though the ending was a little foreshadowed, it was a deserved one but everything else during those final episodes left me stunned. In a zombie apocalypse, there are no main characters with plot armour.

There were things I didn't like. Far too many characters had heroic deaths to the point where it sort of lost value. It was more gripping when people are trying to escape but the zombies take them. I think the hero complex was a real problem with Cheong-San. I liked him a lot but I was tired by his need to always elect himself as the sacrificial lamb for the group. I also thought how his death came about was foolish. They were all just standing there while he was slowly getting attacked. it didn't make sense especially given Nam-ra's superhuman feats that she just stood there.

Then there is Nayeon's character. I cannot accept that she purposefully infected someone just to be proven right. Her death was sad in that the group didn't realise she had only died due to her desire for redemption. I was a little annoyed at first before I realised it worked out better like this. It would have been too neat for her to reconnect with them.

My main issue perhaps, is the idea that this virus began because someone's dad got fed up with school bullying and decided humanity was irredeemable and evil. You're telling me that's how everyone got infected? I lost all sympathy with him when he was talking about how the system failed his son because of what he then transpired to do. There were also some payoffs I was waiting for, such as the girl who got videotaped getting her revenge during the apocalypse but the show didn't even hint towards that.

Those were my only real complaints, because otherwise it was an entirely excellent show.

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A well-constructed delight

This show's synopsis drew me in and it didn't disappoint. The story juggled some heavy themes whilst balancing with a degree of humour that didn't turn the show into a queasy mesh of comedy and grief-laden moments. I liked how the tragedy wasn't the actual focus, and that rather the story centred around how those who either survived or lost loved ones were forced to move on. Often with stories focusing on fatal incidents, it's the aftermath that is the most interesting. So it proved with this show.

The two characters, Gang-Dun and Mun-Su were exceptionally well-written. Both characters are hurting but repressing it through very different ways of living. One is in a state of gradual self-destruction seeing life through nihilism while the other lives but without much hope and a lot of guilt. The show expertly navigates the issue of guilt of surviving a loved one, of feeling like you are cheating their memory whether you cope well or don't. I give this show a lot of credit for how it handled grief and guilt, showing how things like self-imposed isolation, alcohol abuse, seeking violence and self-harm were reactions to trauma.

I also really liked that while the mall's collapse wasn't the focal point of the show, it was the focal point of the lead characters. This is good storytelling. The music complemented the show's tunes throughout. I liked that as we delved more into the show, characters gave very nuanced and complex responses to situations, new relationships formed organically and felt authentic and meaningful. We were given time to care about characters and their attachments and bonds, given time to understand that these people were suffering.

There were only two things I didn't really like: Gang-Dun's sister, the doctor, struck me as oddly cold and indifferent. Whether that was by design or bad acting, she often came across as unsympathetic to what her brother was experiencing, bereft of even any gratitude or guilt that she lives well because he suffers greatly.

I also didn't like Mun-su's boss. He was unprofessional in his conduct towards her, his behaviour often creepy and inappropriate and she even called it out. I thought that was a really unnecessary angle the show didn't need, especially as it was clear from the first episode who the love story had to be about. This show was about Mun-Su and Gang-Dun healing together by finding each other, falling in love and letting go of their shared trauma.

Overall, I massively enjoyed this show.

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Summer comes back better sometimes

One thing I love about Korean shows is how they display the difference in the lives of those who are rich and those who are poor - the way money restricts our ambitions and controls our choices. I really liked how that was subliminally embedded within the show and explaining how that affected things. The relationship chemistry between the two lead actors was superb and the confusion was sincere and well-constructed. So many times I watch a show where it's very obvious that the two like each other but they're too blind to see it. But in this one, the confusion is born from a lack of communication and inability to read each other, which is established early on as a fault and flaw amongst both of them. Therefore, when they kept misreading each other, I liked that.

I'm quite done with Kdrama love triangles but this one wasn't too cliched and cheesy, so I can give it that. The side characters were rather well-written both in having their own motivations and how they interacted with the show's main characters.

I must talk about the music. There are a few shows which have grabbed me through their music: Hotel Del Luna, My Mister, It's Okay to Not be Okay, Because this is my First Life and now this. The OST in this is quite beautiful and I cannot emphasise this enough. I would recommend this show to everyone.

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Good characters and good dialogue

So far, I'm enjoying this show a lot. Jisoo always seemed destined for kdrama and you can see why. She has this beautiful aura of sincerity, realism and warmth to her acting, and her character is really sweet. I totally sympathise with some of anger towards this show but I think people should continue to watch to the end and then make their own minds up.

Jung Hae-in is great even as his character says little. Instead he conveys the tone through his body language and facial expressions. The two of them have this sweet chemistry around each other of two people knowing they shouldn't fall in love, but slowly succumbing to it. I also like the supporting characters in that they're interesting and fleshed out, and not simply one-dimensional and boring.

The political scenes add a layer of intrigue in how these grand forces are slowly moving and finding their way towards Jisoo and Hae-in's characters. It feels surreal that everything could be gravitating towards their simple romance but there we are. I'm interested to see how these political arcs tie in with what's happening in the school. I also find the university's principal to be really intriguing and there's a lot of curiosity surrounding her that they explained well.

I like how earned the character arc of Hae-in's character was. He wasn't a two-dimensional character but someone of genuine motivations, desires and emotions. He was well-written. I loved Jisoo's character and I thought she acted that role out really well, displaying the full variety of emotions immaculately.

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Beautiful yet bewildering

This show was always on my list of things to watch but continuously shelved in favour of something else. But then, having watched One Spring Night, I decided to finally give this a go.

The show is divided into three parts: a very good beginning, an excellent middle but then a lacklustre ending that collapses in its own contradictions and frustrating character decisions. I enjoyed the budding romance between Jun-Hai and Jina-a and really liked the social commentary on why certain people are looked down upon. The growing conflict between Jina-a and her family regarding her personal life boils once they find out. On that front, the show does really well.

But it's problems are namely two things: lack of attention to different subplots that have little interaction with each other, and basically character stupidity. I'm going to focus on the latter first. I don't understand the hell Jina-a gets from everyone, especially her best friend who, only few episodes earlier witnessed Jina-a being sexually assaulted. There's a bewildering lack of empathy amongst the support characters for what Jina-a is enduring. But both Jun-hai and Jina-a are frustrating for acting like martys, paragons of suffering who just silently endure all abuse yet reprimand each other for these very same things. Jina-a's ex-boyfriend was a serial creep, yet Jina-a's method was to keep ignoring and enduring as his behaviour got worse. Her habit of keeping things a secret from Jun-hai, knowing he'd be annoyed, only to then apologise later sheepishly knowing he'd be too seduced to stay angry, these things didn't sit well. She has a tendency to allow conflicts to fester through her passivity, be it with her family, her best friend or even in the workplace.

Jun-hai is similarly frustrating in his inability to convey to his sister that he wants freedom to make his own choices, in his persistence in silently tolerating things knowing fully well this upsets Jina-a even more. I really didn't like the pressures he put on her regarding her housing problem. I loathed how he was in many ways crippling her independence.

The other thing the show suffers from is the lack of connectivity between different subplots, although perhaps it's intentional to show that no-one understands what Jina-a goes through. The workplace conflict was extremely interesting but it only ever got 10 or 15 minutes in any given episode and this just was never enough time.

I became really frustrated with the show towards the end. Both the lead characters simply are not likeable enough.

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