The ending truly ruined it all

This review will contain heavy spoilers for the ending.


Revenge of Others was a fun ride, until the last two episodes that is. It's pretty rare for me to have the ending of a show completely change how I feel about it. There are good endings, meh endings and bad ones... but I've seldom felt that disappointed. Maybe I had too high expectations, maybe it was the straw that broke the camel's back. Revenge of Others' ending is cliché, lazy and basically just a middle finger both to the audience and the rest of the show. Early episodes were good, with flaws, yes, yet it was still solid. But nowadays, most kdramas are great at what they do, so you need the entirety of your work to be good, not just the beginning, not just the middle. It feels like Revenge of Others was half-assed, and any good this show had is overshadowed by the ending.
The most interesting thing about a TV show, as opposed to movies, is that you have time to grow attached to the characters. You become familiar with them and grow curious. You could say you actually care about them (especially if you're watching while the show is airing). That is the exact reason why you can't just dump a few lines on the viewers and call it a day. That's not only bad writing: it's like spitting in the face of said viewers.

So what was so wrong with that ending? To put it simply, the creators of the show tried SO HARD to give it a happy ending, despite it not matching the tone of the series, that they ended up... basically not giving it an ending at all. How did they do that? By not telling you anything and letting you decide what comforts you. Okay, let's be fair. They do tell you a few things, but not about what is important.

> Soo Heon has a brain tumor? Okay, he drops out to do his own shit for a while and you're free to imagine whatever pleases you after that. Did he die? Did his condition stabilize? That's up to you (who even cares, brain tumors are not that serious now, are they? It's not like he got his head banged way too many times. If the doctor is as qualified as his wife, he probably misdiagnosed him anyway). With it being such a central plot point, you'd hope for something a bit more conclusive than a "for now he's lucky". Truthfully, the tumor is just a plot device to make you doubt he is the killer because of the induced violent behaviors. So in the end, I just wonder what was even the point of us worrying about him?
God forbid they'd actually use his condition to truly talk about the hardships that come from it all. Not saying the show should've solely focused on that, that's obviously not the plot, but it would've been nice if it had been treated more seriously.

> Is Jae Beom in prison or not? You choose. Was there even any proof that he was manipulated by Gi O Sung? Did he completely take the blame? Does it matter? Should we care? Apparently not, since the show decided to completely erase his existence the moment he stepped in that police car. If he is lucky, the car was actually an interdimensional rift that took him far away from the land of trash ending kdramas.

Don't get me wrong, open endings are fine. I actually love them to death and dislike when everything is spelled out for you. However, this is not an open ending (and if it genuinely tried to be one, it's appalling). This is just a rushed, awful, uncreative and lazy ending that has (unfortunately) been seen again and again, either because the writers didn't know how to write a proper one, either because they were scared of negative reactions from the audience. Both options are bad.

This is an ending that screams that the writers had so little faith in their show, their characters and universe, that they believed viewers would lose interest the minute the mystery was finally solved, that they wouldn't be willing to give one more hour to properly say goodbye to the characters and learn what happened to them. And well, that's truly a shame since an entire episode dealing with the aftermath would've been a perfect way to wrap this up, because surprisingly the characters ARE interesting. As a viewer, I want to know what happens to these people, I don't want three fucking sentences from a narrator telling me: "this happened, oh and this too, everything was solved and we're living happily ever after, nothing is wrong in the universe!!!!"... For Christ's sake, either show me or actually write a proper open ending!
Those few sentences don't even cover everything that needs answers. I mentioned it earlier, but Jae Beom's story seems to end the moment he's taken away by the police, as if he wasn't a main character too. At this point I feel like they forgot to include him in the ending. Chan Mi vaguely mentions to Soo Heon that he confessed, but that is the last time we hear of him. Can you believe that we don't even know WHAT he confessed to? Did he confess to killing Park Won Seok only? Did he confess to the car shop murder too? What, you actually wanted to know that? Cope.

I don't understand how you can put so much care into developing an interesting storyline and characters, just to give up on giving it proper closure.

Seriously, I can't believe this. As far as I'm concerned, Gi O Sung is dead and Jae Joon supposedly disappeared forever, because that's definitely how DID works. That means Jae Beom literally has no choice but to take full responsibility, despite being taken advantage of and manipulated by the very person who tried to kill him. Because let's think about this for a second:

-He would first have to prove that he was pushed from the roof by O Sung. O Sung is dead, there's no way to prove it;
-He would then have to prove that he did indeed have a split personality, but since Jae Joon is gone forever after a few words from Chan Mi, good luck with that;
-Even if he managed to do that, he would have to prove that O Sung had gaslighted Jae Joon into believing Won Seok had pushed him, which led to his revenge, and that he, Jae Beom, wasn't aware of any of it. But guess what? O Sung is dead, Jae Joon is no more, so yeah, no doing that. They might have a few people testify, but I highly doubt that would lead to anything.

Not to mention, when talking about the car shop murder to Chan Mi, Jae Joon mentioned that Jae Beom would've covered for Soo Heon. Just because they are friends. Just because he is a good person. Which leads me to believe that after getting his memory back, he would be so guilt-ridden that he wouldn't even try to defend himself anyway. He seems like he would believe he deserves the worst punishment. At this point, the only thing that could save him is his parents' money, which I doubt he would agree to use to get himself out of this.

So while Gi O Sung got the easy way out, Jae Beom will be the only one to suffer because of his deeds. In a way, O Sung killed him twice: the moment he pushed him from that roof, and the moment he himself fell to his death. While I do believe Jae Beom should face consequences for what happened, I don't believe jail time is the right thing. He should be admitted to a mental health facility. Ultimately, I would've been more satisfied if he had managed to kill himself. That would've been easier for him. Honestly, I cannot understand for the life of me why kdrama writers always think that death is proper comeuppance for plain evil characters. Dying is easy, life in prison is hell. O Sung should have to live through that. He should have to deal with everyone hating his guts and have his freedom stripped away. Had the show not been going for a happy ending, maybe that not happening would've been fine, but since it's not the case it just doesn't sit well with me that one of the kindest characters is getting this treatment, while the worst one just... died.


Aside from that, there are other elements that don't really make sense to me. For example, it's never really made clear how Jae Beom and O Sung's fight at the stables ended. Jae Beom seemed like he was ready to murder or at least severely beat up O Sung for what he did to him, while the latter would do anything to cover his own ass. Yet, the following day O Sung is unscathed and Jae Beom is chilling on a boat. How did that happen?
And whose boat was that? I'm guessing it belongs to Jae Beom's family but then when he was reported missing... isn't it one of the first places that should've been checked? I know the police are all sharing one unique brain cell but that's like the ABC of investigating a disappearance. The show runners wanted us to believe O Sung had killed/abducted Jae Beom, but come on... They try so hard to confuse the viewers and play the reverse psychology card, yet most people could guess who had done what and why ages before the end anyway.

Then we have this scene where every single student learns EVERYTHING through various text messages and immediately believes it, then proceeds to suddenly realize that "oh yeah, gi o sung did this and that!!!!", as if they all used to be aware of that fact, but collectively forgot, because no one seemed to have beef with him before that. I guess they could only remember him being super manipulative after reading those texts. Sure. Then they all lie to the police because of course, there's not a single outcast out of the loop, or someone that's scared to lie. It's a TV show, yadda yadda, but how can I not laugh at that? They didn't even HAVE to lie! Gi O Sung's fall was not only an accident but also self-defense, he was literally threatening a student with a box cutter after having abducted another??? I get they reaaaaally wanted to go for that tacky “If everyone decides to corroborate a lie, then it becomes the truth”, but that was so bad.


I want to gloss over a few other things too:
-Ok Chan Mi started out as a good character but got dumber and dumber as things moved on;
-Shin Ye Eun's acting (and a few others) seemed awkward at times. I'm not sure whether that was the script or not, but I've seen her in other shows and I remember her being fine;
-I get Jae Beom was her friend for a long time and overall a good person, but would Chan Mi realistically get over "him" killing her brother that fast?;
-When she was on that call with her brother, how could Chan Mi not hear Jae Beom's voice as he talked to Won Seok?;
-O Sung wanting to kill Won Seok was stupid considering they both had dirt on each other. They could've just left it at that and no one would have talked. But I guess since Jae Beom is technically the one that killed him, O Sung just didn't care;
-Everyone always seems to fall for O Sung's lies for some reason, even after it was established he could not be trusted;
-Jae Beom's timeline at the time of Won Seok's death wasn't clear and it was annoying. Was he back to school full time? Won Seok was surprised to see him again, so was he not discharged from the hospital yet? Then how did he leave without being noticed?;
-Did Jae Beom actually have a twin or was it split personality right from the beginning? This doesn't necessarily need an answer but I would've liked to know for sure;
-Jae Beom's parents knew about his DID but never tried to do anything about it. Maybe because it would give them a bad reputation (who knows, they don't explain why), but wouldn't you try to at least discreetly talk to a doctor about it? I don't think it's that hard when you have this much money;
-No one else ever noticed it except for O Sung? How did he even know? That would've been nice to learn about. It's like they're trying to give as less details as possible about the manipulation part, as if it wasn't a major plot point that the viewers would like to know about;
-The evil alter ego plot twist trope needs to stop. There are ways this could be interesting, but apparently never in kdramas. The way DID is constantly misrepresented in these shows is so tiring. I haven't even researched the topic that much but even I know this is not how it works. It was so badly presented in the 12th episode that I wasn't even sure if they were actually going for that or for some weird ghost possession bullshit. At this point I'm not even certain what I'd prefer;
-I'm not an expert but I'm positive we now have means to determine whether someone jumped, fell or was pushed from a building.

A few positive things:
-The dynamic and chemistry between the characters was quite good, and their friendship was really compelling;
-Most characters were interesting, there wasn't anyone I was particularly annoyed with;
-As I've said, I haven't researched DID that extensively (I have given up on a decent portrayal anyway), but I thought the way Jae Beom and Jae Joon were differentiated was a nice touch. I found the scene with Jae Beom signing using the wrong hand + name smart. The moment he switched the gun to his other hand as he tried to kill himself was heartbreaking;
-The show is entertaining and gets you hooked easily, it's mostly the end that acts as a wake-up call, making you realize that overall, the writing wasn't that good.


In conclusion, this is another example of a show that could have been a good one if not for its ending. In my opinion, the ending of a show is one of, if not the, most important part of it. If you mess that up, then you leave people with a bitter aftertaste, no matter how good everything that came before was. On the contrary, a particularly good ending can completely blow your mind and turn around your perspective of a show/movie. So you can't and shouldn't ignore a bad ending just because the rest was okay.
I feel like many interesting questions could've been brought up too. The writers could've addressed the topic of the Korean juvenile justice system (which is apparently known to be particularly awful), with how easily characters seemed to get away with the crazy things they pulled. Or if a murder is caused by the manipulation of a vulnerable person, then who's to blame? What punishment should be given? Are mental health issues like these even taken into consideration by the court?
I don't know, this was such a waste. I really wish they hadn't rushed the ending like that, my rating would've been much higher otherwise. It could also be a bit lower, but I tried to keep in mind the qualities from the earlier episodes too (consider that 6/10 is only 1 point above average/mediocre).

Well, what is done is done. I don't think I would recommend anyone to watch this unless they are prepared to face the disappointment.

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A movie that had great potential and wasted it all

NO SPOILER FOR THE FIRST PART OF THIS REVIEW

The fact that some people are rating this movie higher than a 6.5 is honestly baffling. I usually never write reviews and prefer keeping my opinion to myself, but I felt the urge to do it for Midnight. So, here's my review of a movie that had amazing potential and could've been a really good thriller, but unfortunately ended up being a barely decent enough movie.

Midnight starts out well with its promising plot and heavy atmosphere efficiently set thanks to the scenography and brilliant acting. Many good stress-inducing mechanics are introduced to make us feel the anxiety and distress caused by the main character's, Kim Kyung Mi, deafness (e.g. audio detection devices, lights reacting to sound).
However, despite the potential and innovative ideas, it all crumbles down very early on. Yes, I was quite excited when I started watching Midnight, and was truly enjoying it. But if you have a good time during the first twenty minutes or so of the movie, you'll slowly become too frustrated to think about anything except how dumb these characters all are, completely ruining the thrill.

Every stressful situation is built upon questionable/idiotic decisions that no human being would ever make, even under that kind of pressure, because it simply goes against what survival instinct and common sense dictate. I'm sure there were ways to have the characters be gifted with intelligence and keep an interesting story still.

Overall, the movie is not completely bad and still enjoyable to a degree, simply thanks to the fact that it is entertaining enough to watch until the end. Still, it doesn't mean it's a good movie. The beginning is great, the ending is fine and everything in-between is... sort of a mess. If you were curious about it, I'd still advise you watch it, but be aware that your expectations will probably not be met, and if you won't be bored, you'll definitely be annoyed.


SECOND PART OF THE REVIEW, BEWARE OF SPOILERS BELOW

First of all, I'd like to mention that I'm usually not very nitpicky. I'll accept a lot of things when watching TV shows and movies, I won't necessarily notice every single detail or plot hole and I'm easy to satisfy. That being said, even taking this into account and letting my suspension of disbelief play its part, it wasn't enough. I'll now dive into it and detail what bothered me enough to write it down.

Okay, fine. I'll accept that the police have some prejudice against disabled people and that they can be utterly incompetent. It honestly wouldn't be that surprising or unheard of. It is frustrating, but not in a 100% unrealistic way.
Fine, I won't argue that it is possible for a crowd to not help someone in distress. Bystander effect, confusion, fear or simply not knowing what to do/how to react can all factor in on this. These people don't have the full story like we do, they just see a panicked girl who is not explaining what the problem is.
Sure, the military personnel bringing back Kyung Mi to Do Shik, thinking they're helping her "brother"... that's barely acceptable, but you know what? I'll let it slide because similar things can happen in a very unfortunate turn of events (e.g. Konerak Sinthasomphone).
Since all these characters are outsiders to the story and only get snippets of what we see, with which they have to piece everything together, I'll be lenient. It's all exaggerated for the sake of the plot anyway.

I won't even mention Do Shik's irrational and erratic behavior too much, for the obvious reason that he is a killer with, more likely than not, many many issues. Him being overconfident, thinking he can outsmart everyone (not like they're making it hard) even when being so careless, and get away with it scot free, is actually not that crazy or unbelievable.

But Jong Tak, this dude... my brother in christ, give me a break. He is by far the most frustrating and dumbest character in this entire movie. Here you have a grown man who has the ability to communicate freely, who knows exactly what's happening, but decides that calling the police is apparently overrated. Granted, they have proved they were dumb and incompetent, but still?
Or maybe that poor guy suffers from a disorder preventing him from doing two things at the same time and I'm just being very mean, who knows? Or well, maybe he can't use his brain, my two cents. I mean, seriously. Why can't he just run to Kyung Mi's house AND call the police at the same time. Same thing when he gives up on her after Do Shik "reveals" where his sister is.
And for the love of god, why does he take narrow little streets when trying to catch up with Do Shik, risking to lose his track, instead of properly following him? How is he even able to not lose sight of him that way? Or maybe he knows the area so well he has a mental map stuck in his head and can predict exactly where the killer and his victim will run to, even without seeing them. But in the unlikely scenario that were actually the case... then it should still be explained to the viewer.

Towards the end of the movie, he fights Do Shik in a back alley, but looks away from him TWICE despite having been tricked into thinking he had fainted the first time already (after a 2 seconds chokehold, that is). Brilliant. And why doesn't he try to scream/get back to the main avenue to draw people's attention? It's not like Kyung Mi can do it for him. If I were that poor girl, I'd rather be stabbed in that alley and just end it already, instead of having to be "saved" by someone so useless.

Also, why does no one ever stay together? I lost count of how many times that happened, but it was way too much. I don't really get why Kyung Mi and Jong Tak's sister had to split. They were right next to the place where they can press a button that turns on every light in existence and blasts an alarm waking up the entire neighborhood, then puts them in direct communication with the police!
Later, Kyung Mi's mother and Jong Tak also split up, and after that him and her daughter did too.

Other details I'll skim over because this review is already too long:
-Right at the beginning of the movie, a woman (completely alone outside, at night) is approached by a guy being weirdly insistent about her getting in his car. Nevertheless, she walks to his suspiciously "deserted" van, that totally does not look like a set-up, a few minutes after? I assure you, no woman would ever behave like that. At least call someone at the same time, just to be safe;
-When Do Shik and Jong Tak were fighting in the police station, why did it take so long for Kim Kyung Mi and her mother to bring back the officers inside? It definitely shouldn't have taken this much time as they were standing quite literally 5 meters away from the entrance;
-How did said officers not hear the commotion inside?;
-After that incident, why were none of the characters kept under police protection, at least for the next 24 hours?;
-When Do Shik infiltrates Kyung Mi's house, he knocks many heavy things on the ground... that girl is deaf, not completely numb to the world. She would definitely feel the vibrations or something. I'm pretty sure your other senses are sharpened when you're lacking one;
-I believe most countries have a special number for deaf & mute people to contact the police through text messages. I might be wrong, but I doubt there's nothing like that in South Korea. Kyung Mi and her mother would definitely know about such a thing. Even when panicking, I'm sure that would still come to your mind.


There are still many things I could mention, or some criticism I don't necessarily agree with, but I think you got the rough idea already. Ultimately, I am angry not because of all the inconsistencies themselves. I spend my time watching shows that are full of them and still manage to have a good time. I am mad because this movie could have been something greater. It had so much potential, and seeing it all go to waste like that right in front of my eyes feels like betrayal. This movie has some good in it, but the bad easily overtakes it. Midnight would barely deserve a 5, if not for the atmosphere and acting. And if I'm being honest, I'm betting my life that if Wi Ha Joon wasn't in this movie (but was replaced by an equally talented yet less attractive actor), the ratings would be way lower.

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Not that good, but definitely not that bad either

If you ask me, Duty After School Part 1 was mid to begin with. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't nearly as good as people were making it out to be. A lot of things didn't make sense and were poorly written/executed. So what about its second part? Well, it’s more or less the same thing.

The direction they took is not surprising at all. The show was never truly about aliens more than it was about the people at the core of conflicts, who are dragged into them and pointlessly sacrificed in the name of wars. Wars they are fighting because they are told to, because of a so-called “duty”: a word that minimizes the fact that you’re exploited by people far higher than you, who could never understand what you went through, and also frankly don’t care. Duty After School is about what damages war —in all its aspects— inflicts on individuals, and indeed, there's absolutely nothing unexpected about a kid going absolutely crazy after being deceived over and over, realizing his entire life is ruined.

Now, was that done well? Not really. One of the kids killing another/everyone was foreshadowed a lot— and honestly, I was expecting something like that since the first part already— but it still felt rushed. We could honestly have done without the sexual assault and incel bits too. It would have been so much more impactful if Yeong Soo wasn't an awful and insufferable bitch to begin with, but only a decent guy becoming completely broken because of the lies and deception of the adults. If he simply was a person who had lost his last hope, the only thing that tied him back to his life as a regular student, then it would've actually meant something. It made sense for him to be the one to do it, and if he wasn't a total creep forcing himself on an unconscious girl, his descent into madness would've been interesting to analyze. But I don't want to analyze the psyche of a sexual assaulter, thank you very much.
A long time ago, I remember reading someone’s comment about how SA was impossible to forgive/understand compared to murder, and it's something that has stuck with me ever since. I think many things can push you to take someone's life, more or less valid reasons, but I don't think anything can excuse being a sexual abuser. So with those weird incel moments Yeong Soo had, I just think it took a lot away from the message without actually bringing anything worthwhile in return. We already had the prisoners trying to assault Ae Sol, did we really need more? Why?

To comment on a criticism that I’ve seen a lot: personally I don't mind the fact that the characters died "for nothing". Sometimes life is that way, and I think TV shows shouldn’t shy away from that. It hurts even more when a character dies pointlessly, but it usually always carries a message or builds up to something more later in the story. They had been hinting at something like that for a while, and in a way... it's just realistic. And reality usually isn’t all that pleasant. In this case, it’s the entire point of the show. Those kids didn't need to be drafted to begin with. EVERYTHING was pointless right off the bat, and we knew. What are the consequences of dumb decisions taken by the government? Ruined lives. Pointless deaths. From the first episode, many horrible events could’ve been prevented, yet they weren’t. It’s only fitting it ends like that. Even those who survived will never get back to a normal life, and there will be more useless deaths in the future. Many will lose their lives to all the trauma they got from this war.
The show itself tells you it was all meaningless. Two months after everything happened, they were able to get rid of the spheres with new weapons. They could’ve very well quarantined everyone while they tried to find a way to get rid of the aliens, but decided against it. Why? Because to the government, to the military, people are not really people. They are cannon fodder. And not treating people like human beings gets you there. Dropping weapons on random untrained and traumatized kids’ hands gets you there. Giving weapons to teenagers is never a solution. That’s all there is to it.

The way I see it, the first part of the show was more about kids fighting weird aliens, while the second part was about how it affected them as human beings. In my opinion, it’s an improvement and made that season more interesting.

There are still many flaws, obviously:
-Some people can just shoot way too many bullets with one magazine (e.g. that creepy prisoner, Yeong Soo at the end), which was already a problem in Part 1;
-How was Yeong Soo able to drag Il Ha to the sea, how did he have the time to weigh down his body with rocks, without getting blood all over himself, when the rest of the group arrived so shortly after having heard the gunshots? Il Ha is about his height and weight, it wouldn’t be easy at all;
-Some deaths were frustrating because, come on… Il Ha turns his back to the guy who just threatened to shoot him?;
-Then Na Ra prefers trying to wake up Chi Yeol rather than trying to stop the guy who’s shooting her remaining friends… uh. Not sure I understand the reasoning, especially when that could very well get both of them shot. I get you certainly don’t act completely rationally in such situations, but I would’ve been more convinced if she had simply been frozen in fear;
-Apparently Kim Won Bin disappeared without it being explained, but I honestly don’t remember exactly how Part 1 ended so yeah, I’ll let you check for yourself;
-The fact that the show kept bringing up the university extra points was honestly so annoying. I know, that’s the thing students are holding onto, hoping to get back to a normal life, but also who fucking cares? I mean, for it to matter to a few characters like Yeong Soo, sure yeah. But the fact that they treated it like most still cared after so long, and considered that learning they might not get them would be a “tipping point” for a lot of students was so weird to me. The lie in itself is awful, yes, but also… are you really thinking of going back to school after that? I think most people would have a “idgaf, I just want to see my family and take a long break” mentality. The fact that we had to wait until the very end of the show for them to explicitly say it didn’t matter at all, when Chi Yeol left the exam room? That was pushing it. They did say that some weren’t fighting for the points anymore (around ep 8/9 maybe?), but I still think it was made too important throughout the whole series. Every time I heard about those fucking points, I wanted to slam my head on my desk;
-There’s another message in the show that kinda got lost on the way. So I believe there is some criticism made about the university system and elitism in South Korea but also… I’m not sure an alien invasion and war trauma are the best ways to denounce that? It also felt a bit cheesy, in a bad way. It makes sense for Chi Yeol to think the only things that mattered were his friendships, caring for and supporting each other. In his situation, it’s a logical conclusion. But what is the lesson that you are trying to teach your viewers there? That university isn’t all that important? That it doesn’t define your worth? That friends matter the most? Not to say I disagree with that, but it’s also not that easy in real life so it just falls flat. Plus, I just watched a kid decimate all his classmates, I’m not really in the right headspace to care about your criticism of university, how it pits students against one another etc. I don’t think the parallel they’re trying to draw works very well here.

Overall, Duty After School Part 2 wasn’t great, but it wasn’t worse than Part 1 (which I gave a 6/10). It's just different. I’d even argue it was a tad bit better. I know the ending won’t suit everyone’s tastes, and in fact most will dislike it, but I can’t say it’s an awful ending. It could’ve been improved by being less rushed, but it was fitting with the tone and the message of the show.

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