5
15
1
Enigma05
USA
This review may contain spoilers
MPD: A Sequel, Explanation, or A Totally Different Story?
8 episodes of something that came a year after the original story which many hoped would tie all of the loose ends "The Psychologist" left hanging. Not only did it not do that in many ways, but it added some more. This drama special legitimately had multiple personality disorder or MPD--which considering the subject matter, ironically fit--because to the very last scene you still couldn't figure out which it was trying to be; a sequel, an explanation of what was missed, or just a totally different story with the same characters and cast.
Pros: What I did like about it and not gave it an even lower score was we finally got to understand He Dun's origins and she was able to reconcile with her stepfather, get over her half brother's death, forgive herself, and as well as stop being afraid of the water. Understanding everything her mothers had been through and getting to a great point with the one who raised her the longest, was an incredible process for HD. If they had focused on just that and her romantic relationship, these 8 episodes would have been in much better shape then they were. QKY was an amazing support system for her the entire time even using many psychological techniques to help her through her PTSD. Their relationship had become even stronger and healthier then before which was wonderful. All of the actors did a fantastic job with acting even when the script failed. The OSTs and scenery were much on point.
Cons: The script was a joke. It had massive holes in it all over the place. The extra stories needed another 30 episodes just to untangle. Like when did Lili and her cop boyfriend get married? One moment, he's meeting her mom for the first time, the next HD calls him Lili's husband. I understand bringing in the An Na storyline was necessary to explain HD's past and have her come to terms with it, but it was done in a very jarring fashion.
Where was Jia Hui's mother? Last we knew she had tried to commit suicide and was taken away in an ambulance. Was she alive? Did she just heavily relapse? That was never explained just short flashbacks were given. They literally turned JH into Batman in this one. We knew he could con people into believing he was anybody and everybody but in this one they gave him some superhuman skills of being able to vanish without a trace in seconds only to somehow appear on top of two shipping containers only moments later. And then within that also humanly impossible timeframe, set off a plethora of explosions at that yard.
What was the purpose of bringing in the professor and Dr. Wen? She came clean to HD about much of her purposes and then later got arrested after they set up a joint counseling session for terminally ill hospital patients. In a sense one could argue that she was there to bring JH's lunatic stepfather to justice, but we never saw that.
What we did see was said lunatic beating up an employee, then kidnapping HD supposedly, who both JH and QKY went to look for and rescue; they were all buddy-buddy again going to HD's book signing. JH got knocked out by his stepfather's goons but then those same goons were beat up by the lunatic for hitting JH too hard. The lunatic even gave his stepson a knife to cut his own leg off in exchange for HD's safe return; that whole scene was straight out of the twilight zone. JH stabbed himself in the leg 4 times but had no reaction to the pain, than as the lunatic grabs the knife, JH says some line about the lunatic deserving to be alone and leaves. Screen fades to black and then there's a time skip of 3 months where HD and QKY are at some school giving a lecture. So was she kidnapped or not? That was a massive hole. JH is then seen with the professor as father and son have a heart to heart and JH is ready to accept all of his consequences. There were so many holes and inconsistencies that it made you forget the original story's loose ends as this added a lot more to it.
Would I recommend it? Only for HD's plot process because she finally got everything sorted out in her own life, forgave those she needed to, learned about her real origins, and got over her PTSD. Everything else was a mottled mess that 8 episodes could never explain.
Pros: What I did like about it and not gave it an even lower score was we finally got to understand He Dun's origins and she was able to reconcile with her stepfather, get over her half brother's death, forgive herself, and as well as stop being afraid of the water. Understanding everything her mothers had been through and getting to a great point with the one who raised her the longest, was an incredible process for HD. If they had focused on just that and her romantic relationship, these 8 episodes would have been in much better shape then they were. QKY was an amazing support system for her the entire time even using many psychological techniques to help her through her PTSD. Their relationship had become even stronger and healthier then before which was wonderful. All of the actors did a fantastic job with acting even when the script failed. The OSTs and scenery were much on point.
Cons: The script was a joke. It had massive holes in it all over the place. The extra stories needed another 30 episodes just to untangle. Like when did Lili and her cop boyfriend get married? One moment, he's meeting her mom for the first time, the next HD calls him Lili's husband. I understand bringing in the An Na storyline was necessary to explain HD's past and have her come to terms with it, but it was done in a very jarring fashion.
Where was Jia Hui's mother? Last we knew she had tried to commit suicide and was taken away in an ambulance. Was she alive? Did she just heavily relapse? That was never explained just short flashbacks were given. They literally turned JH into Batman in this one. We knew he could con people into believing he was anybody and everybody but in this one they gave him some superhuman skills of being able to vanish without a trace in seconds only to somehow appear on top of two shipping containers only moments later. And then within that also humanly impossible timeframe, set off a plethora of explosions at that yard.
What was the purpose of bringing in the professor and Dr. Wen? She came clean to HD about much of her purposes and then later got arrested after they set up a joint counseling session for terminally ill hospital patients. In a sense one could argue that she was there to bring JH's lunatic stepfather to justice, but we never saw that.
What we did see was said lunatic beating up an employee, then kidnapping HD supposedly, who both JH and QKY went to look for and rescue; they were all buddy-buddy again going to HD's book signing. JH got knocked out by his stepfather's goons but then those same goons were beat up by the lunatic for hitting JH too hard. The lunatic even gave his stepson a knife to cut his own leg off in exchange for HD's safe return; that whole scene was straight out of the twilight zone. JH stabbed himself in the leg 4 times but had no reaction to the pain, than as the lunatic grabs the knife, JH says some line about the lunatic deserving to be alone and leaves. Screen fades to black and then there's a time skip of 3 months where HD and QKY are at some school giving a lecture. So was she kidnapped or not? That was a massive hole. JH is then seen with the professor as father and son have a heart to heart and JH is ready to accept all of his consequences. There were so many holes and inconsistencies that it made you forget the original story's loose ends as this added a lot more to it.
Would I recommend it? Only for HD's plot process because she finally got everything sorted out in her own life, forgave those she needed to, learned about her real origins, and got over her PTSD. Everything else was a mottled mess that 8 episodes could never explain.
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