A Really Impressive Sci-Fi Mystery

I feel as though Duel is one of those dramas which a lot of drama users don’t know about which is a shame because it does deserve a lot more attention.

The series is a pretty original concept for a Korean drama and as an OCN production has a flare of more “ darker” themes.

I’ll be honest in saying that I struggled with the first few episodes. The pacing was a bit off for me and the main detective did get on my nerves a little initially. However when I got over this hurdle of the first two episodes I’m glad that I stuck around as the main lead changed my opinion a lot.

A lot of this was down to the main cast who did a really good job as our leads. The biggest praise does go to the second male lead of the series who had to play two different roles with ease. I’ll be honest in saying that given context I knew it was the same actor it was easy to feel as though I was watching two different people.

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One Step Forwards, One Step Back

Normally I keep clear from dramas with idols heading main roles. This isn’t anything to do with a personal grudge but just personal preference with certain genres. I can’t say that Rowoon was familiar to me but KHS was a familiar face and despite my mixed feelings for Alice, I really liked her performance and was interested to see her here after reading fairly positive reviews.

I have to say that while I have fortunately been able to read some of the webcomic, the concept of Tomorrow isn’t entirely original per say. Grim reapers, bureaucrat afterlife, we’ve seen it done and played out before and there wasn’t really a lot that Tomorrow added on the fantasy element in my honest opinion.

I think where its hidden strengths did lie came from as a lot of reviewers have said before its messages. To be fair while I have seen a great deal of Korean dramas, I have heard from friends and fans alike that typically South-Korean mainstream media tends to be more reserved and conservative about certain issues especially in the world of TV.

Therefore I think it was pretty forward of the writing team to deal with a lot of different problems and issues AND make a point of addressing them. But I do have to honestly agree with the majority here when it came to the actual plot and character writing. The show didn’t really know what it wanted to be.

I’m not saying that the plot was nonexistent and even as a casual viewer I could see the obvious plot goals but it was very poorly put together especially as we had whole episodes which rarely tied events and then the final few episodes tried to cram in about eight episodes worth of content into a short space of time.

I think while Goblin has always had a love- hate relationship for me it was at least self aware as a fantasy series with attempting to buildup plot and tie this in with characters. Tomorrow made the fatal mistake of being lost in trying to make a profound statement about society in Korea but didn’t really go forwards with its actual plot. I think if they had built this up better from the start then it could’ve been different but the outcome felt incomplete.

I would say Tomorrow is one of those bang in the middle shows. It isn’t bad but it isn’t flawless either. It has an intriguing premise and the cast were good too. The writing was messy but I guess if you like something with a bit of defiance against the status quo romance and sweetness of other dramas then you’ll like it.

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A Really Poor Series…

I’m a big fan of hare-brained ideas and sci-fi fantasy shows. Some people mind find them absurd but I think that they have a certain peculiar charm to them.

I think that Alice was one of those shows which on paper and in the initial reading sounded brilliant. In fact I really liked the concept of the detective meeting his mother’s doppelgänger and the mystery element to the sci-fi fantasy action.

On the other hand I felt as though that even the screenwriters weren’t entirely sure what they were going with here. The plot logic seemed to be out the window. For example let’s cover the basis of the main leads’ parentage. I can’t believe for a minute that the female lead’s mother could’ve been THE ONLY female time traveller ever in the agency to be pregnant when time travelling, so why did it affect her of all people?

A lot of plot ties which seemed important in early episodes was rarely touched upon in the next episode . I think what made this funnier was the fact that despite seemingly being revolved around some big brained scientists who are main characters or have an active role in the events of the series a lot of evident matters with time travel such as paradoxes and the problem of the butterfly effect were often left disregarded.

I didn’t think the acting was entirely bad here but it was hard to feel anything authentic with the onscreen relationship between our leads!? I don’t know if I blame the actors entirely as it seemed as though the dialogue was a bit wooden and the slow pacing was an immediate turn off for me.

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