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Nothing revolutionary, or unique about it.
However, it executes its tropes very well. Great chemistry between leads. Very good side characters/stories. Great pacing. Very satsfying ending.
As a purely romantic drama, it is one of the best I have seen. I had really great time.
8.5/10

P.S: I think the tags are missing Sci/Fi. The Male lead is certainly an Alien from outer space, because I doubt very much such men exist on Earth lol.

I would say the opposite.
One of the big strengths of this series is that it was only 12 episodes and didn't drag.
Of course you can stretch most series for more seasons, but you are more likely than not ruin things.
We just had a romance series that executed its premise and tropes very well. We had great and wonderfull time and very satsfying ending.
let's just saviour it.
More seasons are not going to give you the same feelings.

"or because I was already in a zen space of "why the fuck not" with this show." hahaha
It seems to me that we don't disagree that much.
It just that you happend to be in "why the fuck not" zone, and I wasn't lol :)

It is a reason, but frankly even 2 extra episodes in Argan wouldn't have changed my mind.
If anything, it might made it worse. At least now we had only little bit of it.

My objection to that arc is "structural". It is not the execution. I found his transformation from a civil servant to Rambo very, very off putting because it doesn't fit with the rest of the series.
I have accepted even more bonker plots and enjoyed them if it is that kind of story. But, the series wasn't like those where the hero goes through an army on his own and we just enjoy the ride.

You might say that was in the source material. Well, a good scriptwriter/director team know what to adapt and what not. The show must stands on its own. So, this is on the director for lacking good judgment.

Fair enough.
Personally, I am highly unlikely to watch anything from it again.
But, the cast did really well. The leads have a good chemistry which made it watchable.

Yup!
First few episodes were very good with some really intriguing, gripping and very promising set up.
Then around the 6th episode things started to go gradually worse. It is almost like they abandoned the original premise, and just reverted to the usual stuff, but only with medicore execution.

Unfortuantely, you have to brace yourself, the final stretch is the worst.

Hmmm. Interesting about the phone calls.

I also thought the phone calls were the best thing, but at the beginning when he didn't know. That was when the tension and intrigue was at the highest. Especially that first call!
That first one was awsome! I wish they had run with that!
The first crack about this series for me was when she sent him her picture. That was SOOOO illogical! That picture must have been taken from a very close proximity. And, why exactly he didn't look?
...and her subsequent calls started to become more and more specific in details, but much more reconciliatry in tone, almost imploring and pleading. That is hardly the behaviour of a blackmailer.
It was still somewhat enjoyable, but I had to dig VERY DEEP in my suspension of disbelief reserves.

Oh! this is by the director of "Still Walking". I really liked that movie. The mother was SO good!
I am going to watch this.

I had to pinch myself to see if I am real or clone lol.
Rarely someone has exactly the same opinion as me.

All I can do is not watching, just like I am not watching Squid Game sequels.
I am also very reluctant to start a new Kdrama if it is fully produced by an American company.
I have been saying this for a while now.
Kdrama needs to watch itself, otherwise it will turn into American drama just with Korean actors and locations, and at that moment what is the point of watching it?. We might as well go back to the original.

Yes.

Yes. I agree fully with that. Don't open ratings until it finish.
And I also think there is a value in your other suggestion about giving a grace period.
At least enforce that when you know there is a big controversy going on.

I want to go slightly off topic and ask a question of principle regardless of this drama. I am curious about your opinion.

Is it justified to give a book/movie/TV show a very low score because you hated it for reasons other than artistic?
Let me give an example. If you watch a movie where the entire talent in front and behind the camera is A list, but it glorify something you profoundly disagree with. You end the movie very angry with the message and in a really bad mood. Then you are asked to score it.
Can you really see past that feeling? even if you acknowledge the "craft"? I think the overwhelming majority would give a very low score, and I think you can see that done even by very respectful people in both ways (awarding high scores to works that align with their views)
Ultimately, the messages are integral parts of the work.

Personally, I can understand the concept of giving a work very low score because you profoundly disagree with it.
However, what I completely disagree with is condemning a work without consuming it.

I think the series would have went down either way, because that last episode was genuinely bad even if you remove that contoversial scene.
I know some people who don't know about this whole circus (I was one of them before coming here) and they also hated that last episode.
However, I think it would have probably settled around 8.4-8.5.

Personally I think there is an inflation in ratings anyway, but that is a different discussion.

That is not a bad idea at all.
Maybe a compromise would be you can rate, but there is no overall rating.
Hopefully force people to actually read some reasoning behind score.

But, this will not happen. Ultimately MDL wants traffic, and rating is one of the biggest source of it.

If you still have reserves of suspension of disbelief lol, then watch them, but they are objectively worse than the rest. E12 in particular, regardless of all this controversy, is genuinely bad.

Thank you.

Hi there.

I came here after watching the last episode, and was surprised by all this.
For full disclosure I thought the last episode was terrible regardless of this issue.
The series started SO well with very interesting premise and plot, but the suspension of disbelief required kept getting bigger and bigger. Revelations made prior actions look even more absurd.
By the end of E11, the series has already dropped to about 6.5-7.5.
However, the last episode pushed me beyond my limits. I mean, it was ridiculous. I thought I was watching a bad episode of the A team or something. Our ML suddenly turned in some kind of Action Hero. Give me a break!
I came here to see whether it was only me, but all I read is about something completely different.

You are saying it was a mistranslation. I am genuinely interested to know the correct one, and I would be thankful if you provide it.

I am not a person who judge things by last episode, but this was epically bad!
The series started so well with promising plot and idea, but around the middle the suspension of disbelief was required in greater and greater quantities.
The last episode was just a disaster.

Not sure about score, but probably 5.5 or 6/10 for the early episodes.

Thank you. My bad.

Thank you. My bad.