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Seonsaeng

Spain

Seonsaeng

Spain
Designated Survivor: 60 Days korean drama review
Completed
Designated Survivor: 60 Days
10 people found this review helpful
by Seonsaeng
Aug 22, 2019
16 of 16 episodes seen
Completed 3
Overall 4.5
Story 5.0
Acting/Cast 8.5
Music 8.0
Rewatch Value 3.0
If there is a word to describe this drama, it is disappointment.

This drama had a lot of potential, an interesting plot, an amazing cast and outstanding photography.

Then what failed?

The plotholes, the execution and the aggressive propaganda. This drama lacks soul.

The premise is very interesting: a terror attack kills the president and all government ministers, except for the minister of Environment, Park Moo Jin, who is then tasked with running the country for 60 days and brining the perpetrators to justice. Sounds great, doesn't it?

One of the main issues here is that you don't feel any tension, neither in the Blue House nor in the country. If something like this actually happened, there would be political instability, chaos and riots, but in this drama citizens just exist to slander our poor acting president Park on social networks, and not seeing his true worth. President Park is perfect, always knows best and never makes mistakes, even though he has not experience in politics. Even when he is reckless, results are always good. So it's not actually recklessness but endless wisdom, yay! This made the drama very predictable in this regard, but nevertheless interesting. The drama also has many plotholes and leaves important chunks unexplained on purpose. This was, in my view, a big mistake.

Another issue is that the drama focuses too much on the allegedly "progressive" politics of president Park rather than in finding who is behind the attack and why. So this drama is more of a political drama rather than a thriller. I love political dramas, but the premise of this drama doesn't suit a solely political drama. This issue is gravely compounded by a strong extremist agenda pushing, taken to such absurd lengths to the point it takes a huge, irreversible toll in an otherwise outstanding plot. Political agenda pushing is poison for entertainment, even more so when it's extreme and the plot is actually subordinated to it.

The cast is outstanding, and did an overall great job, especially Ji Jin Hee. Bae Jong Ok also stands out in what it seems to be one of the best roles of her acting career. The issue is that most characters are not deep at all, and they have no backstories, except for the lead. You can't understand their feelings or personalities. This, along with a poor script, led to a poor execution of which actors are not actually responsible.

I am sadly not exaggerating when I say this drama has been one of my biggest disappointments ever, if not the biggest. It had a lot of potential, a great cast and outstanding photography that have been thrown away by poor writing and political agenda pushing.

I am rating this drama a 4.5. This is my lowest score ever for a drama (the second lowest is 6.5). The positive aspects are unfortunately not enough for this drama to pass.
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