ShortCircuit

Zombies, 8 episodes... Everybody ded.

I am still on the fence about her, though. The only parts she's in that I kind of like are the parts where K is bashfully in love with her and I can only imagine what comes through RSY whenever he (K) is in his lovey-dovey phase LOL.

But mostly I forget what they're doing in that scene and just consider her eye-to-eyebrows ratio and wonder if her eyebrows are left that thick by accident or it's actually a very well planned form so that her eyes' arc*** can be better shown. (This might be beer talking LOL, nevermind me, I usually don't start calculating actors' appeal during the episode... if it's enticing enough. Unless it's Xiao Zhan. Because he's Xiao Zhan. I can't help it.)

*** In case this doesn't come clearly (because beer), her eyes look pretty Renascentine to me. Like she's a maiden in a Renaisance or Byzantine painting, if you know the kind I mean.

It improves from ep 2, and gets right up my alley from ep 3. The first one was a bit frustrating for me too :D

K is growing on me LOL. He was a lot more fun this episode.

And OGT is in the team now, yay! Poor Jae Seon is drinking vinegar :D

PS The Heart Mender steals the show LOL. More of his whacky treatment plan please :D

The Moon's gravitational acceleration is only 1.6 m/s2 (square, I don't know how to make it appear correctly), whereas the Earth is 9.8 m/s2. That means things weigh about 6 times less on the Moon than they do on Earth (not 80 times less :) ) The thing about astronaut costumes is that in the yea back years (when the Americans were putting Armstrong on the Moon, for example), they weighed quite a lot, precisely because the reduced weight could be moved by a normal-powered person. I don't remember right now, but they were in the 100 kg of mass or less range, added to the astronaut's own mass. And they still jumped around pretty funnily because they COULD. No air resistance, lower gravity, and the need not to stay in the sun for too long (because they were shielded from the radioactivity but they had to keep risks low.) Nowadays, space suits in the ISS are around 50 kg of mass, and they can do EVA in them, some of which last for hours, so I guess they advanced pretty much from Neil's time (with added functions too.)

So assuming the astronauts at LEAST kept up to our current abilities, they'd have similar space suits and could walk in them (or jump, rather) for a pretty fast walk in the sun while on the surface of the Moon. They said something about the reduced oxygen reserve to justify the need for speed, but it was not very specific, so I guess you could say they had to leave the shuttle so fast they couldn't get into more advance EVA suits. Or something. But let's say they weren't in the right suits, and the oxygen was depleted pretty fast - high effort activity would consume that oxygen even faster. So,,, I don't know. I mean, astronauts would be trained for such an instance, presumably, but some of the crew were not astronauts. This is a find-your-own-explanation thing, and not the only one.

The thing re: lunar water is more complex and I'm not that good at chemistry, so for me it's mostly mumbo-jumbo and even less hard science than the maths and physics. I mean - the first infected in the present team gets it from molecules he inhales (because NO MASKS DAMMIT - no seriously, this still pisses me off so much!) from the dessicated lungs of a corpse that supposedly remained in vaccuum and space-level cold for 5 years... So the molecule is incapacitated at minus 80C, but it remained active and infected a new host after YEARS of basically minus 200C?!

And as you say, if it clones itself indefinitely from an original molecule, then why the need for a host's biological fluids after all? That behaviour is organism-like, so it would have to be alive, but water is inorganic (non-life.) If it's self-replicating, where does it get the matter it needs, when it ends the fluids of the host? That final gush of water is like all the water from the previous victims just gathered around - in liquid form - for 5 years and just... decided to destroy everything in one go, for drama reasons LOL.

Plus the haunted elevator - that served what purpose? Unless it was just for another chance to neglect the existence of gravity LOL.

I haven't watched that one, because the trailer made it look like a SK version of the originally Japanese/Chinese drawn-into-the-game kind of story (I'm not certain if it would qualify as isekai.)

Would you say the plot was ignoring the laws of physics there, or that the fantastic elements (of the game world) were more important than the actual science? Because that's the definite separation mark / element between fantasy and scifi for me.

W: Two Worlds was a fantasy, for example, even if things were happening in the present-time, in both worlds, and that's because none of the causes of the world change was explained. Likewise The King Eternal Monarch - the whys were never explained. That's pure fantasy.

In Space Sweepers at least they had a try at space opera - and managed it, more or less, on a pretty simple scenario that borrowed a bit from this or that (the space dock for example was pretty reminiscent of the stage in The Fifth Element docks, and the general atmosphere was kind of like William Gibson-inspired cyberpunk. So even if they didn't try to explain the tech and the setting, it was familiar at the same time and tried to follow the rules of the universe as we know it.

The Silent Sea did very well, IMHO, with the Earth background - the deserts, and the dust-filled atmosphere, and the general sepia colour tone, but completely ignored simple facts like Moon's gravity being 6 times less than Earth's (even outside the station, Cpt. Han moved on that elevator like it was in Earth gravity, for example.) Or simple preventative measures that a scientifically-trained crew (of which we actually don't know much on what they were supposed to even do there, except for the captain, Dr. Song and the other doctor, and the engineer/villain) would have no excuse not to use. Like Dr. Hong using medical isolation equipment only inside the med lab, and everybody else - and her too actually - touching dead bodies with their bare hands and not even simple masks on, while trying to figure out a maybe-airborne virus. That is just not done, and not destroy suspension of disbelief immediately. And that's not even touching the maybe-immortal clone girl that didn't age from when she was tested on, didn't breathe - or need to (but she can cry and make sounds), didn't eat or maybe drink (but her hair grew, elsewise she remained the same as 5 years back...)

Anyway, as I said, for a drama that tried to be at least generally-scientifically sound, this failed. I really hope the next time they try something like this, it'll be so much better and inspire others to try a bit more, dare a bit further, give it a chance or two extra and make something that could really stand out on its own power.

Since binging this series the day it aired - because I was waiting for it and hoping for the best - I've expressed my dissatisfaction with what I think didn't work in its favour, and then came back, from time to time, to see how other people considered it.

What I've seen are a few people who know their tastes - and their simple, undeniable science facts - well enough to say it, and who give a little credit to the actors for making do with whatever the script gave them. And also, I've seen a lot of personal attacks on those people, from other watchers who keep gushing over how good and amazing and awesome this drama is.

Over the few past days, my initial impression of it didn't change for the better. I'm even glad I managed to see it before reading some of the "fan" comments, because that would have probably tainted it even more. To all these persons attacking anyone who "dares" not like the drama to the skies and above, here are a few things:

1. Most of us have seen other scifi series and movies, a lot of them much, much better than this one. We haven't seen many SK (or Asian) pure scifi (that is, one that tries hard enough to respect the facts of science) series so far because there aren't many of those. With the exception of horror, which is very well represented, and a few paranormal or fantastic elements in dramas (things like time travel or fantastic beasts of Asian lore like the gumiho, etc, used as plot elements to move the story along), I can only think of one newish SK movie that is actually scifi, and that's Space Sweepers. And even that one is way better than this drama, in terms of entertainment and plot, and it wasn't one of the very best scifi movies I've ever seen. (Keep in mind I AM a scifi&fantasy reader & watcher, and I've read and watched movies for decades. Yes, I am that old.)

2. All of us know well what we like and what we don't like, and most of all, what WORKS for us. We all make allowances for actors we like, and we're willing to close our eyes to the not-so-great of their work that they starred in. Not-so-great movies/dramas happen, from time to time, and it's not the fault of the cast that they're just not good enough. And despite the talent involved, if things do NOT gel well in a drama, they do not magically become better just because good actors are in it. So the argument that the cast and crew are good therefore anything they made is good does not hold water, sorry.

3. This is one of the very first scifi dramas that SK made (with foreign investment). They're allowed their learning pangs. I have no doubt that, as they learned to make very good horror movies/dramas, they'll be able to make better scifi movies/dramas in the future. But this is not the best they could have made, and pointing out the flaws in the script does not make the commenters "haters" or giving them bad intentions. The comment section should allow all opinions to be expressed with no attacks at the person commenting, just to keep it civil. So to you all persons who liked this above all others and keep comparing it with classics, I'll give you your right to your own opinion (can only speak for myself, obviously), and hope you'll give me the right to my own opinion. And no, I am not easily bored, I have a long enough attention span, I am pretty good at catching hidden details, as I've already said I have a VERY extensive list of scifi&fan movies/dramas I could draw upon for experience, I know my physics and maths so I just can't suspend disbelief in order for the story to make some sense, and no, I am not a direct fan of any of the actors in the drama, nor did I watch it for their sake - I watched it because the premise looked very interesting and after Space Sweepers, I really did hope it'll be at least as good (if not better).

And it was not.

I won't get into an argument here, just in case anyone is feeling like it. Let's all agree to disagree and maybe please keep the personal attacks aside, if it's possible.

If you've reached so far, thanks.

Soooo...

RSY: What's your name?
K: K
RSY: GAY?!
K (threatening tone): K.

OK, show, I'll believe you. A-ha.

LHK: Why do you keep leaving me flowers and not talking to me?
K: *shy emoticon*
LHK: What?!
K: *starts writing a whole romantic poem on the spot*
LHK: Okay *clicks off*
K: OH NOES!

Also, I'll bet you that's the orphanage where RSY started his life or where he was dropped off or something, before being adopted by mamma Ryu.

Episodes 3 and 4 are much better than the first two. The crazy is toned down, which works very well for me, and the bad is - like before - not necessarily that bad, LOL.

Yay, OGT woke up! I'm watching it for his story line, I want him to go on the Narcotics team to replace someone there, or if not, working with RSY in Internal Affairs.

So this is going to be an episodic - but linked - series. First you get the politician, then the druggies, what's next?

The "lunar" water HAS to be working on people - or Earth molecules, or the whole premise wouldn't make sense. And they do show the multiplying of water in contact with blood, so they waltzed past 1. xenomolecules being able to work on Earth molecules (there's a very high statistical chance that it can't happen, depending on what those xenomolecules actually are, but at this point, it's all scientific speculation) and 2. what ELSE does "lunar" water react to? We're only shown blood. It could be anything of Earth origin - but it didn't attack the metals, or plastics etc, just whatever was "living". That's too large an umbrella to leave outside of experiments, though.

If they said it's prone to attack ANYthing that's life-based (not just blood), then the fact the crew of the station was left behind would make sense, since they didn't know how many of them were exposed. But the complete and fast withdrawal makes no sense - an Earth-based lab would have separation doors (actually they use them in the series too, but NOT in the initial outbreak, because of reasons outside logic) to contain the spread of any biological compound. Particularly as they KNOW what they're doing there.

I don't know about the airlock. I initially thought it was because of the pressure gradient - like, it wouldn't open/close because the airlock wasn't emptied of air, as a precaution measure. But then the outside lock opens toward the outside?! The whole point of an airlock/pressure door is to keep closed when the outside is vacuum, and that means opening toward the inside (so if there's any chance of air/humans inside the airlock, they wouldn't be sucked out in case of a lock breakdown). But I haven't looked at actual space station airlocks, Maybe that one is according to rules of designing such a thing in real life. (For Earth buildings, doors have to open toward the outside to facilitate evacuation in case of fire hazard. But fire should not happen easily if at all in space facilities, if they build it right.) I don't know enough about that.

It's supposedly unethical to play with human clones etc but they had 73 of them ready to go, and the one that survived just so happened to be "awoken" looking similar in age and size to when she's found five years later, with just a wild bunch of longer hair to show time has passed for her too?! (Having not breathed and eaten and drunk? anything for those past five years too - but the hair does grow.)

If you think on it, it's all becoming more ridiculous. I've seen horror scifi that do a much better job with lesser visuals and cast. I blame the writing.

None of them were acting like professionals - the doctor wouldn't use gloves and masks except in the lab (why, did she think the virus they were suspecting won't be found outside the lab?!), the astronauts were more like walk-in replacement airline crews (the captain calmly accepted a replacement co-pilot in about 3 minutes before take off, what?!), there is only one who is a trained engineer - or so he says - what were the other people even supposed to do?! Go there and be cannon fodder?!

I get it, it's a dystopian world, and maybe the schooling system changed and/or standards slipped... but they treat space travel like going to the beach and nobody bats an eye when a billion-worth of equipment falls down in the crater. They're like, oh well, they'll send another to get us. If it was so easy, why didn't they do just that in the past 5 years, LOL?

So sad, I really have to learn to keep my hopes down...

So, if I wanted to have it make sense and I was one of the writers, I'd say Luna dragged some of them away as they were dying and used their bodies for the plants and/or food for herself. After all, most of the people in the station died locked up in Storage 3, and there definitely were NOT 117 bodies there. The bodies found outside were from raiders, so they said.

Instead of having so many, many shots of the Naruto-running and pipe-chasing in the station in the second half of the story, they would very well have moved the discovery of the clone story sooner and have Dr Song decypher what happened to the crew that was not on site in Storage 3, so that it doesn't stay just a horror scifi flick and gets more meaning. I could've done without the imaginary sisterly dialogue too - they weren't keeping in touch and yet Dr Song left her previous job as an astrobiologist because her sister died. It makes zero sense why she would be so affected if they were estranged...

IMHO, that's poor storytelling all around...

But plants are not alive as humans are alive (or fish, or whatever else creature that has a circulatory system and blood or another liquid inside that deals with life functions. And they didn't seem to end up destroyed, as the human bodies were. Sure, they could have mutated and adapted to the molecule or whatever, but still it doesn't make sense they'd proliferate with no actual nutrients and no sunlight - how would photosynthesis even work, anyway?! Luna - who seems to NOT have been breathing for 5 years (gills just sieve oxygen from water, they don't make fish or any other thing live with NO oxyen) couldn't have produced as much carbon dioxide for the plants to feed on, even if they had sunlight...

The captain was - supposedly - an astronaut. Or if not, water turning to ice immediately when exposed to very low temps should in the first handbooks on physics and chemistry, in the secondary school. How did he propose to keep the lock closed when the water pressure combined with the ice in process of being formed would - and did - explode through the least resistance surface anyway?!

And in the end, he did end up rolled over by the water - also supposedly - ouside, and NO ice on his suit though he was mucking around in the water spout, and NO cracks on his helmet because of reasons, and I guess they wanted to suggest there was a non-zero chance he'd make it to the incoming ship. Because he's a hero etc.

But seriously, there is NO chance of a living, breathing person (who could talk and cry, she definitely WAS breathing at some point, because that's how vocal chords work) to go outside in low vacuum and survive for any instance of time, with no pressure suit on. And not to mention the effing radiation... There are magnetic fields surrounding the Earth that save us from the worst of the Sun's radiation, and then a rather thick and dense atmosphere that deflects some of what does come through, and we still get skin cancers and whatnot from too much exposure - but this girl who is basically naked is strolling around with no care in the world, barefoot in 100K temps, not boiling off, not getting blisters, nothing... Even if she was a gene-modified clone of whoever, she used Earth-made genes, there was no alien thing inside her, and I know of no fish - or anything actually alive - that can survive direct space exposure...

Aaaargh. The more I think on it, the more I get angry, LOL.

He's not a killer. He doesn't kill anyone, but he does attack a few persons - mostly in self-defense.

He has some kind of mental health problem - probably somewhere in the autism range, highly performing, where he can't recognize the emotions of others or empathize with them. He's still able to feel emotions himself, he just can't recognize what they are. Think about it like he's someone emotions-blind like he would be colour-blind (he's not colour-blind though, LOL).

Go for it, if you're on the fence about it, it's worth it!

Ah Waterworld. The only movie I ever paid to see on the big screen and walked out in the middle of the showing. And I managed to struggle through Hollow Man, so it wasn't for lack of trying to stay there...

This doesn't fall as low as Waterworld for me, but on a scale of 0 to 10, The Martian (the novel) being a 10 and The Martian (the movie) being an 8, this is about a 3.5. I mean, there were some cool shots and I liked the sepia filter for the non-water world, LOL. But that was pretty much it.

I wouldn't outright call it boring - actually there are parts in the first half of the drama where there are pretty good jump scares. But the second half drags a lot and they throw everything about physics and maths out the airlock, which is not to be borne, IMHO.

Yeah, my problem with them is they're becoming kind of standard (even those you named are all pretty similar - horror / horror paranormal / bloody revenge story etc). And you already know what to expect from them - that's why I'm saying they're becoming too tropey and easily fitting into a mold, like Western dramas. The only thing still different from the shlock Netflix starts and ends in one season flat for the Western public, using Western actors, tropes, cultural norms etc, is that kdramas they produce still have SOME visible demarcation line (particularly those who are not only Netflix-airing). The actors look different enough to still be interesting to the public-at-large (I mean the casual kdrama watcher, not those who have watched more than the Netflix-produced dramas when they happen to get enough hype), the language is still intriguing, the cultural norms still aren't Western-cast (yet).

The thing with Netflix - and Disney+, lately - is that they HAVE the money to pay for whatever, produce it, throw it at the wall and see if it sticks. And the public will watch if for the novelty.

I don't have many sticks in this fire, so to say, but still... this is not the first kdrama that I was waiting for that managed to mess up in the end, in a pretty hurtful way - for me anyway. The horror stories they might do well with, but I have to admit I don't like horror and the paranormal-inclined and sci-fi I've seen, made with foreign investment, didn't convince me much...

I hope it's just because it's a new genre, but I do not expect it to be the case.

Edit: sorry for the rant, I'm still pretty miffed over this.

Not for me, not it wasn't worth the wait/watch. It depends on what you're expecting from it.

There are some cool shots of ships and the moon station and whatnot, but the story itself was pretty meh. Also, the ending is kind of make-what-you-will-of-it (there is an ending, just that it's the multiple meaning kind of dialogue, so that everything COULD still be in the air, just in case it makes enough waves for a second season...)

If you're for hard science, no, it's pretty much not The Martian, so to speak.

So TL:DR the rant above, Netflix is turning out to be for kdrama what Disney proved to be for the SW franchise (and pretty much anything else they've touched lately.)