This review may contain spoilers
Thought it was good but I was misTaken
A strong 5...
OMG, I really thought this show was going to say something meaningful about bullying, single parenthood, guilt, parenting, etc. Wow, was I misTAKEN. Lmao, I mean, the pun was right there.
I started this at a 6.5, but somewhere after the halfway mark it completely lost direction and slid down to a 6 then a 5. I'm of the camp that this should have ended at episode 7. Everything after that feels like the production trying to outdo itself instead of knowing when to land the plane.
The premise was never original. It is basically the retired black-ops dad formula, Taken with a Seoul postcode. Honestly, I would have been fine with that if the adaptation had brought something new to it, but it really doesn't. Instead, it pads everything. Flashbacks that could have been two-minute scenes are stretched into entire chunks of runtime, and the North Korean orphan storyline feels like the same copy-and-paste plot we've already seen a dozen times. I just wanted one fresh idea. Apparently, that was too much to ask.
Ju Gang-chan is the biggest waste for me. He starts off strong and then somehow becomes more pathetic with every episode. I'm supposed to believe this feared gangster-turned-businessman sold out his entire country because his daughter assaulted a classmate? Then, when his downfall finally comes, we barely see it as enough. All that setup for what?
Then there is our lead, wearing the exact same expression in every single scene. Grief, rage, tenderness, mid-fight, it is all the same face. I cannot roll my eyes far enough.
I came for the action, and some of it is genuinely sloppy, but at least it is frequent. Honestly, though, this show is far more interested in being a comedy about three middle-aged men than the thriller it sold itself as. My respect for the trio and their chemistry is doing most of the work keeping this at a 5.
And yes, season 2 is apparently being discussed.
Yaaay. :(
OMG, I really thought this show was going to say something meaningful about bullying, single parenthood, guilt, parenting, etc. Wow, was I misTAKEN. Lmao, I mean, the pun was right there.
I started this at a 6.5, but somewhere after the halfway mark it completely lost direction and slid down to a 6 then a 5. I'm of the camp that this should have ended at episode 7. Everything after that feels like the production trying to outdo itself instead of knowing when to land the plane.
The premise was never original. It is basically the retired black-ops dad formula, Taken with a Seoul postcode. Honestly, I would have been fine with that if the adaptation had brought something new to it, but it really doesn't. Instead, it pads everything. Flashbacks that could have been two-minute scenes are stretched into entire chunks of runtime, and the North Korean orphan storyline feels like the same copy-and-paste plot we've already seen a dozen times. I just wanted one fresh idea. Apparently, that was too much to ask.
Ju Gang-chan is the biggest waste for me. He starts off strong and then somehow becomes more pathetic with every episode. I'm supposed to believe this feared gangster-turned-businessman sold out his entire country because his daughter assaulted a classmate? Then, when his downfall finally comes, we barely see it as enough. All that setup for what?
Then there is our lead, wearing the exact same expression in every single scene. Grief, rage, tenderness, mid-fight, it is all the same face. I cannot roll my eyes far enough.
I came for the action, and some of it is genuinely sloppy, but at least it is frequent. Honestly, though, this show is far more interested in being a comedy about three middle-aged men than the thriller it sold itself as. My respect for the trio and their chemistry is doing most of the work keeping this at a 5.
And yes, season 2 is apparently being discussed.
Yaaay. :(
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