Boring, cringy, edgy
I'll try to keep it short, mostly because I don't wanna give it too much of my time.
Visuals. Somewhat ok. A few meh shots, but mostly everything in regards to visuals is ok. Apart from the fight choreography. You can see that they tried, the actors do put a lot of effort in those scenes, but the logic of the moves is meh at best. (Apart from ep 6, that one was good. For the most part. Because he should've done something else, something very specific. Anyway.) And thats a problem because the show involves proffessional killers. Btw, it has one of the worst snipers I've ever seen (mental discipline, target, technique).
** Funny thing: at some point in the first episode, the first scenes (I don't remember exactly when and I won't even check), our main protagonists watch a movie. She makes fun of it, a solo guy taking out all the other guys. He tells her no no, pay attention, he's using the blind spots. I started laughing, because of the irony. Apart from a few and very specific titles, the korean movies don't have good fight choreography. Its like they don't use trainers when filming. And the irony was that a line was used in this drama, as if its something korean movies do every time. And hen, the fact that they had none for this drama... Oh, they tried, sure. Like I said, lots and lots of moving parts and high tempo sht going on screen, it looks cool, but the logic behind the moves is sht. Also, only very few moments of "blind spots" used. **
Audio. This drama is supposed to have mystery/suspense/thriller so the sound design is done in a way thats catering to it. Lots and lots of dissonant strings, silence moments to draw you in, and such. You can say it is ok, it works well with the visuals unfolding on screen.
The editing is kinda meh. Too much "dead time". I mean, it has 8 episodes, stuff barely happens, ofc the editor tried to use every second available... Minimal world-building, but its not really needed anyway. Looks like mid production value, but dunno what for.
Now the good parts. The story is meh, at best. While the premise might seem interesting, this k-drama was boring as hell. At first I thought it was about setting the mood. Then the opening was replayed in the 3rd episode. They tried to make a couple of "Uh-oh, tense moments incoming. Will they live?" moments work, but because the drama started at a certain point in the story and then it went using flashbacks, you know how it will all end up. And, like I kept saying, the scenes were boring and very long, for no reason. I mean the reason was to have enough runtime, thats not what I was talking about. OK, it gets a little better for episodes 5-7 (I think?), but overall its a drag.
Anyway, the writing is bad. Only a few good stuff in there, the rest will make you sigh and roll your eyes. Add to that some edgy and cringe dialogue, acting and/or "bad guy speech" trope all around, and you get the picture.
A lot of plot devices and plot contrivances. Oh, and lots of red herring. Yet some of the stuff is still predictable. And yes, I'm ok with the over-the-top action scenes and situation, even with some of the sht physics involved, but not the "it just so happened that..." way of pushing the story forward. Thats just lazy writing. Oh, and the last 10 minutes or so were sht.
Now lets talk about character development. OK, I was being cheeky. I won't bother :)))
It gets a rating of 4. Apart from some very few extremely good acting, some very few character stuff and the ok-ish technical aspects, the story, writing and dialogue are sht and/or boring. No rewatch value, obviously. This could've been a 3-hour movie (maybe in 2 parts) if someone erased all the "dead beats". I mean the story would still need some small changes too, but you could have a good product. Ok, decent, lets not go crazy here. The premise is nothing new, it was just modified a bit. But, as it stands for now, nope. And yes, I'm aware a new season is on the way... Maybe it will get better.
Have a lovely day.
Visuals. Somewhat ok. A few meh shots, but mostly everything in regards to visuals is ok. Apart from the fight choreography. You can see that they tried, the actors do put a lot of effort in those scenes, but the logic of the moves is meh at best. (Apart from ep 6, that one was good. For the most part. Because he should've done something else, something very specific. Anyway.) And thats a problem because the show involves proffessional killers. Btw, it has one of the worst snipers I've ever seen (mental discipline, target, technique).
** Funny thing: at some point in the first episode, the first scenes (I don't remember exactly when and I won't even check), our main protagonists watch a movie. She makes fun of it, a solo guy taking out all the other guys. He tells her no no, pay attention, he's using the blind spots. I started laughing, because of the irony. Apart from a few and very specific titles, the korean movies don't have good fight choreography. Its like they don't use trainers when filming. And the irony was that a line was used in this drama, as if its something korean movies do every time. And hen, the fact that they had none for this drama... Oh, they tried, sure. Like I said, lots and lots of moving parts and high tempo sht going on screen, it looks cool, but the logic behind the moves is sht. Also, only very few moments of "blind spots" used. **
Audio. This drama is supposed to have mystery/suspense/thriller so the sound design is done in a way thats catering to it. Lots and lots of dissonant strings, silence moments to draw you in, and such. You can say it is ok, it works well with the visuals unfolding on screen.
The editing is kinda meh. Too much "dead time". I mean, it has 8 episodes, stuff barely happens, ofc the editor tried to use every second available... Minimal world-building, but its not really needed anyway. Looks like mid production value, but dunno what for.
Now the good parts. The story is meh, at best. While the premise might seem interesting, this k-drama was boring as hell. At first I thought it was about setting the mood. Then the opening was replayed in the 3rd episode. They tried to make a couple of "Uh-oh, tense moments incoming. Will they live?" moments work, but because the drama started at a certain point in the story and then it went using flashbacks, you know how it will all end up. And, like I kept saying, the scenes were boring and very long, for no reason. I mean the reason was to have enough runtime, thats not what I was talking about. OK, it gets a little better for episodes 5-7 (I think?), but overall its a drag.
Anyway, the writing is bad. Only a few good stuff in there, the rest will make you sigh and roll your eyes. Add to that some edgy and cringe dialogue, acting and/or "bad guy speech" trope all around, and you get the picture.
A lot of plot devices and plot contrivances. Oh, and lots of red herring. Yet some of the stuff is still predictable. And yes, I'm ok with the over-the-top action scenes and situation, even with some of the sht physics involved, but not the "it just so happened that..." way of pushing the story forward. Thats just lazy writing. Oh, and the last 10 minutes or so were sht.
Now lets talk about character development. OK, I was being cheeky. I won't bother :)))
It gets a rating of 4. Apart from some very few extremely good acting, some very few character stuff and the ok-ish technical aspects, the story, writing and dialogue are sht and/or boring. No rewatch value, obviously. This could've been a 3-hour movie (maybe in 2 parts) if someone erased all the "dead beats". I mean the story would still need some small changes too, but you could have a good product. Ok, decent, lets not go crazy here. The premise is nothing new, it was just modified a bit. But, as it stands for now, nope. And yes, I'm aware a new season is on the way... Maybe it will get better.
Have a lovely day.
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