Unnursvana
Iceland
In preparation for season two however, I did re-watch season one about a week before the new season dropped on Netflix. I decided to take things slow this time, not binge watch it since I am not really a binge watcher.
Being able to watch that season one episode at a time made me like the more slow-paced story a lot more, and then immediately go into the next season the following day was incredibly satisfying.
Season two brought us straight back into the grim fate of the characters and the chaos that we were facing at the end of season two and it just kind of never slows down after that, as the story pulls us through some new and exciting parts of the story.
Although a lot more fast paced, with a lot more action and shorter episode, this season managed to still give itself time explore the characters a lot more, as well as the virus that is effecting the people and turning them into zombies. The story becomes deeper and richer with every passing episode.
Characters that I like become even more likable here, characters I didn’t like became more interesting as their action impacted the story more, and the motivations for all of them get explored a lot more, and the story just seems to expand a little and the storytelling felt a lot tighter.
People using the plague to further their political standing and seeing how greed and power impacted the whole thing was very fascinating to watch. Especially as you keep reading about the world news and the covid-19 outbreaks. Having that in the back of your mind as you were watching this was a bit surreal (at least for me).
For the first season I felt like I enjoyed the story more when I took things slow. It didn’t feel as fast paced as I said, or as grand as this one did. Here the stakes and the action is doubled as we go further and further into the series and I could not pull my eyes away from the screen until I had finished the whole thing (with breaks).
Also, the story there was not that complete, while this one did, while also serving us a cliffhanger. Heck, they even managed to end every episode with a mini cliffhanger, so you just wanted to keep going.
In the end the story feels like a well-crafted big action flick, no character is safe, people are betraying each other, and you can’t be sure of how it’s all going to end. Seeing the story and the action unfold before your eyes is just a joy It never stops, just like those zombies they are facing. To keep that up until the end is no easy feat.
There was a lot put into this show and it shows. The fight scenes are amazing, the costumes, the cinematography is amazing. Some of these shots were just so gorgeous to look at.
You can say that the second season of Kingdom blew all my expectations away. I was so enjoying myself. It was what I wanted season one to be, although I don’t think we could have had season two this good without the slow buildup of season one. Just a good zombie-period drama with some high stakes and actions, that still manages to make you feel things and just feel empty like some big action flick with no weight behind it.
Because when these characters slash those heads of those zombies, it feels like it matters. Not just because it’s gore and there is action and therefor it’s fun, but you feel for those characters. There is even more gore and horror in this season as there was in the previous season, but I felt like it fit with the scope of the story and where the story was at each given point. It’s just a really well made horror show. And I can’t wait to see what this show can bring us in season 3 (please, Netflix, don’t fail me now).
Was this review helpful to you?
This drama surprised me so much. The story is just as crazy as it sounds, memory loss isn't anything new in kdramas and often I shudder when I hear the words amnesia being used to advance the plot, but the story is told in such a amusing, cleaver and sincere sort of way that you can't help but be hooked by it. The show always seemed to be very aware of itself and what it was trying to do and just very comfortable with its absurdity.
The tone of the story is rather slice of life some places, but achieves those more dramatic moments when it needs to, humor is on the black side and takes advantage of how ridiculous everything is around what I appreciated and it always managed to blend it, thrill and more the mundane story of the characters we meet along the way.
I didn’t feel like the drama thread a lot of new ways with some of the tropes it used, or dives too deeply into them. It more so just has a lot of fun with them. There is a very nice balance between the comedy, the absurd and then the more thriller aspect of the show, which makes it stand out. It makes Psychopath Diary become unlike other kdramas I have seen before.
I expected the more serious side of the show to take over at some point, for the comedy to sort of step aside as the story got bleaker. But the story always seems to flow well between those different genres the show has all mixed up in there. It had a rhythm going on. There is always some twist to every aspect of the story, and the comedy interrupts the tension a lot of the time and vice versa. There was such a nice mix going on there, one that I didn’t think would work as well as they did. It never gets too tired.
They never make you guess too much, not even with who the real psychopath is; that makes us just in on the joke. You have a hunch about where this is going, but still the drama is so cleverly absurd that you do have a hard time guessing what will happen next. And the drama makes great use of it.
In Woo also always managed to be one step ahead of the other characters, and while it did feel a bit repetitive (and very annoying towards the end, but in a good way), that I still found myself very enthralled and excited about each new episode. In Woo is a killer I could really enjoy. He's just evil, no trauma or explanation needed, and it’s just great to watch. It worked out well for the story and you somehow never knew what he would do next.
Sometimes he seems a little too cartoonish as the bad guy, smirking and laughing in the background. But it felt so intentional and in the spirit of the humor within the show, that it sorts of works.
Sometimes the comedy goes a bit overboard, and sometimes you can sense when the switch between the tension, the more dramatic points, and the more comedic aspects of the shows (like when the twists are revealed) but it is always so very entertaining and just a very fun ride throughout. I was expecting it loose steam at some point, for the plot to become way to ridiculous, but it just went full steam ahead and just made this crazy plot its own.
There is very little romance here. I was expecting more, but I was very happy with how little we got. There was plenty else to do within the story already and adding romance on top of that would have been too much. We just got more solid character interactions and different relationship development instead. There was definite fondness, possible attraction between Dong Sik and Shim Bo Kyung. But there weren’t much more than a few longing eye-contacts and so on between them
I liked Bo Kyung, our female heroine, as a character. She was always very consistent with herself, rather sensible and smart and always went after what she thought was right. Her character was never set aside as the story went along, people listened to her, she was valued, and she had real impact on the story. So often female cops on these shows are just there running along with the men and just there to get into dangers. Not here.
Dong Sik who goes from being a pushover to someone who learns to stand up for himself, , and over the story does a good job with presenting the characters to us so we can understand them, and get behind their actions and why they did things the way they did them; despite the absurdity that is prevalent all around them. Yoon Shi Yoon plays Dong Sik so well. He is so good in this role and he gets to show all his aspects as an actor here. All the actors here are very good in their roles.
Was this review helpful to you?
My Country is a bit like Six Flying Dragons, and Warrior Baek Dong Soo had a beautiful angsty baby together.
Six Flying Dragons since the story takes place in the same time period and a lot of the characters who were the main characters there and secondary characters in this one. And Warrior Baek Dong Soo that is also drama about two friends who end up fighting against each other and the sad and angsty bromance that comes with that. Yet I feel like My Country managed to be its own show despite all these comparisons.
I recognized and knew about the events that took place here, I knew where we were heading all the time. However, it did not damage the story in any for me. There was plenty of other parts within the story that surprised me.
The main story is so much more than the power of the Lee family as Goryeo changes into Joseon, which was the center story in Six Flying Dragons, but here the story of friendship and relationship between Hwi and Seon Ho is the center of it all – their love story even, if Korea had daring enough to go there. How their friendship and love for each other pulls them apart and back together and then apart again and so on. That is what draws you in and keep you there as the story goes along. That is the emotional core of the show. The politics and all of that is just the structure around it.
Each episode was over an hour in length, but all of them had a rather quicker pace, things didn’t really drag on all too much, things were rather action packed - there were some cool fight scenes in there from time to time – and it continued to surprise all the way until the end. I always found myself really engaged within the story, I was always excited about the next episode and each episode made me feel something; anger, horror, sadness, etc., which is what I'm looking for in a tv show. It really hooked me in and didn’t want to let me go, which I liked.
My Country is quite heavy on the politics, as well on the battles and blood and all that good stuff you can find in a drama such as this. This is no picknick at the park. This is a drama about men fighting their troubles and feelings away with swords, are usually covered in blood at some point in each episode, and nobody is really truly happy outside maybe the first two episodes. I am a rather simple soul when it comes to these things and My Country gave me my fix for handsome warriors in period dramas who are somehow always covered in ether blood or sweat or both.
You can pretty much predict how it ends before you get there, the story isn’t super subtle about it, but the story still takes you on a wild ride. The story sort of just gives you what it promised in the beginning, and I can respect that.
This drama gave you what it promised in the beginning, when it opens with the two main characters about to fight each other. It set the tone quite well. This is not a drama that starts as a cute and fluffy little tale in the first ten episodes and then does a switch and the last six episodes are almost a Shakespearian tragedy, as many other kdramas tend to do.
It’s not for everybody, but I rather enjoy the bloodbath, the politics, the sword fighting and all the other stuff that comes with this type of show. A bit on the heavy side, rather male-dominated or male centric story. But most stories, no matter what form they come in, kdramas or not, are sometimes rather male-centric. Having grown up oh those kinds of stories I don’t have a problem enjoying them, though over the years I have learned to be more watchful and critical over such things.
My biggest (and possibly only) gripe with this show exactly how much space the male characters took in comparison with the female characters. The females started of strong, they mattered and they had their own thing going on, but a little by little most of them kind of seemed to either die or almost disappear as we went further into the story – and I almost did not notice it until the very end, because the story had sort of swept me away from them.
I have said it before that I do not necessarily need to see female characters in these stories fighting with sword (though I do like it when that happens) and being a complete badass like Hwi or Seon Ho. But getting to see them have more influence within the story. See them give advice, solve problems, even cause problems, and in general have something significant to do within the story that helps the plot along is always appreciated. Even requested (from me).
This took place in a very male-centric world; a lot of decisions were made by men and they fought in wars and all that. But I have still seen stories that happen at a similar time, or other period dramas from Korea that seemed to achieve doing so much more with the female characters then this drama did. Like the Six Flying Dragons or even the Rebel Hong Gil Dong did (both rather male stories on their own way) for example. I know it is possible, so I expected a more from My Country then I got in that respect.
My Country isn't really a drama for the average or newbie kdrama watcher who shuns away from most sageuks and especially this one who is more on the heavier side with very little romance - but a whole lot of bromance - and political intrigue. But I do feel like it gave me my sageuk fix and I do think it could appeal to some of other people who might not be too keen on the average kdrama because of the romance and all of that. Like Tree With Deep Roots and Six Flying Dragons (even if 50 episodes us a lot).
Was this review helpful to you?
This drama had that bit of a fairy tale vibe about it that I really enjoyed, and I felt lacking in their previous fantasy show. There seems to have been put a lot of effort into it, looks wise at least, which made it really cool to look at. The drama looked stunning. The clothes that IU wore were frenzy, the scene was done, and the special effects were well done.
The story wasn’t terribly original, and you can very easily point out similarities to other dramas like Goblin - another hugely popular drama about a fairy-tale creature that lived for a very long time and falls in love with a human being. Or just other stories about ancient being falling for mortals. There are plenty of those to go around. But I do like this version of the story. Mainly because here that ancient being is female, which is rarely the case.
And that magical being, Jang Man Wol (and of course IU), stole the scene every time she came on the screen. And the fact that she got to be the main star there, in a role most often assigned to a male character in similar stories, was what made this drama sorts of unique to me and was one of the main reasons why I liked it so much.
Yeo Jin Goo, though perhaps a better actor than IU, did not get to shine all that much in this drama. His character was sometimes just there. He was out connection to the human world to us and the ghost characters, but he was also just there to make Manwol open up and find love again - a role most often given to the female character. It got on the nerves of some people (understandably) but I enjoyed the role reversal a whole lot.
Some of these ghosts of the week (as I call them) didn't really do much for the plot, didn't link it too much together and were often just there to act as fillers while we waited for more on Manwol's backstory and gave the characters time to do something as the story chucked along. But Manwol’s story was the focal point of the whole drama. But even if it happens quite slowly, but I didn’t really get that bored. I enjoyed a lot of this extra bits (even if it started to drag the story a lot towards the end) and some of the side characters that the drama gave us.
I was impressed by some of these ghost stories were told and some of the more fantastical storylines, though they became weaker as we went further into the story. The Hong Sisters are usually good at mixing ghosts and some of the more traditional romantic comedy plot, but they also tend to loose their hold on that as the story goes on.
The romance in this one was a bit on the slow-burning side of the spectrum. I expected a whole lot more from it at the start of the drama. There was never any great spark between IU and Yeo Jin Goo. That chemistry where you felt they were right about kissing every time they were together. I was a lot softer than that and the romance a lot quieter than I expected, but you really got the sense that they really cared about each other.
The story, or the romance, was never too tense. It was more just sweet. But I really enjoyed that. The intensity was more in Manwol’s backstory, so while some might find the modern version of the show a bit boring and lacking compared to that, I felt like it created a bit of a balance between the two stories. And that part being more somber and mellow made the backstory stand out more. However, it also made the story kind of just fade out towards the end instead of going out with a bang. It was nice, but maybe not super rememberable.
It was a mellow little noona-romance and I liked it. There was more chemistry and drama in the other storyline, but this one had that fairytale vibe. Unlike other stories, like Goblin, it was never creepy that one person was immortal and the other was not. And I think the role change helped. And I enjoyed that.
The story wasn't big enough for these sixteen episodes. It was rather simple. But what the drama may have lacked in story, it sorts of made up with style and a kickass female lead, which I was kind of okay with.
After all, this was Manwol's drama, where her character and her backstory were the strongest point of the drama. Her backstory could have been its own drama. And IU is so charming in this role. This drama would be lifeless without her and getting to see a female character in such a role is not something I see every day (both in kdrams and other shows). I shall remember this drama for a long time because of Manwol.
Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
From Why Secretary Kim to My Stranger Hero and now Her Private Life it seems like my kdrama rom-com slump is finally over. I say slump since for few years I didn’t really enjoy those rom-coms like I used to, and I didn’t really write any reviews for those dramas.Her Private Life went in a bit of a circle for me. I wasn’t too keen on it at first. I wasn’t a fan of the humor and the whole fangirl aspect of it wasn’t really doing it for me, even if I consider myself a fangirl myself (just not that much like Deok Mi).
It wasn’t until the romance really kicked in, with all the fake dating shenanigans - one of my fav rom-com tropes ever - that I almost sold my soul to this drama for a few weeks.
The drama toned down the humor and sort of became sweeter and light, which I enjoyed. I really liked all the pining in the beginng and the start of the relationship. It was very predictable at times, but I could not get enough.
I would personally have wanted more depth into the whole fangirl business and the whole culture of that. More focus on Deok Mi and Cindy - which was one of the more interesting side characters in the drama - and them finding a balance in their fangirl activities. Not just the worry about how Ryan would react to Deok Mi being a fangirl.
For a drama about the private life of a fansite manager and all of that, I expected more of the plot to revolve around that and not about the family drama of Ryan Gold.
The success with this drama, with me and other, is kinda thanks to the actors and how well they played these characters. They had very nice chemistry together. Deok Mi and Ryan was the sweetest couple and treated each other with such a respect and tenderness. It was wonderful.
There was not a whole lot of conflict in this drama, even if it used some very well known tropes in it story lines that usually really amps up the conflict. The characters sat down and talk things through, which I really liked. I thought that was sweet and I like how things didn’t drag too much.
But that also left the story kinda conflict-less and therefore not a whole lot happened toward the end. It slowly ran out of story to tell. If you are going to have such a non-conflict like story then you kinda have to fill it with side characters and plots that make the story a bit more exciting.
The romance, as sweet as it was, wasn’t always enough. Especially when some of the side characters and their stories were really not fun at all. The ending suffered a bit from this, in my opinion. The story was over before the drama was over and I was starting to fast-forward through certain scenes.
Was this review helpful to you?
And in a story about survival, like Kingdom (or just any story for the matter) I need to be emotionally connected to the characters in order to root for them. I did not feel like any of the characters stood out to me, no matter how well acted they were.
The story line itself was cool and quite interesting. It was, for the most part, a well put-together show. I had been excited about it since it was announced so in a way it was a letdown that I did not find it binge watchable enough. I did have my doubts about the six episode format and that it seemed to want to expand the story to two seasons before the first season aired, like the just cut the story in half. So I only got one half of the story, which annoyed me a little.
My annoyance might come out because that isn’t how I am used to consuming my kdramas. It was interesting to see kdrama with perhaps a little more Netflix style. There are a lot of dramas on Netflix, but most were not made for Netflix and maybe not quite this binge formula in mind - although a lot of dramas are very good for such a binge. It might be that I am more used to the sixteen to twenty four episode dramas, so I did not feel like six episodes were enough to develop the story. Sometimes dramas don’t find their groove until episode six.
These six episodes delivered a pretty tight, exciting, actionpacked plot - and the action scenes were often great, but would have been greater if I cared more what happened to the characters - and for a zombie show I didn’t feel like the same story line was repeated over and over again, even if good number of the episodes were devoted to fighting or running away from zombies.
The politics of the palace and that whole story line mashed well with the action and the two plot did work quite well together. They did not feel like two completely different stories, which can sometimes happen when you mix genres together. Although most of the time, I enjoyed the politics and the scheming inside the palace more than the stuff that was happening outside the palace.
But because season one only had six episodes there was a lot that needed to be done and set up and I didn’t feel that the characters were getting enough of the time for us to get to know them properly, or develop too much. But we also have not gotten the complete story and in some way it seamed to have just gotten started when it ended. And in a way I feel like I can’t really judge it (too much) before I have seen the second half of this story. But this was the good spin on the zombie story
Was this review helpful to you?
The drama was rather successful in blending these sweeter rom-com elements with a more serious and dramatic plot. There was a fine balance between these two storylines and neither one seemed to take too much time from each other, but rather work together quite well. Some dramas are upper sweet and cute in the beginning, but then it hits you with all the drama and it sucks the life out of the romance. But this show made the drama and the rom-com elements work.
The most memorable and the best thing about the drama was the main couple - as it is supposed to be in such rom-coms - not the revenge plot, even if I did start to really enjoy it towards the end. But I watched this mostly for the characters and the sweet moments and other cute bits. The characters, from the main couple to the side characters were really cute.
The revenge or the more serious plot was a bit too dramatic at times, but at the same time I felt as if it needed a bit more momentum at times to really work. The drama didn’t dive deep enough sometimes I felt, but it didn’t matter much to me, because that wasn’t what I was watching the drama for. But I felt like, in the end, the drama had said all that it wanted or needed to say. So it felt satisfying.
The drama had loads of great characters, but what stood out for me the most was actually the female character, Son Soo Jung, who was completely the hero of this drama and goes the most character journey of them all. It is usually the female character who has the role of making the male hero a better person but doesn’t always change that much as a character, but it seemed to be the opposite of this drama, which was something I really liked.
Soo Jung starts the drama of being kinda guarded against everything and everyone, she does not do well in life and she makes some wrong decisions at the beginning, which she has to pay for later on, but in her relationship with Kang Bok Soo she learns or wants to do better and she opens up more. She got the storyline that the male leads usually get. The drama spends a lot of time on her as a character and her developmental as a person, making her one of the stronger characters in the drama. It’s not all dramas manage that, or do it as well as My Strange Hero did, which was something I really enjoyed.
Out of all the main characters in this drama, Bok Soo, goes through the smallest character journey, but he as a characters does not change as much through the drama. He becomes less focused on revenge and opens up more, but I feel like the main goal of that character was to help some of the other character grow as human beings.
My Strange Hero was a drama I didn’t expect much from but ended up waiting eagerly for the next episode every week. It was so light and fun and overall a rather solid rom-com. At least for me. I haven’t found a drama with Yoo Seung Ho that I enjoyed this much in a long, which I really enjoyed, since I am a big fan of his.
Was this review helpful to you?
The Guest is unlike any kdrama I've ever seen before. It's bloody and dark and overall just a really good horror show. They really went all out there with the horror sometimes and it was great. The story, way it was shot, the actors, and the music also worked so well together. Overall it was just a really fun drama to watch.
Many people found it difficult to watch because of the horror that was on display. I am very fond of this kind horror, with ghosts and demons and stuff, so I was kind of in my element. I switched off the lights and turned some candles on before (almost) every episode. I had a great time watching it.
The story was for the most part very well put together. It started of very strong (and because of that some of the following episodes felt a bit weaker in comparison), but there were a lot of interesting twists and turns in there and some really fun characters. The begrudging collaboration between the three main characters that, along the way, turned into some beautiful friendship was awesome.
Often when you thought you knew what was going on, or what was going to happen, the drama managed to twist it just a little bit. There were a few times when a episode ended and I just sat there watching the credits and just going; "oh, shit."
Some episode were a bit slower than other and sometimes those episodes felt like they were more fillers, especially towards the middle and right before the final episodes rolled around. But you also needed to slow things down from time to time and not have it all action. But there were also episodes were everything just clicked together and everything had a nice pace to it. The drama isn't perfect. No drama is.
There was a time where I felt like we were a bit stuck running around in circles, where there was almost the 'possession of the weak' going on and a lot of the same turns of events were happening and some parts felt a little repetitive, but we were still gathering a lot of new information’s and clues while running around those circles, so I did not mind it too much.
I don't know if I will ever watch a kdrama quite like The Guest again. It felt like a unique viewing experience, even if the themes of exorcism and all of that aren’t new to horror movies or shows. I felt the Guest kind of tried to make it their own. For me it was something new and fresh compared to other kdramas. And I shall miss watching it.
Was this review helpful to you?
If you strip away all the fun, colorful characters and the cute and fun scenes that were sprinkled all over the drama the main story really isn’t that special, but the characters and the brilliant chemistry between the main leads make it work. And that is the reason why you are watching. They sell the show.
There might not be a whole lot of story there at times it never really fails to amsuse you or make you smile. I never felt bored watching these episode and most of the time they felt really light and fun. And I think that is what rom-com should do, in a way.
Recently Kdrama rom-coms haven’t really been working their magic on me, so finding one that did felt so nice. Very often I think these shows start of well - or in a way that interests me - but after a while I just get bored. But with Secretary Kim that didn’t happen. I sometimes watched these episodes again while I was waiting for new ones and that’s rare for me.
I said before that Why Secretary Kim did have elements of very standard Kdrama rom-com; with the rich CEO with too much ego and the hard-working yet poor heroine that takes most things with a smile and there is a tragic back story thrown in there as well for some drama.
But Why Secretary Kim tried to make that work to the best of their ability and for the most part they succeeded. I didn’t think the more dramatic storyline overshadowed the fun stuff and dragged the mooed down. And it didn’t drag on forever and ever. There were some that thought the story had ended after that got resolved, but since I thought that was the most boring part of the drama and I just enjoyed it for the characters and the main couple and all of that, I really enjoyed that part.
I never felt that was an awful lot on the way of the main couple. Not disapproving-family members or something that was too much of a road-block. Most things got resolved relatively quickly since the characters very often talked to each other or talked it out with someone else about the problems they were facing, so there were no misunderstandings that dragged on forever. The drama focused a lot on the dynamic between the characters and their relationships and I think that tributes to the drama just being really light and easy to watch.
The success of the drama is mainly because of the chemistry between the main couple and a lot of the drama was just about their relationship and them getting to know each other better (outside of work).
Also the main character of this drama was always Mi So. Park Min Young really shines in this role. We saw things through her eyes - sometimes the focus was on Young Joon, but that was mainly to highlight a certain point or something. But unlike so many shows her story was never put on the back-burner for the sake of the male character’s storyline. There was a nice balance there. And they both got a chance to grow.
I also felt like they managed to make some of the side-characters more deep and have them serve some kind of purpose by making them be there for the main character and talk about their issues with them and give them their own problems and the characters all supported each other, especially the ladies. They were not always just there for comic-relief, which also made the drama more fun. One of the few dull characters was Young Joon’s brother.
Like Young Joon’s friend, played by the brilliant Kang Ki Young (one of the best characters in the drama, aside from Mi So). I was genuinely excited whenever he or some of the other side-characters came on the screen. Sometimes I just think they take up space and time from the main couple, but not in this drama.
There was something really fun and nice to finally watch a rom-com like Why Secretary Kim after so much time had passed since I had genuinely liked a rom-com this much (the last time I wrote a review for a rom-com was 2014). It never had to grow on me and I didn’t get bored of it after few weeks. I didn’t have too high expectations but this show very quickly won me over and I am so happy about that. And while the story maybe wasn’t that grand or meaty, and some might say that not much happened, I never really got bored of this show. Not a single episode. I just had a lot of fun.
Was this review helpful to you?
And while Age of Youth 2 certainly didn’t beat Age of Youth in terms of quality, or how good it was, I can’t say that this was a bad drama. This was still the story of five girls and all the ups and downs in their lives. Even if it did not feel as fresh or new, but then again, to me, it was never going to since it was coming after the first season. It was a lovely continuation in my opinion, was what it was supposed to be. A continuation. And I think I have to judge it based on that.
At first people were concerned about how many changes were made (and some people it was just too much) but these changed didn’t affect the story itself too much, though it did a little. Even if they added more male roles, they did not take any (or not much) time from the girls and their story. It was still all about the girls.
When it comes to both seasons of Age of Youth, they are mainly about the girls in Belle Epoque, their lives and their friendships.
The boys are just on the sidelines, featuring in the stories of the girls and it wasn’t super heavy on the romance. And while there are some people who find the focus of the series have shifted a little more from the story of the girls, and into the story of the girls and all these ships, I personally never saw it that way.
A good part of the first series was dedicated to these ‘ships’. Ether those who were there from day one (Yeun and her boyfriend) or the ones that slowly formed during course of the drama. (Jinmyung and Eun Jae and their men). The fandom might have shifted its focus more on these ‘ships’ in a second series, but the story itself didn’t.
I think this focus on these couples within the fandoms has more to do with the fact that the underlying story of Age of Youth 2 was not as captivating or compelling as in the previous season. Or it didn’t feel as tight. I like the stories that were featured in this season, but at the same time I did not feel like these stories had too much to do with each other, as they did in season two. This season didn’t have any ghosts in the shoe-closet to connect all these story-lines and make it all more symbolic.
There were many interesting stories going in this series, but they didn’t have too much to do with each other, and we did not quite get these individual episodes that we got into the previous series, which added so much to these characters. The connection that these stories had with each other was mainly that the girls all lived in the same house.
To me, Song Ji Won, one of my favorite last season, got the biggest, heaviest and probably the best storyline, compared to the previous season where she was mostly on the side-lines. Which is great since Park Eun Bin is a great actress, one of the strongest in this drama and Song Ji Won deserved her own spotlight.
Her story had the greatest weight and depth in this season, and we got to see more of her and Im Sung Min, which I appreciated (cuz I ship them). I was over the moon over it and though that story took us to some rather dark place at times, it was handled quite well.
It took her character to another level and made her into such a complex characters. To me she is the star of Age of Youth 2. To me she was the main character of this season.
Drama was still only in trying to make the story darker, or more dangerous, than she had to be (in order to be edgy) in my opinion. But those items did not appear to be dry, or out of nothing, and just being there to make us feel uncomfortable.
Yeun and Jinmyung both got to continue on with their stories from the first season, as Jinmyung lays his first step into the adult, working-world, and Yeun is struggling with the follow-up of the violent relationship she had with her former boyfriend. And I thought that was very done, how Yeun and the drama managed to handle that problem and how she slowly began to become more confident. I was very happy with that progress.
Jo Eun, the new girl, who moves (after Yi Na moves away in episode 1) and although I found her friendship with the girls, how she opened herself up bit by bit, and her relationship and Jang Hoon was very sweet. But I didn’t feel like story stood out a lot.
But Eun Jun, my favorite character in the first series (with Song Ji Won), got another actress who did very little for that character - though I blame it mostly on how she was written. Eun Jun really pulled the shortest straw when it came to plot in AOY2. All she did was break up with her boyfriend, for god knows what reason, and then she moaned over that the whole season. I never really understood what the scriptwriter was trying to go fir. All her parts just seemed to act as a filler, and she didn’t really act like herself. For me it was by far the biggest minus about Age of Youth 2.
If Age of Youth was four and a half star then Age of Youth 2 was a solid three star drama. It had some really good moments; I was very excited about watching each episode, and overall had a pretty good time watching it. But it did not reach the same height as the Age of Youth did. I did not cry over t. The story was, in my opinion, a little disjointed at times and could have been tight. There was something missing in that department. We needed something to keep going back to, and added a bit of depth to the underlining story, like the ghost in the shoe-closet.
I thought t was a good follow-up, I loved visiting Belle Epoque again, as well as the characters. Not all the stores left as much behind as the stories in the first season. But it is hard to re-create that magic. I just wish I could have gotten a bigger closure to some of these stories. Because we have been sitting through 14 episodes of these stories, so I think it is better to not leave things too open ended. It doesn’t leave as much behind.
Was this review helpful to you?
I have to admit that I did not expect to find a new drama that would hook me this much this soon after Rebel Hong Gil Dong. And I didn‘t really expect much from this drama at all, because it sounded very confusing based on the synopsis. And the first episode was kinda confusing as well.
The drama is only 12 episodes so the story is really compact and it does not really stray away from the main story. There are not a lot of side-stories in this drama. Or non that take us away from the main story, as in there are not many filler scenes. They used their time really well and they cowered their ground pretty well with these 12 episodes. Everything that is shows to us serve some purpose and moves the story along the story in a way.
Each episode is divided into two parts, so the first half-hour is dedicated to the 2017 part of drama, and then the second half is in 2037. And each part ends in some exciting way, or on a cliffhanger, so you have to continue watching to get some answers. And drama was very keeping you at the edge of your seat.
At first I found this leap between different years, especially when each part ended on a very exciting note, a bit annoying. Especially when I had more fun watching what was happening in 2017. But later, the 2037 part started giving me all the answers, and these two parts started connecting a bit more that I became utterly hooked on this drama.
All I can really complain about is how many women were missing in this drama. And sure, Han Jung Yeon (and Byul) played a leading role, and it was such a great, interesting role that you really rooted for. She was great. And then Park Min Young and one other one, who was Human B’s assistant, were great supporting roles that brought something to the story.
But what I mean is that there were not a lot of women in the background of the show. I would have liked to see more women have more responsibility. Because you saw too much of men in such places, running around as body-guards, scientist or police-officers, but very few women. And that’s not something I want to see in 2037.
That didn’t really ruin the drama for me, since I was very hooked on the fast-paced story that took place during these 12 episodes. It was just kinda annoying seeing mainly dudes running around.
Even if the show uses a lot of elements that you can find in a lot of other sci-fi shows, this show really manages to be its own story. It didn’t go overboard with the tropes, as I could not really figure out where the story was going. It kept me on my toes.
It kept me guessing. There was always something happening that I did not expect and made me feel excited about the next episode. And I just had a lot of fun watching it and I felt like they did a really good job, from the writing to the acting, in making this a damn good sci-fi drama.
Was this review helpful to you?
Often there is also a very specific atmosphere surrounding sageuks and other period shows. For me they tend to much more about heroism than modern shows, which I enjoy. But I felt like Rebel did manage to do much more than that.
The drama talks a lot about the ideology of the Joseon era, about these different social classes and some have even pointed out that it was critiquing some things that are happening in politics today. But while I did appreciate and enjoy that, that wasn’t really what I took, liked the most about the drama. I was more intrigued by these character-journeys that the drama took us on.
I really enjoyed how almost all of these characters got to be very layered individuals. They were not just the hero, or just the evil gisaeng, or the old lady that is just there to cause the hero some trouble. They got to be more than that. And Hong Gil Dong didn’t just wake up one day and decide to be the hero of the people.
Sure, a lot of the side-characters didn’t go through much personal development and kinda just went with the flow of the story, but all of the main characters, who the story revolves around, get to have some say in the story and have some meat on their bones.
Even the women, which usually get the short end of the stick in these shows, got to be ambitions and not always nice, but the drama did a very good job in explaining why they were doing the things that they did. As well as what had led to that. And they weren’t just good or just evil.
Having the bad guys in these shows sort off simple really works, sometimes. Like in Marvel movies, where the story really isn’t about them. But that wasn’t the case with Rebel. Like I mentioned before; these people have ambitions and flaws, and all sorts of things, and I feel like the shows does a good job explaining that and not really shame them for it.
Some of the characters show up and you think that they are rather nice, but then it turns out that they aren’t as nice as they seem. I really liked that in Six Flying Dragons, and I really liked that here.
Since Rebel is a very character-driven story, it can get a bit slow at times. Since the characters are moving the story along, appose to the story moving the characters along.
The first part of the story is more about Hong Gil Dong’s father and it setting up a lot of things. He was a very interesting, gray-like, character. And when the narrative shifts to the main hero, Hong Gil Dong, the show changed a bit. It became a little slow at first, before picking up the pace again.
I would say that the middle part of the drama was probably the weakest part of the show, for me. I felt like it was a bit too slow. It lost me a bit, or I wasn’t as invested as I was at the beginning. But around ep. 20 (I want to say) the story really hooked me again.
And looking back, I can appreciate the slow-build of the middle a lot more. There was a lot of great buildup going on there that just exploded in the most exciting way toward the end. It constantly kept me on my toes. It was great.
Was this review helpful to you?
It is short for a kdrama (only 12 episodes). But still manages to tell a good, well-fleshed-out story. It is all about friendship and fighting the ghosts in your life, together or alone. No matter in what shapes as sizes they come.
There is a scene at the beginning of the drama where Song Ji Won tells the other girls that she sees ghosts. And there is a ghost living in the closet by the door. All the girls ghost interpret in their own way and it gives the show a bit of a gloomy atmosphere.
It was not always easy to watch , since it became a lot gloomier and darker than I expected it to be. And at times I did feel like it was trying to hard to be that way. But it was still always grounded in reality. And there are also many light and funny moments between the gloomy bits. As well as very heartwarming moment between girls, and other characters in their lives. I felt like the drama did manage to strike a good balance between all these different moods.
The relationship between the girls is so well done. It felt real. they care so much for each other. Even if they all come from different places and all have vastly different personalities and different problems to deal with. And they mesh very well together, most of the time. But they also argue a lot. Each of them gets their own part to tell their story. Although some girls get a heavier history than others and are therefore get bigger story line. Which is something the production could have balanced better.
You can yourself a bit in every one of these girls. Or at least empathise for them. But at they can annoy you as well at the same time. Just like real friend do. None of them were one-dimensional in any way, since they all got a time to explain their side of the story. I felt for these characters and I loved them all. I could put myself in their shoes. Although I had never experienced most of the things they were experiencing.
The girls were the center of the story and nothing else. Not even the romance, like I thought it would be at first. Since I thought it was about a youth drama all about campus-romance. But instead I got something much better. The romance was a big part of the show, but the drama was not about finding a boyfriend.
The romance was both sweet and cute, and sometimes a little sad. But it isn’t the centre of things. The drama is, for me at least, mainly about friendship and growing as a person. But it manages to be really good a mix of all of these things.
It’s rare to get a kdrama like this one, where we get to follow five young women and their lives. And this is entirely about them. The rest is just extra. It was refreshing. I felt like this show was made ??by women (although the director is a male), about women, for women.
Was this review helpful to you?
I was watching King 2 Hearts and Rooftop Prince at the same time and I wad debating on which show I should do a review for and I ended up choosing Rooftop Prince since I just felt more things while watching it, though story wise and all of that King 2 Hearts is a bit better.
King 2 Hearts wasn't originally on my watch-list, because I thought it would be way too political for me but the cast won me over and I actually found the story intriguing. This drama on the other hand was on my to-watch-list ever since I saw the trailer and the poster for it, because it looked like it was going to be a hoot and it was.
I just knew this show would make me laugh and the trailer just gave of this really nice feeling and I just sort of knew that I would end up liking it. One of the best things about this drama is the humour of the show and the setting of it, since you can make so many jokes and funny scenes with people who come into the 21st century from the past. That really is the charm of the show, as well as the cute characters.
There were a lot of things that you just knew Rooftop Prince would make a joke out of, like the toilet and the spotlights and all of that, but they also just used so many other jokes that you sort of only notice if you have watched some period dramas (I think) or know even just a bit about it, like how the talked, and so on,and I just found that so well done. It had be rolling on the floor with laughter.
Rooftop Prince really made my weeks a bit brighter and I just want to thank it for that, in a way. The main couple was also very cute and shippable. The main story could have been a bit better though. The Joseon mystery was such an interesting set-up but I feel like it sort of fell flat and it got a bit dragged out or something.
The story about the family and the company and Tae Moo and Se Na and their whole revenge thing or whatever that was about was so badly done and some of it was such a filler and it got a bit annoying from time to time. I didn’t really care and it was quite dull and not that original imho so that makes me lower my praises for this drama a lot, even if I enjoyed it for the most part or pieces of it.
In King 2 Hearts for example I liked the politics a lot, probably because a lot it was about that and also because it was written well into the story and it sort of made sense (at least to me) but this company, family stuff just bored me to death, because a lot of it was just a filler and to make a bit more conflict in the story. It was sometimes cute but that was about it.
I did however like how the story dealt with the reincarnation and all of that stuff and I found that to be quite interesting, like you become thing type of person because you did this and that in your past life and all of that. And I felt like it was used quite well with tying up the story.
So yeah, like I said, the main charm of the drama was the comedy and the rom-com elements of it, since I enjoyed the main couple a lot. The OT5 was super cute together and I sort of could just watch a drama about them all learning how to fit into the 21st century and all of that. I could take 20 episode of that kind of cuteness, even if it would have been a total fluff or even more of a fluff than it already is.
So the entertainment factor of the drama was totally there for me, as I sort of expected but I did not think I would get as emotionally connected to the story and the characters as I ended up doing. I didn’t just find it funny and cute and I didn’t just laugh over it. I also cried so much towards the end of it and that is what I look for in anything. Make me care show and preferably, make me care so much that I will cry. I am a sucker for those kinds of things.
Was this review helpful to you?
The first 5 episodes of the drama had me hooked and suddenly I was just so far into it that I started to see myself actually finish it and here I am. This is therefore the longest drama that I have watched and funny enough the longest drama that I had watched before EK was the drama that introduced me to Ji Chang Wook (which was one of the main reasons for watching EK).
I know a lot of people were annoyed by the not-so-historically accurate plot and the costumes. I did read a bit up on Empress Ki before the drama and tried to do a bit of research here and there while it was airing but it sort of doesn't bother me that it wasn't historically accurate (I feel the same way about Reign as well) because I am mainly watching it for the historical setting not the historical accuracy.
I am very found of period or costume dramas and while I liked it when they are historicity accurate (if I know th history beforehand or when I read up on it) but I am mainly just there for the costumes and the period setting and all of that and to me Empress Ki delivered on that. The set and the costumes were gorgeous and just really well done.
The drama says in it’s description that it is a “historical” romance drama and while there is romance in the drama (like there is in most tv shows or dramas) I felt like a lot of the romantic stuff was sort of put on the back burner for some parts of the drama, which I didn’t mind that much.
A lot of the drama was just about Empress Ki /Seung Nyang revenge and quest for justice/power and the political aspect of things and while I did enjoy it a lot I think a lot of other people where annoyed by it or by Seung Nyang and her politics. I liked how the women of the drama were powerful and involved in the politics and I really enjoyed that aspect of the show.
I really didn’t expect to like the politics since they sometimes bore me in these dramas. Maybe Game of Thrones is making me like that sort of thing more. It has happened that I am watching a drama and as soon as the plot goes away from the main couple I lose interest but that didn’t happen here.
I feel it was most of all a character driven drama and not necessarily a otp driven drama. The main story is not how they got together but how Seung Nyang became Empress Ki. The story does go on for a long time though, so there are bound to be plotlines that were more fun than others.
Now that I look back my favourites were between episode 1-6 and episodes 24-37. Those were the plot-lines that I enjoyed the most and I felt like were best written. For the most part I felt like the story was fast paced and all in all decently written. It went a little thin in the end but overall I found it very entertaining.
Because it is so long and therefore you have plenty of room for a lot of things happening at once and a lot of different side plots and side characters you really could flesh out some of the characters. Some for the better and some for the worst and I think most of the characters went threw some sort of character journey, except for some of the bad guys which were just evil and bad just for the sake of the plot like El Temur and his lot.
Aside from Tanashiri which I always liked even if she wasn't the best character. I felt like I could sympathize with her but not her action. I understood why she felt why she had to do what she did, because she was the empress and she needed to secure her place in the palace because that was her only job in life but I didn’t really like how she handled everything but I found her amusing and I liked the actress who played her and I will be keeping an eye out for her in the future.
I liked how I could understand most of the time why people did what they did within the palace because you had to be hard and ruthless if you wanted to survive in the palace and I especially liked how the women where written and that they were just as powerful as the men.
Wang Yoo however was one of the good guys and he was suppose to be the main lead until the public (and most of the fandom I think) decided that they liked the emperor more and he was sort of swept aside and he didn’t get that much character development at all. He was just always very consistent and noble but just sort of there in my opinion and I just found it sort of plane.
I couldn't even get behind his love-line with Seung Nyang and I just sort of feel bad for Joo Jin Mo but their love-line felt so much like a duty thing and that she was always just his subject that I never got behind it.
In the beginning I also rabidly shipped Seung Nyang og Ta Hwan / The Emperor but that sort of went away later in the drama and while I liked them together for the most part of the drama my rabid shipping never returned. I mostly saw them as friends later on but I don’t doubt their love for each other. I just really liked their
Ta Hwan did go threw a lot of character development, which is why for the longest time he was my favorite character on the show. Untill he became a bit too possessive for my taste and it almost looked like the writers forgot all about his character development and just decided to toss it out of the window because they needed a bad guy.
I think the best character in the end was Tal Tal but he was amazing and he really started to bloom in the later half of the drama. Empress Ki is just a very character driven drama to me.
In the end the story was getting a little bit thin and a little bit wonky but I still enjoyed it for the most part and I sort of expected it to go a little bit like that just because of how long it was. I never felt like it dragged and I wasn’t really that annoyed by it or anything. It just felt like the writers didn’t know what to do with all these episodes and just started to add in some shock-value.
I don’t think it could have been ay longer than 51 episodes and 45 episodes or something would have served it just fine and made made the story just a bit more stronger and not at thin but I still enjoyed myself a lot while watching it. The last 10-15 episodes were not as good as the rest of the show.
The ending though didn’t bother me at all nor did I find it lame or anything. It was sort of what I had come to expect given how the story was going and how the story actually went (historically) so I was’t really mad about it. Empress Ki was such a roller-coaster ride and some parts were better then others and it did go a bit crazy in the end but I still enjoyed the drama a lot. It was entertaining and for the most part fun and easy to watch and I will miss it.
Was this review helpful to you?
