Extremely engaging thriller that still somehow manages to warm your heart

This is my first ever review so bear with me, I'll try to make this helpful :)

THE ACTING
The acting was great and I was never taken out of the story. Of course some were good and others were really really good, but there was no "weak link", everyone was believable.

THE WRITING:
The drama is rather short with 15 episodes so I binged it over the course of two days.
The pacing is good and the story overall is pretty well thought out. I usually hate time loops and time travel in general because it's so easy to mess it up and create tons of plot holes and general confusion. The writing for Reset was tight and didn't leave any plot holes. (none that I noticed, at least)
They also managed to keep it suspenseful even though the leads would always relive the same day with different variations of the same situation. I did not feel bored at all, they always managed to make it feel new. And even though the person I started to suspect pretty early on did turn out to be the culprit, I still got chills the moment it was actually revealed, I felt shocked nonetheless and the suspense was not gone at all.

The characters were all well thought out and felt like real people. Instead of being used as tools to progress the story, their actions were what was determining the way the story would go. They never acted out of character or made weird decisions just so certain things would happen to move the plot in a certain direction.
The main duo were both likeable and realistic. Even though they made mistakes more than once, they never repeated them and always walked learned something at the end. The supporting characters were just as well developed and some of those passengers on the bus have got to be the biggest sweethearts I have ever had the pleasure of meeting in dramaland. They were the heart and soul of the story for me. I also loved how the main duo also started to care for the passengers as they got to know them, you could see them get more determined to save everyone on the bus.

You know how writers sometimes make their characters be clueless about sth for way too long because they want to drag out the suspense and it just makes them look like the most incompetent idiots? Not in this drama. I never, not even once, felt frustrated with them because they were too dumb to pick up on obvious clues. As soon as I noticed something or had a theory, the characters would say exactly what was on my mind and investigate in that direction. It also didn't feel like the drama was spoon feeding you information, instead it felt like I was on the bus with the characters, witnessing everything just as they do, realizing things the same moment the realize them.

Overall you could just tell that the people who made this drama sincerely had respect for their work and put a lot of thought and work into it. The production value is also a lot better than what I'm used to in Cdramas, even the intro was cool and original and didn't have any spoilers xD


Even though there are villains and the story is definitely not light hearted, the drama didn't feel super heavy and stressful, it had the right amount of suspense mixed with emotional moments, happy ones, sad ones, and ones that genuinely made me laugh. Instead of being pure angst, it was just a super enjoyable adventure.


MUSIC
I didn't really pay that much attention to the music but I'd say that's a good thing since that means it blends in pretty well with the scenes. The only song I noticed was the one in the intro, that one really set the atmosphere well for the episodes ahead. I actually got chills when I heard it for the first time in episode 1.


REWATCH VALUE
Of course I'd already know the big reveals and twists when rewatching but I feel like I'd still have fun with it. What makes the story so compelling are the characters, their individual stories and they grow closer to one another, and that should still be just as enjoyable the second or third time. Plus, I'm sure there are a lot of details and foreshadowing that you only notice the second time, so I do think this has rewatch value.

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