alex
Canada
This review may contain spoilers
5th time’s the charm?
Jang Nara and Jang Hyuk reunite for the 4th time, how promising.
Wish they chose a different project so I could actually celebrate.
Firstly, this show does a horrible job at balancing it’s tones- actually, it doesn’t balance them at all. There’s an abundance of silly scenes with the family/kids that have constant banter and jokes, and then there’s plain serious assassin-work scenes. They do not mesh at all, not because they can’t, but because whoever worked on this show just doesn’t know how to make it flow.
At the very end of episode 4, we get serious again when Jang hyuk’s character has to kill his friend, but then suddenly someone else does. It’s revealed to be Jang Nara’s character. Woah, right? Then we continue with this at the beginning of episode 5, serious music flashbacks and dialogue. Had me thinking oh maybe they’re starting to focus on/put more effort into the serious half of the story, only to then be back with the family bickering over absolutely nothing less than 10 minutes into the episode. This continues throughout the entirety of the series, making me never take the serious scenes seriously despite them clearly wanting the viewer to.
Apart from the above, in general I found it hard to keep watching/stay focused, as there is no actual story. Just family fighting and murder. Family fighting and murder, family fighting and murder, family fighting and murder. There is no arc no objective no start-to-finish narrative. Just flat nothingness trying to disguise itself as comedy.
I honestly think it would have been an alright drama if it stuck to one of it’s tones and never touched the other. Humour&Family only: Have Jang Hyuk’s character work at a regular office. He could still have the female boss which could still cause a comical rift, and he could still be absent in both fatherfood and marriage due to working long hours. They could work to fix that together all in a happy tone. Now this still wouldn’t have made it perfect as whoever was writing the comedy aspect wasn’t great. A lot of the jokes fall flat. Nara and Jang Hyuk manage to carry the material they’re given, but it’s not much. For example, for the first 4 episodes the biggest running gag is that they can’t have sex because they keep getting interrupted. FOR 4 FULL EPISODES. Anyways, I digress. For if it stuck with it’s serious tone instead of humour, they could have gone a similar route as Undercover (2021) but keep the Mr. & Mrs. Smith aspect to set it apart.
Do I have any positives about the show we actually got? Hmmm..
• Episode 11 Thailand opening followed by the fight together.
• Shin Su A - a wonderful child actress. Steals every single scene.
• Minseo & Taegoo - cute dynamic.
• Jang Nara - a great great performance from her and a cool-ish role for her as well. Badass killer
• As always gotta love Jang Hyuk’s dramatic comedy (though I did find it a little over the top a few times here… let’s blame the direction.).
• Jang Hyuk & Nara’s chemistry - still hasn’t died. Let’s hope we get a 5th reunion to make up for this mess.
Overall, a big let down. I believe there was a lot of potential to do good here but they crammed so much genre and characters in that it was not only messy but annoying.
Wish they chose a different project so I could actually celebrate.
Firstly, this show does a horrible job at balancing it’s tones- actually, it doesn’t balance them at all. There’s an abundance of silly scenes with the family/kids that have constant banter and jokes, and then there’s plain serious assassin-work scenes. They do not mesh at all, not because they can’t, but because whoever worked on this show just doesn’t know how to make it flow.
At the very end of episode 4, we get serious again when Jang hyuk’s character has to kill his friend, but then suddenly someone else does. It’s revealed to be Jang Nara’s character. Woah, right? Then we continue with this at the beginning of episode 5, serious music flashbacks and dialogue. Had me thinking oh maybe they’re starting to focus on/put more effort into the serious half of the story, only to then be back with the family bickering over absolutely nothing less than 10 minutes into the episode. This continues throughout the entirety of the series, making me never take the serious scenes seriously despite them clearly wanting the viewer to.
Apart from the above, in general I found it hard to keep watching/stay focused, as there is no actual story. Just family fighting and murder. Family fighting and murder, family fighting and murder, family fighting and murder. There is no arc no objective no start-to-finish narrative. Just flat nothingness trying to disguise itself as comedy.
I honestly think it would have been an alright drama if it stuck to one of it’s tones and never touched the other. Humour&Family only: Have Jang Hyuk’s character work at a regular office. He could still have the female boss which could still cause a comical rift, and he could still be absent in both fatherfood and marriage due to working long hours. They could work to fix that together all in a happy tone. Now this still wouldn’t have made it perfect as whoever was writing the comedy aspect wasn’t great. A lot of the jokes fall flat. Nara and Jang Hyuk manage to carry the material they’re given, but it’s not much. For example, for the first 4 episodes the biggest running gag is that they can’t have sex because they keep getting interrupted. FOR 4 FULL EPISODES. Anyways, I digress. For if it stuck with it’s serious tone instead of humour, they could have gone a similar route as Undercover (2021) but keep the Mr. & Mrs. Smith aspect to set it apart.
Do I have any positives about the show we actually got? Hmmm..
• Episode 11 Thailand opening followed by the fight together.
• Shin Su A - a wonderful child actress. Steals every single scene.
• Minseo & Taegoo - cute dynamic.
• Jang Nara - a great great performance from her and a cool-ish role for her as well. Badass killer
• As always gotta love Jang Hyuk’s dramatic comedy (though I did find it a little over the top a few times here… let’s blame the direction.).
• Jang Hyuk & Nara’s chemistry - still hasn’t died. Let’s hope we get a 5th reunion to make up for this mess.
Overall, a big let down. I believe there was a lot of potential to do good here but they crammed so much genre and characters in that it was not only messy but annoying.
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