namopanik

I'm talking about current state of those pages.

I feel exactly the same about his acting. It's like his comedic roles make him regress as an actor: he just hits the same tones. There was much more subtlety to his villains.

serious question time: were widescreen flashbacks always so abundant? After Goblin I'm seeing it everywhere.

who cares about MDL ratings anyway? I feel like we're having this conversation whenever every other drama starts. People rating the whole show instead of episodes. People wanting to have a common rating to be accurate for what their idea of the show's quality is and whining when it's not (I'm still amazed they can make out anything of usual 7,5-9,2 rating which is a very tight scale and a one prone to hypes and backlash waves). People expecting to have a hand-curated reviews and encouragement just for them so they would know whether they should start something or not (without saying a thing about their preferences, because guessing is much funnier). People asking how it ends after two episodes.
I'm baffled as I scroll down the comments section here and see people comparing this with currently airing thrillers or Misaeng which is a class of its own. Or propheting it'll be called the best drama of 2017 (after one ep, while we're barely in Feb, with said thrillers to compete and highly popular Goblin technically counting for 2017...). Or ordering others to like it for the sake of tvN.
And frankly, I don't see hate here (go for W page or Moon Lovers:Ryeo to see how ugly things can get).

Oh, I didn't mean to be that discouraging. The way drinking culture is presented is my pet peeve too I guess. Maybe after starting with the usual 'lower than low' trope it'll take on some better route (because, you know, if the character development doesn't cover a 180 degree change, we could miss it)? Time travel aspect is still intriguing tho.
/edit to add: I wouldn't say it's a 100% positive message on drinking as a cool activity, more like treating it as a norm or less serious than it is. Her character is presented as charming despite long scene of self humiliation and obligatory morning-after self-hate.

it's 2017 and bad drinking habits bordering alcoholism are still being sold as something kinda cute and normal. Why I am even surprised.
I love Shin Min Ah, but this whole drama makes me cringe.

I beg to differ. Is it really essential for the plot that she has a lousy husband, loses her apartment and a job, puts up with her supervisor for years practically ghostwritting for him and buying his socks? Her enduring is precisely what stops her from grabbing power. Art history is a line of work as any other and it's not free of greed and pettiness, but that's just too much, IRL your whole life doesn't depend on a single person, no matter how many connections s/he has. Imagine: was she a man, the story would go differently: she would just follow the lead, maybe rebel. Here we get a professional, mature woman who is in the same situation as yout typical rookie. She literally gets a handout what to write for 'her' thesis and what conclusion to pull *within days*, so her professor could put the blame on her if the sham with the painting will be discovered. It's ridiculous. The only thing she has as a scholar is her integrity, no sane person would risk her entire shaky career for that.

there's something funny going on with the episode count. Some eps are only 20-25 minutes long, like they were cut in two.

Well, turns out it can be cringier than Introverted Boss. TIL. Not cute at all. Dropped.

but how did they escape the island??

I don't think it was his immortality per se that was a burden on him - it was his suffering represented by a sword and that was removed. He just got used to his unnaturally long lifespan and took it as an opportunity to see ET again and again - do I buy it? no, but I also can't possibly buy stunningly beautiful women just passively sitting there for years and being inexplicably miserable because they may or may not lost someone they don't even remember and there's only one person in the universe that can full that void... But that's aside, the show tells us that something have changed in goblin. He doesn't seek death anymore (again: I personally don't buy it at all) and the wait is somehow worth it.

great, another pitiful heroine.

And here I'm picking on little details like trying to use an aloe for stopping blood loss. But regarding flower garden - do you mean that one with rabbits? I thought it was meant to be kind of surreal, like in Alice (bushes with red and white roses). They are telling all this in a peculiar way, like in second part of ep 3: danger stacked on danger and then it suddenly became so over the top it turned out comical and not so serious as it seemed. There's a method in this. So apart from obligatory kdrama logic suspension of disbelief, some trust is needed that the showmakers know where they're heading. After how they resolved costume case I regained my trust in them. Assuming those on plane had their plot armours on, everything else can be adjusted (kinda). Searching for the island happens off the screen and we only see it when some progress occurs. Investigators don't know anything about the cliff yet, whether it's an accident or not. Only that Bong Hee was somehow involved. They also don't use anything she says to them - she mostly just goes on in an abstract voiceover about intricacies of life and death :D They roughly knew where to search from the Chinese who found her, and checked island by island.
/I don't have a problem with Bong Hee being a superwoman. First, it's believable that idols and high figures from entertainment company don't handle harsh environment as well as the girl who lived on an island and used to be a diver in her youth. She's tough and she wants to be of use. It's in character.

(The thing with LOST is, they didn't know how to end it when they was starting. Just like with Twin Peaks, there was just a cardboard fill-in with 'a mystery' written on it to keep moving forward with the plot and deal with it some other day.)

Well, it goes without saying that skipping over half of the show equals to losing some of the character development. I'm just saying that eps 1-2 and around 11-12 were the best and the rest fades in comparison. If cinematography alone didn't hook someone to go on with the show, I personaly wouldn't rely on the plot because it is frustrating, full of cliches and usual back and forth with some ocassional funny antics and those moments when the show is able to make fun of itself (sugar daddy, slow walk through the fog with onions,...). What's unique about this show is its atmosphere and it's most powerful at the beginning. I burned all my hype on first 4 eps. Some important characters seemed cooler than they actually were. I daresay if someone doesnt't like it from the start, there's no point in forcing it on oneself.

popular unpopular opinion: you can also just skip straight to eps 11-13, most of the middle stuff is a filler.

yay, colors are back!

I'm glad I haven't passed on this one. By all means not the best historical drama out there, but still worth watching. In some respects it's on par with Six Flying Dragons. Neither general quality, storytelling nor cinematography are one of them, it's more about grand questions and the repetitory of human types.
It has retrospections within retrospection and suffers due to cutting it down from 51 to 39 eps: first it terribly drags through a lifetime of grudges, conflicting characters and different approaches only to be rushed when things are fnally emerging back from the flashbacks. It covers the entire life of four main charcters, but it's one of those rare instances when past arc is essential for grasping the net of motivations and limitations of all involved. As the story goes on, you can't actually hate anyone important despite the things they've done. All the older generation of cast is great as well as child actors.
There is a love square of course, but first and foremost it's a drama for those who enjoy ambiguous, conflicted characters and a certain sense of corruption and unavoidable failure. If Missing 9 brings a wave of Jung Kyung Ho fans here, they'll find a fascinating portrayal. Not your usual prince charming.

For some reason I expected NGM's character to be cold and evil, but he's mostly goofy again.

I had troubles counting them properly too :D But my guess is that 9 is the number of those who mattered for public - idols, prominent figures from that company etc. Remember, it's supposed to be a huge case on the media, with accusations that it was all a sham. Stylist, pilot and so on doesn't count for them.

I feel like someone was grinding my brain through that baby toy that you have to adjust blocks and holes by shape.