So much squandered potential

I wish this had just been a straight up House style diagnostic procedural where the doctors solve a case per episode and that's it. The patient stories and the debates about euthanasia and end of life care were good, the rest of the show was lacking. I hated the relationship between the two leads. Even apart from their DOA romance, I found the leads to be shallow and underwritten characters. This was especially true for the FL. So much staring into space as crappy ballads drone on in the background. The antagonists are potentially interesting but the show doesn't know how to utilize them effectively and they were ultimately just frustratingly inconsistent and two dimensional. The last few episodes are particularly frustrating, sloppily plotted and emotionally unsatisfying.

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Watch this

Great show, Jang Hyuk delivers again. I loved his performance and I was so invested in the struggles and triumphs of his incredibly compelling character. His power and range as a performer is just mesmerizing. This works really well as an intense sports story, a beautiful and heart wrenching family drama, and a gruesome medical thriller. Really liked the characterizations of the second ML and the villains. Once I started watching this I couldn't stop. The only thing that didn't fully work for me was the characterization of the wife in the second half of the drama. She became placid and bland and faded into the background too much as the story progressed. I would have also enjoyed more scenes between husband and wife fleshing out their dynamic more.

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Awesome show, adorable cast, with minor quibbles at the end

What a great show. I was sucked in immediately: this is exciting, funny yet also heartfelt from the outset. The characters pop off the screen and get you engaged right away. The greatest strength of this show is the complexity of its characters and relationships. As far fetched as the premise and plot can get, and the show doesn't even bother getting into the nitty gritty details of how the science would work, there is a core of psychological authenticity to how the characters interact.

Nam Shin III is the most adorable marshmallow of a character ever, and I loved how the FL was won over by him and was able to open her heart after the adversity she had dealt with earlier in life. Watching them grow together and fall in love was so sweet, I swooned hard. The typical evil chaebol shenanigans were well executed. Supporting characters were also rich and layered.

I thought this could be a 10/10 but it slightly fumbled the bag in the last 10 minutes of the last episode (Human Shin has a random two minute redemption arc? Nope, don't buy it. Evil Henchman is totally chill in prison after his 30 years of evil schemes amount to nothing, nope, that's not how that would go. Why wasn't the FL informed that the ML was being repaired, everyone just let her mourn for a year wtf?). Minor quibbles though, this show was awesome.

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Eh Fingers!

This was in that awkward zone of not being bad enough to drop but not being good enough to really satisfy. It peaked in its first four flashback episodes, which were excellent. They did a great job setting up the twisted family dynamics and a potentially interesting plot with high emotional stakes. However, once they were adults the ML and FL were such insipid characters. Their romance was painfully bland as well. Between this and Mask I've learned Ju Ji Hoon can't act in makjang to save his life.

The plot would have been fine at 16 episodes, 20 episodes max, but was too thin to fill 30 episodes. There were cool twists and reveals, but it also got slow and repetitive. The great villains are what kept me going. Chae Shi Ra was excellent as the evil mom, she was so charismatic and totally commanded the screen, and Ji Chang Wook was similarly strong as the jealous, vengeful stepbrother. Since the "nice" characters were mostly a bunch of drips I was always rooting for their evil schemes to succeed. I'm not mad I watched it but I also don't think it was worth the 30+ hour time commitment. Thankfully, Kim Soon-Ok would later explore similar themes in a similar setting with much greater success in the Penthouse.

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I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this.

Slow, pensive, understated shows usually aren't my jam but this one hooked me right away. I was riveted by the first half especially. The show did a great job building the fraught but tender relationship between the leads while gently teasing the mystery of Annie's life and death. I also liked how the writer showed us the leads' self actualization and growth alongside the gradual development of their romance. I appreciated the perceptive treatment of the difficulty of obtaining work/life balance for working moms. The second half of the show was still good but sometimes erred on the side of being too muted and elliptical. In particular I think there needed to be more meaty, dialogue heavy scenes as the marriages definitively broke down and fewer flashbacks, montages, and scenes of the leads staring wistfully into space as ballads drone on in the background.

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Incredible show

Incredible show that really brought the feels. It deftly handled comedy, romance, and heavy family drama. The characters are so rich and well developed, even when their behavior is infuriating, you always understand why they behave the way they do. The two leads have insane chemistry and I was so emotionally invested in seeing them overcome their traumas and get their happy ending. This show looked like a million bucks too: everything from the lighting to shot composition (the split screens and montages were so well done!) to the set design to the occasional use of whimsical animation created this dreamy, swoony aesthetic that made the drama feel so warm even during its saddest moments.

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Great story with a few issues that dont take away from the intelligent writing

This was an expertly plotted show. It was perfectly structured and paced. Both the protagonists and antagonists were intelligent, intriguing characters which made for a very satisfying watch. The flashbacks and character building scenes were integrated into the narrative well, they fleshed everything out without compromising the story's forward momentum. It did bug me how treacly and emotionally uncomplicated the father/daughter reunion was though (she was too perky and precocious, he was too quickly and unambiguously devoted to her), and how cavalierly the 4 year relationship between the mom and the second ML was brushed aside. With just a fraction of the screen time I thought the show handled the consequences of morally compromised parents being separated from their children better with the Chairman Han/long lost assassin son and Congresswoman Jo/disabled son subplots.

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A ride worth taking

This is a masterful spin on the Sliding Doors/Butterfly Effect idea that seemingly tiny events can have life altering ripple effects. All the actors excelled in their dual roles and seeing different versions of each character in the parallel worlds gave me a lot to chew on. This show admirably wrestles with deep questions. What makes us who we are? How much control do we have over our own fates? How do we derive meaning in life? The mystery was perfectly structured: intricate enough to keep me hooked but never too convoluted. The villains had fascinating motivations and goals and were appropriately depraved. It's not a traditional romance but the love the leads had for each other was beautifully conveyed. Just a stellar production in every way.

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