Reviews

Wonderful premise, weak acting

I just love a good medical drama and at that also BL. So fun. Although this does not classify as medical drama, the lead is a doctor (Tawan). He develops relationship with a motorbike driver (Morm). Look at Mork more as a Grab driver, than Mario Casas in 3MSC.

The couple is cute even though their character traits are barely developed. I got to know a bit more about Mork than Tawan, but it seemed that focus on other characters sidetracked the main story. Why did Tawan choose IM as his specialty? Why does he have such attitudes towards saving a relationship? Why does Mork actually like Tawan? Why did Mork give up everything for Fern? How is it possible that two worlds collide?

Side characters are warm and fun, the uncles and the moto gang. Very cute and supportive but too bad they had more character than the leads. Chemistry between the leads was also weak for me.

Overall...Does not require much from you as viewer. Nice drama, feel good, empty brain.

Besides that, it is short and has no major issues really. I hope you enjoy it.

Thanks for reading!

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Imperfect, but full of heart

This was a long ride. Honestly, I don't know what I was expecting from Pit Babe, but a human trafficking/car racing/omegaverse storyline surely wasn't. It's not a perfect show. It has a lot of inconsistencies and silly things, but it's undeniably charming and interesting. I, a person who didn't even like omegaverse much, was intrigued by the world setting.

The characters are wonderful and compelling. I fell in love with all of them. For their stories, their experiences, their personalities, etc. Even the main antagonist enchanted me (although for other reasons/he is a very convincing villain).

Anyway, Is Pit Babe perfect? No, but it's very charming.

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?A BL with a red flag

With such high ratings for this BL (8.9 on MDL), the last thing I expected was its worldbuilding to fall apart in the very first episode. And not just worldbuilding, but the basic character development as well. Yeo Woon changing his attitude in a blink of an eye while Myeong Ha, who's mission in the game is to make Yeo Woon happy, keeps treating him condescendingly. I can also recall the choice for Myeong Ha in the game to save either Yeo Woon or the grandma from death, and it makes no sense. Why would the game which goal is to make Yeo Woon happy offer to kill him? Ridiculous.

?Another disturbing issue is Myeong Ha's behavior in confronting the homophobic bullies at school. Myeong Ha kisses the offender on the lips saying "Now you're gay too", therefore demonizing the sexual orientation, and by that moment we don't even know if he is gay too or not. This scene hit me in the head with such internalized homophobia and made me feel uncomfortable to watch the rest while that issue of Myeong Ha is never mentioned again. Aren't BLs supposed to be a safe space at least for gay people? Isn't it one of their purpose along with entertaining heterosexual girls?

By comments of confusion from other viewers, I'm not the only one. There is enough runtime for the show to unfold, 8 episodes for 30-40 minutes, but it doesn't use it right. I genuinely cannot understand why the drama has so many fans if the quality of writing is absolutely incomparable with such BLs that are immersive from the very first scene, e.g. The Eighth Sense, 2023, or the shorter one with the similar concept of videogame dating Our Dating Sim, also released in 2023.

?The BL K-drama attempts to tackle such topics as loneliness, ability to rely on another person and ask for help, life regret, and even suicide. However it doesn't go further simply stating them, as the writer doesn't have enough skill to unfold such complicated issues. Especially if you're about to watch this BL with the amazing Death's Game in mind, you will hardly be moved by the plot of Myeong Ha making value of his life in other people.

Overall, there are parts to love about this BL drama, like the adorable actors, but the atrocious and problematic writing doesn't contribute to the mood at all.

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A chronicle of an atypical killer.

The summary doesn't do this series justice. At first glance, you might think it's a series like "The Vigilante", with a dark protagonist who punishes criminals by playing a game of cat and mouse with the police. However, here I think that the way they went about it is really intriguing and original.

It's about Lee Tang, a young man who doesn't really have any prospects in life. He is in a sort of slump, work part-time situation, lives in a small unsanitary apartment and receives little attention or consideration. He is typically the archetype of a "loser", and the characters around him make no secret of telling him about it. He will unwillingly become a murderer, and from there it will turn into a descent in hell where crimes will accumulate, cases, witnesses and he will be chased by the police. Plus a bigger game is being played behind the scenes with someone pulling the strings.

Now, keep in mind that this is a series with supernatural elements, and in this, inexplicably, he always finds himself getting away with it, without even wanting to. For example, during his first murder, he forgets the weapon at the crime scene but a dog retrieves it and takes it away before the cops arrive or the time when the dog licks the blood, and at the same time the prints he left which makes his DNA untraceable or a fly lands on the video camera preventing the police from seeing that he is holding a hammer. The chances of that ? It's hilarious how they interweave such a dark themed drama, with a protagonist who can't bear the weight of his actions yet always gets away thanks to "coincidences", it's like the universe is working in his favor.

It's not even a comedy series, I mean there's really no writing of characters made for comic relief, it's just tension and ambient darkness. It's a dark thriller, but in addition to being entertaining, it's not too much (like "Big Mouth"), it's realistic while keeping that supernatural flair. Emotionally we are not connected to the protagonist because it is clearly not that kind of series, apart from the pity we feel for the victims, it remains a fast-paced thriller which is engaging.

I really admire the writers and directors, honestly. If you had told me that a dark thriller could mix these elements while remaining credible, I wouldn't have believed you because I'm stingy with thrillers, I haven't come across one before. Speaking of the production, I want to add that the storytelling said through editing, like the superposition of scenes which enhances the action of the protagonist or his imagination, it is really a feast for the eyes or even the music which adds to the intensity like in a horror film. It reminds me a bit of "King of Pigs" in the way that the flashbacks add pace and suspense to the story.

I absolutely recommend this series, if you like thrillers, this is for you.

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Anti hero action drama for an entertaining ride

Likes: The dark anti-hero theme, the growth of the female lead, the fun fight scenes, the distinct characters, the pace of the storytelling (for the most part)

Dislikes: The weird fade to black transitions in editing, the repeat of scenes we've already seen, MinHye's slowness with her action scenes

I think it's fitting that this aired on Disney+, as this reminds me of all the young adult fantasy books that I read where the female protagonist goes through a series of hardships when she was young that prepares her into becoming a kick ass force to be reckoned with as she approaches adulthood. I loved those kinds of stories and I really enjoyed this one too. While Jian is not Katniss or Rose Hathaway, I do see that similar thread of growth and sacrifice that is often reflected in young adult novels and it makes me really excited to see what will happen in the next season (which I assume there will be as the ending made it seem so). Hye Joon did an amazing job playing Jian.

The whole mercenary killer theme was cool and I liked all the high tech gadgets and gunfight scenes. Were some of the characters cliche? Yes, but it didn't really bother me that much because for some reason, the whole story, look, and theme felt refreshing to me. I think it's because these types of stories usually only get depicted with American actors so to see this kind of story with this kind of high quality and with Asian actors made this all the more enjoyable for me.

Lee Dong Wook was great as Jian's uncle and teacher. Jo Han Sun also did a good job playing the psychopath (His eyes creeped the F out of me and that usually never happens). I thought everyone played their role well. I was however a bit disappointed with the character of MinHye and this is no reflection on the actress. While I loved that they showcased a female character as an ultimate threat, I'm afraid the execution didn't follow through. The way the scenes were shot made her physical fight scenes look very slow and a bit weak which makes her character a bit unbelievable as a "high threat" as claimed. This is more a fault with the direction and camera work imo. But this is a minor complaint as I did enjoy most of the series and I think anyone who likes YA female lead stories and action might enjoy this drama as well.

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youth, love and pursuing your goals

As a first year student i must say it was very inspiring. The way sayako always tried her best and was always the nicest person..
The show gives a great view at how things really are. Of course its never as perfect as they showed but it was still quite realistic. It gave me strength to try even harder and hope that theres always a way out of a slump.
Even tho i am starting collage much sooner than sayako i could still relate to her. She was experiencing her "second youth" and it was showed perfectly - her happiness and strugles as an adult living among teens.
And the romance, I must say that i was very invested every episode more and more. They started dating sooner than i thought, but thanks to that the show was even better!! Two last episodes were a little bit disappointing as i dont like time skips. Even tho as for a time skip they did a really good job! It did not feel rushed or anything.
As for acting it was the best!! Whole cast did an amazing job! Its my second series with Michieda and wow! he is an amazing actor.
The music was suitable, but nothing special (personal opinion).
All in all i highly recommend watching this series. Its a drama about youth and love. It teaches us that finding courage to do what we really want can come to us at any age, thanks to people around us.

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Exciting and Steamy!

My Lord, this cast is gorgeous. They all nailed their roles. What a fantastic group of young actors.

Babe and Charlie made such an unlikely pair which made them all the more lovable. Charlie would literally do anything for Babe. Hard to find a love like that in the real world.

The story was a good one and something new and different. The only reason I took away half a point was **SPOILER ** I just don’t understand why Charlie had to fake his own death. It was too risky and didn’t really accomplish anything.

Also **SPOILER** I was more devastated about Way. I figured Charlie wasn’t really dead (really, how could he be?) But Way lived a heartbroken life only to be killed protecting the one he loved. Crushed.

100% recommend this series especially if you enjoy excitement, crime solving, and a gorgeous cast with loads of chemistry.

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A series that lacks finesse

It starts with stories about rally cars. There are big cars, espionage and mysteries. In short, it gets off to a pretty good start.

But all of a sudden, this omegaverse story takes over. First of all, not everyone is familiar with it. Some explanation would have been appreciated. The problem is that the story becomes chaotic: there's a permanent lack of coherence, the dialogue is poor and our car races come and go without us really understanding how. Theoretically, there are a lot of theatrical coups, but they're so predictable that they're not. The last episode is absolutely grotesque.

The acting gets worse and worse as the series scatters off in all directions.

The innumerable sex scenes and permanent good morals are not enough to save this series.

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Satisfied on a rewatch

To preface this, I knew going into this my expectations would be way too high. I'm a big fan of Choi Wooshik and have been waiting for this show to come out for like two years. I also spent coins to read the webtoon in its entirety when it was finally released in English.

I'll start off with I did enjoy this. And I enjoyed reading the webcomic too.

Edit: im currently rewatching this with someone who didnt read the webcomic and having a pretty good time. I think i judged this harsher than it needed to be. I guess im a hater? Its a pretty fun drama. I liked it the first time I watched it and im liking it even more the second time ^_^

WEBTOON AND ADAPTATION
The part about the story that is both interesting and frustrating is the way it tells itself. Our protagonist isn't really our protagonist. We don't know much about him (who he is as a person, yes we know he's a student and aimless but...) and we don't have a lot of opportunities to connect to him. It's more like the circumstances around him are what make him the protagonist. Instead, our cop ends up being the real protagonist, having a story arch that follows his relationship with his father. Yet... in some ways he feels like he falls short of that role as well. Writing characters in this way is unique and that in itself is interesting.

The show was an overall pretty faithful adaptation of the webcomic. There were some small details that felt important to me that weren't included. For example, I remember that when Lee Tang first encounters Song Chon, eventually Lee Tang tells Ro Bin that he had some sort of instinct that he had to stay away from Song Chon, like he was being hunted. I understand that was told visually in the adaptation, but I was waiting for that line so I was a bit disappointed. Also, the scene where the girl is being felt up in the train, Lee Tang, if I remember correctly, gets mad at the guy. What I though was interesting about how the scene was originally written had more to do with what it revealed about society and how it treated injustice. It was a small detail, but the way they framed the scene changed its impact on the narrative.

[update they rereleased the episodes of the webtoon and my question was answered so i deleted this section of the review]

Something I was hoping would be changed in the adaptation was the portrayal of Ro Bin and Lee Tang. In the webtoon, I remember wishing they were more dynamic characters. Like, if they could have had some more likeable traits to them, or could have been written in a way that made the ending more impactful feeling around these two characters. Ro Bin didn't really change much, but I did end up feeling satisfied. Lee Tang I kinda wanted to see more sides to him though. He's a character that anyone could have played, being super stoic and flat, which ended up feeling kind of disappointing. But he was like that in the webtoon and I can't blame the scriptwriter for preferring to be faithful than risking anything else.

THE ADAPTATION ALONE
I felt like peoples reactions to being murdered were handled in a weird way? I'm not sure if that was a casting problem or a director problem. This probably stands out most in the death of Nan Gam's father. The script literally describes the ways his fathers face changes, but we don't see that reflected on screen. I'm not sure why this was a consistent problem. I felt the reactions were lacking for him, Gyeong-a (Lee Tang's coworker, I might be misremembering her name), and also in the "murderous expression" from Song Chon when he first kills Nan Gam's father.

One thing that stood out to me though was the amount of respect that was visible on screen and in the script. The writing did its best to respect the original story. And the cinematography, parts of the soundtrack, and especially one fight scene stood out as respecting forefathers in the action genre. In particular, Old Boy stood out to me. Song Chon's scene fighting the gangsters, I think you would have to be blind to miss that longshot fight scene. The use of the oboe in the soundtrack... reminds me of something but I can't put my finger on it. An ode to something, but idk what. Someone help me out, what is this reminding me of?

But the soundtrack was somewhat hit or miss for me. I was surprised by that. Sometimes it felt really good (especially in the first half of the series) and then other times I was like, "Ah this sounds like a pretty typical soundtrack piece," which was weird to pair with a story like this... again its a very atypically written story so I expected the soundtrack to feel a little off-kilter overall. Not overly done obviously, as the writing is more like an unnerving pull away from the mainstream instead of something that's off-the-walls-crazy, but still... just something that feels "uncomfortably different from what you're used to" should have been the overall feeling of the soundtrack imho.

Whoever was the editor was having a lot of fun! I loved the way they played with sound, how the soundtrack would suddenly cut-off, how the introduction scene of Nan Gam made his chewing gum sound uncomfortably loud for the first few chews... yeah if anything their sound design and the way soundtracks were edited to build and break tension in a scene was good. Good job editor! Also loved the way they visually transitioned between shots. First episode is a great example of this.

I liked the fun zoom ins, I think it added some character to the camera. The character of the camera could have benefited from being visually messier throughtout the series. It does have its shaky camera, and at least one extreme close up but I wanted more. Thats probably more of a personal preference though. [Edited out some comments after a rewatch]

I LOVED however, the way they played with darkness and shadow. Sometimes it felt like it wasn't in good taste, especially when the cinematography was over-saturated as if in post-production they might have realized they made a mistake. (Watching on a different screen has different results for this though) HOWEVER... omg when Lee Tang is just outside the car, lurking in the shadows... in the warehouse when the lights go on and off... the sudden flash of the taser in the car... a few of those scenes really stood out as good use of lighting.

I thought the leads of the show did a pretty good job in acting. They were both bad at fake yawning haha, but the elements of their acting that were important to their characters were well done. I did feel a bit disappointed in Lee Tang as a character, because he is pretty flat. As I said before, he feels like someone anyone could play because he's so stoic like most Kdrama leads played by idol actors. Choi Wooshik is most interesting in characters that have a wider range of emotions because I find him expressive and charismatic. Still, I do think he played Lee Tang well. He did a good job of portraying the subtle changes in Lee Tang and immersing us in the crumbling life of this character. I was kind of hoping that when Nan Gang finally saw Lee Tang in the warehouse, that for a split second they would show Lee Tang in that convenience store uniform because it is SUCH a striking change in character. The way he has changed his aesthetic into that greasy hair, the weight in his expression, how he carries himself, that split-second emphasis through Nan Gang's perspective would have been interesting. It also allows us to feel a connection between the two characters who know each other. I could go on but this is already too long haha. Nan Gang's actor was also pretty good and I came to respect him for this role.

Beware: harsher than necessary point ahead: I may be wrong but it felt like there was a lot of trust in the team. Like maybe things weren't tested or things weren't critiqued that could have been. I respect a team that trusts itself, but I respect more a team that builds that trust through communicating. I first felt like the show lacked communication when I saw the poster. It felt like someone had to pull together shots into something instead of being able to get the team to work together to make a solid poster. There's a few minor details in the acting, that felt like the crew wasn't communicating when a scene was lacking in some way. Like there was a trust in the overall ability of the show and not enough interest in the details that made the show. This is more of a judgement on my end and obviously I wasn't on set so don't take this part of my critique to heart if you disagree.

FINAL THOUGHTS
So yeah I had a good time watching this. I think I'd like to rewatch this in a few years when I've forgotten some details of the show and webtoon.

I couldn't help but criticize the show just because I'd been waiting for it for so long, but I did enjoy it haha. I think I was afraid of it being terrible so I looked for all its faults. Now that ive done that its easier to actually enjoy it in my rewatch. Again, I like it the first time I watched it and Im liking it even more the second time. It really is creatively made and you can see all the hard work that went into it.

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what a long long journey…

my very first reason watching this drama is because of Wang Hedi… he is such a feast for my eyes ??

Bai Lu is pretty. I’m indeed agree with Shan Yan that she is a fairy?

anyway, the drama is a long journey. for the first and last episodes are interesting, but when you are in 20-ish episodes it was starting to bore me. i almost tempted to skipped this but again Wang Hedi is something to look at.

their lack of communications were making me crazy, either the lead or second lead. their problems can always be solved within minutes if only the are talking ? *sigh*.

overall, it’s actually might be your favorite drama as long as you can stay for the whole episodes.

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Rollercoaster

This is called a roller coaster... I'm not a big fan of the omegaverse, but I was curious to see how the story would unfold and I was really pleasantly surprised. It was already clear from the first episode that there would be a lot of action in the story, but I did not expect that the plot would take such a turn. I was ready for something like Love in the air, but although these two series have something in common, there is not much at all.

The chemistry between Babe and Charlie sparkled so much that it blinded everything else around. Their scenes were simply unforgettable and whether they were acting like lovebirds, helping each other, trying to protect each other or fighting, the actors always gave it their all. Behind the scenes videos and fanmeetings are just proof that Pavel and Pooh are a perfect duo and I firmly believe that I will see them in another project soon.

The side couples were also great, but the "side couple steals the show" rule didn't apply here. Babe and Charlie starred in all circumstances. But Way completely won me over. I know what the vast majority feel about him, especially after THAT event, but I stand by the fact that he wouldn't be able to do it anyway.

S P O I L E R >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Way Baba loved sincerely and from his heart. He wouldn't be able to hurt him, and if it went that far by accident, he would never forgive himself and would blame himself for the rest of his life. I don't know anyone who liked him and everyone hated him after THAT event, but I knew he would get his redemption arch and win everyone's hearts in the end. The same goes for Kenta. Kent completely surprised me. A few hours ago I read somewhere the theory that Tony will be stabbed in the back. He did it Literally. <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< <<<<<<<<<< END OF SPOILER

I had an inkling of what would come at the end, but it still broke me. The best experience associated with Pit babe was watching episode 8 or 9 on a tablet on the bus.

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