Reviews

About a few episodes in, there was a clear pattern that seemed it was going to adopt and it did. The drama had the bad habit of always escaping from conflicts, keep dancing around them until enough time had passed and the viewers won't notice. It didn't dare to go for direct confrontations and real dialogues. Take for example the main conflict in the drama between the male lead and the female lead, it kept getting delayed and pushed around until enough time passed and everything suddenly worked out. No real conversations/confrontations/stakes/tension/emotions. This also resulted in reaching the finale early. The drama practically ended with episode 37, not even before finishing the episode. The remainder of the episodes were a disastrous nightmare to sit through. It kept cycling through empty dialogues between the supporting cast with the highest degrees of mawkish sentimentality and cringe. I had to double and triple check, something must've gone seriously wrong with the production for the drama to turn this way. This kind of practice is what keep veteran actors and actresses from picking up daily drama projects. I could feel the pain some of the cast members had to go through enduring this drama reluctantly. Just look at how modern daily dramas projects has become.

Season 1 The drama did a great job in blending humor and heart, creating an enjoyable mix with a lively dynamic, for the most part. The comedy was sharp and varied, ranging from slapstick to witty banter, however, this didn't apply for every segment and joke. Some of these went on for too long or weren't interesting in the slightest, these were also more present in the 2nd half than the first one. Nonetheless, not only the drama had great humor but also had a progressing story that fit right in. The dynamic chemistry among the cast enhanced the comedic timing, while the well-paced storyline balanced these moments with memorable scenes. Speaking of dynamics, Doo Shik remained a sidekick and a third wheel in every situation and scene, he was never a lead and always the weakest link, even the actor himself. The drama should've wrote him better to fit the dynamic rather than having a wasted slot. Anyway, it's an enjoyable fun watch for what it had to offer. However, I highly advise against watching season 2.

Season 2 In comparison, season 2 was a complete utter failure in all regards, however, as a stand alone drama, it was a passable cheap inoffensive forgettable watch, for the most part. It failed miserably to capture the same magic that made the first season so endearing. The second season felt like a pale imitation, struggling to find its footing. One major issue was the lack of continuity in the cast, with many beloved characters and dynamics from the first season absent with no worthy replacements. This shift disrupted the chemistry and dynamic that were crucial to the show's initial charm. The new characters, while sometimes amusing, didn't bring the same level of depth, humor and relatability, resulting in a series of forced and often flat comedic moments. Speaking of comedy, the writing in season 2 leaned heavily on repetitive gags and clichéd scenarios, lacking the creativity and originality that kept the first season fresh and engaging. Not to mention its poor job in recycling some of the gags and scenarios, as well as most of the romances and its archetypes from season 1. Seriously shameful! The brief storylines were disjointed, and the emotional moments that once balanced the humor now came across as contrived and artificial. The romantic relationships, while they never were the main focus, were really stupid and tasteless. The pacing also suffered, with episodes dragging without the slightest engaging interplay of humor and character moments that previously defined the show. Second season tried to replicate the success of its predecessor but fell quite short, the charm, wit, and warmth that made the first season a hit were noticeably missing. I highly advise watching S1 and ignoring S2. Season 2 gets 4/10.

The drama should've been called Karma or Skunk, more appropriate than whatever this mouthful title is. Anyway, the drama was quite average, delivering a forgettable experience that was hard to get excited about. Despite the intriguing concept of treasure hunting, it quickly devolved into a series of predictable and uninspired scenes. The characters and their backstories were bland, making it difficult to care about what happens to them and round them. The dialogue was often stale and lacked the sharpness or humor that could have added some much needed zest. Speaking of humor, while the drama was structured as an action comedy but the latter often fell short on delivering good material, with barely a couple of memorable comedic moments at the end. On the other hand, the action was a constant juggling act between enjoyable performances and half-arsed imitations. The police force in this drama was as incompetent as every other drama involving police work, as expected. They went out of their way to shamefully show how bad the police force was and subsequently made Skunk step down to an equal level just to make the dynamic between the two work, forcefully. The drama had an idea to work with but it barely done anything worthy with it.

It's the type of drama with episodic cases where these cases occupied the majority of its run, however, half of the cases were bland and generic, these were only tolerable because of how the characters were handling them. While the cast size may have been small but they were active enough to keep things moving. Each character had a brief personal story that was brought up at some point along with the cases, just like the cases, these were also a mixed bag where some of them didn't fit or translate well. The drama was casual and light; hence, the comedy, which was alright but the fart jokes weren't funny, as always. Finally, they really wanted to add a bit of romance between the three leads to have something for the cast to banter around, but that was an unsuccessful maneuver.

It's probably one of the worst non-makjang daily family drama out there. Which is really tough to get this low for a family drama but somehow they did it. You may divide the drama into 3 sections 50 episodes each, the first 50 episodes was a regular family drama with somewhat smooth progression, the second 50 episodes the drama created an impossible predicament, the last 50 episodes everything got out of control in the worst possible way. Not much more to say about the first 1/3, however, the problem it created in the second 1/3 was a big stretch when it comes to creating tension and conflict, it spent the next 100 episodes, including the ending of the drama, without overcoming what it created, what kind of writing is this? The last 1/3, every relationship became extremely complicated and unreasonable. At that point, it was impossible to salvage the drama. Even the female lead became totally irrelevant in the last 1/3. It was blatantly obvious what was happening with the writer, she was extremely disorganized and incoherent after the initial batch of episodes.

The formula of daily makjang is well known and typical but this one follows after the cheap and factory produced ones. You can tell by just looking who are the cast members. No disrespect to the cast but this is what you might call a leftover cast. At the very least, they could've brought a male lead that's a little bit more flattering and more lead-fitting-persona. Being a lengthy 150 episodes, it wasn't surprising to stretch everything as thin as humanly possible. While it is also expected to have a negative IQ writing but it's really painful when clear real-world laws are blatantly twisted just to push whatever narrative they want. Anyway, there is a lot to be said but everything can be boiled down to this drama being shamefully bad because that's what Ajummas like to watch.

It was a really hard sell when a core part of the plot was the male lead treating the female lead like a piece of crap, combined with the "oh no he doesn't know how to express his feelings", these tropes are better left in fanfiction. The case was even worse due to the absolute lack of any chemistry between any of the four leads, this was the definition of negative rizz. It got even worse, all of the three leading cast Ju Ji Hoon & Song Ji Hyo & Kim Jeong Hoon brought an utterly abysmal joke of a performance, admittedly, this was their first main role and was totally incomparable with their current performance, all of them went to do much better and bigger things, it's better to forget they worked on this drama. On the other hand, Yoon Eun Hye was pulling the entire thing together, solo carrying whatever left to be salvaged. Her dynamic with her friends and family was quite good, but not with any of the leads. The puppets at the end of each episode were a nice touch, it would have been nicer if they incorporated that in the drama itself. The earlier parts of the drama were generally better, the events in the palace were a bit boring. To build up for the climax, the last 4 episodes created the last point of tension however it was seriously atrocious writing, one of the worst conflicts I've seen a writer come up with. It was just pure bad writing from that point until the last frame of the drama. If they slapped in some random terminal illness nuances it would've been a better serviceable finale. If anything, I'm only remembering this drama for its awful last few episodes. At least it was much better than Boys Over Flowers (2009).

How could they ever think this remake was a good idea? It didn't take more than half an episode to know everything you need going forward. Setting the expectations really low from the beginning. They immediately jumped into the premise with little to no build up. Yer a prince, Harry! Deal with it. The setup was bad, the writing was shameful and the characters were garbage. The main cast members were barely functional and their chemistry was a constant struggle that never washed away. The original Goong had a plethora of problems but, in contrast, this remake made me appreciate season 1 for whatever it had .

Oh dear! How could a full production team, crew and cast members be this damn oblivious to what they're making! The drama was the apotheosis of human failure, an insidious plague upon the landscape of television, a wretched abomination birthed from the depths of creative bankruptcy and soulless commercialism, a festering wound that infects the very essence of storytelling with its repulsive presence. Its premise was a nauseating blend of techno-narcissism and romantic idiocy, an affront to the intelligence of any sentient being unfortunate enough to bear witness to its abomination, a grotesque mutation of what once passed for entertainment. Characters were grotesque caricatures of humanity, mere vessels for the perpetuation of vapid romantic fantasies and insipid melodrama and their interactions were a cacophony of soulless platitudes and contrived emotional manipulation, each scene got progressively worse than the last. The writing was an insult to the very concept of coherent narrative structure, a labyrinth of a garbled mess and mind numbingly banal dialogue that defies comprehension. In fact, this drama wasn't just bad television, it was an abomination of the highest order, a blight upon the collective consciousness of humanity and the very fabric of reality itself that must be expunged from existence with extreme prejudice. Anyone who dares to defend this abhorrent monstrosity deserves nothing less than eternal damnation, condemned to spend eternity in the deepest, darkest depths of cinematic purgatory, tormented by the ceaseless repetition of its insipid drivel until the end of time itself. Anyway, it could've been worse, I guess.

The drama descended into the depths of revulsion with its gratuitous and sensationalistic approach to storytelling, leaving us appalled by its lack of subtlety and tact. Its heavy reliance on cheap tactics and low blows served only to alienate and inflame. The writing veered into the abyss of absurdity, sacrificing logical leniency and impartiality for the sake of eliciting visceral reactions. Broken balance system by design to further push this same narrative. A case in point, Eun Pa and Yun Tek as well as their individual paths. There was a big opportunity for the drama to do some real character reflection but it decided to ignore it, it only did it very briefly with Eun Pa in the first 1/3 of the drama. The drama had the audacity to deliver a message at the end of the drama from the cast members on what the "terms of endearment" means while miserably failing to portray what they preached in the message itself, pathetic and shameful. There were two main stories running in parallel, one for each of the sisters, however, they didn't interconnect well. The older sister had her world falling part, yet she was always emotionally discharged and normal when helping her younger sister, detracting from the seriousness and tension of her own story. On the other hand, the third sister was utterly useless in the entire dynamic, she should have played the linking bridge between everyone. In general most of the stories remained underdeveloped, cut short or had no direction, even the side ones, despite having a very generous long runtime. In its quest for conspicuous sensationalism, the drama lost sight of any memorable qualities, leaving us disheartened by its blatant disregard for a reasonable delivery to what it preached.

The drama epitomized frustration with its portrayal of a braindead female lead whose actions and decisions often questioned the existence of a cerebrum in that skull. The leads consistently made choices that were not only repetitive but also pathetic. Almost every character was repeating the same mistakes and facing the same consequences. A group of monkeys would perform and produce a better result under a shock therapy. The side plots were generally bad, maybe only the ML's brother one was acceptable but the rest were kinda cringe. The drama advertised itself around the bigger sister and her younger siblings (as title suggests too) but the siblings played such a small side role in the story while the love triangle was the main focus. The drama practically ended 6-7 episodes early and the remainder was pure fluff of nothingness. It didn't help its case when the resolution was lame anyway.

The drama presented itself as a lamentable example of melodramatic flop, failing to connect the trappings of its genre to deliver an engaging narrative. While the premise held promise, the drama often leaned heavily on dirt cheap emotional manipulation to spawn the dumbest and laziest old melo tropes with no rhyme or reason to their existence. The drama was the equivalent of a nothingburger, it's so dry and bland that they had to slap the most generic random displays of a terminal illness element just to fill some of its runtime. The first most important step for anything in this drama to work was to actually prove how deep their love was, which the drama absolutely didn't attempt to do. The characters' writing was generally bad, especially the female lead, not a single character had something substantial to offer. To top it all off, the writer was clueless and made whatever events for its climax.

Being a drama that came out around the late 90s I can see how it might be drawing flak for its take on relationships and societal norms. Deep down, it was all about love, loss, and redemption, painting a vivid picture of intertwined lives against a turbulent backdrop, however, it failed to create a healthy structure to contain the story. The most important first step was to create a convincing scenario and story to sell their flaming torturous love, but what we got was only brief montages during the first episode. Every time they met they were filled the screen with displays of passion but there was no bases for it to carry a good impact, let alone, a lasting one. A core part of the story was the dynamic between the four leads, however, the second couple became much less relevant in the second half which made the new trajectory boring. Initially, the drama was heading somewhere while making a statement with how it dealt with gender roles and societal expectations but suddenly it gave up completely on the idea and resulted to the same old same old, reinforcing stereotypes from the 90s instead of shaking them up. I wonder if the broadcast received criticism from the public? On an unrelated note, most female leads from the 90s speak excessively timid and subdued most of the time for some reason, even when their colleagues of female supporting cast are speaking normally. Anyway, the drama was somewhat alright for its time.

The writer has a good track record of writing good unique shows and this drama was no exception. The drama stood out for its deep rich story and multi-layered narrative, offering a compelling journey through the complexities of life and relationships. Its strength lies in its ability to delve into the human psyche, exploring themes of love, family dynamics, societal expectations, ambition, and identity with a nuanced hand. The drama had a lot of story to tell and explore, yet it didn't feel bloated. The characters went through a tremendous development and growth during its runtime. The drama was filled with great characters and characterizations, each character is meticulously crafted, with their own hopes, fears, trauma and desires, adding depth and dimension to the storyline. I particular liked the subtle humor that lied in their casual interactions and dialogues. However, despite its many strengths, lied flaws that somewhat tarnished some of its brilliance. There were many things that could've been done better but nothing was too major. The entanglement of love square relationship may have lasted for too long and could've been navigated better, though I still love their unconventional dynamic. The drama kind of ended at episode 15 while the last episode was more like a real proper reflection and a graceful send off, I don't think I've seen something like that before in a drama. Despite some missteps and its unconventional approach, the drama remained a strong compelling watch with a star-studded cast.

While I appreciate its shorter runtime of 10 episodes but I wish it was even shorter for a tighter package. Some side plots didn't fit the narrative and were a mere distraction, such as the female lead's friends personal affairs, not even a good filler. The middle parts were filled with padded sequences. It took a long time before actually getting into what the synopsis describes. From this kind of plot around embezzlement, I would expect somewhat a smarter play and a deeper plot but the drama kept things mostly at a surface-level and borderline making stupid mistakes intentionally to create some tension and invoke a reaction from the viewers. I really like what Kim Seo Hyung has been doing in the past few years, leading projects of characters that fit her are infinitely better than older supporting roles. Anyway, the drama may not rank high but still offers a decent viewing experience for those willing to explore something different.

The drama started on an objectively stupid and trashy conflict that couldn't have been written by a real human being in 1998. It loosely maximized all imaginary tropes of sadness, depression and angst regardless of how well they can connect them, that's why they slapped a terminal illness in the mix because why not at this point. The drama lacked the slightest minuscule resemblance of any balance. What's even the point? It failed to establish a good argument why the viewers should care, especially for how awful the setup was with both guys. The atrocious attempt to shove in the love triangle and romance of the leads was unbearable and killed any redeeming qualities all at once. This was one of the worst trio leads combination I've seen, surface-level and brain-dead trio entanglement. Forced rape, pregnancy, marriage and domestic abuse by their friend, all treated as something casual and turned a blind eye because exploring any of them, especially rape, would require more nuanced writing. After all of these long-winded commotions the drama shifted its focus to something different within a couple of scenes as if nothing happened. Garbage writing! The female lead was as dry and boring as they could come, easily the worst character in the drama. Even the guests had a better impression. The drama had big cuts and gaps which led to abysmal pacing and disjointed narrative. I had to double check if the drama was actually cut but both TV and DVD releases were the same. At the end of the day, there was a lot to dislike about the drama and little to no likeable elements.

Something about action dramas from around early 2010s make them unique for better or worse. The drama started off with a big bang, literally, while shoving in the maximum possible amount of flashy elements. If you watch the very first scene it should give you a good idea. However, just like other ones from around the same time, it gradually began to wither away after 5-6 episodes until it reached a bland conclusion. The male lead doubling his role as a comedic relief was mostly fine, but him flailing his tongue like a dog was a bit too cringe to tolerate. The drama really wanted to include romance because it was the trend back then, that's why we had multiple pairings, most of them were unnecessary or weak. The main antagonist was your generic baddie, the drama didn't even show him a lot until the last few episodes because they didn't want to bother with more writing. The vibes were very similar to 'A Man Called God (2010)' which came out in the same year, except this one was a bit better.

What's love? This is a mature story about people falling out of love, searching for love and are afraid of love. Great character writing and smooth exchange of dialogue. The subtle comedy was done wonderfully. The drama had a unique sense of direction at times where it expands beyond the conventional realm of drama, it even steps into film territory briefly with film-like shot compositions and witty dialogue. This is the type of drama where whether the couple came back together or not is irrelevant, their love story is what made it worth it. The drama isn't perfect by any means, but it succeed in delivering a well made package. Although I wish if they merged Mi Yeon and Yoo Kyung into one character/story instead of giving each a section in the drama. L ee Ha Na, this is her first acting role in drama or film and she absolutely nailed her performance. She even outshone Son Ye Jin every now and then. I find her, as an actress, is better fit in casual roles like this one over action ones like in "Voice". It would be nice if Voice would just end with season 5 and Lee Ha Na would move to bigger and better projects.

Core part of the plot was the male lead pretending to be gay as described in the synopsis, however, I'm not sure if this was intentional or not but naming the female lead 'Gae In' was seriously tripping as it was pronounced very similarly to how the characters saying the word gay. Anyway, the drama followed the typical romcom formula of the early 2010s while having a play around the cohabitation of opposite sex and pretending to be gay. This setup spawned all kinds of predictable shenanigans yet they were somewhat entertaining, solely thanks to the leads. While sometimes irritating but they had a good dynamic going on between them. The character Jin Ho was written as a reserved guy who doesn't open up or show his feelings but Lee Min Ho in this drama was way too subdued and static beyond what the characterization mandates for his character, combined with sometimes questionable production, it had created some awkward scenes and deliveries. The drama featured a love square to anchor the drama but this love square was plain stupid. It served its purpose to kick start the story but any involvement after that was a poor decision. I found the ending to be a little bit weak and boring, they played it safe and predictable. Both parents of the leads were brushed off quickly to wrap it up despite being a reasonable point of tension prior to that. Overall, it's a decent watch with nice moments here and there but lacked a lot to be recommendable or rewatchable.

The drama paled in comparison to its predecessor, managing to somehow be an even bigger problematic piece than the troublesome first season. From its lackluster plot to its uninspired character dynamics, this spinoff felt like a cheap imitation rather than a fresh spinoff. Gone are the scuffed and endearing dynamics of the characters, replaced instead by awkward interactions and forced romances, resulting in a disjointed narrative that struggled to find its footing. The writing was lazy and contrived, relying on tired recycled storylines, it also shamelessly recycled the exact same jokes and bits from the original, albeit with even far less finesse and charm. Both male leads were unbearably cringe and the female lead was equally doormat. While the original may have had its faults, the spinoff took those flaws and magnified them, resulting in a soulless spinoff that tarnished whatever shred of goodwill the original may have had.

As per design, this is the usual love square quarrels from the 2000s, following the blueprint precisely but with one major unforgivable flaw. It's expected from this formula to have a loose story not adhering to reality, common sense or logic, in one way or another it blends and enhances its entertaining value to push forward the narrative and dynamics. However, this drama went beyond what the viewers may deem passable in that regard with how they snowballed the setup involving the FL's friends, and her friends existence in general, pure atrocity. I refuse to believe that the writer spent more than 1-2 minutes thinking about the initial setup. Admittedly, the cast is what kept it alive and watchable, from the main leads to the elder cast, absolutely excluding the duo friends. The resolution and the romance in general felt quite distant from the characters, probably because they held it off for too long before establishing a clear communication between the leads which only happened in the last episode. Overall, the drama was just alright.

At the surface it may seems it's the type of show that goes through workplace cases one after another, while that was slightly true initially, but it was just a drama themed around an advertising agency, or so I thought, initially. After the introduction, the drama began with an advertising assignment then followed by a bigger one with more tension, stakes and clever plays, however, this all happened in the first half while the second half became a regular melodrama/power struggle in a corporate setting, no more advertising assignments. This was unfortunate because the second half couldn't carry the same impact, especially the last 4 episodes. Ah In & Han Na & Young Woo had a great dynamic between each other and those around them. On the other hand, Han Byung Soo was the worst character, his character didn't fit any scene, he lacked a good dynamic and story given that he was close to the female lead, even the actor himself was out of place and a big mismatch to his task. The personal stories were a hit or miss, take for example the female lead story, the writer put little to no effort into her childhood/trauma, everything started and ended with a few scenes which led to a weak resolution to her trauma. It was really disappointing in this specific case after building up her trauma and problems for so long. Han Na and her secretary might be a highlight for some but Eun Jung and her child were a highlight for me. The final wrap up felt a bit strange after just 1 year time skip, an obvious uncalculated afterthought for the sake of it. The drama offered a decent package with a lot more potentials on the table but it also left a lot more to be desired.

Having a plot around mothers competing on social media over whose life is the happiest is such a dystopian sad present we currently live in. The concept itself was limit testing my cringe-o-meter really hard but luckily the mystery plot took over after 2 episodes. This drama was very similar to Green Mothers' Club (2022), it started with a group of housewives/residents living in their fancy neighborhood until it turns into a mystery plot after a few episodes. The mystery itself here was limited, swinging between who's the killer and digging up the past, however, it wasn't enough to fill 16 episodes and was often stretching each event really thin. Most of the characters were trashy which made it hard to sympathize with when they were given a turn over and a resolution. For a plot around who done it mystery, usually we get a handful of suspects with good motives but in this drama most of the suspects had a weak motivation and their attempt to play innocent was rather unconvincing. One thing that bothered me was how the drama never addressed the big daughter properly after her initial introduction and purpose, which was kinda important for the narrative. In fact, most relationships between the characters were given a half-arsed follow up and resolution, leading to an unacceptable wrap up.

There's an obvious case to be made around the exploration of the ups and downs of being a young adult, but this drama was an excruciating exercise in superficiality, offering nothing but a hollow shell of what could have been a worthy experience. From its cardboard characters to its cringe-worthy dialogue and moments, the drama failed to maintain an attractive hook, opting instead for a glossy, saccharine portrayal that felt more like a caricature than a digestible imitation. The stories were equally pretty shallow as well, its attempts at drama fell flat, overshadowed by its overwhelming lack of substance, conviction and commitment between most of the characters, relationships and dynamics. Its surface-level approach with everything left no room for any proper investment to be had. By every metric possible, the 2nd season was a significant downgrade to what was an already struggling piece. Yoo Eun Jae was undeniably the weakest link in season 1, recasting her actress to someone who's struggling to play it, made things 10 folds worse. The replacement was trying really hard to mimic the original while the actress facial expressions, fluency and intonations were the polar opposite. It doesn't take a blind man to be appalled by the comparison, not like the original was any better. Unfortunately, things got even worse, her continuous story, background, conflicts, motives, and character writing were a nauseating concoction of utter literary incompetence and creative bankruptcy, a slap in the face to anyone with even a modicum of taste. To be fair, both Ye Ri & Eun Bin brought a much needed improved performances into the 2nd season, their characters as well had a better fit. Overall, the drama was a disappointingly bland and forgettable entry that failed to leave any lasting positive impact. If you care, streaming services like Netflix cut off any inner songs/tunes/humming/reading-lyrics-out-loud, the first episode is +3 minutes shorter than TV.

This drama was a constant coin toss for me, swinging between great and bad throughout, this included the story, characters, jokes, and, in particular, cases. Every case related to one or multiple subjects around neuroscience for the doctor to talk about, however, some subjects were poorly executed and questionable. These ones were totally forced and stretched thin just for the sake of including them. Other cases were actually interesting. The humor as well was a big hit or miss, especially with the male leads. The drama placed too much focus on the male leads while neglecting the remainder of the cast dynamic. On the other hand, the detective wife didn't fit quite well and it took until the last few episodes for her character to finally blend. The drama had its good moments with its witty humor but it lacked in many areas to be a solid drama.