Hyde, Jekyll, Me (2015)

It was a pretty good drama. Hyun bin played the main lead who has a severe case of schizophrenia and has an alter ego that saves people where Hyun bin himself is laden with guilt from his past and gets strange symptoms like anxiety. I liked all the characters the romance was swoon worthy and Hyun Bin is so handsome. Interesting plot with cliff hangers that keep you engaged. Fun and romantic and hilarious at times. I absolutely enjoyed watching. The female lead started out a little outrageous but seriously this is a guilty pleasure drama so the outrageous stuff didn't bother me.

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This is a great character based drama that depicts a male lead with Dissociative identity disorder (DID) stemming from a traumatic event in his childhood! There is no good vs. evil, the main lead’s persona split into two personalities, one that is cold hearted and cowardish in order to protect himself and one that is warm, understanding, and brave. The lead male actor (Hyun Bin as Gu Seo Jin/Robin) did such a great job that one totally forgets that he is still one person. This drama’s plot starts with Gu Seo Jin unexpectedly meeting Jang Ha Na which becomes the trigger to Robin’s (Gu Seo Jin’s alter ego) reappearance. From henceforth, and through a series of unfortunate events, this man starts on his way of healing, reconciliation, and falling in love. It has a good ending but the drama could’ve used one more episode to strengthen the lead couple’s relationship. Still, it is a great drama with many good actors playing their characters very well and a fantastic antagonist. Enjoy it!

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After two years of dropping and putting this drama on hold, I've finally finished it and am baffled to say that I really did enjoy it.

Hyde, Jekyll, Me is a kdrama centred on a character with DID that came out at the same time as the much better received Kill Me, Heal Me. Because they share similarities in concept and came out around the same time, these two dramas are held up to one another automatically, so I think it's important to recognize how and why KMHM had such good reception when HJM couldn't pull in ratings. Other reviewers have mentioned the similar time slots, so I won't get into that. Instead, let's focus on HJM's shortcomings.

The story is about Goo Seo Jin, a rich chaebol heir who was kidnapped as a child alongside his friend--check off another similarity to KMHM. The trauma from that event and his inability to do anything about it eventually birthed Robin, his heroic, kind-hearted alter ego. But the story doesn't start with Robin's birth and instead, we're shown Seo Jin's position later in life, his bad personality and selfishness as he meets ringmaster Jang Ha Na and the two clash. One big drawback to the series is the very start of it. It took me two attempts to get through the first episode, and another two to make it past the first four. The beginning is clunky with weird pacing, an even weirder setup, and not a lot to suck you into the story. The first introduction to Robin as a character is cringy. He feels less like a person and more like a comic book superhero someone came up with in middle school. Both he and the main personality feel like caricatures, and it's painful to watch. Getting into this drama is hard, there are no two ways around that. But does that mean it's not worth watching? Well... I have a story for that.

I started watching HJM coming off of a few really great dramas. I absolutely fell in love with those dramas back-to-back and once they were over, I couldn't bring myself to get invested in any of the other good-looking shows out there. Ah, I thought, the dreaded burnout. That's when I looked back at my 'dropped' list and saw the name Hyde, Jekyll, Me. I went into it wanting a trashy, badly-written drama that I could laugh at. I only paid half attention, especially to the earliest episodes, and it worked out exactly as I expected it to. The plot was cliche, a bit stupid, with some moments that didn't make a lot of sense and a bit of dragging towards the middle that I was used to seeing at the halfway. Every now and then, I would put the drama back on hold again and would switch to series that I was invested in until the burnout came and I would inevitably need my 'trash drama' once more.

But something strange happened amidst all that. The writing wasn't good by any means, even when the acting was decent, and my wife and I would mock and laugh at some of the things that they were doing, but then it came time for the final episodes. The main conflict was over, the antagonist was gone, and there were still a few episodes to go. All that was left to settle was the conflict of the dual personalities, something that, remembering KMHM, I expected to take maybe half an episode. But it didn't. And as I watched the characters go through their days and saw the inevitable end creeping up on them, I realized that I actually cared about the characters for some strange reason. The characters I thought of as caricatures grew on me when I wasn't looking and suddenly they mattered to me. And sure, what happened from there on was predictable, but I was still invested.

Just like how production values don't make a show, you don't always need a solid story to love something. Sometimes all you need is time and a little bit of passion. HKM is nothing of a masterpiece, but that doesn't mean it did everything poorly. Instead of focusing on the outward appearance of DID like KMHM did, it put time into the internal effects that the illness had on both Seo Jin and Robin, and the ripple effect it had on the people they surrounded themselves with. Even while its handling of the issue was silly, with hypnosis sprinkled in for added effect, and even with Robin being a better person than Seo Jin and more likeable to boot, it remembered that the root of everything was mental illness. It took the time to make Robin a person instead of a stereotype the way that KMHM treated its alters, and it respected its characters enough to give them a proper end.

The production is a bit of a mess, the writing is sloppy and premise is weird, but it's a drama with heart. Don't take it seriously, and you may be pleasantly surprised.

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This drama is one of the best for my point of view. Sadly, I saw it is underrating and I am quite alone in thinking it was a great drama. I loved every episode and every main characters. Hyun Bin made an amazing role, full of sensibility and the struggle with itself was perfectly contrived along all the drama. on the other hand, the psichiatrist was fantastic and his battle seemed real. I think the drama was like an amazing fight and dialogues between Seo Jin , Robin and dr. Yoon, a journey to healing, a journey to survive and to find their real lives. I loved all of this, the drama was full of sentitivity and feelings.

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I just finished this drama the 4th time last night, and my heart still soars with joy by the moments from the drama. If you want to watch more Hyun Bin’s work, I recommend this one. It’s not an average rom-com, it requires some emotional investments as the story unfolds the thought process of HB’s character, how he became the way he is now. The character development in the story was one of the best I've ever seen in the world of fiction. HB’s acting in this drama is super superb and his visuals are also perfect. He makes you laugh and cry and fall in love with both characters that he portrays.

This one was my favorite of all time before CLOY. Please ignore the bad ratings, ignore all the comparisons between this and KMHM and give your pure heart a try. Like I said it’s not just another rom com because its plot is complex. But to those who love complicated plotlines and plot twists, you won’t be disappointed. Hyun Bin is simply the best actor.

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starts weakly but more and more becomes AMAZING emotional drama, deep story and characters

from random clieche melodrama to fireworks of emotions and complex characters/relationships!
Don't judge this drama from first 5-7 episodes. There are dramas with so high production quality and details (I mean when even not meaningful details are well thought and exquisite) but often lack of emotions, when you watch, it's really good but you don't feel anything. Well this drama is opposite. Maybe there are some law quality details in overall but characters, relationships are soooo emotional, soo deep and multilayered....

In the beginning episodes It had really bad production value and many primitive scenes, clieches and cring moments, but it kept me interested anyway, all the time. And then it becomes more and more good, primitive moments are less or almost not but story and characters grow, become deep and multilayered, relationships and emotions real and very emotional; Near the end this Drama was soo amazing, SOOO GREAT I would rate it (if not first 5-7 episodes) 10/10... No, 15 from 10!!! There are dialogues and subjects that make you really think about human nature, psychology, emotions... characters (especially Hyun Bin's characters) really grow and make you more and more feel for them, sympathise them...

Now when I write this, I'm surprised myself, how drama with so primitive chieche beginning become soo deep and emotional!

Hyun Bin of course is perfect as always, and FL isn't bad too, I would say she is quite good, I could feel her emotions (because of her acting and because how her character is realistically written). I saw many dislike her, but as character and also her acting is still much better then many FLs in dramaworld, she isn't annoying and is quite logical.

Events and characters actions/reasons develop, not happens out of the sky. There wasn't usual scenario of drama development, when action/interest is in the beginning, then story is puled and complication of (already predictable) story is fastened only in last 1-2 episodes.

Villain wasn't perfect/fully resonable from beginning but as the whole drama he and his character becomes more and more good, not fully dark, he is human with issues and anger, nut just one dimentional evil.

P.S. I tend to love not so nice characters, but there are few dramas when nice/kind character is soo good, soo pure and completely wonderful, no one could not love him, and Robin is one o them <3 his character, story from beginning till the end was so beautiful and emotional, real fireworks of real emotions ...

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I really loved this drama. It was a unique take on a ML with multiple personality disorder. I watched months or a year after seeing Kill Me, Heal Me so I didn't have any lingering feelings for KMHM when watching. I think they are both great in there own way. HJM was less comedy and explored more of the relationship between the original and the second personality. It had its fun and light moments, but the last few episodes drew out the viewers emotions. The crime aspect of the story was good. Some of it was predictable, but it added to the growth of the characters and wasn't boring. Overall I think the relationships between the FL and the ML's two personalities was original and was treated with realistic feelings and actions in such a unique situation. The relationships in the show were mature and showed growth over the drama so it kept the viewers attention.

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first of all this drama was nice till ep.13
the story was about a man who had a (Dissociative identity disorder) a critical case and his shrink couldn't heal him for years

then suddenly the writer decided to make a circus girl who knew nothing about Psychiatry or even a critical case like (Dissociative identity disorder) to manage with this serious case as if she was a shrink
and above all of that she treated him as if he was two persons not a sick one
she teased me soooooo

i felt that the story underestimated my mind really
i hated it
my opinion it 's really really overrated
i liked sung joon role so much he is a brilliant actor

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Didn’t realise Hyun Bin was also in this!

So after being disappointed with “Crash Landing on You” , I was looking for the Webtoon version of this series and wasn’t able to find the whole thing online. So instead, I used good ol Netflix instead and while watching the rest, I didn’t realise Hyun Bin was also on this and he killed it man with his changing personas.Now my only complaint is that the 20 episodes was long winded and wanted to finish it in one go (finished at 6am, stupid I know). However it was an addicting series to binge like both Hyun Bin and Han Ji Min were just very cute together, I think also Han Sang Jin played the wacky mischievous villian pretty darn good, I loved how in the near end he made Bins character draw in front of a serious conference like wtf with that scene man xD

It’s pretty good but again the episodes were long winded even if it was a binge to watch!

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Look, we've all been there. Watch a drama you absolutely frigging love and then it's over. You desperately try to find a replacement but the problem is you don't have encyclopedic knowledge of every drama made in existence so you don't know what the closest thing to the masterpiece you just watched would be. So you head on to Wikipedia, search up the actors to the drama you loved to death and go "ok, Hyun Bin, what else have you been in that I can watch?"

This is what happened to me and the drama "Crash Landing on You". CLOY is a drama exclusive to Netflix which this is NOT, so if you have Netflix drop everything and go watch that instead. I consider Hyde, Jekyll, Me the rebound drama after CLOY and by god is it sub par in every way. It might fill your Hyun Bin needs but it's just not the same.

Ok, ok, fine you get two versions of him (specifically one with glasses and gelled up hair and the other one without either of those things), like what more do you want?

It's just unfortunate that they wanted to return Hyun Bin to the throne of rom com king after his stint in Secret Garden and while the premise of the story is quite interesting (when will split personalities not be interesting?), everything else just seems contrived. Like the story line exists in order for Hyun Bin to play this interesting role.

For example, Han Jimin's character (Jang Ha Na) being a circus master was laughably 1 dimensional in that she did absolutely nothing involving being the circus master besides: a) being slightly more athletic and being able to use a tightrope and b) constantly whining about how her circus is going to be shut down when their most elaborate shows is on par with a cheap children's party magic show. The whole circus business was merely way to keep Ha Na close to Seo Jin - after the whole Seo Jin/Robin plot took off with Ha Na as an unsuspecting passenger, it no longer matter Jang Ha Na was a circus master.

I don't blame any of the actors for this. On paper, this drama was just asking to succeed because it hit all the right points: rich guy/ poor woman story, pretty leads, quirky female lead, two male leads that cover all the points from likeable, athletic, protective to prickly, tsuendre, and outright cold. However it seems that splitting Hyun Bin into two different people meant Han Jimin couldn't quite build a connection with either sides of the coin. I personally feel it's why it falls short in terms of likeability. But hey, it's a rom com, if you like those, you'll probably be ok watching this one....

(But seriously, go watch Crash Landing on You.)

--- SPOILER BELOW---

I disagree with the way the storyline went with Hana falling for Robin exclusively. I think it would have been a bigger hurdle for her to realize the she like Seo Jin all along and that Seo Jin could have made that personal journey into being a better person through that relationship. It seemed like they tried to do this via the 'merging' of their personalities, but I find that to be the cheap way out. Seo Jin didn't really have a change because that's just Robin merging into his psyche. Hana liked Robin because he was the easier side of the coin for her to get along with.

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