The Bad Kids (2020)

True Lies

This must watch crime drama hooked me from the start and commanded my undivided attention till the end.  My review is going to be brief because for this drama, spoilers will vastly diminish your viewing experience so best steer clear of the threads until you are done.

Three children from broken families - Zhu Chao Yang (Rong Zishan), Yan Liang (Shi Pengyao) and Yue Pu (Wang Shengdi) accidentally record footage of a murder in progress. They bite off more than they can chew when they go toe to toe with the murderer in a deadly cat and mouse chess game that could lead to mutually assured destruction. This is brilliantly written and superbly acted, with dynamic relationships, complex emotions and mirror lead antagonists. The sophisticated and nuanced performances of all three child actors and notably Rong Zishan are impressive beyond words. They are surrounded by a veteran cast that deftly portrays realistic, empathetic characters with very human failings. This is a dark story about how social and familial pressure and occasionally just darn bad luck can make people do both deeply moving and terrifyingly chilling things. The suspense builds naturally as a result of gripping storytelling and acting and is not artificially induced by music.

As a mystery buff, I have loved the unreliable narrator style of storytelling since I read Agatha Christie's "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd". The kind of darkness of human nature explored in this drama also coincides with my other Christie favorite "Crooked House" so this drama checks all my boxes. However, the adaption of this type of narrative style to film is incredibly difficult and usually disappointing - the movie version of Ian McEwan's Atonement is a classic example. So I am just bowled over by how meticulously and insidiously well executed The Bad Kids is. Even if you watch this without blinking, you will inevitably miss many of the true lies and scratch your head as to when and where the lines between fact and fantasy get blurred. There is no shocking "Aha!" moment - indeed initially I was convinced with and unquestioning of my first impression of what happened. I fell for the fairy tale hook, line and sinker. And then insidiously, all the alternate possibilities started to creep up upon me and drew me into re-watching. I watched this two times and and parts of it more than that and yet the ambiguities and different possibilities persist. That is actually what is fascinating, thrilling, chilling and absolutely mind blowing about this experience. 

Of course there are some mild logic flaws but this is truly so well executed there is little to pick at without being petty. I can't praise this enough, it has to be the best crime/mystery I have watched as of June 2020. It can hold its own relative to the best in class of this genre not just in China but anywhere and everywhere. Two thumbs up!!!

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Intelligent suspense takes its most elegant form in The Bad Kids

My preferences in entertainment go a little something like this: sure, I’ll give it a shot. Wait. It’s scary? Yes, I’m slowly backing out of the room.

The Bad Kids is not horror, nor would I—even in all of my yellow-bellied glory—consider it traditionally scary. Even so, you'll be able to tell about five minutes into the first episode that this is not to be watched on any day when you want a fun, happy time. If fully immersed in this drama’s eerie atmosphere, I can wholly believe that you may lay awake that very night, contemplating the series of fictional events that you have borne witness to. It's an addictive kind of insanity. I’m definitely not saying this out of personal experience…don’t know what’s leading you to think that…

I strongly advise potential viewers to go for a totally blind watch-through; hence, I won't be mentioning any aspects of the plot here. Even if you usually do not care about being spoiled before watching something, you absolutely should not look up anything about this show before you finish every single episode. Central to The Bad Kids is how it produces a phantom instinct within your gut as you try to figure out what is going to happen next, and that engrossment in the story evolves into a part of your own satisfaction. Let the show work its wonders and let yourself absorb it fully.

One point about the story that should be mentioned as a selling point, though, is that while The Bad Kids is about crime, it focuses on that through relatable themes like family bonds. A major plus to the watching experience is how you are forced to form and change your opinions about each character based on how they treat one another—and in what situations. I’ve rarely seen characters being depicted with this degree of care in other works. They feel genuinely human: imperfect, self-contradictory, and emotional.

I was also impressed to the extremes with the acting. Imagine the perfection that's in not needing to fall to the level of typical high-school dramas, where the lead teen is played by a dude in his twenties with clear skin. That perfection exists in The Bad Kids, where each of the three child actors—whose roles are incredibly demanding—are literal children who do not falter at all within their roles. Though I’m giving a special shoutout to the kids, I don’t want to gloss over the other actors who elevated the story. Every cast member was flawless in their depiction of their characters and how they collaborated with one another to depict intensely real relationships. Qin Hao is also someone that I will be keeping an eye on in the future; the way that he balanced the good and evil of his character so naturally gave me chills.

The Bad Kids has skyrocketed up to become one of (if not the superlative) my favorite dramas ever. Days after finishing the last episode, I couldn’t fend off the temptation to start again: and this time, I took notes so that I could keep track of every possible hint that the producers dropped. That’s right—this self-proclaimed hater of note-taking in school willingly opened a notebook and clicked a pen just so she could wrap her head around this show. And I loved every second of it. You might take this as evidence that I'm a tad cuckoo in the head (you probably wouldn’t be wrong), but you’ll understand me as soon as the credits roll on the last episode. There's so much detail to process and make sense of.

If this level of writing, acting, and production could be held as the standard for Chinese dramas, then I am impatient for what is to come. Until then, I’m going to treat my drama withdrawal with perhaps a third dive into this show.

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Life may not be what it looks like - Masterpiece

This is by far the best Cdrama ever. Starting from one accident and gradually everything gets out of control, the feeling of depression and hopelessness in this drama is real, not even because the plot is dark but also because there are so many things shown in this drama might've happened to many of us in childhood. And I'm thrilled how they make the children to act so on spot for these highly gloomy and creepy scenes. The eyes of both the main adult leader Zhang Dongsheng and the child lead Zhu Chaoyang speak a ton of their malice. I got constantly scared by Zhu Chaoyang's expression even if he's just 13 yo in the drama. But when you come to think about it, if you were him, would you ever stop yourself from making that expression? Rated it 10/10 not because I'm psychotic person liking creepy plots but the sympathy I felt when watching the drama.

Instead of putting this drama into "thrill" or "psychology"or "crime" genre, I'm more inclined to describe it as a "family" one. Simply because every event happened in this drama resulted from tragedy inside each one's own family. Zhang Dongsheng killed his wife's parents and wife later because of their betrayal; Zhu Chaoyang's tragedy was a direct result of a divorced family and his sister's death; Yan Liang and Pupu came to this city in order to seek help for their long parted family members.



This drama depicts how the social and familial pressure could affect a child who has already developed a fracture of darkness inside his heart due to family issue, and with lack of care from parents side, it eventually turning his character to one he himself doesn't even want to be. It's heartbreaking to watch some of the scenes, especially episode 6 and 10 when Chaoyang confronting his divorced parents. It's so resonant to those who are raised by a single parent. Those kind of parents are already stressed out enough by the parental responsibility, and, what's more, every single piece of misfortune in their daily adult life converts into domestic abuse towards their child at night. But for the kids, in order to be recognized as a "good kid", they are forced to endure all the negativity their parents threw at them and behave so forth. The occasional "I'm proud of you" "you are such a good kid"phrases can be everything to children with innocent minds, but in the meantime, it's also a curse for children to shackle themselves from letting out their true childish characters only in exchange for that "praises". They think as long as they act according to the what they are told, they will get loved more; however in reality, parents did the opposite to what they told their kids, when kids realize all their parents care is themselves, the feeling of betrayal starts brewing inside them. If parents are the ones that break your illusion, how are they possibly going to repair your mind after that? The drama shows one of the possible answers to this question in the hidden storyline.


It's very mind-boggling to find out that all of the adults in this drama are extremely unreliable and selfish. Chaoyang's father's preference for his new family made him suspect his own son, and he also made Chaoyang lie to the police in order to protect his new wife, even though he's been teaching his son never should he tell lies; Chaoyang's mother is a control freak, she made his son to charge his own father in front of the police out of her personal grudge, only to be protested by Chaoyang about the truth of their divorce which his mother had lied to him over the years thinking he was too young to remember the detail. All his parents do is to blame the fault on the other; they never cared about what Chaoyang wants them to do. Yan Liang came to the city to seek help from that old guy with a fan, but was immediately reported to the police, even if he's YL's father's most reliable friend; when he wondered how severe a charge of blackmailing could be, he turned to Old Chen for help but was questioned his innocence without even letting him explain the situation. This adds to the gloomy tone of the drama, making it more reasonable of the motivation of what these children had done.


Having that Descartes's fairytale hinting here and there throughout the drama, it leaves an open ending to the audience quite resonating to the fairytale, asking yourself to decide if it's a good end or a bad end. After I watched for the first time I was about to believe in the fairytale although some of the obvious hints suggest otherwise, but still not strong enough to convince me with an alternative ending. But then after another couple of times of rewatching, sorting out all the hidden clues, I'm finally reaching the cruel truth, however, a cruel truth that makes so much sense. I really enjoyed the whole rewatching experience, but I guess mostly people stop after the first finish and proceed to find clues in other people's reviews to see the true ending. Or simply forget about it and agree with the fairytale ending. It's all up to your choice because it IS an open ending without many conclusive clues and you decide how far you want to go for the interpretation.

Music is elegant and one of a kind. A perfect match to a heavy story like this. Cinematography is so beautiful I'm capturing screen all the time.

Watched 4 times now and each time I found new details that enrich my view of the characters. Last time I focused on the leading child character Zhu Chaoyang, I was surprised to find so many underlying details even starting at episode 1 that point to his later change. Truly a masterpiece. I dare to say it's even much better than most of the crime dramas (eastern or western)I've watched so far. Please give it a check! Totally worth the time!

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Excellent Acting and Production

If you’re looking for a dark, twisted, and well-written drama, you might want to check this one out.

The reason this drama was so well-received in China was because it didn’t have one useless scene. In general, Chinese dramas usually exceed 20 episodes, with some being as long as 60 or 80 episodes. This may cause the overall storyline to drag and lose the viewer’s attention. However, in this drama, every scene will keep you on the edge of your seat and every episode will leave you wondering about the next.

Possibly the thing that stuck with me the most while watching is how the director and production crew brought this story to life. Everything, from the details of the background scenes, the juxtaposition, and the camera angles, was perfect. To completely enjoy and understand this story, you need to pay close attention to the details and the meanings behind every shot. The music placed in each scene also felt haunting, but rightfully so. Although the music seemed creepy and twisted, it was very meaningful, and it accurately described the characters’ inner voices and feelings. I was also pleasantly surprised by how well the child actors took on their roles and how natural they made the characters seem. At some parts of the drama, it almost felt like you were watching a documentary and that these characters actually existed.

Since this drama focuses on many social issues and family pressure, it touched on many topics that haven’t been discussed as frequently before, but should be brought to our attention because of how impactful they can be people, especially children.

Overall, this is a mind-blowing drama that has exceptional acting and directing, and it will resonate with you long after you’ve finished it.

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Unreliable narrator?

OH WOW! Luckily for me I found this show right as it finished airing so I got the opportunity to binge it and finished it in only 24 hours.. I didn't really know what I got myself into, but the synopsis sounded very interesting to me. I was bored of romantic dramas and I wanted some kind of break from that.

This won't be a review without me complimenting the kid actors. They did such an AMAZING JOB?!... I can't really imagine any other people playing their characters because they're just perfect for the roles. Together with them, the scenery & music made this show so good.
I'm one of those people that really admire when a show use a lot of metaphors with the help of cinematography and this show did just that! Through out the episodes you have this perception of how Chao Yang is, but later on in the last episodes you start to realize this entire show has been from his perspective. You can always make yourself look better from your perspective and that's when you start to realize that the main character is an unreliable narrator. It makes you start to question what was ever real and what wasn't. I ABSOLUTELY LOVE that this show did this. I found it so incredible how your opinion of a character can change so brutally just through that once scene when we found out that Chao Yang actually pushed his younger sister through the window.

While we are talking about the last episode I also just want to talk about how incredible Pupu and Yan Liang wrapped the story up. I know this is mostly just speculation, but the fact that Pupu and Yan Liang are probably not alive (most likely never have been because I believe they are imaginary friends made up of Chao Yang simply because he wished for friends, but he didn't have any, so he made them up himself) is so INTERESTING TO ME.. The theories of this drama is absolutely insane and I really suggest checking some of them out after finishing the drama!

Something I also really enjoyed was the fact that they actually made Yan Liang and Pupu look like they had no money. You could see how they reused the clothes they had had from the beginning to change their outfits. I LOVE THAT! but that might just be me since I'm a sucker for details.

The last thing I have to talk about is how amazing the music is. Music can do so much for a drama if you use the right music, thankfully this show has an amazing soundtrack. I actually just yesterday checked out the entire soundtrack and most of the songs are very creepy, but in a VERY good way. I absolutely adore when a show create their own background music that will fit the scenes perfectly. It really helps the whole show set its mood.

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The Vulnerable Kids that confused me

I have always known that the most dangerous time for a woman in a relationship is the moment she wants out. I did not know that that could also be the most dangerous time for her parent... Bringing us to a pretty cruel start of love, betrayal and well murder... Shown a long side kids being brutally betrayed by the adult world over and over a gain... Showing us how hard it can be to trust the adult world as well as how extremely vulnerable these kids actually are.

There is a lot of duality, confusion for the viewers (okay maybe just me) and a whole lot of very complex characters, making you feel all sorts of emotions. The kids acting was soooo good, I truly felt for theses kids. I also felt that the writer did their best to make the viewers understand the context in which the adults sucked, showing us that thought they where very unreliable they were humans too... ok evil murderous, revenge seeking blood thirsty humans at times but that is also part of humanity I guess... Desperate times and all that... All making this drama a lot to take in and to be honest I am not really sure what I watched... As this drama takes you on a journey of all things complicated, friendship, trust and a whole lot of issues. And by a lot of issues I mean a lot of issues... What keeps this from becoming a full 10 from me where some unnecessary fillers here and there, some parts just did not keep my interest... While I do get that confusion was this series way to keep us on our toes and though I do like both staying on my toes and some confusion I feel that some parts needed to be made more clear.

Oh and though I firmly believe these kids where mostly vulnerable there wheres some bad sides to them too.... But with adults like those who can blame them? Not Me?

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A series of unfortunate events

There was a lot of hype about this drama which may have raised my expectations too high. Unfortunately though the start of this drama was quite strong, it declined in quality a bit in the second half. The shining highlight of this drama is the performance of the three kid protagonists, which is probably a combination of good casting and scriptwriting. However the rating is held back by the story becoming quite loose near the end.

In the first half the plot is quite crisp, and we can understand how Zhu Chaoyang's encounter with his childhood friend starts to lead him into a web of lies. We also understand the reasoning for the decisions that the kid trio makes, though some of them seed big problems later.

This is not the case in the second half, when Zhu Chaoyang starts to take more ownership of his lies, and to manipulate the people around him. I have an impression that they were trying to strongly suggest similarities between Chaoyang and his teacher, Zhang Dongsheng, but this didn't work out for me. As well, near the end, events take on an almost artistic feel -- as if they are not grounded in reality. The revelations we have about events such as how Dongsheng's parents divorced seem to come and pass in a haze. Things happen and then there are many shots of the children looking blankly at the camera. Though the naturalness of their acting worked well in the first half, it seems to suggest a lack of direction in the second half.

One more weakness is the lack of connection and backstory for the villain Zhang Dongsheng. His motivations are a bit underdeveloped for us to be able to sympathize with him. For someone who is supposedly rational, he murders very easily in the very beginning of the show. We are meant to interpret this to be because he really is in love. However, after that first initial double murder, the ending of the show brings a whole series of crazy events where he alternates being a competent adult and a brutal killer.

Overall the drama is really well done in terms of production, acting and plot. I hope more cdrama like this can be supported!

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A rather compelling story with excellent storytelling

Apart from being impressed by how such good performances were coaxed out of the young actors, I was impressed by the story-telling, particularly in the first two-thirds of the series.

From the start, the series makes the character of Chaoyang rather intriguing by portraying him as a guarded person who may or may not be as vulnerable as he appears to be. He takes in his friend (Yan Liang) and a girl (Pupu), but is also guarded against them. The two friends he takes in are more straightforward characters, but because of their relative simplicity, their moral dilemmas appear more compelling.

There are also many other interestingly complex characters ranging from Chaoyang's divorced parents to his father's new wife. At first, the father sees the son occasionally and does not pay him that much attention apart from giving him money or things money can buy. The increased attention the father gives to the son may be due to his guilt for not trusting the son, but is it truly fatherly love if it stems from a sense of indebtedness? The mother vacillates between being controlling and caring, but she, too, may be caring so much because of what it shows about her parenting. She does not quite get over the child's father's affair and her own divorce.

The story starts with a crime, but as far as crime is concerned, we know the criminal from the very beginning of the series, so it's not a whodunit series. Still, one may be pulled into the story by the question of how he is going to be exposed and whether the kids, who end up blackmailing him, will succeed. The story goes rather well until the last few episodes where both the story and the storytelling itself get weaker. In the last few episodes, when certain things are not revealed, it becomes too obvious that they are deliberately not shown (like what happens to Pupu after her asthma attack and what happens after the murderer is about to stab Yan Liang). The police suddenly start to connect the dots in the last episode (how timely!) and that's after a few more body counts in the murderer's ledger.

The story is complicated by the occurrence of an accident leading to the death of Chaoyang's half-sister. While it does not appear as though a crime has caused her death, the death of the girl plays a big part in the story as it causes her mother to accuse Chaoyang and his mother of murdering her. Even Chaoyang's father tries to secretly record a conversation with him to find evidence while ostensibly having a meal with him. Chaoyang finds out by accident, and perhaps his character takes on a darker turn here as he finds it harder to trust others from this point on.

In the last episode, the accident seems to take another turn as Pupu says to Chaoyang in her letter to him that she has not told Yan Liang about what happened in the Children's Palace (where Chaoyang's sister falls to her death). However, in Episode 3, we see Yan Liang being told about it in Chaoyang's presence. Is this a continuity error or deliberately added in to show that things may not be what they seem?

Chaoyang is ultimately the most intriguing, if perplexing, character. He may seem vulnerable and innocent, but he is also a smart and guarded person. He may well be selfish at times, perhaps understandably--like how he does not wish his friends to report to the police the events leading to the death of his sister because he is worried that his father will not forgive him for the indirect role he plays in causing her death. Despite having incriminating evidence of the murderer killing people, he does not duplicate the video evidence (or has he really not done so?), perhaps because he is also in the videos and will have a lot of explaining to do to his mother. He can even be manipulative--after discovering his father's attempt to record their conversation, he guilt-trips the father into spending more time with him and giving him more attention.

The focus of the series in, finally, not on crime but on human nature. The almost-psychopathic murderer may not be ruthless all the time. The innocent kid may not be all that innocent. People have the capacity to be self-centered and go to extremes as a result, but perhaps parenting makes a big difference. The killer's character may have been shaped by his childhood experiences, and Chaoyang may well end up like him without proper parenting. On the other hand, the jealous, self-centered girl in Chaoyang's class appears to become better over time after her father's assurances that it does not matter whether it's the top student.

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THIS IS AN AMAZING DARK STORY!

i just finished this drama yesterday and i was completely speechless, it's really strong with a lot of emotions and stress scenes! it's kinda hard to watch for some people because of the dark story but honestly i loved it from A to Z. The acting , the story line , the production, the soundtrack and songs every thing in this drama worthy to praise.

The most line still stuck in my head is
"Are criminals always criminals."
this is really makes me thinking more and more about it and how we are as human beings we have so complicated feelings and things that we can't explain. i highly recommend you to watch this piece of art.

PS: I really trust in all works that has title in every episode and this one of them for sure.

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First:
I was really excited finally cdrama has short series with amazing story. I know it's a live adaptation from the novel but still this is very well packaged drama 40 minutes per episode yet engaging enough to make it like we are watching movie instead of dramas. What a masterpiece

Second:
Very well done acting from all casts. I don't have any words to criticize or compliment. Amazing!
They have beautiful cinematography which is taken in 2005-2009. Very rare, classic and implicit. Good job to all staff and actors to bring this drama into a light of tv-cinema.

Third:
The script. I was really amazed how the writer make the story very implicit and had a connection one of each other. They make the audiences saw in different point of view yet there are some pov we didn't realise before. I found "caoyang" characters are "bloody coward" than any audiences think all the kids are innocent. There is a connection between Caoyang and Dongsheng. Both of them love math, they are betrayed by the one they care, they didn't tell the police the whole truth. During Jingjing's case. I thought Jingjing was hanging from the branch before she fell down. I think Caoyang tried to help her he has no other choice but it's already too late and he didn't want to involved or remember that. He knew he didn't copy the file and the SD card was empty. He brought that topic again in the toilet cause he knew Dongsheng will overheard his convo with Yan Liang. He killed two birds in one stone goodness.I thought Caoyang is more ruthless than Dongsheng and ofcourse he is clever enough to scheme everything. The writer is brilliant to make Caoyang looks innocent and nice boy while he wasn't. He wanted to look as a good boy in front of everyone that's why he doesn't want to tell the truth about all the cases he is involved. and I thought Caoyang is more ruthless than Dongsheng and ofcourse he is clever enough to scheme everything. The way the writer wrote from Cao Yang pov and lead the dongsheng insanity case but not to put much exaggeration is also a good point that the drama has ever done.

Fourth
Regarding the ending,I don't mind with the open ending so we could make our ending by it is.

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One Of The Best Cdramas

Likes:

- Each episode ends at a turning point in the story, therefore, making each episode a different length. I respect that it’s only 12 episodes and not dragged to be 45 episodes.

- It is filmed like a movie and is very visually pleasing. I also heard that they filmed this in only 77 days, which is very impressive.

- Although the main characters speak Mandarin, I loved how the background characters spoke either Cantonese or other dialects.

- The acting was superb and realistic, especially the kids.

- I loved how people’s skin was not whitened and the places were realistic. This is unlike other c-dramas where everyone is fair-skinned and the places are super neat, clean, and perfect.

Dislikes:

- My only dislike is that sometimes the logic of the kids seems unrealistic, and I really can’t wrap my mind around some of the decisions they make. Like I get that they’re young and one of the kids is probably only 9 years old, but I’m assuming that the other two kids are middle schoolers and would know better.

Edit: Changed score from 10 to 9

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One of the best C-Dramas: excellence all around

A thought provoking and tightly-written story with excellent production quality that could rival the likes of Western Crime shows on Netflix. If you decide to watch just ONE c-drama this year (or ever), make it this one - you won't regret it. This was an EXPERIENCE.

THEMES
While this drama is labelled as a mystery/crime genre, I would also call it a gritty humanistic drama that explores themes such as family trauma, societal pressures, psychology, and the origins and morals of good vs evil. Are we born good or evil? What makes someone evil? The complexities of criminality is explored and what I appreciate is that the drama showcases the 'grey' area of good vs evil - not everything is black and white.

ACTING/CAST
The acting from the entire cast, especially from the kids, exceeded all of my expectations - they BECAME the characters and brought them to LIFE. The chemistry between the kids were perfect. The parents and of course, Dongsheng, were also strong in their roles and contrasted well with the innocence of the kids. In many ways, Dongsheng serves as a parallel to Chaoyang - they are similar in so many ways, and once you start to watch the drama you will see how they start to mirror each other.

PRODUCTION
The soundtrack, cinematography, and production design came together seamlessly, effortlessly bringing the story to life. What I also respect is that the screenwriter challenges the viewers to think deeply about the story and leaves it up to the viewer to decide how they want to interpret certain details, such as the ending. A lot of times we may watch mindless dramas as a way to 'escape'. However, this drama is opposite as it demands your undivided attention and will require you to keep up as not a single scene is wasted. There is meaning behind each scene - symbolism in not just the way the script unfolds but the cinematography and camera shots.

It's rare to come across a drama of such high calibre, not just within c-dramas but Asian dramas in general. Several western media outlets such as Variety have even included The Bad Kids on their list of the best international tv shows of 2020. It is also no surprise that the drama is so popular in China and highly rated on Douban. All in all, this is the kind of drama that stays with you long after you have finished and leaves you with a lot to process. I would also recommend watching AvenueX's analysis of the drama on YouTube to make sure you haven't missed all the easter eggs and hints!

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