This review may contain spoilers
An Unforgettable Revenge Indeed
An Unforgivable Revenge!This quote reverberates throughout the series, turning it into a sediment that resonates hard. “The Impossible Heir” was one of those shows that constantly kept me on my toes; I was buzzing with excitement each week to see what kind of new trick Han Tae Oh would pull off. The irretrievable chip that worked in Tae Oh’s favor was Kang Joongmo’s intense distrust of his own family members. A gripping tale of deception and betrayal, the show stars a stellar cast which includes Lee Jae Wook, Lee Jun Young and Hong Su Zu. Their characters form an unlikely alliance which is tested by time; not so much by fate as by themselves. One of the most striking things about this show was the crisp script, no pitfalls or odd pacing. It was thrilling experience indeed and not one minute wasted. Let’s talk about their caricatures before reviewing this business thriller!
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https://kcdramamusings.wordpress.com/2024/04/03/the-impossible-heir-series-review/#more-713
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Script and FL acting are the weakest links in this drama
The story does not have any solid foundation. Lead characters are not well-developed and you will not root for them.FL is too stiff. This is probably my first time watching a big k-drama production with a lead this terrible at acting. This is why, you never cast someone noob on a lead role even if they are popular or have connections. She and the writer are the weakest link in this drama. Their lack of awareness of their level of capacity ruined this drama.
Update: So many loopholes and too many unnecessary scenes that did not contribute to the story. Meanwhile, they failed to establish the motivations and relationships of the characters to make the audience feel invested so, apart from Huiju, I wouldn't really care if they killed off all of the characters.
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Wasted potential
Wasted potentialIf I needed to describe this drama in two words, it would be: wasted potential.
The first episodes were so long and boring, you had to hang on.
I am not a big fan of love triangle tropes, especially when they involve friends, but I can usually bear it, but this one ???? Impossible. It was incomprehensible. When did it start, and why ?? All along you don’t understand the relation between her and the boys. Can I also add that the FL doesn’t know what she wants ???
Talking about the FL. How did they cast her ? Maybe it was someone else who auditioned for her, who knows? ??♀️
Because her acting was meh if she was in a supporting role it would be okay but FL with two great actors ???? You can do that.
The global idea of the story was not bad, it was in fact interesting this is why I was excited about the release of this drama but I was disappointed. But the script wasted everything. How can you do that to my favorites actors Lee Jaewook and Lee Junyoung ???
Two good things I can retain from this show are Lee Jae-Wook and Lee Jun-Young in suits, especially LJW with the roll-up sleeves… And the great discovery of Choi Hee-Jin hopes to see her in a next drama as the FL.
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This review may contain spoilers
Excellent synopsis, but poor execution.
First and foremost, it is necessary to say that Lee JunYoung and Lee JaeWook are among the pantheon of the best Korean actors in their twenties. It's even embarrassing to compare some actors of the same age group with them. That being said, let's move on to the final evaluation. So, does this mean that Tae Oh had no ulterior motive or hidden secret; he was just another one who wanted professional success and money in an honest way, and saw Kang InHa as the ladder to such goals? Confronted about why he did all that to Tae Oh, Kang InHa responded by saying: "I don't know, that's it, I guess it's because you were Tae Oh." That's what's called lazy writing and writers with little creative intelligence. The family's mother, Jang GeumSuk, was arrested for concealing a corpse. I was waiting for the episode to find out whose corpse it was. What's the story behind this? Was the butler also arrested? It was a mess and nothing was clarified. Our protagonist is beyond comments; we've already made enough comments about her during the drama.They turned Kang InHa into a monstrous psychopath who spares not even the relatives of his enemies, and it became clear that Tae Oh was an imaginary enemy he created. Also, that toxic romance between Tae Oh and HyeWon highlighted InHa's unbalanced emotions, and he felt betrayed and isolated. I'm not justifying, I'm just saying that the creation of the monster InHa became has shared responsibility with TaeOh and HyeWon.
The positive highlight goes to the interpreter of Hee Joo, actress Choi Hee Jin, who had little screen time but was the only one who managed to connect with the audience. The moment of reflection was the suicide of now Baek InHa. I confess I was choked up.
Anyway, this drama came with high expectations and an excellent plot, but an execution to forget.
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Watch atleast 2 eps then waste your time on remaining!
I had an expectation that this will be top tier but no. After 2 eps, it started to go downhill, and even more to latest ep i've watched.No resolution at all, the story is gone and the actors are wasted potential.
It's bad. The two main is the only good or salvation but they decided to waste it also so i'm dropping early on. Imagine 8 ep already but still no hint or clue what is going on?
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Choi Hee Jin popularity will skyrocket after this drama.
Before this drama, I didn't know about Choi Hee Jin, but now I'm certain she'll be seen in many dramas as a main lead. She has outperformed the other cast members and is receiving lots of love from viewers. This is especially notable because Hong Su Zu's character, "Na Hye Won," received a lot of criticism, but Choi Hee Jin excelled.Like many viewers, I also started watching this drama because of Lee Jae Wook, known for his role in "Dead Game" (2024), which I enjoyed.
With only four episodes left, I find that the story isn't compelling enough for me to fully embrace this drama. While I didn't have high expectations, I'll still watch the remaining episodes to see if my opinion changes.
This is my personal perspective, and I'm not sure what others are thinking, but I'm certain some can relate to it.
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A Thought Provoking Business political thriller with a romantic touch 2024
Some viewers might not have liked ep 5, 6 but I liked it, the writing and script should come out with realistic realism which most K-dramas don't show because of stereotypes but reality works like this there is no one who is good and pure everyone wants to be rich and live as much comport as they could have. The rich hate the poor and the poor hates the rich vice versa. The different ideology of the middle class (Tae Ho, Hye Won) and rich groups (Kang In Ha, Kang Jong Ma) was brilliantly shown by the director in the 6th episode when Kang In Ho didn't think about Tae Ho who almost died and he did what his father would have done, even his father is using him he knows it and Tae Ho is the one who brings him up infort of his father but he didn't think about him Ina life and daeth situation. At Another scene in the dinner where Joong Ma didn't show slightest of intrest in Hye Won or didn't even asked her name and then she stood up for her self respect and spoke in a tone most of us would have. The plot is great from the first episode itself as it focuses mostly on realistic aspects like if you are getting a chance to become rich or you can become rich if you push yourself in the direction where you can reach if you give your little more time or marry an conglomerates/ rich person's son even if you don't have any feelings, will you choose it or choose your feelings for a person where your future is unpredictable where you don't have assurance that you won't struggle in the future because you are choosing a common man. Will you choose your feelings or money comfortabl life this is the thought that most people must have in their mind, I know the problem, the problem is that you are connecting facts to the plot but not liking it because it is not white and not showing the lovely moments but more of a realistic approach. But rest assured I can guarantee that in the remaining ep u ll see the dynamics of the common man the lead actor actress VS the rich the conglomerate family including Kang in Ha then the real power struggle and the potential of the writing will be judged. My writing intrest is for the audience who ate not watching it cause of law ratings but trust me watch the 1st 2 ep then decide. By the way the lead actress has to learn a lot in ,she is struggle a lot in complicating scenes a lot but as its her debut as lead in a demanding acting scope character I thing she is doing good,why are you worried about acting when the brilliant actor lee Jae wook is here & he can carry the series single handedly. what a gifted talented actor he is in this age.Episode 7 and 8: The episode should start and end just like this as a single ep of 2hrs, now i get it why they release 2ep in a single day slot in a week. it's getting better and better and I can see a banger ending for it.
The character's motivation is becoming clearer, the little realistic things which director adds is commendable, which is not the case in most K-dramas.
Inha has never been a trustworthy person, right from the start, he's a socio-psychopath who tries to control people under him, kills for his own benefits isn't it worst .now his motivation is clear.
Why people feel bad for him, I don't know and the cheating part I'm saying again he deserves it and it will hurt him more than this as the secret is revealed & much more yet to reveal.
Tae Ho, Huijie is the most righteous character from the whole series in a turbulent evil world. As it intended to be.
And you got it right Hye Won is the impossible heir. I agree, her acting is obviously bad, there's not much improvement from her side, but I will never give her personal troll for it as i have seen worst actress than this after doing many dramas & it's a very difficult character, you need to have courage to accept this as debut. I only hope she learns for it for her future project.
There are many other reasons to absolutely love this series.
Starting from the varied dynamic range of characters to watch, the acting, cinematography, writing, music, production, and finally the direction. Let alone the design and capture of the 2 minute chase sequences, it is enough to mark it as brilliant.? I'm loving every bit of it& i could not find any
upcoming drama in this range.
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There's lots and lots more wrong than just an uninspiring lead
Like almost everything is wrong with "The Impossible Heir".Let's start with the well-worn scenario. Who's the successor to a conglomerate empire chairmanship? The illegitimate son that probably needs some intense psychotherapy for his simmering rage issues and definitely should learn some impulse control? Either of the legitimate sons that couldn't outfox a 4 year old in a Monopoly game? The bloodthirsty and estranged wife? The brilliant schemer secretary with no apparent blood relation to the current chairman?
Here's the problem: it's impossible to care about who wins the succession battle because it's impossible to care about any of the characters involved. The villains are laughably incompetent. The hero (or the one who is supposed to be) is as boring as dry paint and an ABYSMAL judge of character for someone who is supposed to be so brilliant. And the morally ambiguous anti-hero bad boy is so unbalanced that he's easier to pity than to root for.
Shorter: all these characters suck.
And that's if they weren't so conceptually cliche' (which they are and painfully so) and inadequately portrayed.
Lee Jae Wook - let's rip every bit of possible personality from his acting as possible. Great idea.
Lee Jun Young - he would kill playing a character with a serious mental disorder. But In Ha is obviously meant to be just not terribly bright and a bit overly ambitious.
Hong Su Zu - it's possible that she can act. Probably not. The smart betting money is definitely against her. But with a character so bland to portray, there's no way to ever start to figure that out.
Lee Ji Hoon - while it might be unfair to Hong Su Zu to judge her based on this show, there's enough history from other shows to declare with certainty that Lee Ji Hoon is awful. Yes, the character is supposed to be loathed but this performance is so bad, it comes across as pathetic instead of someone worth hating. It's a nauseous experience to watch him.
Han Sang Jin - no real notes on the performance but it should be noted that there's no small number of actors that bear some tiny bit of resemblance to Choi Jin Ho and could be believable as having 50 percent of Choi Jin Ho's DNA. Hang Sang Jin, however, is not one of them. Theoretically, it comes out later that he's not the chairman's son actually but that would betray the all-powerfulness and all-knowingness of the chairman character.
Choi Jin Ho isn't bad.
Choi Hee Jin is pretty good but gets 90 seconds of time on screen per episode. When she does make a brief appearance, she's treated like garbage by everyone. Literally every single other character is toxic to her. It's not fun to watch.
On top of the overall narrative structure, the direction and editing seems bent on making things more interesting by making the smaller arcs as baffling and poorly sequenced as possible.
Bad show. Very bad. Even for those that are ardent fans of one of these cast members, stay away. Far away.
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The Impossible Watch
I know that everyone hates this show and now usually dramas people call the worst sometimes may turn out good, but this one didn't even suceed it. There was nothing good about it except the cast. And the fact that acting made me think about dropping it, i contiuned. With a hope of the drama getting better, maybe fixing the things it should have. But it never did. There was no character development, no stable storyline, dragging too much, no enjoyable moments, then what am i supposed to like about this? Well the answer is apparently "the cast" meanwhile the only likable cast in my opinion was Lee Jae wook & Lee jun young & especially Choi hee jin. I liked her character so much that i didn't pay attention to the show anymore. MC's had no chemistry and they were totally unmatching. Half of the time i was confused heavily. The budget was too much for this show.Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
THE REAL REASON WHY THIS FAILED
I know a lot of people blame the love triangle as to why this drama failed. However, I would argue that it actually loses its viewers through the storytelling rather than anything else.The drama makes rookie mistakes when it comes to storytelling. The most vital one comes only a few minutes into the first episode, and happens twice. The 5 year skip. This was a terrible idea because it means we don’t get to see precious memories which make us care about the relationship between the leads. Had the drama actually showed us a wholesome friendship between the leads that lasted more than 1 episode, I would connect more to the events that came later. But problems between Inha and Taeho came about too early on. So when the twist that Inha was a bad guy came, I didn’t really care as much. The only thing that made me believe in this friendship, was Lee Jae Wook’s acting. LJW really stands out as an incredibly strong actor in this series. Contrasting with the female lead who made unclear choices with her acting. And this I would also blame the director for, as it is their job to guide the actors to make a clearer story.
The other thing that was a vital mistake in the storytelling, was the fact that it wasn’t specific enough. What exactly was the reason as to why Taeho and Hyewon were putting themselves through all of this. Was it power? Money? Ok, why? To do what exactly? Did he want power so he could protect his mum from his dad’s thugs? Did he want to send someone to kill his dad in prison? These things needed to be more specific so that the viewer can empathise more with the motive behind the actions that follow.
Overall, the main thing is that this drama felt too vague. The lack of specificity in relationship dynamics and character building meant that the drama couldn’t hit the beats it needed to in order to make us care. Had the relationship between Hyewon and Taeho been built more so we could have rooted for them, then when he takes drugs and allows himself to be bullied by Inju, we would be feeling more for him.
Honestly, the idea was good but executed terribly. Inha becoming a baddie could have hit so hard but instead fell flat. The only thing that saved this drama was Lee Jae Wook’s incredible acting. He made me feel for him despite not believing in the story, which is a really hard job. I have to also give props to the supporting actors, as I found their performances pretty good as well, namely Kangmoo’s.
This drama could have been great, instead it was below average.
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Good Premise, Wacky Execution
Impossible Heir begins with three leads working together strategically to position SML as the heir or that's what I expected it to be. The interesting premise should have kept me hooked ...but ...Things take a wacky turn, with the unnecessary love triangle, and mostly predictable twists and turns. Doing the same twist twice doesn't help either.
Some shows spoonfeed but this one assumes viewers to be all-knowing. Often I felt like there was some background context missing or some info was mentioned in the passing by that it went over my head. I still can't understand the centre they kept talking about.
Romance was non-existent and if it did I felt nothing. The FL was barely likeable comes off as selfish and a gold digger. Even the acting is painful to see. I could not empathize with her. And SFL who was likable but had no character growth and purpose. ML and SML perform well especially Jun has improved.
The story justifies the title despite taking an unconventional route. One-time watch provided u ignore the FL.
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A Lackluster Decline: When a Script Goes Off Course
I couldn't help but wonder if the writer experienced burnout halfway through the script or perhaps became overly medicated, leading to a loss of clarity. The quality of the script undeniably plummeted. We tuned in for an intricate revenge plot and got a hot mess of nonsensical actions instead.And let's talk about the female lead—what a letdown! Her performance was so lackluster, and her character felt like an afterthought. She had one expression the whole time, like a deer in headlights.
Here's hoping Lee Jae Wook picks a more promising project next time. We know he can do so much better!
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