#freethepsychiatricpatient
This show is actually a daydream of someone stuck in a psychiatric ward, someone who is clinically insane and destined to spend the rest of their life there. The entire narrative is a blend of hallucinations and delusions, blurring the lines between reality and fantasy. Once you realize that what we’re seeing is a figment of the psychiatric patient’s imagination, everything starts to make sense. The erratic, adolescence-like adults running around, doing bizarre and incomprehensible things—it all reflects the chaotic mind of this patient.The theme of abandonment is woven throughout the show because that’s what the patient is grappling with in real life feeling abandoned by the world, left to remain in the psych ward indefinitely. The show captures these intense mood swings, with characters going from crying and deep despair to sudden joy and laughter. It’s a rollercoaster of emotions, reflecting the unstable mental state of the patient who dreams it all up.
The insanity portrayed isn’t a kind of crazy that you can easily understand. It’s true madness, something beyond comprehension, and that’s what makes the show both fascinating and unsettling. But at only ten episodes long, it feels like we were thrown into the deep end of this madness without enough buildup. The craziness is there from the very beginning, and while that’s part of its charm, a bit more development could have made the journey even more impactful.
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A young girl in early menopause and her terminally ill ex-boyfriend.He kidnaps his ex-girlfriend who is about to get married and drags her with him in search of his biological father.
But couldn't he have gone alone, I wonder?
What was the need to ruin her life, knowing that he will die soon?
Arguments, violence and mistreatment of this poor friend/companion (what a shitty role he has), the bodyguard specially brought back from America who practically doesn't say a word. This poor betrothed who chases her to save her.
In all this tragic comedy Woo Do Hwan's physique is one of the few things I would save.
From the eighth episode until the end the pace becomes slower and the story sadder.
Ups and downs of the disease that keeps getting worse, one moment he's fine, then he seems dead and the next moment everything seems ok... which makes you wonder if it will be over or he will wake up again...
Towards the end we discover the reason for the title "Mr Plankton".
In all this there are things that don't hold up: for example... The real father was the first. But taking the test when the child was little, no? The story collapses like this and makes no sense.
He abandons her by her real mother, runs away with the car, loses control and when it stops, the fiancé gets into the car (?!) or when they are on the island the criminal appears out of nowhere, alone and without henchmen in tow (?!!)...
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a quirky and fun ride
Life does not go planned always. But when it takes the biggest twist you start valuing your life a little more....Haejo has been living carelessly and carefreely till an accident revealed a chapter of his life he was unaware of. Jae Mi's free spirit nature faces roadblocks as a very precedented incident appears early.
Three twists make the journey eventful and rewatchable.
1. The past
Korean drama makers use a heart-wrenching past which builds the character graph with the progression of the story. The past of Hae Jo and Jae Mi keeps them from living through their present. As Hae Jo gets to know he has only a few months to live, his craving for having a real family starts overwhelming him all of a sudden.
Jae Mi's craving for having her own family and children seems to move far away as she tries to cling to it. Hae Jo tries to confront his past but the pain of betrayal comes in every time. The pain of being abandoned by his own family keeps on taking peace of his mind.
2. The Love
As Jae Mi finds herself falling apart, she finds love by her side. We have witnessed different love across Korean drama universe but this love track is going to take the peak spot. Falling in love when you are at your best is easy. But have you met someone who is there for you when you are at your lowest. Jae Mi has that one, who saves her from falling apart.
3. The Pain
It is the most irrevocable and unconditional emotion that stays with us thoughout. Everytime people fall apart they even count the not happened birthday coral from years ago.
Jae Mi did not fall out of love. But the pain of being abandoned again kept on haunting her, pushing her away from herself.
This mini right series is a must watch because of its unique plot and twists.
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This should have been a movie.
Fast-forwarded liberally through the last few episodes. I didn't hate it, just that it was heading toward an inevitable ending. The side stories weren't all that interesting to me. The ending was handled nicely and as others have mentioned was bittersweet. Although it was weird that she went so far away looking for a 4 leaf clover.Was this review helpful to you?
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No
A 10-hour-late head pop.Just wasn't for me. Maybe you will get more out of it!
This drama is a train wreck. If you're looking for anything good – a decent story, interesting characters, watchable acting – just turn around now. Seriously, save yourself. This thing is a mess, and it's not just a harmless mess; it actually pushes some pretty toxic stuff, especially with the male lead.
The biggest problem is the writing. It's just bad. The story jumps all over the place, like the writers just threw a bunch of random scenes together and called it a plot. Nothing makes sense, and you're constantly wondering what's going on. The dialogue is even worse – it's full of cheesy lines and awkward conversations that'll make you cringe so hard you might pull a muscle. You won't remember a single line five minutes after you hear it. And the pacing? Don't even get me started. It's either dragging on forever or rushing through important stuff, which makes the whole thing super boring.
But the absolute worst part? The male lead. This guy is a walking red flag. He's not just bland; he's straight-up toxic. He's controlling, he ignores everyone's feelings, and he has zero respect for boundaries. And the worst part? The show acts like this is okay, even romantic sometimes, which is a seriously messed-up message to send. The actor doesn't help things either. His performance is so wooden and lifeless; it's like watching a robot try to act human, but a robot programmed with toxic masculinity. You never get why he does anything, you never feel for him, and you definitely don't root for him. He's just there, being awful and making the whole thing worse. His behavior shouldn't be excused; it should be called out.
And the side characters? They're totally useless. They're just there to move the terrible plot along, and they have no personalities of their own. They barely get any screen time, and when they do, they don't do anything interesting. They're just… there. They don't add anything to the story, and you forget about them as soon as they're off-screen. They're like background extras who accidentally wandered into the foreground. And they just accept the male lead's awful behavior, which makes it seem even more normal than it should.
The lack of decent side characters just makes the male lead's awfulness even more obvious. He's supposed to be the main focus, but he's completely empty and, honestly, kind of scary. There's no connection between any of the actors, especially with him, which makes everything even more awkward and uncomfortable.
Pros:
• It's a great example of what not to do in a drama.
• It's short, so at least you won't waste too much time on it (but even a little is too much).
• It might get people talking about toxic masculinity in shows.
Cons:
• The writing is awful.
• The characters are boring and badly written, especially the male lead, who's also toxic.
• The acting is terrible, especially from the male lead.
I hope that Lee You Mi gets better script next time. Definitely want to see her in more FL roles. This just isn’t it.
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DON'T WATCH THIS IF YOU ARE PRO IN WATCHING SERIES
Unhealthy Relationship, Lack Of Communication. The Comedy Aspect Was Good. I Won't Connect With The Second Half Of The Show. It Was An Ok Drama With A Weird Setup. Both The Male Lead And The Female Lead Were Making A Silly Decision, Which Made Me So Frustrated. My Overall Rating For This Show: 07/10Was this review helpful to you?
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Scripted horror.
Unhealthy relationship, lack of communication. If there was a quote on the poster: "An example of what not to do", then it would be a masterpiece, but I doubt that the message was exactly that.The first half of the quote on the poster states that it should be a romantic comedy, and the other half hints at a tragic ending. The story should make you laugh and connect to the characters, so that you can be moved at the end, despite the fact that you already knew the ending. This is not the case here.
About the title. Sometimes the titles of films or TV series do not carry a load, but sometimes they encapsulate the essence of the whole plot. "Mr Plankton" or simply "Plankton" clearly had to have a meaning. But what was it? It is difficult to understand what idea the drama is trying to convey. The title of the series suggests that even the smallest organisms matter, but how does the series try to make this point, which we only see in one scene where Hae Jo says this to his younger sister in a dream? Where is this overarching theme that was supposed to follow the adventure and comedy that are no less problematic here?
There is no special chemistry between the main characters, and it's not even clear whether you want them to be together or not, it's just not clear what connects them to be together in any case.
It's not funny or interesting, and sometimes even annoying. It's hard to feel any sympathy. Certain decisions of the characters are unnecessary. For example, when Hae Jo leaves Jae Mi in front of her mother's house and leaves. What's the point? He's sobbing in the car because he dumped her, and she's sobbing because her mother didn't recognise her, even though she started crying not even because of that, but because Hae Jo had abandoned her alone, and then started screaming at the woman in hysterics. Where is the compassion here?
Why did He leave her there? And why did she scream hysterically to that woman that she was just scared and ran away because she didn't want the attention of her family and it's clear that she didn't know how they would react, because it was all out of the blue. Hae Jo could have told her that he had found her mother, prepared himself, come with her with a gift, talked to her quietly or made an appointment, and then she would have introduced Jae Mi to her family. But here, there is no justification for this merry-go-round.
Then we see Jae Mi telling her newfound friends that she has found the mother who left her in the orphanage as a newborn baby. And here is a comedy that is not comedy, they are like: "Let me call the right places," each of them giving their options, "and we'll teach her a lesson, what kind of mother does that?" Was that supposed to make me laugh? There are different reasons why she could have left it, she didn't throw it in the trash. Why didn't she come back for it? The scriptwriter should have thought about that, not just left it as a subplot ending.
"Plankton" missed the mark in all areas. It is incomprehensible, emotionless, although many people write that they both laughed and cried. Honestly, it didn't give me any emotions. There is not a single spark between the characters, and for some reason it leaves us somewhat annoyed with its characters and their motivations. The main characters don't know how to communicate, they leave each other and then cry, then come back again, because it's just a forced necessity to create a drama that doesn't work like that.
For some reason, I was also annoyed that they added the song "California dreamin'," which played at the end of the episodes. I associate it with the 1994 film "Chungking Express". For me, this song is recognisable because of this film, and it makes sense even for the plot. But here, it's not clear why it's there.
The only psychological plus in this story was the character of Eo Heung, he is the only psychologically mature person, but in the ending, you can see that his mental wound has not yet completely healed, because it takes time. It would have been better if they had shown that he didn't start his travel blog alone, but with a new girlfriend.
I don't see any point in you watching it. I've warned you. 90% of people's reviews of this project as a masterpiece on various film resources are incomprehensible to me.
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Let's go on an adventure.
This show is worth watching. It's about friendship, love, adventure, and most importantly, the meaning of family. A lot of people say that this is a sad ending but to be honest, it's not. It's more so a bittersweet ending.Spoiler Warning:
It doesn't end with us seeing him dead. The male lead has a terminal illness so obviously he will eventually die. So I guess knowing that is what is leading people to say this had a sad ending. His ending was the best ending one could hope to have given his situation and life circumstances. He was reunited with the people who matter to him in life and was able to accomplish the things he most wanted to. He was also surrounded by a supportive group of people. A lot of people in their last days don't get that. Anyways, that's just my take on things. Don't let the comments or other reviews discourage you from watching this.
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Dark Romance Comedy with very flawed ML.
The comedy aspect was good. Lots of hilarious scenes thru out the series.The story was about ML who had lots of issues, parents issues, commitment issues. He met the FL when he at one of the low point at his life. They dated and even get rings together, but ML had commitment issues so as a jerk bastard he break up with FL with bunch of BS and insult the FL too.
Three years later, he find out he will had 3 months to live. By chance ( so many fate meeting in this series) he also find out that his ex (FL) will marry rich guy and she cannot carry a child.
He will.go road trip to try to find his real father (there are few candidates). So as a very selfish and narcissistic person, he go to the FL wedding, threatened her to come with him and then kidnapped her.
This when all hell loose break. They are being chased by a gang (from ML last job) and also the FL husband to be , SML.
Making it short, ML and FL deserved each other. Yes, ML is a HOT bastard . Who only thing what fun and best for him. What important for him. But even after being dumped by the ML years ago, although she had a very good fiancee, she crave the ML from head to toe. Even sometimes she beimg treated like crap again. But she willingly accepted the ML even she know he is so f-ing flaw and so selfish and will die soon. Yep, just because he is young and HOT and SML is not hot and young.
SML had to thank his lucky star he did not marry the FL. He deserved someone that truly love him and not abandoned him the very first chance she had.
The only character with real growth is SML. He was a Mama boy that obey his Mom before all this bride kidnapping happened. But because of his love for FL, he defied his Mom, runaway from home to save FL ( who does not wanted to be save in reality) At the end of the journey, he become more independent and more confident.
The story also show very long journey of ML try finding his real father with no avail. The writer should write more about the ML and the father that raise him till teenager relationship. But it never happen. They just getting back together as father and son just like that at end of ep 10.
The moral of the story: All people deserved love. Even with two flaw characters like ML and FL.
Lots of angsty and miscommunication and flaw plots. At least it was quick pace, good acting, quite funny here and there. The chemistry was good too with all actors.
Its entertaining watch because it only had 10 eps. Good but not my fav.
7 out of 10.
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The art of making dieing look fun...With a side of Stockholmssyndrom.
This is a pretty decent story about a bunch of people brought together by trauma and what one could call fait.The chemistry between all the leads is really good, the acting decent and the story may not be very realistic but it did keep my attention throughout the binge.
However there are quite a few unnecessary annoying side twists , the female lead spends a lot of time yelling and crying wiht the type of voice that could make glasss explode and while the development of the story has a decent pace there are some parts that are overly done while others under-explored leaving me not completely satisfied in the end of the show.
That said Woo Do Hwan does a great job bringing this character to life, and while he makes it look a littel bit to much fun to die I cant help but fall for his charm,
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I thought we were moving past the era of male leads who are violent towards their partners
Watching how abusive he is is making me feel sick to my stomach. I don’t understand why it gets such high ratings. Is it supposed to be funny that he conks her on the head twice? I don’t blame the performers. I have no idea why the writers think we should want these people to be together. I want her to escape immediately and I’m frustrated that it’s supposed to be funny that no one will help her. I’m also frustrated that she gives up so quickly, when being around him is making my skin crawl.The show gets such high reviews I thought he must redeem himself somehow and stuck with it until the end. I wish I had dropped it, there is no character growth. If you are like me and don’t like watching verbal, mental and emotional abuse, even from an exceptionally beautiful man, then you should skip it. Obviously, a lot of people feel differently, but I wish I had seen a review like this before I started.
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The Ocean's Quiet Hero!
This drama left me with mixed feelings. The journey starts with Hae Jo trying to find his purpose in life and his parental lineage while grappling with a ticking time bomb in his head.'Mr. Plankton' is such a beautiful and apt title and metaphor for the story. While plankton may seem insignificant in the vast ocean, their lives are crucial to maintaining the ecosystem much like Hae Jo, who feels overlooked yet contributes in his own ways to people around him.
At the start, Hae Jo came across as a brat but as the drama progressed I found myself sympathizing with him more and more. His flaws and initial arrogance gave way to deeper struggles and vulnerabilities, making it hard not to feel for him. The transformation from a seemingly self-centered character to someone with real pain and abandonment was gradual yet powerful. Woo Do Hwan did an excellent job portraying this character.
The road trip part was exciting and the cinematography was simply stunning. However, I wish the show had delved deeper into Jae Mi's character and her own internal conflicts which felt somewhat underexplored.
Also, I loved the bonding and sort of 'found family' dynamics overall in the drama, especially during the second half! The pacing was also better in the latter half, which made it more engaging than the first.
But the emotional weight of the drama is undeniable. Yes, it is not perfect but WDH's portrayal of Hae Jo was so raw and heartfelt. His struggle with abandonment and his illness leaves a bitter-sweet taste in the mouth that lingers.
Despite its flaws, this drama is worth a one-time watch, especially for the powerful performances and emotional depth it delivers.
7.8/10
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