2021 Tailspins

Episodes 14 to the end - so we were held in suspense for this whole series to finally get Du-Sik's big secret revealed and then he did nothing really wrong? And he just has a long pout and then it's over. This is rather anticlimactic, but then the rest of the cast has a non-stop cryfest through all of episode 15. Double facepalm. Then the "cute talk" went way too far in the finale. Ugh ugh ugh.

Episodes 13 to the end - it was bad enough that Ja Sung went from cranky and funny to friendly and boring, but then his relationship with Young Won went page by page through the Cliche Playbook -> the breakup (trope) and "oh it was a misunderstanding" (trope) and the timeskip (seriously? why?). This was probably never going to be an incredible show, but it was a light, enjoyable rom-com with an above average cast that went badly awry.

Episodes 15 & 16 - there's a fair debate as to whether this show ever really hit its stride or if it was a slow fade from around the midway point on but the narrative all along was building up to what was going to happen at the end of the 100 days and, frankly, a meteor hitting Seoul would have probably been a more fitting end. Spoiler alert: Myeol Mang just shows up on a bus. That's the best the writers could think of? Embarrassing.

Last 20 minutes of episode 8 - It's a stretch to believe that Han So Hee's Ji Woo is going to hold her own against three or four armed gang members solo, but this is entertainment and a somewhat less than ironclad grip on reality is expected. But for Ji Woo to singlehandedly assault the entire criminal enterprise, it's too much. Anything short of a Terminator in that context isn't credible. It's not just that, it's that it's such a lazy, uncreative, unimaginative idea of how to end what had been a terrific production up to that point.

Episodes 14-16 - it start with some lazy fight choreography in episode 14, then Kim Do Ki starts switching voices for no reason, Go Eun becomes a prop character to be saved and Do Ki and Ha Na flip their relationship back and forth like a three year old that just discovered how light switches work. Taxi Driver still was a fun show but once Baek Hyun Jin's web company CEO wasn't around, this show faded badly.

Episode 6 - For a show that was built around how we internalize trauma and try to continue to live as a badly damaged person, it showed absolutely no awareness of how to meaningfully bring its series long bullying arc to a close. Despite some excellent work by the cast, the long chase and the ridiculous standoff with a garrison of needlessly armed soldiers was a bad fit. D.P. was not an action thriller, but the finale tried to make it one.