Controversial drama with disappointing ending

This drama has stellar cast and production quality is superb, but the plot and message behind it are very controversial, to say the least.

The first 4 episodes were a solid 9, though heavy-handed, insensitive religious patronizing can be clearly seen from the very beginning. But after episode 5 it rapidly went downhill. Episode 6 was like those countless crime dramas about exaggerated corruption and untouchable chaebols with over the top acting and resolutions. Very meh.
And the last two episodes were drilling on the same message - suicide is a selfish act, it's not about you, you should keep on suffering for the sake of others. The only insightful part was about a suicidal salary man, who basically started the chain of events that lead ML to his own suicide - it showed ML the ugly reality of that dream he so desperately wanted to have, the one the government and society kept on brainwashing him to strive for since he went to school. But they never delved anywhere further with that. Instead of guilt shaming ML with his mother for the whole episode they should have explored what ML really wanted in life, how can he be true to himself like he said he wanted to. Is being a cog in an uncaring corporate machine what people really should strive for in life? Just such a waste of potential here narrative wise.

But as it is, this drama didn't try looking into the cause, didn't try to resolve any of the problems SK's society has that leads people to commit a staggering amount of suicides every year, like poverty and unemployment, it just tried to guilt shame suiciders through religious and societal dogmas. Makes one think that it was sponsored by SK's government, who seems to be impotent in solving this serious country wide issue and now just resorts to such cheap shots like this drama. Maybe it will work better on Asian audience with their traditionally communal mentality, but it's a very hard sell for individualistic West.

The suicide topic here is viewed from such narrow perspective, it really started to piss me off by the end. No exploration of mental health state of suicidal people or various circumstances that lead to this hard decision. Yeah, in ML's case perhaps he was too rash in attempting suicide since he had a caring mother and a girlfriend (though seeing how lonely he was with his problems at the beginning, these people have shown him lack of moral support when he really needed it, and his mother was later shown hoarding money for him, which she should have given him years ago to help cover his education debts he was paying off for many years). But what about people who have no such people in their lives? What about terminally ill/severely crippled/mentally unwell people who see themselves as burden to their relatives and society? What about kids being beaten by their own drunkard parents and nobody cares? What about people who are living in miserable poverty with no hope for a better future? They should also keep on suffering for the sake of others and their country or go to hell? So many unique lives with unique problems, but this drama had no compassion or desire to explore any of that. It's like that cartoon meme: Nope, stop talking, go to hell.

As for the ending, well, ML got a second chance in life and that's a win (?). But consequently it also invalidated everything ML did in other people’s bodies and all those who were supposed to die will die, including his girlfriend, and all the bad guys, including two serial killer psychos, will still be walking scott free.
So all in all, this drama just left me kinda perplexed as to how to score it, because, on the one hand, the quality and cast were superb, but controversial message and disappointing ending made me feel like I've wasted my time watching this.
I guess I'll score episodes 1-5 with 8.5 and 6-8 with 7.0.

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Very mediocre drama

Mediocre.
-Nonsensical title and kinda misleading poster.
-The plot was too dragged out, I'd say about 6 episodes too many.
-The plot was mostly about politics and full of beaten to death cliche tropes seen in practically every saeguk out there, nothing fresh. If you can't write a captivating period drama story then go fantasy, or at least throw some zombies into the mix to spice things up!
-A very slow burn romance and lack of romantic chemistry between the main leads.
-Misrepresentation of FL's character. She was presented as a fighter and genius detective in the beginning, but then was degraded into a passive sidekick to ML, who along with another male detective character basically solved all the mysteries. They took inspiration from the og novel, but def no wheels were reinvented here.
-SML was so boring and lacking presence compared to ML, FL didn't even give him a good second look after meeting ML. I guess no one was having second lead syndromes here.
-Some ridiculous bs about the immortal fish and queen's rise to power, don't even want to go there further.
-Obligatory and as always unnecessary time skip and rushed ending! This just triggers me all the time in kdramas. ML wasted 10 minutes of the last episode literally digging holes. Should have showed more scenes about what happened to everybody in the end, most of the stuff was just alluded to or announced and then it was the end.

Secondary couple was the only highlight, they were funny and cute together all the time. So i guess 6.5 overall from me.

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A Flawed and Twisted Tale of Dumb, Dumber and Ingrate

First of all, this kdrama has next to no connection to the classical American novel of the same name. It only loosely based its characters on it, namely - the three poor sisters, their rich great aunt and a male friend of the family who simps over one of the sisters. The rest is pure fiction with popular contrived tropes used in kdramas:
-evil chaebols;
-corruption;
-secret organization with unlimited power;
-off their rockers villains;
-makjang.

PLOT:
The first half of the show is great and promises a potential masterpiece. It starts fresh, with relevant topics raised about poverty, social issues and is mixed with murder mystery. Every episode manages to rile up new emotions in the audience with unexpected plot twists and sympathy for the characters suffering injustice. Small niggle starts to appear with the introduction of the conspiracy theory trope - the powerful secret society (#Illuminati), and fantastical properties of blue orchids.
And after a shocking finale of superb episode 8 it rapidly starts to go downhill with reveal that the main villain is just a deeply deranged person who likes to play with the victims before killing them. Absurdity, increased usage of makjang tropes, dumb circus and public shows are introduced in the next episodes until it all culminates in a cringey finale where none of the villains get what they deserve (they all die instead of rotting in prison for their crimes) and little women get what they deserve (money!) but at the cost of other people's fortune.
The tale of the ill gotten money, that is the catalyst of this whole plot, is a long winded one, but in the end the three sisters get their hands on it with the help of ML, even though originally it belonged to the victims of the bank made bankrupt by the villains.
The final message was supposed to be that ill gotten money is evil, it's not worth chasing if it costs someone's life, better live in honest poverty than dead or rotting in jail. But that message is completely negated by giving said money to the sisters anyway in the end. The hypocricy is apparently lost on everybody in the end, because that's where the show conveniently ends.

CHARACTERS:
First of all, lead female characters here are deliberately made dumb, flawed and reckless. It was script writer's conscious decision as was reported in the interview with her.

The dumbest of them all is the bookkeeper eldest sister, who throughout the whole drama made only 1 smart decision (to swap the cash with bricks), the rest was sheer luck or help from other characters. But what her character lacks in intelligence, is compensated by her love of her friends and family. She manages to forgive and save her friend, who basically set her up big time and put her in great danger, from certain death. And she'd do absolutely anything for her sisters. Being poor through all her life though, her next greatest love understandably is money and she makes a lot of stupid mistakes after a very large ill gotten sum of it is suddenly left to her as a gift. But stupidity must be punished, so in the end her character does suffer a bit to reflect on what she did wrong according to law. She's rewarded with her material dream by the end of the show.

The reporter middle-sister is a bit smarter than her elder sister. She is self righteous and claims to have unbending integrity and high morals, but they are heavily tested as her sisters get themselves in trouble and lawless methods that villains use make her fail to expose them again and again. In the end she succeeds in her investigation and gets together with a male long time family friend who helped/followed her throughout the episodes. However their romance from friends to lovers is very weak and that male character is one of the most useless in the whole drama.

The youngest sister is the epitome of a teenager during "a phase" - an ungrateful little brat who throughout the whole drama never once said a grateful word to her sisters who'd do absolutely anything for her. Instead, her grand plan was to get away from her poor family and get rich and comfy life quick by befriending the villains daughter. And she did succeed in that in the end without too much of a hassle, so I guess she was the smartest of them all. Some people claim that she did thank her sisters in the end by getting each of them a share of that ill gotten money. But she didn't actually, it was all ML who just accidentaly met them running away and decided to use her friend's account for a while (though he could have as easily have done it by himself). In the end her role was downsized to a minimum, a pretty selfish and consistently ungrateful character, who just had to be there because there had to be 3 sisters.

The villains of the evil secret society were several, but in the end only the main one is worthy of note. The society itself turned out to be not as powerful and omniprescient as was advertised. It's a drama about women, from women's perspective and so the main villain is also a woman. Her character development from a prim and proper house wife, that stands in support of her brilliant husband, to a crazy deranged psycho was entertaining to watch, but in the end, after her husband died for the cause, her house of cards crumbled easily and the final showdown with her was a total cringefest on par to the cringiest of the makjang dramas out there. Guess her character wasn't smart either without outside help.

And lastly whom I'd call the real main hero of this whole drama, the male lead, the guy who will give you major trust issues trauma throughout the episodes, the mysterious, the most confident and smartest of them all, the man with the plan - Choi Do-Il. He was a real safe haven of rationality and smart decisions in this drama plot's sea of random dumbassery and craziness. Probably the most favorite character of them all in this drama.
Of course, there was also his cool and badass commando father, but he was conveniently swept under the rug and forgotten about in the craziness of the last episode.

PRODUCTION VALUE:
It was excellent and just screamed quality. Cinematography was one of the best I've seen in kdramas, very well made.
Music was also very good and catchy.
Actors work overall was great as well. Kim Go Eun finally landed a role she was not a miscast for. The villains actors were absolutely infuriating to watch, they did really great, loved to hate them.
The only one who I think could have done better was the youngest sister's actress - Park Ji Hoo. She was too stiff and had samey facial expressions all the time. But since she's an underage noob I'll give her some slack.

Overall, it's an exciting and flashy drama, that reveals one shocking and unexpected twist after another at a breakneck speed, hoping you won't notice plot holes, dumbassery and shallowness under the surface. And introduction of certain badly chosen cringey tropes in later episodes ruined its twisted mess of a plot in the end. Could have been a true masterpiece otherwise, a shame. I give it a generous 8 out 10 overall.

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Dragged out sequel to a dragged out prequel

CAUTION: SPOILERS AHEAD!

First of all, I gotta say that I liked romantic chemistry between og Naksu (played by GYJ) and Uk way more than when she was played by JSM. And I liked that the overall story ended on a happy ending, which it desperately needed after part 1's devastating ending. For these two factors I'm willing to forgive a lot of things that were done quite sloppily in part 2, for example:

1. Dragged out FL's amnesia plot and repetitive misunderstandings.
The villains took a bit of a back seat this time around, the main course of part 2 was rekindling the relationship between the leads who, due to FL's amnesia and different looking body, couldn't recognize each other. Very cliche, but not a bad thing in itself. However, for 8 episodes straight the plot was basically going around in circles like this:
-ML says something cold and nasty to FL,
-she gets upset and leaves,
-ML regrets his harsh words and runs after her,
-they reunite until ML has another bout of unjustified cruelty towards FL.
Only in the last 2 episodes the plot finally kicked into high gear and the good guys swiftly, if a bit hamfistedly, dealt with all their problems.

2. Most characters' intelligence got dumbed down compared to part 1.
For the sake of dragging out the drama and misunderstandings they were frequently shown unable to add 2 and 2 together and unable to finish their line of thought when suspecting someone.
-For example, ML, who was very bright and quick to catch on in part 1, in part 2 couldn't figure out that FL is Naksu even with heavy hints given to him since part 1. He couldn't even catch on immediately after she basically spelled it out for him and showed her blue eye marks.
-Another example is Jin Mu immediately recognizing Naksu's face, but not investigating this very suspicious occurence further after simply examining her aura and learning she's a priestess, not a mage.
And the list goes on...

3. Contrived new rules and plot devices that contradict already established lore.
Master Lee, the blatant writers insert, almost every episode kept sparingly throwing newly invented sh*t into the fan to keep the audience in suspence and characters scrambling. Some plot holes remain open because of it:
-Naksu for whatever reason disappearing from JBY's body (that even looks like her now) when she regains her memories, of all things. Why didn't she disappear earlier when she was Mu-Deok? Unclear. But in the end, even her disappearance turned out to be a lie and she simply took a back seat temporarily for Jin Seol Ran to fulfill her duty.
-The fire bird being the original reason Jinyowon was built - no mention of it whatsover in part 1. Was this bird the cause of drought 200 years ago? How was it even captured? Nobody knows...
- The previously established lore stated that only priestesses with divine magic can perform the rain ritual and that it is being kept in Jinyowon. But no, apparently Jin Mu, a mage, had it ready all along and could perform it himself.
-200 years old Jin Seol Ran, who apparently didn't die as was mentioned in part 1, had planned this whole thing all along, so that Naksu and Uk could get together, protect the ice stone and defeat the fire bird, because she could forsee the future. I get Uk being the King's Star with superpowers, but why the heck JSR needed Naksu's soul stuck together with hers in JBY's body still remains unclear.
And the list goes on...

4. The villains overstayed their welcome.
Jin Mu, a very cautios and clever villain in part 1, in part 2 turned into a tired cliche of a tropey mustache twirling, maniacally laughing villain. But his schemes somehow kept working because the good guys, as was mentioned above, were intellectually dumbed down and kept being unmotivated to finish him off until the very end. No smart shaman this time around to boss him around, so he had to contend with dumb sidekicks, creepy crazy queen and greedy grandpas who wanted to live forever. And they all died like total dumbasses, because they grossly underestimated ML's power.

5. Naksu never regained her mage powers.
No badass Naksu expertly wielding sword and magic from S01E01. In the end she was lucky enough to stay in JBY's body through JBY/JSR's grace and kept that body's divine powers, which turned out to be pretty lame, compared. But at least she survived, I guess that's a win.

6. Promised indepth exploration of side characters' stories was a lie.
Most of the time was wasted on retired Park Jin cooking "black matter" to everyone's dismay, while much needed screen time for characters such as Park Dang Gu and Jin Cho Yeon was cut to a minimum. Even Crown Prince got overshadowed by a turtle, of all things.

7. Cheap fake deaths for drama's sake.
In the end none of the good guys died, the audience got duped again just for cheap nail biting thrills. This lessened ending impact by a lot, as the stakes turned out to be pretty minimal. But at least master Lee did something useful for once.

8. ML's reactions to learning that FL is Naksu and that she'll soon disappear were underwhelming.
I dunno what happened to LJW there, but I wasn't feeling any impact from those scenes and he didn't look emotional enough. He looked more like blank faced Yul, but even Yul was more emotional when he learned FL is Naksu.

9. Last episode was a bit rushed, erratic and weirdly edited.
Technically, on paper everything was done right, but somehow still left a feeling of being rushed.
I dunno what it was, but I think it's was an amalgamation of these factors:
-Weird, out of order editing;
-Erratic characters behavior, especially the villains;
-Lackluster CGI, baffling lack of extras in fighting scenes;
-Lack of impact in general - endgame buildup was ruined by ML who, after finally accepting his destiny of a total Mary Sue (aka. King's Star), practically singlehandedly smashed all the villains and that overhyped fire bird as easy as pie without breaking a sweat;
-Too much focus on side characters' endings instead of the main leads and even those were of barely satisfactory length.

Also, I think that leads wedding should have happened at the end of the story when all the issues were resolved, not when FL was about to disappear. It looked out of place considering their current circumstances and reminded too much of part 1 ending, when they were in denial and carelessly making future plans and marriage.

CONCLUSION:
So, did Alchemy of Souls require 2 parts for a complete story? Personally, I don't think so, part 1 already suffered from pacing issues, but in part 2 they've dragged the plot out even more and added lots of new plot holes, to boot. If the writers kept the plot tight, I think they could have ended the story in one season.
But then again, I really liked GYJ's Naksu character and I liked that she too got plenty of time to shine, like JSM did in part 1.
All the rest of the cast, LJW especially, did a really excellent job as well and part 2's overall production value was still through the roof.
Flaws and all, Alchemy of Souls is still a very memorable and gripping kdrama, with a beautiful love story, that I'm sure will be remembered for years to come as a great classic. There's nothing quite like it in kdramaworld right now and I hope it will be an inspiration for more quality dramas like this. Overall, I'm giving part 2 a generous 8 out of 10.

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Fresh and funny first half, cliche and dumb later half

It was a solid 8 in the first half of the drama because of the witty, on point humor. But then it turned into your typical murder crime drama, with dumb leads to boot, which became more apparent as episodes went on. So, of course, many people died before the culprit was caught and even that was through sheer luck and out of the grave help of a single smart side character. Some deaths could have even be prevented if characters weren't acting atrociously dumb, especially near the end of the drama. It was frustrating to watch how clumsily it was resolved.
The culprit wasn't revealed too early as it often happens in such dramas, which is nice, but showrunners did start giving heavy hints in late episodes and after most of the suspects were killed not many characters were left to suspect anyway. The motive was very meh, considering that the culprit character didn't give any serial killer vibes until he was caught and there was no sus behavior in his past.

I also didn't like that for a few episodes the drama veered into a side story that basically lead to nowhere. I'm talking about FL mother's and assemblyman's story - a sudden end, no justice for those who got killed and cheated of their money. And then this story was promptly swept under a rug. Left a feeling of it being a filler.

And lastly, I didn't like that showrunners decided to shoehorn sudden romance between ML and FL in like 1.5 episodes left to go. Was completely unnecessarily and at that point felt unbelievable. And I guess FL wasn't really into SML, even though she was running after him and making googly eyes at him like a stupid cow for most of the drama.

And here's a list of very stupid things that went on at the end of the drama that made me lower the score:
-FL has several victims' blood on her hands.
She could have saved the cafe waitress in the field by asking the whole bus for help. The culprit was among them, but he wouldn't have been able to kill the victim with a crowd around.
She could have saved the assemblyman and her grandpa as well by telling the police she saw the culprit in exact same raincoat, with exact same knife about to backstab the assemblyman. But she dismissed that he might have been the actual killer by listening to his sappy lie. Lolwut, woman? Not to mention that no matter what his intentions were, serial or not, he was about to stab a man!
And last victim is SML. Because of her stupid irresistible desire to meet him no matter what time of day it is and that a serial killer is on the loose, she agreed to meet with him late at night far away from residential houses, and without telling ML. Then, even though she said she believed him, she of course ran away from him when he ran after her to show her the murder knife.

-FL also was made frustratingly very dumb near the end of the show in general. Walking at night alone, being uncooperative because her love interest may be the killer, slapping ML and blaming him (serious wtf moment) for so many victims, the list goes on...At least in the end she apologized to ML.

-ML should have arrested SML for the farmer's death right then and there after he saw blood on his hand and because SML's house was very close to where ML lost the killer. But instead ML let him go and let that rare, concrete evidence, with no psychic mumbo jumbo, go to waste. That was very dumb on ML's part.

-SML's behavior throughout the drama was very frustrating as well. One can say that it was his suspicious, antagonistic, secretive and uncooperative behavior that got him killed in the end. He may have been smart to figure out the killer first, but his aloofness and inability to trust people didn't help his case whatsoever.

-The farmer with psychic powers was basically asking for it. Ffs, why'd you be grabbing a leg of a person you strongly suspect to be the killer in the middle of the night in a remote area?

So considering all of the above I can't give it more than 7.0. The humor was funny and memorable though, while it lasted.

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An underrated gem, one of the best rom-coms out there

A year and many kdramas later I finally got to write a review about this drama - imho, it's still one of the best rom-com kdramas out there, very underrated. It flew under the radar when it aired due to lack of proper promotion and because there were other overhyped and frankly overrated dramas airing at around that time, like A Business Proposal, for example.

Yes, on the surface it has your typical boss and secretary premise, but the plot itself is far from being generic, it's actually quite unpredictable. The first giveaway is in the premise itself - FL learns that she doesn't have much time left to live and ML is in danger of being murdered by somebody (don't worry about it being scary sounding though, nobody's actually going to die and it has a very happy ending). As the episodes unfold, this drama breaks away from the stereotypes and cliches you'd expect, and turns them on their heads in a creative and hilarious fashion.
This drama doesn't rush character exposition, but doses it expertly throughout the episodes. It has a rather slow start to give time for characters introduction and to show the crux of their problems. So after the first few heavy episodes you can't really say anything definitive as to where this is going. But after everything is established and the plot starts moving in full swing you'll see that this is a rom-com at its finest, with lots of unpredictable situations and funny moments that are very entertaining to watch. And while it's not some brainy mystery thriller that the audience has to solve, there are elements of that here as well. This drama mixes familiar tropes in a rather unpredictable and surprisingly balanced way, and doesn't falter or fall off until the very end. The narrative is strong and well thought out. And it rewards viewers who paid attention by meaningfully referencing and shedding new light on earlier events and dialogues in later episodes.

The two biggest points of this drama are:
- a strong overall message of redemption and forgiveness;
- an absolutely fantastic character development.

ML initially comes off as cold hearted, arrogant jerk with nasty temper and terrifying boss aura, who bullies his secretaries for nothing (for which FL makes him pay for later). But later it turns out that he's just a lonely, miserable guy who was backstabbed and abandoned too many times throughout his whole life. With such bad attitude and due to complicated past with some of the characters, ML becomes a target of ire of many antagonists, who gang up on ML to ruin and even kill him. And there were a lot of them for various reasons - revenge, competitor elimination, jealousy, financial problems, etc. Some were justified, but as the plot unfolds it is revealed that mostly he was made a scapegoat for other people's problems. This drama's doing well at showcasing that people generally are flawed, selfish, egotistic and like to put the blame on someone else, instead of themselves, because it's easier. But it was all done on purpose for ML's and their character development, as most of these characters in the end will come to realize that they were in the wrong and will make amends. So even though ML comes off first as a real cold bastard, the drama does a good job at portraying the why of it and his eventual path to redemption.

FL initially comes off as unassuming, timid, hard working girl, with presence that of a wind in ML's company. But after she learns the dire news of her imminent death due to health issues, she decides to put the blame on ML for being a giant stress generator source for her for over a year, which reasonably could have exacerbated her illness. With nothing to lose, she decides to go out with a bang and to take revenge on ML before she dies. To help FL with this endeavor fate conviniently throws her a great opportunity, enabled by one big mistake made by ML. While being hospitalized after an attempt on his life was made on a fateful day X, ML decides to fake his amnesia to expose the suspects. FL uses this to her advantage and pretends to be his fiancee to gain full access to his body, so to speak. And from here on out hilarity ensues as she starts implementing her revenge in an unfazed, zany fashion and ML has no choice but to suffer through all of it, lest his cover is blown.

The first half of the drama is focused more on FL and her inner turmoil. I really liked FL's somber, self-reflecting scenes in the first seven episodes, as well as ML's gradual shift of attitude towards her starting from around episode 6, as they start spending a lot of time together. And though the later part of the drama is focused more on ML's redemption arc, the writers didn't forget about FL in later episodes either. Though her main problem is effectively resolved in the first half of the show and she turns back to her kind and nice self, she gains a newfound courage and profound realization how she should be living her life from now on, and starts pursuing her dreams in earnest. This all helps immensely to resolve ML's problems in the second part, as she's there to support him and lead him in the right direction. This plot division seems very deliberate, as one plot point leads to the resolution of another. It couldn't have happened in parallel if FL was still dealing with her problem till the very end and continued having crazy bouts with ML, however hilarious they were.

Once the leads clear their misunderstandings, stop hating each other and find themselves falling for each other, they are all in for one another. No dumb break-ups, time skips or LDR. It is very sweet.
That this drama basically has no love triangles is a big plus for me as well. The leads have eyes only for each other here. ML's delulu ex, with zero second chances given, ends up being just another one of the antagonists.

So all in all, I liked how the show gradually showed their character growth and how competently all the plot points led to a satisfying conclusion, with a moral to the story even. Not every drama out there can boast the same.
Maybe the list of people having a grudge against ML could have been shorter, especially considering that most of them were not out there to get him for his nasty demeanor, but for their own selfish reasons. But I think it was done deliberately for that explosive dramatic culmination in the later episodes.

So, a great drama overall, definitely worth the watch. Starts a bit slow in the first few episodes, but gets really good later and doesn't let go until the very end. Nothing is rushed, for once, and the ending is very satisfying. The first half of the show where the leads were at each other's throats was absolutely hilarious, with pinnacle pillow fight being simply iconic. And the second half of the show was full of surprising revelations and sweet moments.
I think ML's actor did a formidable job here at playing a competent, but terrifying boss on the outside and lonely, betrayed guy on the inside. I absolutely loved his performance. In many rom-coms of this type actors can't pull off a proper boss role, they often turn up either too soft or too dumb to be convincing. But here he practically had that aura about him.
One might say that everything that happened to ML in this drama was accumulated bad karma, but he came out of it a better man in the end. And it's funny that it was the timid and introverted FL of all people, who mustered her courage due to her life changing circumstance and stopped putting up with his scumbaggery, that was the catalyst of ML's change for the better. I wasn't a fan of FL's actress before, but she really grew on me here.

Not giving this drama a perfect score only because some side characters in this drama were pretty useless/underutilized and more often than not were wasting screen time. For example, the gossiping ex-secretary club or goofy FL's brother and girl friend couple. And also, be prepared for good old staple of all contemporary kdramas - PPLs in your face.

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Intricate world, great characters, unpredictable story, but pacing is inconsistent

WARNING: Don't watch this separately from part 2 if you can't handle sad endings, because it has a crazy angsty plot twist in the end akin to "red wedding" from GoT!

Other than that this drama has a great mix of genres - fantasy, drama, comedy, action. The world is intricately built, all characters are given enough time to introduce themselves and most lead characters have great character development. The plot is very complicated and twisted, with deliberate hints about late spoilers dropped for attentive watchers from early episodes. It will keep you hooked and guessing what will happen next without you actually being able to figure it out, so unpredictable it is.
However, in later half of the show for the sake of dragging it out to 20 episodes the plot started to stall and meander around the issues with no real resolutions until the last two episodes, where everything was dumped on the audience - a common problem of many kdramas that just have no sense of pace and don't know how to end themselves properly. Some sub-plots especially took an egregious amount of screen time, like that "fake Bu-Yeon" plot. The ending was shocking for sheer shock value with lots of unresolved dangling loose ends. The sins of FL, who's occupying the body of an innocent girl, finally caught up with her in the end, but said innocent girl was done dirty, she didn't deserve any of this. In any case, stay tuned for part 2 to see the real ending, they're not done yet.

The cast did a stellar job at portraying their characters. Special props for FL who played a difficult 3 in 1 role.

OST and production value of this drama are also through the roof.

Overall, an 8.5. A very solid and unique kind of drama. But I can't give it a higher score in good conscience because of the problems with the plot I highlighted above.

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Overhyped and underwhelming

This show started very promisingly but barely delivered anything by the end. Things were going well until around episode 11 and then went downhill with that weird trip to Jeju island and never recovered. Last two episodes were crammed with cases again and closure for the characters was rushed at breakneck speed.
All in all:
1. FL's character development barely progressed both professionally and personally. There were dropped sub plots that she may become more independent from her father, start cooking for herself, maybe go to work to a law firm that is closer to her principles - all were dropped. In the end, writers still managed to fall into a stereotype trap and convey the wrong idea about autistic people. Irl not all of them are savants, not all of them are treated so nicely at work, not all of them are so cute and therefore well liked. In the end, it became just another tropey story about a genius "detective/lawyer/prosecutor" with a quirk.
2. Some characters like ML were not given any background or character development at all. Some characters, like Min Woo and Soo Yeon had their characters as if completely swapped with someone else. FL's dad barely did anything for the plot, FL's mom is still a bitch - no family relationship development whatsoever. Some characters like FL's friend and friend's boss were relegated to sad and dumb comic reliefs. All in all, side characters of this drama has got to be one of the most underdeveloped I've ever seen in a kdrama.
2. Law side of the drama was weak and amateurish. Irl cases are not won simply by remembering a clause from a law book or looking up precedents, irl everyone looks them up prior going to court. Other attorneys and even some judges here are made so exaggeratingly dumb compared to FL, just to show how smart she is, it's simply embarassing. Some cases weren't even worth going to court, their arguments were on the surface and could have been resolved with a simple legal consultation. A few cases raised some serious social issues but writers didn't have the balls to give their definitive opinion on them, leaving the justice of their verdicts up to the audience to mull over.
3. Romance was very weak. Yes, it's cutesy and fluffy, actors are handsome and professional. But ML basically is just a prop put in there to love FL and be conveniently perfect to care for her for some reason. Was it her looks, or constant whale talk that made him fall in love with her? Not much was talked about when they interacted with each other and it made this whole romance look superficial and not convincing. Their break-up was dumb af and dragged unnecessarily for 3 episodes too long. And barely any time was given to their reconciliation and next to none to their further relationship. ML wasn't even introduced to FL's father. This is not how you give a satisfying closure to a romance arc.

All in all just one big overhyped trainwreck. But hey, they still have a chance to fix all this in season 2! But I'm not holding my breath.

P.S. The only ones worthy of praise were the actors, they did a very admirable job, especially PEB. And production value of this kdrama is very good as well, props to the production team. But sadly even they couldn't pull off the impossible with this kind of script.

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Korean take on "She-Hulk: Misandry At Law"

Very overrated, 6.5 overall from me.
1. Too much bashing on men. It feels like Western feminist agenda creeped into this kdrama.
2. Unlikable, unrelatable "She-Hulk" of an FL. Her acting in romantic scenes also wasn't very convincing. Or maybe it's because a hard-headed, jaded, misandric character like hers made me question her feelings towards ML until the very end.
3. Cliche, brooding ML with tropey mental trauma, which of course only FL was able to "cure" ?. And since she's so special somehow out of the blue, of course he immediately falls in love with her. A bit better acting than FL, but still pretty meh overall, wasn't getting top star vibes from him.
4. Additional baggage from their family experiences also was offputting - every other family has issues like that, it's nothing special, and children don't become an exaggerated mess like these two. The way they tried so hard to shoehorn all of their problematic behaviour to bad, but rather trivial experiences of the past still makes me wish that they would just go see a therapist or something.
5. The plot itself also was nothing to write home about. A typical rom-com, if a bit outlandish (mostly because of FL) and cringey (ML's delulu ex contribution).

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Underrated rom-com gem

This is one of my favorite dramas, I think it's underrated. It's a very cute, lighhearted and funny drama, but there are actually many interesting serious subplots going on there aside from romance story, if you care to dig in. The major one being how a public person's career can be ruined by easily swayed public opinion. It's real, you can see such sad stories about Korean actors and idols quite frequently. And it doesn't matter if allegations are proven wrong, it's still very hard to come back to work in the industry once the public image is ruined. It takes a strong, thick skinned person to overcome this. There are also several interesting legal cases shown throughout the series, a creepy stalker as a villain and funny side plots about law firm's coworkers and ML's friends.

It seems like people are downwoting this show for superficial reasons after dropping it after first two episodes, not giving it a chance, which is a shame.
No, FL is not really a dumb diva, but actually is a strong willed, hard working, kind and quite intelligent woman. But she is a bit of a narcissist, because she knows she's very pretty and has high self-esteem. Her main problem is that she acted in so many TV projects, experiences taken from which sometimes interfere with her sense of reality.
No, ML is not really an emotionless rude ass - he's an introverted, hard working guy, who quite frankly is overworked at his workplace, so he comes initially as very cranky and intolerant towards incompetence and anybody bringing chaos to his boring scheduled life. He also lacks self-awareness and they're both quite naive in some life aspects, and that's what makes it funny.

All the actors nailed it here, not only the main leads, who have great chemistry together and are great actors in general (I actually liked them here much better than in Goblin). But I also was really impressed with all the secondary cast, which is actually rather rare to see. I especially liked two Yeon relatives - law firm's and entertainment agency's CEOs, they were quite funny.

So if you want a nice, feel good drama with a happy ending without tired cliches like love triangles, angst, LDR, sappy childhood traumas, destiny etc. then give it a try. It's actually much better than many more recent overrated dramas, where there's always either some sort of toxic relationship, drama for drama's sake, obligatory love triangles, prolonged misunderstandings, etc. But this one is just a pure and sweet drama with nice characters that you don't have to stress about while watching it.

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Part 1 was better

The preparation stage was long and tough, but the execution was surprisingly easy - after throwing some spicy s*it into the fan, FL simply had to watch how the toxic bully clique basically destroyed themselves.
FL was bluffing a lot though, her plan was not bulletproof, but she counted on rotten nature of those involved and they did not disappoint.
And way too many convenient events, serendipitous to FL's plan, also helped smooth the execution by a lot.
Still, it was satisfying to watch the main plot unfold, how FL's bullies ruined themselves and got what they deserved.

On the minus side, I'm also of the popular opinion that romance was not necessary here. Those two actors just didn't mesh together, and later reveals about ML and his fixation on FL kinda creeped me out. I'd even go so far as to say it ruined what should have been a catharthic ending with that unfinished side plot about ML's revenge.

Most of the cast did a splending job, especially the actress playing spy/housewife, she has some range, I think her role was way tougher to play than FL.
The main evil bitch was great too - loved to hate her.
Her businessman husband was also awesome, he had a lot of presence even though he was just a side character.
Some bad guys were overacting too much though, especially FL's mother.
FL was ok for playing a deadpan character, but I think a bit younger actress may have been better. ML looked like he was miscast, tbh.

Anyway, a good show overall, definitely one of the best revenge dramas out there. No cringey makjang or extreme violence like in some other revenge dramas out there that made me drop them.

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A problematic and contrived "whodunit" insipired by real life tragic events

This drama turned out to be several episodes too many and just like in classic Agatha Christie's "The Mousetrap" the whodunit mystery overshadowed the real life tragedy that was the basis of this problematic story. There's no real respect for the irl victims of the tragedy that inspired this story - their fictional representations here are shown in a very negative light with no sane character alive.

And aside from annoying contrivances and switcheroos, the whodunit mystery didn't manage to reinvent the wheel here at all - whom everyone thought the most sus since the start were basically it.

And lastly, as soon as the villains went for the innocent victims, which was their agreed plan since the beginning, they lost all my sympathy. There were many ways to get revenge legally, especially with professional position they were in, but they blew it on senseless violence that begat only more violence.

I dunno, a 7 from me, I guess. Actors tried their best.

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Controversial drama with disappointing ending

Controversial drama with disappointing ending

This drama has stellar cast and production quality is superb, but the plot and message behind it are very controversial, to say the least.

The first 4 episodes were a solid 9, though heavy-handed, insensitive religious patronizing can be clearly seen from the very beginning. But after episode 5 it rapidly went downhill. Episode 6 was like those countless crime dramas about exaggerated corruption and untouchable chaebols with over the top acting and resolutions. Very meh.
And the last two episodes were drilling on the same message - suicide is a selfish act, it's not about you, you should keep on suffering for the sake of others. The only insightful part was about a suicidal salary man, who basically started the chain of events that lead ML to his own suicide - it showed ML the ugly reality of that dream he so desperately wanted to have, the one the government and society kept on brainwashing him to strive for since he went to school. But they never delved anywhere further with that. Instead of guilt shaming ML with his mother for the whole episode they should have explored what ML really wanted in life, how can he be true to himself like he said he wanted to. Is being a cog in an uncaring corporate machine what people really should strive for in life? Just such a waste of potential here narrative wise.

But as it is, this drama didn't try looking into the cause, didn't try to resolve any of the problems SK's society has that leads people to commit a staggering amount of suicides every year, like poverty and unemployment, it just tried to guilt shame suiciders through religious and societal dogmas. Makes one think that it was sponsored by SK's government, who seems to be impotent in solving this serious country wide issue and now just resorts to such cheap shots like this drama. Maybe it will work better on Asian audience with their traditionally communal mentality, but it's a very hard sell for individualistic West.

The suicide topic here is viewed from such narrow perspective, it really started to piss me off by the end. No exploration of mental health state of suicidal people or various circumstances that lead to this hard decision. Yeah, in ML's case perhaps he was too rash in attempting suicide since he had a caring mother and a girlfriend (though seeing how lonely he was with his problems at the beginning, these people have shown him lack of moral support when he really needed it, and his mother was later shown hoarding money for him, which she should have given him years ago to help cover his education debts he was paying off for many years). But what about people who have no such people in their lives? What about terminally ill/severely crippled/mentally unwell people who see themselves as burden to their relatives and society? What about kids being beaten by their own drunkard parents and nobody cares? What about people who are living in miserable poverty with no hope for a better future? They should also keep on suffering for the sake of others and their country or go to hell? So many unique lives with unique problems, but this drama had no compassion or desire to explore any of that. It's like that cartoon meme: Nope, stop talking, go to hell.

As for the ending, well, ML got a second chance in life and that's a win (?). But consequently it also invalidated everything ML did in other people’s bodies and all those who were supposed to die will die, including his girlfriend, and all the bad guys, including two serial killer psychos, will still be walking scott free.
So all in all, this drama just left me kinda perplexed as to how to score it, because, on the one hand, the quality and cast were superb, but controversial message and disappointing ending made me feel like I've wasted my time watching this.
I guess I'll score episodes 1-5 with 8.5 and 6-8 with 7.0.

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Entertaining and intelligent law drama

Very nice law drama overall, I enjoyed it a lot. I like that the plot was well written and stayed tight, and coherent throughout the entire series with no dumbassery, fillers, or circus in the court room. The killer's identity reveal also comes naturally, without contrived attempts to prolong it being kept hidden (like in headache inducing Blind, for example). If you watched a certain Hollywood movie with a similar plot, or simply figured it out early from a rather limited range of presented characters then good for you, take a cookie.

The highlight of the drama is not "whodunit" mystery in itself, but the story behind it and FL's character development, which progresses considerably after she starts to get involved with ML and seemingly unrelated cases he one way or the other drops on her. I thoroughly enjoyed their characters interactions, they had great chemistry.

I'd say my only complaint would be that the initially calm and intelligent main villain made a big mistake down the line by trying to cover up another character's crimes (which would have been revealed anyway). And while trying to consequently cover up that mistake he started to get increasingly paranoid and made even more mistakes, which in the end led him to a rather dumb cliche end. It was totally avoidable, with minimal damage to himself, if only he stayed put and didn't do anything unnecessary. But other than that it was quite an enjoyable watch.

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A kaleidoskope of failed relationships

This drama is a kaleidoscope of failed relationships and call me a cynic but I'm not seeing a bright future for most of this drama's couples:
-Yu Jung and her lazy ass husband finally talked it out and have delved into role playing games to spice things up, but watch them get bored in a couple of years again. The husband will be the first because he is just lazy by nature and takes his wife for granted. And the wife needs constant affirmation of their love.

-FL's spoiled brat of a sister just didn't give me the vibe that she truly loves the guy, she just goes with the flow in life. A NEET and a minimal wage worker, they are a staple divorce statistics example, so often stories such as these happen. Since they don't even know each other well or what they want to do with their life I think in a couple of years she's gonna start blaming the guy for ruining her life and gonna end up a divorcee with two kids, continuing living off of her relatives. If I were FL I would have given her an earful and kicked her out of the "bird's nest" long ago to get a taste of real life. Or at the very least made her pay rent. I really dislike lazy loafers like these, have seen them in real life and they just never learn to live on their own due to continued coddling.

-U-Ri and CEO...just why and how the ef? I don't even think CEO really fell in love with U-Ri, no chemistry whatsoever. He just didn't want to end up alone in his age and used her puppy love to his benefit. Too bad his ex wife didn't want to get back together with him, would have been a better fit. I don't know what else to say besides it being cringe.

-That bitchy bride friend of FL's is gonna get divorced in a couple of years as well. Pressured an unready guy into marriage, yeah, that's gonna end well.

-The chicken sh*it of an ex his current gf - not gonna happen. At this rate the guy is going to end up forever alone, he really needs to dial himself down by a lot.

-ML's ex and her husband - not really seeing it either. She clearly didn't know what she wanted and gonna question and beat herself up until her husband will get sick of it.

-ML and FL...they will probably be ok? ML kinda half-assed his confession, but FL considerately gave him slack. ML really struggled to convey his feelings until the very last, but judging by his behaviour in the end he seemed to have overcome it, he became all lovey dovey with her. They were quite cute in the end. And FL is not going to ditch ML, because where else will she find a guy who likes her no matter all the embarassing stuff she constantly gets herself into. Personally, I think the lead couple was the most natural in development and healthiest of all of this drama's relationships. Their bonding through similar ordeal allowed them to really get to know and understand each other, which I can't say for many of the other couples of this drama.

Overall, a 7/10 from me. I really loved YIN's performance, she really carried the show and managed to pull off various aspects of her character, ranging from really embarassing ones to very mature ones, with effortless grace. I can imagine it must have been difficult though, because her character had to stay likeable while being very flawed.
And some of the show's dialogues were real gems, full of witty banter and meaningful one liners.
But still:
-1 point for cringey U-Ri and CEO couple.
-1 point for trainwreck of a shotgun couple.
-1 point for too much screen time and tears wasted on Mr. Trash.

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