This review may contain spoilers
Family Fun
I really wanted to like this and decided that this was going to be my festive October near Halloween drama. Instead. It took me two weeks to get through the twelve episodes because, honestly, they were a bit hard for me to get through. Which makes me a little uneasy writing this review as the six previous reviews before this one spoke very highly of the drama. This drama was 100% silly "family fun" which isn't my cup of tea.
I loved how this drama was a unique perspective of a zombie wanting to become a human again and basically trying to blend in, not wanting to be caught. He also harbors a small hatred for humans as all movies and dramas that come out, portray zombies as these creatures from hell that need to be brutally murdered, but he soon starts developing a bond with Sunji and her family. I also loved all the random cameos - all the members of A.C.E., one of my favorite kpop groups (Jun & Chan getting the lines in multiple eps), Sam Hammington (who I know and love from Return of Superman), and last, even though she wasn't a cameo, but I love her anyway, Hwang Bo Ra, who plays Sunji's cooky sister. I also LOVED all the music they picked - either the random references to Hollywood movies or when DPR Live's Martini Blue randomly started playing on Sunji's headphones.
The last thing I loved about this drama was the bits and pieces of darkness with all the crimes (a total of 3 main ones). But this also goes hand in hand with why I didn't like it as well. I feel like this drama didn't really know what it wanted to be or the vibe it was going for - one moment President Le is fighting a bad guy off, but literally getting bashed in the head with a trophy over and over again (in any normal drama, he would be unconscious or dead) but a moment later Wang Wey slams into the glass door trying to escape, much as in a scene from a Saturday morning cartoon with sound effects and all. Cut to the next scene, Prez Le is totally fine and minor blood. It was almost like the show was maybe going for a PG Saturday morning cartoon feel and was over the top too cheesy and dramatic for my taste, personally. Some jokes hit, most didn't. Which is fine and cool, maybe this drama was written for a younger audience, but then you have DARK scenes and situations, that are 100%, not PG, but all of them were my favorites.
I also had a hard time because I wasn't a huge fan of most of the characters. This drama was 100% silly "family fun" which isn't my cup of tea especially when the characters don't sit well. They all had so much potential, such as the main characters, and could have been amazing detectives from the very beginning, but decided they wanted to be clumsy in the beginning so they could come through in ep 12 and complete a very simple operation and pat themselves on the back. And this is all my personal opinion. I thought that catching the Christmas/Santa Clause Killer was a harder task than the one in ep 12. I also wasn't a fan of President Le and his agency, but they did embody what this drama symbolized and they also followed the formula of having potential, but only coming through at the end. I think the only characters that I somewhat enjoyed were Sun Young (she is very consistent in embodying one character in all her dramas), her son (he was so cute and randomly always in the right place at the right time), and Sunji's best friend who owned the tripe shop (who always came through with her contacts at the hospital). The two mains were alright - I loved Moo Young's determination to solving cases and finding answers, but it would get discouraged very easily and then want to give up, and I loved how supportive Sunji was with her friends and family and wanted to do the right thing, but she was very clumsy and impulsive and it was very annoying. She was very good at her job and had the potential and the heart to be a detective, but she lacked a bit of common sense. Both characters got better towards the end, but it made it hard for me to personally watch while waiting.
Overall, if you want to watch a PG drama with some dark themes, but covered up with Saturday morning cartoons jokes, and scenes, this would be a good drama. I personally thought that there was a lot of fluff even though this was already super short. I will not watch this drama again, but I am happy that I did watch this. I wish I could give it a better score because of the music and the cameos and all the good promoting, but this was a miss for me.
I loved how this drama was a unique perspective of a zombie wanting to become a human again and basically trying to blend in, not wanting to be caught. He also harbors a small hatred for humans as all movies and dramas that come out, portray zombies as these creatures from hell that need to be brutally murdered, but he soon starts developing a bond with Sunji and her family. I also loved all the random cameos - all the members of A.C.E., one of my favorite kpop groups (Jun & Chan getting the lines in multiple eps), Sam Hammington (who I know and love from Return of Superman), and last, even though she wasn't a cameo, but I love her anyway, Hwang Bo Ra, who plays Sunji's cooky sister. I also LOVED all the music they picked - either the random references to Hollywood movies or when DPR Live's Martini Blue randomly started playing on Sunji's headphones.
The last thing I loved about this drama was the bits and pieces of darkness with all the crimes (a total of 3 main ones). But this also goes hand in hand with why I didn't like it as well. I feel like this drama didn't really know what it wanted to be or the vibe it was going for - one moment President Le is fighting a bad guy off, but literally getting bashed in the head with a trophy over and over again (in any normal drama, he would be unconscious or dead) but a moment later Wang Wey slams into the glass door trying to escape, much as in a scene from a Saturday morning cartoon with sound effects and all. Cut to the next scene, Prez Le is totally fine and minor blood. It was almost like the show was maybe going for a PG Saturday morning cartoon feel and was over the top too cheesy and dramatic for my taste, personally. Some jokes hit, most didn't. Which is fine and cool, maybe this drama was written for a younger audience, but then you have DARK scenes and situations, that are 100%, not PG, but all of them were my favorites.
I also had a hard time because I wasn't a huge fan of most of the characters. This drama was 100% silly "family fun" which isn't my cup of tea especially when the characters don't sit well. They all had so much potential, such as the main characters, and could have been amazing detectives from the very beginning, but decided they wanted to be clumsy in the beginning so they could come through in ep 12 and complete a very simple operation and pat themselves on the back. And this is all my personal opinion. I thought that catching the Christmas/Santa Clause Killer was a harder task than the one in ep 12. I also wasn't a fan of President Le and his agency, but they did embody what this drama symbolized and they also followed the formula of having potential, but only coming through at the end. I think the only characters that I somewhat enjoyed were Sun Young (she is very consistent in embodying one character in all her dramas), her son (he was so cute and randomly always in the right place at the right time), and Sunji's best friend who owned the tripe shop (who always came through with her contacts at the hospital). The two mains were alright - I loved Moo Young's determination to solving cases and finding answers, but it would get discouraged very easily and then want to give up, and I loved how supportive Sunji was with her friends and family and wanted to do the right thing, but she was very clumsy and impulsive and it was very annoying. She was very good at her job and had the potential and the heart to be a detective, but she lacked a bit of common sense. Both characters got better towards the end, but it made it hard for me to personally watch while waiting.
Overall, if you want to watch a PG drama with some dark themes, but covered up with Saturday morning cartoons jokes, and scenes, this would be a good drama. I personally thought that there was a lot of fluff even though this was already super short. I will not watch this drama again, but I am happy that I did watch this. I wish I could give it a better score because of the music and the cameos and all the good promoting, but this was a miss for me.
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