Mickey
If Wild West was set in a Korean prison
NOTE: turn off all of your medical knowledge before watching this Kdrama coming from someone in the healthcare field.
For a person not familiar with the medical, psychiatric, and most especially rehabilitative protocols portrayed here, you will best remember this Kdrama as full of revenge scheming lawlessness coiled with plot twists all over sprinkled with intensified suspense for the duration of its 32-episode run. Personally, I nearly dropped it after the first episode due to its massive protocol breaches and medical logic was just basically thrown off. I wanted to brush it off, but it was too immense not to ignore. Also, I wanted to list all instances were protocols were broken, but it will just take all the space of this review. Again, be thoroughly warned.
Despite said drawbacks, the fast pacing of the story is really to be acclaimed. The plot twists maybe convoluted at times and almost all characters may be morally gray, but it was just not boring. I was hooked by Na Yi-je's (Namgoong Min) revenge plot and the delivery of both the revenge and his acting were just top notch. I liked that the plan was too intricate despite several obstacles. There were many players in this game, and I not know who will definitely win due to the enormous amount of power play in between episodes. But despite of its complexity, the story did not lost its touch even up to the finale. I was already satisfied with the end, no need for the second season unless the story would be as significant as here.
Next, the acting game here was just too outstanding, particularly Lee Jae-joon (Choi Won-young). It's the first time that I saw him play a role different from others, but he was just too memorable a villain. He just shined out all throughout most notably the last episode. On the other hand, because of the great acting here, I found Han So-geum (Kwon Na-ra) to be the "weak link", but that doesn't mean that she was bad here. It may be due to the script and her character or may be it was just the other actors showed greater range of their acting skills in this Kdrama.
The production here was also where I had problems. The prison was too dimly-lighted and I had to move my eyes closer the screen to see the characters. The lighting, since it focused more on the darker color shades, was now more like disco club which did not set well to the story mood. It was too prominent and distracted their dialogues. Also, the music was not in sync with the mood at times. There were instances that the BGM played was light yet they were threatening to bring someone down, which was not appropriate in this context. Basically, not a fan of the production value showed here.
Overall, a very intense fast-paced story that was not dull, however it could've been improved at some, if not many aspects. Yet still, this Kdrama should not be skipped just because of some of my complaints. After all, Doctor Prisoner is a great example of what a Kdrama is if Wild West was set in a Korean prison.
P.S. for the story, I excluded the medical aspect from the score for the overall plot of this show itself.
For a person not familiar with the medical, psychiatric, and most especially rehabilitative protocols portrayed here, you will best remember this Kdrama as full of revenge scheming lawlessness coiled with plot twists all over sprinkled with intensified suspense for the duration of its 32-episode run. Personally, I nearly dropped it after the first episode due to its massive protocol breaches and medical logic was just basically thrown off. I wanted to brush it off, but it was too immense not to ignore. Also, I wanted to list all instances were protocols were broken, but it will just take all the space of this review. Again, be thoroughly warned.
Despite said drawbacks, the fast pacing of the story is really to be acclaimed. The plot twists maybe convoluted at times and almost all characters may be morally gray, but it was just not boring. I was hooked by Na Yi-je's (Namgoong Min) revenge plot and the delivery of both the revenge and his acting were just top notch. I liked that the plan was too intricate despite several obstacles. There were many players in this game, and I not know who will definitely win due to the enormous amount of power play in between episodes. But despite of its complexity, the story did not lost its touch even up to the finale. I was already satisfied with the end, no need for the second season unless the story would be as significant as here.
Next, the acting game here was just too outstanding, particularly Lee Jae-joon (Choi Won-young). It's the first time that I saw him play a role different from others, but he was just too memorable a villain. He just shined out all throughout most notably the last episode. On the other hand, because of the great acting here, I found Han So-geum (Kwon Na-ra) to be the "weak link", but that doesn't mean that she was bad here. It may be due to the script and her character or may be it was just the other actors showed greater range of their acting skills in this Kdrama.
The production here was also where I had problems. The prison was too dimly-lighted and I had to move my eyes closer the screen to see the characters. The lighting, since it focused more on the darker color shades, was now more like disco club which did not set well to the story mood. It was too prominent and distracted their dialogues. Also, the music was not in sync with the mood at times. There were instances that the BGM played was light yet they were threatening to bring someone down, which was not appropriate in this context. Basically, not a fan of the production value showed here.
Overall, a very intense fast-paced story that was not dull, however it could've been improved at some, if not many aspects. Yet still, this Kdrama should not be skipped just because of some of my complaints. After all, Doctor Prisoner is a great example of what a Kdrama is if Wild West was set in a Korean prison.
P.S. for the story, I excluded the medical aspect from the score for the overall plot of this show itself.
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