JUST snow-DROP IT

Honestly, I haven't seen a lot of work by Hae-In and saw this drama with close to no expectations. I did however read the premise and saw the trailer and genuinely found it interesting. I thought it would be a typical spy thriller that we see on a regular basis with a little Korean twist but it clearly wasn’t.

Keeping in mind it being a work of fiction and that was not the actual representation of the struggle that took place at that time in South Korea, I liked the background set-up of the story. And it did start out great. The way Jisoo and Hae-In meet at a cafe, how low-key they want to be together but couldn’t. The mystery that went around Hae-In’s character and the pace at which the drama initially unfolded - all great until episode 4 when the hostage situation was created at the dorm. That is when the story went spiraling down for me.

The story was somewhat stuck. I know a lot of movies (like Exam - English) which have a single backdrop setting but they have so much going that they keep you hooked. However, Snowdrop’s story was all over the place and after a point you were just like please let them get out of that god-damn dorm hoping for the story to progress. But no that clearly didn’t happen. It was just frustrating at the end. The series also made me question the plot several times and sometimes I genuinely blurted out loud - What the hell is happening?

What frustrated me was that in the name of character arcs the characters came out as fickle minded. They were worse than me trying to order food on a weekend. There was hardly any development in my opinion. They did something and then wanted to do something else because it was not setting well with them? At this point of the story even I was confused as to what they actually want to do.

There could have been so much more to the story! They revealed it only in the last three episodes that Ms. Oh (the food lady) was one of the North Korean Spies mom and Mr. Kim (the caretaker) was a North Korean Spy staying at that dorm for centuries. I think building up on those storylines was a huge miss!

Overall each episode could have been tighter by reducing the length of an episode. Maybe? We will never know I guess because the show did not unlock its full potential and unfortunately that is what made it unbearable for me to an extent that this was the first show in my entire life whose final episodes I watched at 1.5x speed.

I will not lie, I was not a big fan of Jisoo’s acting. However, considering this is her acting debut I do hope to see her again on the screen to give a better opinion of her acting skills.

Now a short list of what I actually liked about this drama. Some of the supporting actors - especially the North Korean spies gave a genuinely good performance. I really hope to see them as leads soon. I actually enjoyed the Snowdrop OST and I know I will listen to it in the future. But did it save the show in my eyes? No.

I did want to drop this show so badly but remained committed because I do not want to leave things unfinished. Having said that, will I ever watch this show? Oh hell no. Will I watch a remake of this show? I will wait for someone to give a genuine review of the first 6-8 episodes only then will I consider picking it up.

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18 Again - A casual watch to make you feel 18 Again

18 Again is an adaptation of the American movie 18 Again. The only difference is that this is not rushed and there is a purpose for each character. The story has a few twists and turns - enough to keep you hooked - and in the end you definitely wish that you had a father like Hong Dae-young (Yoon Sang-hyun) [at least I did].
This is yet another series that will pull you into the vortex of 'The Second Lead Syndrome' even though here I personally did not see Goo Ja-sung (Hwang In Yeop) a good fit for Shi-ah (Roh Jeong-eui) due to their personalities. but definitely hoped that Ye Ji Hoon (Wi Ha Joon) will have a good romantic ending even if it is not with Jung Da-jung (Kim Ha-neul).
To me the best part of the series was Ye Ji-hoon's smile. The man really lifted me up on some of my shitty days. He played a big part [in my opinion] in making Dad Young a good husband and his back-story too is heartwarming.
All in all the series is good if you are interested in a casual watch. It does get dragged a little bit here and there but I am satisfied with how the story rolled out overall. Every element in the series was there for a reason and it showed. To me the message resonated the best - for any relationship to work you need to communicate to understand the other person's perspective.
I hope you watch it and enjoy it as much as I did!

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