AtlLee
This review may contain spoilers
Who’s the enemy? Park Il-do or stupidity?
I love horror movies a lot. I get creeped out really easily and cheap scares work on me so well. But I still love anything horror related. So naturally, I was excited about this show and I’m somewhat glad I watched it. But, ultimately, I feel like what’s supposed to be a straight up horror mystery got messy and boring because of the main characters.
What’s good.
- It’s a horror show. 😊
- I liked the way the show set up the main bad demon and the folklore of Park Il-do and the possession of Hwa-pyung. It established the character’s motivation and you sympathize with him.
- I liked having a main demon spirit that’s controlling other spirits. It’s fun to guess which spirit is which.
- The way all three characters had shared tragic history.
- Great side characters even though I think they were definitely under used, especially, Yuk-gwang.
- At the end, the least suspected character turned out to be the bad guy… and then there’s another twist! It was clumsy but still pretty good.
- Some possession cases like the one with a little girl were great.
- I liked Park Hong-ju character who’s just evil without being possessed.
- Some twists were good and unexpected.
What’s not good.
- Three main characters almost ruined it for me. Their initial character traits basically remained the same. A hot head, a stiff emotional priest who shows no emotion and an angry detective who demands evidence after evidence to believe.
- The way characters argue about same things episodes after episodes. It took so long for Det. Kang to believe even after Hwa-pyung was right over and over again.
- The same mistakes over and over again resulting in people’s deaths. They would interview victims/witnesses and leave them unprotected over and over again. Sure enough, they get killed. Almost as if they press reset button at the end of each episode and start fresh every time. It gets old fast.
- These people have no detective skills. They can’t deduce anything. They just can’t put two and two together! Sometimes, evidence is staring at them but they don’t see it. When people act strange, nobody notices like when Det. Koh got possessed and Det. Kang had no clue sitting in the same car!
- This show has the worst chase scenes. Main characters are strangely slow but the bad guys are super fast. If they’re chasing someone, 100% guaranteed that bad guys will get away.
- Cases got unnecessarily dragged out because people kept others in the dark for no reason. Just another lazy way to advance the plot.
- Characters just stand there with mouth open instead of reacting to what’s happening around them.
- They ignored conventional wisdom when convenient. Like how busy hospital is virtually empty just so the bad guys can go in/out undetected.
- Park Il-do seemed to be a few steps ahead of the main characters at all time. How? Is he omnipresent or does he have his underlings everywhere watching them? It’s not explained well. Toward the end, you wonder if Park Il-do is actually omnipotent, too, as he can “possess” multiple people at the same time.
- Understandably, they try to keep you guessing on who Park Il-do is but the way they try to bait and switch is pretty clumsy. If the show wants you to believe something, you know it’s not the case.
- Once again, people at the top are corrupt and cowardly. What’s new? Koreans really hate people in power, don’t they?
- Please, please, turn the lights on! Wait until the daytime to do things.
- The ending is kinda wanky. It would’ve been better if they left Hwa-pyung dead but I guess they wanted a happy ending for everyone.
Overall, it was a serviceable horror show with some good moments and a lot more WTH moments. I wish they had a clear way to end the show but after meandering for 14+ episodes, they realized they only had one or two episodes to tie it all together. They ended up spending way too much time on exposition as they basically had to explain all their plot holes just before the show was over. And that ending… it’s like everything was for naught after what they all went through. This seems like an ongoing problem with lots of K-drama.
What’s good.
- It’s a horror show. 😊
- I liked the way the show set up the main bad demon and the folklore of Park Il-do and the possession of Hwa-pyung. It established the character’s motivation and you sympathize with him.
- I liked having a main demon spirit that’s controlling other spirits. It’s fun to guess which spirit is which.
- The way all three characters had shared tragic history.
- Great side characters even though I think they were definitely under used, especially, Yuk-gwang.
- At the end, the least suspected character turned out to be the bad guy… and then there’s another twist! It was clumsy but still pretty good.
- Some possession cases like the one with a little girl were great.
- I liked Park Hong-ju character who’s just evil without being possessed.
- Some twists were good and unexpected.
What’s not good.
- Three main characters almost ruined it for me. Their initial character traits basically remained the same. A hot head, a stiff emotional priest who shows no emotion and an angry detective who demands evidence after evidence to believe.
- The way characters argue about same things episodes after episodes. It took so long for Det. Kang to believe even after Hwa-pyung was right over and over again.
- The same mistakes over and over again resulting in people’s deaths. They would interview victims/witnesses and leave them unprotected over and over again. Sure enough, they get killed. Almost as if they press reset button at the end of each episode and start fresh every time. It gets old fast.
- These people have no detective skills. They can’t deduce anything. They just can’t put two and two together! Sometimes, evidence is staring at them but they don’t see it. When people act strange, nobody notices like when Det. Koh got possessed and Det. Kang had no clue sitting in the same car!
- This show has the worst chase scenes. Main characters are strangely slow but the bad guys are super fast. If they’re chasing someone, 100% guaranteed that bad guys will get away.
- Cases got unnecessarily dragged out because people kept others in the dark for no reason. Just another lazy way to advance the plot.
- Characters just stand there with mouth open instead of reacting to what’s happening around them.
- They ignored conventional wisdom when convenient. Like how busy hospital is virtually empty just so the bad guys can go in/out undetected.
- Park Il-do seemed to be a few steps ahead of the main characters at all time. How? Is he omnipresent or does he have his underlings everywhere watching them? It’s not explained well. Toward the end, you wonder if Park Il-do is actually omnipotent, too, as he can “possess” multiple people at the same time.
- Understandably, they try to keep you guessing on who Park Il-do is but the way they try to bait and switch is pretty clumsy. If the show wants you to believe something, you know it’s not the case.
- Once again, people at the top are corrupt and cowardly. What’s new? Koreans really hate people in power, don’t they?
- Please, please, turn the lights on! Wait until the daytime to do things.
- The ending is kinda wanky. It would’ve been better if they left Hwa-pyung dead but I guess they wanted a happy ending for everyone.
Overall, it was a serviceable horror show with some good moments and a lot more WTH moments. I wish they had a clear way to end the show but after meandering for 14+ episodes, they realized they only had one or two episodes to tie it all together. They ended up spending way too much time on exposition as they basically had to explain all their plot holes just before the show was over. And that ending… it’s like everything was for naught after what they all went through. This seems like an ongoing problem with lots of K-drama.
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