Dang this show is so good. Many people compare this to Signal, so I can’t help but do that too. This isn’t as good as Signal but is still a fun timey wimey crime thriller.
The premise is really good and executed very well, and the plot is paced excellently. There are so many plot twists but they never felt needless, just the consequence of messing with time or a revelation that explains a character’s motivation. I do think that the first half of the show is better than the second. The main villains shift about halfway and I enjoyed the original villains from the first half more. The plot/conspiracy in the second half also wasn’t as interesting to me, but the plot twists continued to be excellent. I loved the ending of every episode, it was so darn good how all of them were like “wtf?!?!?!” and that really shows how good the writing is. But in part due to timey wimey shenanigans there were a few plot points and revelations that happened more than once, and they do lose emotional impact and it weirdly feels like you’re wasting time because you’re essentially watching the same scene again. Plus there’s this MacGuffin that everyone is after in the second half and that takes a while to move on from. However, the second half does a great job of tying everything together and a lot of things make sense. The timey wimey stuff is handled amazingly and the “explanation” for it is actually pretty good too.
Seo Jin had some great character development and it was awesome seeing him change throughout the show. Ae Ri... I’m so sorry, sweetie, it’s not your fault, it’s the writer’s fault. Han Ae Ri spent 25% of her time crying about her mom. The times where I had to suspend my disbelief the most were with Ae Ri’s actions; she continually made stupid choices like investigating dangerous things by herself when she knows it’s dangerous! Argh. I still like her, but it was frustrating at times. Basically her actions felt like they were plot devices, which is lazy writing. The other characters were pretty good, and I enjoyed Ae Ri’s friends in particular. It was great seeing them all team up. Oh and I loooooove the original villains of the show, 10/10. I won’t elaborate because they’re related to plot twists.
Despite the fact that I just complained a lot about it, I think this show is really excellent and I would 100% recommend it to anyone who liked Signal, Tunnel, or any crime/thriller fan. So while there are some things I wish were better, I have trouble holding that against this show because it was just so good.