I was immediately pulled into Memories of Alhambra. It was interesting from the start and I was invested in the characters, but the ending did not live up to the build-up. There seemed to be a plot hole that didn’t make sense to me and I felt it left off on a cliffhanger that leaves the viewer confused and annoyed.

What I Liked About It

The suspense was the best part of the drama. It was exciting to see Jin-woo level up in the game as he fights to put the pieces together. There was never a time where I was bored. In fact, I was binge-watching the show for a few days at the start.

The music helped amplify the suspense. It wasn’t beautiful music or anything, but I felt it served its purpose of pulling us into the turmoil Jin-woo was faced with every episode. The acting was also very well done from all of the characters, which helped to make it more believable though the premise was impossible.

I really liked Hee-joo’s younger sister, Min-joo. She was excitable, respectful, and she was the reason I sort of believed in the relationship between Hee-joo and Jin-woo. They felt mostly incompatible to me but whenever Min-joo started trying to get them together I was instantly invested again. I thought she brought some humor and relief to the characters after the constant strife they dealt with throughout the entire show. I also liked Hee-joo herself because she was relatable. She worked tirelessly to keep her family afloat without much help and was there for Jin-woo even though he sometimes didn’t deserve it.

I loved that they were in Spain and I could practice listening for both my Spanish and Korean learning skills. There was also some English used as well. I liked the diversity in location; the scenery in Granada was quite beautiful and made me want to take a trip there; I never knew this place existed until this show, so I learned something new.


What I Didn’t Like About It

I didn’t like Jin-woo’s character. He was selfish, secretive, and mostly used Hee-joo in the beginning. He did warn her that he wasn’t a good person, so at least he wasn’t painted as the great grand hero. I feel his character did change throughout the show. In the beginning he was just interested in using people for his own gain, but after constantly having to question his own sanity, his driving force was no longer money. For someone who started off selfish, his character did grow to care for others later. Still, I never really liked his personality and felt that he was always kind of stringing Hee-joo along. After he had his secretary pretend to be her brother sending emails for an entire year, I doubt I would want to date him after that. Hee-joo seemed to forgive him quickly since he was working hard to find her brother, but I would’ve never trusted him again.

I hated the ending. I literally leapt at the screen with bulging eyes saying, “What? That’s it??” How is that it? They completely neglected to explain how in the world this game was able to make fake game guns shoot real bullets and kill people who miraculously became bugs in the system. They didn’t explain how Hee-joo’s brother, Se-joo, was able to create a space in the game for him to disappear into, a space that only exists in the game in order to hide from the real world. Obviously, it’s supernatural, but I was hoping for some sort of explanation as to how in the world he could create such an elaborate game that exists outside time.

Is he a god? Does he have special powers? My initial thought was that there was a hallucinogenic in the game contacts making people hallucinate, but that doesn’t account for why people were actually dying from weapons that weren’t real, so…Whoop-dee-doo I guess we’ll never know, but that makes this one of the most annoying endings I’ve ever seen in a TV show. The writers just didn’t create the entire basis for the story and simply didn’t finish telling it. It feels like there should definitely be a second season to explain the entire first season, but I don’t know if that’s likely; it’s been 3 years already.

Another thing that annoyed me was the huge plot-hole. In the end, it appears that the bugs were all the people who were killed in the game, but the first person to be killed was Se-joo’s backstabbing friend yet when Jin-woo got rid of the bugs the first one was said to be Hyung-seok. Yes, he was the first to die by Jin-woo’s hand in the game, but he wasn’t the first to die in the game period. That was Se-joo’s friend, whom Se-joo killed by mistake because he didn’t know the game’s guns could actually kill people. So, why did the writers act like Hyung-seok was the first to die?? Did I miss something? There’s no way Se-joo’s friend could be gotten rid of because Jin-woo hadn’t yet given Emma the key at the time of his death. So…huge plot hole that was pretty glaring if I’m remembering correctly.


Is It Worth a Rewatch?

At the end of the day, I would rewatch certain scenes, such as the ones shot in the beautiful Granada. I would watch for the actors’ performances and if I want to see something suspenseful. I would not rewatch it from the beginning because I know how disappointing the ending is. They create all these chasing scenes with all this loud, suspenseful music just to lead up to a deflated balloon-type ending. So disappointing.