1
Sinasina
This review may contain spoilers
it's more than a cheap knockoff of Goblin, but not much more!
At the core of it the the show's concept is very similar to Goblin's, to the point that it could be considered a homage to it. I think the creators had homed in on the winning formula & even managed to gather the winning ingredients, but in the end they ended up overcooking the meal.
The three leading actors were excellent. They had great chemistry with each other. I always liked Hwang Jung Eum, but she used to get a lot of flak for her high pitched loud voice, but I feel that she did a good job at suppressing that here, objectively there should not be much to criticize about her acting. Yook Sung Jae improved a lot as an actor as well, that surprised me quite a bit. They main plotline was great, albeit a bit too predictable, though I would have preferred fewer Saeguk flashbacks.
The overarching storyline of the three main leads is only about 20-30% of the drama and that would have been fine really. The idea to make a Goblin-like show where most of the focus is on the ghost stories is a good one. Obviously in MPUB it's not entirely ghost stories, but the problem of the week format with great leading actors could have been outstanding.
The biggest problem with the drama is that production team failed paying attention to detail, there are huge problems with the casting for some supporting characters and also some of the mini stories are on the boring side of mediocre. Luckily there are 2-3 pretty decent ones. As for the casting blunders, Baek Ji Won and Tae In Ho are perhaps the biggest ones. They are both very skilled, renowned actors, however the casting director did a terrible job casting them for these roles.
And finally Na In Woo! I just dislike the actor, I'm not sure why really, It might be completely irrational too. I've seen him in 3 dramas before and there was not a single scene that I liked in which he appeared in.(scratch that, I loved him getting stabbed in Mr Queen!) The actor might not even be the main problem here. Kim Won Hyung as a character just doesn't work very well. We had so many Saeguk flashbacks in MPuB, but despite that his motivations were just not very well explained, resulting on the character becoming a two dimensional cartoon villain merely to be wasted some time on during the final showdown.
I mostly liked the ending, but once again they could have spent a little more time to explain how Guibanjang escaped punishment, instead of just arbitrarily ......
The three leading actors were excellent. They had great chemistry with each other. I always liked Hwang Jung Eum, but she used to get a lot of flak for her high pitched loud voice, but I feel that she did a good job at suppressing that here, objectively there should not be much to criticize about her acting. Yook Sung Jae improved a lot as an actor as well, that surprised me quite a bit. They main plotline was great, albeit a bit too predictable, though I would have preferred fewer Saeguk flashbacks.
The overarching storyline of the three main leads is only about 20-30% of the drama and that would have been fine really. The idea to make a Goblin-like show where most of the focus is on the ghost stories is a good one. Obviously in MPUB it's not entirely ghost stories, but the problem of the week format with great leading actors could have been outstanding.
The biggest problem with the drama is that production team failed paying attention to detail, there are huge problems with the casting for some supporting characters and also some of the mini stories are on the boring side of mediocre. Luckily there are 2-3 pretty decent ones. As for the casting blunders, Baek Ji Won and Tae In Ho are perhaps the biggest ones. They are both very skilled, renowned actors, however the casting director did a terrible job casting them for these roles.
And finally Na In Woo! I just dislike the actor, I'm not sure why really, It might be completely irrational too. I've seen him in 3 dramas before and there was not a single scene that I liked in which he appeared in.(scratch that, I loved him getting stabbed in Mr Queen!) The actor might not even be the main problem here. Kim Won Hyung as a character just doesn't work very well. We had so many Saeguk flashbacks in MPuB, but despite that his motivations were just not very well explained, resulting on the character becoming a two dimensional cartoon villain merely to be wasted some time on during the final showdown.
I mostly liked the ending, but once again they could have spent a little more time to explain how Guibanjang escaped punishment, instead of just arbitrarily ......
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