1
Vicariously
Canada
This review may contain spoilers
An interesting, thought-provoking, but somewhat unsatisfying love story
The writer tries to show us the stages of a relationship, but doesn't go far enough. The first half is beautiful, how it shows the development of the relationship between the two leads. The way their communication is portrayed is relaxing and nice to watch. When signing to each other or writing messages through their phones, it felt like they were completely attentive to what the other was thinking and saying. Those scenes were the most romantic to me. As the FL says, "it feels like we're having a silent conversation that never ends in a quiet world of our own".But part-way through, that conversation seemed to end, and the relationship unravels. Of course, it's realistic for relationships to change after an initial honeymoon stage. The FL has anxieties that come from a reasonable place, her position is understandable. But the sensible thing to do is to talk those anxieties out, to confront each other, to demand explanations and get everything off of your chest. It feels like the FL unilaterally decides to stop communicating, and that's the death knell for any relationship. There are moments where it feels like she has fallen out of love, although you could see it instead as her being overly melancholic or prone to insecurity.
In other words, we see the honeymoon and uncertainty stages of a relationship, but nothing else. There's no sense of recommitment, or really any solution to the problems raised in this relationship. The leads reunite at the end, but it doesn't feel satisfying, it's unearned because none of the problems were resolved. For a drama that dedicates so much time early on to idealizing communication, this is a big misstep.
Character-wise, I think the FL is the most fascinating character in the show. I think people can debate her motivations, the changes in her feelings, whether she's 'realistic' or not for a long time.
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Way more boring than it should've been
A family with superheroes loses their abilities from modern-day ills: depression, insomnia, obesity, smartphone addiction. A woman joins their family and makes a change in their lives. This is a decent premise for a drama, but the execution was just horrific. The quality of the writing was just so bad. It's kinda impressive that a drama that's only 12 episodes long can be so repetitive, but this manages to accomplish that feat. There were some legit actors in this, but they had nothing to work with. The ML must've been one of the most one-note characters I've ever seen on screen. His mother's also not at all interesting either. Broadly speaking, this was a drama where nothing meaningful was said and nothing interesting happened.I could go on a long rant about the many problems this drama has (though for my own sanity I won't), but I feel like the main one is just the choice of genre in the first place. A drama like this should just be a comedy. As soon as it went in a different direction, everything went horribly wrong.
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An unconvincing story
The first half was generally quite enjoyable, but the pace just dragged to a halt around episode 20 and the story never really recovered. I don't think I've ever seen any drama that abuses flashbacks the way this show does. The amount of filler time is just insane, and it completely kills any momentum. And all of the pacing problems are made worse by the story not being at all creative to begin with, so the margin for error was always low. There were way too many scenes of characters just going around in circles saying the most cliched lines possible.I generally liked the acting here, and visually it was quite impressive. But the story is just so poorly written, it really lets the actors down.
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Repetitive and underwhelming
Part 2 has 11 episodes, but only enough plot for like 5 or 6, so there's a lot of repetition and drama cliches that get thrown in. It's especially frustrating because this season tackled some very important subjects that deserve to be reckoned with. Sometimes less is more - a shorter and more focused drama would've worked better. The cliches the writer includes to fill up time make for a dull viewing experience. It felt like the talent of the lead actors and the excellent soundtrack were both completely wasted.Just stop at the end of part 1, you won't miss much.
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Phenomenal at its best, cringeworthy at its worst
Like the first season, we see an assortment of crimes that the Rainbow Taxi crew goes about resolving. The quality of the show varies from case to case - though most if not all are drawn from real life crimes, some are much more compelling than others.It's always entertaining to see the group play different roles as they hoodwink criminals while getting their revenge. At its best, it draws a light on justice not being fully carried out, and hints at some of the corruption within the legal system. There's a pointed difference between the rulings you see when all the evidence is given to the courts in this show, versus the lighter sentences in real life.
What I didn't quite like was the interactions between members of the Rainbow Taxi group. Too much of the dialogues between each other was excessively cheesy and cliched. At its worst, it feels like you're watching a bad action movie, with a level of corniness that just makes you want to skip to the next episode. I think this season could have done a better job showing the camaraderie between the group without just repeating lines that we've all heard a million times.
The BGM continues to give this show a unique style, but I wish there was a little more variety. A couple of the heroic songs are played way, way too often, especially when nothing important's happening. If you have a BGM as good as this show does, there's no reason to waste it by overplaying songs.
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Kinda mid, but season 2 should be better
The premise of the show is good. A spoiled rich kid who becomes a cop and uses his connections/money to help solve cases. The part of this show that was an investigative comedy was pretty fun. And for a crime show with a rich kid as the ML, it was surprisingly very sensitive to victims of crime as well. But what I didn't like was the plotline the ML had with his past, it really dragged everything down. It took the main positive - the quirkiness of having a rich kid as a cop - and replaced it with another predictable storyline.I liked Isoo's character a lot. He wasn't annoying at all compared to other shows with similar characters. I especially liked how casual he was, even his quietness at times. Early in the show when he doesn't know much about being a cop, you can see him just watch from the background as they're investigating. Usually characters like this tend to always want to be the centre of attention, but with Isoo you could actually buy him as someone who wants to be part of a team. So when he does flaunt his wealth it's always funny, rather than making you mad.
I'm optimistic for season 2, I think it makes a lot of sense to have a sequel here. Now that we got all the personal drama out of the way, it feels like the show will be able to go back to being a more fun comedy.
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More than just a thriller or mystery
A bold and realistic drama. As a show about domestic violence, I have to praise the way it shows the total spectrum of the problem. From how archaic divorce laws harm women, how abusers manipulate public opinion, how women are attacked for being themselves, the possessiveness of men, the general lack of any kind of justice from the police, it doesn't leave much out. As depressing and bleak as it is, there is so much that is true about the way this drama depicts our world, unlike the usual escapist fantasies we normally watch.Mystery shows often portray police officers as just, always seeking the truth. Personally I find the genre quite boring, the real world is often more interesting than the simplified stories and characters in dramas. But here, it's clear just how inept and uncaring the police often are towards victims of domestic violence. Personal biases lead cops and the rest of the town to believe that Nan Ya deserves what happens to her. Most people are willing to buy the negative things they hear about others. The law itself is cold and uncaring, and this isn't a show with any heroism from the police.
I was deeply impressed with Zhou Luo's character. He's so flawed, he has a possessive streak, he's childish at times, he really feels like what a young guy - a 'good' guy - would be like in a conservative country. Zhang Xin Cheng killed it here. Overprotective and borderline creepy MLs are a dime a dozen in dramas, but here we have one that actually feels real. The negative stuff that comes with this isn't airbrushed away.
As for Nan Ya, she's the most incisive and decent character here. She cuts Zhou Luo down to pieces multiple times, and rightfully so. Her intelligence really comes through. Personally I wish the drama had another episode or two, with more time to let her character shine. I struggled to buy her side of the relationship with Zhou Luo at points, I thought it needed a bit more screentime. Too much of it was from his perspective, but it's her side that's more interesting, more moving. I feel like I heard too much from him and too little from her.
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The show's world was far more interesting than its actual plot
The world-building in this show is probably better than any other historical series I've ever seen. The depiction of the opulence of the Tang Dynasty was stunning in conjunction with the stark corruption of its elites and the plight of the lower classes. I was also really struck by the diversity in Chang'an. I generally find shows like this to be hard to watch for me because the difference in living conditions by social classes (at one point it's mentioned that a lot of poorer people just don't live to older age) deeply angers me.The plot for this show was good until it wasn't. It made sense and had interesting twists and turns until about 80% of the way through. I think this show would be better if it were only 40-42 episodes long, as the end had a lot of padding, requiring characters behaving in ways that made no sense for them. I accept that the writers were somewhat limited (and forced to move the plot in a direction I found unfulfilling) because of the desire not to completely alter history, but regardless, they definitely needed to come up with a more concise ending to this story. It took far too long to end.
I think the show could have made better use of its characters, or at least written the ML in a less repetitive way - we don't need to hear him repeat the same lines over and over. In such a vibrant city, I think there could have been a broader and more interesting story with more time given to other people. I liked the fact that there were so many characters in this show, but I think it would be even better if we had seen those characters more often from a different perspective than the ML.
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This review may contain spoilers
A decent entertainer
This drama stands up quite well on its own as a spinoff, in large part due to Lee Joon Hyuk's charisma as Seo Dong Jae. It's quite different from the main Stranger series - it's far funnier, but the plot is less mysterious and thrilling.I thought it was a bit stuck between two genres - it was great as a comedy, but fell flat for me as an investigative drama. I think this is one of the rare dramas that I wish would be a lot longer. 10 episodes means that there aren't enough scenes outside of the main plot. There's just something fundamentally unserious about Dong Jae. This drama leaned into it a bit, but I feel like there was an opportunity to do a lot more comedy. The main villain too was much, much better when he was given the chance to be funny, rather than when he was being more menacing (which I felt at times didn't fit the drama's vibe).
The reason I don't rate it as an investigative drama is because it's hard to justify Dong Jae even being a prosecutor given all the crimes he committed during Stranger. This is the only drama I've watched where I'd find myself kinda agreeing with the villain's lawyer trying to squirm out of charges, because it's true that the prosecutor had a history of being corrupt, forging evidence, etc.
Would recommend this to fans of Stranger - just expect something a bit different.
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Bland and often boring
I watched this drama because of the leads, but the writing here really didn't give them much to work with. This is the kind of drama that drags a lot, especially towards the end. There isn't much of a plot (which on its own is fine), but it's made worse because the drama doesn't work on an emotional level, and it's not good as a comedy either. It's just not written in a way that makes you feel anything, and for all the talent/charisma that the leads have, they can't create magic out of nothing. Some of that is because this drama is simply too long - there are a lot of filler scenes that feel very predictable and boring.This is what I imagine eating food without any seasoning feels like.
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An okay romance with a dull mystery
This is the kind of drama that would be much better as a pure romcom, as the mystery just drags it down. It's hard to balance these two genres, and this drama didn't have either the writing or the acting to pull it off. Some of this is to be expected - it's hard to write a mystery show when you give the FL the ability to tell if people are lying. That just makes solving problems way too easy.The main reason I watched this in the first place was because I was curious to see how MinHyun's character would be, it seemed it would be different from his previous shows with a darker element. But it's more of the same, he's a nice, somewhat bland lead, and the FL is more of the same. Here it makes the mystery part of the show even more dull to watch. Neither of them seemed to be able to show passion in general.
The positive is that some of the side characters grew on me. I liked the other characters who work with the FL, and I found the characters in the ML's life generally interesting as well. All of them just seemed more lively/interesting than either of the leads. It's not exactly good when you finish a show and wish you could replace both the leads with the side characters instead.
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Pros:
1. The mystery was done well, and I never felt frustrated thinking that something was happening just to extend the plot. This was mostly because the ML had interesting relationships with everyone else in the town, so just seeing those interactions was worthwhile.
2. The actress who plays Ko Mi Sook was terrific. In general, I thought the acting and characterization of most of the female characters here was really good, and you generally don't see that in serial killing shows. Lots of characters I wish had more screen time.
3. I liked the ending, it wrapped up a thought I had the whole time watching. I only remember noticing one plot hole, which was pretty good for a time travel show (a lot could have gone wrong).
Cons:
1. The writers let the FL down. Her character wasn't that interesting, her relationships with the people in the town were underwhelming, and at some points I wondered if a version of the show that just didn't have her (but gave more time/importance to the other female characters) would be better. It felt like she was just a cheerleader for 2 people, rather than actually being a part of the world. But she wasn't annoying either - she was just there.
2. The romance. Just why? Came out of nowhere and seemed rather pointless.
3. Show, don't tell. I would feel cold listening to the ML talk about his life with the FL. But then when the ML would actually interact with important people, those scenes were really compelling. Especially for a 'mystery' show, I wish the ML would have explained himself less, so that there would have been a bit more emotion and suspense.
In the end, this was a solid, quite consistent, and enjoyable show.
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