Camelot
New York
I have never been so conflicted about scoring a drama on this site. I landed at the solidly middle of the road 5.5 after much thought and consideration. My main reason for this drama's lackluster score is its pacing. I found myself frequently either bored or overwhelmed with information; sometimes in a single episode. The pacing of this drama ruined the impact of the melodramatic plot points and left me feeling frustrated with the story as a whole.
Though I was tempted to include spoilers in this review because of how much i disliked certain plot points towards the end of the drama, I have decided to keep it spoiler free. The Smile Has Left Your Eyes is at its core a murder mystery. The drama opens with this murder and it is the lens through which all of the characters are introduced to the audience. From this murder the rest of the plot builds. For the first 5 episodes or so this plot device works wonderfully. The audience is left guessing as to who did it and everyone is looked at with an air of suspicion. However, by around episode 8 I felt this plotline had already been dragging for at least three episodes. New plotlines and elements which the show clearly wanted the audience to focus on more than the original murder were being introduced and yet were not being developed because the original murder was still hanging over the characters. This is the first instance of bad pacing in the show and I felt from here it only got worse. The most glaring issue with the second half of the drama is the fact that many of the plot twists or reveals have been figured out by the audience well before the show confirms them. I was left saying to myself 'Come on already. We KNOW! Just get to the point' frequently. I feel that a well paced show should not leave a viewer feeling this way. But the thing that I disliked most about The Smile Has Left Your Eyes is the general plotline/reveal of episode 14. It greatly impacts the show's finale, predictably as it is only two episodes later, and was so frustrating and disturbing. It truly tainted the drama for me and I wish the writers had just excluded it altogether.
This drama of course had many good elements. The acting for one was excellent and I felt that Park Sung Woong in particular was amazing. The general overarching plot was interesting and the cast of characters were very well developed. However, for me, these good aspects of the drama could not overcome the pacing issues that ran throughout the plot.
Overall The Smile Has Left Your Eyes was decent. A drama that could have been so much better but that fell prey to an all too common pacing issue many other dramas have faced before. I'm glad I watched it but would not do so again.
Though I was tempted to include spoilers in this review because of how much i disliked certain plot points towards the end of the drama, I have decided to keep it spoiler free. The Smile Has Left Your Eyes is at its core a murder mystery. The drama opens with this murder and it is the lens through which all of the characters are introduced to the audience. From this murder the rest of the plot builds. For the first 5 episodes or so this plot device works wonderfully. The audience is left guessing as to who did it and everyone is looked at with an air of suspicion. However, by around episode 8 I felt this plotline had already been dragging for at least three episodes. New plotlines and elements which the show clearly wanted the audience to focus on more than the original murder were being introduced and yet were not being developed because the original murder was still hanging over the characters. This is the first instance of bad pacing in the show and I felt from here it only got worse. The most glaring issue with the second half of the drama is the fact that many of the plot twists or reveals have been figured out by the audience well before the show confirms them. I was left saying to myself 'Come on already. We KNOW! Just get to the point' frequently. I feel that a well paced show should not leave a viewer feeling this way. But the thing that I disliked most about The Smile Has Left Your Eyes is the general plotline/reveal of episode 14. It greatly impacts the show's finale, predictably as it is only two episodes later, and was so frustrating and disturbing. It truly tainted the drama for me and I wish the writers had just excluded it altogether.
This drama of course had many good elements. The acting for one was excellent and I felt that Park Sung Woong in particular was amazing. The general overarching plot was interesting and the cast of characters were very well developed. However, for me, these good aspects of the drama could not overcome the pacing issues that ran throughout the plot.
Overall The Smile Has Left Your Eyes was decent. A drama that could have been so much better but that fell prey to an all too common pacing issue many other dramas have faced before. I'm glad I watched it but would not do so again.
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