Entertaining but not amazing

Lead actors were awesome, not surprisingly. The acting of the side characters such as Pierre and the Black Foxes was lackluster at best. The space fight scenes were pretty good. I wish they would have expanded on the villain a bit more, how he had lived so long, how he had come into power of the entire planet, what was with his hulking out? As the main antagonist, he really had no back story or development. I would have enjoyed the movie more if they had explored his character more. Overall, the movie was entertaining and I enjoyed it, but I probably won’t rewatch.

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Are you serious

The guy is a literal stalker and toxic

He made the lead girl think she had CANCER just to trick her into marrying him when in reality all she actually had was anemia. And she still stayed with him?? I didn't mind the romance between the second couple, but the toxicity of the male lead was just too much. I tried watching the second season because they were trying to play the fated love card and finding each other in different universes, which is a trope that I absolutely love, and I hoped the storyline would be different this time. NO, HE IS STILL A STALKER AND LIES TO HER.

Don't waste your time on this show.

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majorly missed the mark

This show needed at least 4 more episodes to delve deeper into the backstories of the characters. I was left feeling like I knew none of the characters on a deeper level or their motives. I needed a background on the cop’s accident, the serial killers past, the shaman’s past… this show introduced 5+ half-baked plot lines that went nowhere.

Because we had no background on the killer and no inside look into his motives, I couldn’t understand his change of heart. It was just the guilt and fear of getting caught I guess.

Also, the characters made some incredibly stupid decisions. People, never meet a man for the first time in the middle of the woods by yourself, even if you don’t depend on a wheelchair to get around. And don’t go meet that man again after he abandons you in the woods and destroys your extremely expensive wheelchair. I could not feel any empathy for the cop because she kept getting herself into stupid situations.

The music also felt off. There were multiple times when the music did not match the atmosphere of the scene. The music would be really quirky while the scene was tense. It took away from the immersion into the scene.

On a good note, the acting was awesome. The male lead did a great job being menacing and a little unhinged. He mastered the creepy smile.

Overall, this show failed to keep my attention most of the time and it has 0 rewatch value to me. I almost dropped it after the dumpster fire that episode 6 was, but I figured I could finish the last 2 episodes just for completion.

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It Was Just OK

So, I originally watched this drama because of Cha Eun-woo. I had seen him in True Beauty and really enjoyed it, so I figured I would give more of his dramas a try. However, this drama just seemed to miss the mark for me. All of the characters seemed very bland and one-dimensional. It seemed like Cha Eun-woo only had one facial expression the entire time. The two leads had barely any chemistry at all and all of their scenes together just felt very awkward. Honestly, the best thing I got out of this drama was that I discovered the song "Something" by george and Gang Haein (because they played it EVERY SINGLE CHANCE THEY GOT). This drama was entertaining at best and I will most likely not rewatch it.

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Drags on forever

My biggest complaint about this drama is that it feels like it drags on forever. How many times are they going to try to execute a plan and then it fail? The time that was spent laying out and explaining the plan to the viewer was a waste of time because I, as the viewer, knew that the plan was going to fail. I also felt like the romantic montages were a waste of time. Finally, how many times is Kang Cheol supposed to almost die???

That being said, I watched until the end because the premise itself is extremely intriguing. I love TV shows/dramas that include a storyline with multiple dimensions. I also like Lee Jong Suk as an actor. I feel like this drama had so much potential with this original storyline, but again, it felt so dragged out that by the end of the drama I was just ready for it to be over. I'm giving it 6.5 stars because I did think that the acting was very good, the storyline was intriguing, and I did care about what happened to the characters. I don't think I could sit through this drama again though because it was just so dang long.

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the music drove me insane

my biggest complaint I had about this series was the music. it was like the director/editor (I don't really know who makes decisions on the score) was scared of there EVER BEING A SILENT MOMENT. There was constant background music that was not mixed well, and often times it was the same volume or louder than the dialogue, which made it really distracting and hard to immerse myself in most scenes. there were sooooo many scenes where they were just going about their daily tasks and there was super annoying loud goofy background music!!

other complaints I have:
- the constant pervasive presence of the LAYS. I understand they are your sponsor but oh my lord 😭😭 Team always seemed to have a bag of Lay's glued to his hand
- Pharm always looked scared every time Dean tried to initiate a kiss 😭
- They introduced MASSIVE CONFLICT in the very last episode and then resolved it almost immediately, essentially removing any real stress about their relationship and essentially decreasing the stakes back down to zero. it would have made sense if Pharm had slowly started doubting their relationship as the series progressed, instead of just suddenly starting to feel that way in the last episode. And then you don't even have to wait it out, it just time jumps 3 months and they almost immediately get back together.
- It felt a bit weird to me that Dean changed his surname to Intouch's and gave Pharm In's ring. Yes, they accepted that they were the reincarnation of Korn and In, but I thought that they were trying to convey that it was time to move on and let them go, and move on with life as Dean and Pharm. Dean giving Pharm In's ring just kind of felt like... he didn't want to let it go. That he always wanted Pharm to be reminded of who he was? Because the ring would kind of be a constant reminder. But Pharm seemed ok with it I guess.

Things I liked:
- I am just a huge sucker for the fated love/reincarnation/red string of fate trope. I will watch pretty much anything that has it in there.
- The scene in the grocery store where Dean and Pharm come face to face for the first time and lock eyes.... ELECTRIC. I think my heart skipped a beat. I feel like Fluke is great at conveying emotions with his eyes and that scene just made me feel on the very edge of my seat. The shock, the memory flashback, and then the outpouring of tears. I think it was great and that scene alone sucked me into the series.
- Pharm setting boundaries.
- I think the show had an interesting group of side characters whom I felt invested in. I loved Team, Win, Manow, and Del as characters. I'm excited to watch Team and Win's spinoff.

Overall, it was an enjoyable watch, and I see why people love the show. But the music combined with the rushed pacing at the end kind of ruined it for me, and I don't see myself rewatching it. I do plan on watching the spinoff about Team and Win though.

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entertaining but some things that could've been better

Overall, this movie was an entertaining watch.

It's very obvious that the horror plot is actually just setting the scene for the bonds of friendship that are made between the main characters. About halfway through the movie, it started to focus on how they were working together as a team to meet their endgoal as opposed to really focusing on the horror aspect. I love anything where characters become unlikely friends, so I enjoyed that aspect of the movie.

Another good thing that I enjoyed were the effects. I always appreciate when movies put in the effort to make good practical effects. The giant doll monster was great.

Things that could've been better:
- I was quite literally screaming at my TV at the end when the main character could've literally just put the head in coffin and ended the whole thing instead of sitting there watching the love interest get eaten. It only happened so she could have an unrealistic last stand against the monster.
- They could have explored the backstory of the Body Search game in general. Who is the entity who is killing the children? What do they want? Is it possible to stop it? That might be something to explore if they decided to film a sequel. I feel like the story was too big to fit into one movie, I think they could've done a better job of making it into a series and hitting all of those questions while still keeping the friendship and team building aspects of the story.

I will say that the post-credits scene caught me off guard and made me question everything. I currently have no theories but am enjoying reading everyone else's theories online.

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A Beautiful Drama That Isn't Just About the Romance

The first thing I will say about this drama is that I found it very beautiful. Literally. The costumes and sets were all very pretty. The lighting was used to appropriately set the mood in different scenes. I loved watching this drama just to see all of the beautiful historical costumes and hairstyles.

Second, Cha Eun-woo actually really surprised me in this drama. I had previously only seen him in My ID is Gangnam Beauty and True Beauty. His character in both of those dramas was pretty serious and what I would even describe as stoic, but I saw a different side of his acting in Rookie Historian Goo Hae Ryung. His character was pretty funny and made me laugh many times. His crying scenes are also very realistic and beautifully acted. I feel like this character highlighted his wide range of acting abilities better than the other 2 dramas I have seen him in. Although I loved True Beauty, I feel that this was my favorite role of his thus far.

Third, this is actually the only drama I have watched where I actually noticed and enjoyed the music. Most of the time the music does not even impact me at all and I mostly don't even notice what kind of music is in the drama. However, the score for this drama was a great combination of bright and lively pieces as well as dark and somber pieces. The music always complimented the tone and ambience of the scene in my opinion.

I originally watched this drama because of the romantic storyline that I expected to be in it (because 95% of dramas have some kind of romantic storyline). However, this drama offered so much more that I actually became more interested in. While I did enjoy the romance between Hae Ryung and Li Rim, I found myself putting that story on the backburner in favor of the political intrigue that took the forefront in the second half of the drama. I really was invested in the outcome of the kingdom and the royal family. Also, I found that I really cared about supporting characters. I wanted all of the female historians to be accepted as official historians, I wanted U-min to be rid of his father's shadow, I wanted the remnants of the medical school to succeed. I really enjoy dramas that invest in supporting characters and make me care about them.

I took off half of a star because I did feel like the drama was very long. On Netflix, it is presented as twenty, hour-long episodes, so it is bit of a commitment. The rewatch value diminished because of that for me, but overall I still loved this drama and I would consider it to be one of my top 10 dramas.

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