I had to sleep on this one before writing this review (as I'm sure anyone who's seen this has). I'll come right out and say that I don't love this drama. It's not a genre I particularly care for. It's not especially exciting. It's not very pretty to look at except of course for the 4 leads themselves, who are blindingly beautiful. Watching it made me feel kind of squicky and dirty. And by the end I don't care so much about the characters except in a "Hey, look at that horrible train wreck. I wonder how mangled the bodies are" kinda way. BUT, and it's a BIG BUT, this was one of the most unique, compelling and batcrap crazy Kdrama joyrides I've ever been on, and I can't recommend it enough to those who aren't afraid to feel dirty, take a walk on the darkside, and see something they've never seen before in a Kdrama. Because this drama turns everything you know about Kdramas on its head and it did so 9 years ago, which makes me wonder why hasn't anyone else done it since? *(More on that at the bottom.) Some of the common Kdrama tropes that get turned on their heads are the Cinderella story, the Candy/Mary Sue female lead, the spoiled chaebol son, and most notably the OTP concept. Without trying to spoil anything, I will just say that even to the end I never really knew who loved whom, and how much and whether any of it was love at all. The truth behind all the lovelines in this drama was so well hidden behind the directing, the very good writing, and the fantastic acting, that even at the end the lovelines were still a confusing mess. And I loved that about this drama because it was so much more realistic. Contrary to Kdramaland, in real life, people can be conflicted about whom they truly love. A person really can love two people at the same time and love is icky and messy. That this drama embraced this fact was so refreshing. In fact, not only was the romance totally unpredictable but the show itself was, which is why I say it is so compelling. Even someone like me who usually needs either action or humor to keep watching a drama, absolutely could not take my eyes off of this train wreck. This show is ultimate drama-crack, and I owe all of that to the writing and the acting. How many times have you watched a drama only to be pretty sure by about episode 4 how everything is going to play out? Well, not with WHIB. I had some guesses, but they were really just wild guesses and I wasn't confident about any of them. It was that uncertainty that kept me glued to the computer all day yesterday to marathon the last half of this drama. WHIB is best known, probably, for its ending, so if you want to watch this drama, whatever you do, don't spoil yourself. It was hard for me not to because I am a bit of a spoiler addict, but I avoided it and was the happier for it. Some people, I've read, hate the ending, and some people love it. I LOVE IT! The more I thought about it the more I realized that it was not only totally earned, it was also perfectly fitting. It made sense in every possible way, and that is a rare bird for Kdramas because if there is one major complaint I have about most Kdramas it's that the endings are usually dissatisfying at best and just plain crappy at worst. Finally, I'll just say that if you do decide to watch this drama, be prepared for a wild and sick ride. Starting WHIB is like going down the rabbit hole. As I said before, this drama made me feel dirty. But it also was exhilarating, with each episode heaping tension upon tension and crazy upon crazy until I couldn't tell which way was up or right from wrong. There is no black and white here, only many shades of dirty gray. If you choose to watch WHIB, enter at your own risk, but I don't think you'll be disappointed. *(In truth, I think that the abomination that was Fashion King was trying to achieve something like WHIB, but failed miserably on every level but shock value. I chock it up to terrible writing, awful characterization, and mostly to not having a clear idea of what kind of drama they really wanted to make. One of the best things about WHIB that I neglected to mention earlier is how unapologetic it is about being purely character driven. Every event occurs just to put the characters where they need to be, making the choices they need to make, in order to up the tension and tangle the lovelines a little bit more. Normally this kind of artificial maneuvering is a flaw, but because WHIB has no doubt about what kind of drama it is, it works. Characters and the decisions they make are all that matter in this drama. Everything else is irrelevant.)