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Funny & comedic drama but bad plot & writing
I say if you're gonna give this drama a try, just focus on the comedy and the chemistry aspect of this drama. Wen Jin Chen and Yue Yue are the ones that holds this drama for me. They're the reason I stuck by this drama despite it's poorly written plot.The story itself is literally like the writers were throwing random ideas and putting it into scenes. Like nothing make sense. The pace of the drama didn't flow well at all as everything seemed random to me. The identity part of how Yue Yue didn't take time to look up who she was marrying, the fact that she can't see people's faces in the dark, and how she couldn't recognize the voice of Wen Jin Chen were similar. Si Ya's reasoning on running away and making Yue Yue take her spot didn't make sense. If her reasoning was the love for the older brother, Wen Liang Ye, well I didn't see it because there were no chemistry between them, despite them being the secondary couple. The older brother's attempt to steal the company from his grandfather was uncleared to me as his motives wasn't explained well in this drama.
Then you had the lame ex girlfriend who served no purpose in this drama other than to annoy us with her dialogue, along with Yue Yue's guy friend, Xiu Zhe, whose scenes are 80% of him being drunk and can't get over Si Ya. Grandpa served as the evil mother in law we typically see in Chinese dramas, who all of sudden gets redemption from all of his greedy deeds because he was close to dying. Big disappointment to see after everything he did to split up his grandsons's loves and push away his own son and the older grandson. Even the way Yue Yue and Xiao Rong became friends was random, one look at each other at the entrance of their workplace and embarrassing each other, then all of the sudden, you're close friends.
Even though Yue Yue wasn't as smart in this drama (like the first 10 episodes), at least she wasn't a pushover and there were moments where she didn't fall into the trap of, "oh the ML is cheating on me with his ex or still has feelings with his ex". I also like how Wen Jin Chen is so comedic once he fell in love with her instantly.
I enjoyed the comedic scenes and the chemistry between the leads but besides that, nothing really special about this drama that would make me say "I recommend this drama".
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Run On or Running on to discover one's self
You "Run On". At first, it seems like it would be about the sport "running". Though running is the feature sport in this drama, that's not the main focus. I think that's where the beginning episodes either confuses viewers or doesn't grasp them enough to continue on. There's not much of a plot but instead this is more of an understanding of each main and secondary characters. I see Run On as running on from what people expects of you/wants you to be and understanding who you truly are. It takes for the main leads interactions with each other and the secondary leads interactions with each other for them to truly discover themselves. Even the support characters dealt with this familiarity of discovering their true selves which makes it great because the character connection is there for the main/secondary and the support.If you love romance, not having second lead syndrome, love the main and secondary characters, & have a good bit of comedy then you should give this one a try. The romance is a nice steady pace and it's realistic in a way as well. The best part is no misunderstandings. Problems are always discuss quickly. Literally, each character has a different personality and I think that's what makes this drama great and different from other romance dramas. Because of this, I wanted to see all the main lead. and secondary lead characters.
OSTs are amazing and played very often. I enjoyed the placement of every osts in this drama. It matches perfectly well.
As much as a steady pace this drama showed, I still felt like the last week of airing episodes felt rushed. Too many things that were considered issues in this drama several episodes ago, were tried to be solved into the final episode. There so much content that I felt like it should've spread out to the episodes before or they could've expanded this drama to 18 or 20 episodes total. This was probably the only reason why I couldn't give it a solid 10.
But even it's not a 10 for me, it's still pretty close. Considering that I usually like watching dramas with a bit more action, this one was pretty good.
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This is what I called a romantic comedy. In all of the 28 episodes, there are a lot of funny scenes that will make you laugh out loud so much. The male lead did such a great job portraying his role. I literally am smiling everytime it shows him. Though he is cold a lot of times, he does have a lot of funny moments as well. The female lead is just a cute dork overall being clueless about everything since she's an alien but I do love her spunk and backbone she has. The lady owner of the restaurant, the secretary, & the doctor really help contribute to this drama. It's great to see such support.But of course for me, Chinese dramas are hardly a perfect 10 for me. Once again, for some reason, every Chinese drama I've seen that shows the villains never getting punished for their evil deeds. What kind of justice is that. In this case, I wanted to see some harsh punishment to Fang Leng's stepmother, uncle, & that witch of a 2nd lead Jiang Xue. They torture Fang Leng with so much crap and in the end just got away with it. Also, while I understand Xiao Qi is an alien so of course she would be slow to learn about the human life like love but come on... it had to take until the last few episodes for her to finally confess her love. That was the part that annoyed me, her keep turning down Fang Leng. Also I hated the evil witch deleting Fang Leng's memory bank of Xiao Qi. Is that even possible? This was stupid. This should've been taken out and just kept with the love progression of the main leads.
Chemistry is very strong within the leads but there weren't enough happy moments with each other. A lot of funny interactions but not enough joyful moments. The last episode mostly contribute to happy moments until Xiao Qi magically disappears back onto her ship, leaving Fang Leng in sadness. I hated seeing this. Why ruin a last episode showing this scene when this could've happen some episodes ago. The last episode should've been all happiness. Still it was a happy ending.
Chinese dramas are really hard to find that have a good plot progression with a satisfying ending because most of the times they rushed the ending and drag so long on the episodes but this one was okay. Could be better but not too bad.
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Plot is gone, drama heavily focuses on romance issues
As I mentioned in my headline, the plot is gone. It started off okay but then the writers just lost the sense of direction from what the title & plot description of drama is about. Really... I mean 90% of this drama is about the romance, the letters, the fake identity, the real identity being revealed, lover's trust, break ups, understanding one another. Literally only about 10% of the drama is what "Start Up" is actually about. People have issues about the love interests and I see that. It feels force between the leads. I don't see the connection between the ML & FL. There's a little bit more in connection with the SML but even still, not strong enough in my opinion and for a drama that heavily focuses on the romance, they failed in that department.I feel bad for the actors and actresses because they just didn't shine in this drama. There's nothing special about their characters. The main lead characters had nothing significant about them other than a hard childhood. Their roles aren't memorable to me. I mean even the SFL was ripped off. Story was there for her but the writers didn't give her the necessary screen time for her character to evolve. It seemed like she didn't even play an importance to this drama. Even the support characters got more screen time than her. Seon Ho, on the other hand made his character shine. I notice he tends to do his 2nd lead roles really well like Strongest Deliveryman, Two Cops, making them shine. Even his lead role in Catch the Ghost; it started off pretty bland too but the writers deliver on that role and Seon Ho was able to even made that role shine.
Music wise, great music but once again, this drama fails to deliver the overall osts for this drama. Most songs were just played a few times if not once.
Definitely not a rewatch. Bad balance between romance and plot, with romance weighing a lot more than the plot. This just wasn't delivered well at all.
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Broken People Repairs Each Other's Brokenness
In truth, we all need somebody in our time of hurt, someone who will just listen, someone who will grieve with us, and someone who we can open up to and trust so we don't hold it inside and become numb to it. Everyone goes through the brokenness. It's through the support of each other that we can eventually get out of that valley and rise towards the peak.Our main characters in this drama all suffer from brokenness. Jun suffers from loneliness due to abuse and lack of love from his family, so he longs for friendship and will do anything to have people around him, even if it's fake friends. Soo Hyun suffers from financial hardship from trying to support his brother, mother, and his college tuition, so reaching his dreams seem impossible. So Bin has anxiety attacks when she hears people gossip about her due to a childhood trauma of teasing. She also lacks the confidence in herself, as she thinks she's not good enough due to her blaming herself for her mom leaving when she was a child. Though suffering and becoming numb to his brokenness himself, Jun helps them overcome their brokenness, which eventually leads to Soo Hyun and So Bin to help overcome Jun's brokenness.
What this drama was missing for me?
- The character of So Bin: Honestly, her character was very weak for a FL. I get that she was weak character due to past trauma in the beginning but once she overcame that, nothing else happens for her character. She was more of a damsel in distress character as it seems like Jun always have to rescue her. She lacked the FL support for the ML. Even to the end, though she wanted to know, she didn't truly knew Jun's hardship.
- Romance: I felt like this drama didn't need the romance but it was there. Despite the hugs, holding hands, and a few kisses, it still felt lacking for me for our lead couple compared to an average romantic couple, like they seem more like close friends than an actual couple. The chemistry was missing for me.
- Jun's family conclusion: I felt like there wasn't an official ending to Jun's family story but instead, viewers just have to assume he cut ties with his parents and still be connected with his older brother. None of his family members were there in the last episode, except for that phone call from his evil father. This scene of that phone call was why I was so bother by this.
But honestly, I could look over these things because of the great amount of friendship and support our main characters have for each other. There's nothing greater than seeing people, who've been suffering for so long, to finally start the healing process and getting better. Oh yeah, I can't forget the OSTs. Though it's only a few, I love all the OSTs in this drama and it's played very often as well. Though missing a few details toward the end, it's a happy ending and a good drama overall.
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What this drama feature: CHEATING! And a whole lot of it. Also, a fake side couple believing their love is true after the girl slept and had sex with a drunken guy (Isn't this rape? No consent from the guy because he was drunk). Child abuse, lack of parental concern for their kids, good scenes for the main leads only last a week and then it's several more weeks of turmoil, very weak and pathetic main leads, stupid story plot that doesn't make sense at all, no good music out of this.
Overall, a bad message this drama sends out. So don't waste your time on this. You don't "WANT A TASTE" of this. It'll just leave you with that bitter nasty taste. I have never given a drama this low of a score before but if I could, I would give this a zero.
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A Web Drama That Leaves You Guessing From Start to Finish
If it's one thing I like about this drama, it's the amount of theories I had when watching this every week. Like literally, you couldn't tell the direction the writers are going. Just when you thought you figure it out, it changes to something different, which is great because being surprise about something is what makes a mystery drama so interesting.The story overall was pretty good from start to finish. It's just that a lot of times, it's presented in a way where you have to think, process, and put the connection together on the events that happen in the past and how it ties to the present time. For me, there are some plot holes here and there, that I wish would've been explained better but what can you do when the episode length is about 20 to 25 mins per episode.
Loved the cast but the acting from the actors & actresses is a working progress. It's not the best but not bad either as their acting is watchable for me. I'm not gonna critique too harshly here on the account of it is a web drama and they got to start somewhere. But I do see potential in these cast members.
Great OST for this drama. Loved every music that was played in this drama.
And most of important of all, with a topic as heavy as this, I'm pretty sure all of us are glad this is a happy ending.
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A Rescue Drama That Started Off Good But Had A Sharp Decline Towards the End
If this drama was solely focused about the rescue team like trainings & rescue missions, I would give this a 10/10. However, as you know with dramas, adding background stories of our leads, romance including the leads and 2 other couples, and other drama elements can impact one's final rating depending on where the direction the writer and director takes.I didn't have no issues with the rescue aspect of this drama. In fact, this was my favorite part of this drama and is why I kept watching it. I like seeing the training scenes. I like the rescue missions as they always kept me anticipating what's going to happen. I like seeing the hardships one goes through when volunteering including losing someone who risked their lives to save others.
Where the drama lost a lot of points for me is the last 10 episodes. Too much was going on and I felt like this could've been easily spread out to several episodes before. Also, I just don't like how this writer wanted to show problems within the last 5 episodes from finale which leads to a rushed ending, an okay ending but definitely not as satisfying as it could've been. An annoying & rude mother in-law which I don't know why the writer thought this was a good idea. It just wasted so much screen time that could've been given to our lead couples and their issues. Also, the lack of communication for the main leads and for them not to support each other and just giving up after encountering their near-death experience with each other. Did our leads forget that? Such bad writing for their characters. What happened to character growth? It's almost like it never happened towards the end.
Overall, the rescue mission scenes are what sold for me to continue to watch it. The actual plot itself was kind all over the place with so many content the writers wanted to show between the 3 couples. Because of this, the main issue revolving our main leads took until the last 10 to 12 episodes to be presented. Great intro & ending credit ost though but not a drama I would rewatch.
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So what does this drama feature?
1. Jealousy is considered a tag for this drama and let me tell ya, I never seen the amount of jealously this bad (in a funny way though). The ML is literally a jealous character for about most of the drama. He does tone it down a bit after Ep 24 but honestly, his jealously is what makes this drama funny and I love it.
2. A fairly weak love triangle: Actually there's 2 love triangles, one for our main couple and the other for our secondary couple. I say weak love triangle because the one who doesn't end up with the couple moves on easily. No conflicts, no plot to ruin the couple. I say this is a love triangle I can watch.
3. A villain does persist in this drama. He does caused mischief and is pretty annoying, especially the beginning and middle of the drama, but thankfully the actions aren't as bad as other villains I seen in other dramas, and he doesn't appear on screen as much later in the drama.
4. It centers around a publishing company and writers trying to get back in making their writing known. Now, I'll admit, there are some great scenes around this but there are also other scenes that I just found boring that made me just fast forward certain scenes.
5. The Bro-Ship: The ML & SML as best friends stole the spotlight for me. I just love every scene of them together.
The plot itself is okay. Sometimes it moved at a good pace, sometimes it was too slow that I got bored in a lot of scenes. Music played in this drama was just okay but very repetitive for one of the songs, but I did think the actors and actresses did justice on their character roles in this drama. Overall, a slightly above average drama.
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You want romance? Definitely should watch this for the lead's romance
The lead characters Yuan Shuai & Jiang Jun is what made this drama one of my favorite. The story and history of these two from childhood, through high school and to the present time. The small misunderstandings Jiang Jun experienced as a kid was explained in Yuan Shuai's point of view. The great amount of chemistry between these two from bickering to the romantic cute scenes. These two characters and the music in this drama are what made this drama strong. It's comedic for the most part though there were a few episodes where this drama just suddenly turned dark (Eps 27-30). But once that passes, the comedy returns again.There were some things I wasn't satisfied with.
- I normally like the secondary couple in a drama but this one didn't do it for me. Xu Li was the strange girl who all the sudden fell in love with Xiao Chuan just by how he looked when she first saw him and pretty much stalks him or waits for him everytime. He didn't do anything special that would make her fall in love with him. And then Xiao Chuan, smart in tech apps but not in the romance department. He completely ignored her feelings for most of the drama and then suddenly just falls for her. Eh... this couple wasn't handle very well in my opinion. I skipped a lot of their scenes unfortunately.
- Second male lead, Du Lei had character growth but the writers ruined his character in the last 6 episodes. They made him into a possessive jealous psycho when he could've been the best friend and supporter of Yuan Shuai towards the end.
- Yuan Shuai not getting his original position back at MH and instead works for rival group GE. This didn't make sense as the villain, who caused him to leave, was eliminated so he should've got his position back, regardless if Du Lei was given the position.
- Wasted last 6 episodes. The main problem was solved by Ep 30. This could've ended at 30 episodes. If they wanted to continue with 6 more episodes, give us 6 more episodes of happiness and comedy with our leads or show the other side couples, since these couple did kind of happened out of nowhere. I didn't want another issue within these 6 episodes.
Overall, the leads and their chemistry is what held this drama for me. You do have your typical main leads break up, a few characters who I wouldn't say are evil overall but do have an evil moment or two, mostly due to jealously. ML is pretty smart overall while the FL is all over the place but she does have her bright moments too. In the end, you'll likely enjoy this drama a lot of because of these two, Yuan Shuai & Jiang Jun.
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If you like dogs, you'll like this drama. The dogs are what kept me to continue to watch this. This drama is light hearted but the plot can be pretty random since the focus wants to be about the main dog, Xiao Xi. This story is about Xiao Xi being reunited with his owner Ou Ye and goes through many adventures as in being in a pet contest, aquatic shows for the hotel, eventually learning to become a rescue dog (hence where Hero Dog 3 comes in), and a key part to the bigger plot which is stopping the evil villain on stealing sunken ship items. Character wise, most of the cast aren't really smart. They let their guards down so easily. So, the bad guys tend to get away with a lot of stuff. I'm mean even the 2 idiots of the bad guys (Liang Shang & Zhu Ying) gets away with a lot of things even though most of their "plans" tend to fail anyways. Only Jiao Jiao eventually catches on to these thieves even though everybody else still have doubts on her suspicion. That makes her my favorite character because she's the only badass in this drama especially since she's a bodyguard so she knows how to fight. I kinda like Bao Yu and his coldness to Ou Ye. I mean who else wouldn't be when the crazy female lead keeps stalking you from her one-sided love. Ou Ye, the FL is annoying as she seems as a selfish girl and comes too strong for her one sided love. Dai Wei talks to much thinking he knows everything, Xin Quing is a frustrating character with amount of hatred just to win a contest but she gets better later on. That's it for annoying characters.
Romance wise, it's kinda sparse. For the main leads, we don't see any romance for both them until Ep 37. It's more of a one sided love before then. Even for our side couple, it doesn't happen until Ep 33 so romance is very limited as majority of the drama is just showing one sided crushes. I mean even Xiao Xi the hero dog, had a better romance than anybody else. lol. I just wished the writer would've spread the romance out a whole lot for the main and secondary leads.
While the plot is kinda dull for majority of the drama, I say around the last 5 to 10 episodes is when things start to get interesting and action packed.
But overall, it's a good drama especially since there are a lot of adorable dogs in this.
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When I first saw this drama the beginning of the year, it had an interesting drama plot to me. I don't normally do daily dramas because there's too much frustration but I decided to give this one a chance but I do regret it though. Don't get me wrong though, there were some strong points in this drama. The pace seemed very good a little before the midway (eps 40-60) of this drama series but it started to get draggy and progression of the story just seemed to stall afterwards, with some progression occasionally. Numerous story plots were revealed, some made sense, others didn't at all. Character wise, Soo Ho was probably the best written character. The other characters were pretty much just a mess going from one end to the other. Not consistent at all and the development just wasn't there for most. Not to mention, this drama also drop a new villain like Ha Young about maybe three quarters of the drama and even during the final 2 weeks of this drama's airing, they introduced a villain who is more powerful than the current villains (who by the way the writers turned good at the very last minute). Talk about the writers not using their episodes wisely, especially since the last episode seemed rushed.Overall, after seeing everything from the plots to the characters, this could've been a great daily drama if it was handled and written better. Some examples:
- Ha Young who was introduced I believed around ep 78-80 had a better reason to be a villain than Esther. She should've been introduced to this drama at the beginning not towards the latter half.
- Esther shouldn't have been evil at all nor a main character. She should've just been from the start as San Ha's best friend and support.
- If the writers wanted to create an all time villain, aka Ha Young's adoptive dad (chairman Oh), who is more powerful, then they should've changed the old villains to good guys a whole lot earlier, along with them realizing what they did was wrong, repented, and served their time for their evil deeds. The writers did such a poor job on this. The villains pretty much gotten away with every evil deed they did. Even if they changed the villains to good the last minute, they still weren't likable and you can tell the writers wanted us to pity these old villains but we don't because of the writers letting the villains getting away unpunished. They lacked the justice for the good guys from start to finish.
There are some happy moments but I feel like the frustration this drama gives outweighs the happy scenes/episodes this drama shows.
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Oh.... I really tried to like this drama but it was very hard just to watch another episode of it. I stopped at Ep 10 and ponder on whether or not I should finish it or not based on the final episode. Turns out, I dropped it because my favorite character was gone in the final episode. I was so sadden seeing this scene. You can say this was the tipping point for me on giving up on this drama.I watched the first 2 episodes when it premiered but there wasn't anything that made me want more from this drama. It wasn't a drama I just had to wait for the next week to watch. It's forgettable for me in terms of I forget I was actually watching this. Plot seemed like it could've developed into something interesting but never pertain to my interest. Sometimes I felt like the Good Casting team forgot what their overall mission was. The 3 female leads, I don't know. I just couldn't connect with them. I feel like there wasn't enough story for them especially for Yi Eun & Mi Soon. There was some comedy and I did find a lot of scenes funny but this drama started to back away from it.
The romance in this drama was lacking for me. Not in the terms of that there weren't romance but how the writers decided to showcase this so called "romance". The focus is on two. The first is Chan Mi & Suk Ho. I liked the flashback scenes when the present scene reminded them of a memory but in the present time, it's like they won't even dare to have any cute moments together when clearly this drama hints they should be together. It was very hard to see the sparks between these two. Then you have couple #2, Ye Eun & Woo Won. who I think have great chemistry based on their scenes but I hated how Woo Won is pretty much a bratty child celebrity who eventually falls in love but with no character growth. All he ever does is yell at Ye Eun. Like my goodness, be nice to her if you want to win her heart. Not sure what she saw in him, or if she even truly liked him because I surely didn't see it, then again I stopped at Ep 10 so I wouldn't know.
While I did like the cast of this drama, there was nothing special about it for me. Even though I didn't like how the last episode was written, despite that, there wasn't anything that made me want to continue it through the last episode. Of course, this is just my two cents on this somewhat action drama. You may have a different perspective.
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Story: The writers knew what they were doing. The story was progressing at a good pace, not too slow but also didn't feel rushed either. One of things I don't usually see in a drama, that this drama showed, was the increasing strength of the leads, primarily the male lead. Na Yi Je script was written very well. He's seemed like a strong character in the beginning of the drama but becomes even stronger towards the end. This is a rarity in a drama because usually the leads have some kind of weakness. Na Yi Je may had some weaknesses but it didn't overtake him negatively like it does to other leads in other dramas. It's very suspenseful with lots of twists in the story and characters. A lot of characters, I'm like... "Really? He or she is liked this now?" It's very unpredictable which I enjoy. The only reason the story couldn't be a perfect 10 is because there was some comedy in this dark drama. Although I did like the few comedic scenes, it just didn't fit very well with the dark plot.
Character/Acting: This was perfect to me. From Nam Goong Min's revengeful voice to the villains acting that makes me just want to punch them, every actor & actress did it pretty well. It was convincing and I could just sense the hatred, the vengeance, & the fear each character showed. A lot of character development too which I like to see in a drama. I went from either not caring or disliking a character at the beginning of the drama to rooting for them at the end of the drama.
Music: Just the creepy hospital beep noise and 1 song played for the preview. Not much to say about the osts as it's barely played in this dark drama. This is why the overall rating is lower. Without this, the overall rating would be an 8 or 9.
Rewatch: I usually don't rewatch dramas that have a suspenseful and dark theme to it since I know what happens already but because the good guys have a good amount of power, I may consider it again.
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A lot of time travel dramas these days tend to focus on one the leads going to the past and the whole drama is set around the past but this one takes the meaning of time travel in a different way.For one, this drama actually shows the consequences of changing details of the past. Whether big or small, it has a big impact. I actually appreciate that and like this concept because most dramas just tend ignore this part, allowing for the one who time travel to do whatever they want.
This drama not just focuses on the past (2006) but also the present time (2019) as well. This can be a good and bad thing. The good is you see the effects of one's action in the past impacting the present time. You see the correlation of the main leads in the past and in the present time, how they both help each other out. Now the bad part, there are a lot of back and forth between the time period and a lot of times when they switch time period scenes, the scenes can be pretty random and not have any real purpose for the episode other than to fill in the minutes of the episode. For me, it started pretty well, seeing the present ML getting help from the past FL to save not only his grandpa but also his past self from bad decisions. The relation of the present time and past time worked really well here. After that was solved, the drama sort of went astray from this idea, as it seemed more like I was watching two dramas instead of one. If I had to be honest, this is where the drama got a bit boring for me, even though I still enjoy the cute scenes of our ML & FL (mostly during their high school days).
We really see the risk factor and big consequences towards the last few episodes of the drama. Though I kind of wanted more happiness in the final episode, I do like how this drama wrapped up the last episode, even though it kind of felt bittersweet to me, but it made sense, like time is trying to realign with itself after being changed so much by the ML.
Overall, not a bad drama. A great cast, good osts, story plot can be confusing at times, especially with all of the scene switch of the past and the present time and understanding how the time theory & consequences works, but I say this is an above average drama.
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