lemon_smile
This review may contain spoilers
[insert italian music here] mamma mia, what a boring watch!
This show had a great premise: an anti-hero, a female lead who isn't all pure and innocent, bad guys who are actually badder than bad and straight up evil and an adorable pool of side characters around the anti-hero who bring out his good side and his bad side.
Now, notice how I said the show had a great premise? Well, it's a shame that they fumbled the bag.
The show suffers from being too long; in a world of kdramas that are 17 episodes, Vincenzo decided to be quirky and do 20 episodes. 20 long, drawn out, draining episodes this show consisted of. The middle suffers the worst with this, the constant rinse and repeated cycled of bad guys plotting, Vincenzo finds out, he stops their plotting and they get mad and decide to plot more to get back at him, so on and so forth. It felt like I was watching the same episode four times with how often they repeated this cycle over and over again. You can have too much of something and Vincenzo really kept adding to the plate even though I said I was stuffed and didn't want anymore.
The obvious problems with the show:
- How comically evil the main bad guy was. He was a hidden bad guy but then he was revealed and he was just so comically evil. Killing people left right and centre, greedy and it's stated he was diagnosed as a psychopath at 16 after killing four classmates. Like, uh obviously, we didn't need a diagnosis to know that. I don't even know what his actual goals are for being so evil; does he want more money? Does he want to quash the backlash his company is facing? Or does he just hate Vincenzo that much he would do anything to stop him? I don't know. I mean, I guess it's all three? But they're just so shallow. The end was satisfying at least but it just got to a point where I wanted him gone not because I hated him, but because I was so bored of him.
- The 20 episodes. They dragged out a lot of storylines that didn't need to be dragged out. Fighting the case against Babel, trying to get the gold, avenging the death of a character - it just drags on SO much. Like, I'm not kidding, they have 20 episodes of the same thing of them trying to bring down Babel and they barely succeed time and time again. I'm just as exhausted as the characters watching them try to bring down the company. The pacing of the show was all over the place and completely destroyed my enjoyment of the show.
- The characters. Now, they weren't BAD per se but as i said before, comically evil bad guys who really do go above and beyond to be bad, and then Vincenzo just seems this completely untouchable anti-hero. He's always one step ahead and he's unbeatable. I do, however, like how they never completely redeemed Vincenzo - in fact, I would say that there's a moment where he's on the path to redemption and you notice it in his appearance in how he is adopting a more South Korean style with his hair and wearing lighter suits as well. Then an event happens that makes Vincenzo revert right back and you see it in his wardrobe, he's back to wearing the black and white suits and his hair is back to it's usual brushed back style. I loved this little detail and I've not seen anyone notice it but I just loved the fact they never made Vincenzo a good guy - he's not evil, he's done terrible, bad things but he's not evil. But if that's the case, then that means he's never had any character development either. He's the exact same as he was at the start of the show and he's made no progress except from the fact he's accepted that this is just his nature and he can't change.
What I liked:
-Han-seo. That's it. That's the tweet. I love him and I would die for him and I would tear apart the entire world for him to protect him. Han-seo is the most tragic character in the entire show and Dong-yeon was fantastic in portraying just how much of a broken person Han-seo is. Han-seo grew up under his tyrannical and abusive older brother whose abuse towards his younger brother got so bad it resulted in Han-seo's parents having to drug Han-seo to the point he could not remember the abuse, eventually affecting his own mental state. He's not the brightest crayon in the box but there's also the fact that most of it is an act. He plays up to the fact everyone thinks he's an idiot because he knows it's the only way to protect himself.
Just watching Han-seo is so heartbreaking because he continues to be a pawn to his older brother's machinations and is still being abused to this day but he doesn't fight back because his brother is all that he has and you then realise Han-seo's ultimate goal: he just wants an older brother and he wants to be safe from the abuse he has continued to endure since birth. God, I'm even tearing up writing about this because of how tragic of a character he is. The only reason he is on the side of the bad guys is because he's afraid and he was always afraid of his brother because he knows his brother is a psychopath and would not hesitate to kill Han-seo.
What makes Han-seo more tragic is that he does get what he wants: he finds that brotherly love he's always wanted in Vincenzo who, while initially not really caring for Han-seo, begins to care for him and even calls him his dongsaeng while letting Han-seo call him Vin-hyung. Han-seo sees Vincenzo as the ultimate big brother and says he knows Vincenzo can and will protect him and Vincenzo tries, God knows Vincenzo tries so hard, and Lord I'm tearing up typing this because this is literally the most tragic thing in Vincenzo. It just hurts even thinking about it because Han-seo was only ever a victim of circumstances and never gets to get out of that, he never gets to stop being a victim.
I can barely see through my tears right now what with writing about Han-seo, so I'm going to leave it here.
To round up:
I love Han-seo and he's the only reason i kept watching the show. If you like Mafia intrigue, a side of barely there romance and to see bad guys actually commit horrendous crimes instead of just plotting, then I guess this is the show for you.
Oh yeah, I forgot about the romance. Well, it's there, kinda. Yeah.
Anyways, it wasn't the worst thing to watch, nor was it the best. I will never rewatch this show even though I do love Han-seo and Dong-yeon. I watched this show over the span of two/three months instead of binge watching it. Glad I didn't waste sleep binge watching.
Now, notice how I said the show had a great premise? Well, it's a shame that they fumbled the bag.
The show suffers from being too long; in a world of kdramas that are 17 episodes, Vincenzo decided to be quirky and do 20 episodes. 20 long, drawn out, draining episodes this show consisted of. The middle suffers the worst with this, the constant rinse and repeated cycled of bad guys plotting, Vincenzo finds out, he stops their plotting and they get mad and decide to plot more to get back at him, so on and so forth. It felt like I was watching the same episode four times with how often they repeated this cycle over and over again. You can have too much of something and Vincenzo really kept adding to the plate even though I said I was stuffed and didn't want anymore.
The obvious problems with the show:
- How comically evil the main bad guy was. He was a hidden bad guy but then he was revealed and he was just so comically evil. Killing people left right and centre, greedy and it's stated he was diagnosed as a psychopath at 16 after killing four classmates. Like, uh obviously, we didn't need a diagnosis to know that. I don't even know what his actual goals are for being so evil; does he want more money? Does he want to quash the backlash his company is facing? Or does he just hate Vincenzo that much he would do anything to stop him? I don't know. I mean, I guess it's all three? But they're just so shallow. The end was satisfying at least but it just got to a point where I wanted him gone not because I hated him, but because I was so bored of him.
- The 20 episodes. They dragged out a lot of storylines that didn't need to be dragged out. Fighting the case against Babel, trying to get the gold, avenging the death of a character - it just drags on SO much. Like, I'm not kidding, they have 20 episodes of the same thing of them trying to bring down Babel and they barely succeed time and time again. I'm just as exhausted as the characters watching them try to bring down the company. The pacing of the show was all over the place and completely destroyed my enjoyment of the show.
- The characters. Now, they weren't BAD per se but as i said before, comically evil bad guys who really do go above and beyond to be bad, and then Vincenzo just seems this completely untouchable anti-hero. He's always one step ahead and he's unbeatable. I do, however, like how they never completely redeemed Vincenzo - in fact, I would say that there's a moment where he's on the path to redemption and you notice it in his appearance in how he is adopting a more South Korean style with his hair and wearing lighter suits as well. Then an event happens that makes Vincenzo revert right back and you see it in his wardrobe, he's back to wearing the black and white suits and his hair is back to it's usual brushed back style. I loved this little detail and I've not seen anyone notice it but I just loved the fact they never made Vincenzo a good guy - he's not evil, he's done terrible, bad things but he's not evil. But if that's the case, then that means he's never had any character development either. He's the exact same as he was at the start of the show and he's made no progress except from the fact he's accepted that this is just his nature and he can't change.
What I liked:
-Han-seo. That's it. That's the tweet. I love him and I would die for him and I would tear apart the entire world for him to protect him. Han-seo is the most tragic character in the entire show and Dong-yeon was fantastic in portraying just how much of a broken person Han-seo is. Han-seo grew up under his tyrannical and abusive older brother whose abuse towards his younger brother got so bad it resulted in Han-seo's parents having to drug Han-seo to the point he could not remember the abuse, eventually affecting his own mental state. He's not the brightest crayon in the box but there's also the fact that most of it is an act. He plays up to the fact everyone thinks he's an idiot because he knows it's the only way to protect himself.
Just watching Han-seo is so heartbreaking because he continues to be a pawn to his older brother's machinations and is still being abused to this day but he doesn't fight back because his brother is all that he has and you then realise Han-seo's ultimate goal: he just wants an older brother and he wants to be safe from the abuse he has continued to endure since birth. God, I'm even tearing up writing about this because of how tragic of a character he is. The only reason he is on the side of the bad guys is because he's afraid and he was always afraid of his brother because he knows his brother is a psychopath and would not hesitate to kill Han-seo.
What makes Han-seo more tragic is that he does get what he wants: he finds that brotherly love he's always wanted in Vincenzo who, while initially not really caring for Han-seo, begins to care for him and even calls him his dongsaeng while letting Han-seo call him Vin-hyung. Han-seo sees Vincenzo as the ultimate big brother and says he knows Vincenzo can and will protect him and Vincenzo tries, God knows Vincenzo tries so hard, and Lord I'm tearing up typing this because this is literally the most tragic thing in Vincenzo. It just hurts even thinking about it because Han-seo was only ever a victim of circumstances and never gets to get out of that, he never gets to stop being a victim.
I can barely see through my tears right now what with writing about Han-seo, so I'm going to leave it here.
To round up:
I love Han-seo and he's the only reason i kept watching the show. If you like Mafia intrigue, a side of barely there romance and to see bad guys actually commit horrendous crimes instead of just plotting, then I guess this is the show for you.
Oh yeah, I forgot about the romance. Well, it's there, kinda. Yeah.
Anyways, it wasn't the worst thing to watch, nor was it the best. I will never rewatch this show even though I do love Han-seo and Dong-yeon. I watched this show over the span of two/three months instead of binge watching it. Glad I didn't waste sleep binge watching.
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