Love
Sweden
This review may contain spoilers
Prison Playbook wasn't what I thought it was in the beginning and what I watched surprised and went over my expectations.
This wasn't the most realistic depiction of life in prison. I'm a big fan of realistic stories and unrealistic plot points usually puts me of watching a story but though this depiction showed unrealistic elements it had more heart then I've seen in a drama in a long time. The story isn't mainly about how life is in prison, it's about how to overcome hardship in any shape of form and how to make the best out of a bad situation. The loss of realism was necessary to show what a great prison should look like, the relationships that the prisoners had with each other and the guards showed what a healthy life in prison could look like. I really enjoyed the scenes with Lieutendant Paeng and enjoyed seeing him develope from a closed off prison guard to a person thatmade the lives of the people around him better.
The humor was wonderful as always with Lee Woo Jung and Jung Bo Hoon. It didn't take it too far, you could still feel the always present sadness that the prisoners felt even in their happiest moments. The cast was just the right mix of 'dramatic-' & 'comedic' actors to give a great acting performance and giving the viewer a chance to laugh.
The OST is wonderful, it's unusual for me to enjoy every song but I've actually added the whole album to my playlist. I love the theme "OK" produced by Gray and performed by BewhY, "Nostalgia" by Woo ft. Woogie & "Those days (without you)" by Zion.T
The only reason why I've given the story an 8 instead of a higher rating is because it left out some details about some characters. I would be okay with this if the director wanted to give the end of the show an open ending but since it was only about 5 of the characters that were left out I felt a bit empty and kept trying to figure out what happened to them. It felt like they were only used to move the story forward rather than given their own story within the main lead's one.
It may have been a surprise but I welcomed it and I hope to see another drama with just as much heart by Shin Won Ho again.
This wasn't the most realistic depiction of life in prison. I'm a big fan of realistic stories and unrealistic plot points usually puts me of watching a story but though this depiction showed unrealistic elements it had more heart then I've seen in a drama in a long time. The story isn't mainly about how life is in prison, it's about how to overcome hardship in any shape of form and how to make the best out of a bad situation. The loss of realism was necessary to show what a great prison should look like, the relationships that the prisoners had with each other and the guards showed what a healthy life in prison could look like. I really enjoyed the scenes with Lieutendant Paeng and enjoyed seeing him develope from a closed off prison guard to a person thatmade the lives of the people around him better.
The humor was wonderful as always with Lee Woo Jung and Jung Bo Hoon. It didn't take it too far, you could still feel the always present sadness that the prisoners felt even in their happiest moments. The cast was just the right mix of 'dramatic-' & 'comedic' actors to give a great acting performance and giving the viewer a chance to laugh.
The OST is wonderful, it's unusual for me to enjoy every song but I've actually added the whole album to my playlist. I love the theme "OK" produced by Gray and performed by BewhY, "Nostalgia" by Woo ft. Woogie & "Those days (without you)" by Zion.T
The only reason why I've given the story an 8 instead of a higher rating is because it left out some details about some characters. I would be okay with this if the director wanted to give the end of the show an open ending but since it was only about 5 of the characters that were left out I felt a bit empty and kept trying to figure out what happened to them. It felt like they were only used to move the story forward rather than given their own story within the main lead's one.
It may have been a surprise but I welcomed it and I hope to see another drama with just as much heart by Shin Won Ho again.
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