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Completed
Sweet Home
2 people found this review helpful
Jul 3, 2023
10 of 10 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 7.0
Story 7.0
Acting/Cast 8.0
Music 7.5
Rewatch Value 5.5
This review may contain spoilers

I am innevitably comparing this to the immaculate webtoon and it falls short

The drama is not bad at all, there are quite a few entertaining parts here and there. The acting is okay. Nothing outstanding to be honest but nothing unrealistic.

I think the issue I have with this drama is that it just meets expectations when it could have easily surpassed them. I don't think everyone who has watched this drama understands what they are missing if they haven't read the webtoon. The source material it's just so much better paced, written and heartfelt. Yes all of these pieces are still somewhat here in the drama but they're a bit scattered. Like the writer wanted to hit certain moments of the webtoon then move along to the next plot point.

This is mostly an ensemble drama with the ML being a really quiet soldier that is used from time to time in order to favor other new characters like the firefighter. I had no issues with the firefighter to be honest. The actress is great and all, but I like her more as a side character and they made her the protagonist almost, when in the webtoon this role belonged to the musician girl. A lot of the characters personalities that in the webtoon provided internal conflict here the characters are just there. So there's no inner conflict between the members of the appartment complex. The characters in the comic were just more layered instead of yes men. You hated them but you understood their humanity. In this drama everyone is basically holding hands and sometimes arguing but doing as they're told. In the comic most of them were a time bomb. You were always worried one of them might screw up and kill everyone. It was much more thrilling.

Towards the end the thugs appear pretty much out of nowhere and this plot point is really rushed, when in the comic we had to struggle a lot to get rid of them. I think I'm remembering correctly but in the webtoon it was the thugs not the firefighter that defeated the muscle monster outside. So the appartment members had one problem solved by a bigger problem. It was so instense.

All in all I think things just go too favourably for the people at the appartment here. And they're already adapted most of the really thrillign events in the comic so I'm afraid where this will go. But this drama was not bad... it had some moments of weird pacing and dragging in the middle but I will probably watch the following season.

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Completed
Save Me
2 people found this review helpful
Jun 28, 2023
16 of 16 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 5.0
Story 6.0
Acting/Cast 10
Music 3.5
Rewatch Value 1.0
This review may contain spoilers
This is a show that I know it's probably better than what I'm giving it credit for. But this is a personal review so it is entirely my preference.

Honestly it was a very hard to watch show because of the subject matter. The twisted religious aspect is pretty uncomfortable to watch. Add bullying, suicide and child molestation and you got yourself a realistic horror on screen. The situations that are presented on screen are terrifying and it is just not an enjoyable experience. But if you have no problems with this sort of content I think you might enjoy this drama more than I did.

I do have to say, the acting is brilliant. Everyone did such an amazing job to bring their characters to life. I think that's why I had such a hard time watching this show. The villain characters are sick and scary in a realistic way. They are twisted, disgusting and frustrating to see on screen. That is a job well done by the actors but I'm not sure it's a very enjoyable experience for the viewer. The hero characters are somewhat frustrating to watch for a lot of the drama. With the exception of Dong Cheol, I wanted to slap almost everyone on screen. When you have quite a few threatening villains but only one competent hero accompanied by a group of useless stupid boys who are terrible friends, it's a combination for a very frustrating experience.

The pacing of the drama is really slow for a lot of the first half. Once the set up is done and we get to the cult part I hard to watch at fast speed because they drag these uncomfortable scenes so much until we finally get to the active ML part. For a lot of the drama Sang Hwan (ML) is a reactive character and when he pursues a more proactive role, he is quite frankly useless and stupid. This is a ML that I found it very hard to root for for a lot of the drama. I think he is a well written character, the actor does a great job, but I just don't think he's a very likeable character. And so whenever a scene with him popped up I was hoping it would end and give me another Dong Cheol scene (the actual good boy we need).

FL plays the role of a victim for a lot of the drama. Her character has a strong personality though and you can see she is actively trying to fight back but she's just not strong enough to really accomplish much. In the first half her scenes are pretty hard to watch because of this. But it gets more bearable after the midpoint. The actress portraying her is haunting and brilliant.

From episode 9 onwards things become easier to watch and I had a more enjoyable time. The drama picks up speed and becomes better. But the path to get there is really draggy in a torture porn kind of way. The ending was a bit rushed but nothing I can't forgive. I wished they had given us more time to enjoy the karma part of the drama when it came to the villains. A lot of them do terrible things and we don't see them suffer enough at the end so I felt a bit disappointed that so much screen time was dedicated to torture FL but we only got to see some of the worst people getting arrested and nothing more. It was a bit of a let down and it made it feel like all that time we had to watch them make FL suffer was for nothing.

All in all I think this is a solid drama if you are into dark, horrific, twisted stuff. The story is frustrating and scary and it accomplishes what it's set itself to. If you can stand a lot of screen time with that you will probably have a better time than I did. I personally am not going to rewatch this one. The acting is extremely solid but most of the characters are frustrating so it is not a very enjoyable time.

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Completed
The Tale of Nokdu
2 people found this review helpful
Jun 6, 2023
32 of 32 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 7.0
Story 5.5
Acting/Cast 8.0
Music 10
Rewatch Value 5.0
This review may contain spoilers
This drama is okay. But I'm not going to lie, I had to force myself through a lot of frustrating scenes.

The drama has 2 modes. It's either this lighthearted comedy with silly gags or darker than night horrific violence, death and torture time. They switch so suddenly from one mode to another, it's jarring. It starts out as this cute rom com with crossdressing and a solid mystery that I actually found myself intrigued by.

I wish this part of the drama had less filler though, there's just quite a lot of unnecessary scenes that become repetitive very quickly at the widow village and I was very disappointed that most of them involved the FL. She's a good actress but her character is incredibly unlikeable during this first half. She's rude, entitled, selffish and let's be honest she's not very smart. Her plans to kill the king are ridiculous and not well thoughtout. She has been planning her revenge for years and shooting the guy with an arrow is the best that she could come up with? My boy Nokdu decided to kill him in an afternoon and had a better, more solid, plausible plan within the hour.

Once we reach the midpoint, we get a wonderful villain in 2ML and the king. They're both very complex characters and I wish they had shown more of their backstory rather than their relationships with both FL and ML. SML is deliciously evil, but I wish we could have seen what drove him to that point. He does a complete 180 from good boy during the first half to it's murder time in the second.

FL becomes even more dumb and annoying during the second half. She goes on her own with her same bow and arrow strat - spoiler it doesn't work - and is also rude to ML and 2ML (granted he is a murderer but he's competent girl, the man gets the job done and what do you do besides falling into a hole?). She manages to get a job at the palace but this goes knowhere because she achieves literally nothing from it... in the end she goes back to dressing up as a man and trying to shoot the king undercover.

She also doesn't TALK to ML whenever they obviously need to have a converstaion, instead she goes on her own and messes things up even more. The amount of miscomunication or lack of comunication got pretty frustrating and old by the middle of the drama. And by the end when FL finally does things right it feels like a redemption rather than the moment of audience rooting for her. It felt more like at least you didn't screw up this. All in all she is not the worst FL I've watched but she was incredibly frustrating to root for. As a consequence of this I did not enjoy her romantic moments with ML that much. I wasn't against the couple... but if FL died I'd be ok with it.

The side characters are hit and miss for me. I actually loved the widows and the sword master and that Lord that helped them. As well as the dad. But the little girl got on my nerves more than once. Her character had some funny moments but a lot danced the line of annoyance at times. The brother is the worst and I wanted him to die.

I wish we could have gotten more interactions between ML and the queen. I loved the few instances when they talked but ML couldn't tell her who he was. I needed more of that. Also more interactions between Kind and Queen. Overall I would have loved to see more of the royal family lore rather than the annoying FL shooting arrows at a tree.

ML is incredibly likeable, kind and smart. I love his problemsolving skills. He's one of those MLs that think outside the box and even if he's not a genius he manages to outsmart his opponent. He's also humble and just a joy to watch. He had chemistry with everyone on screen and he's the reason to watch this show. I loved his interactions with the king and could feel the personal stakes at every single moment of screen they shared. It was painful and wonderful to watch. I wish the drama was about their story instead of this romance with FL that feels less pressing or important.

Overall I felt like this drama was a bit too long and the FL was unnecessarily frustrating, this is not because of the actress but the writing. But it was still enjoyable at times.

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Completed
100 Days My Prince
2 people found this review helpful
May 21, 2023
16 of 16 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 7.5
Story 7.0
Acting/Cast 10
Music 7.0
Rewatch Value 5.0

Enjoyable as a chick flick

If you're going into this drama expecting a super deep convoluted plot with twists and turns and grand moments of satisfaction this is probably not it. This drama is mostly a cute romance with some intrigue happening in the middle and not a lot of suspense.

I think I've become a bit used to these Joseon period dramas to have a more thriller vibe so that's why I was a little taken aback when things turned out to be pretty simple. This does not mean the drama is not enjoyable. It's actually a well acted and visually gorgeous, but the story itself is predictable and pretty straightforward. It's something to watch on a lazy sunday when you don't want to think much.

That being said awesome job to the cast for making all the characters lovable with their acting. I think ML is the star here, his character could have been incredibly unlikeable from the way he's written especially at the start, yet he has a charm and a presence that drawns you to him. He has a good mastery of micro expressions that tell you that not everything his "rude" characters says is what he means or comes from the heart and whenever he acts like an ass in those first episodes you can tell there's more to it. FL is pretty good too. She's brave, lovable and kind, though towards the end she became a bit tiring for me to watch her as her decisions were a bit too self-sabotaging and that is one of my pet peeves.

I do have to give especial kudos to every side character. I'm personally not a fan of side characters usually but this is one of those dramas that made everyone so lovable so they upped the drama and raised the raiting for me. Just awesome job.

Overall this drama is enjoyable and a fun watch.

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Completed
Queen In Hyun's Man
2 people found this review helpful
May 19, 2023
16 of 16 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 6.0
Story 5.0
Acting/Cast 8.5
Music 6.5
Rewatch Value 4.5
This review may contain spoilers

A bit dated but cute nonetheless

I love time travel stories so I was incredibly excited for this one. I might have given it a higher rating if I had watched this as one of my first dramas. Unfortunatelly having some other material to compare this one to I have to say more than a time travelling story this is a cute romance and some time travel shennanigans happening in the middle, the time travel plot is not very well constructed, as the rules change for plot convenience, so you have to suspend your disbelief a little.

That being said the leads own the screen. They are both so incredibly adorable and lovable. They're both the best part of the drama and I had a blast rooting for them. The same unfortunatelly cannot be said about the rest of the cast. The side characters from the present are an inconvenience at best and an annoyance at worst. I especially couldn't stand the female manager and the ex boyfriend and both of their selfishness and toxicity. I think I can excuse the exboyfriend character because he's written for the specific purpose of being a foil to ML and he is supposed to be an ass. The female manager best friend on the other hand? She's a terrible friend, who is whinning most of the time and only cares about FL staying away from scandals rather than her friend's happiness. Every time she was on screen I had to fast forward so I didn't have to deal with her.

The Joseon part of the story is the better world from both of these, with that storyline being more interesting and compelling than the weird present times. Though there are times when the present is exciting like the airplane scene, there are little to no consequences for the present world as things get constantly fixed by time travel magic and everyone forgets about ML and any laws he may have broken.

The characters from the Joseon period are just much more interesting and the stakes over there are real life and death situations. I enjoyed that part of the story a lot actually.

One thing I have to say is that the visuals for this one are a bit jarring, with the weird editing, saturation of some parts going over the roof sometimes it's hard to make out what's happening on the screen. But I have to let this go because this is an older show and I do remember the aesthetic from the 2010s.

All in all the drama is not entirely grounded. There are some genuinly interesting parts that I enjoyed and the two leads, along with the Joseon people steal the show. Overall a decent watch without being some masterpiece. Just a fun rom rom without much logic going on in general. But still a satisfying ending, so it was ok overall.

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Completed
Bloodhounds
1 people found this review helpful
Jun 12, 2023
8 of 8 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 8.5
Story 8.0
Acting/Cast 9.5
Music 9.0
Rewatch Value 7.0
This review may contain spoilers
I enjoyed this one as a fun action packed bromance to get the adrenaline rushing and the sudden need to hit the gym.

I was actually biting my nails a couple of times because the combination of music, staging and suspense just worked in a lot of moments of this drama. The tone is very solid overall. The two main characters are so lovable! And the actors portraying them are so charismatic! Yes. Give me a solid bromance any day of the week. Their chemistry was off the charts!

This drama is just plain fun, thrilling and action packed. But it also has heart with the wonderful bromance between the two male leads. There was not a moment that was draggy for me, which is a common issue with some dramas of this nature. I love that this is a shorter series that knew exactly what it was. It never tried to be some ridiculous super complicated drama that has tons of unnecesary plot twists for the sake of surprise. No. This drama is a simple, bloody, action good vs evil type of show. It is entirely self aware and not afraid to cut it short when it needs to. As long as you're aware of it before watching it you'll be happy.

It even goes as far of sending one of their main characters away when she is no longer needed in the story. I am probably in a minority but I applaud this decision. The FL was not bad but from a writing perspective she had nothing to contribute at that point of the drama and the writers just sent her off somewhere else. You know it was the right decision when you don't even miss her. The heart and soul of the drama are the boys anyways, so it's ok. And I actually prefered the end of the series FL that replaced her. She had so much more chemistry with the boys and was a breath of fresh air. She was not presented as a hinderance and was used sparingly, not taking unnecesary screentime away from the boys like the previous FL.

All in all I enjoyed this one a lot! It's a nice not very complicated show that made me smile, scream and cheer at my screen more than a couple of times. Well worth watching!

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Completed
Marry My Husband
1 people found this review helpful
Oct 15, 2024
16 of 16 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 7.5
Story 7.0
Acting/Cast 8.0
Music 8.0
Rewatch Value 6.0
I really wantedf to give this one a higher rating.

It's my first drama after a Kdrama break, and I honestly enjoyed it a lot. Especially those first few episodes! Unfortunatelly, this drama runs a bit too long.

I'm not sure if the comic is like this but there's a point around episode 12 that this drama switches and feels like another genre. It's not too bad, as it's within the same topic, but I feel like the last minute conflicts could have been avoided. Because they include a few characters that were introduced last minute, the new antagonists feel a bit detatched from the main couple and the conflict does not feel as personal. I thought it worked in a way, but I was more entertained when the main antagonists were the people we have seen thoughout all the drama and I had invested some time in.

Overall I think this drama is fun, but the writing gets a bit weaker and more cliche towards the end, so that's why I can't give it a higher rating.

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Completed
Under the Queen's Umbrella
1 people found this review helpful
Jun 1, 2023
16 of 16 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 9.5
Story 9.0
Acting/Cast 10
Music 9.0
Rewatch Value 9.0

A beautifully elegant tale about motherhood

If I could describe this drama in one word it would be elegant.

Just everything about this drama was approached with so much class and dedication, from the acting to the soundtrack to the cinematography. Everyone involved deserves every praise.

This is a loving story about not one but multiple mothers and how far they're willing to go to protect their respective children, as well as a coming of age for the princes and your typical palace conspiracy. It's a unique combination that makes this story stand out on its own.

Despite not having the usual sort of 'extra' feel that most kdramas have, I found this one to be equally enjoyable, even if it was a more serious watch. I think I can compare this drama the best to one of my favourite western tv shows "Downton Abbey". It has a lot of the same feel and down to earth tone. It's more realistic than other stories in this similar category, without being boring. It is quiet and subtle but vicious, heartbreaking and exciting when it needs to be.

The characters are realistic and most importantly human. It's very hard to actually make the audience understand your villains, but my goodness does this drama does it well. Everyone felt like a person in this story, and not a character that served the purpose of telling a story. I loved how everyone had their own little agenda from the ruthless Queen Dowager to the little prince that likes snacks a little too much (this little man is relatable and a joy).

It's personally not something I would rewarch every day like other dramas, mainly because this is a drama that one comes to appreciate as whole instead of in parts if that makes sense. I'm the sort of person who revisits specific memorable moments in a drama, and I think this one deserves to always be rewatched as a whole to fully enjoy it. But when I do rewatch it in some time I'm sure I'll binge the whole thing instead of just little parts like I do with my other faves.

Overall I thought this was a wonderful piece of art that is grounded, mature and very heartfelt. I would recommend to anyone who wants to see a wonderful story about family, acceptance and growth.

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Completed
Rebel: Thief Who Stole the People
1 people found this review helpful
May 16, 2023
30 of 30 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 9.5
Story 9.5
Acting/Cast 10
Music 10
Rewatch Value 8.5

Aigo! I've been stolen as well

What a wonderful journey this drama was! I was not expecting to like it this much, but this story is so incredibly well crafted from beginning to end. The characters are fantastic and every single actor and actress do them justice. The music is hypnotic and it fits this story so well. Every so often in these types of stories the music feels too modern and out of place, this is not the case with Rebel. The music is a character of it's own and you'll find yourself enchanted to those melodies in critical points of the story.

I will say something for the drama, the first ten episodes are mostly about the MC's father. It is a wonderful story that we need to know before watching the main part of the story, but it does take a bit to get going. So keep that in mind when you start this drama. The background story is very interesting and builds up the tension for the sure pay off you will get by the end, especially to set up the villains. But you do have to be a little bit patient with this drama. It's not slow by any means but there's a ton of backstory.

That being said everything worked perfectly. The acting, the characters, the story, the resolution. This drama is full of moments of satisfaction and moments of tension and false victories that will have you feeling frustrated and excited at the same time. The acting and character writing are out of this world, you genuinly feel for everyone on screen at one point or another. The villains even made me feel sorry for them at one point, and they're terrible people.

Seriously, beautiful work of art. I would totally recommed if you like epic adventure, found family, bromance and a little bit of violence.

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Completed
Big Mouth
1 people found this review helpful
May 5, 2023
16 of 16 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 8.5
Story 7.0
Acting/Cast 10
Music 8.0
Rewatch Value 9.0
This review may contain spoilers

Everything was going according to plan until it wasn't

This drama had the right pacing up until the last episode. Now I will spoil things here so please don't read if you want to go in completely blind into this show.

The premise, the characters and twists were so incredibly fun to watch. This was a true binge worthy show, as in I couldn't help butt click next episode from the start.

ML is just impossible not to root for. At the start he's just a good guy, if a bit naive, in a bad situation and you genuinly feel for him and want him and his family to be ok. He actually stays genuinly good just not so gullible anymore. That is just so refreshing to see. It would have been so easy to make him become an evil crimelord but he stayed true to his nature and I loved that. In fact I have no qualms that his ending is not 100% happy.

But the ending of this show was just really rushed. The resolution of all lose ends was presented to us, the audience, in a sort of montage right after everything went wrong and it felt jarring. I wish they had given us a proper resolution of things. Because even if the loose ends were tied up in some way or another, because it's just a series of scenes presented to us, we don't have time to process or feel satisfaction. It was like having this delicious entres and when we were ready for the main course they just shoved it down our throats in like five minutes. It was truly a failure in 'show don't tell'. This was what we were waiting for, for every bad guy to lose and us to saviour it. You made us watch poor ML suffer, get beaten, tortured, drugged, kidnapped, framed and lose the most precious thing to him and you're not going to let us see the motherf responsible people rightfully get their just desserts for more than 2 minutes? Um no. I want to see that happen in slow motion, thanks.

This rating is because of everything that happened before the resolution. The series is good, and I overly enjoyed it. I do not think the ending ruins it. But it could have been another Flower of Evil level sort of series if they had handled the ending better. Just so close it's upsetting they missed the mark by a bit.

Overall this show is so so good and addictive and every character is amazing, but that ending, even if it's positive was not handled properly.

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Completed
Extraordinary Attorney Woo
1 people found this review helpful
May 4, 2023
16 of 16 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 7.5
Story 6.0
Acting/Cast 10
Music 7.5
Rewatch Value 5.5

Cute but not life changing

I liked this drama as a lighthearted show. The reason it does not have a higher rating it's because after a few episodes the initial charm of the show wore out for me and I had to take a break (of literal months) to finish it and even then I usually put it as a background show.
The characters are charming but not very complex, which made me feel more of a sitcom vibe towards them. As in, I cared about them but I wouldn't be heartbroken if one of them had a sad ending.

This series is the strongest at the start. I loved the backstory of Woo and the way she tried to adapt and solve cases her own way, but like I said before the novelty wore off after a few episodes. I think this rating would have been higher if the show had less episodes. It's one of those that could benefit from being shorter. Other than that the acting and heartfelt moments combined with a unique whale concept and cute soundtrack still made the show enjoyable.

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Completed
Pinocchio
1 people found this review helpful
May 1, 2023
20 of 20 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 10
Story 10
Acting/Cast 10
Music 10
Rewatch Value 10
This review may contain spoilers

One of the most emotional and satisfying shows I've had the privilege to watch. <3

Pinocchio is one of those dramas that the more I think about the more I love.

On first watch the story delves into the backstories of the main leads and at first I didn't understand why they were introducing it so early on until I reached the end of the episode and things started to click. The relationships and themes this show has are so poetically beautiful. All characters have an intricate relationship with each other and their goals are palpable from day one. You want them to succeed, you are rooting for them, you feel frustration when they make mistakes and cheer them on when they learn from them.

There is no entirely good and entirely bad character. You see everyone grow into their best and worst selves, then you see them climb back out of a hole and it's just so real and wonderful. Add a domino style plot, that starts out with a seemingly meaningless fire accident that took away lives and ruined some more. Then it escalates to magnanimous proportions and now the characters have to somehow deal with the consequences and fix this mess.

Characters will think twice about their choices, some will regret what they did, some will not.

Things come full circle. This drama is beautifully planned and well-thoughout. One of the most emotional and satisfying shows I've had the privilege to watch. <3

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Completed
W
1 people found this review helpful
May 1, 2023
16 of 16 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 9.0
Story 8.5
Acting/Cast 10
Music 9.0
Rewatch Value 10

Addictive action packed and overall a joyful ride!

I'm not even going to lie, this is my type of drama so my review might not be entirely without biases. I love the parallel worlds-isekai trope and it becomes a guilty pleasure just by existing.

That being said the execution for this drama is everything. It's fast paced, charming, intriguing and emotional at the same time. The chemistry between the main leads was off the charts. I think in terms of romance this is my favourite couple involving LJS. Second favourite would be Big Mouth and third Pinocchio and IHYV.

The FL is our girl out of town, the lens through we explore the new world, and she is such a joy to watch. She's lovable, witty, relatable and kind. I absolutely loved her.

ML is cool AF without being flawless. He is smart, considerate, strong and action driven. And I loved his reactions to all the new information he had to absorb. Also loved that he is not one to stop himself from showing emotion. When the man is broken you will know it and appreciate the sincerity and vulnerability that contrasts his usually cool persona.

Side characters are memorable and likeable without stealing the spotlight that belongs to the two main leads. The main doctor at the hospital can get a bit cartoony, but that is something that I'm willing to let go.

The plot in the comic world can be a bit predictable at times, with the bad guy at the very end being just your typical comic book villain... Personally I found his resolution a bit rushed, but with everything getting a bit spiced up when you include the nuances between the real world and the rules that connect both worlds. It gives a unique and fun experience.

All in all I will probably rewatch W. It's a show that has a mix of feel-good/thriller/emotional/sci-fi/romance. It has so much but it never feels like it's trying to do everything at once. Things flow naturally and effortlessly. Bravo!

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Completed
The Crowned Clown
1 people found this review helpful
May 11, 2023
16 of 16 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 10
Story 10
Acting/Cast 10
Music 10
Rewatch Value 10
It's been a while since I found a show that hits all the boxes in terms of character, storytelling, pacing, soundtrack, emotion, but man it is good to be back. I've been looking for a drama this addictive for a while! My only gripe is that it's not more known and recommended. This one needs and deserves more attention.

This drama is excellent, it keeps you engaged to the story from episode one and it doesn't let go. It makes you care so much for every hero and despise every villain. Every victory is a moment of pure satisfaction and by the end of the drama you're left feeling satisfied. Just chefs kiss to everyone involved, especially all the cast. But I have to say ML is the star here. He's fantastic in these roles! I could tell which king he was portraying just by his eyes.

Also every character is written wonderfully. I especially loved ML, our Clown/King. He's such a great active character that you can't help but root for. Simply put, he's a good guy but not a perfect guy. He always defied my expectations of his next move and was such a joy to be constantly surprised by him. His chemistry with FL is wonderful as well. Side characters are amazing too and they do not feel overbearing or without purpose.

This is one of those shows that I'd recommend to anyone just not Kdrama fans. Beutifully written, cast and produced. One of my ultimate favourites for sure!

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Completed
While You Were Sleeping
1 people found this review helpful
Apr 25, 2023
32 of 32 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 6.5
Story 6.0
Acting/Cast 8.0
Music 10
Rewatch Value 1.0
This review may contain spoilers

I wanted to enjoy this one

This is not a terrible drama by any means. The effects, cinematography and music place you in an almost magical, ethereal visual experience. But when I thought about it more, if you remove all that, you're left with an average story that turns out to be incredibly predictable from episode 2. I will say the first episode is one of the best first episodes I've watched for a drama but I found myself predicting everything afterwards down to the last twist.

There are a few things in this drama that became repetitive and episodic, mainly the cases and the dream part. At times things felt a bit too convenient and the lack of tension died because you knew things were going to be okay and they always were. When a MC got hurt I knew they'd recover, I knew they'd catch the bad guy of the week/episode and move on to the next one. Overall it did not feel like there was an overarching plot throughout the drama until the very end. I'm not counting the backstory because you can tell that one in one episode of flashbacks and as soon as we saw the boy in the baseball cap I knew it was the FL. It's not very well disguised and the drama underestimates their audience by making it feel like a surprise when the reveal happens when it was a bit obvious.

The chemistry for the main couple... this is hard for me because I absolutely love Lee Jong Suk, he's probably one of the most lovable actors for me. But I just didn't feel his chemistry with Suzy and honestly I think this is because I have seen LJS with much better female leads and I buy their relationship a 100%, whereas in this one I was constantly feeling the acting between the 2 whenever they shared screentime. I do not think this is entirely his fault, he did what he could with the character and his FL.

There is something defenitely off about Suzy's acting. It felt forced and not entirely honest during the entire thing. Like that one girl that tries to be quirky and funny on purpose and it comes out as dishonest and try-hard. I'm sorry if I'm being too harsh on her, but I just think she didn't do much with her character and that affected her on screen relationship with ML. That being said both characters are a little one-dimensional and maybe that's why I couldn't relate to her in particular. Her character is represented as flawless most of the time. His as well, but hers even more so.

I think this is because they both have these second hand embarrasment moments throughout the whole drama. (It got old and broke the mood on a lot of scenes.) But while LJS's character had them and the side-characters acknowledged it was cringe and unprofessional and it was something LJS's character seemed to improve on and learn from - one example is when he used his cringe to interview the child witness - for Suzy's characters it is represented as endearing and quirky and lovable from day 1 and it never serves a purpose other than to show she's cute and not like other girls.

The drama was afraid to paint her in any sort of negative light and it was counterproductive. Let her be human too. Let her be cringe and weird in the other characters eyes as well. I could not fathom why everyone saw this human disaster as a femme fatale when in fact she's just as a perfect match for her one brain cell idiot boyfriend. That would have been incredibly lovable. But the drama is afraid to go all the way. If you introduce this weird girl as a weird girl (literally in caps), don't make her cool at the same time in the eyes of everyone else. She's cringe my dudes, and that is perfectely okay. He's cringe, she's cringe, they will be cringe forever and have little cringe children. Embrase it. A perfect moment for this would have been when everyone was describing her character in the elevator as a femme fatale and this sexy badass lady, but then have her defy all expectations by making her ridiculous in front of everyone and they going like... yes this is definitely Jae Chan's girlfriend.

That's my take on her, but I might be a minority here. It's fine if you disagree.

The writing is okay. I enjoyed the backstory the best rather than the episodic current events. But like I said before, the main plot line got repetitive. The villain was one dimensional while trying too hard to be protrayed as a more interesting character, the drama just scratched the surface with him. He had some interesting quirks like the paper thing and the hand washing thing, but we never explore him as a character nor his motivations. Instead of spending 95% of screen time on the couple, spend 85% on the main couple and give me more backstory with this villain. He has tons of potential with his relantionship with ML and the inspector. But the one with the inspector just got shoved as a last minute thing and I never quite grasped why he was so nasty towards ML when they were younger. Maybe explore something like jealously between them, maybe he was envious ML had a better life with his Chief of Police dad while he had to work in order to be able to pay for school or something. Just so much wasted potential.

All in all this drama is not the worst thing I have seen. I know it can sound like that in this review. But it's just so incredibly disappointing maybe because my expectations were so high after watching Pinocchio and I Hear your Voice. Both of these are miles better than this one in terms of story and acting. The one thing I will give this drama is that it is pretty to look at. A beautiful cake on the outside that is bland in flavour.

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