Ah, The Jungle, what a ride it was and a very entertaining one at that. It's an imperfect drama, but if you don't scrutinize it too deeply, it's interesting and fun. It was easy to binge watch over two days and had me alternating yelling at my laptop and cackling at the characters' antics. It was thoroughly enjoyable.

The Jungle has a pretty basic premise of a group of playboys who one by one find their one true love and enter into monogamous relationships. Intertwined with those stories are two longer mystery/crime plotlines. The couple stories were by and large cute if rushed and a bit repetitive. In general, each couple was given two episodes to develop their relationship. The repetitiveness came from the way they got together as it became pretty formulaic after a while: flashbacks to understand the characters, at least one fight for a lot of them, a love scene, etc. Also repetitive was having the mother as the root of the issue, several of the girls getting assaulted and not one, but two wedding crashing scenes. Some relationships were given more screen time than others and went beyond those two episodes, but in general the relationships progressed at an improbably quick pace. One couple in particular got significantly more screentime which was understandable, but made the other couples' stories appear even more rushed and disjointed. The story progression could have been better planned. It felt like things were moving pretty steadily and then suddenly we jumped to the past and stayed there for several episodes which affected the pacing negatively. It would have been better to start the whole drama with those episodes or interspersed them throughout. They weren't bad episodes by any means and provided necessary information, but it was a major and abrupt tonal shift that was just jarring. The longer running mystery/crime plot lines were interesting, but they each focused more on specific couples so they got more screen time than others. I would have liked to see those stories cut down a bit to give more time to the other couples. There are moments that are hilariously over the top and just absurd, but somehow still kind of worked. There are also some story lines that are left feeling unfinished or have holes that aren't explained, but nothing that I found to be unbearable.

The characters were by and large a positive aspect of the drama. The animal correlation to the characters was an interesting concept but not necessarily well done. The only character who I really felt fit with her animal was August as a lioness. She embodied that quite well. Gale as a rabbit was a close second. The others were hit or miss. Irin was the biggest miss as, despite all her butterfly paraphernalia, I simply didn't see the resemblance between the two. Given all the narration on the animals, I would have liked to see that concept played with more in terms of the characters' behaviour and personalities. It just seemed like a missed opportunity. I also found myself disappointed with how the ladies were treated. Once their relationship story had concluded, they were dropped. The guys kept showing up at the bar, but the ladies were conspicuously absent. They popped up maybe once or twice more, but that was it. I know the focus was on The Jungle guys, but I felt their girlfriends could have factored in more. There was also a lot of focus on the men as hunters aspect, which I also didn't find was utilized well. There were multiple times where it felt like the women were the hunters and the men their prey. Also, despite the men being called playboys, we didn't see that come into play a ton. Again, just more missed opportunities to play with that animal kingdom theme they had going.
-Petai and Gale were our first couple. They knew each other as children and were reunited as adults. Their story is cute if rushed. It didn't feel like they really had enough time to reconnect before falling for each other. The conflict in their story centered around an overzealous reporter and Petai's overbearing mother. Both issues are resolved fairly quickly and almost simultaneously. Their story felt a bit incomplete as Gale won the internship or whatever to Paris and Petai was going to be a pilot, but nothing regarding either decision is ever mentioned again. Although the impression is given that Gale is having success in her career.
This was my first time seeing Lee in a lead role, I'd seen him in supporting roles previously and overall liked him. I thought he was good, but not as strong as some of the others. Mook is an actress I've heard a lot about, but never seen. Aside from being absolutely gorgeous, her MDL picture does not do her justice, I liked her acting. She seems to have more subtle style which I appreciated. She and Lee had good chemistry and they acted well together.
-Nanfah and Pladao were one of the more conflicting couples for me. Nanfah comes out the gate seeming like a bad guy and he doesn't do a whole lot to dispel that notion for a good while. I don't feel like a good explanation was ever given for why he felt the need to lie and manipulate Pladao initially and it ended up just being brushed under the rug. Pladao's attraction to him when she thought he had killed her cousin was confusing given his attitude and behaviour towards her up until that point. Yes, he's attractive, but she seemed smarter than that. Their relationship ended on a weird note and I really just couldn't support them being together.; it felt like there was a toxicity to their relationship that was never addressed. Part of it could have also been that there was a lot to unravel with Nanfah's character and there just wasn't enough time to do so.
I had never seen Punpun act before, but I liked her portrayal of Pladao. She was very expressive without being too over the top and it fit with her character. Nanon remains as one of my favorite actors. It still boggles my mind how young he is and yet so incredibly talented. He did a phenomenal job playing both Nanfah and Nannam. Though there were more subtle physical differences such as hair style and fashion choices that helped differentiate them, it was Nanon's acting that really set them apart. You could just look at them and know from body language and facial expressions who was who. Superb job. I was also impressed that he was able to have great chemistry with both Punpun and Mild.
-Nannam and Nithan were another cute couple. It was adorable watching Nannam gradually falling for her. The juxtaposition of her inability to lie and his skills at lying made for some great scenes. While Nanfah was out and out manic, Nannam liked to operate more in the shadows, teasing and meddling. Nithan, on the other hand, was straightforward and her open. While I felt like their story was a bit rushed like the others, I did like that some time was devoted to showing how Nithan broke down Nannam's walls and gained his trust. Their engagement scene where she almost instantly realized that Nanfah was not Nannam was a great one and put to rest Nannam's doubts.
Mild did a great job in the role. I really liked her expressiveness. She was sweet, but also tough in her own way and Mild balanced out those traits well. She and Nanon played off of each other really well.
-Hack and Irin were one of my least favorite couples. A lot of their story felt repetitive, just rehashing the same issues over and over again. Hack having sex with Irin when she was drunk and obviously unaware who she was sleeping with did not sit well with me. All the talk of him being the worst of them also didn't add up to what we saw. Aside from the above incident, he came across to me as a sweet guy trying to be tough. I generally found Irin to be annoying, in large part because she did keep attacking Hack and thinking the worst of him, which, since we didn't see a lot of that, felt over the top and unreasonable. I also didn't like how she was playing both Pine and Hack. She had her good moments too, they were just few and far between.
I like Lookjun, I don't think she's the most diversely talented actress, but she does well with certain characters. This was not one of her stronger performances. There was a sameness to a lot of her acting, especially when her character was upset. It wasn't awful by any means, I just would have liked to see a bit more variation. Krist is an excellent actor and I really liked him as Hack. He does a great job whether he's being serious or funny and everything in between. However, I didn't think the chemistry between Lookjun and Krist was particularly strong.
-Nathee and Florence were probably one of my favorite couples and that's mostly due to Florence. I love badass female characters and she was in pretty much every way. I liked that she knew what she wanted, in this case, Nathee and she just went for it, unapologetically. I also appreciated that she knew how to take care of herself with her judo skills. She wasn't a damsel in distress like the other women tended to be. Honestly, I just adored her. Nathee's primary interest was his transformation from his work appearance to his Rendezvous appearance. They were strikingly different and not just his appearance, but his attitude too. I felt like there was more to Florence than there was to him as an individual, I think her character was just given more depth, but I really enjoyed their interactions. I also liked that they were high school sweethearts of a sort since that allowed their story to jump a few steps than if they had just met.
I've seen several dramas Aye has been in and she never disappoints. She's a versatile actress and I thought she killed it as Florence. This was my first time seeing Luke act and while I thought his character was lacking to some degree, I don't think that was his fault and he did a good job with what he had. He and Aye had great chemistry and were a lot of fun to watch together.
-Pine and August were another conflicting couple. On the one hand, I really liked August. She was a no nonsense kind of woman who knew what she wanted and she went for it. She didn't mince words, she just got things done. I loved that she remained true to herself. Pine was an ass. What happened with August didn't give him any right to treat Irin, or any other woman for that matter, the way that he did and continuously string her along. He seemed to have something of a hero complex but only when it suited him. He never really redeemed himself in my eyes and frankly I think August could do way better. I also thought it was a bit much having both the men that August trusted turning out be villains.
I liked Pat's acting, she absolutely came across as a bad ass, but she also had some really beautifully vulnerable moments. I liked the way she varied the character. Job well done. I like Off, he comes across as goofy, yet sweet, but his acting isn't as strong as it could be. A lot of the time it feels like he's playing a variation of himself or characters he's played in the past. That was the case here with Pine, especially during the flashback episodes it seemed like he was more himself, whereas the rest of the time, he was giving me Sean from Not Me vibes. That being said, I didn't hate his performance, I just think it could have been a bit more nuanced. I did think he and Pat had good chemistry though. They did a great job portraying the tension of their relationship.
-Hunter was such an enigma and I loved him. His role was so varied from making drinks to "taking out the trash" to giving life advice. His knowledge of everyone and everything fit with him being a bartender, but also added an element of mystery to him because so little information about him was given. I'm still conflicted on whether I like that he was given a backstory or not. On the one hand, it gave insight into why he was attentive to The Jungle and cared about them. However, it also removed that veil of mystery that had surrounded him from the get go and made him more human. Maybe part of it is that his backstory seemed a bit cliche too. Either way, I still very much enjoyed his character.
Mix is such a good actor and I liked seeing him get to stretch his wings and play a different kind of character. He absolutely nailed the role and he had great chemistry with everyone he interacted with.

The production value was good. I liked the sets, particularly the bar and the rooftop. The cinematography was also good, there were some great shots, especially in the bar and again on the rooftop. Those two places had the most scenes and their design was well thought out. The lighting helped add to the mystery of the bar, and gave it a darker, grittier feel. I really enjoyed the music, both the theme song and the individual songs. The theme song was killer, but I also liked the solos that each guy sang that was interspersed with their story.

The Jungle is not a great drama. It has it's flaws and failures, but it was also incredibly entertaining and I enjoyed every minute of it. Like I said before, if you don't overanalyze it and just go with the flow, it's very enjoyable and one I would definitely recommend.