ronnie25
A drama that gets caught trying to be too cerebral
I really wanted to love this drama, I was so excited about it! I loved the cast, the OST lineup, the posters and the concept. Unfortunately I felt the writing ended up being a glaring weakness that brought the whole drama down.
It seemed to me the writer had the general premise and ending sorted out in their head, which would account for the stronger early episodes and the ending that you could see coming from a mile away, but the middle 10 or so episodes felt quite meandering. Nothing really happened, it got a bit tropey, and the dialogue was extremely repetitive and abstract in a way that made it feel like written dialogue that was made to be "deep", instead of conversations people would actually have. The contract setup was also poorly done since the contract didn't really make sense (the person she loves the most will die either way). Plus the early episodes had detailed recaps of the previous episodes that pretty much existed to clarify the terms of the contract; these recaps stopped for the most part once the plot came to halt as well in the middle section of the drama.
The actors all did a good job with what they were given. I'm a big fan of Seo In Guk, especially when he is in a darker role. However if I compare him here to his role in The Smile Has Left Your Eyes, his performance in DAYS feels a little shallow. In TSHLYE I felt like SIG deeply understood his character and was able to give Kim Moo Young some nuance. In DAYS I didn't feel that same level of understanding from the actor, the performance felt like a surface level version of a "dark, misunderstood character." This is more of a writing or directing problem than an acting one in my opinion. I'm not a huge Park Bo Young fan, but i certainly don't dislike her as an actress (more so I don't like the dramas she chooses). She has some very emotional moments here as Dong Kyung, but also moments where I feel like she falls back to her default cute persona. I felt conflicted about the leads' chemistry; I liked their early bickering but they fell in love so fast that I didn't buy them as a couple willing to sacrifice for each other. Their overly abstract and repetitive dialogue didn't help.
Unlike a lot of people I actually liked the secondary love triangle story and it was the part of the drama I looked forward to the most after a while. Again, I think this is because there was more “plot” to their story and less of the dialogue that I disliked so it felt more engaging to me.
The OST and music were all very good and some incredibly emotional. However I did find by the end of the drama they were being overused. They were added to increase emotions in the scene. A glaring example of their overuse was in one of the final episodes 3 different OSTs were played within the first 7 minutes of the episode and it was noticeable in a distracting way, which is never good for film and TV.
Overall I felt this drama missed the mark even though it had a great setup. The good thing is I feel like the only person who walks away with any damage to their reputation is the writer as this was a beautifully directed (there is some stunning imagery here) and well acted drama that runs around in a circle for it's entire middle section.
It seemed to me the writer had the general premise and ending sorted out in their head, which would account for the stronger early episodes and the ending that you could see coming from a mile away, but the middle 10 or so episodes felt quite meandering. Nothing really happened, it got a bit tropey, and the dialogue was extremely repetitive and abstract in a way that made it feel like written dialogue that was made to be "deep", instead of conversations people would actually have. The contract setup was also poorly done since the contract didn't really make sense (the person she loves the most will die either way). Plus the early episodes had detailed recaps of the previous episodes that pretty much existed to clarify the terms of the contract; these recaps stopped for the most part once the plot came to halt as well in the middle section of the drama.
The actors all did a good job with what they were given. I'm a big fan of Seo In Guk, especially when he is in a darker role. However if I compare him here to his role in The Smile Has Left Your Eyes, his performance in DAYS feels a little shallow. In TSHLYE I felt like SIG deeply understood his character and was able to give Kim Moo Young some nuance. In DAYS I didn't feel that same level of understanding from the actor, the performance felt like a surface level version of a "dark, misunderstood character." This is more of a writing or directing problem than an acting one in my opinion. I'm not a huge Park Bo Young fan, but i certainly don't dislike her as an actress (more so I don't like the dramas she chooses). She has some very emotional moments here as Dong Kyung, but also moments where I feel like she falls back to her default cute persona. I felt conflicted about the leads' chemistry; I liked their early bickering but they fell in love so fast that I didn't buy them as a couple willing to sacrifice for each other. Their overly abstract and repetitive dialogue didn't help.
Unlike a lot of people I actually liked the secondary love triangle story and it was the part of the drama I looked forward to the most after a while. Again, I think this is because there was more “plot” to their story and less of the dialogue that I disliked so it felt more engaging to me.
The OST and music were all very good and some incredibly emotional. However I did find by the end of the drama they were being overused. They were added to increase emotions in the scene. A glaring example of their overuse was in one of the final episodes 3 different OSTs were played within the first 7 minutes of the episode and it was noticeable in a distracting way, which is never good for film and TV.
Overall I felt this drama missed the mark even though it had a great setup. The good thing is I feel like the only person who walks away with any damage to their reputation is the writer as this was a beautifully directed (there is some stunning imagery here) and well acted drama that runs around in a circle for it's entire middle section.
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