Mad World

Captivating storytelling and multifaceted characters, making it a standout in the world of Japanese dramas. The drama had a good mystery plot but there were a few things that held it back. The pacing was alright but the lack of a sensible urgency messed up the flow a bit. The drama overdone it with the amount of repetition sprinkled throughout beyond what could been considered functional for a mystery piece, it didn't contribute to the story/characters/themes/atmosphere, just plain repetition, relaying the same information countless times. The cinematography and music further enriched the experience, capturing the drama's haunting and enigmatic mood, however, it could've benefited more from a more unified color palette with its own signature. While it was a great mystery drama but I wish the characters had a better dynamic between them and maybe some deeper involvement of other characters.

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Goong C-

It was a really hard sell when a core part of the plot was the male lead treating the female lead like a piece of shit, combined with the "oh no he doesn't know how to express his feelings", these tropes are better left in fanfiction. The case was even worse due to the absolute lack of any chemistry between any of the four leads, this was the definition of negative rizz. It got even worse, all of the three leading cast Ju Ji Hoon & Song Ji Hyo & Kim Jeong Hoon brought an utterly abysmal joke of a performance, admittedly, this was their first main role and was totally incomparable with their current performance, all of them went to do much better and bigger things, it's better to forget they worked on this drama. On the other hand, Yoon Eun Hye was pulling the entire thing together, solo carrying whatever left to be salvaged. Her dynamic with her friends and family was quite good, but not with any of the leads. The puppets at the end of each episode were a nice touch, it would have been nicer if they incorporated that in the drama itself. The earlier parts of the drama were generally better, the events in the palace were a bit boring. To build up for the climax, the last 4 episodes created the last point of tension however it was seriously atrocious writing, one of the worst conflicts I've seen a writer come up with. It was just pure bad writing from that point until the last frame of the drama. If they slapped in some random terminal illness nuances it would've been a better serviceable finale. If anything, I'm only remembering this drama for its awful last few episodes. At least it was much better than Boys Over Flowers (2009).

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Goong F

How could they ever think this remake was a good idea? It didn't take more than half an episode to know everything you need going forward. Setting the expectations really low from the beginning. They immediately jumped into the premise with little to no build up. Yer a prince, Harry! Deal with it. The setup was bad, the writing was shameful and the characters were garbage. The main cast members were barely functional and their chemistry was a constant struggle that never washed away. The original Goong had a plethora of problems but, in contrast, this remake made me appreciate season 1 for whatever it had .

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The Answer is Money

The drama epitomized frustration with its portrayal of a braindead female lead whose actions and decisions often questioned the existence of a cerebrum in that skull. The leads consistently made choices that were not only repetitive but also pathetic. Almost every character was repeating the same mistakes and facing the same consequences. A group of monkeys would perform and produce a better result under a shock therapy. The side plots were generally bad, maybe only the ML's brother one was acceptable but the rest were kinda cringe. The drama advertised itself around the bigger sister and her younger siblings (as title suggests too) but the siblings played such a small side role in the story while the love triangle was the main focus. The drama practically ended 6-7 episodes early and the remainder was pure fluff of nothingness. It didn't help its case when the resolution was lame anyway.

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Flamin Hot Cheetos

Being a drama that came out around the late 90s I can see how it might be drawing flak for its take on relationships and societal norms. Deep down, it was all about love, loss, and redemption, painting a vivid picture of intertwined lives against a turbulent backdrop, however, it failed to create a healthy structure to contain the story. The most important first step was to create a convincing scenario and story to sell their flaming torturous love, but what we got was only brief montages during the first episode. Every time they met they were filled the screen with displays of passion but there was no bases for it to carry a good impact, let alone, a lasting one. A core part of the story was the dynamic between the four leads, however, the second couple became much less relevant in the second half which made the new trajectory boring. Initially, the drama was heading somewhere while making a statement with how it dealt with gender roles and societal expectations but suddenly it gave up completely on the idea and resulted to the same old same old, reinforcing stereotypes from the 90s instead of shaking them up. I wonder if the broadcast received criticism from the public? On an unrelated note, most female leads from the 90s speak excessively timid and subdued most of the time for some reason, even when their colleagues of female supporting cast are speaking normally. Anyway, the drama was somewhat alright for its time.

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Brainless Behaviour

This drama was a constant coin toss for me, swinging between great and bad throughout, this included the story, characters, jokes, and, in particular, cases. Every case related to one or multiple subjects around neuroscience for the doctor to talk about, however, some subjects were poorly executed and questionable. These ones were totally forced and stretched thin just for the sake of including them. Other cases were actually interesting. The humor as well was a big hit or miss, especially with the male leads. The drama placed too much focus on the male leads while neglecting the remainder of the cast dynamic. On the other hand, the detective wife didn't fit quite well and it took until the last few episodes for her character to finally blend. The drama had its good moments with its witty humor but it lacked in many areas to be a solid drama.

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Bloodless Behaviour

It's a decent short drama but far from perfect and too many problems held it back. Although it was meant to be on a lighter tone and considering its short format, the drama was passing through a lot of social and workplace problems too quickly despite the drama establishing depth to some of the characters. It created some disconnect and cohesion problems along the way. A possible easy fix to the problem is having it turned into a full 12-16 episodes regular drama. The characters and their archetypes were well established and fit well in their respective roles. There was a lot of potentials to be had in the first place. Another victim to its shorter runtime was the last stretch of the story, in particular the last 2 episodes. It presented the final points of tension and jumped to the resolution very quickly and abruptly. Although it's a decent watch but at the end it was a wasted potentials.

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Heat Death of The Universe

Well, the drama certainly failed to cheer me up. The entire show was manufactured to be a spectacular disaster. There was no one major issue that held it back but rather a complete systematic failure. Starting from the top of the pyramid, about 80% of the cast members were barely surviving to remain functional. In equal terms, about 80% of the characters were generic youth NPCs from a modern lens. Speaking of characters, how did the writer think that writing the female lead this way was appealing in the slightest? It's baffling! That's also applicable to her cheap copy-cat, Joo Sun Ja, sharing the same revolting DNA. Moving on to relationships, pairs, ex-lovers, triangles, and squares, all of which can be tagged as insufferable spectacles. The reason why the drama added the mystery side plot is because it was unbelievably dry and was in desperate need for something supplementary to help creating the illusion that something is actually happening. It wouldn't have been bad if it served a functional purpose with the overarching narrative. Now, this is a drama about cheering and dancing but this had the worst moves I've ever seen in this context. It was nothing more than choreographed performances by PE teacher for elementary kids. It's seriously bad and embarrassing! Especially when it's coming from Kpop-land. Obviously, there were a lot more to be said but these were some of the highlights. The writer worked on both V.I.P (2019) and this drama, a solid bad track record so far, should be very cautious with future projects.

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This Is So Sad Alexa Play Lonely By Akon

Unfortunately, the drama took the least favorable route for a makjang drama. What makes a good makjang is having a reasonable push and pull balance for its conflicts, however, this drama tipped the scale all the way to the other side. The result is having an utterly doormat female lead which led to a miserable experience for the viewers. Throughout its runtime, everyone was pushing her around with all kinds of abuse, but there was never a real push back. Waiting in desperation to see her bite back but the drama didn't allow it. The attempt to show her standing up for herself resulted in a successful failure, as expected. There were other problems relating to balance all over the drama. The ending as well followed the same pattern, denying the viewers a reasonable amount of satisfaction after all the preceding events. God bless the ML's aunt, Jung Eun suk, for keeping the drama tolerable and watchable. One more thing, the drama definitely feels like it was cut short, hence, why the last 3-4 episodes were scrambled together really quick. There were even some obvious signs like attempting to introduce a new character/side plot at episode 41.

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Jinxed By Design

Sucked at first sight, actually. It certainly failed to leave a good first impression. The first episode was horrendous in all regards, especially when you get some context later on. Subsequently, this led to all kinds of problems with the narrative. At first, the story presented a big predicament to overcome, as described in the synopsis, what would ML do once he meet her again, but the drama decided to nullify the tension in a record time and turn the drama into a mindless slice of life with bubbly visuals. The unusual romance was never justified, the drama also attempted to play the same scenario for their romance at the end but it only made things worse by creating an unnecessary new diversion that came with it more problems, it just doesn't work unless one of them was mentally challenged. One of the drama's genres is mystery, but there was barely any and what was present was surface level cheap addition.

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WHERE'S THE MONEY LEBOWSKI?

Reading the plot alone seemed like it's going to be a lot of fun and it didn't take more than the first scene to convey the same thing. That first scene also had the drama's signature soundtrack running along with it, which totally sold me upon hearing it. It played dozens of times throughout the drama and it was always a banger for its scenes. The story was chaotic in the right way and the added light comedy and suspense created an enjoyable mix. A good selection of cast was present with a varied dynamic between them. Each had a small part with a side story running in parallel, although some of them I wish they had more time especially when considering its relaxed runtime. Otherwise, it could've benefited from a shorter runtime. Despite some shortcomings, it was quite an enjoyable watch.

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A Bitter Aftertaste

It wouldn't have been a culinary piece without pulling the classic "like my mother used to make it" move with the nostalgia hit like Ratatouille. Cooking extravaganza, orgasm by taste, sabotaging rats, exotic ingredients, old rivals, and lvl 99 hidden chefs, they're all here as you would expect from such a theme. However, I wish it stuck to its culinary theme more tightly. There were a few detours here and there that didn't fit well. The butcher arc, specifically the first 2 rounds, was an example of the drama shifting away from the main characters and cooking. The drama also added a little bit of "supposed" romance but it was one of the driest displays of romance ever, they even turned it into a quick love square for one episode. The brothers rivalry was meh, I didn't like its progression nor its resolution. Aside from everything else, the one thing that pushed me to the limits was the inclusion of the deplorable trope of excessive constant interrupts. More often than not, cutting scenes and conversations short. This deplorable trope left such a nasty sour taste that I couldn't shake it off. It ruined what I might have liked about the drama.

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Macaroni Noodle

To put it simply, the drama was not good. Selling a love story between an android and a human is a tough task on its own but the lack of chemistry and a functional dynamic between the two made it an impossible task to achieve. Not only the female lead was bad as a character but her inconsistencies pilled up more problems. Allegedly, she was his bodyguard and a strong headed ex-UFC fighter but she always ended up being the weakling princess who needed saving. I thought the drama might do an interesting play between the real guy and his duplicate android but the drama didn't put in the slightest of efforts in that regard. In fact, the entire narrative the drama went for was a load of crap sucking out any possible merits that might arise.

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Justice of The Dead

The drama had a good mix of cases and personal attachments which helped raising the tension and to have higher stakes. Most of the cases were interesting and entertaining. On the other hand, season 2 cases had less personal attachments other than 2 incidents, one around the middle and another for the last case. Stella existence was problematic to the drama, both the character and the actress. She was out of place and her scenes were insufferable since her introduction. She was added to the drama as a fun and quirky element but that backfired immediately. Sally was her replacement in season 2, the drama attempted to replicate Stella but ended creating a worse version which made her scenes even more insufferable. I can't stress enough how insufferable both of these characters were. Season 2 had another unsuccessful addition, that is the character Do Ji Han, his character took away from the drama rather than adding or enhancing any value. Judging by what they did with season 2, It's preferable to not get another sequel. Unfortunately, they left a lot of threads open for a possible continuation. On an unrelated note, the corpses in season 2 had more censoring than season 1.

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The Bad Sequel

In season 1: The introduction threw a wild scenario with a big stretch which helped attracting the viewers but the drama didn't return to the main case until the last 1/4. Meanwhile, it added fillers in the middle with okay cases but nothing interesting or outstanding like the initial jolt of rush, however, these middle parts helped connecting the characters together and form their relationships. The male lead character played out well with the setting and Park Shin Yang did a good job with his portrayal. The female lead was the most useless character in the drama. She had no role to play in anything other than being an insignificant side character. The return to the main case was good but unfortunately the drama went a bit soft in the punishment of the culprits.

Moving to season 2, I'm sure that season 2 is the worst non-consecutive sequel I've seen in any drama series ever. It's truly impressive how these seasons were in stark contrast to one another. Season 2 had a bad introduction and setup right away. There was a big disconnect between the male lead and his struggles. Which couldn't achieve the same impact as season 1. Everything the drama built, developed and achieved in season 1 was neglected in season 2. All cases were random generated garbage with little to no coherency to its theme, story and character. The male lead character was almost nothing like season 1. They went as far as erasing his past. He became a new character played by the same actor. It's a good example for how a character can change with a different director/writer even when hiring the same actor. Other than the 2 main lead, the drama had a full list of immemorable selection of cast members, completely blending into the background and turning into a white noise mush. Right from the beginning the female lead was the antagonist here but the drama built her story and character in a comical cheesy wronged by society kind of way. Her character had no real weight and ended up falling flat despite being played by a veteran actress Go Hyun Jung. The drama's attempt to make the viewers sympathize with her case and struggles at the end with an emotional climax was unsuccessful. If you really want to watch season 2 then don't watch it immediately after season 1, come back to it a month later because otherwise it will ruin your experience with season 1.

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