Forget The Sequel

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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The IDOLM@STER Universe

Back then when they were transforming the IDOLM@STER IP into all sorts of different media, including a Korean drama because why not? The drama itself played out exactly as you may expect and the first episode gave the necessary impression to set the expectations going forward. The cast members consisted mostly of idols so you may expect varied degrees of on-screen presence and performance. The drama explored one of the girls stories every 1-2 episodes but these were extremely predictable and bland, offering no variety, theming or appeal. You would expect this type of show to be much shorter but for some reason they went for full length, I guess they had the IDOLM@STER budget.

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An Entitled Princess

A princess traveling to the future is a decent concept that allows for a big playground to take it in all kinds of directions, however, in this iteration the drama somehow managed to craft the scummiest kind of setups, sucking out any sense of engagement or enjoyment which made the story plain bad. It's such a simple concept that could've been exercised easily into an appealing package. Anyway, I appreciate the 2000s aesthetics with the scuffed tailor shop and the gangsters, a quick nostalgia dose. The drama was one of Sung Yoo Ri's earliest works and she has come a long way since then. The cast had a good selection of members, of which, nowadays, some retired or passed away, rest in peace Lee Sun Kyun. It's unfortunate seeing them involved in this drama but at least they made it more worthwhile.

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Season 5 in first place

God's Quiz in general was more mystery/thriller/investigation than medical. The main lead, who's a medical examiner, was doing more field detective work and following suspects than the real detectives. I didn't like how they setup the main lead character, he's genius because of a drug experiment in his childhood and this led to all kinds of made up scenarios stemming from his condition across different seasons. Every season, they twisted it in a different way which took away from having a consistent character. It's the eternal problem of any unplanned sequel seasons in a series. Which imposes an impossible task for any multi-seasons writers.

Production: Seasons 1 to 4 were molded under the same OCN early days template, which all shared the same level of underwhelming production value. Soundtracks during season 1 & 2 were super generic stock background noise, only with season 3 they started to include music. Although season 3 was filmed better but had a much worse audio production in general. Season 4 was a noticeable improvement in production but it still wasn't quite there yet. This is all in comparison to regular shows that were released around early 2010s. On the other hand, season 5 brought with it a proper production and other improvements.

Characters: The dynamic and chemistry of the entire group during season 1 was abysmal, overacting from everyone, forced unnatural interactions and none of them clicked. Season 2 somewhat got better in that regard, you can notice that they got more relaxed but still not quite there yet. The ending scene of season 2 while the ML is kissing, his lips were shivering like crazy. It must have been super awkward to the point that they couldn't afford to have another take. Season 3 took a step backward with its changed cast. Detective Bae Tae Shik brought an awful dynamic to the table. Him and main lead didn't click together and created a bad on screen combination. It's probably why the writer didn't write him in for later seasons. The same can be said about other characters associated with Bae Tae Shik. The relationship and attempted romance between ML and Kyung Hee during season 1 & 2 was plain awful to watch. Only in season 4 it got reasonably better and season 5 fixed this issue completely by dropping the childish romantic tension and having them behave like adults. I liked seeing Kim Jae Won as a flashy villain in season 5, it was fun watching a different type of role from him.

Story: The structure of every season consisted of having a few cases then dedicate the last 3 episodes to the final case which had a personal connection with the characters. These last cases in every season were quite problematic for a variety of reasons, only season 5 had a better implementation despite its weak climax. More highlight across the seasons, the last episode of season 3 was the worst out of the entire series. The cloning plot in season 4 was super trashy and tacky, despite having an obvious playing room to take it into very interesting directions. The ending of season 4 featured another super weird and awkward kiss. The entire thing about AI in season 5 was really janky and a big stretch for the viewers to accept. In general, the cases were a mixed bag in every season, some were decent and interesting while others were boring, flawed or being stretched thin. However, season 3 featured mostly bad cases in addition to the handful of other problems which made season 3 to be the worst one in general.

The series as a whole was alright with a lot of ups and downs. It had a good concept with a varied degrees of execution. Although season 5 is the best one but it wouldn't have been that good as a stand alone drama without the accumulation of these characters journey. The ending of season 5 with both leads walking outside was very nicely done. On an unrelated note, it was impossible to not notice the ML's height.

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Season 1 & 3 in last place

God's Quiz in general was more mystery/thriller/investigation than medical. The main lead, who's a medical examiner, was doing more field detective work and following suspects than the real detectives. I didn't like how they setup the main lead character, he's genius because of a drug experiment in his childhood and this led to all kinds of made up scenarios stemming from his condition across different seasons. Every season, they twisted it in a different way which took away from having a consistent character. It's the eternal problem of any unplanned sequel seasons in a series. Which imposes an impossible task for any multi-seasons writers.

Production: Seasons 1 to 4 were molded under the same OCN early days template, which all shared the same level of underwhelming production value. Soundtracks during season 1 & 2 were super generic stock background noise, only with season 3 they started to include music. Although season 3 was filmed better but had a much worse audio production in general. Season 4 was a noticeable improvement in production but it still wasn't quite there yet. This is all in comparison to regular shows that were released around early 2010s. On the other hand, season 5 brought with it a proper production and other improvements.

Characters: The dynamic and chemistry of the entire group during season 1 was abysmal, overacting from everyone, forced unnatural interactions and none of them clicked. Season 2 somewhat got better in that regard, you can notice that they got more relaxed but still not quite there yet. The ending scene of season 2 while the ML is kissing, his lips were shivering like crazy. It must have been super awkward to the point that they couldn't afford to have another take. Season 3 took a step backward with its changed cast. Detective Bae Tae Shik brought an awful dynamic to the table. Him and main lead didn't click together and created a bad on screen combination. It's probably why the writer didn't write him in for later seasons. The same can be said about other characters associated with Bae Tae Shik. The relationship and attempted romance between ML and Kyung Hee during season 1 & 2 was plain awful to watch. Only in season 4 it got reasonably better and season 5 fixed this issue completely by dropping the childish romantic tension and having them behave like adults. I liked seeing Kim Jae Won as a flashy villain in season 5, it was fun watching a different type of role from him.

Story: The structure of every season consisted of having a few cases then dedicate the last 3 episodes to the final case which had a personal connection with the characters. These last cases in every season were quite problematic for a variety of reasons, only season 5 had a better implementation despite its weak climax. More highlight across the seasons, the last episode of season 3 was the worst out of the entire series. The cloning plot in season 4 was super trashy and tacky, despite having an obvious playing room to take it into very interesting directions. The ending of season 4 featured another super weird and awkward kiss. The entire thing about AI in season 5 was really janky and a big stretch for the viewers to accept. In general, the cases were a mixed bag in every season, some were decent and interesting while others were boring, flawed or being stretched thin. However, season 3 featured mostly bad cases in addition to the handful of other problems which made season 3 to be the worst one in general.

The series as a whole was alright with a lot of ups and downs. It had a good concept with a varied degrees of execution. Although season 5 is the best one but it wouldn't have been that good as a stand alone drama without the accumulation of these characters journey. The ending of season 5 with both leads walking outside was very nicely done. On an unrelated note, it was impossible to not notice the ML's height.

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It's A Goodbye, I Guess...

Although it's a short mini drama but it's star studded with a full production. that's pretty rare for most short format drama below 4 episodes. Some already decent short dramas just need a good cast and production to elevate it. As sad as the story may seems but the writer over bloated it to the extremes. Everyone around the FL had problems, conflicts and worries (from friends family relatives), each adding an additional layer to her eventful life pre-cancer and an additional one while facing death. Adding the grandmother with dementia to the mix was too much. All of this took away from the most beautiful goodbye. It would have been better to keep everything within the limit of the family (only kids + husband).

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An Office Flop

The drama failed to establish a good hook with its premise or with its first episode in general. Most of the drama was spent with an awful repetitive cycle of whining from the hardships in their workplace.The writer realized this problem and started to bring the characters' personal stories and relationships more into focus with the workplace aspect becoming less prominent as the drama went on. The workplace challenges couldn't hold their own weight to service the drama. The weak and uninteresting tension it tried to create made the matter worse. Coming from the same writer who wrote Hyena (2020), this drama wasn't good in comparison.

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Budget Wedding

The drama had a decent introduction and seemed promising with its theme. The first 3-4 episodes gave the impression that the drama was going to be an episodic formula about a variety of different scenarios and struggles couples could run through around their wedding, however, although they had a couple of these scenarios early on but everything after that boiled down to the typical financial issues which the drama repeated and reskinned 5-6 times until the end. The drama had a good set up to easily come up with a handful of other ideas themed around preparing weddings. On the other hand, the drama had a good cast for a short drama which made the whole thing more tolerable.

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Dysfunctional Characters

The drama kicked off with good modern visuals and an interesting fantasy setting on a mystical island. However, it quickly unraveled. The fantasy elements, though visually appealing, peaked in the first two episodes, while the remainder felt like a rehash of what we'd already seen. It's strange that they revealed all their cards in the beginning, leaving the rest feeling empty. The female lead was sent to the island to work as a teacher, but this plotline was completely irrelevant and didn't last for more than one episode. The direction the drama took with the fantasy story turned out to be quite disappointing afterwards. More on characters, the female lead was an unstoppable cringe generator with her non-serious interactions, especially with the male lead in the earlier parts. It was the writers way trying desperately to build chemistry between the two, but it was impossible without rewriting the characters themselves. However, the character that suffered the most from both the writers' curse and the cast choice was Goong Tan. It doesn't take a blind man to see what was wrong. The drama ended up being this shallow shipwreck of recycled ideas and bland characters.

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Dysfunctional Characters

The drama kicked off with good modern visuals and an interesting fantasy setting on a mystical island. However, it quickly unraveled. The fantasy elements, though visually appealing, peaked in the first two episodes, while the remainder felt like a rehash of what we'd already seen. It's strange that they revealed all their cards in the beginning, leaving the rest feeling empty. The female lead was sent to the island to work as a teacher, but this plotline was completely irrelevant and didn't last for more than one episode. The direction the drama took with the fantasy story turned out to be quite disappointing afterwards. More on characters, the female lead was an unstoppable cringe generator with her non-serious interactions, especially with the male lead in the earlier parts. It was the writers way trying desperately to build chemistry between the two, but it was impossible without rewriting the characters themselves. However, the character that suffered the most from both the writers' curse and the cast choice was Goong Tan. It doesn't take a blind man to see what was wrong. The drama ended up being this shallow shipwreck of recycled ideas and bland characters.

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Patriotism!

We've had plenty of prosecutor shows, but now it's set in a military setting—what a revolutionary twist! The drama was alright and had an interesting introduction, but the overarching story was delayed too often, and interest began to plummet. It would have fared better if the side cases weren't so bland and were better interconnected. Even though there were moments of tension and drama but there was something missing that prevented it from being impactful. The characters were a mixed bag, some of them were great while the rest were too annoying to tolerate. While the ending was fine but I wish there was more to it.

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Did They Try Their Best?

It had a pretty normal start with introducing the story and the characters, nothing about it peaked my interest. The story itself was too safe, tame and outright boring, they didn't attempt any challenging situation even when they wanted to create conflict or tension. The comedy was a hit or miss, they didn't have a lot of material to work on in the first place. The main running joke was the unemployed main guy which got really stale overtime. The drama also lacked good dynamics between the cast, the small size of the active cast didn't help either. The side stories ended up being white noise. Too many of them had a good potential to craft something meaningful but the drama refused to take any of them seriously and gave each one a halfhearted resolution at the end. I can see problems and gaps from translating the manga into a live action format, something didn't click. I'm sure the manga fared better for such themes and stories.

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Inside Out

It started with a lousy introduction and a decent premise that was simple on paper and then began to jump between one plot after another until the end. There was a desperate need for a better coherent structure and pacing. The plot got overly convoluted for no practical reason. Up until the end, it kept introducing more and more new characters to widen the connection and keep the story running in circles. The characters were more or less fine but a lot of them came off in the form of a generic gangster in a Korean thriller. I appreciate not shoving romance between the leads, it would've been out of place for sure. I liked what they've done regarding the resolution of the bad guys, it had all the ingredients to end horribly but it didn't.

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Yonkers

Amidst all those full length dramas out there, this short series really stood out by packing a serious punch in just a handful of episodes. The concise storytelling allowed for a focused exploration of its central theme, providing a satisfying narrative arc without unnecessary filler. Both main leads were well characterized and provided a solid performance. However, the other characters weren't on the same level, you can notice the gap. The pacing was brisk yet effective, keeping the viewers engaged from without feeling rushed. I wish it had an extra episode to have a better introduction/first episode. The drama also had a decent cinematography and production value. One last thing, I didn't understand why they based the drama in the 2030s. It was such a big stretch, they went overboard with the sci-fi elements for something set in 2030s. There was no real reason to specify the date, so why not set it further into the future, like the 2060s?

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When the Weather Is Whine

I liked the stories involving the female lead, her mother and her aunt, they kept you anticipating for more. However, the other side plots were really not that interesting to follow and ended up being just a white noise. From reading the synopsis and watching its earlier parts, we got to know what the female was going through and why she moved away from the city. Clearly, she had issues she needed to work on, however, despite her issues with trusting people and being hurt by others, her romance went against her character. She had a very easy and quick romance with minimum communication for a drama that meant to be driven by dialogue. She started a relationship in a short period of time before scratching the surface of her issues. It would've been much better to replace the romance with the people of her town, it would have had created a much better environment to work on her issues. In fact, the resolution and progress on her issues ended up being half-hearted, not much was accomplished by the end. On another note, I didn't like that the characters past stories were based in high-school, there was a gap that couldn't be translated to their adulthood life. If they were to switch the past events and have it be based in university for example, I think that would create a better connection, relatability and meaning to their adulthood issues.

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