This drama was..interesting. I had high expectations since this drama was so popular and the center of the Hallyu wave at one point, and I thought to myself all throughout the drama, 'is it really that good?' And no matter how many times I thought about it, I still didn't find myself thinking it was. I tried watching this drama around three years ago when it first came out, but got to episode 11 and didn't want to continue watching. However, I decided to give this drama another shot, and I managed to get through all of the episodes because of some occasional funny moments and because Kim Soo Hyun made it more bearable.
I think this drama is pretty overrated, mainly because of the top stars in this drama and popularity of it because otherwise, I don't see a basis for this 8.9 rating. Personally, I love Kim Soo Hyun -he's one of my favorite actors- but for some reason this drama just didn't cut it for me.
This drama had a lot of potential but it kind of just went all over the place. There's a lot of genres and different mysteries throughout, which is what brought this drama down. The genres ranged from historical/saeguk genre dating back to the Joseon years to modern 20th century top-star actors to family drama to crazy messed up crime to magic sci-fi to comedy to conglomerate businesses. I like all of these genres, but when they are combined, it just doesn't work out. Like one moment you'd be watching middle-aged scholars write historical books in the 1600's and the next moment you'd be brought into reality when a top star actress is being arrogant and demands to be escorted at every second.
I loved the sci-fi theme about how Do Min Joon was an 'alien' and had special superpowers, and I think if the story just focused on this, it would have had so much more potential and still have been very interesting. But when they brought in egocentric film industry characters and psychopathic serial killers, it really made the story all over the place. Sometimes, it even felt like Do Min Joon's powers were just a side story because it focused so much on solving the murder crimes committed by Lee Jae Kyung (who was a complete psycho btw, and everytime he came on the screen, I just wanted to scream).
Do Min Joon, however, was an amazing character and I loved his personality. Deep down, he is a very kind person that is loyal and will sacrifice his life protecting others. His awesome alien capabilities made him all the more cool and I wish I could do those things like teleport lmao. Kim Soo Hyun being cast as him was a great choice, but I wish I could say the same for Jun Ji Hyun. Her character was someone that was spoiled, bratty, and arrogant af considering she plays a topstar actress. Sometimes I wish someone else was cast because she is considerably older than Do Min Joon. However, after her career went downhill, you can see that she is actually someone pretty cute with a lot aegyo, especially when she starts to realize that she likes Do Min Joon, and I thought it was very cute when she got clingy to him. Even though she seems like she has everything in the eyes of others, she really doesn't.
Cheon Song Yi's brother was hilarious. At first, he was portrayed as someone very arrogant, and I was like...? what's his purpose in this drama; but, especially after seeing his interactions with Do Min Joon his character took a complete reversal and he was really funny. Also considering the fact that Ahn Jae Hyung plays a high school student even though he is older Do Min Joon is also pretty funny. That E.T. moment though (replayed that like 10 times xD)
Okay moving on to some other characters. Hee Kyung go really annoying sometimes and it got on my nerves, but I liked him better towards the end when he realized what his brother was doing bc he was pretty smart about it. Also, his obsession towards Song Yi was kinda creepy, like no offense but an enlarged picture of her on your bedroom wall?? Okay sorry. Anyways, I also liked Yoo Se Mi's brother, the prosecutor, because he was pretty smart yet still handsome!
The music was nice, but not amazing. There's of course the infamous 'My Destiny' song which I like, but has been overplayed so much that I kind of don't like it anymore lol.
Overall, this drama was okay, but just could have been so much better! Just the plot had so many categories that it just couldn't concentrate on one thing to make it better. However, this may be a good drama to watch if you are new to kdramas!
Was this review helpful to you?