2
4
the_sapio_nerd
Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India
C̶o̶n̶f̶u̶s̶i̶n̶g̶ , No! just stupid.
Created by Ace Factory & Arc Media,"GRID (그리드) [2022] is a Disney+ Korea Original drama and one of the first ventures of the investment made by the OTT giant in South Korea. Written by Lee Soo-Yeon, directed by Khan Lee and music composed by Kim Jun-seok, this is a Scifi thriller involving various fields of science.
The world collectively creates a shield namely GRID which is an artificially induced geo-magnetic field, to protect the human civilization from the suddenly erupted strong solar wind, otherwise the earth would face a rapid mass extinction event. The story keeps at centre, Kim Se Ha (Kang Seo Joon), an employee at Administration Bureau dedicated to the South Korean Grid Management Body and Jung Sae Byeok (Kim Ah Joong), a detective in the violent crimes department. While following a murder suspect involving a mysterious woman as the accomplice, they discover unforeseen events that remained as dark secrets behind the GRID for decades.
Others familiar and skillful actors playing main and supporting involve: Kim Sung Kyun, Jang So Yeon, Lee Si Young, Kim Mu Yeol, Heo Jun Seok, Lee Kyu Hoe, Jo Hee Bong, Kim Hyung Mook and Song Sang Eun. Many known faces are also in guest roles. The acting and performance are up to par, with all these good actors.
Plot development... If I were to express the development in percentage, I'd give it a fair 50/100, why? Bcs it was half good and half bad, very exactly. The pilot episode, the furtherance and the development in ep 1 to ep 5 is sooo amazing and it was even fine till the midway through 6th. And that's when everything starts falling apart. To make it look more confusing, the makers attempted to incorporate a number of thriller elements as well as subsume related concepts from different fields of science, expecting it would seem complicated to a particular set of audience. (note the sentence carefully, bcs it wasn't really confusing, rather the writer thought the audience would find it confusing)
Something that started with the physics of cosmic & solar science and geomagnetism, turned into time travel & 22nd century technology and finally ended up with molecular phylogeny, heredity, mutations and evolution. Intersecting science is not a new deal, but what you must possess is the most basic knowledge and even a vast knowledge, in order to retain the scientific goals. I feel, it was still okay till the 8th episode and from there they could have tried to wrap up things with a simple manner in last 2 episodes. But 9th was even messier, making it complicated to a level from which it can't be saved with one final episode. The amount of plotholes adding to the complicated inclusion of absurd and illogical concepts, led to a rushed and sloppy ending. Okay, let's speculate it like, the show will have another ending, for? In order to explain the things it has left; seema more likely and somewhat obvious, but again, for what and why exactly? I see no point of making a sequel of continuation, bcs it doesn't deserve one; no more penny should be spent and no more time should be wasted on a script that turned into nothingness. I am not watching it if this actually happens.
Lee Soo Yeon jakkanim might have created only a handful number of dramas, but in terms of quality, she aced on her debut and proved her worth; so that was expected to be reflected in this drama as well, unfortunately which didn't happen. There was a definite amount of struggle which was visible through inconsistencies in plot, inconvenient elements, lack of proper knowledge and relevancy among fields of science; clearly she attempted something out of her league, without a thorough study. It could have been a good mystery thriller with only one basic concept otherwise; the situation can be justified saying it was an experimental approach from her side, which will help her but as audiences, It's fair to be disappointed.
Having not known the director before I can not write about Lee Khan PDnim, while I must point out the technicality of his work. So overally, it wasn't a exciting judgement bcs I had to think through a lot. The screenwriting was very good for the first half and became messy in the later but I doubt for direction, whether there was a consistent effort; what I mean to say is, I didn't particularly like it for any part of the show and the thing that kept me hooked was the unique concept for the time being. While cinematography and VFX works have been well handled, I can't say the same for screen and sound editing. The comprehensive execution isn't really likable.
What I disliked...
# I strongly believe in intersectionality in any case possible and for the modern world of science, it's the key to many more ventures and discoveries. The same using 2 or 3 branches is cool, but going beyond that and not being able to retain the factuality of either of them properly, is what you call inanity and indiscretion.
# One of the biggest drawbacks of this show is it's run time. Given that there are only 10 episodes with around 50 minutes duration each, it probably needed more to explain things in detail and good pacing, thereby allowing the viewers to understand it better. But again, I am relieved it didn't happen as I would have to endure more of this lunacy.
# Adding to the last point, the 1 ep per week tactics was a vacuous decision from the makers. It could have been okay with more than an hour runtime but still for a 10 eps short show with less duration, it should be either an one shot release or 2 eps per week.
# The exaggerated context wasn't personally bearable even with the introduction of numerous new revelations with each passing scene. Instead of exciting my curiosity, I was rather bored and sometimes even frustrated bcs of the irrational and laughable elements kicked off by the makers.
# The undergrade progression of the plot turned me off in thea 2nd half and the more I tried to think positively of it, the greater was it's irrationality with each coming scene.
# Rushed ending, it was obvious and expected, even by the ones who have been liking it, and all of us certainly wanted the show to at least not leave anything unanswered. It clearly didn't happen given the number of plotholes it has left.
Final Remarks... My feelings and excitement for the first half was that good that I thought I would end u0 recommending it to everyone but I was proved wrong in the latter half, for it quickly went downhill and messed everything up. For the 50% I would have been generous if only it was a 16eps drama with longer runtime but with the circumstances I would not recommend it to anyone. I would have rated it at 6.0 if not for the potential it possessed in the first half.
The world collectively creates a shield namely GRID which is an artificially induced geo-magnetic field, to protect the human civilization from the suddenly erupted strong solar wind, otherwise the earth would face a rapid mass extinction event. The story keeps at centre, Kim Se Ha (Kang Seo Joon), an employee at Administration Bureau dedicated to the South Korean Grid Management Body and Jung Sae Byeok (Kim Ah Joong), a detective in the violent crimes department. While following a murder suspect involving a mysterious woman as the accomplice, they discover unforeseen events that remained as dark secrets behind the GRID for decades.
Others familiar and skillful actors playing main and supporting involve: Kim Sung Kyun, Jang So Yeon, Lee Si Young, Kim Mu Yeol, Heo Jun Seok, Lee Kyu Hoe, Jo Hee Bong, Kim Hyung Mook and Song Sang Eun. Many known faces are also in guest roles. The acting and performance are up to par, with all these good actors.
Plot development... If I were to express the development in percentage, I'd give it a fair 50/100, why? Bcs it was half good and half bad, very exactly. The pilot episode, the furtherance and the development in ep 1 to ep 5 is sooo amazing and it was even fine till the midway through 6th. And that's when everything starts falling apart. To make it look more confusing, the makers attempted to incorporate a number of thriller elements as well as subsume related concepts from different fields of science, expecting it would seem complicated to a particular set of audience. (note the sentence carefully, bcs it wasn't really confusing, rather the writer thought the audience would find it confusing)
Something that started with the physics of cosmic & solar science and geomagnetism, turned into time travel & 22nd century technology and finally ended up with molecular phylogeny, heredity, mutations and evolution. Intersecting science is not a new deal, but what you must possess is the most basic knowledge and even a vast knowledge, in order to retain the scientific goals. I feel, it was still okay till the 8th episode and from there they could have tried to wrap up things with a simple manner in last 2 episodes. But 9th was even messier, making it complicated to a level from which it can't be saved with one final episode. The amount of plotholes adding to the complicated inclusion of absurd and illogical concepts, led to a rushed and sloppy ending. Okay, let's speculate it like, the show will have another ending, for? In order to explain the things it has left; seema more likely and somewhat obvious, but again, for what and why exactly? I see no point of making a sequel of continuation, bcs it doesn't deserve one; no more penny should be spent and no more time should be wasted on a script that turned into nothingness. I am not watching it if this actually happens.
Lee Soo Yeon jakkanim might have created only a handful number of dramas, but in terms of quality, she aced on her debut and proved her worth; so that was expected to be reflected in this drama as well, unfortunately which didn't happen. There was a definite amount of struggle which was visible through inconsistencies in plot, inconvenient elements, lack of proper knowledge and relevancy among fields of science; clearly she attempted something out of her league, without a thorough study. It could have been a good mystery thriller with only one basic concept otherwise; the situation can be justified saying it was an experimental approach from her side, which will help her but as audiences, It's fair to be disappointed.
Having not known the director before I can not write about Lee Khan PDnim, while I must point out the technicality of his work. So overally, it wasn't a exciting judgement bcs I had to think through a lot. The screenwriting was very good for the first half and became messy in the later but I doubt for direction, whether there was a consistent effort; what I mean to say is, I didn't particularly like it for any part of the show and the thing that kept me hooked was the unique concept for the time being. While cinematography and VFX works have been well handled, I can't say the same for screen and sound editing. The comprehensive execution isn't really likable.
What I disliked...
# I strongly believe in intersectionality in any case possible and for the modern world of science, it's the key to many more ventures and discoveries. The same using 2 or 3 branches is cool, but going beyond that and not being able to retain the factuality of either of them properly, is what you call inanity and indiscretion.
# One of the biggest drawbacks of this show is it's run time. Given that there are only 10 episodes with around 50 minutes duration each, it probably needed more to explain things in detail and good pacing, thereby allowing the viewers to understand it better. But again, I am relieved it didn't happen as I would have to endure more of this lunacy.
# Adding to the last point, the 1 ep per week tactics was a vacuous decision from the makers. It could have been okay with more than an hour runtime but still for a 10 eps short show with less duration, it should be either an one shot release or 2 eps per week.
# The exaggerated context wasn't personally bearable even with the introduction of numerous new revelations with each passing scene. Instead of exciting my curiosity, I was rather bored and sometimes even frustrated bcs of the irrational and laughable elements kicked off by the makers.
# The undergrade progression of the plot turned me off in thea 2nd half and the more I tried to think positively of it, the greater was it's irrationality with each coming scene.
# Rushed ending, it was obvious and expected, even by the ones who have been liking it, and all of us certainly wanted the show to at least not leave anything unanswered. It clearly didn't happen given the number of plotholes it has left.
Final Remarks... My feelings and excitement for the first half was that good that I thought I would end u0 recommending it to everyone but I was proved wrong in the latter half, for it quickly went downhill and messed everything up. For the 50% I would have been generous if only it was a 16eps drama with longer runtime but with the circumstances I would not recommend it to anyone. I would have rated it at 6.0 if not for the potential it possessed in the first half.
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