jungbareumshoe
sung yohan’s basement
This review may contain spoilers
He Who Holds The Gavel Wields Formidable Power
WARNING: SOME MAJOR SPOILERS BELOW.
First off, I watched this show since it first aired, so this review is rated from a different perspective compared to those who just binged all episodes of the show in one sitting.
Blind may your typical revenge-based thriller, but its overall plot is quite unique, since it’s premise is based on a true story, which the authors have taken and sprinkled a bit of their own creative narrative to it. Blind takes inspiration from a South Korean case involving a welfare place called Brothers Home. I suggest that you research about the matter, but viewer discretion is advised. In short, the plot is nothing you’d see in other kdramas, but Blind’s take on it had some pitfalls. Some spoilers below.
Given this is based on a real case, I can’t help but feel conflicted. Although the plot is circulated around revenge, I didn’t like how they made victims of HWC come out as seemingly psychopathic, bloodthirsty murderers. I’m not saying that I necessarily disapprove of the revenge arc, but some characters ruined it for me more than others. If one of the villains were more dimensional like Sung Hoon, I would’ve approved of it, but Yoon Jae is an entirely different case. His character ruined it for me. Yoon Jae lacked character development, and stayed as a rather two-dimensional (flat) character throughout the story. Considering how much he was mentioned throughout the story, I expected for the writers to make him a much more impressional anti-hero, but he just came out as a villain. I was disappointed to find out that he wasn’t a main lead, since his character was mentioned so much throughout the drama.
Even after the drama ended, Blind still had so many plot holes. In fact, I counted around 15. I was disappointed how none of these were filled at the end. Another thing that irked me was the sloppy investigative work. Almost everyone, including Sung Joon, looked like amateurs trying to play cat and mouse.
Blind also lacked influential characters. Aside from Sung Joon and Eun Ki, none of the other characters, including Sung Hoon and Yoon Jae, made a deep impression on me. Although Sung Hoon character was morally grey and dimensional, I felt like he lacked something. Overall character to me was just.. weird. I can’t quite explain it. He’s straightforward, smart, and seemingly perfect, but he seemed too animated. I’m not sure if this was on his actor’s part, but I felt that Sung Hoon’s character could’ve been written differently. I already talked about Yoon Jae, but I have to mention one thing: If his character was written like Children of Nobody’s anti-hero Lee Eun Ho, I would’ve approved of it.
I appreciated the final episode so much. It seems like the writers took some time to spread awareness about the real-life issue. It was impressionable, call to action wise.
Flaws aside, the drama did a wonderful job at keeping my attention gripped. Each episode had an impressional cliffhanger, which left me anxiously waiting each week. It stayed consistent in this aspect. Furthermore, this is probably the first Korean thriller where I actually rewatched each episode to try and play detective on the case. It was fun reading theorizing and reading other people’s theories on platforms like MDL and Reddit- the community was incredible and well-mannered (almost everyone out spoiler tags on their comments, that’s why).
Blind’s soundtrack was also perfect. A new MV was released each week, and none of them flopped. I literally played these OST’s every day and never got sick of it. Im thoroughly impressed by the sheer amount of variety in the OST’s. It included so many genres, many of which I thought I wouldn’t like- such as country and rock. However, some scenes in the drama could’ve used a more suitable OST. Often times, I find that certain scenes had OST’s that completely ruined the mood for me.
I have to give credit to the wonderful actors and actresses that participated in this project. The cast had seasoned actors and actresses, so I wasn’t concerned on cringe-worthy acting. I was especially surprised by Eunji’s acting, since it was natural and she immersed into her role well. Taec and Eunji had so much chemistry on and off set, and I kinda wished they took the romance route for them at some point. However, I felt like some characters needed more work in role immersion.
Finally, I liked how morally-grey the drama was. As the titled states: “Enter Blind, Retreat Equally as Blind,” it’s best to approach this drama completely spoiler-free. Even towards the end of the drama, you’d still feel conflicted on whether or not justice was served. Some characters had crueler fates than others, but was it deserved? was justice served on a silver platter or was it bittersweet?
First off, I watched this show since it first aired, so this review is rated from a different perspective compared to those who just binged all episodes of the show in one sitting.
Blind may your typical revenge-based thriller, but its overall plot is quite unique, since it’s premise is based on a true story, which the authors have taken and sprinkled a bit of their own creative narrative to it. Blind takes inspiration from a South Korean case involving a welfare place called Brothers Home. I suggest that you research about the matter, but viewer discretion is advised. In short, the plot is nothing you’d see in other kdramas, but Blind’s take on it had some pitfalls. Some spoilers below.
Given this is based on a real case, I can’t help but feel conflicted. Although the plot is circulated around revenge, I didn’t like how they made victims of HWC come out as seemingly psychopathic, bloodthirsty murderers. I’m not saying that I necessarily disapprove of the revenge arc, but some characters ruined it for me more than others. If one of the villains were more dimensional like Sung Hoon, I would’ve approved of it, but Yoon Jae is an entirely different case. His character ruined it for me. Yoon Jae lacked character development, and stayed as a rather two-dimensional (flat) character throughout the story. Considering how much he was mentioned throughout the story, I expected for the writers to make him a much more impressional anti-hero, but he just came out as a villain. I was disappointed to find out that he wasn’t a main lead, since his character was mentioned so much throughout the drama.
Even after the drama ended, Blind still had so many plot holes. In fact, I counted around 15. I was disappointed how none of these were filled at the end. Another thing that irked me was the sloppy investigative work. Almost everyone, including Sung Joon, looked like amateurs trying to play cat and mouse.
Blind also lacked influential characters. Aside from Sung Joon and Eun Ki, none of the other characters, including Sung Hoon and Yoon Jae, made a deep impression on me. Although Sung Hoon character was morally grey and dimensional, I felt like he lacked something. Overall character to me was just.. weird. I can’t quite explain it. He’s straightforward, smart, and seemingly perfect, but he seemed too animated. I’m not sure if this was on his actor’s part, but I felt that Sung Hoon’s character could’ve been written differently. I already talked about Yoon Jae, but I have to mention one thing: If his character was written like Children of Nobody’s anti-hero Lee Eun Ho, I would’ve approved of it.
I appreciated the final episode so much. It seems like the writers took some time to spread awareness about the real-life issue. It was impressionable, call to action wise.
Flaws aside, the drama did a wonderful job at keeping my attention gripped. Each episode had an impressional cliffhanger, which left me anxiously waiting each week. It stayed consistent in this aspect. Furthermore, this is probably the first Korean thriller where I actually rewatched each episode to try and play detective on the case. It was fun reading theorizing and reading other people’s theories on platforms like MDL and Reddit- the community was incredible and well-mannered (almost everyone out spoiler tags on their comments, that’s why).
Blind’s soundtrack was also perfect. A new MV was released each week, and none of them flopped. I literally played these OST’s every day and never got sick of it. Im thoroughly impressed by the sheer amount of variety in the OST’s. It included so many genres, many of which I thought I wouldn’t like- such as country and rock. However, some scenes in the drama could’ve used a more suitable OST. Often times, I find that certain scenes had OST’s that completely ruined the mood for me.
I have to give credit to the wonderful actors and actresses that participated in this project. The cast had seasoned actors and actresses, so I wasn’t concerned on cringe-worthy acting. I was especially surprised by Eunji’s acting, since it was natural and she immersed into her role well. Taec and Eunji had so much chemistry on and off set, and I kinda wished they took the romance route for them at some point. However, I felt like some characters needed more work in role immersion.
Finally, I liked how morally-grey the drama was. As the titled states: “Enter Blind, Retreat Equally as Blind,” it’s best to approach this drama completely spoiler-free. Even towards the end of the drama, you’d still feel conflicted on whether or not justice was served. Some characters had crueler fates than others, but was it deserved? was justice served on a silver platter or was it bittersweet?
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