Short review ------no spoiler

While watching a model family I knew I was probably going to finish it in one go. Well almost, as I stopped at episode nine for the night and finished the rest the next morning.

The writing was good, the character stick to their personality for the duration of the show, which make them more real for me.
Overall good acting from all the cast, including the children.

The story revolves around the father, who is desperate to help is family, but a chain of bad decisions made him stray from the path of the good law-abiding citizen. The consequences of his choices made senses, there is no extraordinary twist to save him. At no time I thought that the line of events was underserved, broken or not satisfactory. The story flows like water.

I only thought once that the line was weirdly delivered, stiff and lifeless, only to be explained why later. It was a part of the writing, and it comes back later for the same reason. I think it was a cool detail.

Also with the 18+ rating, you can really feel the action without weird out of place blur like some other dark shows rated for a younger audience.

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Not bad

I feel sincerely that some points of the story ruin the whole picture.

I had to choose whether to write with spoilers or not. The spoiler will be in the comment below. DON'T click it if you don't want to be spoiled.

I liked the first few episodes, we come back to a world we left..well for me it was last year. I like the starting point of the story. The re-introduction of characters and the world overall. The action scenes in the first episode were well-made. The story picks its pace, but the writing makes it so the pacing is broken quite fast and becomes inconsistent. It hurts the story, especially in the last 4 episodes.

What hurts the story even more is the introduction of new plot points, those points didn't have time to develop and were brushed over so shallowly that they make little to no importance to the story. I like that they tried to expand the world a little, although they failed at that point too. Also, everything feels smaller than in the first season, even after introducing a new unknown region, that region has no weight in the story.

The music: to be honest, I can't even hum it, even after watching the last episode a minute ago. The music is forgettable. I don't remember feeling strong emotions from the music alone. Except for only one of the episodes, the music is lacking in supporting the scene.

The acting did pull on some heartstrings on a few occasions. Overall I think the acting was good during most of the scenes. It's the opposite of the music. The acting was great except for a few scenes.

For 12 episodes x 90 minutes, nothing much happened and too many new things were introduced.

I don't think I will rewatch this season. For me, they miss big time on building the climax of the story. That last episode left me with a blank face and a ''whatever'' in my head. ''Whatever it's over now''

Note; it's no bad and I am glad I watched it. I also don't care that they changed the actors, it did not influence my rating.

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Meh, it was good, not amazing

Death’s game

I thought the concept was interesting. I like stories that take on the supernatural, so it picked my interest quite fast. The main downpoint for me would be the whole suicide is a sin thing, I’ve never been a fan of this and it comes as insensitive most of the time. This time, surprise, it’s the same, it annoyed the crap out of me. Still think it did better than tomorrow on that subject, but barely. I still find myself enjoying quite a lot of this drama woudl probably rate it higher if I went with feeling, but objectively there are a lot of points that must be talked about.

-My life was hell every day (MC)
-How about the real hell ? (Death)

The ending was predictable. I wished it to go in another direction, but it chose the most predictable path.

The Story:

The main character sees himself as a failure. He ultimately kills himself after a series of hardships and misunderstandings. Death is not pleased with this at all, intercept his soul before going to hell, to prove a point, I guess. He is destined by Death to die 12 other times. Death puts his soul in the body of a person about to die, if he can prevent his death, he gets to keep living the rest of his life in the body he saved. Simple enough.

Some points are unbelievable, especially in the 4th episode.

1-      He was in a relationship for 7 years, but doesn’t know his girlfriend’s brother ?

2-      7 years and he is not living with her? it’s easier to be two, than one on rent.

I disliked that the baby story was only there to point out that at least MC has a mom who loves him. It could have been easily the most horrifying live in any episode but was brushed aside so quickly it made no impact.

The moral of the story could have been better than blaming the MC for the heartbreaks of the people he left behind. He took control of many lives where money was a key point in their life and ended up killing them. The 11th life should have been an eye's opener for MC ; the man lived the life he wanted, job, marriage, and kids, but it didn’t mean everything was going well for the guy. He wasted his chance and triggered his misfortune by killing the guy.

It was also ridiculous to put him in the body of his mother. 1-Nobody wants to see their mom naked (just kidding) 2-he lived more years as her than he as himself lol. Why, because he doesn’t want the body of his mom to die, not his mom, just the body, she is already dead.

I get it was to connect him with his mother, but I still laughed and it failed to bring the tears where there should have been.

Will his girlfriend die like she was destined to on the side of the road? will the Evil Chebol and the serial killer go unpunished? Does he retain the 32 years and 12 deaths in his memory, or just the feeling of it remaining, pushing him in the right direction? Unclear.

Suicide is a heavy topic, and this drama is not doing a good job of tackling it. The Problems that the MC faced are never put up front, never brought to light to help him fix them.
The resolution boils down to ‘’Dying = people sad = by the way you go to hell too’’

The ending is quite underwhelming. 

Pro :

+good actors
+The concept is interesting and original.  (it feels webtony, guess it was a webcomic)

Con

+ The chebol plot point was unnecessary.
+ Suicide is seen as egoistical/ sin.
+ the constant gaslighting of the character about his problem not being real.

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I liked it despite what you are going to read below

The first part of the first episode got me, what the hell is happening to those children? The sensation Is quickly pushed aside by the unrealistic depiction of the investigator's works.

The main investigator, Ryu Sung Joon, falls inside the archetype of the eccentric genius detective, the problem is that detective is just an eccentric moron with anger issues. Usually, those kinds of tropes make sense in a way because genius detectives are forgiven for their eccentricities in the hope their genius deductions skill will help the investigation. The real question is how that guy was able to become a police officer in the first place.

The other investigators are sloppy and the investigation is so slow.

The screen direction was poor, getting stabbed and then falling in the direction of the stab wound. Weird changes in scenes, contrasted with the seldom genius camera play, so I really didn't understand.

I often felt like the show was written by someone who did not research the field of investigation, medical and psychology much despite the story revolving around those 3 spheres. The misdirections are awfully written as well as the plot twists, so much so that it removes the realism those kinds of stories are supposed to have. Another effect of weak writing in mystery shows is that you come to think of the clues as may be part of the bad writing, sometimes clues were overlooked by the investigators.

There are also inconsistencies in the writing, making established facts malleable later in the story to create another, not needed, plot twist in the last few episodes, a plot twist already obvious by the 6th episode. (obvious only if you trust that the clue in the 6th episode is not a part of the sloppy writing)

Pro : I was genuinely intrigued about the kids and their implications in the story. The little they give at the beginning is interesting. I did take time every week to watch it, so they did something right.
Despite some of the episodes feeling like they dragged the story, at least they did not rush the ending of the story.

In conclusion, if you are the type of person who watched thriller shows without really thinking about it, you might be surprised by the story plot twists.
In contrast, if you are a little bit interested in mysteries, this show won’t surprise you at all.

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Heavy watch - Enjoyable Ride (animated movie going balistic)

I waited to watch this as I remembered that the animated movie left a strong impression in my mind. I don’t think I was ready for the series at the time it came out. It is portrayed by real-life actors makes for a more realistic impression. Although I approached the series as a different entity than the movie, it is interesting to compare. Some parts of the animated movie felt more real than the real-life series.

The story is about the impact of school violence, bullies, and the incomprehension of adults, on those who went through that violence but also on those around them. There are a lot of themes, packed inside a good series.

Back to the animated source :
If you have seen the animated movie of 2011, you know that the story is contained inside the meeting of two middle school friends 15 years later. Discussing the past as the movie moves forward. The story is taking place on a single night.

The series :
Is it the same as the movie ? = no

I would describe the series as the characters of the original movie going ballistic. Like an alternate universe of ‘’what if’’, where the main character Hwang Kyung Min takes revenge on the bullies. You won’t wait long as the first two episodes set the mood for the entire series.

So how well was the translation of a 2 hours movie into a 12 hours series? You bet it is astounding on how they managed to grab my attention for the whole 12 hours. The writing is stellar, and the characterization is great.
Overall, the acting is also something to note. Especially, the kids playing Hwang Kyung Min (Lee Chan Yoo) nailed the acting on every scene.

The show is fast-paced, I really like the 12 episodes format.
Every episode has its own song, depending on the tone of the episode, I thought it was a nice touch.

Note:
In 2011 when I watched the animated movie, I had already finished high school, but being myself a victim of school violence, it made a big impression. Fast forward 11 years later, the scenes are still shocking, but I felt less connected on an emotional level.

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