Oppa!

There is a whole lot to like and a whole lot to dislike about this show. If you are looking for a medical drama about curing mental illness and showcasing good medical ethics, look elsewhere. The show rather focuses on over-the top characterization of mental disorders and a love-conquers-all plot.

Watching Ji Sung act is pure delight. He effortlessly switches from comedy to tragedy and skillfully changes tone and characterization between personalities. One moment, he is a cunning, eyeliner-wearing bad boy, the next, he is a teenage girl screaming "OPPAAAAA!". His acting truly shines where the plot fails, making the drama very performance driven and flat on storytelling.

The worst thing about the show is Oh Ri Jin. I know that a dorky and messy female was a popular stereotype at the time the drama was filmed. But, Ri Jin is frustrating and mostly annoying. She is loud, sloppy, and unintelligent. And, she screams all the damn time. The writers build her up as an empathetic doctor, but they make no attempt to show her medical skills or have her treat patients. Instead, she is always between jobs while being praised for the skills she does not seem to have. Her character lacks depth and goes through very little development. While childhood abuse is the source of Do Hyun's torment, Ri Jin happily bee-bops through life with amnesia. When she finally regains her memories, it does not seem to sway her or have any impact on her at all.

Secondary characters don't do anything relevant, but hijack a lot of screen time. I like Park Seo Joon, but Oh Ri On is an eyesore. He has no purpose and the writers constantly insert him between Do Hyun and Ri Jin with no push-back from her, making the show often a frustrating watch. He is meddling and manipulative, but the writers never address it and portray him as an overprotective brother with one-sided incestual love for a woman raised as his sister. Instead of creating a deep brother/sister bond, the writers follow a cliche formula where multiple males must fall in love with a weak heroine without her actually deserving it.

The storytelling is very inconsistent with too many tonal switches. In one episode, Do Hyun's teen girl alter ego is chasing after Ri On. In another, Do Hyun is tearing up for multiple scenes trying to deal with his never-ending trauma. While I enjoy good comedy, it is out-of-place here because the show's focus is on past abuse and mental illness, which are anything but funny. Some of Do Hyun's personalities have no depth and only serve as comic relief. But, the personalities that are the most impactful disappear for episodes at a time. The writers try to do too many things at once by sporadically flip flopping between hilarity and tragedy and thus creating a very choppy story.

Overall, the drama has consistently good pacing and Ji Sung's versatile performance makes it entertaining. But, it would've been much better with 16, instead of 20, episodes. Too much time is spent on the secondary characters and flashbacks. Editing needs work as episodes haphazardly jump between scenes before finishing them. The final showdown between Do Hyun and his relatives for the control of the company is very anticlimactic. And, the writers drag Han Chae Yun's obsession with Do Hyun for way longer than necessary.

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Hilarious and delightful

The enemies to lovers plot is nothing new, but, the show makes it hilariously entertaining. What I love about it is that the writers manage to create comedic characters without turning them into infantile nincompoops. Mi Ran and Kang Ho are very well matched in terms of intelligence and assertiveness. She sees through his fake charm and he appreciates her assertiveness.

The show is very well rounded in terms of pacing and storytelling. Because it has only 10 episodes, there are no boring story arcs and the plot moves at a very good speed. I also appreciate that the writers don't unnecessarily drag out plotlines and resolve any misunderstanding fairly quickly. The rest of the drama is focused on the main leads' explosive chemistry. He loves her not because she is a cute, but because she is brave and not afraid to put her well being on the line to save other people. By getting to know each other, they lose some of their cynicism and realize that there are good people in the world. Not all women are opportunists, and, not all men are cheaters. Kim Ok Bin impressed me in "Arthdal Chronicles". Here, she shows her versatility in a comedic role. And, I absolutely love Kim Ji Hoon. He can be a convincing psycho serial killer and a romantic character. We need to see more of him in main roles.

The final episode gets a little bit convoluted. The writers decide to throw a last minute curve ball for the sake of tension. I don't think it was necessary to expose Mi Ran's serial dating life style and to create drama between the main leads. It felt very forced and unnecessary compared to the drama's otherwise very fluid storytelling.

Overall, the drama is very enjoyable. All the characters are likable and the romance is very satisfying.

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A lackluster attempt at a time travel murder mystery

The drama has an interesting idea that gets lost between multiple character arcs, loose ends, and a draggy plot. The main characters are likable, but everything else is longwinded and forgettable.

One of the biggest issues is too many characters to keep track of. The writers thought it was necessary to drag out the plot by giving each character a meaningless story arc. And, the characters that are actually interesting are reduced to tropey stereotypes. Go Mi Suk is built up to be a super manipulative sociopath who has a keen sense for people's weakness to be used against them. But, she is reduced to a typical troubled teenager who acts up because of family problems and whose only transgression is plagiarism. The murderer is supposed to be a big bad mysterious villain but he turns out to be a stupid, self-serving kid with mommy issues.

If you expect a grand love story, you won't find it here. Yun Hae Jun and Baek Yun Yeong have no romantic chemistry until the very last episode. A lot of their interactions in 1987 are filled with infantile conversations about food and going to nice places. Only towards the end do they start acting like a couple.

The ending is very sweet and satisfying. Everything returns to its rightful place and mom achieves her life-long dream.

Overall, the drama has its good moments, but for the most part it is very draggy. I ended up fast-forwarding through a lot of scenes past episode 10 because I was bored out of my mind. The murder mystery was no longer mysterious and most characters were bland.

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A good attempt at an epic fantasy

Part 3 delves deeper into the concept of nation building and the fact that common and personal interests often supersede blood ties. The storytelling is complex and very well written showing Wahans gradually breaking away from the tribe and joining Tagon, and, Eunseom helping the Ago tribe to destroy narrow-minded clan leaders and unite the tribe. At the end, a need for security and survival always prevails.

Characters go through more major changes emotionally and make tremendous steps in their quest for power. Tagon becomes the king and finally accepts that cruelty is the only way to consolidate and maintain power. Taealha starts to plot her own schemes to preserve tribal secrets and attain her own brand of power. And, Eunweom finally gets a large following. One of my favorite things about the drama is how well the writers portray the fundamental differences between Eunseom and Saya. Eunseom is kind and very straight forward. Saya is cunning and cruel. Kudos to Song Joong Ki for playing two different personalities so well.

The ending feels like a new beginning. All three parts serve as character arcs for Tagon, Eunweom, Tanya, and others to find where they are meant to be before any major events start to take place. I really enjoyed the drama. It was a very good attempt at fantasy with great world building and story telling. I hope there will be more to come in the future.

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Action packed political fantasy

Part 2 flushes out the plot a little bit better breaking it into separate character arcs. Eunseom is still on the quest to save his tribe but gets captured. Tanya learns that being a pacifist will only get her killed and changes her strategy. Tagon still tries to dodge the machinations of Asa Ron and Hae Mihol while attempting to consolidate the Union power.

The plot starts to get more complicated with various twists and turns. The pace picks up with a lot more action and less conversations, which makes the story a lot more engaging. Characters start coming into their own and going after their goals. Tanya gets the most character development. She finally stops asking stupid questions about why bad things happen and realizes that life's not fair. The only way to have a chance is to gain power leading her to making cynical choices. Tagon makes a giant leap towards his goal with the help of now powered-up Tanya. And Eunseom goes through a cycle of deep depression.

Unfortunately, Eunseom does not get as much screen time as the other characters, which leads to choppy writing. He experiences the most suffering by witnessing his friends being reduced to animals groveling for food and committing suicide in a moment of despair. This completely breaks him down mentally leading to severe depression. But, the writers do not do a particularly good job at giving him character growth and allowing him to come out of it gradually. In the same episode where he is at his lowest, he miraculously gets his self-esteem back to plan an escape. This wasn't very well thought out character development and seemed like the writers tried to backtrack to him after leaving him out for so many episodes.

Overall, I enjoyed part 2 a lot more than part 1 because it is action packed and finally shows substantial character development. Now, off to part 3.

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A great start to something new

There is a lot to unpack with this drama. Part 1 introduces a violent world of Arthdal with warring tribes entangled in a timeless struggle for power. People do not dream. And those who do, are unique and destined for great things. The plot explores complex themes of what it is like being part of a nation vs. a smaller community, loss of innocence, and surviving stigma and harsh realities of life. It's a coming of age story for many characters whose lives are thrown into chaos, and who have to learn to survive and pursue a bigger destiny.

Eunseom's life is disrupted when a powerful army massacres his village setting him on a quest to rescue his friends and ultimately find his identity. Tagon plays a dangerous game of cat and mouse with his father and various factions in order to survive. What I like about this drama is the complexity of each character. There is no black and white but also a lot of shades of gray. Tagon is a ruthless warlord who is extremely cunning and manipulative. But he is written as a sympathetic characters who had to deal with stigma all his life surrounding his birth. What's more, he treats his comrades and the woman he loves with care. Tanya asks naive questions about why bad things happen in life, but doesn't blink when cursing her enemies. And, Eunseom has a violent side he has to learn to control. The writers did not draw many lines between heroes and villains. Everyone has a compelling story to tell. I got a lot of Game of Thrones and Conan vibes, but the drama is unique enough to stand on its own.

Part 1 has good pace and story telling. There is not a lot of action because the plot focuses on character interactions to allow them to learn about each other in order to set certain events in motion. However, the drama would've benefited from better editing. There are some conversational scenes that are too long and draggy or completely unnecessary, especially the ones between members of the Wahan tribe. Other than that, I enjoyed the first 6 episodes and will continue on to part 2.

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There is no glory at the end

One of the best things about this drama is acting. The cast is nothing short of perfection making the story a lot more memorable and impactful. I really cannot praise them enough. And, while everyone deserves an A+, I feel like the supporting cast outshine the leads only because the villains are much more dynamic than the main characters.

One thing I like about Part 2 is that the villains are written to be so fundamentally irredeemable, they become destructive and often self-sabotage. These so-called "friends" ultimately become each other's worst enemy making their individual endings very satisfying. The storytelling and pacing continue to be smooth without filler arcs and incoherent content. I like that writers did not concoct unnecessary plot devices to create more drama. Everything is very well balanced.

While, for the most part, the story is well written, the ending becomes too contrived with unnecessary twists blurring the lines between good and evil. The good guys become murderers and the villain become victims. But, we are still supposed to be sympathetic to the "good guys" because the villains deserved it. I guess the writers wanted to convey that the world is not fair and at the end even people who seemingly can do no wrong are capable of heinous acts. But to me it makes the good guys no different from the villains, which is very disappointing because I rather liked how the writers portrayed certain characters to be exemplary in contrast to monsters like Park Yeon Jin.

I did not love the ending because it felt like Joo Yeo Jung's revenge story was thrown together last minute. The plot reached its logical conclusion with Dongeun finally getting her revenge. I was ready for the drama to end only to be forced to watch Yeo Jung's revenge arc, which at that point wasn't that interesting. It is not because his story wasn't compelling, but because it was not properly developed early enough and was only written as a tiny side arc in comparison to Dongeun's grand revenge. The ending did not really feel like a happy ending where the main characters get their revenge and move on with their lives. Now that their roles switched and Dongeun became Yeo Jung's "executioner", they got stuck in an endless loop of revenge with the last scene showing them entering the prison with Yeo Jung father's murderer. It made me feel bad for the characters because they deserved better than this.

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One step forward, three steps backwards

This drama should serve as a cautionary tale for women to choose wisely in a marriage. It tells a story of empowerment, healing, and new beginnings. Lin Shuang gives up her brilliant career to be a housewife and a mother just to find out a few years later that her husband is unfaithful. Instead of sulking in depression, she picks herself up and pursues self-improvement for the sake of herself and her daughter.

The plot moves between different storylines of friendship, marriage, workplace, parenthood in a very realistic way. Lin Shuang achieves through trial and error overcoming multiple roadblocks all the while having to deal with her soon to be ex-husband's dirty schemes. She is kind and likable, hard to anger, and tends to avoid confrontation, which makes her an easy target for manipulation, especially by her overbearing in-laws. But, while I enjoy a good tale of female empowerment, Lin Shuang's character is just too good. She lets a lot of things slide for the sake of dignity, which is unsustainable and quite often hard to stomach. The breaking point is when she checks Wei Ming's parents into a nice hotel after they abducted her daughter to use as a bargaining chip in the divorce proceeding.

The pacing starts to drag as soon as the drama introduces secondary and tertiary characters nobody cares about. I couldn't care less about Jiang Xi mom's cancer or a continuous marathon of her brother's failures. I am here to watch a woman brave through a divorce, not filler characters being ridiculous. Another issue is that Lin Shuang has to deal with too many roadblocks. It's a drama, not someone's life story. For every step forward, she always takes three steps backwards, which makes the drama tedious to watch.

Lastly, the story reaches its logical conclusion at around episode 28 when the divorce is finalized. Everything moving forward is Wei Ming's new set of matrimonial problems with the next missus and Lin Shuang's incredibly slow and uninteresting romance with Gu Xu. The romantic development with Gu Xu should've been part of the story much earlier. After the divorce, it felt like the writers tried to scramble the plot because they forgot something.

Overall, this is a good slice-of-life drama with likable characters and semi-decent pacing. I recommend having a fast-forward button on stand-by.

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A pleasant surprise

After watching several fantasy k-dramas that were totally disappointing, this was a pleasant surprise. At first, the story centers around lighthearted ghost stories. Then, the plot makes a connection between the supernatural and police corruption involving a 20 year old hit and run accident and focuses on uncovering the mystery behind the accident and a string of murders surrounding it.

The story moves at a very good pace. There is a nice balance between comedy, horror, and romance. Some ghosts are very scary and have compelling stories. The main couple has cute and funny moments without both acting like infantile nincompoops. Their chemistry is excellent making them convincing as a couple. There are a lot of genuine interactions involving kissing, flirting, and touching resulting in very believable romance.

I liked that the side characters had their own stories giving them some depth, however, they were also the weakest point of the drama. While I appreciate that the writers gave Baek Nam Goo and Go Seong Ho backstories and made them more than just goofy sidekicks, their arcs took an obnoxious amount of screentime slowing down the plot and dragging the story for more episodes than necessary. The main plot reached its conclusion in episode 14 when the good guys won. That's when the story should've ended. But, because of the side arcs, we had to sit through two more episodes of boring secondary plotlines watching Baek's wife being sad and Seong Ho's ridiculous ghost romance with Bom's friend. Moreover, the writers had to invent more plot with the netherworld to make it seem like the story was still ongoing.

But, I would still recommend this drama because the pacing is mostly good for about 14 episodes, the plot is engaging, and there is plenty of romantic chemistry.

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A slice of happiness with zombies

This is not a zombie apocalypse drama but a slice of life story showing how people deal with each other in the midst of chaos. Influenced by the events of Covid-19, the drama somewhat delves into the problems society faces when having to deal with an unknown deadly disease, the balance between safety and individual liberties, and people's biases.

The show starts off with a virus putting people into a zombie-like state making them crave blood. The first two episodes are about the spread of the disease until the plot switches to the main characters getting quarantined in a massive apartment building with no access to the outside world. The story mostly focuses on the best and the worst of human nature showing various residents dealing with their own problems and human-made happenings around the building. This reminded me of the movie "Clue" where a group of strangers got stuck together trying to solve murder-mystery.

If you are looking for passionate romance, you won't find it here. Although, the two main characters eventually kiss and become a couple, the romance is very subtle and focuses more on how Yoon Sae Bom and Jung Yi Hyun treat and protect each other without the use of cheesy romantic cliches. There are no tropey moments of staring and forlorn glances. The characters are very mature. They are not afraid to be alone and have physical contact without awkwardness.

The biggest problem with the drama is pacing which slows down somewhere in the middle. This is not so much about the plot, but the setting never changing. Characters run around various locations around the building and do the same things in every episode. This makes the show a bit tedious to watch.

The best thing about the drama is Park Hyung Sik. He truly shines as a serious character proving that he can play something other than stereotypical semi-comedic heroes. Here, he is a badass cop and a total stud. I want to see more of him playing generals, kings, and other males in positions of authority.

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Like a big sneeze waiting to happen but never happening

This drama had its good moments but a draggy plot and poor writing made it a lot less entertaining and a whole lot frustrating. The bossam part wasn't even the story but rather a mechanism for the main couple to meet.

The romance started great with a promise of a touching love story, but it completely fell flat. Even though Ba Woo and Hwa In didn't start their relationship on a positive note, they were never truly enemies. They bickered, cried, supported each other and had some of the most touching moments. I liked how their romance was portrayed as a love story between two mature people trying to survive. Unfortunately, in the second half, all of the emotion and angst completely disappeared leading to a very vanilla relationship completely devoid of passion. They basically became an old married couple who barely touched. And there wasn't a single kissing scene.

Poor editing was the drama's biggest flaw. It had 20 very long hour+ episodes that felt like they would never end. The political intrigue plotline was interesting and the villain was compelling enough to keep me engaged. But, then the writers started introducing filler characters and plotlines. There was a little bit of a mother-in-law from hell who wasn't quite evil, and baby momma drama that only served as a plot device to move the story forward. None of this was necessary, because the writers already had enough material to work with instead of creating new plotlines that were not particularly interesting.

In the last few episodes, everyone started doing stupid things leading to people getting hurt, killed, or captured. Dae Yeop was a terribly written character. I cannot stress enough how much I hate the rejected lover trope. His unrequited love for Hwa In dragged on for the entirety of the show. He just wouldn't move on and kept carrying the torch for a woman who will never love him. On top of that, he single handedly got himself killed because the writers decided the show needed a last minute emotional response from the audience. But it wasn't a heroic death fighting in a battle or sacrificing to save a loved one, but the dumbest death possible that should've never happened.

The ending was disappointing. The political intrigue culminated in a rebellion which ended before it started. The happy couple reunited and lived happily ever after. The end.

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Zombies in Joseon part 2

The story continues with a kingdom being on a brink of collapse in the midst of a political struggle and a bloody war between people and monsters. The plot is well balanced between corruption and war without overwhelming us with too much with court politics.

Season 2 also introduces a more well-rounded villain, the queen, who doesn't simply exist to usurp power. Being the daughter of a ruthless official, she takes the level of cruelty to a whole new level. But, although she commits countless atrocities, some of her motivations add depth to her character, unlike her father who was a stereotypical power-hungry villain.

The story is still well paced full of intrigue and interesting characters, but the ending leaves a huge cliffhanger with no promise of a season 3. Lee Chang gives up the throne in favor of an infant with no royal blood. While the infant grows up in the palace to be the future king, Lee Chang sets off on a quest to track the resurrection flower and everyone who distributes it. That seems like a nonsensical decision completely undermining everything he's done so far. But, there is a method to his madness. A kingdom must have a king. A kingdom with a history of a zombie apocalypse must have someone to ensure the dead stay dead. This decision culminates his complete character development where he becomes a selfless hero putting the national interests first rather than his personal ambition. As the show approaches the end, he comes across an eerie shack full of monsters and finds a mysterious woman there. Meanwhile, in the palace, a eunuch witnesses a worm crawling under the young king's skin towards his brain. This is where the story ends with no plot resolution and a brand new character we don't know enough to care about.

I normally don't watch zombie shows because of the gore. But here, it was manageable for me because the amount of gore was enough to be convincing without being overwhelming. The drama was so well executed, it kept me engaged from start to finish. But, the ending was disappointing because there is no season 3!

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Zombies in Joseon

This was certainly different from other Korean dramas, a mesh of a political thriller and a horror zombie apocalypse.

The crown prince, Lee Chang, is the central figure trying to escape from the court corruption in the midst of a zombie apocalypse. He starts out as a pampered but a well meaning prince who goes through a massive character development becoming a hero trying to save a dying nation. The story is well paced with a good amount of twists. Every character has a unique role without anyone being unnecessary. I liked that the writing did not focus on backstories and instead showed Lee Chang struggling against the zombie plague to help his people and at the same time repelling a corrupt minister trying to usurp the throne. The plot stays true to the genre, an action horror thriller, without turning it into a draggy melodrama.

The villain, a ruthless power hungry official, is a bit cookie cutter without a personality or any motivation other than power. But, the action packed and well paced plot more than made up for it.

Overall, if you don't mind gore and like zombie movies and political intrigue, this is it.

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Short and sweet

This was a cute and sweet drama that would have benefited from having more episodes. The story was largely undeveloped and moved too fast.

Even though I liked the chemistry between the romantic characters, there wasn't enough time to properly develop any of their relationships. I wanted to see how the king actually came up with the writing system, the romance, and the friendship between Dan Bi and the queen. The queen was portrayed as a lonely young woman who just wanted to connect with someone, so she intended Dan Bi to become her friend by making her the king's concubine. This was an odd choice, but there was meaning behind it. The writers also teased us with romantic-ish relationship between the queen and Park Yeon, but it was largely unexplored. The gender bender trope lasted for longer than I wanted just to be explained at the end that the king always knew that Dan Bi was a woman. Hence, him rapidly falling in love with her without questioning his own sexuality was justified.

One interesting thing was that many characters in the past looked like the characters in the present, but I didn't feel like there was much explanation given as to why.

Overall, this is a cute piece of fluff with a happy ending, that doesn't offer much depth because of the short length.

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Lets play a game of pick-a-plot

This is the first time I watched a drama where a plot felt like a combination of several dramas glued together, as if a bunch of different people wrote it without communicating with each other. There were several parallel storylines with characters that often crossed paths, but their stories were completely independent of each other. You will miss nothing if you skip entire scenes and focus on the characters you like. So, to save yourself time and sanity, start a game of pick-a-plot and make friends with the fast-forward button.

Li Qian was a valiant and brave soldier. Baoning was a spoiled princess. But the difference in their status did not prevent them from building a loving relationship based on trust and communication until, towards the end, they regressed into complete knuckleheads who refused to communicate, jumped to conclusions, and threw asinine accusations. In the last 5 episodes, Baoning's character drastically changed from a spunky young woman to a calculating persona resembling Wang Xuan from The Rebel Princess. This change showcased Ju Jing Yi's ability to play more serious roles. But, it wasn't necessarily good for the story, because it happened without any actual character development showing Baoning's transition from a care-free princess to a mature woman with experience dealing with scheming villains.

The first 12 episodes were very engaging showing Baoning and Li Qian's blossoming romance. But then, the plot suddenly got hijacked by secondary characters and became a continuous onslaught of love rivals' deranged schemes to break up the happy couple. A love obsessed and jealous villain is one of the worst, most uninspired, uninteresting tropes to manufacture conflict. The writers threw in every cliche and rehashed idea instead of writing an actual story. Zhao Xiao was a nobleman with a bright political future. But, every single action he took was to get into Baoning's pants. And, Miaorong's slimy schemes resulted in the same predictable outcome again and again. The writers did not even try to create compelling villains, but love-obsessed psychos who just wouldn't get the message that the object of their affection couldn't care less.

More often than not, I ended up throwing my hands in the air and screaming "FFS!!" When I did not suffer from second-hand embarrassment, I pressed on the fast-forward button. The drama is a convoluted mess of jealous lover tropes, scattered plot, and a marketing scheme for the supporting cast.

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