Make it make sense, because I cannot.

Inconsistencies in writing are my pet peeve and this drama was full of them - from the characters' actions and personality traits to ever changing rules and types of games. It's a show I would enjoy far more if I did not use my brain while watching.

To be perfectly honest, I loved the first two episodes. I was ready for either clever or violent games that Arisu tries to solve. But as the drama progressed, the characters completely lost their wits and the games became painfully predictable.

Arisu ⇢ Keeping the character smart only when the plot needs it.
I'm sorry for the writers, but you cannot present your characters as this genius with an almost photographic memory in episode one, to turn him into a complete idiot in the 2nd half of the show. One episode he assesses the game based on the information he gained, taking into consideration different options and overall the type of the game that is indicated by the card's symbols, the other time he has his brain just turned off and runs. Well written and consistent character? Not this one.

Games ⇢ No one cares about the rules, not even creators.
What's the point in introducing the symbols as a game categorizations, when you just completely ignore it later on? How is the first game team battle, when it completely relies on wits? Or The Witch Hunt game, which again could be won only by using your brain and wits. Or the bus game which was a team battle, but had NOTHING to do with teamwork and again, needed a brain to solve it and understand the rules. The only game that truly fitted the category given was the wolf and the lambs game in episode three. It was pure survival based on betrayal. No double meaning, no hidden ways out.

The male lead should also be dead. When The Witch Hunt begins, his Visa is said to expire tomorrow. Since he was not part of The Witch Hunt game (he did not register before the game started by scanning his face on the phone), he did not gain additional 10 days to his Visa. They did not play any games after that. Unless they found the hiding spot of the Dealers right the next day, and he joins the new game right away, he should be dead. Or the game was just paused after the Beach event, but that makes no sense, since the events in the Beach did not affect all the players in that game world.

Predictable outcomes ⇢ The games that did not surprise me.
The games were either laughably easy to solve and I hated the characters for not understanding them, or were impossible to beat and you just knew from the start which character would come out of it alive. Because of that, there was no element of surprise or excitement. More often than not, it was just me watching idiots dying and feeling nothing about it.

Players ⇢ collective 10 points IQ
I get it, most people are not amazingly smart, but I did not expect everyone to be. I just wanted them to try to survive, but I felt like most people were working hard to die. The best example was The Witch Hunt. The rule was clear: burn the witch in the Fire of Judgement. So what do most characters start to do? Kill everyone. Which is the least logical thing to do, because it's impossible to move all the bodies to a Fire of Judgment in the limited time. They set themselves up for failure. When the two characters next to the pool said "We killed so many people and yet we still did not find the witch"... well you won't know if you found her or not, because you are just leaving the bodies here, when the rule said you need to burn the witch in the Fire of Judgment. No one cared about survival and winning the game. And while they explained that it was Aguni's plan for everyone to die and not solve the game, it did not excuse all the other people. Kill everyone, but remember, you need to burn them in the Fire of Judgement - the rules were simple.

You cannot claim this show is a commentary on how people turn into the worst version of themselves in life or death situations, and when their survival instinct kicks in, because the majority of the characters didn't even try hard to survive...

Out of place emotional elements ⇢ The lack of proper characters exposition.
I'm not gonna cry during the emotional game of hearts, where two friends are giving up their lives for the 3rd one, when the writers did nothing to make me care and connect to these characters in the first place. Each and every death in this show evokes in me this reaction: oh... ok. They gave some flashbacks about some characters' pasts, but more often than not, it was too little too late.

Still camera shots ⇢ The directing beauty
I'm honestly exhausted with all the shaky camera work and angles changing every few milliseconds style of presenting scenes that is used in many shows. I truly appreciated how calm the directing here was, especially taking into consideration the chaotic tone of the plot itself. Loved the opening shots of the empty city used in a few episodes. I took a ridiculous amount of screenshots - this show was truly an aesthetic masterpiece for me, perfectly fitting my taste.

Aguni ⇢ The one that made me care and surprised me
Taking into consideration the fact this is not a character driven drama and most of the characters don't have much depth (it's really superficial), it did not even cross my mind that there could be more to Aguni than just rivalry with his old friend. Slowly discovering his past and his role in The Beach was quite a nice side plot line, and even though him killing the Hatter was obvious, the reasoning behind it caught me off guard and I appreciate that.

Overall, the first two episodes were too good, which ruined the rest of the series for me. They got me excited for some smart games that will make my brain cells do some workout, but the show never delivered after that. Each episode was more disappointing than the previous one. I wanted to immerse myself in the show, try to solve the games with the characters, and wonder if I would survive... but I guess "the game master" was not clever enough to create truly challenging tasks. There were many rules introduced, but when you truly try to digest and understand them, you find out, nothing made any sense.

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Eye candy and empty calories…

Fast food entertainment at its finest. Highly addicting, but you’ll feel hungry 30 minutes after finishing the meal, realizing you just ate a bunch of nothing - empty calories. Was it fun? Sure. Was it actually good? Debatable. Saying this drama is a quality one is like saying McDonald’s is a healthy meal - false advertisement. That said, there is a reason we all crave fast food from time to time.

Starting from the good aspects - Xue Fang Fei. It’s impossible not to love her. Even the villains appreciated how smart, cunning and brave she was. Seeking revenge without abandoning your morals and principles, when the people you fight against have no true honorable values that hold them back is not an easy task, and yet she managed to achieve that. While her goals were important, they were never more important than people in her life. She never took the easy road that could unnecessarily hurt others. What I appreciate the most about how her character was written: she was strong, but still presented in an extremely feminine way. Beautiful, loyal and smart, empathic, emotional and caring.

Her revenge turned seeking justice arc was quite well developed and paced. Her plans were realistic enough, I never thought she had some superpower type of skills (excluding her playing zhiter - that’s some borderline xianxia magic) - she knew her strength and the advantages people around her have, she understood the strengths and weaknesses of her enemies and acted accordingly to what was most beneficial. The risks she took were understandable and the ways she survived all the crisis made sense in the context of the show. Great female lead to follow throughout 40 episodes.

Princess Wan Ning - the way I went from hating her to loving her. By the end of the show I would love to see a drama from her point of view - filled with pain, helplessness, tragedy that leads to her becoming the villain, because no one cared for her when she was the victim. Her arc is for sure my favorite and feels the most completed. Fang Fei’s tragic past truly did not feel that tragic when we got the full picture of what Wan Ning had to go through and how she was used and abused. Her resentment and selfishness started to weirdly feel justified, even if at times directed towards wrong people.

Shen Yu Rong is not a character I loved, but it’s for sure a character I loved to hate. In my eyes, he was the true villain - weak and pathetic, not wanting to die, surviving like a cockroach - and for that I am grateful. What a consistent and delusional pain in the ass this man was, it’s impressive. Blaming other people for his mistakes, for the decisions he made, till the end not willing to face his past. His obsession over Jiang Li made perfect sense - it was his way of erasing his mistakes, living as if they never happened, starting from the beginning, clean slate.

The visual presentation - how stunning! The way they shot the movements, how they used the costumes to their full potential, how some moments honestly became breathtaking - especially for the female characters. There was something graceful in how the camera framed women.

Then we have the acting. Wu Jin Yan and Li Meng easily stole the whole show. Somehow Wu Jin Yan was able to present both immense strength and vulnerability at the same time. Li Meng was just mesmerizing as the egocentric princess broken by her traumatic experiences. When either of them showed up, they just made you focus on the screen.

On the other hand, the men in this show served nothing, but looks. Duke Su was delicious to look at, but sadly he was mostly talk and no action. For the majority of the show he truly did nothing except fly around and flirt with Jiang Li. While her revenge was detailed and well presented, his felt like an afterthought.

Ye Shi Jie, while cute, with some of the prettiest eyes I have seen, was painfully underdeveloped. What’s the point of showing he has feelings for Jiang Le, when it leads to nowhere? Other male characters were just a way to push the plot forward by either randomly saving the day, or annoying ruining the plans.

Seeing how technically speaking the politics of the show had a major impact on the plot and the characters, they were boring and lacked detail for me to care about. I did not care who is against whom and why, who has more and who has less power in the court, who is safe and who can be killed - they started to explain the big picture way too late for me to even pretend it’s engaging.

The biggest issue I had though, was the structure of the show - everything seemed uneven and mismatched. Jiang Li is this tragic heroine who lost everything and is set to seek revenge, but then we find out she did not really lose nearly as much as they present at first - everyone came back from death, her included.

First episode presented a makjang level of drama, and then it never lived up to that crazy hype, slowly becoming more tamed and boring. And what’s more that became tamed and boring? Duke Su. At first presented as this domineering and extra in his entrance man having a national emergency level of extreme fire chemistry with female lead, to them lead to nothing - these two were taking their sweet time with the romance. This was such a slow burn romance, it barely moved. The candle kiss traumatized us all. They led us to believe we will get some proper romance, and what we’ve got was an eye staring contest between Jiang Li and Duke su every episode.

They also had a really weird way of introducing characters and villains - there was no subtle set up for them. Out of the blue we are getting scenes with a new threat we are supposed to fear, but I’m like: who is that and why should I care?

Last two episodes were full clownery. I never laughed so much watching scenes that are supposed to be moving or tense. Some highlights include Jiang Li saying she can do archery, when she held a bow twice in her life. Another one was the random cheap death of two guys working for Duke Su - why did it even happen? Why did the war even happen? They never presented it as a major threat, so why even make it a last minute plotline?

Overall, it was fun and disappointing at the same time.

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I was promised angst, what I’ve got was clownery... kind of.

But I still enjoyed it quite a lot. The core of the show were the relationships and these in most cases they aced. For such perfect writing of the main characters, how come it did not move me on any deep level? The answer is easy - failed villains and unnecessarily complicated politics.

One and Only is a love story that was created and led by tragedies. The stepping stones for the relationship development were in most cases linked to bad events happening to the main couple. The tragedy led to sweetness, which led to more tragedy. Honestly speaking, Ren Jia Lun and Bai Lu had more on screen chemistry just looking at each other, than many other couples with full on romance going on from other dramas. The tension, love and care was so intense, I did not even need anything more than stole glances, a few hugs and not straightforward poetic love confessions. Their bond was so meaningful, it needed no reassurance .

As individual characters, I failed not to love them, even though they both possess the traits that for me is a big sin - they were too good, too trusting and too naive. Usually, this would make my blood boil, here - I completely did not mind. The fact that everyone told me to be really for the angst might have been the reason I was not annoyed too. I knew they would have a tragic ending one way or another, and it was obvious that their good nature would be the reason for their demise, so I just accepted that fact and watched in peace.

This was especially evident with Zhou Sheng Chen. He had a really bad habit of giving people chances to redeem themselves, when it was obvious some of them were unredeemable. He took too many chances with too many people, and some of these encounters and good deeds literally led to his death. Still, it’s impossible not to love the guy. He had a personality of a warm smashed potato, yet… he was perfect. How loyal he was to his people and the country was commendable.

Then we have Cui Shi Yi - the adorable angel. I don’t think I have ever seen a character more pure than her. I found strength in her innocence? She was for sure a passive character - she went with the flow of the things happening around her, barely ever taking any active steps herself. Sounds awful right? Somehow it was not. Somehow it was perfect and I loved her as a character a lot. Yes, we all love our badass warrior princesses, but sometimes a more realistic approach is much needed and just as charming.

We also have some extremely fun and memorable side characters, and few… existing with little to no personality. My ultimate favorite, the one and only mr. Sexy Monk, aka Xiao Yan. He was truly perfect - and by perfect I mean he had some interesting personality, he was good and moral, but not completely selfless and overall smoking hot. I also loved Feng Qiao with her badass fluff. That’s kind of it? I feel like many side characters were rather one dimensional. There were “the good guys” and “the bad guys”, but in many cases, they presented little if anything as individual characters.

Talking about presenting little to nothing - what a joke the villains were. The clownery was amazing. They be killing all the good guys, all the skilled people, and then being surprised the country is falling apart. What did you think will happen when you made THE ARMY your enemy? What did you think would happen after killing the only dude that was able to defend the border for years? It’s not like Liu Zi Xing had any plan formed on what to do next, after getting power. What a joke. I am truly curious how his brain works and how he perceives reality, because the level of denial he presented was truly something I struggle to understand.

Still, he was the best of all the clowns we’ve got. There was also Queen Dowager who showed up here and there to cause the issue for the main couple, but had nothing going on for herself and was just boring. There was one Prince that got involved because “power”, but he was also painfully stupid. Not to mention Yang Shao… this guy. What did he even want? What was his goal? Why was he on that side? What motivated him? We don’t know ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

As I said at the beginning, the villains were the reason the emotional impact the show showed has just felt flat for me. The ending of Zhou Sheng Chen and Cui Shi Yi was tragic - truly it would be hard to make it more sad. But, since it was a result of constant extremely dumb decision making on everyone’s side (both the good and the bad guys), I could not make myself care. Last episode, I truly hoped everyone would just die (except for the monk), some side evil dude would win, and the whole country would burn and collapse. It was that ridiculous. I mean… 24 episodes and they changed the emperor 4 times - what the heck. It was never needed to go this nuts in the last few episodes. Having one, well written and presented villain would do the trick. You can get the same angsty result with less shit happening on screen.

Plot wise, not that much happened in the show - the main couple got to know each other, the main couple fought the evil guys, and the main couple died. Seems like nothing, yet because of the presentation, it was not boring. Sure, I skipped some scenes in the second half, simply because some characters felt extremely empty, but overall, I enjoyed the watch.

The amazing cinematography and some great directing choices had a lot to do with it. An aspect that I loved about One and Only was the fact, the director let some scenes breathe for a while. Lingering a little bit during some emotionally impactful scenes, with nothing but visuals and music was a great idea. Grounding the emotions, instead of skipping between the scenes as soon as the narrative was done. The show had this poetic quality to it. Not to mention, it was beautiful. Cui Shi Yi suicide was a whole ass cinematic experience.

The acting, ladies and gentlemen - Ren Jia Lun and Bai Lu are a class of their own. To be able to present so many emotions and so many raw scenes, with the plot barely happening, and most of the interactions being so tamed - they deserve an award for it. Saying I am amazed would be an understatement.

Overall, the first half was perfect. Middle dropped in the quality, but was still fairly enjoyable, but the mess that we’ve got by the end just took all the emotional impact away and left me crying from laughing so hard. Am I evil? Heartless? Soulless? Or were the events poorly established because of the weak writing of the villains?

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This show was not perfect, no show is. But it was so engaging, I was able to ignore and not think about any possible plot holes or “convenient” plot lines until I finished it. My overly critical and overanalyzing brain was so emotionally connected to the characters and plot, it couldn't care less about any mistakes.

If I had to describe the plot in just a few words I would say: Fight against the supernatural evil, and the one hidden in humanity, that leads to bettering oneself. The format is repetitive, it’s undeniable truth. They dealt with one evil spirit, a new stronger one showed up. How come it’s not boring?

At first, the cases are simply a background for introducing the characters, creating a team work and So Moon’s dive into a whole new world. Slowly, the past connections between different characters are discovered, and the background plot starts to take a forefront position. The progression from the simple procedural plot to uncovering the past mystery and dealing with the main villain is perfectly gradual, and speaks of the great pacing The Uncanny Counter has.

The core of the show are the characters. The cast is pure perfection, and whoever was the casting director, they should get a raise. We are presented with more or less four teams: high school friends, Counters, Yung partners and the evil assholes. Each group is well written and portrayed, and even the villains are charming in their own twisted ways. I still wanted to see them dead, but I was also curious about their next actions and shenanigans. The loyalty among the young friends, the protectiveness of Counters, the moral dilemma the partner’s faced - all that made me love each and every character.

The acting is top notch. Jo Byung Kyoo is a true star of the show. His acting made me cry, scream, laugh, hit my head on my desk… He was So Moon. Kind, smol, positive, but also flawed character, that was willing to slowly learn, mature and improve himself. Easily in my top 5 favorite characters of all time.

Each and every actor committed to their roles completely. I honestly did not feel that even one scene or expression was off. I was especially surprised by Kim Se Jeong's performance. I knew she was a good actress, but she improved so much with the few roles she had previously.

Production value was everything I could wish for. It is a mainstream kdrama, high quality of visual aspects is expected though. The directing of the fighting sequences was well done, making them exciting to watch. Some of the stunts in the first episode felt slightly off, but they quickly improved and became way more natural.

I’m not gonna lie, I did not pay that much attention to the soundtrack as I was watching the show. I was completely “distracted” by the plot to notice what kind of music is being played in the background. That said, I usually don’t care that much about the OST, unless they are extremely bad, not fitting or painfully overused. After listening to the song as I was writing the review, I must say: they are good. Each has a completely different feeling and emotional quality, but they are all making me want to listen to them on repeat.

So what are the flaws? The biggest one was the slightly anticlimactic ending. With all the set up, I was expecting a bit more. Tiny, convenient plots that are either added or forgotten, like Moon, at some point, is never shown attending school. We just don’t see him going there at all. Never to be addressed nor mentioned. He is still a student, he wears his uniform… but he ain’t even close to being in class. Then we have the introduction of Oh Jeong Gu close to the end that felt out of place and useless.

Taking into consideration how well crafted the story and characters are, I was able to ignore the flaws. These cons barely tipped the scale, since the pros were that good.

Overall, damn yes. This show had such an emotional impact on me, there were moments when I had to pause the episode, since I was scared/not ready for whatever was going to happen. I loved each and every character. I was curious about the plot and how the team would deal with the obstacles they were facing. There was not one boring episode, and even though I am fine with the given conclusion, I would not mind a possible second season.

*Trigger warning: severe bullying. It’s pretty bad guys, especially in the beginning episodes.

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When the victim becomes the perpetrator.

Can trauma and growing up in a toxic environment excuse someone’s awful actions? If yes, then no one is guilty in this show. From my perspective, this show quite well presents how a person can be both the victim and the perpetrator and society should make sure not to ignore their tragic past while also acknowledging their horrific actions in the present and punishing them for them.

This is not a story about righteous characters - there are no heroes. With how dramatic and excessive everyone’s actions were, it’s hard to even call them gray. It’s a journey into madness. It presents an interesting dilemma - up till which point a person is a victim that needs help, and when exactly can we see them as perpetrators that need to be stopped and punished? Can you still be called a victim if you yourself create more victims?

Not gonna lie, what started as a “fun revenge story”, ended on a bitter note, and I’m not mad about it. I thought it’s going to be a “put morality on the shelf, turn off your brain and enjoy some bullies getting their punishment” type of a deal, but the further into the story I went, the more it made me think about it and how complex of an issue bullying is. Bullies themselves are often victims of either bullying by upper classmates or abuse at home. So here’s the question - if their actions were not excused in the drama based on their circumstances, why would we excuse what the main character did?

One thing to keep in mind - the ending might leave a bad taste in your mouth, but I think it’s fitting the story, even though it fills me with rage. And the literally last sequence of scenes broke my heart.

It’s a story of the friends trio - Kyungmin, Jong Suk and Cheol. All complex, all raw and interesting. And then there is Jin Ah. Why she exists in the show is beyond me. Clearly the story could have been told without adding her, as she is not a character in the original animation. Her being the good cop, moral one just does not fit the mood of the drama. Not to mention, the whole investigation plot line was simply ridiculous and boring. I found her to be rather obnoxious, flip flopping between following the rules and playing the proper cop, to ignoring the rules when the show needed that, but still acting like a voice of reason.

All the supporting characters were rather one dimensional, but they played their roles well and created the cohesive picture of the world presented. That said, one of the issues I had with the show was how extreme it went. It’s not exactly a realistic portrayal of school bullies as adults - everyone was either awful or went on a guilt trip that dominated their whole life. I guess the closest to a more typical story was the first victim/bully, which for me was the most questionable.

The acting was great. The two performances that stood out for me the most were Kim Sung Gyu and Choi Hyun Jin. Hyun Jin, this child - he has a bright future ahead of him. His performance also led to Cheol being my favorite character. The actor is only 14, but I could feel the pain, desperation, sadness, glimpses of hope and happiness in him. It was all so well delivered, I will for sure check any of his future projects.

Production wise, I appreciate how they did not shy away from creating truly gory scenes (yes, they were blurred, but with all the horrors I have seen, my imagination kicks in fast). Some of the pictures created were just hitting hard emotionally. The pig and wolf masks were truly detailed and creepy. Honestly speaking, I have zero complaints about the production. Maybe sometimes the scenes were a little bit too dark, so it was hard to see what was actually happening.

Overall, it’s a great drama that could have been amazing if they did not decide to add Kang Jin Ah and her whole investigation side of the plot. Still, I was interested till the end and in a strange way, I was satisfied with the ending, even though it felt a little bit half assed.

Trigger warnings: school bullying, abuse, sexual harassment, blood, gore, psychological abuse, animal abuse, and probably many more. I would not call it a safe drama for the majority of people, so be warned.

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Whatever cautionary tale it tries to present, you cannot focus on that aspect - you keep getting distracted with how dumb the characters are. Not to mention, the lack of realism completely ruined the poor attempt of “social commentary”.

Female lead was dumb, the police were dumb, the friend was dumb, even the villain was dumb - don’t let people fool you into thinking it’s some tight cat and mouse chase with a brilliant killer who outsmarts everyone. It’s not hard to outsmart idiots. It does not make him a genius.

What’s good? Acting and editing, some directing choices. I liked the shots presenting the world from the eyes of the phone user, and then from the angle of the camera. We never really think about how much our phones see, as we assume the camera is off. So it’s creepy to see how much one could spy on us, if they had the access to the camera itself. Overall, there were many pretty shots, they knew how to make it visually interesting.

As a side note about the “social commentary” - I am so tired of this “phones are dangerous, be careful how you use them” topics. How about showing what the true issue is: lack of laws and procedures when the cyber crime happens, lack of police involvement when the crime is being reported, worst case - ignoring the reported crime because “nothing can be done”. Criticizing the government and police for the lack of protection of the citizens should be the focus, not “people use phones in irresponsible ways and depend on them too much”.

Overall, what a waste of time, even for Im Si Wan fans.

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Refreshing concept with basic execution.

Honestly speaking, I don’t even have much to say. I’m not the biggest fan of the reincarnation trope, but it is something new in the BL genre, hence I gave it a try.

As I said, the idea behind it is fun - not only do we see the reincarnation trope, but also a new twist to it - female to male reincarnation. How many interesting ideas for plots and conflicts we could get out of it! Do we get them here? Not really, and the few we get are barely developed.

Yeon Seok was quite a fun character in a constant mode of panic for various reasons. I did enjoy Jin Gun’s performance, even though sometimes it became a bit too comedic for me. On the other hand Jeong Ha Yeon as a character just did not catch my attention at all. Jeon Chang Ha acting in some more emotional scenes requires improvement, but overall, I was not mad about his delivery.

Overall, I don’t regret watching it, but I could do without it too. It does not really bring much to the table.

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“I couldn’t properly embrace myself once, in my entire life. So I suffered.”

This review is extremely subjective. I won’t even try to pretend there is anything objective in it. Knowing there will be some kind of plot twist ruined the show for me. Before it happened, I was feeling a lot of frustration and impatience to know what it is, but since I predicted it early on, I just felt disappointed when it was revealed.

Here’s the thing, while the show has some amazing moments, life lessons concerning treasuring your life, every little moment, appreciating people around you etc, I truly did not like the majority of the characters. The last episode sucked all the sympathy I might have had for Kim Hye Ja with just two or three scenes. That’s an achievement.

I do believe the show was unnecessarily depressing and sad. After 10 episodes of misfortunes that were multiplied in the last two episodes, the closing narration just completely missed the mark for me. It was like putting a plaster on a plane crash victim.

Talking about the twists - if you start the drama knowing there will be one, there is a high chance you will predict it. For me, the expectations of some unexpected, well built twists made me disappointed when in reality it was the most obvious scenario that could have happened. Because of that, the last episodes just had little emotional impact on me - the disappointment was too strong for other emotions to surface.

The acting was truly amazing. I was especially amazed by Ahn Nae Sang, Lee Jung Eun, and surprisingly Nam Joo Hyuk's performance. While Ahn Nae Sang and Lee Jung Eun aced the more subtle emotions, Joo Hyuk truly delivered with the strongly emotionally charged ones.

Overall, I don’t regret watching it. As I said, it had great messages and moments, many memorable lines and conversations. Yet, the primary emotion I will associate with it till the end will be disappointment.

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Sadly, season 2 was far less consistent in terms of quality of the episodes. Some were great, some were rather boring.

Here’s the thing - the cast is amazing, brilliant, funny, and has perfect chemistry with each other, but the concept of the episodes lack creativity and clever directing/planning. How many times can we watch an episode about food and restaurants? What is this, mukbang? All the episodes that focused on anything other than food were, just based on that aspect, better.

Many times the production team focused so much on making the fake place “bigger and better and more shocking” they forgot to actually make it “work”. This is not Pimp My Ride Restaurant Edition. They should focus less on the place/building, and work harder on the writing of the story behind the place and the people working there. Simpler ideas would be so much harder to guess.

One more thing that started to annoy me as the show progressed was the love line joke between Jessi and Sang Yeob. Yes, at first I found it hilarious, but at some point I felt like it went too far? I started to truly just feel uncomfortable with it.

That said, it was still overall extremely entertaining, all thanks to the cast. Nara was the awesome older sister trying to fight against her bad luck, So Min made me cry while laughing because of her unusual jokes and out of the box behavior. Jessi was the queen she usually is, with a straightforward attitude and Mi Joo was the pure chaotic energy and the master of body gags. And then there are Jae Suk and Sang Yeo trying to run the show and survive.

If you liked season one because of the cast, you will still love this season. Even with some flaws, I still believe it’s funnier and better than the majority of the variety shows I have seen.

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Why am I watching this? Why am I doing this to myself? - these questions I asked myself after finishing each episode. And yet, I could not stop myself from clicking on the next one. There is something strangely addicting about this rather poorly written and acted story that makes it impossible to drop once you start.

It’s been a while since I have seen a story as predictable as this, that still managed to surprise me with some ridiculous plot lines and reasoning behind the characters' action. We get to know rather stereotypical student Sky, brainwashed Sun with some serious issue of Stockholm Syndrome, Bank - a cute puppy and Pitch, the only redeeming quality of this drama. We follow their love stories, where every conflict (and I truly mean each and every one) is based on the complete lack of communication and honestly, while at the same time, the characters complain the other party is not honest and does not communicate their feelings ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

In the background, serving as a thrilling angst addiction, we have mafia schemes that led to our main boys being beaten up here and there, almost losing their lives too many times for me to care by the end.

For a romance driven show, the chemistry between Sky and Sun was not as golden as their blood apparently was. At the same time, I found it refreshing that there were more emotions and sparkles in the scene where they stood one meter apart, compared to all the kissing scenes.

On the other hand, Bank and Pitch were rather a nice surprise. The unsureness of their feelings and slow development of their relationship felt more grounded and reasonable. The playful chemistry of them bickering while smiles did not leave their faces was just bliss to watch.

The best acting for sure was served by Sugus - that smile alone could kill. Sadly, Gun’s performance was mediocre at best. Unintentional comedy bits that were the crying with no tears scenes truly made the watching experience that much more fun, but for all the wrong reasons. I could see how hard he tried to squeeze these tears, and I truly felt bad for him for failing each time.

Overall… I have no idea why I watched it, but I for sure do not regret it. It’s one of the cases of mindless entertainment, when you just accept nothing makes sense and the quality of the whole show is questionable at best, and yet you keep watching.

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The Grotesque Mansion is a short movie consisting of five chapters, with the final one serving as a narration throughout the whole film. None of the stories are well explained or concluded, making them seem like scary stories we tell each other at night when we are kids - it’s not about the well constructed plot, but the atmosphere.

The thing that I loved about the directing was how all the cases were linked together - each chapter had a scene we already saw in a previous story, but from a different perspective.

Chapter 1 - Room 504 - The Writer
One of the weakest plots of all the 5 chapters. While the small details in the background added to the eerie atmosphere, overall I was not impressed. The story was not scary at all, but I have to appreciate the acting from Lee Chang Hoon, who played a driven writer on the edge, because his writing has not been going too smoothly lately. I could feel his frustration.

Chapter 2 - Room 907 - The Pharmacist
The best of all the chapters. From the interesting story, to the creepy visuals - I was sold. The setup for the plot reminded me a little bit of P.T., with the radio station giving news about the murder. The loop of the characters’ actions and the corridor shots that made it seem as if I am there observing the situation, made this my favorite part of the movie.

Chapter 3 - Room 708 - The Salesman
Annabelle, but creepier. Except for the "companion" making me uncomfortable, there is not much to say about this chapter. The pictures created for some scenes were nice, but overall it was more entertaining than scary.

Chapter 4 - Room 604 - The Student
Trigger warning for gross body horror. Pimples and a lot of weird stuff happening to the face of one of the characters. Rather nauseating. That said, the body horror was quite well made - no complaints on my part about the effects and makeup. The story is rather simple, and focuses more on the visual aspect of it.

Final chapter - Room 1504 - The Caretaker
Had one of the scariest scenes from the whole movie - the elevator moment got me on the edge of my seat. The Caretaker concludes the story is a coherent way that makes sense, while leaving a door open for a possible sequel.

Overall, The Grotesque Mansion is just a simple and easy watch. Good for an evening when you might be a bit tired and you want to be entertained, but without forcing your brain to do any work.

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I have strong, conflicted emotions right now, after finishing it. On one hand, it was such a beautiful and well done movie, I don’t think it could have been improved in any way. On the other hand, I cannot stop thinking about the potential this story had to be a drama.

The writing got me on a few plot twists that I didn't see coming. Some bigger, some smaller, but all executed quite well. With a limited screen time, they did a good job at giving enough exposition to ground you in the story, but not waste time on unnecessary details. The characters were interesting, and surprisingly I got attached to them quite fast. The chemistry and the switching dynamics and testing each other between Po Xiao and Feng Ren was perfect and by the end of the movie, I craved for me.

It’s definitely worth talking about the visual aspect of Wuliang - it was an aesthetic feast. Even if the plot was not as interesting, I would still finish the movie without skipping a second just to appreciate the beauty of it. The background music perfectly enhanced the atmosphere the visuals created.

The acting was also amazing. I felt everything the characters felt. Well, sometimes I went on more of an anger ride, when they felt sad, but that’s given. The emotional delivery was quite detailed. Nothing to complain about.

Overall, I highly recommend watching. It’s an old tale of “with great power comes great responsibility”, but it focuses more on the characters, building trust and understanding each other's motives, while trying to survive.

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(┛ಠ_ಠ)┛彡┻━┻

I think it’s fair to say I felt insulted while watching, for a few different reasons. First episode I did love and it made me extremely excited, but it went downhill from there. At first I kind of enjoyed it as a hate watch, but later it was just too boring, repetitive and not crazy enough to laugh about. Before you read the review know, that there are paragraphs talking about sexual harassment and rape (TW).

First of all, the focus on sex and impotence and magic potions that will make male slaves’ lower parts useless was just weird. The number of times it was mentioned and presented as the worst type of fate one can deal with… priorities I guess. I’d say, being tortured for years would be worse. They also had a potion that made Chang Ah horny, and it was used as a torture… yeah.

The lack of strong villains was also disappointing. What were the main characters exactly fighting against? More often than not, the bad guys and ladies had valid points. And what exactly were the motivations of the villains? My favorite part was how pressed was Cha Luo about not being able to do the do with her slave man. Like damn, the lady had some major problems.

The worst part of the show was for sure the female lead - Wan Mei. She had no solid personality nor brain. After the first episode I was hoping to see a physically weak, but strong willed and smart character slowly grow, take revenge on the bad people and fight for the good. I wasn't even hoping for an interesting gray character, because I knew this ain’t happening. What I’ve got was a dumb girl who had massive problems with understanding the information other tell her. How many times she was told it’s an assassin organization - and yet she was like “I ain’t killin anyone”. SHE WAS TRAINING TO BE ASSASSIN!

How many times she was told and shown what happens when you disobey the orders, and yet she was like: nah, ain’t doing that. And then she was surprised when the consequences hit her. She was smart when the plot needed it, brainless when it was convenient. She was weak at times, and really good at fighting at other times. I mean, when her targets literally commit suicide to help her, because she is not capable of killing them, it tells you what type of show it is. Truth to be told, FL has no real personality. She is what the scene needs her to be: she is smart AND dumb, she is cunning AND naive... I am confident, this show would be so much better without her.

The love that makes no sense. I’m still trying to figure out why both the main lead and second lead fell for Wan Mei. Fair enough, let's say Chang Ah did spend enough time with her for some kind of affection to bloom. Gong Zi tho literally started to like her because she was pretty and the first person he saw after gaining his sight back. His obsession over her never made sense. Him willing to sacrifice so much to keep her alive, even his own life? Bish why? He was willing to eat a soup made of a maid’s cooked face to hide the fact he is not blind anymore, but a few scenes later he just tells Wan Mei like it’s not important. His IQ dropped so much whenever Wan Mei was close. To be honest, she lowered the IQ of everyone that was close to her - that’s the true power she had.

Another aspect that at some point just started to make me angry was how fake woke this show is. They show this society where the females are the masters, and men are the slaves. Women are making the decisions and have all the power, and the guys are just supposed to serve them - the 180 to the usual historical styled shows, where the women are the voiceless ones. This ain’t good though. This is not empowering at all. Not to mention, with all the women over men rhetoric, male characters were still far superior and better written than female ones.

Female villain going crazy because she can’t have sex with the dude? Playing into women being unstable, unreasonable and overemotional I guess. The fact they literally said the scar on Wan Mei’s face is THE WORST thing that could happen to her was laughable. Yes, it’s worse than her being tortured for days, worse than her possibly dying, worse than her being almost raped twice. Or how Chang Ah was more concerned about that small cut on her face than the fact SHE WAS MUTE! Love the message here: a beautiful woman without any scars is more valuable than one who can speak. Because beauty is what’s important.

And then there is also the whole love for sexual assault. The show opens with Wan Mei being sold to a brothel and almost raped. This did not bother me that much. It was supposed to be tragic, showing how weak and vulnerable she is at the moment. Could they do without it? Yes. But it still made sense plot wise. The thing that annoyed me was the fact she was also almost sexually assaulted by Gong Zi - and people still shipped them. There were comments saying he just loved her so much he could not stop himself. Some even said it was hot. Don't know what is more gross, that scene or people’s reaction to it.

Then, there is a whole sub plot of a CHILD being sold to a brothel and being raped god knows how many times to the point of stopping her mental development. Years later, after being saved, she is gang raped AGAIN, while mentally being a 11 years old child. I guess the writers wanted to be dramatic and edgy. So basically, for 2 years assholes took her virgin blood coz it has some awesome "magical" youth qualities. And when she was oLd eNoUgH (13), they started to rape her. And now at the age 19, after all that trauma, she gets raped again. And literally none of this, and definitely to that extent, was necessary plot wise.

So… does this drama have any good points? Yes. The acting was truly nice - I am impressed with Li Yi Tong for delivering a good performance even though the character she was playing was poorly written and made little sense. Another good aspect was the soundtrack. A Lifetime Waiting For You easily became one of my favorite OSTs. Last thing worth mentioning is - the show is just really pretty. I took almost 300 screenshots.

Overall, I would use it to torture people.

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Directing and writing chaos.

I truly have no idea what was the vision and direction for this show. What was the main conflict? What was the plot? What was the genre? It was everything and nothing.

Starting from the plot, I think Fighting Mr. 2nd does a huge disservice to season one - the cute, fun and a little bit dramatic story. Here we get full on makjang for the first episodes, that turns into corporation politics, and then into big old nothing.

None of the conflicts make much sense. Shi De agreeing to cut contact with the love of his life, because the dad said so was unbelievably stupid. Shu Yi trying to get his revenge at first made him one of the most toxic (for everyone around him) and unstable characters ever (at least that made sense, it was destructive but fitting). Then we have the "blond lady" misunderstanding and no true chat about it between the main characters. Not to mention the stolen files in the firm, which brought exactly nothing to the story - just stole the precious screen time that could have been used in a better way.

Zhen Xuan and Shou Yi romance could have been an amazing story, but it was simply impossible to do it justice as a side couple in a 3 hour story. Both characters were too complex and had serious underlying issues that should have been addressed in a more detailed manner. I am quite confused why they said Shou Yi has affective disorder though, since the ones that go into that category are stuff like depression, bipolar and manic disorder - mood disorders, so his lack of apparent empathy and incapability to form relationships with others was not quite fitting the label he was given.

Then we have the messy directing. What exactly was the plan? Was the dad supposed to be a scary controlling figure or a laughable, but a slightly obsessive comedic addition? Was the main romance supposed to be realistic struggles of the couple or over the top dramatic melo? I'm not saying you can't have comedy in the serious shows, or deeper topics in a lighter story - the tone needs to fit though. Here, it was a mess.

At the end we get to the problematic aspect of drinking on the set. For some it might not be a problem, for me it is. I see no excuse for drinking on the set. It puts the actor, co-actors and the whole production in danger. You don't just get your actor drunk for the sake of realism.

The only redeeming quality of the show was the acting and the music, and more specifically Unbreakable Love, which isn't even the original song made for the show.

Overall, season one was a good BL with nice characters and good pacing. This was just... a mess.

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We are shaped by our circumstances.

Preventing abuse is not a matter of personal choice, it’s a collective effort put into shaping the society so we won’t become numb to other people’s pain and ignore cries for help. Getting out of a toxic environment is only the first step, getting help and support to deal with the trauma is just as important. Without it, we will most likely than not continue the cycle of abuse, becoming perpetrators ourselves.

This perspective is clearly visible in the drama. The characters that, after facing traumatic events, were embraced by supportive people, felt a sense of emotional security and grew in a caring environment did not grow up to be abusers themselves. The less fortunate ones could not break the cycle, never learned how to cope with their piling issues, all they knew was how to project their problems onto others - in this case, children.

If you truly sit down and think about what was presented, you will feel uncomfortable. It’s hard to both feel bad for the villains for their past hardships, regret for them not getting the help, while also seeing them for what they now are - abusers. It’s extremely hard to comprehend the idea that a person can be both a victim and the perpetrator at the same time. It’s hard to root for rehabilitation of the offenders, when children suffer. The constant question: do we want revenge or justice? What does justice mean? What’s the goal of the punishment? What should be the goal of any action? The drama does a great job at making me think about these questions and what my answers would be.

Another aspect worth mentioning is the exploration of the role of mothers. The variety of different perspectives was beautiful to watch. The struggles, pain, but also the happiness and fulfillment one can feel when they are a mother. The fact that just because you gave birth to a child does not mean you can call yourself a mother.

Sadly, there were also aspects of the show I did not like. For example, for a show so well written, it’s a crime to have such a stock character serving the purpose of plot device and savior only - Jeong Jin Hong. He did nothing and presented nothing except for helping FL when the plot needed that.

Another aspect I didn't not quite like - the lack of presenting the society and media’s reaction to the kidnapping case. The show had a strong message about social awareness, but they did not really do much to show different social takes and perspectives on the issue. The middle part of the drama could have been a bit shorter, so the trial would last more than half an episode. That’s when you present the ideas and debate worthy takes on the issue.

On the bright side, the performances were amazing. Lee Bo Young obviously delivered a heartbreaking and touching portrayal of Kang Soo Jin, but we all know the true star was Heo Yool. Extremely hard role for a young actress, yet she carried it with amazing skills.

Overall, a beautiful and touching show presenting heavy topics. It was not easy to digest everything presented, there were moments that made me angry, sad, uncomfortable - but it’s the charm of this title - it evokes raw emotions and makes you reflect on presented questions.

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