A fun time but missing something

Overall I had fun with the show. It didn't reach the heights of its predecessor, but I still enjoyed it on balance. The characters were generally fun to watch, plenty of funny moments and decently paced as the tension escalated. The main cast were an interesting mix of characters and they played them well.

I did think though that the main conflict resolution was kind of anti-climactic, especially with how the main villain, Ryu Shi-oh was built up (and acted incredibly by Byeon Woo Seok. That unhinged intensity was great to watch)
And I just didn't feel the main couple managed to fully click in the end. In fairness, the legendary on-screen chemistry of Park Bo-Young and Park Hyung-Sik is more than a tough act to follow. And the leads do their best with what they are given, but I feel like the story didn't do enough of the legwork to make their falling for each other feel organic and I feel like we skipped over a few steps in their development. It's a shame too because individually Lee You-Mi and Ong Seong-Wu do a great job, but the chemistry in their shared scenes just doesn't quite feel there. And especially given the show had at least 4 major subplots going on as well, it just seems like there could have been space to give that core relationship more room if some of those subplots had been reduced. And one of those subplots only really became obviously important in the last 5 minutes of the finale.
There were also a couple of moments where I feel they played up Nam-Soon acting cute and being just a bit too childish, to the point it felt mildly infantilising of her character.

But for the most part, I enjoyed watching it. It's a bit unfortunate it's always going to be compared to its much-beloved predecessor rather than entirely on its own merit, but overall it's a fun, if imperfect, show.

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