A cautionary tale of how to ruin a drama with lazy writing

When part 2 of Gyeongseong Creature was announced a few weeks ago, I was elated, Part 1, is one of the best TV series in a long time -Korean or from anywhere-: fantastic story, fantastic characters, amazing production values, directing, acting, you name it.
And then, last weekend, when I started watching Season 2, before the end of Ep 1, it was clear, that this was going to be a huge disappointment. The production values, were there in a modern context, additional cast members were added to the already great cast, directing, fight coaches, costume and art department, all these and pretty much every department did a masterful job, unfortunately, unlike part 1, the writer decided to just be lazy and the production company, the powers that be or whoever was in charge just decided to let it happen.

There are a few rules to follow for entry level scriptwriters who are learning to write for TV/Film:
- Never explain or key plot points using only dialogue or a text read by a narrator,
- Never describe what's obviously on screen
- Plot holes cannot be resolved through dialogue
- Never kill a character for a lack of character development or ideas, and a few others that seem obvious, and even expected from entry level screenwriters and students. Why do I mention all these rules? Because, the list above represents some of the many issues with the sloppy writing and poor story development, these two parts are virtually, two different kdramas, not part 1 and 2 of the same story. When you have a poor script, there is very little in the way of production, directing and acting that can salvage things.

So, yes, technically, a scriptwriter can break these rules, there are masterful examples of how to bend and break these rules, but Gyeongseong Creature part 2, is a Masterclass of exactly the opposite situation, when an experienced writer just gives up and does whatever, adding characters and plot lines, no one cares about, whose motives and actions matter to the development of the story are barely, -if present- mentioned casually through sparse dialogue or a few flashbacks.

Also, not there in Part 2: key flashbacks that would have explained a lot of character development and added context to the story. These small details, a few scenes here and there, would have helped with the coherence and continuity that Season 1 had that unfortunately, was wasted, These choices sadly defeated the purpose of most plot lines developed with care and a lot of detail in Part 1. Every single problem with part 2 of this series, comes from lazy writing, poor character development, plot holes the size of the Korean Peninsula, and a few other issues, namely, how to solve a huge gap in time for these characters, things are just talked about and never shown.

Season 3 is probably hinted, I say probably, because, with this level of poor writing, that after credits scene might just be nothing but another meaningless afterthought.

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Irreverent and surprising

So, this is the first time I watch a Thai drama and oh, was I in for a surprise... The plot is interesting in its irreverence, despite a few plot holes here and there. However, the overall execution worked quite well.
Huge credit goes to the direction, writing and editing departments, the music also worked well.

The actors were good in their roles, special mention to Patchai Pakdesusuk, who plays Monk Dol in a surprising, yet, heartbreaking story.
Also, it is worth mention Petch Paopetch as Monk Ekkachai, his performance was subtle, fundamental for the huge plot twist at the end.

The editing of the plot twist also worked quite well, in its setup and reveal.

According to Netflix a Season 2 is coming so it will be interesting to see what comes next to the story.

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A new kind of drama has emerged: the hatewatch drama that is not makjang

Not all dramas are created equally.

Some are experiences you treasure and share and hope as many people watch as possible, some are so bad, you wonder why where they even created at all, some are filler shows, and you kind of know while watching a forgivable story and sometimes poor acting or messy production values.

We used to just drop the bad ones, but then a relatively good show like When the phone rings is announced, then we hope that maybe, it will be good, because everything sort of seems ok: good actors, good writers, good production teams and so, we go in not knowing what to expect, but then, when nothing in a show like When the Phone rings works, and I mean it, nothing in this drama works and the actors can't make miracles if their source material is just all over the place, you start to wonder why this even hit the air.

But yes, nothing in this drama works,, nothing in the story, plot, character development adds anything to a substandard story that attempts to be too much of a thriller/romcom/political drama, without setting on one (don't get me started with that last episode, because I refuse to believe the writer just got away with that)
Just from the many genres and plot, this drama is just a mess, that thankfully is a limited series and we will never waste another minute with these characters and messy story arc ever again.

And yet, this show gathered huge ratings in Korea, and elsewhere we watch, puzzled at the thought of why????, then, it is clear that the mess that started in the writing room cannot be saved, not even award winning actors, directors and producers can save a poorly written story. But then, you as a viewer keep watching, and wondering why and suddenly, it's been 12 hours, you wonder why did you waste your time with it.

Behold a brand new kind of drama: The hatewatch drama that is not really a makjang. You watch, you want to like, but no, you hate it and you keep on watching. Yes, the show might be nice to watch, thanks to the the Art and Photography departments that clearly deserve a lot of praise for their good work, but then, shows that are nice to watch should have some more positive qualities, right?

Just last week, it was announced that Netflix (and I suspect other streaming services) have asked show creators to dumb down their shows, because us as audiences ,are multitasking, stuck to our chellphones while watching whatever is on that tries to pass on as a entertainment. And while I was hatewatching this show, don't get me started on how that final episode was 100% filler made out stuff. I keep on wondering why, maybe we have begun to ask for nothing and happily consume whatever comes our way, not matter what. Let's hope that shows that are created equally might consider the investment audiences make and may we as audiences demand better stories to be told. Or better, let's just drop them as we used to.

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These violent delights have violent ends, we just have to wait for Season 3

I'm specially puzzled as to why people don't get that it has been hinted all throughout Seasons 1 and 2, that the world outside of the Game Island is way bigger and much more powerful than what has been shown.

Yes, Season 2 it's not as novel and exciting as the first season and we know for a fact that "these violent delights have violent ends", so we can all agree that this game will not end in pretty terms, but world builing of this scope, requires more time to be fully developed than what can be shown in this limited number of episodes.

**** Some spoilers ahead ****

However, I believe there is now a very good idea of how unlikely a hero Gi-hun is and how powerful the game structure is, given how he and Jun-ho have become forcefully isolated even mocked about their claims of their past experience at the Island. In order to show that, we need to be patient.

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