Because trust me you not going to regret it!
Okay let me start with the most important thing. Plot/Writing. Which seems like a lot of people complain about. Now I'm not saying it was 10/10 however I was not bored for even one second or had any problems with how the story was layed out. We start off the whole drama with a lot of questions which I personally liked as it made it much more interesting. The action and the misery parts were truly amazing. It is a rom-com kdrama so I wasn't really expecting much of a twists and exitment but I gotta say that I've never seen such a well balanced kdrama. We got the right amount of romance, comedy, action and fantasy. Masterpiece.
Acting:
I gotta say that this was the first time watching a kdrama with An Hyo Seop and Park Bo Young ( because yes I did not watch Strong Girl Bong soon) and Oh my God. I am a fan. Totally. Without a doubt. I loved her acting as I feel like she was able to deliver emotion in a really professional way. She was truly impressing. As for Hyo Seop I kinda felt like he was a pretty face rookie actor and in the beginning I thought that would ruin his character however I felt like it suited his cute, clusmy and a little bit dumb character. A lot of people criticized Cha Min's character and I might have to agree with that a little bit as I think they could've give more to Cha Min. More charisma maybe more seriousness however I think it wasn't a big problem as his cute silliness suited the drama
Music:
I have nothing much to say about this. It was just truly amazing and I am usually really picky with ost as I get bored of listening to the same songs through 16 episode.
Ending:
Another element of the drama that I read a lot of hate comments about. And I seriously thought for a good 10 minutes that I'm gonna hate the ending. But obviously I didn't. To be honest it wasn't anything special we seen it before but sometimes extravaganza endings can ruin a drama. I'm gonna be honest this was the ending I needed. Sweet and chill. And nice refreshing ending after all the excitement.
Overall:
I seriously don't get why this drama is getting a lot of hate. If you are unsure of watching it, Trust me! It's a worth watch. Perfect plotwist. And it is just so entertaining!!!
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The drama had a nice dynamics between the two leads. They were funny and cute together. However, the romance took forever to progress and the ending was terrible. The mystery part was good at first as well, but it got complicated and messy. Plus, the fantasy part was not properly presented or explained.
At least, the performances were good, as expected, from everyone in the cast and the pacing interesting.
So, five out of ten.
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It could be so much better
We all know this could be so much better.It was messy and boring at times. The acting is the only reason I'm giving it a high score. The actors were all amazing.
I don't like the beauty ideal message sent by the drama. I wish we could stop feeding the plastic surgery industry. It makes me think they have a drama lobby.
Somehow all the dramas that deal with looks different than the ideal all try to change the person instead of working for acceptance. You see that with beauty and weight (oh my venus, gangnam beauty, coffee do me a favor).
Even the drama weightlifting fairy kim bok joo has that problem, calling perfectly normal women overwheight and recommending skin whitening creams (that one didn't escape me and I hate that drama for that.)
It's 2020. Let's start accepting people come in all shapes and sizes. More diversity and true acceptance lead to a better and kinder society. Stop brainwashing young girls and young women into thinking they need to change their looks to be accepted or valuable. They don't.
I also have a thing with the main song! YOU HAVE SOME NERVE SINGING I'M SO LONELY WHILE WE'RE WATCHING THE LEADS KISS!!! hahaha
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Abyss is one of those shows thats premise is full of potential. Unfortunately, throughout episodes one to twelve, this premise is explored nowhere near as much as it should be. The "abyss," which is a magical ball which essentially grants the user power over life, is seldom used, or explained, which is a shame as 45% of the drama's description talks about it and it sets you up for a more heavily paranormal story. In the final 4 more episodes they use it more and in episode 16 (the last episode) its value and relevance literally disappears. The abyss itself is poorly explained as the story goes along and is quite confusing. The information dump in the last few episodes is really jarring.The story as a whole, though not atrocious, is exceedingly meh for a crime drama. One of my main gripes with this show was that though it sets you up for a romance, crime and paranormal story. The paranormal and romance elements are very short, and I understand that it is a crime drama but the long crime scenes that do exist usually only add superfluous information or have seemingly no relevance to evolving the plot.
From episode 1 of the show, as soon as the villain was introduced I was 100% sure that he would be involved in Seyeon (Park Bo Young's) death, and they gave out the name of the secondary villain way too early. I think the show was relying on this imaginary suspense that really wasn't there. I'll admit I don't watch a lot of crime dramas so I don't know if this type of bland story is the norm (or better) than most but for one of my first crime dramas I was unimpressed.
I will wholeheartedly admit I started watching this drama because of my love of Park Bo-Young in her other dramas, even though I had watched other dramas with Ahn Hyo-Seop I had never found his portrayal interesting enough to seek out all of his works. I feel like the role Park Bo Young played in this drama is very similar to a lot of others she has played but that's definitely not a bad thing. She's great at it and she fits the character well (except, I don't really agree with the asessment of her beauty as plain, but that doesn't have much to do with her) and Ahn Hyo-Seop and her had really great chemistry. I was honestly surprised, their relationship was really pure and sweet, and it was interesting to see evidently how long they had both been interested in each other, even though the first few episodes stated otherwise. In the last few episodes especially, their relationship was really wholesome and fluffy, even though I think the timing of some of their relationship moments was an odd juxtaposition to the other events occuring.
The side characters were honestly, at times. a lot better than the mains, probably, because the actual script was written so that they were placed in more extremist situations and experienced a large range of emotions. I thought Han So Hee (Heejin) was really good, and I went through the experience of initially disliking her, to liking her, to disliking her again, to liking her again, like the script writers probably wanted me to feel. I think the strongest of all of them was probably Kwon Soo Hyun (Ji Wook) because I got bad vibes from him from the get-go. He was genuinely convincing in every scene he was in and I think he did a very good job of delivering every inch of the meh script. Personally, I thought the person who did the weakest job was Lee Sung Jae (Young Cheol). I don't know if it was because I found his scenes the most boring out of all of them rather than suspenseful or if it rested more in his blase delivery but I enjoyed him the least. He wasn't bad though and suited the purpose of the show.
The music wasn't very memorable, but it worked well with the show and I found myself nodding along sometimes. My favorites were "Into the Abyss," "Stay" and "Fallin'." Though, I think there could've been overall better music placement it served its purpose well.
In conclusion, I feel like I probably will rewatch this show but not for the best reasons. It's on Netflix, and it's all-round easy to access so I can see myself rewatching the more light-hearted episodes or the last episode. I can also see myself wanting to rewatch the cute romance moments or some of the more heartwarming moments. I don't see myself ever wanting to rewatch the entire show because the mystery aspect isn't the kind where you discover new things and go "aha!" every time you rewatch it but more like you watch it once and there's nothing new to uncover. I would recommend this show if you like Park Bo Young and if you're interested in watching a crime drama for the first time because this is a pretty basic, easy to follow, way to start. However, if you're looking for a show about the paranormal or romance which Abyss promises this really isn't the drama for you.
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While there are still six months to go, the bar has been set extremely high with Abyss: a giant mess acted by a cast who really deserved better.
The annoying thing is, like last year's Worst Show of The Year (About Time), Abyss could have been fantastic. It has a great premise, a decent cast. It could have been an hilarious - almost farcical - comedy of mistaken identities, body swapping, and annoyed aliens. Instead what we got was a turgid, unfunny mess underpinned by a philosophy that was at times confused and at others actively offensive.
Ahn Hyo-seop has a lot of potential as an actor but he is still far too green to be given a leading role. With a good director, a good script and a good female lead he could have still produced something decent. But unfortunately he only got one of those in a criminally-underutilized Park Bo-young, - who really deserved better in her first lead show since the (sometimes equally as offensive) Strong Woman Do Bong-soon.
Both the lead roles were poorly written, with Ahn Hyo-seop's Cha Min changing from scene to scene depending on what the writer needed him to do - at times an uber genius, at others the dumbest male lead to ever appear on screen. Park Bo-young was given so little to work with for her character, Go Se-yeon, that she opted for cute - an interpretation that did not work with the character or the script.
Both these characters die and are brought back to life by a glowing alien marble. The unattractive Cha Min is suddenly gorgeous, while the stunning, willowy, Go Se-yeon is... Park Bo-young. Which is to say, she's a super adorable tiny person so the idea she's now "plain" is just ridiculous.
From beginning to end, Abyss had some profound things to say about image in our beauty-obsessed culture.
Like:
“you can’t love someone who’s ugly”
"what you look like is what your soul is like"
“plastic surgery gives you a better soul” and
“dieting makes your wedding day better”
Apart from the dumb, messy plot, the poor characterisation and the wall-to-wall stupidity of the characters, it's ultimately this utterly shallow and almost vacuous underpinning philosophy that makes Abyss truly awful.
Appearance is everything. Nothing else matters.
No thanks, Abyss. No thanks.
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The plot itself is intriguing but I feel like it wasn't laid out as well as it could have been. It felt like there were so many things going on at once and so sometimes it felt like the focus wasn't on the main couple. Although there was always a lot happening in each episode, it still felt like the drama had a really slow pace. It didn't feel like there was enough romance between the main couple. Usually, I will watch a drama and be rooting for the main couple to be together. In this drama, although I did like the actors and their characters, I wasn't dying for them to be together. Some characters that I didn't like were redeemed in the storyline but it felt too forced. I think this is rather unfair since there was a really good cast and plot idea.
I am a big fan of drama OSTs. I will listen to the soundtracks of dramas and even add them to my playlists. Something about the music of Abyss felt off. There wasn't a special song linked to particular moments that stood out to me. When I think of certain dramas, I automatically remember certain songs that made me feel for a character. I didn't feel this with the music of Abyss. Usually, you can find me crying alongside the characters at their most pivotal moments and the music has a big part to play in that most of the time. I knew that Abyss had made that much of an impact on me when I didn't cry once for the characters.
I think overall this drama just didn't reach its full potential, which is a shame considering the cast involved. I am pretty disappointed that I have to give this drama a low score and negative review, but I just don't think this drama is worth the hype. As a big fan of Park Bo Young, I feel so bad that I am saying this but I look forward to her next work. I don't think I would rewatch this drama. I think the trailer and the plot summary were a bit misleading. There isn't much emphasis on romance in Abyss (even though there are many romance scenes, it felt forced). This is more of a thriller/mystery drama so if that is your thing, then maybe you should check it out.
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This show is a perfect example of trying to be too many things. It was jarring to jump between the fantasy, thriller/crime and romantic comedy. It was like three separate shows happening all at the same time. With the more suspenseful and crime part of the show, the music was just so overtly dramatic it was over the top. The fantasy was the most interesting concept of the whole show and the showrunners let so many things unexplained or unexplored, much to the show's detriment. I love a romantic comedy but it felt so out of place with the rest of the storyline and felt inconsistent when I think back over the 16 episodes and the justifications and history between the two leads seem to change pending on what the show runners needed to try and get to the end. So in the end, the romance felt not as natural as I think it could have. Granted, I have just come off watching Her Private Life with Park Min Young and Kim Jae Wook where the chemistry was off the richter scale. And the crime, oh dear... well I have to say I don't watch kdramas for their realistic cop/law plotlines. Makes me wonder if I have watched too many western cop/law shows that give off a better impression of actually making plausible sense. This show was just ridiculous in this area.
I think one of the worst things is when you get to the last episode and there is only 15 minutes left to go and you are left with so many things to tie up that every scene just becomes cheesy, predictable and disappointing.
All that said, I think PBY and AHS are great, I still love them as actors and will continue to support their future projects. I also think they did a great job with the roles they were given and the mediocre script they had to work with. All the supporting actors were great and I enjoyed their parts in the story, even though most of them seemed to disappear in the last couple of episodes.
All in all, I don't think I will ever be watching this show again and I would only recommend it if you are a fan of the two leads.
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Messy
In theory this had a lot going for it — but execution was super messy. It felt like characters were introduced haphazardly and it was hard to link all the subplots and backstories together. A lot of things just made no sense and I hated that the rules of the Abyss kept changing. It just felt too convenient and really made for a lot of plotholes. The same really goes for the ending, which is my biggest issue because a lot of the resolution just makes no sense.A plus is that the main leads are really cute together, even though there's some parts of their relationship that is just really confusing.
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It was nice :) haha interesting concept. not the best for me though lol Story is interesting had a lot of potential but I think they didn't use the whole potential of it. Better watch it without huge expectations. It turns into a mystery/detective with a bit of comedy and a tiny bit of fantasy. At first i didn't like it because they were too fixed on korean norms of beauty and ugly. However later they do say that all the people liked the guy before too who was ugly at the time. And the girl was beautiful but a bit annoying lol. Well Park bo Yeong is not ugly at all so idk why they consider her ugly but i guess they made her a haircut that doesn't suit her well.
Anyway the concept of abyss was nice, the cameo while giving out the abyss was also nice haha. idk why they call them aliens. They could have made the whole story much better with that concept but they failed to do it. As a mystery it wasn't bad. not the Best, but not the Worst either. They could have explained it more, much more... but they left everything unexplained.
the side character couple was cute. i liked that detective-mido couple the most haha.
i didn't like that they made the ending like that so i skipped most of it. But still it was happy ending so all good. wish they could explain more about the homeless person and what happened during the gap. it felt rushed in that way. or rather... felt like they had nothing to say so they made se yeon fall asleep in the middle lol
actually i skipped a lot of scenes as they were all lovely bubbly when there is a killer walking around. lol
What i liked:
- ahn hyo seob (but i think he is still too green for a lead)
- a hilarious scenes when abyss was with killer (they could have made it even funnier, but i think i just thought all the funny stuff to myself that's why found it hilarious)
- Male Lead Cha Min's mother! lol (would have thought she is that cliche mean rich mother but they made all those things very funny lol she was great, i loved when she said "bring Food!!!")
What i didn't like:
- Plot (which i liked it it was not made well, i think the writers themselves didnt get how to use it)
- Acting (well idk... i dint like it much)
- Too much romance in the later part of the drama which should have been intense
- Ending (it was a happy ending!!! but it had many things not explained, i'd say VERY not explained. but kinda a DOTS like ending again)
- Beauty/Ugly norms lol
Overall:
I can't say i liked this drama, but i can't say i hated it either. I'd say you can try it to see for yourself, because I didn't like it mostly cause i like different genres.... well i do like mystery the most, but for me this was more romance than mystery. So it was ok, not bad, but not very good for me.
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So this is going to be a fairly short review as I agree with so many of the criticisms already displayed by frustrated watchers about how this had potential to be amazing but ended up as a bit of an incoherent mess... (honestly it started off as a 9 for me then became a 6 after the messy ending).THE STORY
So one thing I absolutely adore in fantasy stories is excellent world building. Or if there is a messy world, that there is enough information and good writing to make a suspension of disbelief bearable. I was unfortunately disappointed. From the beginning, it was called Abyss, so I wished that they'd explain more. Unlike what other people may have said, I actually really liked how the beginning started off running- with a death about a minute within. I liked how there was a thriller/mystery aspect that could keep me engaged, but it, unfortunately, turned into a bit of a W + Goblin plothole mess combined for me. I really wanted to love this, honestly. I love both the main actors but I just didn't feel this as much as I wished. The mystery started off strong but it felt like the writer ran out of ideas to make the villains smart so just dumbed down the characters. I also wish I saw more of the black coat people (were they a sort of grim reaper?) Like I said, so much potential but the writer focused on the wrong parts.
I think one of the biggest mistakes the writer made was focusing on the characters "doing this and this" for the plot to go on and just using the characters as a device to push the plot forward, without clear thoughts on the characters themselves and their growth.
One more thing: WHAT IS THE MISMATCH OF SCENES. Like there was so much seriousness going on in the latter half and the mains would go off alone on romantic dates like- okay unrealistic and it was jarring to have the scene shift from thriller to fluff right away.
THE CAST
So many people had a myriad of different things to say about the cast, so these are just my few pointers.
Ahn Hyo Seop is one of my newer favourite actors ( I loved him in Dr. Romantic) and I thought he did a pretty good job with what he was given. I was actually appreciating how he acted despite the weakly written character. I have not seen a protagonist this conflicting in character and kind of dumb in a while. Cha Min confused me a lot. He was smart that one time he had to talk to the board of directors in Lan Cosmetics, but then somehow jumped into trouble immediately looking for his ex fiancee. Where did his sanity go? Lots of people would say Hyo Seop was a little green- honestly, he did a good job for what he was given. If I was given the same character I would be so lost because there is zero consistency nor character development for me to build a coherent character off of. Perhaps with more experience he could have saved some scenes but I thought he did well for what he was given. It was a waste of potential.
Park Bo Young did pretty good in her portrayal of her character. Compared to Cha Min, Se Yun was actually more fleshed out in the script and her personality was more clear. I think Bo Young was a good choice (though I would not agree that she is a "plain jane" sort. I think she's really pretty and cute). I don't have much to say because her character was written with less problematic inconsistencies than Cha Min so it was a good portrayal.
The rest of the cast did well in their portrayals as well, and for once, I felt like a lot of the supporting characters actually were written better than the mains. The chemistry of the mains was really cute though and honestly their relationship moments saved some parts.
MUSIC
The music was good, the ost for their kisses was unique and had a wistful feel but honestly the script didn't set the mood. I loved the "Into the Abyss" OST though.
REWATCH VALUE
It's a 7 for me because of the ease of the plot and would be something I'd play in the background if I have time. It's easy access on Netflix and fairly chill so it's fine to kill time with.
CONCLUSION
Like I said, I think the major flaw here was the world building and script. There's another drama that Bo Young was in that I had similar views of (Strong Woman Do Bong Soon) but the cast was so loveable and the characters were not as conflicting so I ended up liking it a lot despite the plot holes. I think Abyss was a little over hyped by the production companies which lead to a lot of disappointment. The couple portions I think saved it but overall it's just a drama that I will just let pass by me with an "eh it was okay" moment.
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The story, even into the 2nd chance cliché, has many interesting plot twists and, ones more original than others, keeps you interested until the last episode. It's true that the first 10 episodes were better conceived, and specially the 2 first ones, but it still has a logic development of events and a very appropriate ending. There are a few things they leave unexplained (for example why some people change apearences and other don't) but nothing that lets you down.
The characters are well played, nothing out of ordinary, the protagonists have good chemistry, dialogues are not predictable, the male lead actor is really beautiful and sweet and shares very well the protagonist role with the female lead who is a strong and well defined character. The secondary chararters are charming and have their own growing and development, which is also a good trait.
The action and romance are very balanced and feels very naturally developed, if you like the thrill this one has many good scenes, and if you love romance and fluffy couples with healthy relationships this one has very sweet moments too.
I understand the people that love romance but doesn't like seeing blood or cruel characters, but it's not my case, the supernatural things are not that deep or with many special effects but the explanations are efficient and enough to make it logic and plausible.
It was an enjoyable watch and I would recommend it to anyone that likes action, thrill, romance and supernatural convination of elements.
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Let me just tell you what is the single thing that i liked about this drama? Its Park Bo Young and nothing else. The first episode was okay towards the end of it something was really off with the plot, characters and all. WTH! Its park bo young! Shes my favorite. So i watched ep 2 and i keep telling myself thats its just the beginning...it'll pull through. Its park bo young! Until i reached ep 12 or 13 i noticed they stretched out the story it " i thought thats the end of it" before finishing this drama i finished 4 to 5 dramas in between. I just really got bored with it. The plot is unique it has a very promising story. This drama is very disappointing. There are times i want to jump in to the series finale on how the story would end. Awww but its park bo young geez! So i finished other dramas 4 to 5 dramas before i got to finish this. Reason why i think this drama flopped?1. The plot -stretched out without giving "spice" or mystery on it. Unlike in the drama Black the twists and turns really are worty it.
2. They are dead but really they aren't. -i mean whats with the same fingerprints and same DNA after dying and coming back from the dead with a different face? Come on..am i the only one who finds this thing silly? Seriously weird, right?
3. The LEADS LACK CHEMISTRY! compared to park bo youngs past male leads this is faaaaar from it. Its really disappointing.
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