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best mafia drama ever
Honestly, i was quite surprised seeing such bad reviews of a very popular drama and that led me to throw this drama in the watch later list, until recently i saw a clip of hong ya chong impersonating choi and vincenzo's fight scene and i was like "dammmm this is so goooood" and i immediately started watching it and guess what? I m absolutely obsessed with this drama, this couple, i m obsessed with everything and literally can't get over it, i keep rewatching the scenes, the thrill, the court scenes, the badass-ness, the boldness, the power of the couple, the subtle growth of their feelings that you can just feel from the behaviour, the humor, the action, the plannings, the lightness, the fight scenes, geumga plaza and the members, the gold, inzaghi, like i m crying because i miss this drama so much, i desperately wish there was a season 2 and hate these reviews lol for making me delay watching this absolutely wonderful awesome amazing brilliant mafia drama. Maybe i m a rookie, i don't know much about what a "drama" should really contain like these experts, but i just don't care. As a fan and a person who's totally obsessed with vincenzo, i really hate these reviews. I would advise everyone to ignore these reviews and just jump in to watching the drama, maybe you will love it like me, or dislike it or be disappointed like the people here, but decide it for yourself and not blindly follow the reviews like I did. Everyone is different and has different opinions, and this is mine.For me, this is one of the best k dramas ever, the best mafia law drama ever, and i absolutely love and adore this, and desperately wish for season 2, after watching this drama no other drama feels the same and i keep wishing to see more and more of it. LOTS OF LOVE TO VINCENZO, AND CHACENZO AND THE REST OF THE CAST ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
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Did I like it? Yes. Would I criticize it? Also yes cuz why not?
This review will point out some positives and negatives.I'll be speaking about 4 main points.
1. The Pacing
2. The Villain
3. The Romance
4. The Characters
[The Villain]
I'll start off with the biggest shortcome of this series, the villains. They were fundamentally weak antagonists. When you watch them, you DO NOT think,
"Wow, they are a step ahead."
"Omg, they are always winning!"
Because they never were. They were always behind. Even their so called small "victories" were never real victories. They were hollow. Whenever they try to gain an upper hand, they follow the exact same tactic throughout the entirety of the series. There were probably only few instances that they do something different aka bribe. You always knew, when watching, that Vincenzo would outsmart them. Which makes them boring and flat. They were not as smart as they initial were portrayed. The fact they even lasted that long is beyond me. I don't feel frustrated neither do I feel excited. They are that dull.
I had high hopes for our female villain but she truly just sucked. Had she been a good, smart opponent, it would have made everything more impactful and sweet when she gets what she deserves. One of the things that struck me as odd is how we don't get a background story on why she does the things she does and why she joined hands with Han Seok. Where does her trust in him stem from?
I would say Han Seo was the one that actually made me curious. He was a puppet but he was behaving in ways that were conflicting which made him interesting. His character development easily made him the most enjoyable one to watch.
[Characters/Pacing/Romance]
The series didn't use their time duration wisely. A lot of it was mundane. I would say they could have easily fixed it if they gave a bit of a background story about each of the tenants to deepen the connection with the viewer. Don't get me wrong, the tenants do grow on you and become an enjoyable aspect of this show. However, a short montage would have done the trick. It would have made this excellent if we knew more about them then just the surface.
With that being said, I would say the one character that disappointed me from start to end was the female lead. Her personality was fine and I gotta give her props for not enforcing her values on the male lead. However, she does BARE MINIMUM throughout the entire 28 hours of this series. Her role diminishes as the series goes. You know the writer messes up when the side characters does MORE than the main character. Even a bloody bird did something LOL. She is just there to represent Vincenzo plans during court because Vincenzo is Italian, therefore he can't be an attending lawyer in another country. I like it more when female characters have some worth to the story and she had the potential to go through a cool transition so it bummed me that it never happened.
But the good news is, she's a love interest. That covers up her shortcomings very well because you can enjoy the romance and the side characters can fill the gaps she is missing so you don't lose much viewing experience over her doing nothing. Romance is important because a lot of people can't watch a drama without romance. Plus the romance is actually mature, subtle and realistic. It doesn't use communication but actions to portray love. Whether you think they have chemistry or not is up to you to decide because it's subjective. If you you don't think they have chemistry then... YIKES.
Another thing I would say this series does well is being consistent with who Vincenzo originally were and they have done a lot of bold, daring, refreshing revenges that other dramas have never done before. It can't be replicated. When you watch them, they do leave an impact in you and it's very likely you won't forgot them.
I would like to end my review by saying the plot had a couple loose ends but you can move on from them. I do, however, want to address the Deus Ex Machina that is called the Guillotine File that somehow ended up in the same place as our protagonist...the whole existence of that file is ???? it doesn't bother me but I do want to point out how it's a very obvious plot convenience.
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I am glad that I didn't dropped it
So it took me 5 days to finish the first 9 episodes and 2 days for the last 11 episodes. It was pretty good drama. At first I didn't like it. I didn't understand what was going on. So I was gonna drop it after watching 3 episodes. But somehow I didn't dropped it and kept watching. Then again when I was in the 10th episode I thought that let's not drop it just put it in hold, take a break and start watching it again after few days. But OMG. From the 10th episode the story became so much amazing and enjoyable. It kept getting better and better with every episode. As I said I finished the last 11 episodes in 2 days. The story seems so slow in the first and it keeps getting better as the show goes on. There was so good action/fighting scenes. I also laughed very much watching the show. Some scenes was so well thought. I didn't like the comedic approach from the characters to be honest. But some people might like it. So overall it is an drama that's definitely worth watching. But you need to have patience as the story is kinda boring in the first. And there was some unwanted scenes just to make the drama longer. You can skip some scenes if you don't like it. And the drama is usually longer than other dramas. Each episode is longer than 80 minutes. So yeah as I said you need to have patience in the first few episodes only after that you will love watching it.Vond je deze recentie nuttig?
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Entertaining and fun to watch!
I enjoyed the drama quite a bit and give it a solid 8. I definitely think people should watch it. There were lots of things to love about it: the acting/cast, humor, action/fighting scenes, and thrilling main plot was fantastic.However, I did detract some stars as there were a few things I would change. I think the beginning and middle was stronger than the end, as around episode 16 the pacing and side plots/characters went from tight and potent to loose and spaghetti like which detracted from the satisfying end. I felt like instead of fleshing out so many new pointless side characters (like the campaign guy towards the end) that it should have fleshed out already involved characters more and tied up some of the previous loose ends from earlier episodes in a neater way instead of just in the last episode during that montage to show that time had passed. It also seemed like the female main character disappeared in the last couple of episodes until the climax and was instead turned into a plot device. It was like the writer didn't want her character to know all of what VC did as they didn't make her character able to condone that level of revenge.
Also, I thought the villain reveal wasn't that iconic and was super obvious from the beginning and I thought was meant to be obvious for the audience as they didn't try to mask it at all and revealed it fairly early on in addition to the obvious clues. I was kind of hoping that a different character (the one related to the villain) was the true villain all along and was going to unusual suspects us at the end, I was disappointed that wasn't the case.
Though as I said, the show overall is really great, and the characters are unique and fun to watch. Give it a shot!
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Tonally disjointed with a nonsensical plot
Sigh. I'm so disappointed with "Vincenzo". I didn't expect a drama about a Korean adoptee who becomes a consiglieri in the mafia to be the second coming of "The Godfather", but I did expect much more than a legal drama that reduced the courtroom to a circus with a seemingly invincible and ridiculously deranged villain.The first three episodes definitely have their flaws - most notably the strange comedy that feels disjointed from the more serious tone of the main story. However, the plot seems to have direction. Vincenzo's goals are clearly defined, the conflict that prevents him achieving said goal is established, and the event that spirals everything out of control is executed perfectly. The build up of tension across those three episodes left me with my jaw on the floor and ready to see how Vincenzo executed his revenge through both legal and illegal means.
But, by episode 5 I was already beginning to feel tired with the drama: the writer was speeding through so many scenarios, it was clear to see that he was going to run out of steam and that the story would drag across 15 more episodes. And I was correct. Because by the end of episode 9, not only is Vincenzo no longer calm, collected, calculative and cunning, but he's just plain stupid. He executes all his plans in the most haphazard obvious way, its a surprise he doesn't end up dead within five minutes. The writer keeps telling us that he's this intelligent mafioso, but honestly, how the hell did he last as long as he did in the mob by acting so carelessly? There's knowing when to show your hand to your enemy in order to push them into the corner, and then there's being so blatantly obvious it gets you and everybody else around you killed.
The legal stuff in this show requires so much suspension of disbelief it'll make your eyes roll into the back of your head. Anyone with an understanding of the South Korean political, economic and legal environment is aware of how much corruption is rife within the system. But courtrooms have principles and the way Hong Cha Young operates in court would get any lawyer in jail for contempt and could even lead her to lose her attorney's license. Its just so ridiculous. Its straight up comedic.
Speaking of comedy, the humour in this show is just so bad. One minute we go from seeing someone getting their head cracked open with a hockey stick, and the next minute we're suddenly thrust into a slapstick scene with the residents of Geumga Plaza. One episode basically shows a character with a domestic violence record as the source of comedic relief (really homophobic episode too). Even dark shows need moments of reprieve, but these sudden shifts of tone are so silly it undercuts the intended seriousness of the story and even results in the (many!) deaths that occur as feeling like cheap stunts. This show's body count is already so needlessly high after 9 episodes that the deaths lose all meaning. There's absolutely no pathos. And how am is the audience supposed to root for characters who keep getting other innocent people killed? Just highlights how Vincenzo is basically a dumb ass in a nice suit.
The acting and the direction are the only things that kept me going for as long as I did. Song Joong Ki somehow manages to make Vincenzo seem like a smart, cunning, almost Michael Corleone-esque character even though the script is constantly working against him and his Italian is atrocious. Jeon Yeo Bin does the best she can do with her character: her face acting when she's allowed to be more than just an over the top drama queen is honestly really good. She's capable of conveying anger, sadness, grief in ways that don't seem exaggerated at all. I'm definitely going to check out her other work, hopefully she gets more material that helps her shine as actress, because she really doesn't have much to do here besides be a bitch or Vincenzo's lackey.
There are some excellently directed sequences here. Episode three is definitely a stand out in terms of direction. The director is very aware of ways to build tension. But it can't cover for how bad the story is.
Don't waste your time and watch "Flower of Evil" instead if you want a good, tightly plotted thriller that isn't brought down by the more ridiculous aspects of the writing.
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Episode 1: Chess Mafia Analogy
After breaking out of jail, SpongeBob seizes the opportunity to eat corndogs instead of Krabby patties. Cinderella also likes wood shoes as snow white likes snot shoes now. Because of this, they want to launch a new store. A nunchuck store with a weenie detector for all those weenies out there. Wreck-it Ralph also launched a new candy store filled with lots of doves. They love to do things publicly: like even looking at each other's bottoms to see that wonderful hole for reproduction. And you might be saying, what is this about the movie [VINCENZO]? Well the movie, I suppose to say series or episodes are good and I highly recommend you to watch it.Vond je deze recentie nuttig?
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brilliantly captivating
vincenzo is one of my top dramas and if you check my watchlist, youll see ive combed through many of kdramaland's best and worst dramas.to start, people that give vincenzo low ratings mustve dropped it early on. even from an objective point of view, this drama is nearly perfect by any standard. i admit the FL took some time to get used to and the story needed to catch its footing, but when it did, it hit the ground running. firstly, the writing is spectacular. each episode has the perfect balance of action and recovery, in which we see our characters throw a punch, compose themselves, and get ready for their next course of action. even if an episode has a slower pace than the previous episode, nothing is ever dull or boring. the conversations are organic and each character is well written. everyone in this drama has their place and meaning, no character or action is a filler.
what makes this drama spectacular is how well thought out everything is. youd have to watch each episode multiple times to catch each fleeting glance, each allegory or parallel. each episode has a focus and goal, and we watch the characters grow with each conversation. thats what makes this drama feel so real despite its fantastical and unreachable plot: the world building, the well written dialogue where we witness the weaknesses and strengths of our characters, the highs and lows of our leads, how they deal with their traumas. the writer has developed the characters to the point where we can confidently say what our leads are thinking or how they may be spending their time when theyre not gracefully fighting crime. and the pacing of the plot has been more consistent than a majority of dramas ive seen, there are no massive time jumps, no miscommunications, no unnecessary subplots. in fact any trope that vincenzo uses, it makes fun of itself before we get a chance to do so. thats how well thought out the writing is.
the balance of crime, mystery, action, comedy, and romance is unraveled. you get your fill but the end always leaves you wanting more. the slow burn especially has to be the best ive seen. relationship wise, we watch our characters go from enemies to friends, learning to appreciate and lean on each other. crime wise, we get an interesting and maniacal set of villains that successfully make you shiver in your seat. vincenzo's comedy also lands really well most of the time, making the most of their comical side cast and cameos and references.
as for our ML, song joongki is doing a spectacular job. he eloquently delivers what-on paper- looks like a brutal mafia member as a loyal, enigmatic man with unresolved trauma. he has an air of elegance and intelligence, and unlike his cold appearance he genuinely cares for and wants to do right by those around him. song joongki is also incredible at controlling his facial expressions and micromovements, allowing us to see his internal struggle with his developing feelings.
our FL, played by jeon yeobeen is a little offputting at first. perhaps JYB needed time to really get into her character or this type of character isnt her strong suit. regardless, after 5 or so episodes she really grows into the role of spunky and flamboyant chayoung who has trauma of her own. this drama would not be as splendid as it is if we didnt have such an atypical FL that i am so happy to see on my screen. she is strong willed, intelligent, outspoken, stubborn, and always true to herself. there is so much to her personality and she is a magnificent foil to our ML vincenzo who often has a stern face and cold aura. the chemistry between the two leads is electric, and watching them heal through their friendship is really heartwarming.
overall, this drama is spectacular in every aspect. if you pay close attention you can see the meaning between the lines or catch an allegory hidden in a seemingly casual interaction. the build up of the plot is intense and well worth the wait, and the character development is nearly swoon worthy. what im saying is, watch this drama. prepare to be mindblown. this is the kind of drama youd pay to be able to watch again for the first time.
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A series from the bad guy's point of view?? I eat this sh*t up
First things first: I'm Italian, so watching Vincenzo for me has been... an experience XDI loved this series. Despite the (expected) stereotypes about Italians and the mafia, I could thoroughfully enjoy it.
What I love the most about this series is that the main character is a villain. He is a bad guy, a criminal, a guy who knows that he doesn't deserve Heaven or redemption, who is aware of his being bad and doesn't act like he wants to redeem himself.
The series doesn't hide or try to soften the fact that Vincenzo is a criminal, and I loved it. Up to the very end, you don't get some cheesy message like "yeah I did bad things, but for the right reasons because I believe in justice". That's just bulls*it, you won't find any "legal" justice here.
Don't get me wrong, Vincenzo is far from being unlikeable. In fact, he's very much likeable and you can't help rooting for him even when he does 'bad' things. But as you watch, in some remote part of your brain a voice says "wow, this guy is ruthless". And yet you can't help but fall in love with him for so many reasons.
Song Joongki in this drama is simply Oscar-worthy. And I loved how they managed to use the whole cast well despite having so many characters. I really grew fond of every single character.
Chapeau at the whole team behind this drama because they made 20 episodes of 90 minutes each (each episode is like a movie basically) and yet I never felt bored for one minute while watching it. It's pure entertainment! I wouldn't rewatch just because it's really really long, but who knows! I might rewatch my fave episodes in a month's time. There are many great epic moments in this!
Last thing I want to say is: Moonlovers should have had this kind of ending. It was that easy to give it a happy ending. Thank you Vincenzo for giving me my happy pill!
Ps: despite this drama not really romanticizing Italian mafia, I also think they painted a way too 'cheerful' picture of it. And unfortunately there are no charming guys like Song Joongki, so remember: MAFIA IS BAD!
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Incorporates a perfect blend of different genres
One of the best shows of 2021 if not the best. The story is phenomenal and the acting done by all the cast is amazing. Ok Taecyeon's acting as a sweet intern to the cold-blooded villian was terrific to watch. So was the acting delivered by Kwak Dong-Yeon who played his traumatized brother just wanting someone to love. And can't forget Jeon Yeo-been's amazing acting as the one of her first main lead! Last but not least is the man himself Song Joong-ki who portrayed Vincenzo perfectly. Overall Id say this drama is in my top 5!Vond je deze recentie nuttig?
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Just finished Vincenzo last night and I personally enjoy the whole 20 episodes eventhough there wasn't that many ear catching soundtracks. I think it was a great and smart ending. I love how they wrapped it up and stay consistent with "Only evil can punish evil". Cause that's the main point of this drama. It's so satisfying to see all those evils punished in the end. Sad but in the end, our best boy did not die in vain. I personally think with or without romance, it would still turn out good but you know you gotta spice it up to make it delicious. Great one. Vond je deze recentie nuttig?
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Almost perfect, if it wasn’t for one episode
I went into this show with high expectations - I had heard that this was the best show of 2021 - and for the most part I wasn’t disappointed. The acting, plot and music all go together perfectly and the show doesn’t get boring.However, I was hugely disappointed by episode 8. I felt like they wanted to have lgbt representation but it came off slightly h*mophobic. The whole thing of manipulating the gay ceo and then using his phobia against him seemed too cruel just for a plot point that doesn’t get mentioned after that much. If it wasn’t for that episode i would have no complaints
Overall, it was an enjoyable series :)
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ABSOLUTELY LOVED IT
There is not one thing about this I did not like. Story of a Korean boy adopted by an Italian mafia family. The ML is perfect for the role. When he speaks Italian (which I read is his voice) it will make you swoon. The FL is gorgeous, funny and quirky. The tenants in the building Vincenzo is trying to save are very interesting and also very funny. The ML bad guy is pure evil and he and Vincenzo make for evenly matched adversaries. Even my husband enjoyed watching it and is the only K drama he watched to the end. The ending makes a Season 2 look possible. Please have a Season 2!!!!!!!!Vond je deze recentie nuttig?
