Ⓜ is about one of the poshest prisons on earth - A chairman's compound, eh… home. This is a family shackled by the proverbial golden handcuffs. If we scrape off the gilded trappings, it reveals that this family's hearts are what's shackled.

Is this not for everyone? Sure.

Is it well done? Absolutely.

Ⓜ was skillfully crafted. If one can watch until the end, the message is powerful. Truly outstanding craftsmanship went into this series. Everything in Ⓜ is deliberate & methodical work. The pace augments the slow burn effect. The soundtrack portends doom. The dialogue and acting sustain the tension. While Ⓜ's not exactly subtle, it appears to be designed that way. The truth is in front of everyone. It's not running away - It's escaping them, because they refuse to see it. It's not subtle. It bludgeons the audience. Ⓜ is a slow burn style show with a weighty feel to it along w/ a sense of impending doom.

The quest for more and more elusive power may leave one's soul powerLESS. Trapped. Snared. Hooked. Captured. That's the feel. Love, or the lack of it, is the true power in Ⓜ. We see the power of love is snuffed out by pride, and nearly every person in Ⓜ is damaged over the want of love. Jin-ho and Jin-hee were marred by a dearth of affection & (emotional) support because their parents are thoroughly self-centered. However, even /they/ were provided with more (emotionally) than Ji-yoon.

Metaphors, both visual and verbal, are utilized to add layers of depth. One character has a literal and metaphoric wake up. This person, though late to do so, makes an effort to encourage those around h/h to alter their destructive courses & improve themselves. Han Soo-hyuk's heart sweater represents his character. Kang's visual signals and wardrobe change as she adapts to the situation. Mother is always eating meat, always consuming.

Cadenza and Rubato are metaphors. Neither is a beautiful mansion. Cadenza is institutional, like an asylum. There is imagery of bars and cells everywhere. The beautiful painting at the top of the stairs features black, sturdy looking columns that aren't as strong as they first appear, vaporizing into the persistent wind. There are narrow hallways with ceilings that look like they reach the sky. Cheerless, they look like big inescapable boxes. Another hallway even has painted bars on the walls. Many of Rubato and Cadenza's rooms and hallways look like segments or cells lined up. That, again, brings to mind prisons and mental words. Could this represent compartmentalization? The focus constantly drifts back to the stairs in the foyer. Kim Yu-yeon is always polishing that stair railing.

CADENZA: The main house, Cadenza, is a major player. It's more than a metaphor: Cadenza is a character in the show. Its feel is creepy & imposing, which reflects its denizens. Remember what the one detective says about it? "The house wasn't that great. It was big, but drafty." (ie. cold, chilly winds & devoid of warmth). It's institutional, with the repeating imagery reflecting confinement. Hi-soo refers to escaping it as if it's an asylum, or prison. The focus constantly drifts back to the stairs. The staircase is an open mouth-when looking straight on, and the observer is INSIDE of the mouth. The stairs are the teeth. The bunker has the arches and segments in separated sections, almost as if they are RIBS. We've been consumed. They think they are consumers, but they are being consumed. Are they inside a beast? If they are, the big window in Seo's office is its eye. The inside pattern is an eye, or perhaps, an eye in a spider web. The window clearly is a metaphor as the occupant of that office is the all-seeing eye of the family and the compound.

The director/writer consistently uses repetition to hammer a point and build tension. “MINE” “MINE” “MINE” Is ubiquitous in the series. One of the characters says: "I've never had a thing that was truly mine. Now, everything is mine," exposing replete self-deception. As Mother Emma will point out, we are all deluded about what we consider to be "mine." In high irony, "I feel sorry for them," is said twice or thrice. Jin-ho being the first to voice that sentiment. He adds: "Everyone in the family is lonely." They've abandoned contentment for an illusion. They are blind to their own "stuff," shredding their hearts as they plunge to meet their own hard truths. Yet, they still try to enforce their way of life on Soo-hyuk.

Foreshadowing is prevalent. There's a heavy, weighty feel to Ⓜ w/ a sense of impending doom. “Lie,” “spy,” “die,” is how they fly. Everyone has secrets. They spy to get fuel for their designs. They blackmail and threaten as easily as they breathe.

Arrogance infects all interactions. Ji-yoon is “chairdad‘s” illegitimate child, who was brought home to be raised along with his half-siblings. Ji-yoon tells his son, Ha-joon, that 'God always takes something from special people like us." His declaration that he's special may be coming from a place of pain. He was not made to feel special or loved, growing up, so he's grasping at anything that will feed his starving self-image.

The humor - it's funny at times. Nobody's funnier than clueless mother and her kids. She says stuff like: "Nobody's more stressed out than I am." (Tsk tsk!). Mother Emma is held up as a comparison to the family. She's the one that's truly living a fulfilling life.

Ⓜ echoes the excellent movie, Gosford Park. A predecessor to Downtown Abbey, there is not one scene where the servants are not present. They play their whole torrid lives out in front of the servants without hardly noticing anyone is there. Another character starts to channel an inner Rev Dimmesdale from The Scarlet Letter. This person becomes consumed with anxiety and guilt over the situation. These last few episodes are downright Hitchcockian, with Hi-soo as a Grace Kelly type (if Grace Kelly could flip a switch and dress a person down with Oscar-worthy verve). It's not perfect. Toward the end, they made one of the 'baddies' too easy to kill. The person was being too honest about h/h intentions, which wasn't realistic. No doubt some viewers will think it's too heavy handed. I'm of the opinion that it all works together well.

The narrator says in the intro that "she" caused the caste system at Cadenza to collapse. Wouldn't you like to know who that is? Is it, perhaps, a generic "she?" Ep16 is entitled: "Glorious WOMEN." We see some satisfying "girl power" moments in the last episode. I hope that some of this will help to underscore what is going on beneath the surface. I wasn't dying to watch it, but I think I'll probably drop in for another visit sometime.


Quote🗣:

"Think about what's truly yours. {She lists a bunch of possessions and points out that everything they own will be passed on to someone else, so things aren't truly yours.} The things you've said, the things you've done, and the values that you strived to keep throughout your life, or what you'll bring with you when you die. Let's drive to find what's truly ours during our time in this world. ~Mother Emma~


⛔️ SPOILER SECTION ⛔️

The following is more of an addendum to my non-spoiler review, expanding on the skillful work that went into this production. Ⓜ shows what happens when a family is trapped in despair for a long time. Sometimes death is the only escape.

Trapped; Snared; Hooked; Captured➡ That's the feel. The quest for more & more elusive power may leave one's soul powerLESS, we see. The power of love starts to shake the shackles. None of the feckless men in the family were permitted to marry whom they loved. This created a schism that allowed despair to creep in. The fallout is mistresses, illegitimacy, isolation & family succumbing to the cold draft. Jin-ho+Jin-hee is exhibit #1, while Soo-hyuk is the first man to break the cycle - This kid's fallen for the new maid, Yu-yeon, & he intends to treat her right.

Kang tells Ji-yoon that he makes her skin crawl. Next, Hi-soo says the whole family makes her skin crawl. It's a small link between the two & an early sign that they are starting to think alike. Does almost everyone in the show lose what {they believe} is theirs? The words “kill,” “murder,” & “dead” are constantly mentioned. This group isn't a family: They are a death cult with corrupted beliefs. Womb & Tomb - Twice, a family member asks someone to murder a relative. Ji-yoon, Kang, and His-soo all make actual death threats. Hi-soo has the miscarriage, underscoring her now moribund connection to the family. The repetition supports the pound-pound-pound of the soundtrack.

Foreshadowing: Ⓜ has a heavy, suffocating feel to it w/ a sense of impending disaster. Seo-hyun even tells Ji-yoon to be quiet as the "dead." He replies that she should be scared of him, and if she keeps provoking him, he's not sure what he'll do. He's looking more and more like a sociopath. “Plunge,” "Fall,” & “Descent” are all concepts explored in the show, both verbally and visually. Soo-hyuk sees it all for what it is. The ominous soundtrack thrums MINE MINE MINE: Doomsday is roiled and on the move, hunting. Dread builds.

Bitter Regrets: Regret dashes the family to pieces. Everyone is affected except Soo-hyuk, who had donned a breathing mask to shield himself from their toxins. Mother, who seemed the most callous, is the most sincere in expressing regret. Ji-yoon's death arrests her focus. It rankles her. Father's overtures toward his family, after waking up, show he regrets his previous actions - cut to him mourning Ji-yoon as the son of the woman he truly loved. Their refusal to allow love into their lives left them rotting from the core out.

The legitimate kids, Jin-ho & Jin-hee, win the contest for whom I want to party with out of this group. Jin-hee will make it a night to remember (bring bail $), and frankly, Jin-ho could benefit from a little fun. Jin-ho is the most honest. He is too weak to do something about the prison he's in, so he self-medicates & droops. He never gets what he needs. He freely admits he's lonely. Jin-hee's story is great amusement. She is pure Rage-Against-The-Machine, most of the show. By the time of the hospital scene, I was exclaiming: "Jin-hee, girl! You've grown!" 😁 Ok, it fell apart later😕. She manages to at least delay her tantrum. She's 100% solid in her demands for penance. Baby steps👍🏽.

Metaphors: They're plotted throughout the series. 🐣Free No-deok!!! No-deok, the peacock, is a living metaphor. /His/ cage is near the center of the compound. Residents (other inmates) circle round this resplendent detainee but draw no inferences pertaining to themselves. No-deok comes back, accepting his defeat: Mother had hobbled No-deok, just as she & Father hobbled their kids. Oma changes after Ji-yoon's death. (Ji-yoon is the mistress's kid. Chairdad brought him home long ago. He's married to moviestar Hi-soo & their son is Ha-joon, but Kang is Ha-joon's birth-mother. In ep1, while in disguise, Kang is hired as the governess). Mom sees that No-deok has a stray chick in his cage, so she asks if he'll raise somebody else's baby? If he will, she tells him to "DO IT RIGHT!"

Stuck: If No-deok is the metaphor#1, the painting called The Narrow Gate is #2. An 🐘 has his trunk and half of his head through the gate, but he's stuck & in tears. The gate is too narrow. He can't pass. Jung Seo-hyun asks the autistic artist to demonstrate how the 🐘 could get past the gate, & it leads to an epiphany. The artist returns, accompanied by his mother. He trotts the 🐘 behind the gate, past the wall line and to the outside. The 🐘 didn't realize there was NO wall! He had never been stuck, he had just /believed/ he was. It's the jolt that helps JSH strip her life down to the simplest construct: She had over complicated things. In front of her is a special needs child with his mother. They have respect, trust, & love for e/o. She doesn't have /everything/. She's not even close.

Hi-soo is always eating 🍎. Is she Eve? Ji-yoon is the 🐍. *A* snake, rather. He's not the only one. The whole compound is a snake pit.

Kang: Visuals such as wardrobe, and transformation are her thread that's woven into the tapestry. In the early episodes her dress is lean & long, with a high neck: She has her armor on. The other notable outfit Kang wore was in ep8, when she did her harbinger-of-death thing. Her wardrobe gradually loosens over time. By ep14, Kang's in a relaxed dress, her face has softened, and she has a peaceful look in her eyes. Her transformation is complete. She's drained out the poison with the help of His-soo and Ha-joon. She's a human being now.

As things unravel - Ji-yoon says he was alone and hurt b/c he was powerless. He obtains what he sees as power, but he ends up more alone than ever. Mother acts like the grandmother in Flannery O'Connor's 'A Good Man Is Hard To Find.' ➡Sincere for the 1st time ever, she is truly broken up over Ji-yoon's death. She can't eat.

She. Can't. Eat.

She was consuming something in nearly every scene up until then. She offers her dinner to Mrs Joo as "Chef Jung worked hard to prepare it." She was both generous & thoughtful in one sentence. It's so absurdly out of character; it seems like a dream sequence. After Ji-yoon goes over the railing to his final reconciliation, they all agree that Ha-joon is part of the family, it proves they have made progress. They chose openness over exclusivity. They chose generosity over greed, and they chose love over hate.

RUBATO: The 2nd house is much like the big-house. Ji-yoon's office & the upstairs hallway look like lined-up cells. Compartmentalization? To see Yu-yeon moving into Rubato is unsettling. I'd feel better for her if she had said she's going to remodel. She discharges the maid; she notices the servants. Here's hoping the message is that they must be vigilant to keep the poison out. She's definitely intending to protect what's hers. Another message could be that she's Seo-hyun's disciple.

The last few episodes are Hitchcockian. Hi-soo is even in the rocking chair, looking like Grace Kelly, but echoing Norman Bates mother. In the end, Ⓜ is a total Girl-Power show. Ep16 is entitled: "Glorious WOMEN." Even Mother and Jin-hee make significant improvements by the close. Jin-hee is going to be just fine. The narrator says in the intro that "she" caused the caste system at Cadenza to collapse. As the camera is on Kang, the viewer might think it was just Kang that did this. While Kang certainly pulled her weight, the "she' in that statement is a generic, or collective she:

~ Hi-soo challenges the structure throughout the series. She's also the one that rescued Kim Yu-yeon, brought her to the house, and encouraged Kim Yu-yeon and Soo-hyuk's relationship.

~ Kim Yu-yeon also challenged and prevailed over the caste structure at the compound. She rescued the next generation without compromising who she is.

~ We have as happy an ending as we could wish for: Jung Seo-hyun becomes queen. A good queen. Long may she reign.

🐘Add It Up: Power+Dour+Sour × Cage+Rage+Wage × Hate+Weight+Bait × Profligate+Manipulate+Tribulate × Thrill+Will+Kill × Pride+Lied+Snide -Cried -Collide ÷ Died. Hopefully, now they can thrive.