Poorly written waste of a fun idea and a good cast

I did not enjoy this. It could so easily been a fun drama, but the writing let it down badly. The storyline and the dialogue were poor, and the whole drama was very heavy handed. That being said, I did find about two thirds of this somewhat watchable (exceptions apply) and that was entirely down to the two leads, who are by far the best thing about the show. It's potentially worth a watch if you really like the leads, and you're not put off by the idea of absurdly illogical plots and lots of serious scenes of people crying. Just set your expectations to low and remember that no matter how it begins, things will get worse.

I'll start with the positives. I've seen Seo in Guk in three dramas now and he's seemed like an entirely different people in each. I'm really impressed by his acting and want to see him in something more deserving of his talents. He makes the best of the bad dialogue and puts in a convincing performance as the miserable, cold Doom and as his character develops throughout the show. Park Bo Young puts in her usual good performance, though I found her less convincingly in love here but the writing really wasn't doing her many favours either. Poor girl spends half the show crying. I don't think the leads had good chemistry, but it was hard to tell if that was a casting issue, or just due to the poor writing choices they had to content with, because the chemistry seemed better earlier on before the show drowned under the weight of its own pretensions. I also thought Shin Do Hyun was good as Ji Na, which is impressive because I hated nearly every scene in her storyline so it's a miracle she managed to make that character remotely likable.

Onto the writing, and I do actually have something positive to say here too. It's a decent concept- miserable girl makes a deal to doom the world and then tries desperately to get out of it. You could have some fun with that. The plot also shows signs of potential near the start. The deal has an opt out clause giving the FL the chance to avoid dooming the world, but the catch is that the person she loves the most in the world dies. So the FL decides to try to love Doom, who is having none of it. Again, this is an entertaining idea. A girl trying desperately to love the miserable supernatural being who's trapped her in a contract to end the world. But... that's where the positives end.

The plot makes no sense. It is bafflingly inconsistent with itself. Now this wouldn't be such an issue if the show went for a lighter, comedic route, but it gets so serious so early on that you can't help but ponder the fact that none of it makes any sense. The contract itself is needlessly complicated. I kept trying to figure out exactly what deal they'd made so when the FL sat down to write out the contract terms a few episodes in I heaved a sigh of relief. Finally, I would understand exactly what was going on. And then I read it and went, eh? It matters little anyway, because the writer throws the terms out the window later on. To avoid spoilers I will refrain from pointing out the many ways in which the main storyline was badly handled. Instead, I will act as script doctor and say this drama would have worked much better if it had stuck to the initial storyline of girl trying to love Doom for far longer. This would have been highly amusing, enabling the drama to maintain the lighter tone it so desperately needed, but it would also have allowed their relationship to develop in a more believable way instead of them going from hate to love in the space of 2 episodes. Then they could have saved the weepy, heavy bits for the end and avoided the needless plots that made no sense at all. And they should definitely avoid having a character try to stop loving people by going to a different location. That would just be stupid. And they should get rid of God. Yes, God is a character in the show. No, it doesn't work.

Then there's the sub plot- a love triangle between three supporting characters. I found this part of the show nearly unwatchable. Girl went out with boy briefly a decade ago, boy dumped girl by ghosting her, boy's best friend then kissed girl. Ten years later this bunch of idiots are all apparently still hung up on each other. Why? Who knows. I certainly didn't care. Both the male characters are terrible romantic interests. One is an overgrown man child, and the other began the relationship with a kiss that borders perilously on sexual assault and continued it with rudeness and condescension. This plot would have been vastly improved with the following twist: Ji Na says "you're both awful and I deserve better" and never thinks of either of them again. The end.

Whilst we're on the subject of the worst romance ever, Lee Soo Hyuk's performance did not help me to understand why he's a well regarded actor in Korea. For most of the show I was convinced he couldn't emote at all, but towards the end he demonstrated a wider range of emotions in one scene than he'd shown in the entirety of the rest of the show so who knows. Maybe this performance was an acting choice. Maybe he had no idea how to perform the bafflingly poor storyline he was given. Maybe the Director just wanted him to play another cold rich man who doesn't show any emotions. At no point did I ever understand Ji Na's interest in this man, nor did he convince me that the feeling was mutual.

Finally, religious themes. This show has them. It doesn't do anything interesting with them, but it's confident that you're too stupid to understand so it will explain them to you again and again and again. Just to make sure you get the message. The message is apparently that the God loves us all and that nuance is overrated when it comes to philosophical debates about free will and determinism. Sigh.

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