Went into this with high expectations, since it has super high MDL ratings. Just finished it and must say, I am NOT disappointed. It starts as a story about a famous baseball player that accidentally kills the man who tried to rape his sister and turns into probably the finest Prison Slice-Of-Life Drama made. This is primarily character driven, and the ensemble cast are ALL excellent at portraying guards, inmates and their families. Their stories interweave as they interact and this is all very well done, with nothing feeling forced or strange. Kudos to the scriptwriters for this.

The 2 main leads are Park Hae Soo as Star Baseball Pitcher Kim Je Hyuk, and the handsome Jung Kyung Ho as his childhood friend, Lee Joon Ho. Both disappear into their characters. As a viewer, I found it IMPOSSIBLE not to like Je Hyuk - he's clearly protective of his family, is smart enough to "act" dumb and has a "psycho" mode. Joon Ho is the perfect foil, he's smarter but cunning enough to do good things for others by subterfuge, like when he tells the other guards to come watch Je Hyuk pitch so Lieutenant Paeng can change in peace, or when he goes off on a prisoner so the same Lieutenant won't get another demerit. That's a good man right there. Both romances were also done well.

Of the other cellmates, I found myself liking the old gangster Min Chul, the Innocent man in prison Captain Yoo, Kaist the swindler and towards the end I started to love Crony for how his arc turned out, as that last statement he made to Je Hyuk actually reduced me to tears. But NONE of them grew on me like Loony. When he took drugs he was smart. Then he went cold turkey and we laughed and cried as he went through withdrawals. Then, RIGHT After he got released ... argh, I was so angry when that happened both me and the spouse actually said "NOOOOO" at that scene. We were FULLY invested in him and even though what he did was probably more realistic it still hurt, bad. Great acting, and writing.

The guards were also fun - the smarter than expected warden, that obnoxious and hateable rules Chief Na, kind Leutenant Paeng, Prison guard Song the motormouth even the bumbling Dr. Go. Supporting cast also had their own story arcs, I especially was fond of Je Hee (Je Hyuk's sister) and Joon Dol (Joon Ho's brother the stalker level super fan).

The last episode made me cry, too many feelings. I was for the most part very satisfied and how nearly all the various plots wrapped up so there was hope, recovery, friendship and ultimately redemption. This is one of the game-changing Korean dramas that has elevated the genre as a whole and I hope more people see it.