dtc95
Sydney, Australia
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I had really high expectations due to the hype and the cast. I actually quite liked the first two episodes and the romance between Sae Ro Yi and Soo-ah as students and also really liked the MC's father. The series had a really promising start and did live up to my expectations for a while. Really like Kwon Na-ra (I find her super beautiful as opposed to the other girl) and I rooted for Soo-ah although her joining Jangga and helping the old man was a huge turn off and frustrating to watch even after her intentions were revealed (to betray them and help Ro Yi).
The other girl was refreshing at first. She had very serious flaws yet likable in her own ways such as being "badass", smart and capable. She soon turned into an obsessive girl who clinged to the MC too much. I liked the crew as well.
The acting, especially the villains' in the first half of the series (old man and f***boy son) really made me hate them and I was curious to see the old man's past and thoughts. The cast's acting was good all the way through but was eventually ruined by the forced romance and shitty overall plot. The life lessons the series tried to convey at first didn't really work out due to the messy plot and ruined characters. "Stay true to yourself", "live with your head high", "power", "logic and schemes vs people and feelings". All empty words in the end.
The series was bearable until maybe episode 10 and had somewhat of a plot going. With lots of typical "drama" and twists, cliches, etc.. However, the old man was not that great of a villain anymore and eventually got cancer (lolz?) The nice, innocent but spineless younger brother got negative "development" and lost himself. He became the same as the father he hated. Older son went to jail and got out...
By episode 14, after the 4 year time skip the Ro Yi suddenly falls in love with the manager girl and changed ( staying true to his way of living and not changing no matter what was his whole character and motive). Soo-ah, despite her flaws and stupidity, was still a better pick IMO as from the start they both liked each other and she was always there for him (even working for Jangga was to help him - stupid writing, i know). She was always the second lead female but was winning for 13-14 episodes until the other girl just won (horrible writing).
Crazy older brother got out of jail and kidnapped Yi-seo and the younger brother. At the end of episode 14 or 15 MC kneeled before the old man just to save his "romance" that came out of nowhere. His character was far gone. All that vengeance, hatred and negativity was useless and meaningless in the end as he kneeled before the character that ruined his life and caused him pain for 15 years, to save his new found "love".
I haven't seen the last episode yet, but I have no expectations left. All the characters are ruined, everything is shitty at this point and the forced couple will form in a cliche way somehow. In the end, among the many horrible things, the plot, the characters' backwards development and the disastrous romance stood out as the worst things about this drama.
UPDATE: finished the last episode and everything wrapped up the way I expected it to after seeing the first 15 eps.
Things settled down and it was a "happy" ending but the previous issues were obviously still there. Soo-ah and Geun-soo didn't get the development and closure they needed.
The scene with the old man at the end was not satisfying at all and just really sickening. The old man was a wicked devil, sure. However, the MC just pulled a "I'm a business man" move and acts tough and cool after the old guy kneels and cries. From the start, this series was always full of toxicity: violence, power abuse, early death of the father, etc...
However, there was no real positive message in the story in the end. They won the war and MC got his revenge and became rich, but that's all. It's just like nothing happened at all and all the drama was just there for the sake of it. A very, very shallow approach to appeal to the bitterness and hatred in audiences.
I usually don't write drama reviews but hopefully this will be helpful to some people. In the end, if you want a drama that makes you feel good watching, AVOID this so that you don't end up wasting a weekend and also feel miserable because of how unhealthy the story and the characters became. This is a very naively idealistic story that tried very hard to be inspiring but failed miserably.
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Review of first episode. Will be updated.
So far the story has gotten extremely messy.The pros of the series in season 1 and 2 was the extremely exciting plot with one plot twist after another and LOTS of drama, the amazing acting of the super well-selected cast and of course the directing and production/editing. Frankly, if you look into the actual quality of the story or the writing of the 3 seasons, a lot of the details will not make sense and there are some plot holes, but that's not the point of a makjang story. This drama is the makjang of makjangs, the true makjang king of over-the-top storylines and writing.
But we are already used to this from season 1 and 2. So why am I complaining? Well, firstly, it's because that even makjangs need to slow down and take it easy at some point. Because this series had way too many plot twists and deaths, viewers like us will doubt everything and will "feel" less because anyone can be revived. Shim Su-ryeon, Bae Ro-na, and now potentially killing off Logan Lee makes things too repetitive even for a makjang. There are some fans that believe even Min Seol-ah is alive.
The whole cast has gone crazy. Some were evil and insane from the start, some went crazy during the story. The most upsetting thing is that the only decent characters left (imo Shim Su-ryeon and Logan, maybe the Rona and Joo Seok-hoon) are left in misery. Another hugely annoying thing is Joo Seok-kyung getting jealous of Rona yet again after getting some much needed "development" when Su-ryeon came back. She will follow her father Joo Dan-tae again just to get Rona dealt with.
The inclusion of the two most important new characters, Jenny's father who just got out of jail and the real Joo Dan-tae (Mr. Baek) whose everything got stolen from him by the current Joo Dan-tae, have not yet been explained but so far everything looks like a huge mess. Right now Jenny's dad looks like an irrelevant character that the author planned on using to create more drama in season 3 and the real Joo Dan-tae has done nothing to help Logan and Su-ryeon and get revenge on the fake Joo Dan-tae. I'm sure it will get better with time but the writers better have everything planned out well, and the next few plot twists hopefully make a little more sense.
Most importantly, Logan Lee has to be alive for this story to be meaningful. The main heroine Shim Su-ryeon has suffered too much in the series and has turned insane, while the most evil characters such as Joo Dan-tae and Cheon Seo-jin have superhuman powers and still haven't been punished properly for their crimes. Joo Dan-tae stabbed himself, put the blame on Ha Yoon-chul, bled for more than an hour while escaping the hospital without surgery and went to kill Logan with a bomb and came back still alive and well. This is something that cannot continue for too long. There are teases of Oh Yoon-hee stabbing Shim Su-ryeon in the back yet again. If she does this then her character is completely ruined. Now that her daughter is still alive, she should do everything she can to repay Su-ryeon and Logan while getting revenge on Joo Dan-tae and Cheon Seo-jin.
This series still has a ton of potential to sort out all the mess, punish the evil people and those who have sinned should repent. Most importantly, I think the main characters who have suffered the most (Su-ryeon, Logan, maybe some of the kids) should have a happy ending for this series to have a real message. So far, it's just "don't be as bad as these horrible people" which should basically be common sense. In terms of drama and suspense, this series comes on top. But in terms of quality of the writing and sending a message to viewers, this season 3 still needs lots of improvements before it can touch well renowned predecessors such as Sky Castle. Looking forward to the other 10 episodes!
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