Elle
Exploring Dramaland
In contrast to all the off the charts reviews out there, I will attempt to offer a more critical review of Black. Though this drama offers a fairly twisty mystery that is well thought out and intriguing, its failure in execution, story telling, pacing and acting talent greatly limits the appeal.
Right out of the gate, this drama was pretty ambitious as a gritty fantasy crime drama. The lead protagonist ends up being the reluctant grim reaper 444. This drama pummels its audience with questions that will go completely unanswered and/or forgotten until the eleventh hour.
Revealing secrets and twists is an art form in timing and pacing. Black does not do this well. Rather than strategically presenting big reveals throughout, this writing team chose to keep all of these abreast until the last fourth of the drama. By then, most of my interest in finishing had greatly dwindled to nothingness. Some may appreciate this approach, I personally need more of a bone to keep me interested.
The delivery of this drama is extremely uneven. I faintly recall there being some moments that made my heart race, but most of this drama is watching 444 run around aimlessly trying to figure out his feelings and his past. Again and again, he gets diverted and waylaid. His experience is much like Black’s viewers. It gets quite tiring. Even the episodes that ended with an amazing cliffhanger would resolve in a disappointing opening in the next.
The biggest disappointment of this drama was its characters. Both 444 and Ha Ram were so flat. Ideally this drama is supposed to detail 444’s internal battle with his empathy for mankind. Yet portrayal was ineffective at keeping my interest. I was taken aback by how little screen-time 444 and Ha Ram shared. For the majority of the show, they are on their own separate journeys. This may have impacted the implausibly of their budding relationship and the lack of chemistry I felt for this duo. This drama was lost when I no longer cared about the characters.
All of the above doesn’t even touch on the gaping plot holes, the completely untapped supplementary characters and the problematic ending that negated everything that this drama was attempting to accomplish. This drama is being praised for its mystery, but for me that can’t make up for all the other drawbacks. If mystery is upmost in your book and you can overlook everything else, then maybe give it a try ... Otherwise, I would recommend giving this one a hard pass.
Right out of the gate, this drama was pretty ambitious as a gritty fantasy crime drama. The lead protagonist ends up being the reluctant grim reaper 444. This drama pummels its audience with questions that will go completely unanswered and/or forgotten until the eleventh hour.
Revealing secrets and twists is an art form in timing and pacing. Black does not do this well. Rather than strategically presenting big reveals throughout, this writing team chose to keep all of these abreast until the last fourth of the drama. By then, most of my interest in finishing had greatly dwindled to nothingness. Some may appreciate this approach, I personally need more of a bone to keep me interested.
The delivery of this drama is extremely uneven. I faintly recall there being some moments that made my heart race, but most of this drama is watching 444 run around aimlessly trying to figure out his feelings and his past. Again and again, he gets diverted and waylaid. His experience is much like Black’s viewers. It gets quite tiring. Even the episodes that ended with an amazing cliffhanger would resolve in a disappointing opening in the next.
The biggest disappointment of this drama was its characters. Both 444 and Ha Ram were so flat. Ideally this drama is supposed to detail 444’s internal battle with his empathy for mankind. Yet portrayal was ineffective at keeping my interest. I was taken aback by how little screen-time 444 and Ha Ram shared. For the majority of the show, they are on their own separate journeys. This may have impacted the implausibly of their budding relationship and the lack of chemistry I felt for this duo. This drama was lost when I no longer cared about the characters.
All of the above doesn’t even touch on the gaping plot holes, the completely untapped supplementary characters and the problematic ending that negated everything that this drama was attempting to accomplish. This drama is being praised for its mystery, but for me that can’t make up for all the other drawbacks. If mystery is upmost in your book and you can overlook everything else, then maybe give it a try ... Otherwise, I would recommend giving this one a hard pass.
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