I think the dichotomy in the reviews say it all, people either hated it or loved it. It didn't really leave people indifferent.

I imagine a lot of people were put off by the gap between what the series is and the expectations. It's not a rom com, it's not a comfort slice of life, it's not an ensemble series, it's not even a Makjang full of twists. It's not even really a love story, neither a realistic nor an idealized one, though maybe you could say it's a story about relationships, about how some people just can't make it work due to their shortcomings.

It relies a lot on execution: on the cast, on the direction, on the photography/cinematography, on the consistency... But here is the thing, it does work.

So you end up with a series about characters who self-sabotage, who lack the courage needed to make relationships work, who'll pick the easy path over the right one more often than not, who drown when life hits them without apparently even attempting to fight back, all in all quite gloomy and frustrating things, except you're inevitably pulled in as it's executed well enough to make you feel all the (often dark) emotions. It's easy to feel upset almost every time the characters make a decision because most of them will predictably give them pain, yet they still do it without breaking the willing suspension of disbelief. Characters are bad, but they can be strangely compelling and engaging; and ironically enough are consistent even in their inconsistency and lack of decisiveness.

I think if you can't handle it or really dislike the themes, then you're going to hate the series like crazy as a result. But if you're watching series for the emotions, good and bad, then I think it can be a pretty good watch.

It's kind of like watching the Titanic; yes it's pretty, but you're still watching a ship inexorably heading towards the iceberg, with very avoidable, very tragic results.