jackal73
It's a strangely compelling story about broken people failing MISERABLY at relationships
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.
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Multilayered villain and no easy cop out
The premise was very interesting, though I might be biased as I loved low/urban fantasy like these.Romance on its own was clearly meh. It's very easy to understand why the ML got taken in, but the opposite isn't really true, so it feels like it moves very (too?) quickly for the suspension of disbelief, even taking into account the adrenaline probably pumping through their veins considering their cases and the actor admittedly being rich and physically attractive. The good thing though is that they have decent chemistry, it's not overdone to the point it becomes cringe (e.g. no "destined one true love" vibes, just a "normal" one, if fast moving), ML even admits that he has no idea whether or not they'll be together to the end or separate further down the road, he's just happy and eager to have the chance to find out. But more importantly, the romance isn't really that critical as the plot could have easily been the same if they had just remained close friends. If you're going into this for the romance, then you probably won't like it, but personally I'm getting tired of seeing romantic plotlines taking over series that had the potential to be really interesting (e.g. Memories of Alhambra or Hotel del Luna) so I was quite happy about this one. In my opinion, though it could be unconvincing in isolation, it worked very well when balanced with the other elements, only being a subdued component of the overall series rather than the main focus.
The lowkey fantasy element was nicely woven in; and I think it fitted really well into how the characters behaved and grew into. Rather than exploring his powers per say, the writers decided to focus on how such an ability would impact them. The ML's mindset, the way other characters react to the news, and debate on how to use it, or even if it's real or not, as well as how it ended up warping the main villain; overall, I felt it was very well done
I found the thriller aspect quite compelling. I admit that I was quite taken aback by the pacing however. It's not that it was bad, but I felt it was a bit non-standard. The villain is identified quickly, but gathering the evidence turns out much more difficult than expected. It wasn't a full series rush with constant cliffhangers like 365 Repeat the year for example, nor was it a constant roller coaster like he is Psychometric. It was moving forward, but with some lulls at time. I don't really know how to explain it; it was ok but it did throw me off a bit.
The villain is the one who carry the show in my opinion. The conflict, both within and without he portrayed was really interesting. He was both a victim and then a perpetrator, and the people around forcing that distinction got him. It was really interesting in that this gave him several layers. And what I really liked about this series is that the writers didn't take the easy way out, they didn't try to downplay one element or the other, but instead the conclusion is that he is BOTH a victim and a killer. His pitiable circumstances do not excuse his murders in any way, but conversely (and the final insistence on that was surprising) neither should his wrongdoings make his struggles disappear or become any less important. He killed, and he needs to be punished and repent from that, but he was also genuinely wronged, and he earned the apologies from the police, state and people who unfairly made his life hell growing up. His actions were understandable, but never justified. He was a criminal who took lives, but still human.
This can be very tricky for writers, which is why villains in series are often black or white, or die at the end. But he didn't get killed either, nor did he have one sad sappy scene before sacrificing his life or anything. No, he stayed fucking alive to pay for his crimes, and genuinely embarked on a thorny path to redemption for the reminder of his life. The writers managed to do it rather gracefully overall, and the series ended that plotline in a very satisfying way.
Now the main problem I've had with this series is that near the end, subverting the death visions came a bit too easily for my taste. It wasn't necessarily easy, but I still think the series would have benefitted from another unavoidable death after Mi-Jin, to really hammer it in that changing the visions is really, really difficult.
But overall, still a good series I enjoyed
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