I never imagine giving a TEN but this drama deserves it. Park Hae Soo gives stellar performance. Well, the casts alone is enough reason to watch this drama. Every casts bring the character into life, not too much, sometimes in subtle but engaging and believable way. Strong chemistry among casts. Such a pleasure to watch.

I applaud the production, director and WRITER. This drama consists of a lot of characters, each with their own story and background. These characters come and go but they all make one solid narrative of the life of Kim Je Hyuk in the prison. Every story is counted and matter, even if it is a brief appearance in one episode. That's an art and it's not easy to do. The flashback is perfectly located, they are not confusing. In fact, every backstory come at the right time that help viewer to understand that character and how they grow throughout the drama. The variety of characters are linked to each other and make stronger message. This includes how story inside and outside prisoner is interlined. Kudos to the screenwiter Jung Bo Hoon, Lee Woo Jung and Shin Won Ho as director.

Some would argue this is too beautiful and rosy for a prison life. I disagree. Prison Playbook showed how raw and hard a prison life can be but not through blood and violent (although these appear, occasionally). This is life in prison look like: you are no longer consider a worthy human being, once you are being labelled as prisoner. For me, this is the cruel reality of being a prisoner.

In Prison Playbook, you will meet a prisoner wrongly accused for something he didn't do, a prisoner who do evil thing and continue to do so, a prisoner who try to redeem themselves and while some will success others failed and continue repeating the same mistakes. You will see how every person adjust and adapt to the life behind bars, some become bitter and other try hard to stay as human as they can. I am tempted to share about all these characters but I am sure other reviews mentioned them. I'd say this: you will easy get attached to the characters in this drama.

This is another drama where I like the soundtrack a lot and I am glad I got to know some new musicians. BewhY, GRAY OK is fresh and fit the mood of the drama. It's one of current fave. A ballad from Park Boram, Like A Dream is another current fave from this drama. I still have more names to this list. There's a broadcast station in the prison, occasionally, a song from the past would be played and it's always give the scene stronger emotions.

I cried but also laughed a lot watching this drama. Seriously, there are quite a lot of scene where you can have a hearty laugh and it feels so good. It's drama so beware with tear-jerking scenes too. That's life, right? You win some, you lose some. You work hard to achieve your dream but life happens. This is about persistence, love and believe that every human being deserves to be treated as a human being regardless of their mistakes.

Great for binge-watching but also a good choice to savour it one episode at one time. You can watch it alone (and then have a good cry alone, right) but also together (there some scenes that would please your eyes). For a drama that has been in the list for more than 1 year, I am happy I finally decided to watch it. It's so good.