“And even if the door closes, open all the doors in the universe and return to me"

So I’m confused...why are we hating on this drama? I had to create a whole reddit post to ask people if I should watch this. Most people told me to save my time, but, against everyone’s better judgement, I went and watched it anyway. And I loved it? I’ve heard so many people say it’s a trainwreck, advertisement-saturated, no-charisma, rushed-romance, plot-holes-galore, confusing mess of a drama, but I must have missed something, because I didn’t really encounter any of those things when I was watching it. I may be a tad biased because Lee Min Ho and Kim Go Eun are some of my most favorite actors (Still can’t get over Goblin and Legend of the Blue Sea *sigh*) but I thought this drama was actually incredibly high quality. While I do admit that the romance could have been paced better, I understand that the author was just trying to allow for their affection to develop quicker for the sake of the plot. Because the main story was not about them falling in love; it was about their relationship across two separate worlds and their fight against a power hungry lunatic. It’s kind of hard to pull off that type of story unless the leads fall in love quicker than what we are used to. As for product placement, I honestly found it extremely entertaining. To be honest, I didn’t even really notice it at first until it dawned on me that usually kdramas blur out logos that they are not sponsored by. Nonetheless, I thought their chicken dates were absolutely adorable and helped move the plot forward rather than provide an unnecessary distraction from the main story. The charisma between the leads was off the charts, so I have no idea what y’all are talking about. This is one of my favorite kdrama couples ever, and I rarely give a 10 star rating to a drama, so color me impressed. I definitely hopped on that Woo Do Hwan bandwagon and loved him in every single scene that he was in. The man is a genius. To be honest, there’s so many things I want to say about this drama that made it amazing for me, but I just can’t put it into words. The character development was some of the best I had seen in a while. I expected the ending to be horrible judging by the reviews, but it was actually very easy to understand and accept. As I said in another review, science fiction dramas are bound to have some plot holes, and while I felt that there were some things that weren’t entirely explained to me, I’m content enough with the ending, and I don’t feel that the discrepancies actually matter as much as some people think they do. I thought the ending was absolutely perfect, and I appreciated how the drama spent the last 30 minutes tying up loose ends and showing us what happened after the leads finally reunited. Overall, if you don’t think too deeply about any of the science-fiction aspects of the drama, you have a wonderful drama on your hands. I loved every single character (Yes, even the Prime Minister. I thought she was freaking badass) and I definitely plan on rewatching this drama in the future because of the wonderful blend of romance, action, and science fiction that it had. Thank you, Kim Eun Sook, for blessing us with another incredible drama. I can’t wait to watch more of your works!

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Holyyyyyy mother of god this was such a boring watch.

I would’ve had a much better time with this drama if it was at least 12 episodes shorter. So many things were needlessly dragged out and it completely sucked the enjoyment out of a story that could’ve been so much more entertaining than it ended up being. While pacing is my #1 issue with the drama, I don’t think I will ever be able to forgive this drama for the route that it took in breaking up the characters. After watching this I’m 100% certain that my absolute least favorite trope in the history of drama tropes is the stupid fucking “pushing people away to protect them by lying to them” trope. Sometimes it’s done well if the person is pushed away without any deceit, however when lies become involved is when I absolutely tune out. There is absolutely no reason… none. I will never be okay with LX’s actions in this drama no matter how many times they are explained and justified. Not only did he lie and push ZY away (and can we talk about the 3 years of clinical depression the poor girlie went through?), he continued to do so even after coming out of prison. He made her cry so many times and betrayed her trust over and over, and we’re just supposed to be okay with this because ZY is an idiot who loves a very very toxic man? Absolutely not. Overall, my unpopular opinion is that this drama is really really not worth the glowing ratings that it gets. The only redeeming points are the chemistry between the leads and the great OST. I’d skip this one if you’re considering watching.

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Lowkey kinda disappointing

Sweet Home is - I think - my second ever Korean drama that I watched which did not fit under the romance genre in some way or another. I, like many others, watched this kdrama solely because I read and finished the Webtoon. I absolutely loved the depth that the Webtoon gave all of these characters, however none of that transferred to the drama. The characters felt hollow, and while they did have some backstories, it wasn’t nearly as intricate as it was in the original version. This led to the characters’ motivations being somewhat unclear in parts of the drama. This type of story is simply way too complex to be condensed into 10 50-minute episodes, and I would have at least made this drama 16 episodes had I been one of the people working on it. While we’re on the topic, I also have to say that I wish the drama elaborated a lot more on the monster power, especially as it pertained to Hyun Su and the other infected guy that was with the group of raiders. If I hadn’t already been aware of the monsters’ powers because I had read the Webtoon, I would have been HELLA confused with this drama. I think I’ve heard this complaint already, but this drama has some dope-as-hell songs in its soundtrack that just sound absolutely WRONG in the scenes that they are played in. While I enjoy an epic Imagine Dragons moment, it just never really fit in with the haunting atmosphere that the drama was supposed to have. It completely ruined some crucial scenes and made me almost click off the episode. Some of the creative liberties the writers took, such as adding in some characters which weren’t in the original Webtoon, were quite nice, actually. I very much enjoyed the budding romance of Hyun Su and the ballerina girl, for instance. However, I wish the writers hadn’t cut out some parts of the Webtoon and completely changed the drama’s ending. They had instead left the ending extremely open and confusing, and now I’m not sure whether or not they are planning a second season. The reason I watch korean dramas is first and foremost because I’m so sick of the open ended nature of endings in western television shows. Waiting for season after season to come out is frustrating as heck, so I completely made the switch to Korean dramas because they always air for only one season and end the story. I hate that Netflix is considering the possibility of extending their korean dramas for several seasons, because this very thing is what turns me off from their other shows (*cough* stranger things *cough*). Anyway, I’d have to be honest and say that there are countless other dramas I could recommend that are so much better than this one, and, frankly, I had much higher hopes for this, given the amazing storyline the writers had to work with. Would not recommend.

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I don’t know why, but for some reason Chinese dramas lack that little “it factor” that makes Korean dramas so good in comparison. While I’m watching this drama, I can’t help but compare it to Hometown Cha Cha Cha, since I’m watching the two side by side. There’s just an emotional element and cohesiveness that’s missing in My Fated Boy and other Chinese dramas and I can’t for the life of me figure out why. My main problem is that the side characters in this drama had absolutely no impact on the plot. Some side stories made no logical sense to me, such as the cousin (?) of Lu Zheng An who was pursuing (?) the FL. I never really understood the point of him having any sort of storyline since it was completely separated from the main plot and followed no logic. Similarly, the friend or relative or something like that of the Second FL had no existing contribution to the plot. There were some scenes of her and her husband, my I mentally checked out when I was watching those parts because I just didn’t quite understand their point. What I’m trying to say is that besides the love line, the entirety of this drama was just dull, directionless, and all over the place. I also couldn’t for the life of me justify the ML’s intense attraction to FL. It seemed obsessive-level to me because he literally molded his entire life around her existence, from the location that he lived, to the job that he pursued, to the way that he acted around her. If you find this type of person in real life, you'd most likely discover serious attachment issues and stalker tendencies. Cute in the drama, not cute when you think about it for more than a couple minutes. All in all, there was a great lack of engaging story, likable and realistic characters, and direction to the plot. I had this drama rated a lot lower initially, but I was satisfied with the lack of a cliche break-up that I bumped it up just a little bit. I wouldn’t recommend this.
Ps: did I mention it took me 2 months to sludge through this drama?

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Repetitive until the end...

I, as an avid Yoo Seung Ho fangirl, was especially excited for this drama when I first found out about it. Although I rarely watch dramas without a romantic plot line, I was willing to give the drama a chance because I’m also a big Sherlock Holmes fan, and, come on, Yoo Seung Ho is in it. How could I not? Alas, this drama was very disappointing and continued to decline in quality the longer I watched it. Though I partially blame myself and my horrendous memory with names and faces which may have caused lots of confusion about the plot, I cannot deny that the repetitive nature of the drama also got quite dull toward the end. It went something like this: Baek gets lead on the eraser, he falsely accuses someone of being the eraser, the eraser turns out to be someone else. Rinse and repeat this sequence about 5 times and you’ve got just about the dullest crime drama in existence. I mean, come on, why are you even TRYING to convince me that they “revealed” the identity of the eraser on episode FIVE? There would be no drama if they figured out his identity so fast, and if the writers (I realize this is based on a Webtoon) really thought they could pull this stunt on me multiple times, they clearly needed to do a better job hiring. While this is obviously not a romance drama, I honestly didn’t feel any chemistry between the leads. It FELT like the fl (already forgot her name oops) was mostly babysitting Dong Baek the whole time rather than treating him as an equal which kind of made the vibe of the whole drama feel a little off. Overall, though, I have to admit that I was really engaged with the storyline up until the 5th or 6th episode, but, as I said, it got quite dull and repetitive toward the end. I honestly can’t say I would recommend this drama, as it lacks just about everything that makes a Korean drama great: a good soundtrack, good lead chemistry, and even an interesting/original storyline. Gotta admit though, I love both actors separately, and the side characters themselves were very well written.

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The first and last time I’m watching a korean reality TV Show

I was very excited at the idea of a Korean dating show at first because I’m a big fan of American reality TV, especially dating shows. Sadly, Single’s Inferno was extremely lackluster in all aspects and I’m going to explain why. I suppose the best place to start is the contestant introductions. I felt like I was being introduced to the same exact person every single time. The only things I knew about every person was that they were really hot (and they knew it) and that they worked out a LOT. That’s not a personality! It’s pretty hard to get invested in a show about love when everyone has similar hobbies, looks, and even occupations. There’s just no variety. Other than that, I felt like the entire structure of the show was very dull. The contestants were mostly shown cooking, spending their days talking to one another in the same 3 locations, and sometimes participating in dumb agility games in order to, you guessed it, talk some more. There really wasn’t much incentive to keep watching since there wasn’t much drama, episode variety, or even contestant variety. Overall, this dating show was an absolute drag, and literally any other American TV show is better than this.

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I still don't exactly understand why the female lead picked the guy that she picked (trying to avoid spoilers here) because to me they didn't have much reason to be this deeply attracted to each other. I get that this is basically a regular drama but faster because there are only 8 episodes, but none of the relationships made much sense to me besides the female lead and the guy that didn't get her in the end. It was quite obvious that they weren't endgame from the very beginning but I was still rooting for him the whole drama, because he seems more "calm" (?) with his feelings (the other guy's love confession was just too weird and too soon and too dramatic). They actually had a developed friendship, and I could actually imagine them together in the end. idk, the endgame pairing was just a bit weird, even though the ml is a good guy on his own, and I guess that's just about the only complaint I have about this drama. The message the drama had was pretty sweet, and there wasn't anything stupidly annoying that I would normally lower a rating for. This drama and I just didn't really click.. probably because I grew out of high school romances.

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I'm going to hell for this

Okay HEAR ME OUT. I am fully aware of how fucked up and how toxic the relationship in this episode was, but I kind of don’t care? I am very proud of how vocal I’ve been in the past about toxic relationships. It’s not cool in real life and it’s not cute on camera either. But something about this drama is just???? Never in my life had I watched a BL before today, and I did not expect it to be so steamy and so damn entertaining to watch. This type of relationship dynamic would be absolutely destructive and so so so problematic in real life. I mean, I’d imagine the male lead would have easily gone to the police and reported him for sexual assault had we not been in dramaland. Just this once, I was willing to completely disregard all the things that are absolutely horrific about this relationship and enjoy the drama for the wicked and sinful 70 minutes of BL goodness that it is. Kudos to the actors. Genuinely!

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I watched about 90% of this drama at 2x speed haha. The entire drama is incredibly slow (not even slow burn, just really slow. At least for me) and I could not for the life of me stay focused on it unless I sped it up. The romance was an absolute 10/10 with a very understanding couple that can talk about their issues pleasantly and resolve problems with no unnecessary angst or fighting. The only reason I can’t give this drama any higher of a rating is because 70% of the plot was an absolute snoozefest. I’m INCREDIBLY picky when it comes to my thriller dramas because I find a large, large majority of them to be incredibly boring. The main genres that I watch are romance, comedy, and slice of life because thrillers and crime/law dramas never manage to hold my attention. Sadly, Dali and Gamjatang had a thriller/mystery aspect to it that took up a ton of screen time, and I could not keep myself interested in the drug scandal/gallery ownership/land acquisition issues. Just not my thing but that is totally my personal preference. Overall, Dali and Gamjatang had a very refreshing cast of characters and a great romance plot. If you are one for thrillers and don’t mind a slow pace, this is a great drama to watch.

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I didn't expect to like this drama as much as I did, and before watching the last episode, I genuinely didn't think I'd rate it this high or cry while watching the finale. The character arc that the male lead goes through is absolutely beautiful, and we honestly need more male leads like Do Yong Sik. Besides some minor frustrations, You Raise Me Up delivered a very beautiful story with plenty of humor and a wonderful OST. We've never really had many Korean dramas about anything other than a surgical doctor, nor have we had many kdramas about a less successful and less confident male lead. Usually, it's the other way around. This drama was a breath of fresh air that I think anyone with a sense of humor will enjoy.

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I regret everything

I was enjoying this drama so much when I first started watching because I loved Ki Seong Gyeom’s eccentric personality and Oh Mi Joo’s strange love for fake guns. Sadly, I quickly realized that the drama had very little to offer in terms of plot or interesting characters. Ki Seong Gyeom’s personality soon became quite stale, I found myself getting more and more frustrated with the characters, and I couldn’t see a way that the writers could turn the drama around even at the very end. I pretty much had to watch this drama at 1.5 times speed for the last few episodes so I could just get it over with and move on to something more interesting. If you’re considering watching this drama, keep in mind these few points: The plot is stale as hell. I tried to figure out what the heck happened during this entire drama, and I couldn’t really come up with anything at all. The plot just doesn’t move. Nothing… happens? Like, at all? Don’t get me wrong, I love a drama where character personalities are explored in-depth and relationships blossom very slowly over the course of several episodes, but in order for that to happen, the characters have to actually be interesting. The impact of side characters was essentially nonexistent, and I was very bored with the rest of the characters super quickly. Oh Mi Joo, especially, started driving me crazy after a while. I couldn’t figure out why until I realized that she talks to everyone like they are a child. It’s almost like she wants to be the “mom friend” and always likes to lecture others. The only character I found even remotely interesting was Seo Dan Ah, and that’s probably because she’s a rude, cynical bitch just like me. I could really relate to her, and, although she mostly stayed the same throughout the entire drama, I could feel a small change in the way she treats others. The next part that drove me up the wall is the dialogue. I am by no means a poetic person - quite the opposite actually. I am about as to-the-point as they come, and hearing these characters (I’m looking at you, Oh Mi Joo!) talk about for AGES how their translations carry some sort of deep, hidden meaning, or about how they have a spiritual connection to a painting or a hobby that they pursue is just the most cringe thing in the entire world. I didn’t notice this until later, but once it was brought to my attention, I couldn’t stop noticing it everywhere. All in all, unless you don’t mind a plotless snoozefest with the most flat characters in the history of Korean dramas, maybe just skip this drama despite the ridiculously high ratings it has.

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wtf

Park Tae In doesn’t deserve to be called a man. He’s a spineless, lying, abusive, and toxic little piece of shit and the worst male lead to ever exist. Okay, now that I’ve gotten that off my chest, I can talk about everything else. This drama just sucked. Like plain sucked. Both male leads were rather pathetic (although I do admit that Tae In did grow on me at some point and I kind of cheered for him at the end. The first sentence of this review was written when I was in the middle of the episode where he outright lied to Na Bo Ri about Ji Hyun Woo’s fiancee) and especially Ji Hyun Woo completely pissed me off at the end where he basically started hating Na Bo Ri for no reason? Idk what happened to them I was barely paying attention. The entire dynamic of the relationship just made no sense and made me feel kind of icky because the age difference was just a little bit too obvious for them to the point where it felt inappropriate for Na Bo Ri to be romancing a literal teenager. Eugh. Besides that, I was incredibly annoyed at the love triangle in the drama and how Park Tae In did everything in his power to break up Na Bo Ri and JHW. Like how much more toxic can you get as an ML? Of course besides the fact that he literally bullied and assaulted her in the beginning and continued to act super bipolar around her before “falling in love” with her out of nowhere. The entire drama was just a complete mess and I cannot fathom how people ever enjoyed it. There was a ton of unnecessary angst and wayyyy too many side stories about characters I gave zero shits about. It felt like every episode was focusing on a whole different student and his or her oddly intense life problems, such as suicide or loan sharks/gang violence. And I only just met those characters! How much do they expect me to actually care about them? Anyhow, I could probably go on for ages but this review makes no sense and is just a very long rant in which I’m essentially trying to say that this drama is 100% a waste of time and shouldn’t be watched.

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I think I'm in love

Guys this actually became one of my favorite ever dramas so freaking quickly. I think I was pretty much hooked from the beginning. I’m slightly biased in favor of Zhao Lusi since I’ve already seen her in another drama and liked her from there, but I thought she was the absolute cutest and most perfect FL for this drama. You simply can’t change my mind. I’m still so high from finishing this drama literally a few minutes ago so I don’t think I can offer any constructive or cohesive thoughts about this show besides just wow. Simply the sweetest, least problematic drama ever. No idiotic misunderstandings, so stupid fights, no pointless breakups. Just vibes and cuteness and a simple story about a girl who was in love with her brother’s friend. Definitely not a rom com despite what the genre says, more of a melo/drama than anything else. Probably one of the best executions of a youth drama though, hands on. Usually the time skips where they get older feel weird, and quite frankly this one felt a little awkward too, but it didn’t last long and was pretty easy to transition to. And this is coming from someone who’s pretty freaking sensitive to time skips in dramas (big reason I usually avoid the youth genre), don’t really know why. My only complaint is that the drama did run out of steam a little toward the end. There weren’t many conflicts left and it very obviously slowed down in terms of plot development, interestingly this happened quite a bit after they got together and not right away, so kudos to them for that. Nothing too terrible, still worth watching, just probably soured my vibe a tad bit when I had to force myself to watch the last couple episodes when it was far from being an issue in the beginning (guys, I was eating up those episodes like tic tacs). Still 100% worth the watch, hence the rating. Just something to be aware of hehe. Anywho, watch this drama! If you’re a fan of cute contemporary romance that isn’t very heavy on plot and is just pure ***vibes*** then this one is def the one.

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Lol I don't feel that strongly about this drama...

Another great drama by our favorite Netflix actor Song Kang. Despite the fact that I’m not involved in ballet whatsoever, I’ve always enjoyed anything ballet related for as long as I can remember. I was particularly excited for this drama because I enjoyed Song Kang in Sweet Home and thought the premise of this show was very interesting. While I did enjoy the drama, I found it a little too slow for my liking, and I struggled to develop a connection to any of the characters. Nevertheless, it was a nice drama that I could watch on Mondays and Tuesdays to make those days a little bit brighter. It wasn’t a drama I was too invested in, (I just think it’s too short for that) but had fun watching it casually and can appreciate the heartfelt and simple storyline. Overall, I’d recommend this drama for those who like ballet, Song Kang, or slow and sweet melodramas.

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I have to say... this drama completely exceeded all my expectations, and I’m extremely glad for it. I don’t think I have ever watched a drama where I wanted to keep watching episode after episode quite like this one. All of the secrets which the characters were keeping from one another made for a compelling plot that kept me coming back for more and more. I absolutely adored Nam Ji Hyun in this drama. She never disappoints with her acting and always has amazing chemistry with her co-stars. DO was one of the most stunning actors I have ever come across. His acting skills were also wonderful in this drama, and, like some people here already said, his little “Oh HO!” that he did when he got upset was honestly the most hilarious and endearing thing ever. He really made the drama magical for me. I absolutely need to see Kim Seon Ho with a first male lead role because I feel like the guy only ever plays the second male lead despite being a wonderful actor. Overall the storyline of this drama was absolutely amazing, however I was left slightly disappointed at the very last episode. The death scene of the Vice Premier (or whoever he was) was a little anticlimactic, and I was frustrated to tears with the last 30 minutes of the drama, since they took what could have been a magical conclusion with the prince’s becoming king and providing us with an epilogue of his future life and turned it into a “funny” skit where he kept getting rejected by Hong Sim for an entire year straight. The progress that the lead couple made seemed to not matter at all, and it frustrated me that they were still unwilling to embrace their relationship and just GET TOGETHER ALREADY even in the last episode. It wasn’t funny. It was sad and it frankly ruined the entire ending of the drama for me. To not end this review on a sour note, however, I still believe that this drama is definitely worth a watch. My opinion on the ending is completely subjective as there was nothing inherently terrible about it. It was just not my idea of a perfect ending, and I had to take off a star because of it. The whole rest of the drama more than makes up for it, and I would honestly watch this drama again in a heartbeat if I didn’t have like 200 other titles on my watchlist.

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