A thrilling story with a messy payoff

This drama had my attention from the premise, and the story and how it's presented made me binge it in only one night.
This review will only spoil the ending, since I'll be talking about it.

The acting, aside from the always terrible child performances, and the actress playing claire (the actual shizuka), was pretty solid and I was sold on the emotions the characters were displaying.
The characters went from pretty good, to "Oh, god, k*ll it". The villain I particularly liked, because (at least with the ending reveal), her motivations felt really human, and while on her high horse and pretty dislikeable, she wasn't an evil caricature and had human emotions and actions. Some dramas can go pretty out there when characterizing their villains, I'm glad this one did not. Anzu and Yuzu, and most of Shinichi were pretty easy to root for, but Kiichi is just... you just don't do that LOL I understand the point is that he's unlikeable, but I didn't really forgive him completely by the end, so there's that. And speaking of which, Anzu's dad has to be the worst man ever, and while I also hate her mom, she was right to divorce him. He just proves you can be the exact opposite of walter white, and be just as toxic and ineffective at protecting your family.
The dialogue was good, except from some conversations that felt stiff and unnatural. It had decent foreshadowing, which mostly paid off. Mostly.

Now, the music. Can an OST ruin a piece of media? Well, this one certainly tried. I haven't head anything more uninspired and downright annoying and distracting. I kept thinking of elevator music and royalty free tunes they play while on hold on phone calls. It reminded me of the vampire diaries game. It was mismatched for almost every scene and having silence would've been more productive. I'm amazed at the scores I'm seeing for it. Yes, I'm writing this review just for this part.

The ending (Spoilers):
It was a bit tiring to witness. Learning that Makiko's actions were less heinous than first presented was fine, and also fleshed her out as a mother, though not in a positive way, which is actually great. Making Kiichi the real culprit would've been more compelling, though I understand it having been Shinichi was the payoff to his character arc, it being that long to present kinda lost me a bit. They should've skipped the whole Kiichi taking the fault. Also, what the f is wrong with Anzu's mom and the "You shall live with the guilt of being a dumb child with an overbearing mother" thing? I just don't like her.

Anyways, I overall enjoyed it, but wouldn't rewatch.

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