*screams into a pillow*

Okay, now that I’ve released a bit of my frustration with this show, I can talk about it a bit more rationally.

This show has a maaaaaaajor tone problem that becomes more and more apparent as the show progresses. The first half of the show is pretty good kdrama fun times, plenty of laughs to be had. The main trio are great at comedy. The love triangle is actually pretty good, as I think it’s a bit different from usual. Min Hyuk knows who Bong Soon “truly” is, and admires her for her strength, while Gook Du perceives her as weak and wants to protect her. They aren’t just two people vying for her love; they are two people who have very different perspectives on who she is, that makes the love triangle more interesting than usual.

And then the show progressively derails as the episodes progress. The serial killer plot ramps up and is so extreme and scary, and there’s some serious whiplash going back and forth between cute scenes of our couple and scenes of this terrifying guy. Oh, and the goshdarn gangster scenes. Does that stuff even count as a subplot? It serves as “funny” filler, but I find pretty much none of it funny and it borders on gross for me. Those were the scenes I hated the most. The only way to watch the second half of the show is to skip through all the crap to get to the cute scenes with our couple, and at that point you might as well just watch the clips on YouTube.

I actually would give this show a 7, but it has such a high rating here and I feel the need to turn the dial down a bit so people understand that there’s some serious problems with this show. The cast is good, the humor is pretty good in the first half of the show, and the OST is fitting. However, many of the characters are superfluous and are meant to be humorous but are so over the top that it is too much to handle. The serial killer plot is so extreme that it throws the show off kilter, and it truly feels like it belongs in a different show like Voice. The saving grace of this show is the couple, which is one of the darn cutest couples I’ve seen in kdramaland. The main trio are great (though Ji Soo’s talents are somewhat wasted here). I wish that the latter half of the show wasn’t a hot mess, because otherwise this show would be really great.

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Definitely in the running for cutest OTP of 2020

This show was such a nice surprise. I didn’t expect much from a fantasy/historical(ish) rom-com, but this was (1) laugh-out-loud hilarious, (2) really well-made and edited, (3) had a story that didn’t completely go off the rails, and (4) had characters that were memorable and lovable.

The premise is silly and most of the show is. But it never takes itself too seriously or tries to explain too much. It’s really funny and cool how meta the show is, with the screenwriter (aka the female lead) commenting on the holes in her script or how she regrets how certain characters are written. I also like that rather than a fish out of water scenario, the main female lead knows the world she’s in perfectly and thus is actually more knowledgeable than a lot of the characters. Thus the jokes are less centered around “look at this modern woman try to figure out ancient times” instead it’s “look at this screenwriter try to desperately save the plot and confusing the hell out of everyone.” Rather than being just a silly person to begin with, she’s actually a pretty rational person who has been placed in an absurd situation.

So yeah, I really love the female lead, she’s probably my fave, but a close second is the male lead. He's also hilarious in his own way, going from being a seemingly ruthless, ambitious man to almost instantly smitten with the female lead (though she’s just being nice to him to try to prevent him from killing her lollll). It’s cool how a lot of the characters develop in different trajectories from how both you, the audience, and the screenwriter expect. In general it is fun how the show takes tropes and makes fun of them and/or they play out in different ways.

It’s pretty remarkable that in a show that isn’t necessarily plot-driven the plot was actually good! I find with shows like this they tend to lose steam towards the end. The romance and comedy are the best part of the show but the plot was well placed and I was really invested in how it was going to end. This show was also surprisingly progressive with its perspective on male/female equality but it did have a few moments where I wasn’t okay with what the characters did (male characters forcing themselves on female characters is never my fave).

Tl;dr this show is 100% watching for the characters, the couple, and the plot. It’s a really fun ride and I enjoyed it immensely.

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yeah. Worth the hype.

I wasn't wowed by the first episode of this drama, nor entirely enchanted by the second. But by the end of the second episode I thought... dang, okay, fine, I guess I want to keep watching. And I'm glad I did.
The most thrilling and emotional parts of this show took place within the game itself. The games are simple children's games, but are games that don't necessarily require skill. Most of the time, it's luck; which number you drew, which shape you got, that sort of thing. The game purports to be 'fair', but it's only fair in the way that real life is fair. You're stuck with the cards you've been given. The poor characters take part in the game because the real world is so terrible for them that the game is the best alternative they've got. Sadly, some even think they can win, despite (as we've discussed) the games being largely luck-based.
The characters are mostly pretty decent in this. The main character, Gi Hoon, is initially kind of a piece of trash, but you realize that he's a gambling addict, and this leads to him hurting the people he loves. He's not an inherently bad person who wants to hurt others, and you see that come out in the game, where he's one of the kinder people there. The rest of the cast are also great, not a weak performance in sight. I'd say the cop's plotline and character are mildly confusing and vague and you're just not that emotionally invested in it compared to everyone else. The show continues to get better and better as the games keep going and people die.
People die in very emotionally impacting ways, and I think they did all the character deaths very well. They often feel different too; whether it's because it was accidental, somebody cheated so they lost, or just bad luck. And the deaths can weirdly almost feel like a part of their character arcs. I don't know how the writers pulled it off but they did it well.
tl;dr it's really worth watching because it's not just trashy fun, it has so much to say about the unfairness of the systems in this world that keep poor people down. I'm not sure I'd rewatch it because it's so emotionally overwhelming at times but it is super good.

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