Oct 2023
I love the plot; not the usual time travel, but a time slip.
Bae Hyun-sung is so good in his lead role as character Kang-san, who ends up worlds away from his original life. The emotions this relatively young actor is able to convey with his eyes, is exactly what makes his character so watchable and believable. Gentle, kind and pretty adorable. He never abuses the changes in himself either, but hangs on to his good nature.
Jung Woo is also good as a struggling writer with principles (Dong-joo), but living a life that pushes them to their limit. He has a sometimes abrasive exterior, but is really quite mushy inside.
Supporting characters/actors are interesting; from family, to friends, law enforcement and the villains living in wealth, but also the shadow of their past.
It started really strong and grabbed my attention, but as the drama neared its mid-way eps, I found the story somewhat laboured. Old ground was covered too often and so regardless of whether the angle from which an event was seen, was different, it wasn't different enough and didn't really impact the story sufficiently.
Then, as the final episodes rolled out, the pace picked up quite sharply again and it was really good.
I liked how Dong-joo's relationships/ friendships changed, but felt the way his character was written to behave in certain situations, sometimes went against his personality, seemingly to drive the story forward. He could be so incredibly selfish, yet at other times too much the opposite. Overall he made for an entertaining character.
Hyeon-soo, a MC and police officer, I often found infuriatingly arrogant in her assumptions that she was right about stuff. I found her character lacked substance. The actress (Park Yoo-rim) was OK, but didn't really seem to 'be' the part.
The police team were woefully blind to the obvious clues that someone in their ranks was 'off', even when they suspected a leak and clues had become glaringly obvious. Frustrating!
I loved DJ's best friend, Yong-dae, who never judged and was such a supportive and understanding friend; and Mal-geum, who is linked to KS's past (how their interaction was portrayed in the present day, I found touching, poignant and really quite sad).
I never liked Myung-seok, but assume he was a better person than I thought, with his motives being to change things (I hope).
Loved Oh Man-suk as Kai, too. He was SO cool.
It's cleverly done, how the connections between the characters come together and there is a fair amount of tragedy.
An extremely dark and upsetting secret is also revealed at the end, which may be too much for some (refer to 'Tags' for the drama).