A slice of a slice of life.

Try to see the whole picture from just a few puzzle pieces. That’s the essence of the movie. Figuring out the relationships and backgrounds of the characters from their short, taken out of their lives' context conversations. Why they are? Why they met? What will happen after they leave the table?

Have to say, not all the stories were equally interesting and enjoyable. Without giving any spoilers about the characters background, I’ll try to describe why they resonated with me or not.

Yoo Jin’s story - one that evokes the most emotions in me, and by emotions I mean anger and frustration. While at first I was unsure where it leads, with each new line I could sense the probable direction.

Kyung Jin’s story - the most chill and down to earth, the only one that put a smile on my face. The easiest to understand from the start too, you kind of know what you will get right away.

Eun Hui’s story - serving some unexpected twist as the conversation progressed. To some extent moving, if we try to understand the characters a little bit.

Hye Kyung’s story - the one I did not vibe with at all. Not only I couldn’t resonate with Hye Kyung, I also strongly believe Yeon Woo Jin is incapable of having chemistry with any of his female co-stars.

Overall, for a short movie like that, which tries to present 4 completely unrelated stories, it did a fairly good job. The acting was truly good, but then the characters and scenes were not exactly complex and well-developed to serve as an acting challenge. As I mentioned at the beginning, the entertainment comes from trying to understand who the characters are, even though nothing is set nor explained by narration or exposition. You are thrown into a random moment in their lives.

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Rather thrilling and gripping, yet quite predictable movie. I don’t think they served even one plot line that was not obvious. Even with that, I still enjoyed it quite a lot.

I think the best part of the movie is the lack of realism and sanity? These characters had issues, and I mean serious ones. The whole setup made little sense. They were committing crimes in daylight, often showing their faces, yet no one knew who they were. Sure. Suspension of belief is required to enjoy it.

Another aspect that I greatly enjoyed was the performance. Yeo Jin Goo as Hwa Yi was one of his strongest performances. The amazing on screen transformation that teen went through was just an interesting tale, with quite a satisfying conclusion.

Kim Yoon Seok as Yoon Seok Tae could be described as a cold, tamed madness - rather terrifying character. At the same time, the more I saw of him, the more pathetic he seemed. That said, I am thankful all the bad characters were truly awful, so I could watch without any sense of empathy towards them.

The movie had some unnecessary elements. While I understand why Yoo Kyung was an important person for Hwa Yi’s journey, I believe keeping her more as a symbol of normal life compared to actually getting her to interact with him would be better.

The emotional aspects of the movie depended on the well built relationship between Hwa Yi and the gang members, yet I barely felt anything. There were a few moments that showed him and Yoon Seok Tae have quite a deep, but also complicated bond, but I needed more than two or three scenes of it. Not to mention how all the rest of the characters were painfully one-dimensional.

The visuals were nice. They dive a bit into those gruesome scenes, not shying away from violence. The most powerful scenes though were the few emotional bits delivered by Yeo Jin Goo.

Overall, I would recommend watching for the performances. The cat and mouse chase between Hwa Yi and Yoon Seok Tae was exciting, and the emotional games and manipulation thrilling.

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Throw away the logic, let the pigeons in.

It was refreshing to see how they truly did not give a damn about realism and logic to such a ridiculous extent, but because of that, this drama had no business having 20 episodes, each 1 hour and 20 minutes long.

Realistically speaking, the whole plot would perfectly fit into a 2 hour movie. Instead, we’ve got around 28 hours of Vincenzo being cool finding a way to fight Babel, said “way” getting killed, Vincezno finding another way to fight Babel, that then gets killed… you get the idea. Strangely, even with this painful repetitiveness, I was not exactly bored for most of the watch time. True, I did watch the whole drama at 1.25x speed, but I enjoyed the experience quite a lot.

Surprisingly brutal, a few times reminding me more of a Saw movie, and not a k-drama comedy about a mafia. Not sure how, but this vicious take mixed well with the dumb jokes and plot points. The only time I felt like the show failed at mixing different moods was the way they handled Cha Young’s motivation to join the fight - that bit made me feel slightly uncomfortable and was not the best start to the series.

Song Joong Ki as Vincenzo Cassano was the selling point of the show, and for me, the performance was so strong, I did not even need more from the drama to keep watching. He is just really fine, and when he goes into full boss mode, I could not care less about the plot. Sometimes, this is all I need to keep me entertained.

Then we have Hong Cha Young played by Jeon Yeo Been. Love the actress, struggled with the character, especially in the first half. Her comedic vibe has been just too strong for me to like. Slowly she became less cartoonish, and more like a relatable human being - that’s when I started to appreciate her more.

I am truly not the biggest fan of Ok Taec Yeon as an actor. Has been a fan of his since his debut in 2PM, he is born to be an entertainer, but I was not even once convinced by his acting. Yet, I loved him as Jang Jun Woo. Don’t know if it’s just one lucky role for him, or he is starting to feel more comfortable in his acting, but I bought him as Jun Woo completely.

Some side characters and performances that caught my attention were: Kwak Dong Yeon as Jang Han Seo, Choi Deok Moon as Tak Hong Shik, Kim Yoon Hye as Seo Mi Ri and Im Chul Soo as Ahn Ki Seok. Not to forget Kim Sung Cheol for whom I have quite a soft spot.

I could feel all the money spent on the production leaking through my screen. Top notch might be an understatement. When you know the production team did not shy from spending money? When the soundtrack has 67 tracks - all of extremely high quality.

Still, the writing was just… empty? It serves amazing entertainment, and that’s it. There was no depth, no emotional attachment, no well developed plot. I’m still trying to figure out how the decision to make it into such a long drama was made. I can imagine the writer, director and the production team sitting in the bar, after quite a few bottles, brainstorming with ideas of a similar quality to “but imagine this: lizard people were behind it all along”. Some plot points were so outside of the box I was truly impressed with the creativity.

Overall, perfect brainless drama for some fun, light watch. Watching this as my neurons were being fried by Covid was a perfect choice and I don’t think any other drama could accompany me through that hell as well as Vincenzo did.

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The long ballad of supporting characters.

Amazing development, reliable traits with believable strengths and flaws, emotionally gripping stories that made me invested in the plot progress - what I’ve got from the supporting characters and side plots. Confused teens with good fighting skills are what the two main characters delivered.

So why did the main leads not work for me? Poorly presented context of their struggles. Li Chang Ge was introduced as a military prodigy for her young age. After facing the murder of her parents, she sets on the journey of revenge, that leads to countless self-reflection and changes of her goals and motivations. The issue is, the drama made me feel like an idiot.

All the characters around her kept saying how impulsive she is, how her actions are wrong, how the killer of her family is a good and a nice guy. I was sitting in front of my laptop questioning my sanity and the character's morals. Yes, I understand that there was more behind the story. I understood that the relationship between her and her uncles is not all that we see. My issue is, even the characters that had no reason to like or trust Li Shimin, ended up on his side right away, and I was just supposed to accept that. The writer wanted to make sure the viewers see Li Shimin as a good guy, without explaining why we should not view him as the villain. Even the most loyal people of the late emperor changed their affiliation in one or two days.

I was amazingly frustrated how no one tried to explain anything to Chang Ge, and she was just supposed to accept everyone’s claim that the new emperor is a good guy and she is wrong. As if everyone did not try to hunt her down without first giving her a chance to understand what truly happened. She was the traitor that needed to be killed.

Because of the unreasonable context, her journey just felt flat to me. Not to mention, while they showed her to be physically strong, she was extremely easily influenced by other people. Her morality, goals, views on the world shifted each time she met someone new. While self-discovery is based on exploration, the fact she just adopted whatever principles the people that were currently around her had, was a bit much.

Then we have Ashile Sun. There were fascinating ideas that could have been explored on a greater scale: how long are you obligated to stay loyal to the people who helped us in the past, should you accept all their demands or is our individuality as important, how long can you surrender to others’ demands and what are the long term consequences? His internal conflicts connected to Yan Li Khan were sadly overshadowed by his instant love for Li Chang Ge.

And the romance was not that great. He literally fell for her because “she was not like other girls”, remembering all the behaviors she presented that are usually linked to masculine traits. He fell fast and hard, and she was the initial reason for his character’s development - I find it disappointing. Often he did not feel like an individual character, but rather a shadow of the female lead.

Luckily, we’ve got some interesting side characters who made me like the show a lot. Easily my favorite, Li Le Yan had one of the best written character developments I have seen in a while. Her character development was built on her already existing characteristics. She did not become a completely different person - she simply worked on her flaws while staying true to her peaceful and gentle approach. She trusted the people around her, knew her limits and when to ask for help. She showed maturity and emotional strength when other characters were struggling to control themselves.

Hao Du, everyone’s favorite. Truth to be told, it took me a while to truly understand why everyone was so obsessed with his character, but he does creep on you - you don’t even know when, and you love him. I wish his story had a bit more screen time, so the development would be more gradual and well paced. Sill, the progress from distant, lone wolf to lost, adorable puppy was extremely entertaining and endearing to watch. I also appreciate his efficiency - kill first, ask questions later.

Even if not as well developed, the other characters that I appreciated by the end of the show were She Er, General Li Jing, King of Mobei, Gongsun Heng, Situ Lang Lang, Zhen Zhu and probably a few other supporting characters. They all had distinctive personalities, motivations, goals and aspirations. They all played an important role in the plot, affecting the events in a meaningful way. None of them felt like a background filler.

The characters made the show, because the plot was slightly all over the place.

Then we have the production issues. I am sorry, but they did not even try to make the cross-dressing believable. When Chang Ge was addressed as “he” after her first appearance, I had to pause the episode, I was so confused. All I could think about was: how could anyone ever assume she is a guy? And the show did not improve on that aspect at all.

Then there is the issue with kissing scenes. One could say - small detail if we take into consideration the whole show. But romance was a huge portion of it. The romance was what drove a lot of the characters. So when we’ve got birds’ make out sessions, a non-existing kiss fading to a white screen and even a dead body getting more action than the lead characters, one would start to get frustrated.

The Long Ballad had a lot of unintentionally hilarious moments. The new emperor being surprised his daughter was starving when she was a refugee (little grasp on reality he had, no?), “think for yourself” being seen as a lifelong experience that can be passed on to only the worthy one, the fact male lead had to be told he loved female lead 31 episodes in, after he risked his life and lives of other people he cares about for her, the overall vibe of “people die, get over it” everyone gave, female lead telling male lead he can’t kill his brother for killing his mother, while she herself has been on the revenge trip for months to kill her uncle for killing her parents. To sum it up, everyone lacks brain cells.

Overall, The Long Ballad was addicting and entertaining and I had a lot of fun watching. Undeniably sharing my rants and views on mdl feeds did make the whole experience a bit better, but even without it, I would appreciate what I’ve got from the show. For 49 episodes, it was a quick watch with likable characters, fast paced plot that does not require much brain power to understand, which makes it perfect late night binge watch material.

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Rather simple, but well constructed plot that, thanks to the interesting cast of characters, serves as an entertaining watch.

The best thing about this show was for me Wang Zhi. While at first I was quite cautious about him, soon he became one of my favorite characters from all the shows I have seen in 2021. Loyalty, desperation, wits, drive - all fitted into this one, morally gray character. Whatever he said or did, I could not stop myself from thinking “he makes sense here”. Did I sell my soul to Wang Zhi? Maybe. He could be going around killing and torturing people and I’d be like: good for you honey, keep it up!

Even though Tang Fan and Sui Zhou were not as complex of characters, they still presented some nice nuances. On one hand, Tang Fan, in a quite refreshing way, combined reasoning brilliance and social stupidity. At the end of the day, a lot of problems he solved in a clever way, happened because of his social ignorance.

On the other hand, Sui Zhou represented both strength, emotional maturity, but also vulnerability and emotional struggles. It was interesting to see that the character who seemed the strongest, was the one that had to face his internal demons and tragic past the most.

The trio had an amazing dynamic, pushing each other to strive for better, while not ignoring each other's shortcomings. How it usually went, you ask? Tang Fan causes the problem, Sui Zhou tries to help Tang Fan, Wang Zhi actually does all the work to clean the mess - what a perfect group of friends, relatable af.

All the supporting characters had their place in the story, and none felt redundant. What's important, most did not just vanish after their cases were solved, and they've been brought back at the important plot points. This small detail of not removing characters from existence after they've done their part, made this whole fictional world seem more real.

Another aspect of the show I had to appreciate was the pacing. For some, it might have been slow - it took them quite a few episodes to deal with each case. For me, it was perfect. Watching crime related shows, I want to witness how the cases are solved, what actions and steps have been taken, and it’s impossible to achieve in the "one episode for one case" format.

The Sleuth of Ming Dynasty presents the viewers with some amazing visuals - from the scenery, sets to beautiful costumes. Do you like food? You might want to prepare some nice snacks before watching the episodes - the cooking scenes will make you hungry even after eating dinner.

That said, the show is far from perfect. To be honest, I did not notice many flaws since I was preoccupied going crazy over Wang Zhi, but there are a few that caught my attention. First of all, there were not many characters that were just… normal people. Everyone was highly skilled in something, and me being a typical potato could not relate to the skills and brain power going on. At the same time, around episode 44-45 everyone’s brain collectively shuts down, to make room for the villains to try their schemes.

While I found Tang Fan being an idiot, cute and funny, I can see how he would make some people’s blood boil. Some mistakes this child made were on a whole new level of “I forgot to bring my brain to work today”.

Since this is an adaptation of a BL novel, it will not satisfy people who watch it for the bromance. Honestly speaking, the show has little “censored adaptation of same sex original work” vibes, to the point that these few scenes, giving the bromance feeling, actually felt out of place for me.

Overall, great directing and writing, good acting, nice soundtrack - everything making this story an addicting and fun ride. It made me laugh, it made me cry, it made me bang my head on the wall. I became obsessed with Wang Zhi, and had withdrawal symptoms right after I saw the last episode.

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Nishiogikubo Mitsuboshi Youshudou is a short, yet surprisingly deep drama that made me dwell on various social issues.

Each episode focuses on a different customer of the bar and their personal problems and worries. Amamiya Ryoichiro serves a role of a mediator, rarely ever giving his own opinion on the subject - focusing on making the guest comfortable enough to share their stories. On the other hand, Nakauchi Satoru and Kobayashi Naoki present usually opposite takes on the presented situation, which helps the viewers see that most issues are not just black or white scenarios.

Taking into consideration the short duration, the social issues are never presented in a complex and detailed way, but the show still opens the door for the viewer to reflect on the topics on their own.

The acting was on point, and the casting team did a fantastic job, not only with the main characters, but also all the supporting and guest roles. The natural expressions and line delivery, mixed with simple directing created this familiar feeling that made it easier to relate to the characters, even if we could not get to know them that well.

The only criticism I have would be the lack of backstory of the main characters, especially Amamiya Ryoichiro. His character was like a blank canvas - focused on reflecting what is happening around him and guiding other people's thoughts and emotions. While it might have been a writing and directing choice, I wish we could get to know him and his story more.

Overall, it’s a short yet meaningful series that presents you many interesting and realistic stories in a heartwarming and pleasant way.

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I have to say, even with the tragic and full of scandals ending that led to the cancelation of the finale, it’s still my favorite survival show I have ever seen.

⇢ Cast aka the contestants and mentors
The most unique and diverse cast of the trainees I have ever seen. I am not going to lie, I usually struggle quite a lot to remember the contestants - mostly I just give up trying and just pay close attention to two or three that I like. Here, there were so many unique characters, I was happy to do my research, make some notes and try my best to use the few brain cells I have to remember as many of them as possible.

I also believe that the production team did a good job promoting some pairing and groups of friends that had great chemistry with each other. The focus was (almost) never on the rivalry, but rather cooperation and friendship, which was simply delightful to watch.

This show also has the sunshine, the only true pure boy - Lian Huaiwei. It would NOT be an overstatement if I said I was completely obsessed with this guy. R.I.P all my friends who had to deal with my spam in chats as I was watching the episodes. Half of the messages were variations of “OMG I JUST LOVE HUAIWEI SO MUCH”.

As for mentors - almost pure perfection. I am slightly salty about Lisa being a dance mentor when she could not be present on set. This affected the dance training, and at times other trainees had to do the job the dance mentor should be doing. I also think she was sometimes not quite careful about her remarks which at times quite hurt the trainees as a result. I still enjoyed her a lot and her interactions with some trainees were fun to watch, but overall, she was the least mentor-like in my eyes.

On the other hand I want Chris Lee in my life. She was strict, but also patient. She had realistic expectations towards trainees, and knew how far she can push them to not cross the line. Not to mention, her socially awkward attitude was just entertaining.

Both Will Pan and Li Rong Hao took the mentoring seriously - they were both teaching, but also supporting the contestants. The interactions were funny, inspiring and at times heartwarming.

⇢ Music aka the the performances
I have to say, I was not crazy about a good 50% of the stages, and it’s not on the trainees - the songs/arrangements were just boring. That said, it also has so many amazing bops that I listen to daily - from ballads that make me into a crying mess every single time I watch them, to hype pop tracks that make my heart race.

I appreciated how the trainees had some creative freedom, being able to tweak the stages and performances to add various elements here and there. We were also able to see some self written and produced songs, which is always an additional plus in shows like that.

⇢ Story aka the production
I’m just going to completely ignore the finale issues, because before that I was completely in love with the production of the show.

First of all, “more means more” aka 2 episodes per week was a great idea. The issue with these shows is, they want to showcase 100 trainees in one episode that lasts around 2 and half hours - it’s simply impossible. We get to see at best 10 seconds of some audition stages, not everyone gets a chance to be shown during the practice time, and at the end, we end up with 10-20 trainees we remember, and 80-90 guys whose names we don’t even know. Since YWY S3 gave us 2 episodes per week, each around 3 hours long, we got an actual chance to find out who the trainees are.

Another thing I truly loved was the fact I could feel iQiyi cares about international fans. Providing English subtitles is a bare minimum, but they went beyond that. We always got the indication who was speaking at any given moment (even when it was just an offhand comment made in a crowd). Most of the ranking after stages was translated, so we knew who actually got how many points (comparing it to season one, where the lists were in Chinese, and I was able to figure out the results only by seeing the reactions of the trainees).

The gold editing. Truly, the editing team needs a rise. The fitting sound effects, memes, and other visual effects added made the show so much more enjoyable. They just knew how to turn the entertainment value of the show to maximum.

Overall, it’s an mazing journey with a painful ending. Do the trainees deserve more? Yes. Was it completely iQiyi's fault and should they be canceled for what happened? No. It’s easy to criticize the end result, but if we are honest with ourselves, they could not really make any other choices. The only thing I was truly upset about and it’s truly 100% on iQiyi was the lack of closure. At first they did give updates about the current situation around the finale, but after the cancellation, there was no definite answer. I would love for them to just be honest and say: sadly we will not debut the team. Without a closer it’s harder to move on. And believe me, it was hard to move on. I rewatched the show twice.

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Too much drama, not enough variety.

In my eyes, season three repeats the same mistakes season two made. Everything felt scripted, even the jokes and fun interactions between the cast.

While in season two the plot presented at least seemed interesting, and separate cases were for sure fun to follow, here... I couldn't care less. The crimes were not exciting, the games were not entertaining. I was left with close to nothing.

I'm not gonna lie, there were moments when I could not stop laughing, but they were few and far between. More often than not I wished the episode would just end and I wanted to skip some scenes.

One thing that truly took me aback was the amount of violence in this season. Some in the form of jokes and some part of the plot. I get it, it's a crime driven show, but it does not mean we need to witness someone getting killed (mostly shot) outside of the investigation, aka the dead bodies that were the source of cases. Not to mention the recurring "slapping" joke. It was funny the first time, but after that, it was too much.

I still love the cast, some of their interactions were amazing, but the script was weak and the overall flow of the show depended too heavily on it. The best and most memorable moments for me would be the traveling between houses in the last episode. It felt organic, natural, funny and not painfully rehearsed and scripted.

Since there will be no season 4, I am truly confused why they included the last scene in episode 8. They wrapped it all up quite well, just to open a new door that will never be closed.

Unless someone is a big fan of the cast, I wouldn't really recommend watching it.

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“The TV station needs to use sweet moments between Nubsib and Aey to promote the series, so as to gain viewership.” aka the tale that exposes how even the people behind the BL industry know the quality of the content they create is not good enough to gain the viewers, so they can only rely on cheap tricks attracting delusional fans.

Lovely Writer had a great beginning and the end, with a rather mediocre middle part. Exploring the romantic relationship between Gene and Nubsib in the context of the BL industry was interesting, but the moment the focus moved from that to a childhood connection, it lost the appealing aspect that made me invested in the story.

Gene was also quite a frustrating character. One would think by episode 11 we would witness some character development, him standing up for himself, not being so easily swayed and manipulated. Sadly, that is exactly who he was till the end of the show.

Nubsib was rather one dimensional. Everything about him revolved around Gene. All his goals and motivations were related to Gene. Each decision he made was influenced by what he thought would get him closer to Gene. Sure, their scenes together were extremely cute, they were an adorable couple, but I always wish to see the characters not only as a part of a relationship, but also as their own individuals.

Many character developments happened in the last episode, and I was questioning where most of it came from? We had a 4 month time jump, so I guess all the self-reflection happened off-screen.

I have to say, after I picked this drama again, I started to appreciate the fakeness of Aey more. His “I’m fine, I’m not sad about Gene and Nubsib” live was truly iconic. Him trying to manipulate the situation left and right was simply entertaining to watch. He was the definition of a professional victim.

One thing I for sure appreciated was how the comments fans were making in the show truly reflected the nonsense some fans are saying in real life, for example “How can prime minister allow this” - I’m sorry, but what does prime minister has to do with 2 young gay dudes dating?

It’s nice to see a BL drama drag the problematic aspects of BL industry, even if the topic was addressed only at the beginning and the end of the show. Discrimination happening during the production, the lack of personal freedom for actors, the overbearing and intrusive delusional fans and many other issues that go even beyond the industry itself.

That said, some things missed the mark for me. Lines like “I might look gay, but I’m straight” - I get the good intentions, pointing out that liking feminine stuff does not make one gay, but framed in such a manner it suggest there is in fact something like “looking gay”.

The thing that bothered me the most was the introduction of the past/kids story. It was borderline inappropriate. While just the scenes did not really cross the line, how they were framed was a problem. Adding music typically associated with romantic scenes, Gene saying they will reignite their past affection (if they were not romantically involved, there would be nothing to reignite) and how salty he was simply because a child from his past did not show up to say goodbye. How Nubsib kept saying he was already in love with Gene back then. All that context made it borderline wrong. Gene was a teenager, Nubsib was a child - it did make me feel a bit uncomfortable.

Acting wise, Up delivered what he was asked to deliver and what the audience might want to see. I loved him in the role of Gene, even if at times I felt frustrated with the character. Kao… looked nice? For sure he can sell the confident flirty look, but sadly, I was not convinced by more emotional scenes. Overall, the whole cast did well. My favorite ones were definitely Up and Zorzo.

Overall, Lovely Writer has some amazing elements that were truly refreshing to see in BL. It falls back into some stereotypes and cliché bits, but at the end of the day, it was quite an enjoyable watch.

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Saying I did not have a good time watching this show would be a lie. It's also important to point out that my enjoyment did not come from amazing writing and excellent directing. The show is a mess, but that's why I liked it so much.

It's not the best opening for a series of dramas. Plot wise, we are just left with no answers and more questions than we can handle. As I was watching, I was waiting for the info and the lore, the whole background for the characters to be slowly explained. I wanted to understand the world presented, so when I decide to watch the next installments, I would have a grasp on the background and the relationships/connection between the characters and could fully focus on the plot. Nah... ain't gonna happen. There has been just too much info introduced, but not explored.

I definitely enjoyed some characters. Main lead, Wu Xie, had his dumb moments (quite a lot... probably more than the smart ones), but was still fun and easy to root for. Zhang Qi Ling is the biggest question mark of the show. We know nothing about him. He obviously, for some strange reason, cares for the ML, but it's never explained. I love his overdramatic emo ass and the fun fighting scenes.

Some characters annoyed me more than ever. Wang Pang Zi? Needs to chill. He was too unreasonable and awful with any type of social interactions. The more I saw him, the more I could not stand him.

The biggest problem (which by the end of the day became the reason I enjoyed the watch so much) was the lack of logic behind characters actions. I was just sitting in front of my laptop and asking myself: but why?, every time someone made some dumb or unrealistic decision.

The production value was... questionable at best, but docent in some scenes. Scenes heavy on CGI could make people cry though. Feel warned.

I think this is the case of a show that is bad and confusing, but that's what makes it an enjoyable ride. I truly loved the watch and it was simply a lot of fun. Since there was no point in figuring out what is happening and why characters do what they do, I could just focus on whatever mess was happening on screen and laugh about it. There is just something weirdly endearing about The Lost Tomb.

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The good parts were truly good, but the bad parts were so awful I was annoyed more often than not.

Both the premise of the corruption and the way good guys dealt with it had a nice and refreshing twist to it, but how some extremely cliche and sometimes senseless plot points were introduced ruined the experience for me. Does it matter how good of an idea you have if you surround it with bullshit?

By episode 9 I suspected where the drama was going, but some scenes did not make any sense with my prediction. It would make the characters look too dumb, so I dropped that idea. Guess what... it did happen at the end. By episode 13 I figured out the biggest plot twist and it just got me angry, because it made no sense. And I'm not some genius for figuring it out. The writing was just predictable.

As for the characters, some were great, some were bad, some barely existed. I definitely enjoyed the detectives’ team, and the investigation aspect was my favorite part of the show. Jin Kyung and Ho Gyu stole my heart and became my favorites. Jo Tae Shik was your typical hero cop, and if it was not for Lee Min Ki's acting, I would not pay that much attention to him.

The biggest let down? Kim Seo Hui. She just never learned from any of her mistakes, jeopardizing the investigation too many times to count. For the majority of the show she had nothing to do. I am quite honestly convinced this drama could have been more or less the same even if we write her off completely. If you ask me, she should be relegated to supporting character and her image should have never been used in posters.

The big bad wolf was boring and obvious, but then it's not like they tried to hide it. I did enjoy Dong Gu quite a lot though. His desperation was interesting to watch and I wished we had seen more of him on the screen. Other shady characters were... there doing shady things? I don't know. I hated how there were excuses and explanations made for some bad characters, but not others, when they were all equal trash.

Overall, this could have been so good. There were some episodes I actually enjoyed a lot. The dynamics between detectives was gold, the rivalry between Dong Gu and Young Min was exciting, but then they ruined it all with some really cheap and lazy writing and directing choices that I just couldn't ignore.

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I think I’m too old for a nonsense story like that.

The idea of this adult guy going back to school to take revenge on his old friend is quite unrealistic, to say the least. Maybe if I was able to turn off my brain as I was watching, I would enjoy it more. And if the characters were any better.

Kang Bok Soo - the underdog hero with amazing brains (but not really), and some unrealistically good investigation skills. Was Seung Ho cute? Sure. Was the character interesting? No.

Female lead? Amazingly useless. At first she was there to tip the scale and get the misfortune rolling in Bok Soo’s life. After that, she was nothing more than a love interest. Quite frankly, you could remove her character from the drama and not much would change. She is also a prime example why I believe sometimes chasing your dreams is not a good idea, especially when you ain’t that good at the activity. Keep it as a hobby, because at times, you, somehow achieving your dreams, might hurt people you interact with.

Se Ho was an interesting character, but even he failed me by the end, bringing no nuance to the plot. Not to mention his mother has been just your typical mother-villain.

I have to say, I enjoyed the supporting characters far more than any of the leads. My heart broke a few times for Park Dong Jun, I was rooting like crazy for Park Sung Woo, and I wanted to help Lee Chae Min.

The acting was overall good. I am not the biggest fan of Jo Bo Ah, since she kind of acts the same in all her roles. By the end, I was also a bit tired of Kim Yeo Jin’s overacting, but then I cannot be sure how much of it was her decision and how much was she instructed by the director to go for such a delivery of the lines.

The production value was good except for the makeup. I would put better make up on the cast. What was that weird brown smokey eye, they did on Kwak Dong Yeon? Why did Yoo Seung and Ho Jo Bo Ah’s lipstick look as if they had kept it on their lips for 10 years until their lips looked so chapped it pained me to look at them? Someone explain, because I do not understand...

As for the ending, I don’t think it was possible to make it more of a cliche.

I get that this show has some nice wholesome and heartwarming messages, but there are so many better school dramas with the same messages, I see no reason why anyone should try this one. I would recommend watching anything else.

Overall? It would probably be better if I left it on my drop list.

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I shouldn’t have liked it as much as I did. It’s truly not the top notch writing and the characters are quite frankly dumb. But the show has a weird excitement to it, I could not resist. It might be the result of a quite well balanced mix of genres: politics, military, mystery and corruption with action sequences on top.

So how were the plot and characters? The whole team is full of silly little potatoes. The decision making would probably be better and more logical if they flipped a coin. They were all supposed to be professionals and specialists in their fields, or at least close to being them. How could Son Ye Rim just walk around like it’s not a big deal after being exposed to an unknown substance? How come in such a small team so many people have ulterior motives that can at times endanger other team members? How come they truly do not care about any military regulations 90% of the time? I think them being such idiots added to the entertainment value. Who doesn’t like watching people make stupid decisions?

That said, even though the dumbassness was frustrating, I enjoyed the characters themselves. The dynamics were fun to watch and slowly discovering any potential connections kept me more focused on what is going on on the screen.

I appreciated how they didn’t dump a massive exposition in episode one explaining all the details, but they also didn’t leave me in the dark till the last moment. Clues, hints and puzzle pieces have been dropped throughout the show, slowly forming a whole picture. In the process I flipped from loving to hating to loving again many characters.

Let’s talk about CGI. Thank god the crazy dogs only happened at the beginning, because they were laughably bad. I always believed that sometimes not showing the monster is better than showing it with the use of shitty CGI. People are creative, they will fill the gaps.

The pacing was well done, I didn't really feel bored during any episode. Keeping them an hour long (compared to the 1 h 30 min. we get lately) and only 10 episodes was a wise choice. This plot is definitely not something that could have been successfully stretched to 16 episodes. The biggest flop was episode 3, which for some strange reason, did not follow linear storytelling, and we jumped around the timeline like crazy. This made little sense.

Overall, it’s not a smart show. I have no military knowledge, but some of the decisions that have been made were simply illogical, even for me. And yet, I liked it. For some strange reason. It was probably because of the characters and the cast. I wasn’t that interested in Dong Jin and Ye Rim, but all the rest truly caught my attention. A girl needs to appreciate the real stakes too, even though it was painful to watch and it broke my heart a few times.

Also, mad respect for including pictures of dogs with other actors in the end credits of the last episode. Let's all appreciate their hard work.

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Impressive level of blandness.

There isn’t anything wrong with the drama, but there is nothing truly right? No highs, no lows, nothing to truly grab my attention. Such a smooth flight, one might actually fall asleep.

I loved the idea behind the drama - seeing different professions that are related to airports. Usually we see the “glamorous lives” of flight attendants and pilots, but here we saw a greeted variety of jobs. So how come it did not work out?

I think the biggest issue was how all the issues and conflicts got resolved within five minutes of screen time. There was no suspense, no stakes. What’s more, while I understand they wanted to stay true to reality, sometimes cutting short the realistic depiction of procedures is not a bad thing - at the end of the day I am watching a drama, not a manual.

I did like all the characters, but I also disliked how most of them did not need any character development. They were smart, great, kind, and the “bad traits” were simply miscommunication. Nothing to work on. And because of that Kawahara Kasumi became my favorite character - she was the most dynamic in writing - both in external presentation and internal growth.

The production was fine. As most things in the drama. But fine is such a mid level of entertainment.

One thing to appreciate was for sure the acting. The whole cast did an amazing job.

Overall, I will probably forget this drama exists in a month.

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I’m kind of amazed. To make such a fun concept into such a boring movie - that’s a skill. It could easily be an easy to digest mix of different short ghost stories based on the new “stigmatized property” the male lead moves in. Why was it not just that?

It became this weird mix of horror, slice of life about unfulfilled dreams and mellow romance. And nothing matched well together. I understand that they needed to set up a proper motivation for Yamano Yamame to even move into these problematic houses, but so much focus on these failed dreams was not needed - it made the initial exposition too long and too boring.

Then we have the romantic undertones between Yamame and Azusa and honey, no one watches horrors for romance. Not one person. It never happened. It’s unnecessary.

And the worst aspect? No development nor closure for any of the actual ghost cases. The actual screen time they spent in these “hunted” locations is laughably short.

The worst crime though? Nao’s acting. She truly needs to tone it down. I have not seen someone this animated and over the top in a horror movie in a while. Girl was determined to use every muscle on her face in every scary shot, even if barely anything was happening to validate such a strong reaction.

Overall, poorly constructed plot, decent editing, mediocre directing, questionable acting.

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