Twice as long as it should have been

I HAVE FINALLY FINISHED IT!

While I loved the first 4 episodes, the more I watched it, the less I liked it and by the end the only question I had was HOW MUCH LONGER???!
It was unnecessary stretched without having anything much to tell, there wasn't even enough cheese to make it enjoyable, just boring and extremely unbelievable action scenes and plot twists when the bad guy just. Keeps. Surviving. Again. And again. And again.

However, it wasn't THAT bad. There were a lot of good things. Most importantly, it's the cast. I doubt it would have been so popular if not for the amazing actors in it. They're funny and emotional and obviously enjoyed filming this show, and it is definitely visible on screen. Secondly, the bonds the characters shared were so heartwarming. They had flaws but they were so unapologetically human that you just had to love them. Thirdly, the cinematography was stunning and the soundtrack was on point but not as memorable as it could've been. Finally, the concept itself was great, it's a shame they chose the worst possible route to develop it, so much wasted potential there. And finally, definitely deserving a separate mention, is the chemistry between the leads. Pure electricity whenever the two of them were together.

All in all, it was an above average drama, definitely worth watching for certain aspects, but in no way it deserves so much praise for the overall quality as it gets.

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Little the good, mostly the bad, and a lot of the ugly

First things first - I don't recommend this drama to anyone except for the hardcore Yeon Woo Jin fans.

The good:
a) kiss scenes, though you will have to wait A LONG TIME for them, were steaming. Literally. Both YWJ and PHS were great and this is rare at least in the dramas I've seen.
b) Yeon Woo Jin's acting and interesting and unusual character
c) Park Hye Soo's cute moments - despite the horrible character she portrayed, she was a ray of sunshine and I would love to see her in a role that is better suited for her and in a better drama.
d) some social issues touched upon that I've never seen in a Korean drama: like society's attitude towards trans people, self-harm and social anxiety.
e) the premise itself while generally speaking a cliche (revenge turned into love) was very promising and the reason (among with YWJ's smile) that I started watching this in the first place.
f) unusual take on the female leads competition for the male lead.

The bad:
a) Characters put in the most illogical situations
b) weak secondary characters (they were just boring, I didn't get invested in any of their stories at all)
c) annoying secondary characters (i hated everyone except Yeon Jung, who was brilliant)
d) pacing all over the place: there was zero character development and then BOOM suddenly the character did a major turn around.
e) could not decide which genre it actually was and was failing at all of them most of the time.
f) the viewer is taken to be a complete idiot.
g) Chae Ro Woon (the female lead)'s character is terrible at the beginning and then lacking any character whatsover after the rewrite.

The ugly:
a) UNBEARABLE FIRST 4 EPISODES
b) love songs playing at the funeral :)))
c) horrible writing throughout the show - they completely forgot the revenge plot, turned the promising main villain into some sad puppy who does not know what and who he likes and what he wants
d) character development came way too late when the audience already hates the character and it's too late to redeem them
e) the sister's suicide reason was a disgrace. After waiting through the first 4 horrible episodes knowing that they had a rewrite, I was still disappointed. The show didn't make me wish to throw my screen into the wall anymore but it lost any character whatsover and became just bland. The only reason I kept watching was to know how they would solve this suicide problem. And guess what, they screwed up even more if that was even possible. To save anyone who reads this review the trouble and to get this off my chest: a COMPLETELY HAPPY if a bit shy person with a very supportive family kills herself... because she falls in love with her boss and can't tell him that. There are some more stuff going on but this is the main reason that her friend wants to enact revenge on her behalf (because he doesn't know anything else that happened). This is not addressed in any other way in the show, nobody says anything how this is absolutely unacceptable, they agree that the guy she fell in love with bears some kind of blame for it. Like seriously? This is the most tone deaf portrayal of both women in general and people who have suicidal thoughts and suffer from depression and ACTUALLY NEED HELP and not that their boss would acknowledge their crush on him/her.
f) portraying the sister's sexual encounter with the second male lead as ambiguous (forced/not forced debate) and then not addressing it at the slightest (neither showing it as a possible reason for her suicide, nor addressing it any further besides the same flashbacks and also of course showing the guy as the sad/confused nice guy instead of...well a rapist). You simply cannot do that. Either show the backlash and address the issue or not portray it in any way that could imply it was actually forced. Cause now we get a possible predator who is shown in a positive light and gets his happy ending and EVERYONE including the sister of the dead girl is happy with him and have nothing to say about it. This is seriously disgusting.

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Addicting!

It's been a while that I've been so hooked on a kdrama as I was on Pinnochio. It has everything you might need good actors, good storyline, nice music and interesting plot.

There was a bit more preaching than I would like there to be and as per usual there were quite a few of the kdrama cliches but they were handled rather well.

I loved both Park Shinhye and Lee Jongsuk here but I think their chemistry was a bit lacking, they felt more like good friends rather than lovers, but this could be said to be due to their characters circumstances.

What I loved the most were complex family relations and respect the characters had both for themselves and for the ones they loved. There was a fair bit of drama stemming from lies but it was a good kind of drama, the FML refreshing honesty set the tone for the whole show and did not allow for the usual miscommunication issues between the leads, which I found to be a breath of fresh air amongst all the other kdramas.

I very much recommend the drama for everyone, but especially for Park Shinhye haters - she's cute here, her character is lovable and she adds great value to the character and whole show with her acting. And I dare anyone to complain about the kissing - both leads do a good job at it!

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Struggled to finish it

There is beauty in simplicity and I think this writer should learn it.
The drama was really interesting at first and I was immediately hooked up, however I have more complaints than praises for this drama.

First of all, the writer did not follow the rules they set up for this fantasy world in the beginning of the series, a lot of the times it was just bad writing (forgetting what was already established in-universe or not explaining soemthing) but quite a few times it was done on purpose to bring some shock value and unnecessary plot-twists.

Secondly, it seemed that somewhere along the way the writer forgot who was the most important one and whose story they were telling. It is hard to explain this without giving any spoilers but to say it simply, while the premise is that 444 comes to Earth to catch the run away partner, we don't get to hear anything about it until at the very end the writer and ML remember it and show had that storyline ended.

The last criticism I have for this drama is to do with everything I said above. The writer wanted to make such a complex and gripping story that they made it unnecessarily confusing and overly complex for no good reason than to deliver a plot-twist after a plot-twist and to keep the viewer guessing. By the end of the show, when they revealed the "main" villain I already forgot who he was and how he was related to the story. The million sub-plots and side characters made it even more difficult to follow the story. To say something positive, the writer did wrap it up to an extent in the finale but at that time I was already too tired of never ending puzzles and seeing the same event repeated endlessly just from a different pov each time adding one small detail, which at first was interesting and then got really tiresome. Oh and the finale and solution to the heroes problems was the worst I have seen in a while. Seriously, I made myself to watch the last two episodes and regret that decision even know. It was not simply dissatisfying but made me regret even watching the drama in the first place.

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Great romance! and AMAZING ending

So I initially started this drama back when it was airing, then life happened and I never finished (I had two episodes left). However, I liked it very much then and I really wanted to cross it out of my watchlist. So after 5 years, I was finally ready and rewatched it again, and oh boy was I in for a ride.

The chemistry between the leads was there from the get go. Their acting was great. The music was simply outstanding and added extra value to all the most important moments. There was no silly love triangle, and the second leads were also superb. I remember watching it the first time I was head over heels for Sergeant Seo and had exactly the same opinion as MyeongJu when they ask if she likes the ML. Watching it this time, I could finally understand why so many women and girls were squeeling for ML, as the actor and his character were so charismatic and so confident that you could not help it just love him the way FL did.

The things I liked less was horrible English thrown here and there by ML mostly but some other secondary characters too, it was really cringy and did not match the emotions of the scenes they were used in (however kudos to the FL, she portrayed the emotions well even when she was speaking in English, and it was actually decent). The same sentiment goes to most of the supporting non-Korean cast, their acting was less than great...
Additionally, while the story was interesting and well written, the show could have easily finished after the doctors return to korea.. The ending of that episode was good and wrapped everything up. However, the rest of the episodes were engaging and served the viewers some GREAT romantic scenes, heartbreak and everything in between so who am I to complain?

Judging the drama by the standards of all the tv shows ever made it is definitely not perfect and some flaws are very significant. Judging by the standards of romantic tv shows and especially romantic kdramas? It is outstanding. Cheese, chemistry, love, emotional OST and finally finally a great ending not sometime in a thousand years or in another life but here and there for the characters I so easily came to love. If I had to evaluate the joy this drama brought me it would be 12/10.

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Aesthetically very pleasing

For the first 8 episodes I thought I would definitely give this drama a 10. The acting was great, the shots and editing was fantastic and IU's wardrobe was simply stunning. It was a joy to watch. At the same time, the characters seemed interesting, the ghost stories got me involved and both the present and the past storylines were equally enganging which doesn't happen often. However, close to the end the drama was getting worse and worse and it was mainly due to the script as the actors themselves were definitely top notch. The plot became all over the place, their problem resolutions were totally unsatisfiying and for the last few episodes it wasn't even interesting to watch anymore. The glaring problems with the script became evident and even the beautiful sites couldn't hide them anymore (20+ hours of just stunning aesthetics with no meaning is definitely too much). The only well developed character was that of Jang Man Wol, even Gu Chan Sung was underdeveloped and existed mainly as a plot device to JMW's character. It was also advertised as a rom com but I definitely did not get the feeling that it was. It was quite funny and unlike many others I don't have complains that the main couple did not have chemistry, they did it was just completely different. More of a mature romance / deep friendship than cute head over heels romance. For me the drama could have ended on episode 15 and nothing would have changed much as for the storyline itself. There was no resolutions or questions left to be answered in the last episode, just unnecessary scenes that couldnt even decide whether it was to be sad or hopeful or what. I was left unsatisfied with the development and the direction it has taken. The only reason why the score is so high is that production value and acting was through the roof.

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