Pretty good...

It turned out to be better than I initially thought of it after watching a handful of episodes. It may have the look and feel of 1996 although it's from 2006 but I guess that's just the limitation of production, still pretty decent, I will talk more about RAW files at the end. While watching the first half, you would think that Mi Chil is the ultimate representation of a toxic guilt-tripping-filled relationship and that Il Han deserve all the agony and pain but the drama managed to pick itself up afterwards. The drama does the "high" moments really well while the "low" moments are really low and awful but it overcompensates that with the campiness feel especially once the twins made up (around eps50).

All the stories were good and enjoyable to watch except Deok Chil's story line which always felt dull and lack any proper characterization. One thing extra I wanted from the ending is for "Mi Chil" to have a slightly better ending to give her the chance to speak out. The time-skip ending had an insane amount of baby making, it's a strong contender for the highest time-skip baby making drama.

If you were to watch it then go to AvistaZ and choose the release from Taengoo, it's pulled directly from KBS vods and even looks much better than the DVD version although it got a slight interlaced effect for the first 30 episodes.

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Great performance by Son Ye Jin and Ji Jin Hee, especially Ye Jin who showed visible character development from start to end by her acting. While the remainder of the cast were average at best. Jo Yoon Hee and Jin Goo barely have any screen time or meaningful contribution why are they listed as main characters in the first place? The story was average and even below average at times, the cases they dealt with didn't have a dramatic impact, they all felt too casual even the last "big" case. The writing/script doesn't have a good flow, for example some events/plot elements were neglected for too long before coming back to them, also too many filler characters that don't fill a good character spot considering the theme of the drama. The ending was underwhelming, they had a 4 episodes build up and what we got at the end just two guys on live news backstabbing each other.

The synopsis written here is wrong, it's only relevant to the last 3 episodes concerning Tae Suk's father. The story revolves around Woo Jin starting from the bottom and getting to be an anchorwoman for 9 PM news.

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This drama will piss off MDL users for sure. The wife portrayed as a messy "Ajumma" who only take care of her kids and house but not herself or husband. They pushed the narrative too hard to make her the "problem" as to why her husband cheated.

They also kept forcing the viewers to sympathize with the husband and his mistress with how they told their story. The husband, according to him, never knew what love is for 20-years. The mistress, after a painful breakup and her mother's death, she had no one left for her and was in a desperate need for someone to lean on. Both the husband and his mistress were given a lot of scenes every episode and almost were treated as the "first" main leads. The drama even followed their story up until the very end to show a happy ending. They had it pretty easy for them. The wife saw her husband so sickly in love with his mistress, physically and mentally, so she agreed on the divorce. The wife didn't even had a single adult talk/confrontation scene with the mistress, how?!

The writing sucks and the story is a huge mess but the cast was fine. Don't expect romance except for the brief moments with the mistress at the start and the last 5 minutes for the female lead.

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Watching all of the leads from 1999 was joyful, they barely aged and they are just as good as they are now. Jang Hyuk was absolutely charming with the 90's swag. The drama had its problems but the "scuffability" only adds to its charm. The good old times back then when smoking wasn't censored. Although there's some drag and too many sad b-rolls but I wanted to see a couple more scenes of the ending. This is when K-drama had a life crises before forming its new-age independent identity, you can feel it at times trying to branch out to western influence. Give it a shot.

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it's kinda watchable.

Weak ending! After all this commotion, the absolute bare minimum they could do is to slap a better ending, it left me with a bitter taste. The flashback in the first 4 episodes made the drama to have a weak start. What a joke of a revenge story this is! Forgiving most parties this easily and seeing them becoming ideal human beings with a flip of switch. They ruined many lives over the years and eventually they faced no consequences. Isn't it ironic that Seok Hyun's daughter is a piece of shit psycho despite how deep his love for her mother was?

The number of cast members felt too small for a 50 episode drama. Subsequently, the story also felt limited for what it had to offer and the plot stretched too thin. A long jaded 50 episode of push and pull between the Kang's family members, they had an opportunity to build a bigger plot but not much was going on beyond the Kang's house. The entire plot line of "marrying for revenge" is a whole big mess I don't want to get into.

The drama had one of the weakest female leads in a revenge story. Throughout the 50 episodes all we can see is her being tossed around from everyone like a piece of trash. Even when she attempts to fight back it's weak af. A proper female lead for a revenge story is a one that gets fierce, offensive and aggressive in the second half. This drama also had "things that were too excessive but I guess it's a melodrama" kind of cliches: the parrot, shipping container, steel beams, 15 adults chasing 1 7-yo girl, satellite images and questionable technical stuff. Overall, it's kinda watchable.

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Irredeemable

This drama was destined to fail from the beginning. Some of original selected main cast dropped off. Some cast controversies prior to filming. It was cut down from 50 episodes to 26 with premature ending. Conflict between cast. Lee Tae Im absence in the last 5 episodes because she got into an accident, they were even planning to replace her but the drama ended anyway. The writing department suffered immensely, the drama was full of delirious characters. Some complain how stupid Soon Jung is but the real smooth brain is actually Soon Jin, I believe apes have higher intellectual abilities. No wonder why the broadcast ratings were abysmal. Thankfully, it ended early anyway.

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Alone in Love

The writer has a good track record of writing good unique shows and this drama was no exception. The drama stood out for its deep rich story and multi-layered narrative, offering a compelling journey through the complexities of life and relationships. Its strength lies in its ability to delve into the human psyche, exploring themes of love, family dynamics, societal expectations, ambition, and identity with a nuanced hand. The drama had a lot of story to tell and explore, yet it didn't feel bloated. The characters went through a tremendous development and growth during its runtime. The drama was filled with great characters and characterizations, each character is meticulously crafted, with their own hopes, fears, trauma and desires, adding depth and dimension to the storyline. I particular liked the subtle humor that lied in their casual interactions and dialogues. However, despite its many strengths, lied flaws that somewhat tarnished some of its brilliance. There were many things that could've been done better but nothing was too major. The entanglement of love square relationship may have lasted for too long and could've been navigated better, though I still love their unconventional dynamic. The drama kind of ended at episode 15 while the last episode was more like a real proper reflection and a graceful send off, I don't think I've seen something like that before in a drama. Despite some missteps and its unconventional approach, the drama remained a strong compelling watch with a star-studded cast.

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BOO!

The cursed case-of-the-week format! I was more interested in the FL's mother case which is the main case that was developing in the background than whatever case the ML threw himself in. I really wish this was a one big coherent case to follow or at least have the side cases directly connected to the main one. What made matters worse was the poor dynamic between the leads, they just didn't bounce off each other well. There was a weird constant disconnect between them. Thank god they didn't add romance into the mix. The side characters were an embarrassment to label them as a supporting cast. They were just a white noise blended in the background, completely forgettable and faceless. One of the most important things about horror is to set up the atmosphere which this drama forgot to do most of the time. It was more like a flashy horror with some horror elements. This was probably my least favorite Jang Na Ra drama.

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Joseon Attorney: An Immorality

Just like any other profession focused drama, they follow the notorious bait and switch tactic and this drama was no exception. We were introduced to an attorney with a tragic past and a strong motive, he worked on 2-3 cases for the first half of the drama before shifting the drama into a love chase, hypergamy, and hasty revenge. This shift wouldn't have been a problem if it hadn't been so atrocious. Somewhere around episode 9 everything took a change for the worse, including the male lead, who had been a walking disaster since the beginning. Structuring a romance around him was a big mistake; he was unbelievably creepy, intrusive, touchy, and pushy for someone who he met very briefly. His behavior came off as nothing but repulsive while going against the narrative. However, even that changed around the same shift, he began to take the moral high ground without going through any prior development. On another note on the inconsistencies, some earlier scenes had artsy edits which were interesting but none of the later episodes had something similar. It was just a one off thing to gain attraction, again, bait and switch. Overall, the drama had some intriguing elements earlier on but none of them lasted long enough.

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Poong, the Joseon Virgin

The earlier episodes of the first season were decent and promising but there was a clear and undeniable pattern slowly starting to emerge after a few episodes. The drama was heading in a downward spiral throughout its both seasons. There was no clear direction to its story, I wanted it to remain as a slice of life but even that was not attractive on its own. Each passing episode felt like a downgrade of the previous episode. By the end of 2nd season, my interest had plummeted and it lost any remaining appeal. The only plausible reason for this drama to get a season 3 is if the studio wanted to commit some kind of money laundering/tax fraud scheme. It's never a good sign to adapt something and have its serialization based on public perception. This will most likely result in incomplete stories and padded semi-soft endings unless its creators were to pull through and be the exception. In more than one way, the Anime sphere shifted mostly towards this scheme in the past 6-7 years and it turned into a survival of the fittest type of race. The Kdrama is slowly heading in the exact same direction.

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Not quite there...

It started off with a big war and lots of action. Ships, canons, battles and massacres, but that was only for the first 5-6 before dialing back the clock to the very beginning of the ML's childhood days and turning the drama into a massive snoozefest. That was a massive bait to hook the viewers in. It took 1 singular eternity before the drama managed to pick itself back up. The entire first half was the admiral backstory with little to no action. You don't get to see the admiral in action and you don't get to see what the drama promised until the second half which is way too delayed to stick around for. The production value is acceptable when taking into account that this was made 20 years ago. It's a bit scuffed but they had to work with what they had. It wouldn't matter much because that only shows with the action/battle scenes of which there were only a few (out of the 104 episodes). One of the most jarring things that is holding the drama back, aside from the aforementioned points, is its characters. A lot of characters got benched regularly regardless of their importance, relevance and prior investment. Making emotional scenes less impactful and key characters less memorable. Which also takes away from every climax and transition period. This is due to a combination of uneven pacing, long runtime, and frequent transitions. By the end, it seemed everyone was expendable, other than the male lead of course. On the other spectrum, the drama had a lot of anime-esque villain moments that I wish we had a lot less of.

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Pain is temporary

A poor fantasy that failed to establish a reasonable foundation from the very beginning, it even did a worse job with its brittle world building. The low budget visual effects weren't helping its case either. The cast may seems to be fine on the surface but the characters were as one dimensional as they could come. Its second biggest selling point after fantasy is the romance, of which was the least appealing aspect of the drama. By the end, I couldn't care the slightest about either of the leads and their fate. A cheap Chinese knock off fantasy with gods and dragons would have been better than this.

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Disappointing !

It's disappointing when a drama have potentials but falls apart quickly because of lousy writing. The subpar acting by the kids diminished its value even further. The male lead pulled a tremendous effort to help keeping the drama afloat. The villain was poorly written and cartoonish for this genre. There was a necessity of a better dynamic between the wife and husband given the type of story they were telling. Forget the thriller/mystery bait, it quickly turned into another comical melodrama that lacked any real emotional impact. The last episode was seriously sloppy and rushed it will certainly leave you with a sour taste. On the bright side, the OST was pretty good.

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