Disappointing...

Not a fan of the ending, in fact, the entire last 2 episodes were straight up disappointing. Seriously, what did the ML accomplish or gain at the end? Almost nothing. It's like he tricked his mind to think he finished his revenge. The cast was good but I ended up disliking everything else. The drama is a waste of time if you aren't a fan of the cast.

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It got a unique vibe, it's not even similar to the writer's and the director's previous projects. The editing, pacing, dialogue exchange, transitions and the type of events are all unusual, in a good way. Especially when it comes to Yeong Hyun & Sung Ki which I enjoyed the most. I wanted something more for So Yeong, since she is a main character, she should have had a bigger impact. It's okay for the son to have to have a child without a mother but god forbid if the daughter had a child without a father. Classic Korea! There were a lot of shortcomings and misses but the drama is still a decent watch for a family drama.

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Meh...

Poor directing that reflected on the cast middling performance, especially Joo Ji Hoon who was barely acting maybe because this was his second project. The thriller aspect was weak and the mystery didn't exist, the "baddies" were known too early, like in the first few episodes. Don't even get me started on the supernatural element, total flop. Some may watch it for Shin Min Ah but this is her weakest project imo.

The ending was extremely over dramatic that it straight up made it bad. It's okay to have the same "outcome" but what led to it "the final 2 scenes" needed a re-write as it is completely nonsensical in its current state.

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Not good...

Well, it's obvious for everyone that Do Jin Woo is the worst part about this drama, every second Jin Woo appeared on screen it felt revolting. In fact, you may include Jin Woo and Seol Ah plot line as a whole in general. I highly doubt anyway would like Seol Ah ending. Looking at what the writer did to Jin Woo and Seol Ah plot line and looking at her previous works, I'm starting to see a pattern. Is it safe to assume it's a reflection of her own life?

It's not like the drama didn't have other problems. The drama was interesting for the first few episodes prior to the 9-years time skip, it gave off promising vibes with good build up then became utterly soulless, monotone and even got hit with a massive downgrade in overall quality. Maybe about 90% of the drama was uneventful, things kept going in circles with little to zero progression.
The writing was straight up bad and inconsistent. Some parts you can notice the writer is trying to create some logic but most of the time the writer end up doing the exact opposite. Most of the side stories were weak due to the lack of investment in liking any character, since none of them stands out anyway. This also made the size of the cast feel smaller than it is.

The ending as well was flat, lukewarm and lacked a meaningful conclusion to any character.
Chung Ah and Joon Hwi ending was too quick, while the other characters got a "whatever bs" kind of ending. It's really a shame what this drama ended up being since the beginning was too good, a massive bait and switch tactic.

If you can't stand single digit IQ characters then you should avoid this drama.
2.5/10

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Great first half, abhorrent second half!

First half (1-28): Great Glorious Golden Gloria! Lively characters that flow and bounce off each others very nicely. Doesn't look or feel like other generic long running format dramas. Jazzy with a style and a spoken personality. The first half was destined for greatness. No triangle/square? I was jazzing! Amazing performance by Bae Doo Na, I've seen most of her movies but this is the first time seeing her in a drama. I couldn't get the song out my head!

Second half (29-50): sucked ass royally!! The biggest flippity flop out there. They sucked the life out of the drama and killed any potentials. No more music, characters got dull and one dimensional, turned to a tasteless washed up melodrama. Bae Doo Na became a one-facial expression actress whispering into the mic barely audible, any personality she had before is now gone. The events such as the retaliation and both couples' relationships issues kept going in a repeating cycle until the last episode. There was some serious insane stretch for the last 10 episodes, almost zero content. I refuse to believe it's the same writer.

Lee Jong Won, a despicable looking actor playing a despicable character in a despicable role. It's even the same case with his other roles, playing as the despicable man. Hard to stomach his presence and this drama is no exception.

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Fake reality...

Interesting concept but more often than not it didn't blend well together. It felt mostly like a slightly edited behind the scenes fillers than a reality tv implementation. Their "virtual" and "reality" just didn't intertwined as I hoped. Each couple went out on dates irl, but all of these dates were utterly dull and out of touch accompanied by the most boring spectacles. They don't even talk or do anything interesting, they just stand there reacting to the surroundings. You also need to be used to do the editing style of Korean/Japanese TV programs otherwise it will get overwhelming. It's also a bit of extra mental work to keep a mental note of both the cast names and their respective characters names. Honestly, the drama they were filming "iron lady" seems better as a standalone. While I appreciate attempting a different concept for a drama but this execution didn't work. On an unrelated note, about 90% of the runtime consisted of Yura laughing hysterically between every other sentence for some reason.

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2 seasons 2 late...

Finally! It took them 2 seasons to realize there were other gender issues than sexual harassment. Although this season explored other gender issues but it was a bit disorganized. Anyway, it ended when it actually began to get good around episode 7. Despite its very short run but it a good job with the dynamics and characterization nuances. The drama actually provided a complete ending through the characterization of these four leads, it may seems incomplete or rushed on the surface because it didn't lay it out blatantly. On the other hand, they should've doubled the runtime and gave a deeper look into Yoon Ah Young and Young Min, since Do Eun and Hae Joon got the bigger chunk of focus.

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Run, detective! Run!

The drama shouldn't have been split up into 2 seasons since it was a one big continuous story. This split created a few more problems along the way. Some of the baddies cast members had a clearer split between both seasons, focusing on a few of them each season despite having one grand story. This created some coherency problems and made it feel disjointed. Personal stories, relationships and side characters had an unequal amount of focus between both seasons. A case in point, the ML's daughter/family had only some focus in season 1 while being completely absent from season 2 (aside from 1 flashback) which took away from the ML's character and drive. Especially when his entire character was built on the ghosts haunting him from his past. The focus shift was exactly the opposite with Lee Sung Ah between both seasons. Anyway, enough about jumping between seasons. The cast members brought a good performance especially our leading shadow detective. I really appreciate the production not turning on the beauty mode on for Sung Ah & Joo Hyeon. You can see the pressure and exhaustion their carrier put on them over the years. The cinematography was good for the most parts, especially with scenes involving the detective alone, but there were some dodgy shots here and there. The story was well written with a decent pace to match the suspense. The thriller and intrigue were blended nicely with some nice action scenes. However, the last stretch of the story got a bit weak and disorganized after building up the story for a grand finale. Also, some overdramatized deliveries ended up backfiring, making important scenes less impactful. The introduction of the last episode was good, as well as that dream sequence. His speech about him wanting to stop running while reciting his past was the most memorable moment in the drama. If that wasn't enough, the very last scene was the cherry on top to tie it all up.

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Fly Away!

Not good. Sky high was aptly named to the number of love interests roaming around. Trashy love through and through, every man was chasing the same woman and every woman was chasing the same man. Love triangle/square/pentagon/hexagon and other polygons, it was just plain stupid. The story in general was bad, you can tell just from how they made the setup. This also led for it to have a terrible pacing, the plot involving the leads didn't start to move forward until the last 5 episodes, way too much slacking around for absolutely nothing. Even then, their lack of chemistry didn't allow for anything noteworthy to happen. At the very least, they should've gave it a simple reasonable send off instead whatever they did.

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Call an ambulance, but not for me

An extremely underwhelming and disappointing medical drama. Every singular frame of this 20 episodes drama screams mediocrity to the nth degree. The medical scenarios were passable but they were stretching it really thin by involving eastern medical practices to perform an emergency procedure to save someone's life! The drama aspect of this drama severely undercut the overall experience. The personal and romantic storylines were its weakest point. The pairings for the romantic relationships, in particular, were straight up bad, out of place and forced, every single one of them. I can't stress enough how bad these romantic relationships and pairings were. The dialogue was generally weak, it often came across as wooden or overly sentimental. The drama struggled to balance its dual focus, with the medical cases usually feeling like an afterthought to the tepid drama. The problems continued with the performances from the cast members, while the main cast were fine, but some side ones like Im Hyung Joon had godawful deliveries for his scenes, he's usually a better actor in other projects. Anyway, there are countless better medical dramas than this one.

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Droughty!

Solid idea and setting with an interesting start but it was missing something to bring it to life. The plot just didn't click, the villains were as generic as they could come and the main uninspired conflict reeked of boredom. Dialogue that aimed for wit and intensity often missed the mark, coming off as either overly dramatic or just plain dull. Honestly, the only thing that was keeping it watchable was the handful of recognizable names from the cast members, at least the characters were well-portrayed by a competent cast. On the bright side, it was just six episodes, so it didn't overstay its welcome.

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