Typical Homeschooled Behavior

I didn't expect much from the cast but I've seen a better performance from Yang Dong Geun and Park Min Young from around the same era. Especially Yang Dong Geun, his 2 previous projects prior to this drama "Dr. Gang (2006)" and "Ruler of Your Own World (2002)" brought a better performance from him. They both feel out of place here with a less than average performance and dynamic, let alone the questionable chemistry. I wouldn't label this drama as a romance since it's mostly a mix of drama, slice of life and pseudo-comedy, and the little bit of alleged romance was left to the end. Additionally, the story was barely serviceable with little to no room to move around. The case is even worse with the side characters and plots.

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Not even Noah's ark can carry these sexless virgins

The general impression is justified, however, its perceived problem is far from being the only problem. The drama is a good case study to be examined for newcomers in the industry, especially screenwriters. These 14 episodes were absolutely marvelous in stacking up a web of irrecoverable problems. I'm not sure if it takes a talent to achieve that or the lack of it. I didn't major in theater, literature, or creative writing, but I can certainly conclude that Jang Ah Mi, the writer of this abomination, is an inept writer. She had no idea what she wanted to do or accomplish. She even had a reference from the source material to help. Writers like her make me reluctant to get into shows with a screenwriting debut credit.

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Better Off To Die A Virgin

The drama took a promising premise of time travel advice and turned it into a bland rom-com experience. The "future self" advice failed to build a convincing and compelling case with proper nuances. There was a constant disconnect between both selves character's narrative and motivation, regardless of the nature of time travel mechanics. The humor surrounding the main cast interactions fell flat, especially when both love interests were equally uninspiring. The initial attempts at romantic chemistry were forced and awkward. For this story to work, they needed to remove any love triangle/square and solely focus on the main relationship to give some justification to the existence of "future self" and to build a stronger bond which would bring with it more emotions, higher stakes and a bigger climax. The twist in the last 2 episodes was a sad attempt trying to salvage what's left in the drama to bring some kind of climax for its finale. It's a drama that might leave you feeling like you settled for instant ramen when you were hoping for a gourmet Tsukemen. The sad thing, I wasted time, electricity, and heat encoding its BluRay discs just to see it end up this way.

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Love by The Dozens

I thought the first 20 minutes of the drama were teasers but they were more like an irrelevant montage or a pseudo trailer. The opening scene gave a good sample of what to expect going forward. The entire drama was structured like an extremely cliche melodrama montage. The type of montage you see other dramas reference when showing a melodrama broadcasting on TV. That's why it's necessary to suspend your disbelief and abandon any sense of logic or common sense. hat's also why we got whatever ending that even was. It's one of the most extreme melo cliches that it can just be labeled as a parody. During its earlier episodes, the drama had too many of these loosey camera angles from the 2000s which were entertaining to watch combined with its ridiculous moments.

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Half a D-Day

Doctors working during a disastrous scenario is an interesting take on the medical genre and it worked, at least for the 1st half. Resources were limited, the tension was intense and the stakes were high. It created a good mix for a thriller. However, things began to turn back into a regular medical drama in the 2nd half, it even brought with it the typical issues and conflicts with a hospital management. It slowly began to lose its attraction at that point. The brief romance was strange, it didn't work because it happened over a very short period of time. You may justify it as a little trauma bonding experience. The cast were mostly fine, however, the characters often went for over-dramatization over professionalism which took away from some of the serious moments. The drama could've worked better if it were a mini series of something like 8 episodes with good direction.

Around the end, they brought a little girl to translate sign language of the ML's brother final moments before death. Nobody thought how that might be traumatizing for a child to watch a recording of someone drowning and dying in a distressful situation until he become a floating corpse deep underwater!! There were a lot of other examples were the characters went for over-dramatization over professionalism.

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Justice of The Dead: The Passable Sequel

The drama had a good mix of cases and personal attachments which helped raising the tension and to have higher stakes. Most of the cases were interesting and entertaining. On the other hand, season 2 cases had less personal attachments other than 2 incidents, one around the middle and another for the last case. Stella existence was problematic to the drama, both the character and the actress. She was out of place and her scenes were insufferable since her introduction. She was added to the drama as a fun and quirky element but that backfired immediately. Sally was her replacement in season 2, the drama attempted to replicate Stella but ended creating a worse version which made her scenes even more insufferable. I can't stress enough how insufferable both of these characters were. Season 2 had another unsuccessful addition, that is the character Do Ji Han, his character took away from the drama rather than adding or enhancing any value. Judging by what they did with season 2, It's preferable to not get another sequel. Unfortunately, they left a lot of threads open for a possible continuation. On an unrelated note, the corpses in season 2 had more censoring than season 1.

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A Good Start That Went Nowhere

The first case which kick-started everything was good with enough intrigue and stakes to make it worthwhile, however, the subsequent cases were unbelievably bland and generic in comparison. I'm not sure why they went for this route, they usually preserve the big case until the end but here they showed most what there's to it at the very beginning. There was a small follow up to it at the end but not much to consider. The cast members were fine but the drama didn't do a good job building the team dynamic and relationships which added another layer of disconnect with the stories and cases. There's no point in comparing the drama to the source material because it's a loose adaptation.

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Gradually Insulting Its Audience

Aside from the weak introduction, the first episode also had loads of exhibitions of the ML smarts through the typical genius character stereotype, however, the drama proceeded to treat the viewers like idiots for the remainder of the drama. Initially, Detective Cha Ji An, and most of the police force, were physically capable and adequate enough, however, they suddenly became as effective and incompetent as useless civilians. The mystery and thriller elements were generally bad, the drama didn't waste a second in revealing everything immediately. The romance was nothing but forced. The main story and entanglements of the brothers and the psycho man turned out to be disappointing and dumb, which led to a rubbish ending.

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Pitiful Existence

It's an interesting take on the usual drama format, however, the mix between a documentary, drama and in-between narrations wasn't a successful formula. The narrations and brief interviews didn't add much value nor it enhanced the drama and its stories. There were a handful of stories running in parallel and most of them were weak and bland. Making them better intertwined could've solved some issues. Some stories can suddenly become overly political for a moment while grabbing the viewers heads and shouting direct preachy quotes and remarks, it was a weird injection amidst everything. They could've at least blend it better or have a better setup for it. The last few episodes are excluded since these mostly had a political tone and direction. Anyway, the show was just alright.

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An Entitled Princess

A princess traveling to the future is a decent concept that allows for a big playground to take it in all kinds of directions, however, in this iteration the drama somehow managed to craft the scummiest kind of setups, sucking out any sense of engagement or enjoyment which made the story plain bad. It's such a simple concept that could've been exercised easily into an appealing package. Anyway, I appreciate the 2000s aesthetics with the scuffed tailor shop and the gangsters, a quick nostalgia dose. The drama was one of Sung Yoo Ri's earliest works and she has come a long way since then. The cast had a good selection of members, of which, nowadays, some retired or passed away, rest in peace Lee Sun Kyun. It's unfortunate seeing them involved in this drama but at least they made it more worthwhile.

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Another Heart Transplant Love Story

The usual daily drama format. It took exactly 3 episodes to glue everyone together inside a company setting. More or less, the drama had about three major problems. The drama hit a dead end and became in an irrecoverable state at episode 102 which is why a sudden switch was flipped to alter the drama's direction. Another possible reason for the shift, everyone was contractually obliged for about 100 episodes but the drama suddenly got an extension for 30+ episodes and some members of the cast had a busy calendar so they weren't available for the extension. The other problem was the constant escape technique the writer plagued this drama with. Do Hyung's father played a big role creating conflict and tension with the leads, however, his weak health was always present to cut any dialogue/scene short, delaying the conflict, and neglecting his purpose as a character. Being hot-tempered parent/in-law is a common archetype in daily shows but combining that with his health problems made things quite irritating. The third problem was the intense and harsh humiliation and degradation the FL and her family suffered from throughout the drama. At a certain point the drama attempted to fix the situation in preparation for the ending, while they might have been fine on the surface but the damage couldn't be washed away. At bare minimum, they needed to address it directly and make it worthwhile. Anyway, the drama remains pretty average.

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Season 4 in second place

God's Quiz in general was more mystery/thriller/investigation than medical. The main lead, who's a medical examiner, was doing more field detective work and following suspects than the real detectives. I didn't like how they setup the main lead character, he's genius because of a drug experiment in his childhood and this led to all kinds of made up scenarios stemming from his condition across different seasons. Every season, they twisted it in a different way which took away from having a consistent character. It's the eternal problem of any unplanned sequel seasons in a series. Which imposes an impossible task for any multi-seasons writers.

Production: Seasons 1 to 4 were molded under the same OCN early days template, which all shared the same level of underwhelming production value. Soundtracks during season 1 & 2 were super generic stock background noise, only with season 3 they started to include music. Although season 3 was filmed better but had a much worse audio production in general. Season 4 was a noticeable improvement in production but it still wasn't quite there yet. This is all in comparison to regular shows that were released around early 2010s. On the other hand, season 5 brought with it a proper production and other improvements.

Characters: The dynamic and chemistry of the entire group during season 1 was abysmal, overacting from everyone, forced unnatural interactions and none of them clicked. Season 2 somewhat got better in that regard, you can notice that they got more relaxed but still not quite there yet. The ending scene of season 2 while the ML is kissing, his lips were shivering like crazy. It must have been super awkward to the point that they couldn't afford to have another take. Season 3 took a step backward with its changed cast. Detective Bae Tae Shik brought an awful dynamic to the table. Him and main lead didn't click together and created a bad on screen combination. It's probably why the writer didn't write him in for later seasons. The same can be said about other characters associated with Bae Tae Shik. The relationship and attempted romance between ML and Kyung Hee during season 1 & 2 was plain awful to watch. Only in season 4 it got reasonably better and season 5 fixed this issue completely by dropping the childish romantic tension and having them behave like adults. I liked seeing Kim Jae Won as a flashy villain in season 5, it was fun watching a different type of role from him.

Story: The structure of every season consisted of having a few cases then dedicate the last 3 episodes to the final case which had a personal connection with the characters. These last cases in every season were quite problematic for a variety of reasons, only season 5 had a better implementation despite its weak climax. More highlight across the seasons, the last episode of season 3 was the worst out of the entire series. The cloning plot in season 4 was super trashy and tacky, despite having an obvious playing room to take it into very interesting directions. The ending of season 4 featured another super weird and awkward kiss. The entire thing about AI in season 5 was really janky and a big stretch for the viewers to accept. In general, the cases were a mixed bag in every season, some were decent and interesting while others were boring, flawed or being stretched thin. However, season 3 featured mostly bad cases in addition to the handful of other problems which made season 3 to be the worst one in general.

The series as a whole was alright with a lot of ups and downs. It had a good concept with a varied degrees of execution. Although season 5 is the best one but it wouldn't have been that good as a stand alone drama without the accumulation of these characters journey. The ending of season 5 with both leads walking outside was very nicely done. On an unrelated note, it was impossible to not notice the ML's height.

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Season 2 in third place

God's Quiz in general was more mystery/thriller/investigation than medical. The main lead, who's a medical examiner, was doing more field detective work and following suspects than the real detectives. I didn't like how they setup the main lead character, he's genius because of a drug experiment in his childhood and this led to all kinds of made up scenarios stemming from his condition across different seasons. Every season, they twisted it in a different way which took away from having a consistent character. It's the eternal problem of any unplanned sequel seasons in a series. Which imposes an impossible task for any multi-seasons writers.

Production: Seasons 1 to 4 were molded under the same OCN early days template, which all shared the same level of underwhelming production value. Soundtracks during season 1 & 2 were super generic stock background noise, only with season 3 they started to include music. Although season 3 was filmed better but had a much worse audio production in general. Season 4 was a noticeable improvement in production but it still wasn't quite there yet. This is all in comparison to regular shows that were released around early 2010s. On the other hand, season 5 brought with it a proper production and other improvements.

Characters: The dynamic and chemistry of the entire group during season 1 was abysmal, overacting from everyone, forced unnatural interactions and none of them clicked. Season 2 somewhat got better in that regard, you can notice that they got more relaxed but still not quite there yet. The ending scene of season 2 while the ML is kissing, his lips were shivering like crazy. It must have been super awkward to the point that they couldn't afford to have another take. Season 3 took a step backward with its changed cast. Detective Bae Tae Shik brought an awful dynamic to the table. Him and main lead didn't click together and created a bad on screen combination. It's probably why the writer didn't write him in for later seasons. The same can be said about other characters associated with Bae Tae Shik. The relationship and attempted romance between ML and Kyung Hee during season 1 & 2 was plain awful to watch. Only in season 4 it got reasonably better and season 5 fixed this issue completely by dropping the childish romantic tension and having them behave like adults. I liked seeing Kim Jae Won as a flashy villain in season 5, it was fun watching a different type of role from him.

Story: The structure of every season consisted of having a few cases then dedicate the last 3 episodes to the final case which had a personal connection with the characters. These last cases in every season were quite problematic for a variety of reasons, only season 5 had a better implementation despite its weak climax. More highlight across the seasons, the last episode of season 3 was the worst out of the entire series. The cloning plot in season 4 was super trashy and tacky, despite having an obvious playing room to take it into very interesting directions. The ending of season 4 featured another super weird and awkward kiss. The entire thing about AI in season 5 was really janky and a big stretch for the viewers to accept. In general, the cases were a mixed bag in every season, some were decent and interesting while others were boring, flawed or being stretched thin. However, season 3 featured mostly bad cases in addition to the handful of other problems which made season 3 to be the worst one in general.

The series as a whole was alright with a lot of ups and downs. It had a good concept with a varied degrees of execution. Although season 5 is the best one but it wouldn't have been that good as a stand alone drama without the accumulation of these characters journey. The ending of season 5 with both leads walking outside was very nicely done. On an unrelated note, it was impossible to not notice the ML's height.

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Season 1 & 3 in last place

God's Quiz in general was more mystery/thriller/investigation than medical. The main lead, who's a medical examiner, was doing more field detective work and following suspects than the real detectives. I didn't like how they setup the main lead character, he's genius because of a drug experiment in his childhood and this led to all kinds of made up scenarios stemming from his condition across different seasons. Every season, they twisted it in a different way which took away from having a consistent character. It's the eternal problem of any unplanned sequel seasons in a series. Which imposes an impossible task for any multi-seasons writers.

Production: Seasons 1 to 4 were molded under the same OCN early days template, which all shared the same level of underwhelming production value. Soundtracks during season 1 & 2 were super generic stock background noise, only with season 3 they started to include music. Although season 3 was filmed better but had a much worse audio production in general. Season 4 was a noticeable improvement in production but it still wasn't quite there yet. This is all in comparison to regular shows that were released around early 2010s. On the other hand, season 5 brought with it a proper production and other improvements.

Characters: The dynamic and chemistry of the entire group during season 1 was abysmal, overacting from everyone, forced unnatural interactions and none of them clicked. Season 2 somewhat got better in that regard, you can notice that they got more relaxed but still not quite there yet. The ending scene of season 2 while the ML is kissing, his lips were shivering like crazy. It must have been super awkward to the point that they couldn't afford to have another take. Season 3 took a step backward with its changed cast. Detective Bae Tae Shik brought an awful dynamic to the table. Him and main lead didn't click together and created a bad on screen combination. It's probably why the writer didn't write him in for later seasons. The same can be said about other characters associated with Bae Tae Shik. The relationship and attempted romance between ML and Kyung Hee during season 1 & 2 was plain awful to watch. Only in season 4 it got reasonably better and season 5 fixed this issue completely by dropping the childish romantic tension and having them behave like adults. I liked seeing Kim Jae Won as a flashy villain in season 5, it was fun watching a different type of role from him.

Story: The structure of every season consisted of having a few cases then dedicate the last 3 episodes to the final case which had a personal connection with the characters. These last cases in every season were quite problematic for a variety of reasons, only season 5 had a better implementation despite its weak climax. More highlight across the seasons, the last episode of season 3 was the worst out of the entire series. The cloning plot in season 4 was super trashy and tacky, despite having an obvious playing room to take it into very interesting directions. The ending of season 4 featured another super weird and awkward kiss. The entire thing about AI in season 5 was really janky and a big stretch for the viewers to accept. In general, the cases were a mixed bag in every season, some were decent and interesting while others were boring, flawed or being stretched thin. However, season 3 featured mostly bad cases in addition to the handful of other problems which made season 3 to be the worst one in general.

The series as a whole was alright with a lot of ups and downs. It had a good concept with a varied degrees of execution. Although season 5 is the best one but it wouldn't have been that good as a stand alone drama without the accumulation of these characters journey. The ending of season 5 with both leads walking outside was very nicely done. On an unrelated note, it was impossible to not notice the ML's height.

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Scam High

Season 1: The drama started off mostly alright for the first 3 episodes or so, but once they confined everything into the school settings, problems started to seep from every corner. Imagine all of the school related tired tropes and cliches amplified by cringe to create the cheesiest abomination. Jason as a character, actor, story and writing was easily the worst aspect of this drama. Which created one of the worst memorable dynamics with his love interest. From the outset, the plot followed a predictable trajectory but things got a lot worse around the last 1/3 of its run. During which the story became static, the characters fell apart and the drama started to shove empty scenes of side characters. They reduced Sam Dong screen time significantly as well. They also isolated Pil Sook and Jason despite being main characters and had little to no interactions with others later on. All of this led to a below average last episode and a lukewarm ending. Despite its flaws and problems, somehow it worked, to a certain degree.

In comparison, season 2 was an obvious downgrade in all regards, it's just plain worse. The empty scenes I mentioned earlier turned into amateurish random musical performances here. I noticed they were mostly using Korean songs in this season, compared to season 1 which had more western/global songs. In season 2, no one had any chemistry with anyone, all pairings were as incompatible and dry as they could get. It also had the same ending as season 1. I think the cast also had more idols than actors? Anyway, changing the directors and writers made its sequel DOA.

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