August Watched

This month has not been very nice for me in the kdrama sense. There was one drama I enjoyed, but it ended quickly (Head over Heels), and now I have nothing that I'm excited about...

August was a month of disappointment in some ways.

What are your opinions on these dramas?

First impression: Why would someone even want to kill someone and have no lines? What's the obsession?

Last impression: I need a lot of thinking to do

Synopsis: The show will tell the story of a mysterious red line that appears above people’s heads, connecting them to those they’ve had sexual relations with. Han Ji Uk is a detective who wants to uncover the truth about the mysterious red line. Lee Gyu Jin is a quirky high school teacher, and Sin Hyeon Hop is a high school student who has been able to see the red line since birth. (Mydramalist)

The concept of the drama is intriguing, and I haven't seen any similar kdramas to this. Everyone had their own storylines from how they came to see the lines to the very end, where they would kill someone for a line to disappear.

It was a good mystery drama, and it got me interested in where the story will go. Who is the next person and their reason?

Another thing that made it a good drama was its actors and characters. As mentioned, everyone had their backgrounds, from smaller roles that appeared in one episode to the leads. Nobody was forgotten.

The detective is a funny and interesting character who barely cares about anyone; on the opposite side, there is Hyeon Hop, who cares about everyone.

A perfect duo to solve the crimes.

In those six episodes, the writer and director had made me care about those characters. The coming-of-age story of Hyeon Hop was amazing to witness. Again, the mystery side with the arrogant detective was entertaining too.

My and probably everyone's problem with the drama is the ending. I do understand what has happened, but it doesn't make sense. It was a bit too supernatural for my liking.

Digging deeper into the drama, I found that it's very different from the webtoon. The characters are the same, except for the smaller roles, but this is a prequel to the webtoon rather than an adaptation. In the webtoon, people can already see S lines, while the drama tells the story of how everything started.

It's not a bad idea, but I wish they had come up with a better explanation than whatever that was (the webtoon doesn't include an answer; it's normal for people to see it).

However, I can't say it was a bad drama just because of that. There were a lot of things that intrigued me, and I would tune into the second season (there is no confirmation for now).

I only wish for more answers; they left things hanging.

7.5/10

First impression: Super fuuun, Seong A is the best

Last impression: This should have stayed as a 16-episode drama...

Synopsis: Park Seong A is a high school student, but at night, she is a shaman named Fairy Cheon Ji. When she works as a shaman, she covers her face partially to hide her identity. One night, Bae Gyeon U and his grandmother come to visit Fairy Cheon Ji. Park Seong A has a crush on him at first sight, but she sees that he is destined to die soon. The next day, Bae Gyeon U appears in front of her as a new transfer student in her class. She decides to save him from his destiny. (Mydramalist)

This has been such a fun ride to see Gyeon U discover a found family after being shoved by society and his real family. Seong A is hilarious, and their friend Ji Ho is there to be the best second male lead ever.

The friend group is just the cutest.

Having a mission to save Gyeon U has not only brought him closer to Ji Ho and Seong A but also made us learn about the ghosts. Seong A is a powerful shaman, but she's still learning, and the inclusion of that was perfect: trying to find out how to calm the baby ghost, getting rid of the suicide ghost and more.

Even in the saddest moments, they always put in a light-hearted moment to make the atmosphere less intense. The supporting characters also did well in their roles and made me care for them.

When the 'big evil' ghost comes into play, I could not see him as threatening, but rather pitiful. I believe the writers were going for this, but the problem is that they kept telling us how evil, how powerful he is, but we never got to see the power.

Yeom Hwa was the real villain.

As you can see, there is so much to love and look forward to in the series, but the last few episodes really made me question my rating.

The storyline became confusing and barely clarified what was happening. Yes, you could still understand some stuff, but it didn't make it less underwhelming and questionable.

I have heard that the drama was supposed to be 16 episodes, and you can clearly see that.

However, they knew that only 12 would be aired, and I think there was a possibility to change some things to make the ending better.

Spoilers: I can't understand the redemption arc for Yeom Hwa; she never deserved it, and it was never fully explained. I would love to see what Seong A was doing while she was out of anyone's radar. Even the time skips wouldn't feel so bad with just a few more scenes in between.

The sadness has come over me while writing this review because I love the drama, the characters, and I would love to watch more. The ending ruined a lot of the things.

GIVE US 16 EPISODE VERSION!

8.5/10

First impression: Why does it seem like the episode is two hours long?

Last impression: This was a struggle

Synopsis: Seo Se Hyeon is a genius forensic pathologist. While examining a corpse, she discovers traces of her father, Yoon Jo Kyun, who is a serial killer. She desperately attempts to track down her father, Yoon Jo Kyun, with Jung Jung Hyun. He is the chief of the violent crimes team. (Asianwiki)

I was sceptical about the drama from the very beginning, but still kept watching as it was just 30 minutes long. I wasn't sure how I felt by the way they revealed everything at the start: we knew who the killer was, we kind of knew Se Hyeon's story, what was there to watch?

Well, the answer - there isn't.

We just get repetitive stuff of police investigating and Se Hyeon trying to do things on her own. I get where she's coming from, but after two failed attempts, you should understand that you need someone's help.

The villain is the most interesting part of the story. Yes, we know what he's doing, but his obsession towards certain things leaves me with a lot of questions that the drama didn't provide.

Rather than finding out about the killer, we get to know all the police men and how bad they are at their job.

I only cared about what would happen to the villain at the end and some parts of Se Hyeon's backstory. There was nothing else to look forward to, and I still feel some kind of disappointment.

It should've proven to me that it can be good even with all the cards laid out on the table.

4/10

First impression: Everything happens so quickly, love the editing

Last impression: Hospital Playlist wannabe, but make it disappointing

Synopsis: Seocho-dong is home to many of Seoul's top courts and law firms, including the workplaces of jaded veteran attorney An Ju Hyeong and fellow lawyers Cho Chang Won, Bae Mun Jeong, and Ha Sang Gi, who all work in the same building. While they don't all work in the same office, they come together to share their highs and lows over lunch and other outings. As the attorneys navigate difficult cases, a sudden firm merger, and unexpected personal issues, they find ways to rely on each other. However, their tight-knit group gets shaken up with the arrival of optimistic rookie attorney Kang Hui Ji, who shares a past connection with Ju Hyeong. (Viki)

The first episode was quick-witted, and the editing was fun, especially the scene where a new attorney fantasised about the trial as in kdramas. But after the first episode, this kind of thing rarely happened.

I don't know where the humour has gone. It probably went to Mun Jeong's husband, who barely had any screen time.

This is similar to Hospital Playlist in a way that it's a slice of life drama, but other than that, there is nothing much to grab onto. (I saw a lot of people liking the drama and comparing it to HP, but as a fan of it myself, I can't say I enjoyed it much)

I'm not the biggest fan of slice of life dramas, but most of the time I get interested in one or the other thing happening. For example, Be Melodramatic had such great friendship and romance storylines, and Hospital Playlist has amazing storylines with patients.

Law and the City had Lee Jong Suk.

As an avid law drama watcher, this brought no excitement. Yes, I understand that this was shown as it is in real life, but the cases seemed to be touched upon without digging deeper.

In the case where Ju Hyeong advocated for a horrible insurance company, in the end, he gets a phone call from the worker, understands that bullying is still happening to another person, but this is never mentioned again.

A lot of the cases felt like that; it just happens, and we move on.

Some of the characters from the drama are very similar to the cases. Something might hook you up, but later, you find out that there was no screen time for them.

This has fallen onto Kim Hyeong Min, who merges the companies, but there is not much more about her. She's just a rich lady who wants her own firm and later to be an attorney, but was introduced as a mysterious woman.

The main group does have character development, and it was wonderful to see them grow and find things they love or hate. Reaching for your dreams is always a beautiful message and is the only one that was sent.

One of the good things about the drama was their friendship. They were fun to watch and I wished we'd see them working together more often. They lost an opportunity to connect this with the merging storyline.

Another example of things going nowhere: one team represented the plaintiff, and another team the defendant. They don't discuss their cases (because they're still independent in a way), but the court sees them as one company. It ended with a small talk, and a few scenes later, it was mentioned that they both decided to quit the case.

It's just very underwhelming...

Another thing about this drama is that Ju Hyeong and Hui Ji, who are the very leads of the show, are boring. I never got to see their attraction to one another, and the romance was non-existent.

You could say it's because the drama is not focused on that, which I agree but it's more that they just became an item out of nowhere. There was no chemistry, just them knowing each other from the past, and now Ju Hyeong is already jealous out of nowhere.

I wish we had seen more romance from Mun Jeong, who already has a husband, and they're very cute together.

Ha Sang Gi's past was also intriguing and made me want to learn more about this character. However, everything for him was left for the last minute.

And Cho Chang Won was an interesting case too, how he pondered about what it means to be a lawyer. I would have loved to see more of his family drama, or how he tries to stay in touch with some of the people he helped.

This is a very long review for the drama, but I just feel disappointed. My expectations were high, but the drama made so many mistakes and focused on the things that were boring.

5/10