Sisyphus: El mito (2021)

This drama is unfortunately one of the biggest disappointments I have had in a Korean drama in years, including the ones I chose to drop midway.
I have to admit I decided to watch it ever since news came out of the casting, because as a fan of both seasons of Stranger, I have come to admire Cho Seung-Woo greatly, and was excited for his next project, and for this reason solely, I didn't hesitate to watch, and for the same reason I kept pushing through no matter how frustrated I became with the drama.

Sisyphus is a scifi futuristic drama years in the making, boasts a high production cost, and casts a great ensemble, so what went wrong you ask?

while the production budget aided in creating hollywood-worthy looking scenery thanks to great CGI, and insuring rich cinematography, making the drama come out sleak and eyecatching, but alas the core element of any drama was deeply flawed; the story.

It was a drama whose creators may have well utilized a big production budget, but ended up focusing more on the visuals, and losing focus on what matters the most which is the story, and the cohesiveness of the science fiction plot.

While I admit the premise of the drama is original and cool (time travelling back in time to prevent a war and save the country), the story at its core turned to be a mess and plagued with plot holes, incohesive sequences, unexplained rules, and above all the science behind time travelling if any provided was illogical to say the least.

It goes without saying that any scifi media that discusses time travelling or time bending elements in many cases can prove to be a bit complicated and even sometimes dizzying to watch. But a neatly weaved plot and well written script that establishes a set of cohesive rules to the science behind it, are the key to help the viewer follow along. But in Sisyphus' case, especially during the second half of the drama when the plot finally started shifting from all the meaningless cat-and-mouse-like action phase and started to focus more on the time travelling aspect and the mission to change the past, the scenario in many times ended up creating more questions than it did provide answers, and even when it did provide answers they came too late, were sometimes unconvincing and other times downright illogical.

First, let's discuss the directing and general pace of the drama.
As I mentioned earlier the first half heavily leaned towards elaborate action, featuring a lot of car chases, gun fights etc. Although most of those (especially the post-apocalyptic future scenes) were craftly made and it showed the huge budget and amount of dedication put into creating them, I found myself feeling detached and not interested most of the time. The cinematography was top notch with many of the action sequences relying on sophisticated camera angles (using drones etc) fast moving shots, and wirework, but unfortunately like many other things did in this drama prove, too much of a good thing is not always to the better.

Proof to that, is how the writers time and again chose to assign precious airtime to slow-building action sequences in the future arc, that do little to the story's development other than maybe shedding a bit of light on how the Female Lead survived the harsh distopian post-war Seoul and came to learn to fend for herself, which many times unfortunately felt dragging and a distraction from the present day arc, and created problems in the pacing of the drama.
Or how, for the sake of creating catchy frames and thrilling action scenes, they chose to make everyone fire live ammunition at each other, even though the plot stresses on the fact that one side needs the other alive at all costs....and don't forget to mention that during such shootouts the leads rarely ever get hit, and if they do it is just a graze or a small cut to the arm, but the enemy always falls dead!

Second issue that made the show difficult to enjoy was the characterization, especially that of the antagonists, which was to put it mildly a total train wreck.
First off, the arch nemesis; Sigma, who was supposed to be the ultimate evil criminal mastermind who causes the demise of a whole nation, but who in reality ended up feeling like a silly cutout villain straight out of a comic book. No matter how I found him silly and laughable I always wished the writers had in store a strong background story to explain his grand agenda, but alas it was all just a childish and immature loser's grudge, soooo frustrating.
Also the Control bureau were just so incompetent and dumb watching them was a cringe-inducing ordeal that eventually required major adjustments to my villain-worthy standards.

Now to the main issue at hand; the story.
To end up watching a Scifi drama with half your brain occupied trying to wrap your head around what the hell anyone; both protagonists and antagonists alike; is trying to achieve (with all the gun fights and assassinations you no longer understand if they wanted him dead or alive?), or how a villain's warnings from a physical point of view make no sense whatsoever (kill me and my minions no longer look after your brother who is in limbo thanks to me existing?!!!!) , then It is not an issue of a sophisticated or smart plot, it is simply an issue of an ill-written plot.

There was a constant sense of incompleteness about everything regarding the plot, starting from the simplest and most basic of points (what was Quantam & Time intially selling that made it such a high stock company with a CEO fearured on the cover of Forbes?) to more pressing questions (what circumstances turned Sigma & the control bureau into allies and why?) To most fundamental matters on which the ending depended (If the uploader is never created shouldn't all time travellers from the future vanish simultaneously and not in such a convenient delayed fashion? Also wouldn't travelling back in time a couple of mere minutes ago to save oneself create an unescapable time loop?) And on and on...

The more you watch, the more you find yourself rolling your eyes at the caricaturish villains, and the more interactions you see between the leads and the villain, the more you scratch your head in wonder is it meet or the writers who do not fully comprehend the concept of time travel and the consequences of changing the past on the future?

All in all, Sisyphus may have been a fun to watch in terms of visuals and production, but the more you dive deeper the more you will get disappointed. I started to seriously wonder why such stars chose to take on such a project, and if they had received the full script before shooting started?
This is a drama that gives proof to the old adage, Not all that glitters is Gold.

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Better Than What You May Think It Is

Let me start off by saying I've watched Alice. If you liked Alice, you'll for sure like this and if you didn't then... you'll still may like this.

So, Would I Recommend This To You?
Yes. As a matter of fact, I will be rewatching this with a family member because I know they will like it too.

What Is The Rewatch Value?
If you take a break and watch it again, sure that's fine but I don't think you'll enjoy it as much if you watch it instantly again.

Good Plot?
It was an amazing and original concept considering it's involving time travel where many new dramas are experimenting with modern time travel and the production team pulled it off.

Any Romance?
I wouldn't watch it for the 'romance' but the couple have cute moments but the main focus is the actual story and not just the love emotion.

Great Acting?
Both of the actors were great. It didn't feel like acting if you get me. Their chemistry was great and especially offscreen too as you can see in the BTS videos released on Youtube.

What Is Your Rating And Why?
I think I've been giving every episode a solid 9 because I thought maybe there could have been some things that could have been done better and I will leave my rating as it is because I feel that although the ending was great, I would have liked a few more scenes to conclude the story more properly but it could be that the team intentionally left it like that for us to raise questions on what actually happened.

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Do you have patience and intelligence? Then watch this.

Should you? Would you? Could you?

You should watch this one (YES! )
You would recommend this to others. (MAYBE!)
You could watch this again. (NO!)
Ending: Happy for some and yet……..

This is one for those who have patience and intelligence.
Time travel is such a delicate topic which if handled badly can go array. But Sisyphus the Myth handles this plot device very well. It takes a little time to get used to it - the back and forth scenes in the timelines , the replaying of the future but it grabs the attention if you have the patience to sit through it.
The basis of the story is the journey of Park Shin-hye portraying the character of Kang Seo-hae who belongs to the future and travels to the present where Han Tae-sul brilliantly portrayed by Cho Seung-woo is predicted to create a time machine. She is on a mission to stop him from doing so as the future is ravaged by a nuclear war.
I cannot really write too much as there are so many twists and turns but all connected to the big plot.
The plot is something that you get sucked into gradually so I suggest give it time to sink in.
The actors are brilliant in their roles. Park Shin-hye’s action scenes are kick ass.
Kim Byung-chul as Sigma is fantastic. He is one intelligent anti-hero. His reasoning makes the viewer believe in his actions. But in the end, it’s the hero who outsmarts him.
I really liked Cho Seung-woo’s acting in this. I have only seen him in Stranger and that’s been my impression of him. But seeing him as this lovable, mischievous Han Tae-sul is a real delight. His character has wit, strength, and emotions. His chemistry with Park Shin-hye is something that gradually grows in the drama and in our hearts too. We don’t want them to be apart. We want that happy ending for them.
I am glad that romance didn’t color the whole plot. It’s a gradual cultivation of their feelings which then influences a lot of their decisions.
The end is satisfying for a hard-core romantic but even a tragic end with a suspension of belief for the good of the world would have been acceptable but I have no complaints. I am all for happy endings. But then again the final end suggests something else. No spoilers from me here.
I just wish they could have shown a reunion with the brother.
I am giving this an 8 for the concept and performances. There are loopholes but they can be set aside.
Watch it if you like the concept of time travel.

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Thrilling time travel drama

Finally, a time travel series worth watching. This is definitely way way better than ALICE.

The CGI of this series is at par with that of Hollywood. Park Shin Hye is such a versatile actress. She can do rom coms, dramas and action. For me, she is actually a much believable action star than the one in Sweet Home.

Jo Seung Woo as Han Tae Sul is a revelation for me. Prior to watching this, I had never heard of him. Though the personality and character vibe is similar to Zuckerberg, he carried it out really well in my opinion.

The only problem I have with these genres is that, it gets confusing sometimes, when the time overlaps. Nevertheless, I am definitely finishing this series.

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Disappointment in form of a sci-fi drama, waste of time

Let's go from the beginning. From the start we can see that our main character Tae-Sul is basically a brave genious with some trauma from the past, that's yet not revealed. But also we can tell that the CGI is gonna SUCK, like really badly. But I mean, that's something to expect from a Netflix series.

Then it gets.. Confusing. Of course, that's not surprising since this drama revolves around time travel, something so complicated. But usually, as a viewer, eventually you should began to understand certain rules and things that revolve around the plot but here.. That's impossible. I think that not even the scriptwritters themselves knew what's actually going on. That's on just lazy production that doesn't even check what they have done and release whatever comes out of it.

This confusion goes on, together with you potencionally loosing interest in any of the main characters. Tae-Sul becomes a scaredy coward that just forgets how to think, only thought in his mind being a pretty girl - AND I'M TIRED OF THAT. Can they make a character that actually thinks like a normal human being? After few days of getting to know each other, he cares more abt her (Seo-hae), than anything else (aka the rest of the goddamn WORLD). Cute thought, but annoying only when implied.

From half of the series, it does (to my surprise) get worse, villian becoming the only normally thinking character, making him the most likeable out of all of them. Not to mention, by then we have been introduced to so many new side-characters, that we and also the producers, forgot about the ones that have already been there (such as the injured bodyguard), who suddenly appears almost at the end of the series, just to say two sentences, open more plotholes and give something to our main character (obviously they just randomly chose him because they needed to fill other plot holes they have made before that).

I could just go on about these things, the only time I actually was touched was when we found out about Hyeong-Do's daugher or when it seemed that Sigma (villain of the story), is gonna get his redemption arc.

BUT THEN THE ENDING RUINED IT EVEN MORE. It doesn't make any sense! How could Tae-Sul and Seo-Hae be together, when in that timeline SHE IS NINE YEARS OLD?! Like, what? Did Tae-Sul create the Uploader eventually and Seo-Hae moved even further back to get to know him earlier and start dating him? How does he remember stuff that didn't even happen yet? Did they travel to the past together, even tho the Uploader didn't happen? Tae-Sul killed himself, how is he alive? Why is Sigma still evil, how does he know about the stuff that has happened thru the series, even tho before that he didn't (he isn't supposed to know these things yet)? What kind of cliché-a$$ ending is that? Obviously, it's sloppy ending, rushed and written without any common sense! Just to leave an open ending with possibility of continuing the series.

If you were thinking abt watching it, DON'T.
Unless you are looking for something to waste your time on and pottentioly get a headache.

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Unnecessarly complicated (though the Sisyphus title was a "buyer beware" sign)

How do you stop a war started by a rabid person who hates everyone and everything, and is able to surround himself by brainless minions?
Or rather WHO is stopping the war as we have a mess of present-people and future-people at the same time?
In the double end, the lovey-dovey couple is united (nice guy from present and nice girl from future presumably downloaded via the downloader made before the uploader, and thus still existing), and the super bastard appears nicer, but still envious of the nice guy and with two super messy sheets of arrows, name etc. just in case he may try again to screw up the world (not sure who could make sense of the scribble, and entities no longer existing, though).

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I will award this drama as The Most Unpredictable series of all time!

I will award this drama as The Most Unpredictable series of all time!
This drama truly explains what is the mystery genre. I keep guessing things and fail but I like the fact that it makes me keep wanting to watch more and keeps me on the edge of my seat. This series isn't fully serious, it makes us laugh and has the things we want in a series. LOVING IT SO FAR!!
I just do not like it in the name of park shin hye and cho seung woo but because this series is so unpredictable. Some scenes in ep 5 might bore you but it's a drama, not a movie they need to fit it through the time. I am saying that I love this series because it might make me want to skip but at the same time it makes me predict it but I fail every time (it has an unpredictable plot, and you need to see it full and carefully without skipping any scene), that what's keeping you on your feet. I am on ep 12 and if I had skipped any scene I wouldn't have understood anything, that's going on.
JUST, WILL KEEP IT SHORT, YOU WON'T REGRET WATCHING THIS.

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A drama full of regrets, but no regrets

Regrets.
If you're familiar with Greek mythology and the whole story about Sisyphus, the title gives it away. Yes, this is the main, consistent theme. Would you go back even if you knew it would repeat all over again?

I've watched so many time travel dramas but there's something about Sisyphus that's so addictive. As many already said, Sisyphus contains some nonsense/plotholes and it's already expected that the bars of logic have to be significantly lowered. While it did frustrate me sometimes, it didn't take away from the story itself. You keep wondering, "How is a badass and a genius going to save the world?" Also, props to PSH and CSW for their excellent performance here. I think they had amazing chemistry (with the subtle romance here and there later on) and worked really well together.

You have to enter this drama with an open mind. It might feel draggy at first, you feel confused from the start, you question if everything is pre-determined, there's so many "what the hell" moments and it's push-and-pull. And I think that's what makes this so intriguing. If the "title" is really true, then how- if- could the time loop really be broken?

I think it's best to enter it blindly--don't reach too much into the reviews. While there were some regrets in the drama (the many inconsistencies in the writing), the great production, cast, and storyline saved its grace. The visual effects and CGI might be a bit lackluster and the plot armor is just glaring, but I still really enjoyed the action scenes. Cinematography was top-notch and the thrill was enough to make me hold my breath. And, I cried--maybe a lot more than I expected.

Sisyphus used a familiar genre but pulled off something fresh and unique to the table, ambitiously at that.
No regrets.

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This show was like an expectations vs reality meme

This show seemed like it had a recipe for success.
• amazing cast, lots of well-known actors and actresses including Sung Dong-il, Park Shin Hye and Cho Seung Woo whose dramas I've enjoyed in the past
• really interesting premise
• high production budget

Unfortunately, the execution really left a lot to be desired. It's so unfortunate because the show had so much potential. It's like spending $300 on ingredients to make a cake, and then trying said cake and finding that you accidentally over-baked it (so it's now dry af), the frosting tastes funny... and was that supposed to be one tsp or one tablespoon of salt? Great ingredients do not make a great cake and it was the same with this drama.

PLOT
The drama centres around a woman who goes back in time to save the world and a genius who is responsible for saving/dooming the world. As the show progresses and new details emerge, the plot gets more and more confusing. The time travelling aspect made everything really chaotic and not in a good way.

Beyond the confusion of time travel, sometimes I didn't think things made sense. There's this scene where the FL doesn't know what a jjimjilbang is and she has also apparently never had real fruit before, which I found unrealistic considering she was living in modern day Korea up until the age of 8 or 9.

ACTING
There were so many familiar faces in this drama - some who I have loved in previous shows. I've been watching PSH since she was in You're Beautiful and one of the reasons I was excited about the show was because Cho Seung Woo from Stranger was in it. But I feel like this is an instance where the acting could not save the show from the plot. And if you watch dramas for the romance - the chemistry just wasn't there for the main couple.

THE END
Seriously. I get all the way to the end, and this is what I get?!
I'm left with nothing but disappointment and this review.
I know that not all shows have happy endings but when I've struggled through 16 episodes in hopes that it gets better / to find out what happens, then I feel like I'm at least hoping for an ending that wraps everything up nicely. Instead I feel like I'm left with questions.

For a drama that had a production budget of over $18million, I found some of the CG effects kind of fake. There was one scene in the beginning where the ML saves a plane from falling which was cool and the show had some cool moments but overall it was really disappointing. I honestly don't think I would have continued watching if I wasn't watching it with my boyfriend. We watched it along with Vincenzo (which is a way better drama in my opinion).

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Fun, clever, but I don't know what that ending was about...

Short: Cast are all awesome, characters are interesting, story is clever but will twist your brain a bit particularly in the latter parts. Music is good but nothing stand-out. Action is fantastic and over the top, there are some really good scenes, but, the bad guys are stormtroopers, as usual. Scenes of a wasteland future were stunning. Ending killed it for me though, made no sense.

Detail:
This is a time travel story, which means you have to expect your brain is going to get a bit twisted, but the easiest way you can prepare yourself to understand how things progress is to remember cause and effect - that is the natural order of things, a leads to b, b leads to c. If you change b, then c will be different.

There are many ideas of how time works in the universe, the most common one depicted (and is so here) is that it is a single string, a leads to b, b leads to c, as i outlined above. If you go back in time 10 minutes and meet yourself, put a flower in the other "you's" lapel, that flower is in your lapel too, and was always there. So - Sisyphus is following this direction for time travel.

For the most part it's a sound story, it's got tons of action and much of it is way over the top, which is fine, if you're going to have action you might as well make it appeal to action fans :) This is james bond (1 shot kills instantly) versus the storm troopers (can't hit an elephant in a tunnel with a full load of ammo) type action. It didn't detract, it's kinda how I expect things to go these days :)

The romance between Seo Hae and Tae Sul was ok, there was nothing too burning hot between them but then they're also fighting for their lives and dealing with mind bending situations - so you gotta allow some slack on that front i think.

Kim Byung Chul plays the bad guy really well, utterly psycho, he's a great actor though one I always regret seeing if only because he's going to nail the bad guy every time and make me hate his character :) He toys with the main leads mercilessly and the unhinged expressions and whole body language throughout are brilliant.

However, what matters more so than anything in a story like this is the ending - because you can create all kinds of mess and sticky situations, you can twist the world upside down and look as clever as you like - but if you can't end it properly, then it rather undermines the weight of what came before. This story, in my opinion, failed heartily on that front.

I've read some posts and FAQ's posted by people who are more satisfied with the ending but... I feel they've written their own stories to explain it rather than basing it on specifically what we are told in the story itself. The story progresses to a point very near the end, and then just shows a couple of clips without any context or explanation and leaves it up to interpretation to figure out what is meant by them. So... again, based on what we're *told* in the story, rather than making up new story to try and explain the unexplained, I feel the ending was very poor.

In many ways this is fundamentally a tragedy type of a story - because they're from different times, the main leads either solve the time loop paradox and can never be together, or they stay together but Korea remains destroyed and the time loop persists. I think they could have actually played to that as a strength more, and possibly it is indeed what they were trying to express, but they blew it - in my probably flawed opinion of course.

It's worth a watch for the action, it's worth a watch for the cast, but expect things to make you go "wait, what?" and just pat yourself on the head and say "its ok, just... ignore it and enjoy everything else". :)

So close to being one of the greats, I think.

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I decided to watch this drama because I’m a big fan of Cho Seung Woo. But unfortunately, it was disappointing. I can't even be biased here. It had a lot of potential to be something great. Beginning with the talented cast and the fairly unexplored genre in kdramas. It's very clear the writers took inspiration from different sci-fi movies and meshed them together but that didn't quite work. It didn’t deliver quite as I’d hoped to the point where I was left astonished in the first couple of episodes before I recalibrated my expectations. It would constantly take me out either because of the direction, editing or the music. I couldn’t get immersed in the drama.

Story: I think the main problem lies in the script before anything else. The sequence of events, the way the writers chose to do it, didn’t work. They started with one mystery after another without establishing the time travelling rules of the drama nor the world the characters live in. Many “mysteries” were withheld for too long revealing them only in the last couple of episodes when we the viewers were already lost and confused by all the chasing and illogical incidents. Almost half the episodes were redundant action scenes or unnecessary flashbacks. It could easily be 12 episodes instead of 16.

The dialogue is mostly filler, not memorable or effective. The editing isn’t slick and smooth and there is no tension or buildup where it was needed to keep the viewers engaged because everything was dragging.

Acting: The strongest part of the drama is definitely the acting. Everyone tried their best with what they had but this is a great example that not even experienced actors can save a messy script. Most side-characters were treated as one-dimensional plot devices or for exposition. Taesul’s relationship with his brother for example had great potential but wasn’t fleshed out and explored enough.

Music: The BGM was bland and strange at times. When the music takes you out of the show you know it's bad!


Having said that, the leads’ dynamic is the only reason that kept me watching. I liked the "idea" of them. They had an interesting relationship and I enjoyed their scenes together. I was pleasantly surprised by CSW and PSH’s chemistry that I wished they were in a different show!I found myself enjoying the bts more than the actual show.
So I would say watch the drama for that reason if you like the actors..

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