This story started off interesting. I was crediting it with being the first kdrama in a while to get me out of my slump.

The MC Seo Ari is not the most compelling MC I've seen because the show seemed intent to flip flop between her being meek and her being strong when it felt like it. I truly think the actress did the best she could, but it was often frustrating watching Seo Ari just bite her tongue and freeze when bad things were happening. Like the entire plot at the nightclub.

The Gabin Society, minus Min Hye and Si-hyeon, felt interchangeable. The only thing that separated them were their secrets, to be honest.

I called who was doing the livestream early, but it only confused the message, to be honest. I think it may have been better if bbbfamous had been someone that was close to Seo Ari. The show established that it hurt her the most to have her best friend be one of her detractors. Turning the mastermind behind her rise and fall into a jealous, minimum wage worker, living in a messy apartment with roaches kind of removed any sort of message, IMO. Sure, the only reason the Gabin Society and Seo Ari were able to prosper was through regular people supporting them. However, part of the reason people rooted for Seo Ari in the first place was because these women couldn't be torn down by a regular person. It had to be someone with a following.

Even if the end result was that a regular person was behind bbbfamous, it would've made more sense for it to be a group of regular people getting revenge on the Gabin Society. Seo Ari could've joined them or the show could've made her into someone who'd actually done something wrong because in the end, the message is clouded by the biggest fall from grace being Seo Ari's. She is ruined, Park from the warehouse is ruined, her mother was in jail for tax evasion. The show focuses more on Seo Ari's struggles and doesn't focus on the Gabin Society's fall nearly as much. So, what was the message?

The regular people can make or break you? (Where the regular person was an obsessed psycho who went after someone who also used to be a regular person and still had morals. You know, and not the rich people that were cruel to others.)
Fame can make or break the people around you? (Where she ended up forgiving her backstabbing friend and they helped fool the public together?)

Whatever the message, this show took a swan dive into melodrama in the last 2 episodes and some of the acting choices were cringey. Starting a romance where the FMC accuses the love interest of sexual harassment is a weird choice and I also never warmed to that guy. It felt like the screenwriters were told to insert as much cursing into the story as they possibly could and that sometimes made the dialogue really cringey.

So, would I recommend this show? Yes, if you want to turn your brain off. No, if you're looking for something to make you think.