Lacks depth and substance

This drama takes on a very serious and nuanced topic -- marriage and divorce. Unfortunately, instead of leaning into all the difficult issues surrounding a failing marriage and dealing with them head-on, it skirts around all the important parts and instead delivers nothing more than Hallmark-type cheesiness without any real substance. A lot of people are saying it was good up to Episode 10 or so and then went downhill. But for me it was downhill, or flat, from the get-go. I don't really get what all the hype is about. Frankly, despite the fact that I love Kim Soo-hyun, I did not enjoy this drama, for several reasons.

1. Supposed to deal with marriage and divorce but fails to get into the real issues. This multilayered topic needs to be handled with maturity, depth, and honesty, and this drama just fails in that regard. While we are led to understand it was just a simple case of miscommunication (or lack of communication) between the leads that led them down the dark road to divorce, this matter is never really fleshed out or given any further treatment. We are not really made privy to what really happens between them. There is one scene that deals with a miscarriage, but that's it. No context or follow-up is given and it is hardly ever mentioned again. In other words, there is a lack of context and story development to enable the viewer to participate and empathize. The drama instead chooses to focus on external conflicts with one-dimensional, cartoonish villains. The failing marriage is dealt with shallowly and romanticized, and the real issues are swept under the rug. Suddenly, this couple has the perfect relationship and their only problems are actually how to recovery the company and vanquish the baddies.

2. Unlikable characters, especially in the first half. In the beginning, the ML seems to have been made deliberately weak. I felt like the drama was pushing some sort of feminist rhetoric -- subversion of the patriarchy and all that. But there is no need to emasculate the male in order to emphasize the strength of the female. Likewise, the female need not be an uber rich girl boss with a bad attitude in order to come off as a "strong independent woman." Anyway, Baek Hyun-woo is introduced as a seemingly shallow, silly, ill-intentioned weakling who could not even stand up for himself or make up his mind about what to do with his own marriage. He relies on a friend to tell him what to do. To make things worse, he actually seems relieved and even slightly elated to learn his estranged wife is terminally ill. Now, I like falling in love with my kdrama/jdorama men for the space of a few hours, and I definitely was not going to fall in love with someone like this. Neither could I relate with the wealthy CEO girl boss who was cold and arrogant and disrespectful and had no qualms about berating her husband in front of their colleagues. It just wasn't working for me. Even later when her arrogance is toned down, Hae-in just comes off to me as abrasive and unrelatable. Many people are saying the leads had great chemistry, but I never saw it. They're both great actors for sure, but there was something off for me about their pairing. Strangely, I felt like the FL was patterned after the typical Asian mom or aunt -- brash, brisque, pragmatic and unromantic, and the ML has the typical henpecked husband vibe. And their romance felt to me like I was watching one of my stoic aunts suddenly becoming lovey-dovey with someone. Goosebumps. But because the actors are both attractive, it probably seemed that the characters were attractive too. The writers seem to realize this and tones down everything in the second half, which leads to my third point:

3. Inconsistent characterization. I guess the writer wanted to show that the characters have a deeper dimension than what was shown in the first episodes, but somehow the sudden shift in the overall tone of the characters didn't work for me. Suddenly, the FL is vulnerable and in love (but still, just for me personally, unlikable and unrelatable). Suddenly, she is a silly lovelorn stalker. I mean, sure. One can argue that her coldness and arrogance were merely a facade or a coping mechanism and that she actually really is a softie, but somehow, that doesn't feel believable. And the ML suddenly becomes strong, capable, fiercely loyal, very loving, and knows exactly what he wants and what to do. Yes, writer-nim. This could have worked if you had written him that way from the beginning. Making a character's real personality a plot twist just does not work for me. I need to connect with the characters immediately or as soon as possible for the story to work. That is the most important factor for me in any story. The plot could go to hell but as long as the characters are well-written and feels real, I am in. I think it just is bad writing overall, the way the characters were set up. Again, the actors' face cards and sex appeal covered this up for most viewers.

4. The drama can't seem to decide what it is, and the main relationship lacks substance. In the beginning, it seemed like it was going to be a romcom. But wait, Is it a thriller? Is it a makjang? Is it a "beautiful love story?" It tries to be all of these but fails. The thriller part wasn't thrilling enough. The romance part was, to me at least, somewhat cringey (probably because of the Asian mom/ahjumma peronality of the FL). And the romcom just failed to show up. Instead, the drama seems to take itself very seriously and seems to think of itself as a "beautiful love story. " In order to show this, it resorts to cheesy lines and overly sentimental scenes that don't really show any real connection between the husband and wife, at least none that you could really feel or that is properly developed. Instead, their strongest and most powerful connection seems to be the dreaded "childhood connection thingie" that Koreans seem to adore -- unmyeong. In other words, their love is one for the books because they were fated for each other, as evidenced, apparently, by the fact that they had a chance encounter when they were children. This is a pet peeve of mine in kdramas. This is a very shallow type of sentimentality, IMO. Instead of trying to establish this childhood connection, why not focus on their current mind-to-mind, heart-to-heart, soul-to-soul connection instead?

5. The loopholes. In a romcom, I usually could look past the glaring leaps of logic because most romcoms are meant to be a little silly, and so the logical inconsistencies just seem campy, not a writing failure. But you can't really call campy on this drama because it takes itself way too seriously. One major example of a glaring lapse in logic is the fact that the villain manages to step in and claim to be the guardian and fiance of a patient who has lost her memory. What an insult to European hospitals! You're telling me, writer-nim, that the hospital does not have any protocols at all regarding patient security? Furthermore, Baek Hyun-woo actually sees the villain walk in as he was being scandalously arrested (another huh moment). And he doesn't do anything about it, apparently. Yes, he got arrested and dragged away to prison on false charges, but that should not have prevented him from instructing one of his lawyer friends (or hello, Hae-in's family) to immediately contact the hospital and inform them that that man should not be allowed anywhere near the patient as he is not family and not her authorized guardian. And why didn't Hae-in's parents, on their own initiative, do anything? A phone call would have done it if they didn't want to fly out to Germany to look after their daughter. They knew than man is dangerous and Hae-in is in an especially vulnerable position after having lost her memories, and not a single one of them tried to contact the hospital? LOL. There are many, many others. This is just one example. Very shoddy writing.

To sum up, again, this drama tries to be something -- an epic, sweeping, memorable, beautiful love story, or a deep dive into marriage and divorce -- but does not really have enough meat and bones/substance to actually succeed. Instead, we get a lot of cloyingly sentimental scenes, cheesy dialogue, a half-baked thriller element, and a kind of surface treatment of a serious topic that is more suited to a romcom or light drama, and a dancing or skirting around the important issues about love and hate in a relationship and all the nuances and layers of emotion that are involved in a marriage, and all the heartbreak of divorce. This weird, half-baked stew just didn't work for me at all. The actors did their best to hold it up, but it is not worth all the hype and is way too overrated, in my honest opinion.

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Spoiler warning. For the first few episodes, the push-pull is fun, but once the couple gets together, it becomes deadly boring, unless you're the type who likes to watch couples being lovey-dovey in the park. There's also no real substance to the plot, and no real conflict. This is a romcom/love story, as far as I know, so the conflict should be with the actual relationship. But as with most other kdrama romcoms these days, it's fluff over substance. The relationship is picture-perfect and so fluffy and fuzzy that it loses all value, except to the abovementioned park voyeur perhaps. Seems like real conflict has gone out of style in kdramaland. The trend these days is to get the couple together as fast as possible, make the relationship perfect, make it rain fuzz, and then in the end insert a very weird and forced conflict, not with the relationship at all but with the main couple's entangled past (usually with a twist that is as colorless and insubstantial and illogical as the rest of the plot). This then gets easily resolved in one or two episodes and is not only out of sync with everything that came before, but is totally unnecessary and does not provide tension, excitement, or catharsis. And then of course don't forget the obligatory childhood connection thingy -- also totally unnecessary and just casts a creepy, cringey, incestuous shadow over the entire relationship (they were brought up or lived together or treated each other like brother and sister, but fell in love). If this is what the replacement formula is, give me the trusty old cliches -- the third parties and evil mother-in-laws and unrequited love. And the sparing love scenes that were too fleeting but made you feel so much more than these neverending, nauseating fluff-fests.

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Good Premise but Flawed Execution

What I liked:

The premise: Middle-aged man with relatively affluent lifestyle and well-established career encounters poor, miserable young girl and the two form an "unlikely" bond because they relate to each other's suffering. Also, a meditation on all the different types of suffering -- of a man being cheated on by his wife, of a girl victimized by society and circumstances, of a lonely aging woman deserted by her lover, etc. Suffering is something we all share, in one form or another, so it is a universal theme.

The slice-of-life scenes: Really adds warmth and light to the dark world of this drama. I loved the relationship between the brothers, and the late-night walks around the neighborhood, the happiness tinged with sadness. Sometimes a bit overdone, but generally well-made.

The mood: Not everyone gravitates towards darkness, but if you are in a particular mood, this drama hits the spot. The heaviness and sadness interspersed with lightness and warmth, that play of chiaroscuro, make for a really satisfying tone.

Some of the dialogue: I really, really loved the little nuggets of wisdom dropped here and there, about people struggling all their lives to chase after a goal that in the end does not bring real happiness, about the futility of proving yourself to other people, etc. I also liked the addition of the Buddhist monk. These almost saved the whole drama for me, but not quite.

What I didn't like:

First and foremost, the fact that Ji An is never really made accountable for the things that she does. The viewer is set up from the very start to empathize with Ji An, to feel her suffering, to view her as a victim, and to understand why she does the things she ends up doing. Set up is the right term to use though because the pathos is laid on thick from the very start -- sick grandmother, having to eat other people's leftovers, being hounded and beaten repeatedly by a loan shark with a grudge, having only stolen instant coffee as a small comfort and pleasure against all the darkness of the world. Yes, yes, and yes. HOWEVER, as the drama progresses, we see Ji An committing dastardly deeds -- stealing money (bribe money, yes, but still stealing), offering to ruin people's lives and reputations in exchange for more money, blackmail, wiretapping, stalking, and generally just a total disregard and disrespect for other people's privacy. Yes. She needs money. Yes. She is taking care of her sick grandmother and she is desperate. Yes. She was and still is being victimized by a loan shark. Yes. She indeed has a very unfortunate life. BUT THAT IS NO EXCUSE TO HARM, DISRESPECT, OR VICTIMIZE OTHERS. Everyone has a story. Everyone has some aspect of their lives that is relatable and pitiful. Even serial killers. Even mass murderers. That doesn't mean they should not be held accountable for the things they do. It is one thing for Dong Hoon and his guilty wife to understand Ji An and even to instantly forgive her for listening to their private conversations whenever she wanted to (heck, she could even have eavesdropped on their lovemaking. "Luckily," they were having marital issues). It is a totally different thing for them to act very irresponsibly and to even help her get away scot-free without being held accountable for everything that she did. Stalking and wiretapping someone ARE SERIOUS INVASIONS OF PRIVACY. In the drama, the wiretapping is used as a tool to get Ji An to fall in love with Dong Hoon, and so the scenes of her listening in on him are portrayed in a tender, loving light. But in actuality, she is committing a grave crime against his person, and it is all very creepy and disrespectful. The writer could have had her do some time in jail, or do community service at the very least, but having Dong Hoon instantly forgive her (seemingly because he just was desperate to see her) and even help her after he finds out is, I think, poor writing and horrible decision-making. Whatever kind of bond they formed, a wrongdoing is a wrongdoing and should be treated as such. Even parents reprimand their children when they mess up.

The nature of the bond between Ji An and "her Ahjussi." I understand the writer wanted to establish a deep, undefinable bond between Ji An and Dong Hoon, but in the end it became very obvious that Dong Hoon was feeling more than just fatherly or brotherly love, friendship, or affection towards her. There were too many scenes of him scanning the streets for her, missing her, almost being obsessed with her. This could have been done very well and much more subtly. The bond need not have been romantic of all, on either side. It could just have been that -- a deep bond -- and need not have crossed any lines. One good example of this, done right, is in Leon: The Professional. Or they could have opted to add subtle, ambiguous hints. It is not necessarily just the age gap nor the fact that Dong Hoon is married that made these scenes cringey for me, but definitely those did play a part. Personally, I thought it was unnecessary to add romance and desire to the mix. There could have been, maybe in their last scene together, something, a "maybe," in the way he looks at her or holds her hand, but even that may be too much. It just was...cringey and inappropriate somehow, and, as I said, totally unnecessary.

Overall:

The drama definitely has shining moments, especially in the slice-of-life scenes and some of the dialogue. It certainly could be very compelling once you get into it. But the last few episodes really broke the deal for me. The resolutions were awkward and hurried. And, as discussed in detail above, I just disagree with the direction the writer chose to take, both plotwise and characterwise.

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Enjoyable but leaves some important things hanging

I am giving this is a high rating simply because I enjoyed every minute of it more than I thought I would, since I do not usually enjoy Korean suspense/mystery dramas. It was all quite compelling to me from the very beginning. I thought it would be woke, given the title, and full of aggressive feminist propaganda, which I don't normally like in my dramas. (I don't like any sort of heavy political propaganda in stories I consume purely for entertainment), but surprisingly, it's not. The women characters are not perfect Mary Sues portraying women as the better gender and as strong, independent, and perfect. They are flawed and very real and quite relatable. I've never been a fan of Kim Go-Eun (didn't like her in Goblin, but that was probably because I didn't like the way that character was written), but I thought she did a stellar job here portraying the slightly naive, slightly ditzy Oh In-Joo. In-Joo's story is super relatable, especially for those of us who have had to struggle financially. Her choices and her reactions are perfectly understandable, given the circumstances. I thought this character was what carried the whole story for me -- she is a very good depiction of a perfectly real human, not an idealized "woman power" version.

As for the story itself, the twists and turns, even though some a bit sketchy, especially in hindsight, were good enough to keep me glued to my seat and wanting more. Sadly, as with many Kdramas, the ending, although generally okay, felt a bit rushed. There are two particular story elements that I feel were not resolved satisfactorily and/or were problematic:

1. In Joo and Do-Il. This connection goes beyond a superficial attraction. They both help each other grow as the story progressed. In-Joo makes Do-Il care for someone again other than money and vengeance. Do-il helps In-joo navigate through the chaos that she had to go through and come out sane. I would have been okay with them remaining perfectly platonic all throughout the show, but the writers had to go beyond that. They obviously implied that there was something there, a mutual attraction. You can see it in the way Do-il looks at In Joo, the way he smiles when he sees her face, the decisions he made to keep her safe. Setting this connection and attraction up in this way makes the audience expect a resolution, but none were given in the end. They need not necessarily have ended up together, but they could have progressed to more than just a "see you around." I was expecting a progression to at least more closeness and openness about the way they feel. I understand In-joo might not be ready for a relationship after what she'd been through, and probably needs some self-reflection, but that could have been handled with a trusty old time jump, which might be cliche but, if done right, could have give us a more satisfactory ending for this particular story arc.

2. I find it strange that In-Hye and Hyo-Rin, two self-involved minors -- children, for all intents and purposes -- are allowed to roam the world with buttloads of cash and zero adult supervision. I am all for freedom and escaping oppressive situations, but teenagers, especially, need guidance. In-hye, despite her little diatribe at the end trying to justify her actions, is, for me, unforgivable. She is narcissistic, self-involved, and almost psychopathic in her lack of empathy for her loving sisters. Teenagers often go through this phase where they feel stifled by their family's love, but that is just a phase and part of growing up. The fact that she allowed her sisters to feel humiliated, rejected, hurt, just to fulfill her fantasies and desires is extremely self-indulgent, selfish, and cruel. Her lack of empathy is disturbing. Anyway, the teenage fantasy of escaping your family to explore the world is something everybody at some point has probably had, but there are ways to accomplish this while still being considerate. In-hye has no reason to escape her loving sisters. Her life situation is not ideal, but her sisters obviously love her. Instead of indulging in her selfish fantasy and escaping from her family, she should have learned to appreciate what she had and escaped her narcissistic worldview -- I'm going to get what I want and I don't care how you feel or what you think about it. Real progression for her would have been getting past her self-obsession and being there for at least In-Joo, who is left alone in the end. Hyo-rin's case is altogether different, but she still needs guidance, especially after everything that happened. I just find it incredibly irresponsible of the adults, including Do-il, to allow these kids to do what they want with no supervision whatsoever. Teenagers are notoriously liable to making wrong decisions that could affect the rest of their lives at this particularly volatile period of growth, so they do need someone mature to at least guide them. Are the writers campaigning for children to be able to do what they want and to turn away from their families?

There are other loose threads, but these two are the ones that made me unhappy with the ending. Overall, it was a fun ride and definitely worth watching despite the above-mentioned flaws.

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Moderately enjoyable but almost too flawed to forgive

This drama was somewhat enjoyable, but that enjoyment is marred by almost unforgivable flaws, as follows:

1. The FL's acting just grated on my nerves. I don't understand why she had to overact and shout so loudly and gesticulate so violently all the time. I guess that was her version of "funny and dorky," but it just felt horribly irritating, especially in the first few episodes. She just was too over-the-top. I think overacting is an understatement.
2. She actually looked better with her frizzy hair and freckles than when she was made over (the makeover made her look noona-ish) and yet the drama implied she was somehow not being her best self in the earlier parts just because she wasn't into makeup and fashion. Not all girls are girly in that way, and it's fine. It's fine too that she decided to put on makeup later on, but I didn't like the way she suddenly became quieter and more ladylike. It seemed too unnatural and made me feel even more emotionally distant from her.
3. There are too many frustrating communication problems. I couldn't count how many times the characters (especially the horrible friend) had something very important to say and were like, oh, I shouldn't tell him/her now because she's not in the best of moods. If something is that important and you know your not telling the truth will just end up hurting people, you need to tell the truth ASAP. Maybe try to talk to them so their mood shifts and they calm down, and then tell them. You don't drag it on for days and weeks. I get though that she may have only been using that as an excuse to not tell him the truth. Pretty stupid, considering she must have known she couldn't hide that truth forever.
4. The second male lead is just too charming, fun, flamboyant and cute that he easily overshadows the main lead, whose character is stiff, boring and unlikable. IMO, this is the main flaw. The kdrama romcom experience is so much better when you actually fall in love with the main lead for the space of 16 episodes. Sadly, that's difficult to accomplish here because of the way the character was written. Or is it PSJ? I really enjoyed him in Fight My Way, but I think that was the only drama of his I liked. In Hwarang, he was, IMO, again overshadowed by Hyung Sik. In Hwarang too, and in his other roles, his characters tend to be a bit boring and a bit stiff. Just IMO. But nowhere is that emphasized more than in this drama. The second male lead definitely stole this show. He had a funny persona but you could tell, in certain moments, that he had great sensitivity and depth. The actor played the character really well. You can see the fleeting moments of sadness in his eyes when no one is looking. His character was just so much more interesting.
5. My main beef: how the male lead was obviously obsessed with his childhood friend, and the drama seems to think it's cute. Like how many grown-ass adults do you know who are still pining over their childhood crushes? And let's face it. That was all it was -- puppy love/a baby crush. Everyone had a childhood crush, but what healthy person actually clings to that without developing other healthy relationships as they go through life? Everyone outgrows those crushes. Yes, you may eventually reconnect and might fall in love, but to draw a straight line from what you felt when you were virtually a baby to what you feel as a grown adult man is just not right. And to actually keep mementoes of your childhood crush in a glass case? That is almost creepy IMO. Like how can that be cute??? And it all points back to that Korean obsession with children falling in love, which oftentimes has an incestuous twist. They not only strongly correlate it with being "destined to be together" but they also obviously find it super cute. Anyway, why can't two strangers meet, jive and fall in love, without ever having met ever in childhood? In kdrama that is not allowed. If you didn't meet as children or babies, that means you were never meant for each other LOL. Anyway, this obsession with his past would've been something I would forgive easily if the main lead was more likable. It just annoyed me, but could have been easily forgivable in the context of kdramaland. It just was more annoying here because of the way the main character was written.

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Cartoonish and boring

The story has a manga or anime-type feel to it, with mad scientists and everyone on a path of vengeance to kill someone over things that in reality they should just accept and understand. It's almost on the level of, you stole my sandwich. Now I vow to make it my life mission to kill you. (For instance, there's this kid who vows to kill whoever stabbed his sister. Sounds valid except the sister was a zombie and the person who stabbed her was only protecting themselves from getting bitten, qnd he knew it). It's comical like that but is not really funny and not really entertaining. Pretty boring, actually, for a zombie flick, and I think the fault lies partly on the storytelling but mostly on the character building. The characters just weren't set up enough. We don't know anything and, more importantly, don't feel anything at all for the main leads vecause they're just this rabdom couple who got separated in the apocalypse. We were not given enough of a backgrounder except that one shot they keep repeating of them practicing archery together. It was also funny how the FL instabtly believed the ML was dead after someone told her about it. Didn't even wait to see proof. Just instantly removed his engagement ring by the window and turned to another guy LOL. It's all silly and shallow like that, and doesn't get better till the end.

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Not bad but overrated and overly melodramatic

Watched this after reading a recommendation saying this was better than Little Women, which I really enjoyed. It's not. It's actually more melodrama than suspense, and it's the kind of melodrama that has no restraint, that does not know when to stop and just makes you go brrr.

It started off okay enough. It was pretty compelling in the beginning, especially when I thought the ML really was some psycho with a dark secret. It quickly because obvious that he was the ultra pure "good guy" though masquerading as a psycho instead of the other way around. I was still rolling with it at this point and still quite engaged, even though I noticed how bland and predictable the plot was compared to other suspense kdramas.

And then Episode 12 happened, and all of a sudden the FL, who I felt neutral about throughout but was actually starting to like, made this BS speech at the police station while talking to the ML's sister, so her sister-in-law. She started talking to the sister like she was a piece of trash and she, the FL, was some high and mighty purveyor of all things holy and right. This just really made me go cold for the drama bigtime. First of all, the sister accidentally killed that foreman in the act of trying to protect her brother. It was not her fault that the brother decided to take responsibility for the crime, or rather the act that was done in self-defense. She actually had suffered her whole life due to this, and the guilt that it brought. And now that she wanted to clear her brother's name, his wife tells the sister not to meddle because he was her (the FL's) "person," and he did not need his sister to protect him. Like okay. You're the wife but that does not mean she stops being his sister. She's his family as much as yours, and if she wants to do this for her brother, who are you to stop her and to talk down to her like she was garbage? This really ticked me off and I started disliking the FL from this point on, and actually wanted to drop the drama. But after a while, I decided to see where it was going since I had not decided on what else to watch.

And then the poker-faced "pyscho" ML who was formerly incapable of showing emotions suddenly started crying...and crying and crying and crying in this really melodramatic, over-the-top way. I know he probably had a lot of pent-up emotion, and this was most probably what they were going for, but it was just too much, and the way he cried was not pretty LOL. I couldn't unsee the way his mouth drew down into a small dot and his face crumpled and sort of became long and thin. And from that point on, every time I saw him, all I saw was his unpretty crying face and I started not liking the ML as much as I did in the previous episodes. And it all went downhill from there, along with the plot, which became more and more ridiculous and just all over the place. So, no. Little Women isn't perfect but it's a far cry from this one. I guess the reason this is so highly rated is because there are a lot of drama viewers who are attracted to melodramatic romance. I like romance too but I prefer romcoms. I just am not a fan of melo. This was just too much for me -- too much crying, too much talking, too much drama, especially between the couple, that it just felt cringey and cheesy and just too much. Contrast this with Little Women, where what you could call the main couple, even though they weren't really a couple, elicited much more emotion and gave off more romantic vibes with the barest, the subtlest glances, smiles, and such than this one with its nonstop melodrama ever could. And even the suspense aspects of this and the overall plot just didn't hit hard enough for me. I thought it was a bit lame and not executed well. IMO this series is generally okay -- not bad per se -- but does not deserve to be the number three highest rated drama on this site.

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Overrated

I think this drama suffers from a number of flaws, just from my personal point of view, and I do not understand why it has such high ratings.

First of all, if you're not a fan of noona romances, you would not like this. I do not have problems with age gaps IRL, but I just don't like huge age gaps in my dramas. In this particular case, the actress, while being a fine woman and good at her craft, I'm sure, just somehow felt miscast for the role. She looks and feels way too old for a romance drama of this type. Sometimes it almost feels like she could be the male lead's mom or aunt. The pairing just felt cringey for me. And this is not a prejudice against older women falling in love. There are other dramas where this is given much better treatment and the romance is more age-appropriate, or the actors are better cast.

My second issue is I just did not like the male lead character at all. Not the actor per se. Just the character. I didn't hate him. But there was nothing about the character that I found attractive. He's an okay guy, a fine teacher, but other than that, the character was not developed fully and felt flat and one-dimensional almost. Even his supposed main selling point, his mathematical brilliance, was somehow not utilized enough to make you swoon for him. So with the ML's character not fleshed out and the FL being miscast, the main romance just did not do anything for me at all. Many instances where the FL, who is very ahjumma-like, is acting like a schoolgirl just felt...cringey.

The character of the younger male lead is also poorly written. In a way, he's worse than the main lead because the way he's written, he is not just undeveloped and quite generic, but he also has some glaring character flaws. After the exam fiasco, he resorted to avoidance instead of facing the issue head-on. In the interest of inserting some social commentary about how Korean students suffer from pressure exerted by parents, the writers turned him into a cowardly and immature boy who could not even be open and honest with his supposed best friend who he knew was also suffering and confused due to the circumstances. Just not someone I'd imagine falling in love with. The second teenage male lead had more spunk, more sense, and was at least always there for the female lead. Anyway, both male leads were too bland and uninteresting, and not well-developed, IMO. Just poorly written characters.

I also had some problems with the portrayal of the FL's brother. Was he supposed to have Asperger's? High-functioning autism? Somehow I feel like the portrayal was inaccurate, but I am no expert in this. And I also feel like the actor was miscast. I mean, I'm sorry. He's a fine actor. I've seen him in other dramas. But it would have been better if someone...more attractive were cast in the role so that we could swallow the sudden romance later on. That romance with the FL's best friend just felt too sudden, too forced, and just totally unnecessary. The fact that he said he treated her like an older sister all his life didn't help.

The plot itself is nothing special. It follows the usual format of the new spate of romance kdramas, where the main leads get together at episode 10, after which the plot devolves sharply into a not-that-interesting murder mystery, which, in the case of this drama, was resolved in a totally unsatisfactory way. I guess the main point of the drama is to critique Korea's obsession with academic excellence and tutoring services, and I guess they were able to get that across, at least, but the rest of the drama just feels uninspired and not that interesting.

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Not enough story to go around

The first part of this drama was lovely. I thought the characters were well fleshed out and the concept was interesting. Also, Lee Min Ki made my heart flutter with his unique deadpan charm that I love so much. However, after the couple gets together halfway through, there is not much left but filler and fluff. And the fluff isn't even good fluff. It is boring, predictable, repetitive, cringe-y fluff. Like, we get it. They love each other but that's just not interesting enough to keep me interested for eight more episodes. The one conflict towards the end just made the FL seem fickle and immature. Like come on, toughen up and face the problem head-on instead of living up to the rumors and running away, this time for real. That was IMO pretty poorly written.

Couples getting together early in the drama need not be a disaster. It has been done successfully in many other dramas, but this one just failed to deliver writing-wise. I actually ended up skipping through a lot of the main couple's scenes in the second half because it was just them playing cards, jogging, saying I love you. Like okay. Can't you even give us something interesting in which to set all that fluff? The second couple was more interesting in the second half but not that interesting to make it worthwhile.

The main concept of the FL changing faces was IMO also not utilized properly. It all felt like a poorly patched together and thus ill-fitting mishmash of heavy drama suddenly shifting to unfunny comedy (comprised mainly of one character hitting another) suddenly shifting to tasteless and boring fluff. Most importantly, the second half just did not make me feel anything at all. It was like an empty void filled with senseless stuff. This would have worked better if they had ended it at episode 8. There just was nothing much left after that to hold the drama up.

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Messy and Misguided

What I find most problematic in this drama is its main premise -- that trauma could only be healed through revenge -- by inflicting the same of even greater pain to those who cause you pain. This shows how immature and misguided the writers of this show are. I am not in any way saying bullying or abuse should be tolerated. Not at all. But I was expecting some sort of breakthrough -- maybe an insight into the workings of the human ego and psychopathy, and realizing how carrying the burden of hate actually makes the initial suffering inflicted that much worse. I would have expected the main character to realize somewhere along the way that forgiveness and letting go -- through compassion and being the bigger, noble person -- is the true path to healing and being free from all the anger. Instead, revenge is offered, from start to finish, as the ultimate solution.

And it's not like that revenge is executed as brilliantly as I initially expected. The plot is messy, uninspired, and unfulfilling. There are so many loose threads half-baked explanations, and deus ex machina-type plot devices employed that the narrative is left confusing, unsatisfying, and full of holes. For instance, when Moon Dong-eun was about to jump off that rooftop in that abandoned building, Yeo-jeong's mother suddenly appears out of nowhere to appeal to her to keep on living in order to save her son (through helping him seek revenge, of course).

I also didn't like that they had to unnecessarily turn Do-Young into a murderer in the end. What was all that disgust for Yeon-jin, all that righteous indignation, if he was going to do something equally dastardly? And again, he happened to be right there, and Jae-joon happened to somehow wander up towards the top of a building/factory, when he couldn't see. If I couldn't see, I would not even risk climbing up a set of steps. And Do-Young had been a sort of pillar of morality throughout the drama, and they suddenly had to ruin his character by turning him into a murdered just like his wife.

I also felt bad for the ahjumma that helped the FL carry out her surveillance operations. We do not even see her get reunited or at least reestablish contact with her daughter, when her husband was dead and Yeon-jin was in jail. What was keeping her from following her daughter? Dong-eun wasn't even able to fulfill her part of the bargain of killing her husband. Could she not give the poor woman money to follow her daughter?

None of this makes for a brilliant plot or a truly layered story. I didn't feel that I learned anything useful or that this story enriched me in any way. And did I mention that the love story angle was so forced an unnatural? Zero chemistry between the leads. What an utter waste of time this was.

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Brilliantly written, memorable characters

There is love in this drama, but not exactly the fluffy kind. The main attractions are the brilliantly written characters, most especially Man Weol, one of the most adorably imperfect creations in all of kdramaland, perfectly portrayed by IU. Ku Chan Song at first feels too perfect to be almost flat (and you will undoubtedly get a bad case of second-lead syndrome somewhere in the middle), but in the end you realize he is not really perfect but rather strong, and stable, and solid, exactly in the way Man Weol needs.

The tone, the mood, the way the story unfurls are all pitch-perfect -- just that right blend of dark and light, eeriness and warmth. Hotel del Luna feels both spooky -- a goth princess's daydream -- and a warm rest stop for lonely wandering souls, both in the drama and IRL.

My one complaint would be the totally unnecessary childhood/past life connection they had to add as the final twist in the end. The story would have been perfectly fine without it, IMO. All in all though, this is a sold drama, one of the best-written ones in a long while.

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Cute but flat

The biggest deal-breaker for me is that the characters are flat and caricaturish, and IMO the writing is cheap and shoddily done, full of cliches that will probably be new and thrilling to most young or new kdrama watchers but are stale and boring to old-time kdrama fans (old as in pre-webtoon era) like me. I did not read the webtoon so I am not sure if the characters are as one-dimensional and cliched there as in the drama. Pretty sure there are those who are in love with this type of "cuteness" but if you want dramas with characters you really feel for, who are fleshed out and feels real and are not just cute cartoon characters, then this would not be for you. You could do romcom and ridiculous and silly while still having well-rounded, fully fleshed out and relatable characters, like in Full House, for instance. I found the storytelling here scattered and all over the place, as you would expect from something adapted from a serialized webtoon that has a lot of senseless fillers. I also find the main guy (Suho) bland and uninteresting even though he is playing out one of my favorite tropes -- the cold genius. It takes a certain character/personality for an actor to be able to pull that off well, and this one didn't do it for me even though he looks gorgeous. Overall, cute but flat and boring. Lacks good writing and characterization.

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The premise is interesting enough, and could actually be used to offer a bit of philosophical insight about how Dan-oh is waking up from the dream of life, but the writers did not choose to go there, which is perfectly fine. However, they still proceed, in my opinion, to waste a good enough premise by failing to follow through with a strong, well-written story. The story just sort of wanders off into an aimless ramble soon after it starts. And you're made to expect greater things that don't end up getting delivered. I've noticed this pattern in most web toon-based dramas.

My main problem, however, is with the male lead. If you're fine with male protagonists that are pretty but weak, with zero personality (in this case, starts out as an actual non-entity with literally no remembered persona), then this might work for you. I personally like my men strong, especially in kdramas. But alas, with the current trend in millennial politics, those old dreamy chaebols with their Byronic charms are long gone. They have been relegated to a dark corner called "toxic masculinity" and have been wiped from the face of kdramaland. This drama is a perfect example of how this type of discourse has crept into kdramas and destroyed all the fun (at least for me or others like me). The female lead is strong (or starts out strong) and she is set up to save the pretty-and-weak male, to literally lead him by the hand into salvation (female power! Yeah!). However, things don't seem to work out well in that respect either, based on other reviews I've read.

Dear new breed of kdrama/web toon writers: You do not need to emasculate and totally lobotomize your male leads in order to emphasize strength in your female characters. Also, having or wanting a strong male lead does not necessarily equate to weakness in your female characters. Males and females have different types of strengths that are meant to complement each other. Please bring back our chaebols!

Eherm. Anyway, in an effort to upturn old notions about male dominance, the villain here is the old stereotypical bad boy with a heart of gold, which I end up rooting for anyway, despite the writers' best efforts to, well, villify him. There's a reason why formulas are formulas -- it's because they work. This one just doesn't for me. I suspect it would work for the younger breed of kdrama fans. But for the other old gals out there, kdrama veterans who love the same things I do about kdramas -- the silliness, the romance, the flawed but strong men who could sweep us off our feet, the bad boys with a heart of gold -- you might consider passing on this one.

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