It was a fun watch but could have been better.

Before we begin, please don't come here thinking a 6.5 rating is something bad, it is literally slightly above average. But due to MDLers dishing out constant 8s and 10s, the rating system has kinda lost its value. So please know this before thinking that I'm calling this show bad.

Okay so let's begin with what I liked about this show:

-The villains: without even a hitch I can tell you the villains were the most interesting thing about this show for me, even the empty ones that were dumbly frustrating (like the old manager guy) made this show the charm that it is today.
Be for real with me right now, without them, most of our main characters would be meh.

-Park Minhwan's active involvement in Kang Jiwon's downfall , compared to the webtoon were he took a back sit and was more like a roach while Sumin did all the work.

-The changes that were made pertaining to Jihyuk's involvement in the story: unlike the original work were he was more of a pretty backdrop, this time around they gave him a backstory and a reason to exist in this world instead of being "Kang Jiwon's rich and powerful husband".

-The fact they didn't drag out Yang Juran's story.

- Hwiyeon! Just Hwiyeon. Some may say she was a bit too much and almost cartoonish, but I liked her since day one, she's a bundle of sunshine and I just wanna pinch her cheeks.

-The overall story was interesting and fun to follow. Especially if you had to watch it while it was airing, each episodes left me at the edge of my sit (at least before we went past episode 12, but I'll get back to that).

I think this is were it stops, now unto what I disliked or what they could have done better:

-The MCs. Oh my goodness where do I begin? They were bland asf and it's not even subtle. I won't judge Kang Jiwon too harshly because I realize she's sorta supposed to be this character that anyone watching can use to experience the high of getting revenge on your enemies (kinda like how power fantasy characters are written, Solo Leveling for example).

Even then she was way too perfect for me and felt unrelatable, since her only flaws were being naïve and nice. However, I'll admit that I enjoyed how the writers had her fail multiple times when going up against Sumin before realizing what a monster her "friend" truly was. After that, I can't tell you anything else I found interesting about her.

I don't have much to say about the leading guy. He was boring and just a tool used by the writers to get KJW to her preferred location. You know how I said, "I like changes that were made pertaining to Jihyuk's involvement in the story..." ? Well the more they involved him, the more I realized just how boring he could get.
I skipped through most of it, you did well Na In Woo but even you couldn't save this one.

-The romance, I didn't like it in the webtoon and neither do I like it in the remake. It's all related to the fact the author/writers wrote the MCs to be almost flawless that even their romance took a hit. I can't tell you for the life of me, why Kang Jiwon likes Jihyuk or the other way around, yeah they tell us but I feel they didn't show us enough of it.

Their lack of real conflicts was appalling, and you might say but they did have a conflict about Yura...really? That was barely a conflict with its blandness, made no sense and was so empty. I felt nobody truly grew from said conflict because it was resolved by their circumstances and not the people involved. It was also a great tool used to extend the episodes...

- Oh Yu-ra. Need I say more?
She was just an empty shell used to fuel the drama and extend the episodes. I said I liked all the villains, except once you get past episode 12, she makes her entrance and from the get go I could tell they just wanted to extend the watch time. Her motives were okay but her way of going about it was so dumb and made no sense whatsoever. Her whole existence in this story made no sense and she could have been dealt with faster.

-The number of episodes: be for real with me, if you've seen the show, you can admit that it dropped in quality the moment we it the 12 episode mark. This should've been shorter and episode 14 would have been a great place to end it but they dragged the conflict all the way to 16. I'm very outspoken about not liking the 16 episodes formula because most of the dramas I used to watch and liked usually see a decline of quality around the 12 episode mark because they're trying to warp the story into a format that is not meant for them.

- The fact they removed Hwiyeon's mom really made me sad. She was a really fun character I would have been happy to learn more about.

- The fashion... were we truly in 2013? Were are the bright colors? The crazy patterns? The bangs? For reference The Heirs came out in 2013.


So yeah, overall this wasn't a bad show but it wasn't great either, the characters lacked personality especially those on the good guys' side. I would still recommend it because a lot of people enjoyed it , myself included, because yes you can like/enjoy a show while still being critical about it. Thank you for listening to my rambling if you made it this far and feel free to disagree if you feel I got some things wrong.

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Pleasantly Surprised...

Wow what an epic show, it had me at the edge of my seat each episode.
I liked the overall story and even more I liked the character and how fully fleshed out they felt. I especially have a soft spot for the villain because he is my favorite out of the whole ensemble.
If I had to rate them:
1- Kim Myeong-il aka the villain, that actually felt like a proper human being that's blinded by greed and that would do anything to get what he wants. He also felt like an actual mafia boss, from the way he organized his surroundings to his expansion projects.
He is actually intimidating, and I will not shut up about how powerful Park Sungwoong is as a villain. Fucking hell he ate that and left not even a little droplet of h20.

2- Obviously Gun Woo and Woojin. I can't rate them separately because there is no Gun woo without Woojin and vice-versa, they are so adorable and funny when they're together. I especially loved how they first met, it felt so real and sincere I can only hope to meet such a friend like that in this lifetime. They lift each other up and support one another no matter what, especially during such hard times where its to each their own. They uphold their values, morals and integrity, so I can't tell you how broken I was when Gun woo broke down as h realized that he himself had become a bloodhound but his big bro Woojin was there to remind him of what brought them to this point. I love their dynamic sm, I just smile whenever they come on.
I could write tons of paragraph about how they are the best bromance pair I have seen in all of k-drama history, but imma hold back lol.

3- Mr. Choi. I don' t have much to say other than I liked how they built his character, how the actor managed to actually make us feel that this man had been through sm and was trying to change but also tired of the world he had once ruled. Maybe I don't actually like the characters lmao, I have some mad respect for the acting. Once he left the show, the hole that he left was truly massive.

4- Hyeonju. Oh, dear Hyeonju what a missed opportunity you were. For those who don't know, Park Saeron who portrays her had a DUI scandal during the filming and thus why she was hastily written out. Her presence was really important, and it felt too unnatural that she of all people would run away after the death of Mr. Choi, they tried to replce her with Dami, but it was a failure especially since she was introduced only two episodes away from the end.

5- Im Beom...why? I just really liked seeing that huge mountain like Blackbear get squandered like a bug by Gun woo and Woojin, so I put him here. Appreciate the actor for being so good to the point of making me want to punch him even though I would just break my bones.

I would add the other characters such as Duyeong and Yangjun (the knife masters) who were really cool but I'm still mentally recovering from what happened to them.

So why was I pleasantly surprised? I was pissed off when the story decided to kill off 3 of, if not the most, important characters in the show. The knife maters and Mr. Choi.
But then I cried, complaining that I was watching the show to escape reality and they were just serving me a cold plate of wake-up soup. Yes, I hate how sudden their death was, but it felt so gut wrenchingly realistic, reminding us of how dangerous this was, how high the stakes are and in the words of Mr. Choi: "All this will end with someone dying".

Which pisses me off even more because as we got closer to the ending, I was surprised how easily KMI had gone down. The same fearless man who fought knife to knife with a master but couldn't have a go against two rookie boxers. When he killed the Mr.Choi and his men, KMI had understood that his boys could not stand against the Gun-Woojin duo and so calculatively attacked them from all sides. But you're telling me this man went down after a simply auditing?

I'm not very happy with the ending nor the characters introduced around that time except for the chaebol's cousin. Speaking f I hate the chaebol and would never trust him with the gold, he looked like he would be laundering it all away from the main guys.

Overall, I still like it and I understand that the difficulties that arose externally to the show, shaped the ending. Still highly recommend it. 9/10!

Also I refuse to accept Duyeong, his wife and kids are dead... they died off screen so bring me the proof!!!!

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A love so beautiful, you have to rewatch to truly understand

(I feel this is more of my feelings on the ending than a full on review so...)
I think I'll have to watch this beauty a few more times to truly understand how deeply they love and care for each other. Maybe 2 rewatches because until now its a mess in my head...I'm happy, I'm sad, I'm satisfied and yet disappointed with the ending. My feelings are conflicted because this is the first time I've seen such complex and unfamiliar emotions being so well portrayed.
I'm left confused and amazed.
I understand them to some extent but somehow i could never even begin to truly understand lest i actually experience their love, pain, agony, happiness and so much more.

Holy hell, this movie make me want to write freaking essays that i hate sm. And ofc its always Zhou Dong You and her impeccable acting that do this to me ?? (damn her good taste)

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JUST A FEW WORDS

I beg you, if you liked S2 and S1, I highly recommend you watch this as if it were a standalone. It's amusing to a certain point due to its ridiculousness, you'll feel very frustrated and like a masochist for putting yourself through this but hey, the acting's great and that might distract you from the 100000 senseless story lines. Feeling stressed, watch penthouse 3 :)

Anyways I still stand by the fact that this drama would have been taken really seriously and held to the same level as Sky Castle if only they had stopped 2 seasons earlier. I know this is not much of a review but if I went in depth I'd honestly be spoiling the whole drama, so enjoy yourself :)

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It was quite grounded for a fantasy drama.

So first thing first, I don't think this is a 'woah, this deserves a daesang' sort of drama, no, it's pretty simple and slow but I kinda like it.
If you are like me and really enjoy a romantic drama without anything dramatic inconveniencing it (ie. mother-in-laws, superficial childhood traumas, family debts where the main lead's family did something wrong to the other, ceo of a company,
unreasonable unforbidden love... the usual) then I think you should give this one a try. Not to say there won't be a reason keeping our main apart, but it will feel reasonable and will be overcome.
Now I know I said it's grounded in reality for a fantasy drama and I stand by it. It's sort of realistic in a sense where the main don't really fight for the stupidest reasons, they are open and honest with each other and their love feels earned. It's nice to watch them enjoy the small things in life, not going after an imminent villain that they have to have a showdown with at the end.

Which leads me to my second point, the lack of an actual villain was really a good thing for me, I know halfway there is the gumiho turned evil spirit but they were only there for half an episode. I like that the fact that the main being a gumiho kept them apart and it felt quite realistic.

But then, without a looming threat to overcome, i think this drama would have been better if it had been shortened. It didn't really need a full 16 episodes, I feel like it would have been better shorter, excluding the whole thing with the evil spirit gumiho. (Also some of the episodes' climaxes were hit in the middle of said episodes ,I'd get up to start a new episode thinking, this is probably gonna be a cliffhanger, only to find out I haven't even finished half of the episode)
It dragged on some episodes that should have been dealt with in 1 episode but stretched into 3 full episode ( the whole Lee Dam acting like she had lost her memory...) and the whole "I'm a gumiho, you're human, we can't be together" thing starts to become very repetitive.

In the end anyways, the supporting characters and the others have good plots on their sides that are interesting and even the main leads are great, they have really good chemistry that make you forget the pacing of the show. The two other supporting roles Do Jaejin and Yang Hyesun are a cute couple in the making and I just loved seeing how expressive Kim Dowan was as Do Jaejin. It's nice to see men allowed to cry on screen.
I also liked the cameos, and although I love Go Kyung Pyo with all my heart but Han Ji Eun and Kang Mina were my favorites (honorable mentions, Jung Somin and Kim Doyeon).

In conclusion if you want to feel fluffy and lonely because you don't have a boyfriend/girlfriend , I recommend this sweet and soft drama, you're just gonna have to deal with the pacing a little bit

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