Enjoyable But Nothing Stand-Out

Has funny moments, somewhat engaging storyline, cute relationships (Dochang taking care of Eunhye, Eunhye being a friend to Jaeung? Or whatever the little boy's name is). I always love Korean shows and movies with a small shitty detective office where the group inevitably has multiple scenes chasing criminals down on foot in groups of, like, 7. They're so unprofessional and run-down it amuses me every time somehow.

However, the acting is sometimes rocky, the storyline convoluted, people always yell for no fucking reason, and some main characters I just don't fucking care about. The short haired middle aged woman? So fucking annoying. I don't care about her and Ms. Jin becoming girl boss besties. Please bring us back to Dochang and Jihyuk.

The show does make Dochang morally grey in a way that he can still manage to be likeable. Jihyuk is a bit boring and too clean but whatever. He's the eye candy side kick. I'll let it pass. Eunhye joining family was cute. Jaeung's mother getting him back was wholesome. Ms. Jin and Jihyuk whistle scene was adorable. Was really happy with the ending.

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Worse than Season One, But Still Had Some Fun Parts

I loved AiB S1, rewatching it to completion three or four times, which I absolutely never do with shows. However, this season was muddled, the games weren't as interesting, I was bored a lot, and there were so many things that didn't make sense even within the rules of the universe. How the fuck are these people still alive for hours after getting stabbed or shot multiple times in their stomachs while others are shot once and killed instantly? Does anyone even mention their visas this season? There was no reason the military face card guy could have killed that many people, he had a massive fucking blimp following him the entire time, how did that sneak up on anyone? How was that even a game?

On top of that, Usagi and Arisu are (purposefully) the most bland, self-insert characters ever, which made me not really care what happened to them (though I was screaming at my screen when they meet at the vending machine and don't recognize each other, but this was more because of my hatred of the amnesia trope. That being said, 40% of it was still rooting for them to remember). Ann and Kuina had more chemistry and were way more interesting. Make season 3 only if it's them (and dare I suggest........ lesbian.......... ......)

Chisiya's games were interesting but the end of the number average one seemed like such a copout. And I can't ever care about Chisiya as a character because he shows zero emotion. I sympathized more with insane rapist incel Nigari than him.

A lot of character's acting is just really mediocre, if not straight up bad. Namely Usagi and Arisu, which was a problem even in season one, but it stood out to me even more now.

Ending has me so feeling so many different emotions. I can't tell if I love it or hate it. Meteor thing is cool, but I think I feel so ambivalent because it's not executed well, or maybe I wish more was explained about how the Borderlands function in parallel/relation to the real world. The game with Mira was executed so blandly, for a finale it should have been much more complex and grandiose. I DO like the concept of it seeming like a croquet game but being a psychological test. What I mean by complexity is it felt like Arisu believed her way too easily to the point where it was fucking ridiculous. Why would he believe her when she lied multiple times ten minutes ago, and he knows the point of the game is to psychologically break him? It's so unbelievable.

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Bad but Fun

Listen. I went into this knowing it would be cheesy, low budget, and gimmicky. I wanted a cute romance between tomboys and cute guys, and unfortunately I think this is the best you get within that niche. It's very badly edited and acted, lots of tropes that are done unsatisfyingly, and characters aren't given much depth at all. That being said, I found the humour so incredibly stupid that it was endearing. Funny not quite in the way it wants to be but regardless I giggled throughout. It felt like an Onision skit at parts but without the bigotry so if you also fell down that rabbit hole as a preteen and had a crush on him for years maybe this will be your thing. If you like low budget, cheesy J-dramas that were clearly done with 10 cents and a dream, go for it. Or if you're a bisexual with inclination for feminine men and masculine women (oh, the unspeakable things I'd let Fuji do to me.) Otherwise, maybe skip this one.

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Wonderful Ideas, Executed Questionably

White Christmas attempts to be so much and fails at nearly all of it.

It succeeds at being a cheesy, atmospheric 2011 drama with a unique storyline. However, it leaves much to be desired in it's execution of everything else.

I thought that when Hyejung cut Mireu's hand in the same spot as Yohan and Mooyul, for some reason, described Yohan to the police with only that singular trait that Mireu would be framed as the killer. Yet... he isn't. And it is never mentioned again. This is just one example of a way in which White Christmas fails to fulfill it's potential.

I was optimistic when starting this drama, yet when the psychiatrist nearly gets away at the end because somehow the police didn't recognize his face when he simply told them he's 'actually the teacher, believe me guys', you have to wonder if KBS thinks you're a stupid little mutt that'll eagerly lap up anything they pour in your silly little dusty doggy bowl. The face of the serial killer that they are chasing, that has been displayed on a massive screen during the hostage negotiation, they completely forget and assume must actually be the seven day old frozen body with a gun in its mouth but a gunshot wound on his torso on the roof?

When the children push him over the ledge at the end, he says "I've won", as if we are supposed to contemplate if the children really did become monsters for pushing a serial killer that made their friend commit suicide, that the incompetent police nursed back to health, to his certain death. No, good for them. Is that really the supposedly big, morally grey question they left us with? Could they not have made it a little bit more ambiguous or thought-provoking? Them turning on each other while in the school was much more compelling and interesting, even if that was sometimes underdeveloped as well.

I'm being really negative, but the show had some merit. It was often so ridiculous it was funny, much like Boys Over Flowers which I love dearly. Chi Hoon falls over a small and not-at-all steep hill in the snow and then Moo Yul drops to his knees in despair. He throws him a rope and then screams in agony as he drags his limp body up the 30-degree incline, blood dripping from his hands from friction. I don’t even understand how Chi Hoon ripped up his leg so bad when he just tumbled down a snowy hill for ten seconds, but it would have been entirely feasible (not to mention much easier) to grab his arm and just drag him up either way. I was in shock watching this scene. It was some of the best unintended comedy I have seen in a K-Drama in my life. Not to mention the acting (in this show in general) is often almost so bad it's camp. When it's not frustrating or boring, White Christmas does have a Boys Over Flowers-esque campy charm to it.

I really do love when a show is atmospheric in a way that is served by its clearly 2000s-early 2010s camerawork. It made me feel like I was really there witnessing Hyejung flirt with Eunsung; I could almost smell the unintentional homoeroticism. And the classical music in the soundtrack was an objectively insane choice. That one non-classical song they kept playing also absolutely fucked. I want to try to watch again sometime to see if I would like it more a second time around. I just wish they did what they did... better. With more nuance. With a more substantive and cohesive plot. With less boring filler. A more compelling outcome. I would say "Remake when?", but I fear that that rendition would only take away the shitty 2011 camerawork quality that I love oh-so-much and leave us with all the flaws of the original.

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Mediocre, Had Some Fun Moments

Lee Shin Young and Woo Hyun's characters took the cake for me: Jang Ji Wan was the ditzy but well-intentioned crybaby sidekick that I find really endearing when juxtaposed with competent female colleagues. I'll admit it helped that he's horribly cute. Meanwhile, Jung Soon Gu was such a silly, over-acted character and I couldn't help but giggle at his facial expressions. The plot was somewhat novel to me, with the whole White Night Village experimentation and lucid dreaming thing.

Besides that, I found a lot of the drama fell flat. The acting from main guy, third child, and American girl were pretty rocky, though a lot of that could be due to bad directing. I didn't find Seolhyun's acting too bad, but that might be my affinity for her in AOA speaking. The characters weren't that interesting nor had much depth, including the villains. Do Jeong Woo was such a cocky, annoying character that I never really cared about him. I felt like the story got convoluted and uninteresting after around the middle. Ending was jarringly unsatisfying, though maybe that was amplified by how they did not leave time for you to take in the emotions of the quiet last scene before blasting full volume right into that cheesy outro song and stills from the show.

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