This review may contain spoilers
Office Romance or Thriller?
It’s an alright drama. Personally, I felt that it was way too episodic for my liking and there ended up being too many plot holes and unexplained events towards the end.
Character development was adequate, since the drama focused more on revealing the complexity of the characters on the morally grey scale as opposed to whether or not they actually changed for the greater good. The screenwriters really had a knack for making practically every "villain" someone who did what they did for a reason.
Cinematography was good. The shots and camera work were relatively steady and had some cinematic moments. It had some unique frame-to-frame transitions as well. Lighting was consistent throughout and unlike other dramas, I’m glad that they chose a more "natural" lighting as opposed to putting saturated filters to make colors pop— like, you’re watching a thriller.. not a romcom! The lighting really set the mood for the scenes and was overall enjoyable to watch.
Acting was also good, but I truly felt like ML’s acting lacked something important. I don’t know how to explain it— I just guess that it felt incomplete.
Also, despite popular opinion, I thought that the FL wasn’t too annoying. Personally, I found her witty (not mentioning the stalking phase.. I don’t know how she got away with that). As much as I tried not to dislike her, I was annoyed at how much screen time she had in the drama. IMO, the story could’ve just been centered primarily on the two brothers. It was a shame how the ML got so little screen time despite his importance to the overall story. FL could’ve simply been a background character without the unnecessarily romance. Too much of the plot was centered around those two, and their romantic moments felt like fillers that dragged the drama to an extent. At some point, I found myself having to skip every scene where she and MC interacted because I wanted to see ML so bad.
Ending was textbook perfect. After all, justice was somewhat served.. but only SOMEWHAT. I hate hate hate it when culprits are somewhat invincible. It makes sense if it were to be a fantasy drama, but how is it that our culprit can crawl out of practically any situation regardless of life and death like a rat? He is literally a rat!
The screenwriters could’ve had MC investigate the cases that were actually relevant, such as the ones done by his brother.. but no! The cases MC decides to investigate are merely subplots, with some not even connecting to the bigger picture! Again, this just dragged the drama on an unnecessarily longer length. All we’re left with is implications. The screenwriters drop ambiguous hints based on word of mouth here and there, such as when Meena said that the P guy was going to be his "last victim." Did he kill all those other 9 people or did he use others as his executioners? Why did he choose those executioners? Context is very limited, which makes connecting the cases to the bigger picture appear like a tangled mess.
Logic is somewhat out of the window for some aspects of this drama. For example, the whole idea of the culprit having no pulse is just so mind-boggling and anatomically wrong that I just can’t get it out of my mind.. but at the same time, I have to just remind myself that this is a work of fiction, and things aren’t supposed to make sense.. I guess?
Overall, the major flaw of this drama is the plot. Trust me, the premise is very promising, but the execution could’ve been done entirely different. First things first, start off by filling in the plot holes for gods sake!
Character development was adequate, since the drama focused more on revealing the complexity of the characters on the morally grey scale as opposed to whether or not they actually changed for the greater good. The screenwriters really had a knack for making practically every "villain" someone who did what they did for a reason.
Cinematography was good. The shots and camera work were relatively steady and had some cinematic moments. It had some unique frame-to-frame transitions as well. Lighting was consistent throughout and unlike other dramas, I’m glad that they chose a more "natural" lighting as opposed to putting saturated filters to make colors pop— like, you’re watching a thriller.. not a romcom! The lighting really set the mood for the scenes and was overall enjoyable to watch.
Acting was also good, but I truly felt like ML’s acting lacked something important. I don’t know how to explain it— I just guess that it felt incomplete.
Also, despite popular opinion, I thought that the FL wasn’t too annoying. Personally, I found her witty (not mentioning the stalking phase.. I don’t know how she got away with that). As much as I tried not to dislike her, I was annoyed at how much screen time she had in the drama. IMO, the story could’ve just been centered primarily on the two brothers. It was a shame how the ML got so little screen time despite his importance to the overall story. FL could’ve simply been a background character without the unnecessarily romance. Too much of the plot was centered around those two, and their romantic moments felt like fillers that dragged the drama to an extent. At some point, I found myself having to skip every scene where she and MC interacted because I wanted to see ML so bad.
Ending was textbook perfect. After all, justice was somewhat served.. but only SOMEWHAT. I hate hate hate it when culprits are somewhat invincible. It makes sense if it were to be a fantasy drama, but how is it that our culprit can crawl out of practically any situation regardless of life and death like a rat? He is literally a rat!
The screenwriters could’ve had MC investigate the cases that were actually relevant, such as the ones done by his brother.. but no! The cases MC decides to investigate are merely subplots, with some not even connecting to the bigger picture! Again, this just dragged the drama on an unnecessarily longer length. All we’re left with is implications. The screenwriters drop ambiguous hints based on word of mouth here and there, such as when Meena said that the P guy was going to be his "last victim." Did he kill all those other 9 people or did he use others as his executioners? Why did he choose those executioners? Context is very limited, which makes connecting the cases to the bigger picture appear like a tangled mess.
Logic is somewhat out of the window for some aspects of this drama. For example, the whole idea of the culprit having no pulse is just so mind-boggling and anatomically wrong that I just can’t get it out of my mind.. but at the same time, I have to just remind myself that this is a work of fiction, and things aren’t supposed to make sense.. I guess?
Overall, the major flaw of this drama is the plot. Trust me, the premise is very promising, but the execution could’ve been done entirely different. First things first, start off by filling in the plot holes for gods sake!
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