Player

Player

6/10

Player

Genre:                                                   Episodes: 14                                  Year: 2018

Action

Mystery

Synopsis:

The Crime Proceeds Redemption team consists of Kang Ha Ri, a con man, Im Byung Min, a hacker, Do Jin Woong, an ex-fighter, and Cha Ah Ryong, a getaway driver. The team works together to bring rich and powerful criminals to justice, while stealing all their illegally gained funds along the way.

Cast:

Song Seung Heon (Kang Ha Ri)

Lee Shi Un (Im Byung Min)

Tae Won Seok (Do Jin Woong)

Krystal (Cha Ah Ryong)

Kim Won Hae (Jang In Gyu)

Yoo Ye Bin (Choo Yeon Hee)

General Thoughts:

OCN is back with another rag-tag, home-made family of vigilantes. I feel like OCN gave birth to this genre back with 'Bad Guys', and that 'Player' is a much more light hearted, modern version. Not that I’m complaining- I love groups of criminals that band together to take down bigger criminals while finding loving, meaningful relationships as they go.

Nothing says besties quite like stealing millions of laundered dollars 

While not as dark or detailed as other vigilante dramas, ‘Player’ was still a fun and interesting watch. Most of the time I had basically no idea what was going on in the plot, why the bad guys were bad, or how our team was going to come out on top, but the main group of characters were just so funny, and their relationships were so enjoyable to watch that it didn’t really phase me.

I have no idea what's going on, but it's fun so whatever

The writing wasn’t exactly fabulous (I’m pretty sure this was his first drama), but it wasn’t downright awful. I could see where the writer wanted to take his story, and it was clear that there were certain scenarios that had been really well thought through. But unfortunately one good idea does not a good drama make. This show didn’t really do very well at connecting all its good ideas. When we got to one of those scenarios that had been well planned out, it was easy to watch and enjoy, but the lead up to the group’s missions often left me feeling confused. The PD was also pretty green, and while it didn’t show all that often, I will say that the fight scenes were hard to watch. For starters, it seemed like they were trying to make the fight scenes too cool and too badass. There were a lot of camera movements and rapid switching of angles, and while that occasionally added a sense of urgency and dramatic tension to a scene, most of the time it just made it hard to see what was going on. Which is a total shame, because the fight scenes seemed really cool and well choreographed.

I could never tell who was winning the fights- I just assumed it was the Player Team

And while it made sense for Jin Woong to be able to take on so many bad guys at once, and even kinda believable for Ha Ri, I often found myself having to suspend my disbelief when Ah Ryong was able to take down so many gangsters at once. Or worse- when Byung Min (the group’s computer nerd) got into fights and won. It made our good guys seem way to overpowered, and the bad guys way to bad at fighting.

Confidence is the best accessory

Like, this is literally their job. They are paid to fight people- there’s no way they’d be that bad at it. That being said, one of the show’s bright points is that it was so good at balancing humour with its more serious notes. The rapper between the characters rapport always pretty jovial, so it didn’t feel awkward or forced when that lighthearted attitude carried over into more serious scenarios. I also really enjoyed the soundtrack. I thought it was the perfect mix of songs, and never found that they were overused. An emotional scene can become less emotional if it’s paired with a track that we’ve heard 500 other times throughout the drama, but I think ‘Player’ did a really great job at matching its music to its scenes. The acting was great all round, particularly from our leading man. Song Seung Heon gave Ha Ri the perfect mix of arrogant confidence and veiled compassion. It can be hard to make a character with unclear motives likeable, but Song Seung Heon did an excellent job at keeping Ha Ri loveable by showing how much he cared for his teammates, but also managed to keep the mystery surrounding his identity and his personal involvement in their cases.

I didn't care what this team was doing as long as they were doing it together

Krystal isn’t the type of access who can get me excited about a drama just by seeing she’s in it, but she has a knack for choosing roles that compliment her strengths. She played Ah Ryong nicely, and had great chemistry with her co stars. Lee Shi Un has a looooong list of credits as a side character, and while he does have a flair for comedy, it was nice to see him take on some more serious scenes here.

The price of breaking out from your comedic side-kick roles

While Byugn Min was used for comedy quite a lot, his character arc did get quite dark towards the end, and it was satisfying to see that Lee Shi Un is able to bring in the heavy emotions when he needs to. Tae Won Seok might have been type cast for this role (I mean, K-Drama doesn’t exactly have a large number of super beefy actors at its disposal), but I thought he did a great job at bringing out Jin Woong’s softer side. Any man of his size would have been just as able to look scary and throw punches, so it was enjoyable to see how Jin Woong became such a marshmallow outside of physical confrontation. Tae Won Seok was so good at being a giant softy that I kind of wish the show had shown a little bit more of that side of his character. I always say that I enjoy Kim Won Hae being serious rather than comical, so it was nice to see him in another serious role. While his character could somehow be frustratingly slow (why would you not get suspicious when you’ve been called out of the blue to the the building your sunbae was murdered in? Why?), but he was an enjoyable character all the same.

Wait, you're telling me there are high level prosecutors in K-Drama that aren't corrupt? 

Vigilante dramas so often have the criminals fighting the worse criminals, that it was nice addition to have a regular, law abiding prosecutor brought into the mix. While In Kyu did bend the rules a bit by turning a blind eye to what Ha Ri and his team were doing (and even actively helping them on occasion), it was still nice to have a prosecutor in a K-Drama that wasn’t evil or corrupt. 

What Was Great:

Players:

By far the best part of this show was our rag-tag team of heroes. It was fun seeing Ha Ri pull them all together, and it was even more fun watching them work together on their plans.

The camaraderie was fabulous

The bickering between the members was always fun, and it was lovely to see how they all pulled together to form their own family, particularly around Ah Ryong. As a getaway driver wasn’t something the group particularly needed all that much, it was nice to give Ah Ryong a role outside of that. While the three boys were all good friends and worked together well as a team, they never quite hit that ‘family’ dynamic until Ah Ryong was brought into the mix. Unlike the boys, Ah Ryong was more a victim of circumstance with becoming a petty criminal, and all the boys were extremely protective over her. As fun as all the group’s schenennigins were, the best parts of this drama were definitely when they were banding together to look after their beloved dongsaeng, Ah Ryong. While the plot was pretty messy, it was insanely fun to come on this adventure with this particular group of characters, and their fun family dynamic made this show an easy, enjoyable watch. I’m glad that the writer kept romance out of our main four too.

Three examples of the 'Don't Touch My Donsaeng' look

It almost looked like the show was hinting at a romantic relationship between Ha Ri and Ah Ryong, or even between Ah Ryong and Byung Min. While I probably wouldn’t have minded if they had paired Ah Ryong up with any of the three boys in the team, I kind of preferred that we kept everything neutral, and that both Ah Ryong and the boys were delighted at having them simply be oppas.

What Wasn’t:

Bad Plot:

For the most part I’m not quite sure why anything happened in this drama. I had a basic idea of what was going on, but the details flew way over my head. I knew enough to know who it was our team was fighting against, but did I know why? Nope.

This window of doom is as confusing as it is suspicious

And as fun as the team’s heists and plans were, I found them a little tricky to follow at times. Quite possibly because they always seemed to go wrong. Once or twice would have been okay, but it seemed like our team messed up their plans far more often than they got them right.

This was Ha Ri's masterplan? Because it's terrible.

Which made them feel more lucky than talented. I also think the final confrontation was a bit of a disappointment. The crew had done some pretty crafty cons in this show, so to have them take down their biggest nemesis by a simple hidden camera felt super lame. Super duper lame. I failed to see what made the hidden camera so dangerous and risky and hard to do that it would take Ha Ri years and years of planning. For all the show’s talk of ‘That Person’ being the best manipulator and greatest criminal influence, he sure went down pretty easy. I never really clicked on to how all the smaller puzzle pieces fit together to create the big picture, or why Ha Ri had to bring down all theses other corrupt men to get to ‘That Person’ either. I kind of knew that somehow everyone was related and it all made sense, but it was never super clear and there was never that ‘ah ha!’ moment where it all came together to form one big cohesive story.

Recommend?

No, not really. While the characters and their family dynamic were cute and fun, there are other ragtag vigilante dramas that have an actual understandable plot driving the team.

Fun but forgettable

Mystery Queen 2

Mystery Queen 2

7/10

Mystery Queen 2

Genre:                                                   Episodes: 16                                    Year: 2018

Comedy

Mystery

Synopsis:

After getting a divorce from her husband, Yoo Seol Ok is focused on passing the police exam so she can officially become an officer and work on solving crimes. However, she keeps getting distracted by Detective Ha Wan Seung as he asks for her help finding culprits behind various violent crimes.

Cast:

Choi Kang Hee (Yoo Seol Ok)

Kwon Sang Woo (Ha Wan Seung)

Lee Da Hee (Jung Hee Yeon)

Park Byung Eun (Woo Sung Ha)

Kim Hyun Sook (Kim Kyung Mi)

Kim Won Hae (Jo In Ho)

Oh Min Seok (Gye Sung Woo)

Min Ah (Shin Na Ra)

Kim Min Sang (Hwang Jae Min)

Min Sung Wook (Gong Han Min)

General Thoughts:

The second instalment of ‘Mystery Queen’ has me feeling a bit conflicted. On the one hand, it’s a thoroughly enjoyable series that continues the same unique brand of quirkiness from Season 1 (seriously, you won’t find another K-Drama like it), but on the other hand the actual main story line that we waited all through the first season and all through this one for still wasn’t resolved.

I feel like I don't have much more to say after my Season 1 review...

I’m not sure if it was a weakness of the writer and there just isn’t a satisfactory conclusion to that particular mystery at all, or if they are seriously angling for a third season. But to start, let’s focus on what the show did well. The three actors that have carried across to Season 2 all did brilliant jobs at reprising their previous roles.

I wish Dong Ha had stuck around to fill the puppy-shaped hole in my heart

It was familiar and comfortable and made the audience more accepting of other changes that had occurred between seasons (though I’m still a bit salty about the loss of our puppy policeman). I also thought the new additions did an excellent job at fitting into a story that was so successful last season. The new characters themselves were pretty fun and quirky, and were noticeably different from the characters we’d had last season, which made it feel less like they were trying to fill the void left by the actors that didn’t sign up for Season 2. One thing I did notice in this second instalment is that the PD had changed. It’s not something I usually notice, but about a third of the way through I had a sneaky suspicion that the PD wasn’t the same- and I was right. It wasn’t a big deal, and for the most part the PD was able to create the same vibe as the first, but I did notice that they relied heavily on music. And I mean heavily. While the first season used the soundtrack as a way to compliment scenes, I found that this time around the soundtrack was used to create mood. Which isn’t a bad thing- but it does make you feel like the drama is trying to manipulate your emotions a bit when it’s done so obviously.

Cue the dark, creepy music

Scenes that would otherwise not be mysterious or creepy (such as Hee Yeon icing a cake) were made to feel suspenseful due to the go-to mysterious music. Occasionally I did find that the visuals and the music were kinda at odds, and it made a few scenes feel a tad disjointed. It also makes it less surprising that Hee Yeon wasn’t who she said she was when literally every scene of her alone was accompanied by classically villainous music.

Guess who's the first to go

Like, she’s not an innocent baker? Gasp, shock, horror, not. In regards to the plot, I think most of it moved along pretty nicely, with each new crime being different and interesting in its own way. Again, the show did a brilliant job at introducing aspects of future cases so they felt more natural rather than forced in order to create plot. I was impressed that they were able to come up with new cases that felt different from the first instalment, which kept the show from feeling like a copy-paste of last season. Admittedly, I thought killing off Mi Joo felt a wee bit similar to killing off the panty-girl last season (sweet, innocent girl that the detectives know gets murdered). While I appreciated how it rolled into the set-up that was the same as Seol Ok’s parents’ murder, at some point you just get a bit tired of young girls always getting killed off. Maybe if her big, beefy boyfriend had been murdered first it would have been a bit more interesting. Yeah, I know realistically girls get murdered more often than guys (we’re just smaller and easier to hide, I guess), but it’s been on TV so much that at this point it’s pretty standard murder material.

My care-levels for this case were pretty low

I also think this season’s crimes were waaaaaay easier to figure out. While most of the enjoyment comes from watching our two detectives piece together the clues and find the criminal their own way,

He's just weird-weird not fun-weird

I remember being much more curious about the truth behind the cases last season. For example in the poisoning case, it just took absurdly long for anyone to figure out that it was in fact poison. Which I called from the minute the first guy died. Dead guy around, no witnesses, no weapon, apparently no culprit at all? Yes, it must be a stealthy ninja murderer. Or a ghost! No you noodles, it’s poison. On a side note, as random as it felt in the beginning, I did enjoy that Kyung Mi was brought in as a forensic officer. I enjoyed her character’s humour and sass and was glad it was incorporated into this season as well. Though I personally found her weirdo boss a little overdone. I loved the various characters that populated each case, with Dong Ha being a particular stand out. That boy’s just so good at everything, and even as a petty criminal he was just delightful. I did feel like there were a few inconsistencies from last season though (since when has Wan Seung had a brother?).

I mean, why bother introducing him as a character if he's not gonna do anything?

I thought his whole thing last season was that he was the heir to Ha and Jung Law, but the drama played these changes with such confidence that it was pretty easy to just accept and roll with it. 

What Was Great:

Detective Duo is Back:

The main draw of this drama is of course the returning leads. We fell in love with them and their bickering chemistry last season, and I honestly couldn’t wait to see more of them.

I'm impressed with how well they un-ajummafied Seol Ok

The romantic tension was just delicious, and I adored how everyone (and I mean everyone) knew they were basically dating- the two just hadn’t made anything official. Seol Ok and Wan Seung felt much more like a team this season, with their bickering relating mostly to personal matters, leaving them free to cooperate and support each other during their detective work. I particularly loved Wan Seung’s disapproval at Sung Woo calling Seol Ok ‘ajumma’, and how he completely supported her coming into the station and helping out with cases. The ring mystery (even though it was pretty obvious) was cute and funny, and was a clever way to keep the leads from getting together too early. Though I will say that I’m a tad disappointed that I’ve watched two seasons now and my Sherlock and Watson still didn’t start dating. 

What Wasn’t:

Still No Movement:

This is the huge downside to the drama. While the side cases were all interesting in their own right (mostly), we’re all here to see the main mystery that is Hyun Soo’s disappearance and the murder of Seol Ok’s parents.

An accurate depiction of my emotions when I realised all the main plot would once again be crammed into two hours

Once again the drama waited until it was in its very final stages before it began addressing the main plot-line at all. By the end of the show I was still completely and utterly confused as to why people tried to murder Hyun Soo

Seriously man- what the chizz are you even doing?

and why she had to live her life in hiding afterwards. And who was the dead girl at the end of last season then? How was she wearing the couple ring that Wan Seung gave Hyun Soo? And while it was fairly obvious that Hee Yeon was Wan Seung’s Hyun Soo, I still didn’t quite understand how she went from scared teenager to shadowy manipulator who buys people off with money-cakes. We discover who Secretary Kim is (was he even in last season? I don’t remember…), but he gets away at the end, after killing Hee Yeon I might add, and I’m none the wiser as to what his deal even is. I mean really, why were all these powerful adults so interested in killing some random girl? While I completely and utterly enjoyed the show, I was a tad annoyed to come out the other side with hardly any more information on the actual ‘main’ story. The only progress we made from Season 1 is a confirmation that yes, Hyun Soo was still alive (well…not now), and putting a face to Secretary Kim. That’s all. 

Recommend?

Only if you’ve seen and liked Season 1.

If there's a Season 3 you better finish telling your d*mn story 

While You Were Sleeping

While You Were Sleeping

7/10

While You Were Sleeping

Genre:                            Episodes: 16                           Year: 2017

Romance

Fantasy

Synopsis:

Nam Hong Joo has dreams about the future while she is asleep, and these dreams always come true no matter how hard she tries to prevent them. Hong Joo meets Jung Jae Chan, a man who was able to prevent one of her dreams from coming true.

Cast:

Lee Jong Suk (Jung Jae Chan)

Bae Suzy (Nam Hong Joo)

Jung Hae In (Han Woo Tak)

Lee Sang Yeob (Lee Yoo Bum)

Kim Won Hae (Choi Dam Dong)

Ko Sung Hee (Shin Hee Min)

Shin Jae Ha (Jung Seung Won)

Min Sung Wook (Lee Ji Kwang)

Bae Hye Sun (Son Woo Joo)

Lee Ki Young (Park Dae Young)

General Thoughts:

There’s a lot that this drama does very well, and it pulls all its best elements together to formulate an interesting and enjoyable show. Sure, there were aspects of the show that could have been done better, but as a whole the series was pretty successful.

The beginnings of a great trio

While not my favourite of Park Hye Ryun’s works (there’s also ‘Page Turner’, ‘Pinocchio’, ‘I Hear Your Voice’ and more), this writer has a wonderful way of making characters really pop. While the story always moved at a good pace, and each different case was interesting in its own way, it was the characters that made this drama feel a bit more special than others.

While I love when he plays cool guys, I also love when he gets to make faces like this

Park Hye Ryun has worked with both of these leads before (and Lee Jong Suk twice), so it didn’t come as a big surprise that the characters and the actors suited each other really well. In my opinion, Lee Jong Suk is best when he’s cutely dorky with a dash of raw emotion thrown in- which is exactly how he was here. He shone in every scene he was in, and I think the writer’s thorough understanding of Lee Jong Suk’s strengths (does he have any weaknesses though?) made not only the character of Jae Chan stand out, but also Lee Jong Suk himself. I was a little less convinced with Suzy’s acting performance this time around, which is weird because I find her pretty okay in most things while others find her terrible, but this time when I think she’s not great everyone else thinks she’s done well.

Not amazing, not terrible

Anyway, I digress. There wasn’t exactly a particular type of emotion that Suzy struggled with, it was just that occasionally in a scene I could really feel Suzy acting, rather than only seeing the character. However, there were also times Suzy did really well. I loved her more goofy, weird moments, and she really sold that Hong Joo was a bit of an oddball- particularly at the start of the show during the leads’ initial interactions. Speaking of the leads interactions, I think I must be one of the only people who didn’t buy the chemistry between Suzy and Lee Jong Suk.

I am (surprisingly) not feelin' it

Most of the time I didn’t really 100% believe their relationship, and a lot of their cute moments felt scripted rather than natural. It's not to say that there weren’t some genuine, lovely moments between the leads, but those other moments where the chemistry was weaker was enough to have me lose a little interest in their love line.

Kim Soo Hyun X 2PM's Junho = The perfect face (aka- Jung Hae In)

Our second male lead, Jung Hae In, has just become one of my new favourite K-Drama faces. Not only is that boy ridiculously handsome (seriously, 100% my style), but he can act too! Despite my undying love for Lee Jong Suk, I was occasionally smacked with a bit of Second Male Lead Syndrome. It’s not that I wanted Hong Joo to ditch Jae Chan and date the gorgeous policeman, but Jung Hae In sold his one-sided crush in such a heartbreakingly believable way that I kind of wanted it to become real for him. And yet, a lot of the charm of the character was the way Woo Tak was content to like Hong Joo secretly while watching her be happy with Jae Chan. Seriously K-Drama, these are the second leads we love- endearing and sweet and generous without any brooding jealousy. The Dragon Club were a delightful bunch and I always loved their interactions with each other, especially as the drama focused on some smaller moments of how their friendship grew (my personal favourite being the all-inclusive breakfasts). I almost wished we’d had more scenes of the three of them together, as they had an interesting dynamic when it was the three of them that was completely different to how they acted in one-on-one situations.

Dragon Club, fighting!

Outside of our three main leads, I really adored Shin Jae Ha as our hero’s younger brother. The two had great chemistry together (dare I say more than what the leads had), and the scenes that the two shared often turned out to be some of the funniest in the whole show.

Spin off season starring the Jung brothers, please?

The two really nailed the bickering but loving dynamic and made for one adorable pair. Lee Sang Yeob did well as our villain, even if it did kind of feel like he was the only lawyer in the whole of Korea. I was surprised that I could dislike Yoo Bum's character so quickly after loving Lee Sang Yeob so much in his last role. He totally brought the bad guy vibes in less of an evil way, and more of a slimy, cunning way, which kind of made a nice change from our usual straight-up evil villains. For the side characters, the constant cameo parade was much appreciated. While it’s nice to have new actors and actresses getting smaller roles, sometimes it's also nice to have more experienced actors completely dominate the smaller characters. I adored Kim So Hyun so much (and she was in a love line with Shin Jae Ha!), and I kind of wished she’d been a permanent cast member. Each side character added a whole lot of depth to the show, and helped the story progress smoothly and not feel too strictly episodic despite the rather procedural format.

Kim So Hyun can totally star in the spin off season too

The show itself was shot beautifully and there were a whole lot of scenes that were just incredibly stunning. There was usually a pretty clear distinction between what was dream and what was was reality due to a slight change in the lighting or clarity of a scene, which helped the drama as a whole be a lot less confusing. 

What Was Great:

Story Progression:

With a lot of K-Dramas you can very clearly see the episode plans and how the writer introduces and then concludes conflicts.

From side character to major plot point

One thing that ‘While You Were Sleeping’ absolutely nailed was the way it introduced new characters that would bring new conflicts with them. The writer never waited until the previous issue had been resolved to bring in a new case-of-the-day, but often introduced new characters as extras in previous conflicts. It gave a sense of unity to the series and made it feel as though all the characters were really living in the same community. It also prevented these side characters from feeling like they were simply being thrown in for conflict’s sake. The barista and her murderous brother had been in the show as extras for quite some time before their main story arc was introduced. As our heroine had already had something to do with the barista and was her acquaintance, it made Hong Joo’s willingness to try and prevent one of her disaster dreams more believable. It’s got to be hard seeing something awful happen to someone you don’t know, but it’s got to be even harder seeing it happen to the sweet girl who serves you coffee every morning.

I'm so unaccustomed to Kang Ki Young being scary

It was a similar story with Myung Dae Goo. He was introduced to us in a previous case through Seung Won, so it felt completely natural that he would ask his new friend for help with his father’s case, and thus lead us to our final conflict. The way characters came in and out of the main spotlight was absolutely perfect and made the show feel really seamless.

We started and finished with the same antagonist

Not only did this flow give the show a smoothness and consistency, but it also encouraged confidence in the writer and how the final conflicts would wrap up- as it was clear that the writer had meticulously thought things through.

Young Cop:

What an impactful storyline. Despite being a character that was only really introduced as someone important later on in the series, Choi Dam Dong was a character that brought a whole heap of emotional weight.

He grew on me gradually until I loved him completely

I’m glad I can get Kim Won Hae’s acting from ‘Strong Woman’ out of my brain and view him as a serious actor again, because boy did he give it his all here. The character of the young policeman was often used for different purposes, but always added layers and depth to our main leads.

What a twisty twist

Whether he was offering our young hero words of advice or causing our heroine to question her capacity for darkness, he was always providing an intricate backstory for our characters and was a large part of what made them into the justice-seeking people they were. I also applaud the show for his final reveal. I had no idea that Choi Dam Dong was going to turn out to be the young policeman. None whatsoever. I was almost expecting them to introduce a whole new character as our grown up policeman. And Woo Tak was a pretty good ploy to add to Dam Dong’s cover. As Hong Joo and Jae Chan’s fathers were both killed by the runaway soldier, I automatically assumed that Woo Tak would have something to do with the soldier too (like Woo Tak was the youngest brother or something), and thus I ruled out Dam Dong as having any connection with the soldier at all because Woo Tak didn’t know him. It was an error on my part, but one I was happy to make as it made Chief Choi’s reveal that much more dramatic. I loved that he was also having dreams about Jae Chan and Hong Joo (not to mention it fit in with the theory of being saved=dreams) and that it had always been his goal to protect them.

Chief Choi is basically the best constructed character in the show

And this drama is the perfect example of how to execute a character death. Chief Choi had revealed himself to Jae Chan and they had ample time to reunite and bond over their shared history. They got the emotional reconciliation that I was dying to see, and they were able to look at each other for who they were and truly cherish each other.

TEARS

While the cause of death is a bit off-kilter (Yoo Bum just went crazy?) the death scene itself is perfect. It felt like Jae Chan returned to the child he used to be when he was around Chief Choi, and it was extremely evident in that scene. His grief and regret were all so plain, but it was Chief Choi’s happiness at being able to spend so much time with Jae Chan that made the moment really beautiful- even if it meant his death, Chief Choi would always seek out Jae Chan so that he could be his mentor and his friend, and would always be there to support him. Despite dreaming of his death, upon waking up Dam Dong’s first thought is to live well so that he can find and take care of Jae Chan in the future. He was such a pure-hearted character, and the show was so much better off for having him. I also appreciated that the show threw in a bit of commentary as to why Chief Choi didn’t just avoid his death if he’d seen it in his dream. The red leaf he’d seen had led him to think that he would die in autumn, which he didn’t, so it made complete sense that he was unprepared for his death at a different time.

A small but absolutely necessary piece of information

Despite this seeming like a small point, I actually think my take on Chief Choi’s death would have been very different if I had even the slightest belief that he could have avoided it. He was a perfect character from start to finish (even before we knew he was the policeman from the past), and his death was handled so perfectly.

What Wasn’t:

Where’d All Them Dreams Go?:

Not too long after the drama gets itself going, the idea of the predictive dreams kind of falls off the table. Originally it seemed as though changing the dreams was going to have some big effect on our characters, but that idea never really got explored.

Beyond the first few episodes, the future dreams were rather unimportant to the plot

In fact, rather than being an interesting fantasy element, the dreams just became convenient plot devices that were used to get our characters into action, or more often allowed for a quick save. Rather than being a mysterious and unknown entity, these dreams fairly rapidly became the only reason why our leads weren’t dead.

I mean, it's not like they're going to kill of one of the leads anyway

Beyond showing Jae Chan a vision of Hong Joo in a threatening situation (or Jae Chan for Woo Tak), the dreams actually did nothing. We rarely saw Hong Joo have dreams about anyone other than Jae Chan anymore, and so rather than upping the intensity of the series, the dreams instead only became a convenient way for the characters to know the others were in trouble. Which is a bit of a let down. I also didn’t really understand why the dreams stopped. It seemed to me that after solving the case involving Yoo Bum, Hong Joo (and thus I assume the boys as well) stopped having future visions. The drama didn’t explain at all why the dreams suddenly stopped, and I was kind of a bit disappointed that the main tie between our Dragon Club was dropped so quickly, unexpectedly, and so easily. 

Recommend?

Yeah. The drama itself is pretty good, but I feel like it’s one of those dramas that’s going to just get more and more popular, and pretty soon everyone will have seen it. And you just can’t be the only person who hasn't seen it.

There is much less sleeping than the title suggests