Esta resenha pode conter spoilers
Almost a perfect show only to be ruined by two things.
this could have been easily of my top 3 favorite kdramas but it left me completely disappointed. i do think it has a probably one the best use of comedy I have seen in kdramas and that's why i was just so mad when i finish it because i cannot call it my favorite comedy kdrama.one of the two things that took away my enjoyment was the main couple. at first it seemed like some sweet-simple-like-romance until we are told the way they met and that's when it stopped being romantic and become gross. the age gap and the dynamic relationship makes enough for not to like the main character, as he is after all the only guilty in the relationship. i simply tried to ignore him but he is THE main character, which is kinda hard not to notice him.
yet i was ready to be oblivious because my main focus was on looney. and here is where it comes the second thing that annoys me: looney's ending literally ruined everything for me. i mean everyone got if not a happy ending, at least a hopeful ending (captain yoo) but it has to be the gay character who simply couldn't be happy. not only this show had already depicted that the "best" way of dealing with an addicted person was apparently sending them to jail (which it does more harm that good) but at the end we couldn't see him having at least some hopeful ending with his partner. it was honestly just nasty. everything that i have loved of this show (minus the main couple) was simply thrown away by this decision.
and that's why i can't just give it a higher rating.
(sidenote: but they couldn't give us either a gay character to mend their mistakes in hospital playlist?)
Esta resenha foi útil para você?
Esta resenha foi útil para você?
Romance ruined it
You know this would be a decent watch BUT they just had to ruin the heck out of it by adding a filler creepy, awkward, meaningless romance. That nobody needed. Especially the main couple like bruh main lead looked like he was with his daughter he looks his age so why do they have to do this to my eyes, the director is one of my favs too i will just pretend that he didn't do this crap and give him redeeming points for reply and hospital series that are masterpieces, if you are considering to watch this just skip skip skip. Oh another thing is the FLs are just there for the romance they don't serve a purpose other than make me annoyed. I would give this a solid 8 minus the romance but I am sorry it ruined it for me so damn much that I had to drop several times, I was watching it while it was airing and I managed to finish it just now. I want to say I would recommend it but honestly no!Esta resenha foi útil para você?
Esta resenha foi útil para você?
My standards went high again...
This is the first time I would write a review in here... I've been recommending this to others and even posted a good scenes in YouTube...I've watched more or less 500 dramas and movies so everything for me became less interesting and exciting. I would fast forward most of the boring scenes just to reach the climax or the end of it, until someone recommended this to me.
I thought it would be a typical crime, thriller drama because of the title and I wonder how this would end up to a comedy tag.
I never regretted that I took time to watch it, I didn't skip any scene nor do fast forward.
Every episodes are worth to watch.
It won't fail to give you a good laugh.
And at the end, your standard on choosing what to watch next would went higher than before. every kdramas would feel a little boring to watch, and it will took you a weeks to move on from this, unless you'll find better than this like GOBLIN...
Believe me, it's worth to spent your precious time...
Less romance, a little thrilling, with a lots of funny and idiotic scenes, that's PRISON PLAYBOOK (The Craziest Squad I've Ever Watched)...
Esta resenha foi útil para você?
Honestly, I had my doubts going into this drama, as I didn't find the synopsis interesting. But I decided to give it a shot, and right after watching the first episode I immediately knew that I'll add a new drama to my "favorite dramas list". Seriously, give a shot, for sure you won't regret it. Like I haven't said it enough, THIS DRAMA IS PERFECT! If I were to be overly critical and change one thing.......... just watch it yourself, I'm sure everyone would want to change "that" one thing in this drama.
Esta resenha foi útil para você?
Emotion. Emotions. Emotional.
Prison Playbook makes you think leaps and bounds about the society of the world which has been structured into the modern day. Okay, well, maybe it's not that deep, but it could be on the perspective. An all-star cast and the chemistry that goes along with it create a spectacular story which will open your hearts and at least open your mind into having a conversation to yourself about the real world. Maybe not ALL prisoners are bad people.The OST was perfect, it included songs from all different genres and was placed in perfect appropriateness when in-line with scene selection. The rewatch value may be a little high, but thanks to lockdown it has an advantage. Plus, although the episodes are roughly 1 hour and 30 minutes long, it really doesn't feel that way.
I suggest everyone to watch Prison Playbook - that is, of course, if they like amazing dramas.
Esta resenha foi útil para você?
The story:
Very well written! Each and every character had its own backstory, and I am usually the one who skips those scenes because they just feel useless and not contributing to the story at all. But not here. Never have I ever loved the supporting cast that much (Looney I love you!). My only little critic point would be the huge age gap between the ML and FL, but seriously it didnt bother me that much by the end.
The acting:
There is seriously no flaw. Everyone gave their best.
Music: I dont really give that much importance to the OST, so its a neutral rating
Rewatch value: I never rewatch, but I might rewatch this one haha
Esta resenha foi útil para você?
Prison Playbook‘s plot is primarily driven by its characters, focusing on their internal strifes to propel the drama forward. These serve as intriguingly damning social commentary on two overarching themes: a flawed justice system that unjustifiably ends up punishing the innocent and political corruption. Many other K-dramas that aim to uncover these just end up getting bogged down by convoluted side-plots, but Prison Playbook suffers from none of that. Most of the various major storyline threads flow organically into each other, interspersed with side-splitting dark comedy and remarkably engaging tension.
Characters :
For me, the characters in the story were unique, and each character has a special feature and a story in drama .. For me, all the characters complement each other in an amazing way. If you deleted one of the characters in prison, the story would be incomplete ..
Performance:
Any story would suffer from a poor lead but Prison Playbook had no such issues — Park Hae-soo was perfect for the role. Kim Jehyuk was his first role as a lead actor but he was able to pull off a suitably nuanced performance as the wide-eyed fallen hero. This was a role that needed someone who was not only likable but could also believably handle the ever-shifting power dynamics in prison. Park Hae-soo easily ticked off those checkboxes. Furthermore, he was able to establish an incredible onscreen rapport with every character with whom his character formed an alliance. The result is a drama that made me emotionally invested in everyone who was on his side, even the ones who had once committed terrible, hard-to-forgive crimes.
Music :
The music that accompanied Prison Playbook isn’t likely to be the sort that sticks with you but neither is it all that distracting. Instead, it’s sort of a happy in-between. Suitably tense instrumental music helped enhance the drama’s narrative progression but none of it truly stood out. Its OST album featured major figures such as Heize, Zion.T, Eric Nam, as well as Winner’s Mino but they were mostly just there.
Cinematography :
One would expect a drama about prison life to be underlined by completely muted colour palettes but Prison Playbook seemed quite determined to challenge every expectation. Although the prison walls themselves were as dreary as it gets, Prison Playbook‘s cinematography was subtly underlined by crisp pops of colour that were made possible by props within each mise-en-scène. Consider the scenes shot within Jehyuk’s shared prison cell after he was transferred. The inmates have been there for so long that they’ve practically made some semblance of home for themselves by adding brightly coloured storage spaces, books, and other knick-knacks. This stands parallel to the almost overwhelmingly bright colour palettes outside prison walls as if these items were needed to keep the inmates hold onto any shred of hope or signs of humanity. It’s details like this that make this such an outstanding drama.
It was a great drama and I regret being late to watch it, but it is better than not watching it so happy that I followed it ^ ^ And if I am hesitant then watch it and you will not regret ..
Finally, I hope my review helps you
Esta resenha foi útil para você?
Bravo, bravo my life! A drama that radiates comfort ♥️
I’m definitely going to write a pretty long review about this drama since it was super beautiful, so bear with me please.I was honestly hesitant to start watching this drama. This drama has been in my plan to watch list for so long, and I never had the urge to start watching it. If I had known it was this amazing, I would’ve watched it a long time ago. I was actually in search for a funny drama, ones that made you laugh, and ones that would make you instantly forget about your worries, ones that don’t require you to think much. I knew somehow that this drama would make me cry, since it was a stereotype for prison movies/dramas. I always have a special spot for prison dramas and films, I loved Miracle in Cell No. 7, Harmony, Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, etc, and I knew that prison movies are one of the genre that would never fail in making me cry like a baby. That’s probably the biggest reason why I would avoid watching this drama for so long. But I picked it up anyways during quarantine.
And boy, how I was wrong! This drama is the perfect package! You get all those super hilarious moments, you get tons of “UGH I HATE THIS GUY I NEED TO HAVE SOME REVENGE SCENES” moments, you get tearjerking moments, and you also get tons of happiness and comfort watching this drama. I can’t actually explain why this drama became really special to me, but this drama comforted me and made me laugh during one of my darkest times: when I got tested positive of Covid for the very first time in my life. I needed a drama where I could forget all the stress and worries I’ve been feeling this past few days, and I finally got an answer.
Prison Playbook teaches you a lot of important things in life, despite having murderers, con-artists, drug dealers, and many other criminals as main characters. Although some of the characters here seem unforgivable, you’ll watch them here thinking the same thing I did: all of them deserves a second chance. The main characters here are super lovable. What I really love about this drama is their ability to make me cry and then laugh in the other second, just like it did with Hi Bye Mama. The writers succeeded in playing with my emotions and I really love dramas that could do just that. The characters were written in such a way that could make you hate and then really love them. No one is perfect in this drama, but who is though? Being realistic is important.
This drama shows you a realistic point of view of life and law. How it seems unfair sometimes, you don’t always get what you want, but don’t give up, because good will always win. Like Je Hyeok who looks like he’s the unluckiest man on Earth—a successful baseball player who got sentenced for murder after saving his sister from a rapist, then got a lot of haters in prison who was trying to kill him, was then unable to do baseball because of the injuries he had—if you are good, and if you do good whenever, wherever and to whoever, even those who did evil things to you, you will always find a way. Kill those evil people with kindness, just like Je Hyeok, this is one of the biggest lessons I learned from watching this drama. Instead of giving you a scene where the bad guys die or gets punished for what they did until the very end of the drama, this drama shows you about forgiveness. Sometimes it’s good to forgive eventhough it’s hard to do.
Asides from all the lovable and super hilarious and entertaining characters in this drama such as Liutenant Paeng, Officer Song, the warden, Looney, Mr Kaist, Dr Ko, Captain Yoo, Kim Min Chul, Crony, Lee Joon Ho and Lee Joon Dol, Jailbird, and everyone else, I really love every night broadcast that was shown in every episode. Lee Min Joo from Borami Broadcast gave this drama a touch of comfort and meaningful quotes that I really really love.
The music really stands out for me. As a fan of one of the OSTs here even before I started watching—“Bravo, My Life!” by Eric Nam—I would give the music score a 10 right from the beginning, but a lot of songs that I know was played as well, like “I Choose to Love You” and “Time to Say Goodbye”, and that certainly made the scene more memorable for me. The instrumentals was perfect in every scene. Although I’m not a big fan of the rap songs, the other OSTs made up for it.
Lastly, I would like to thank everyone involved in this drama, from all the casts, the directors and the screenwriters and all the staff for creating this beautiful masterpiece. If I could write something that bothered me is that I would really love it if I could see Mr Kaist, Jean Valjean, Dr Ko, Looney again, and probably a little reunion in the end of everyone, but like my father always told me everytime I wanted more from a happy ending, “It’s up to the viewers to imagine the ending, you don’t really need to see everything and they don’t really need to explain everything to make it a great happy ending.” It is enough for me to watch those happy smiles at the end. And I’m thrilled. I’m sad that it’s over now, but goodbye, let’s meet again someday. Overall, a definite 10/10. Bravo!
Esta resenha foi útil para você?
Top Class Acting with Beautifully Written Script
I never imagine giving a TEN but this drama deserves it. Park Hae Soo gives stellar performance. Well, the casts alone is enough reason to watch this drama. Every casts bring the character into life, not too much, sometimes in subtle but engaging and believable way. Strong chemistry among casts. Such a pleasure to watch.I applaud the production, director and WRITER. This drama consists of a lot of characters, each with their own story and background. These characters come and go but they all make one solid narrative of the life of Kim Je Hyuk in the prison. Every story is counted and matter, even if it is a brief appearance in one episode. That's an art and it's not easy to do. The flashback is perfectly located, they are not confusing. In fact, every backstory come at the right time that help viewer to understand that character and how they grow throughout the drama. The variety of characters are linked to each other and make stronger message. This includes how story inside and outside prisoner is interlined. Kudos to the screenwiter Jung Bo Hoon, Lee Woo Jung and Shin Won Ho as director.
Some would argue this is too beautiful and rosy for a prison life. I disagree. Prison Playbook showed how raw and hard a prison life can be but not through blood and violent (although these appear, occasionally). This is life in prison look like: you are no longer consider a worthy human being, once you are being labelled as prisoner. For me, this is the cruel reality of being a prisoner.
In Prison Playbook, you will meet a prisoner wrongly accused for something he didn't do, a prisoner who do evil thing and continue to do so, a prisoner who try to redeem themselves and while some will success others failed and continue repeating the same mistakes. You will see how every person adjust and adapt to the life behind bars, some become bitter and other try hard to stay as human as they can. I am tempted to share about all these characters but I am sure other reviews mentioned them. I'd say this: you will easy get attached to the characters in this drama.
This is another drama where I like the soundtrack a lot and I am glad I got to know some new musicians. BewhY, GRAY OK is fresh and fit the mood of the drama. It's one of current fave. A ballad from Park Boram, Like A Dream is another current fave from this drama. I still have more names to this list. There's a broadcast station in the prison, occasionally, a song from the past would be played and it's always give the scene stronger emotions.
I cried but also laughed a lot watching this drama. Seriously, there are quite a lot of scene where you can have a hearty laugh and it feels so good. It's drama so beware with tear-jerking scenes too. That's life, right? You win some, you lose some. You work hard to achieve your dream but life happens. This is about persistence, love and believe that every human being deserves to be treated as a human being regardless of their mistakes.
Great for binge-watching but also a good choice to savour it one episode at one time. You can watch it alone (and then have a good cry alone, right) but also together (there some scenes that would please your eyes). For a drama that has been in the list for more than 1 year, I am happy I finally decided to watch it. It's so good.
Esta resenha foi útil para você?
The reasons I picked this drama up: 1. all of the raving reviews/high ratings, and 2. Jung Kyung Ho is a main cast. I have to say I was a little disappointed that Jung Kyung Ho wasn't the main lead, but eventually I accepted that and warmed up to Park Hae Soo who played our star, Kim Je Hyuk. Kim Je Hyuk was a bit of an enigma at first. He seems quiet, reserved, faint-hearted, in fact, everything about his personality screams pushover! Seeing this, I was like I don't know if I can take 16 episodes of this guy. But come to find out, he's totally not! Rather he lets things play out, carefully analyzing the situation and the unforeseen dangers that lie therein and when the appropriate time comes, he strikes! Park Hae Soo's driving factors that makes him the lead we want to root for, is his thoughtful kindness and sacrificial nature. Being a star baseball player, Je Hyuk is not proud, but let's his fame motivate him to help others. He is humble but still knows his worth. No matter how hard I think about it, I can't compare his personality accurately to any other male lead I've seen in a drama before. Needless to say Park Hae Soo did a great job portraying the subtleties of our quiet and kind, yet brave and gutsy character Kim Je Hyuk.
Jung Kyung Ho I wasn't worried about and, as always, he delivers. His character, Lee Joon Ho, is really Kim Je Hyuk's savior in a lot of the early on conflicts so of course every time he showed up on screen it was not only, yay I get to see Jung Kyung Ho's face, but also a much needed relief for the story. There weren't as many opportunities for Jung Kyung Ho to showcase his acting range as his character, being a corrections officer, wasn't super involved in the daily conflicts that Park Hae Soo's character was as an inmate. Despite this, Lee Joon Ho has presence on screen, and Jung Kyung Ho made his character interesting and dynamic, and had great chemistry and bromance with Kim Je Hyuk. Lee Joon Ho always looks out for Kim Je Hyuk's best interests and holds him in high esteem, even when it would've been easy to blur the lines in their relationship with the extreme difference in power, i.e., their roles as correction officer and prisoner.
Lieutenant Paeng played by Jung Woong In was another character that the writers enjoyed playing with us a bit. He seems like a complete, insensitive jerk, but you soon come to find out that he genuinely cares for our beloved cellmates and all of the other inmates he oversees. He treats them all like humans and friends. Through his time as a corrections officer he has learned that everyone has a story to tell, and a circumstance that led them to prison, whether justly or unjustly. Lieutenant Paeng's personality is rough around the edges but a total softy! Literally an angel from heaven to our cellmates. Jung Woong In I had only ever seen as our infamous Min Joon Gook, but going forward I will remember him as this love-able, soft-hearted sweetheart.
Other favorite cast members would be all of the cellmates in cell 2, room 6, but special shout outs would be Looney/Yoo Han played by Lee Kyu Hyung and Kaist/Kang Chul Doo played by Park Ho San. Their characters really delivered in the comedy department and every scene they had together was shockingly hilarious. Looney because he carries himself in a way that makes him seem like a total whimp when he is actually the most brazen, gutsy character ever, who calls out Kaist (and any/all others) on their crap. It not only feels like sweet justice, but it is completely ridiculous and hilarious when he does. Partly because although he says the truth, he says it in the rudest way possible! His scenes with Kaist in particular but also with Jung Woo/Captain Yoo (Jung Hae In) were always my favorites!
As for the story, I think the pacing was kept really well. There was the overall storyline of Je Hyuk serving his time in prison, training diligently in hopes of returning to the mound as the star pitcher of the Nexens but each episode also had an obstacle to conquer and focused in on another cellmate. Each inmate from cell 2 had an individual story that transformed their characters from punishment deserving criminals, to flawed people who either made mistakes or were horribly unlucky. I loved each of the cellmates and I appreciated that we were given background as to who they were as people and why they arrived at Seobu Penitentiary, but at times it was hard for me to be emotionally invested in each one equally. I sympathized with each of them for sure, but I didn't become as attached to them and their struggles as I think I was meant to. With a lot of my favorite dramas I have become so attached to the characters that I cry or laugh at the drop of a hat, but I didn't experience quite that level of emotion with this one.
Prison Playbook is original and our main characters are smart, those two factors in and of itself make for a promising K-Drama. This was a very different watch for me than other dramas I've seen and I liked that. Even with hour and a half episodes, I didn't feel bored and that deserves recognition! Since so many people have watched and loved this drama I definitely think it deserves a watch.
Esta resenha foi útil para você?
