Desperto (2020)

First of all, I really enjoyed watching this drama, particularly because the plot was amazing and really easy to follow even though it was surrounded by a lot (and I mean A LOT!!!) of mystery which makes it really easy for the viewers to get hooked on the story, especially if you're a thriller kinda person (If thrillers aren't your thing, this might not be for you).
When it comes to the casting, the cast was all of great quality but I do have to give special props to Min Nam-Goong who I've been a massive fan of for years now and I really did enjoy the way he was able to portray his character perfectly.
With this, I do have to point out that I wasn't expecting to get hooked on this drama at the beginning because the first few episodes were a little slow-paced for my taste and I was feeling it would be a boring show, but I kept watching it, and it got way more interesting and believe me, it's real easy to get hooked on it. Aside from this, I'd also like to tell you that this show is not like any other crime-related K-drama. Usually, you know who's the good guy and who's the bad guy. Here, everything is so mixed up that you don't really realize who's the good guy and who's not.

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NamGoong Min!!!!!

What can I say? This was really a masterpiece. I'm just not convince on how they end the story. It will be better if they end it like everybody should have been back into proper places and live a happy life as what they wanted in the first place. No romance at all and The Writer was really brilliant in this aspect because the Character of Namgoong Min here was very different. He has emotion here but he doesn't know how to show it. Actually, without the other characters, NamGoong Min can really pull off the story alone. He is one of the few Actors in South Korea that is very versatile and that what makes this series a successful one....

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Interesting start that falls a bit flat near the end

Well made, but after 10 episodes or so we know everything that's truly important... The last episodes were much less interesting than the first, and so it falls a bit flat near the end. Still, a solid 8 in my opinion, and a thriller worth watching.

What I really liked was the backstory and the interesting character of Namgoong Min. The background music was also very good and added to the dramatic feel of it all.

What I liked less was the scientific nonsense. It's to be expected in any story that attempts to incorporate sci-fi elements of course, which makes it forgivable as long as it is not too obvious - I could forgive it here because I've seen worse. It definitely paints scientists as people without a conscience though, willing to sacrifice anything for an endgoal. But then, every story needs a bad guy so that too is forgivable. And as opposed to other kdramas, they do make the police upper management not entirely corrupt but more of a grey zone, which is something I haven't seen too often: they're either made out to be the bad or the good guys.

Regarding the storyline. It starts incredibly strong: you're wondering who the culprit is, and then Captain Do is this fascinating mystery. But at a certain point half-way into the story, all of his mysteriousness is gone. We know exactly who he is and how he came to be at this point in his life, why he does what he does. And sadly, as his mystery is gone, so is the plot development and my interest. At that point, the story is just like this. Team Evil tries to get Captain Do, they fail, and Captain do tries to find their location and gradually gets closer but never close enough. The story just doesn't move along anymore.

And so, while it was interesting enough to watch the show completely, it doesn't match up with the best of the best thrillers out there.

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the second best drama for Nam Goong Min ever

Korean drama "Awaken" is a 2020 Korean drama belonging to South Korea and is produced by Tvn. The drama I can say was one of the most beautiful dramas of this year's research that I was watching that gave me a special pleasure and a wonderful beauty, as well as the storywriter and director of the drama were at the top of it, and I don't talk about the actor "Nam Gong Min" because his works were always excellent and gave full importance to his dramas , Then the other actors of the drama were very good and there was a great chemist in it, which was very good for the drama

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It was a good crime, police, investigative andd sci-fi drama. But it was only good for the first half (or the first 7 eps), after that it went south. At first it really intrigues me, im very curious on what will happen. Plusss, I have always namgoong min, and his character that is cold but actually very warm inside. Also, i was rooting for him and gong hye won huhu sad we didn't get a lot of them ;') well anyways, the storyline started very well and interesting, but then it started to become messy... too many storylines that I dont know which is the main and which is the subplots. It also becomes draggy? I swear it started with very fast pace and I loveeeee thattt but then idk maybe it went too fast. This drama is that drama that could be better somehow. the story, the mystery, the revealation is good but it wasn't scripted and executed well. Ahhh, acting is good for me especially namgoong min, well i have always like him. anyways, it's a good drama, not great not amazing. It just an okay for me :))

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Great cast and director; weak female character development

This is a good series, but it does sag occasionally because the sequencing can be too long and limp for the actual plot and character development. Not enough attention is given to developing the female leads or the relationships between characters. It puts more emphasis on plot than on character development, but even then the writer leaves too many holes that she continues to spin, and not effectively. However, the series can definitely be recommended for its terrific cast and directors who keep the audience’s attention throughout despite the writer’s occasional oversights.

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Un scénario intriguant et intéressant.

Nam Goong Min!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oui, je commence avec l'amour de ma vie. Par ce qu'avec lui, tout scénario, même bidouiller au fond d'une cave nébuleuse à 3 devient intéressant. Pas très objective comme remarque, mais nous avons tous nos petits travers et nos faiblesses. Et Nam Goong Min en fait définitivement partie!

Cela étant dit, bien que cela ne soit pas un masterpiece à l'égal de Chief Kim, c'est un drama qui intrigue et plutôt bien ficelé.
Dès le début, nous sommes happés par ces images dévastées par le feu, ces mots murmurés, au sens effrayants, ces silhouettes meurtrières...Ceci est posé et cela restera le moteur du drama. C'est bien conté. Le suspens est au rendez-vous et plus le drama avance, plus on s'exclame (j'avoue, surtout quand Nam Goong Min est à l'écran, mais ceci est tout autre chose), plus nous découvrons le pourquoi et le comment. Cette touche de science fiction, sans être extravagante, est excitante (par ce que Nam Goong Min encore une fois, on est bien d'accord). Je ne dévoilerai donc pas le tenant du scénario, et bien que certaines choses sont plutôt aisées à deviner, le drama reste très plaisant à suivre. Nous nous prenons au jeu des devinettes "qui est qui, qui fait quoi".

La réalisation, une habitude chez les coréens, est agréable, fluide. Les scènes d'action sont bien orchestrées, j'aurai aimé un peu plus de ces scènes, où on voit Nam Goong Min Oppa mettre une raclée magistrale à tout le monde (je m'emporte encore...).
La petite, riquiqui (et c'est tant mieux, hum voire Nam Goong Min dans une romance n'est pas mon genre favori ^^), touche de romance est adorable. Juste la phrase qu'il prononce "Tout était clair. Tout a toujours été clair. Jusqu'à ce que cela devienne flou..." avec ce regard de "ouf", j'a bien cru y laisser mon coeur. Juste 1 minute et ce fut 1 minute de trop pour mon petit coeur.

Les personnages. Ils ne font pas partis de ces personnages qui marquent à vie mais ils sont loin d 'être mauvais. A l'exception de Nam Goong Min (en toute objectivité, hein?). Ils remplissent correctement leur rôle, mais ne sont malheureusement pas assez attachants. Disons, que si un personnage venait à mourrir, nous n'aurions pas besoin de nous cacher pour en pleurer tout notre content.... Sauf....tadam ! Nam Goong Min (quelle surprise).
Ce personnage est à lui tout seul génial ( en même temps....). Complexe, mystérieux, drôle et attachant. C'est ce qu'est Do Jeon Woo. Et puis classe et bad ass en même temps. Ingénieux et intelligent. Bref, un personnage comme on les aime. Il est juste dommage que les personnages secondaires ne soient pas du même niveau, tant de part l'écriture que de l'acting.
Il est à noté (mais cela va de soi) que l'incroyable interprétation de l'acteur y est pour beaucoup. Nam Goong Min, comme à son habitude, excelle dans l'art des expressions faciales mi-héros, mi-psychopathe. C'est tout un art, il nous le prouve encore une fois. Ce sourire de sociopathe alliant à ce regard sombre de chevalier à l'armure blanche qui hurle joyeusement "je vais tous vous buter" sont d'une telle intensité que l'on ne sait jamais s'il est du côté de la lumière ou de l'obscurité. Chut, mais la fin nous montre encore une fois l'immense talent de mon chouchou.

Ce drama, sans être dans les hautes sphères, tire son épingle du jeu de par son scénario intéressant et intriguant, cette montée rapide en adrénaline, et surtout, grâce à l'interprétation incroyable de Nam Goong Min.

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Worst drama this year?

ml is like an ex macchina and the only powerful person there , FLs are portrayed as useless af. FL aka seolhyun can't act to save her life, it's actually very unbearable, Jamie aaaah what a waste of Lee chang ah but yeah her character is so badly written that even she can't save it. Definitely would have liked to swap her with 1st fl. For me it's the worst drama or at least in my top 10 but I see some might enjoy it with its flo
aws you just have to skip so much. So really you decide. The best thing about it is that it has come to end. If you are looking for a good solid drama don't waste your time here. Go look somewhere else!

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Good but lacks some elements that would have made it great

8/10 is my rating. This is a 2020;2021 mystery, action thriller with 16, 70 minute episodes.

First I provide a unique synopsis then review.

Synopsis

28 years ago an odd series of murders happened in a village that were labeled the “white night” incident. They never fully unravelled why people were committing murder in a gleeful melee. It is happening again and Do Jung-woo (Namkoong Min) who leads a special task force of homicide detectives, is determined to unravel the mysterious events unfolding currently and determine how they tie to the past occurrences. Jung woo is brilliant but unconventional and yet has the admiration of those around him for his ability to discern the nearly indiscernible. At times he knows things that FBI profiler, Jamie Leighton (Lee Chung ah) grows to suspect could only be known by the killer. Jamie was born in South Korea but adopted into an American family and only recently returned to South Korea. She is hired to help the special team in investigating and profiling these unusual cases. Not all is as it seems and as the two very different detectives work together they remember a shared connection they had as children.

Review

This is a good addition to this trope and if you are looking for something that focuses more on crime, mystery and action than romance this is it. It is fast paced and kept me interested the whole way through. I would recommend this to someone that likes crime shows with a supernatural component. It ends well and happy.

Spoilers

The start of the series is very complex with a lot happening so that if you can’t focus completely on it you are likely to miss things. It would lose me sometimes just because I am not one that likes to have to focus that intently for such a long period. For some that complexity would be part of the charm.

The former FBI team member from the United States was not entirely credible. She spoke English well but with such a heavy accent it was hard to believe she spent such a significant amount of time in the United States. It may not have been as big of deal but they emphasized her “Americanness” enough that it highlighted t and not in a good way. I think the script would have been fine if they made it so she went to the US but didn’t make it like she was essentially American.

I was a little irritated that Jamie, and other team members, would not let go of their suspicion that Jung Woo was the culprit when virtually every fact pointed away from him. They were like “yeah he wasn’t there but he probably did it remotely.” Based on what? How did they come to believe so strongly that the lucid dreaming could be influenced remotely?

I get that South Korean ‘s are very filial but totally looking away from a parent that commits the murder of hundreds of innocents? I don’t think even a child that lived in a culture where respect of elders is key could forgive and accept that. And they kept saying/implying if you show remorse then things can just be forgiven. No they can’t. Having seen over 300 Asian series at this point I have seen several where the parent has done something so egregious the children write them off. If committing mass murder isn’t one of them I don’t know what is.

They set a bomb or series of bombs to go off at the secret research facility with a timer set for five minutes. Why? They knew their people and others were in there and should have suspected something could go wrong where they couldn’t get out in that timeframe. There was no program kill switch? These people were brilliant and yet they can’t figure out how to abort the bomb detonation? I found that to be not bey believable as the super geniuses from the program should have been smart enough to undo that trigger and/or to foresee that things could go wrong.

So the super genius level scientists can’t figure out that there is no plan to use their work for the betterment of humanity but rather for a few very elite people? If they had just portrayed that they were really super evil and didn’t care at all that would have been one thing but they made it out like they really thought their work would do good. So they tried to make them more sympathetic characters than I felt they deserved.

It did end well and mostly happy but I really wanted to see the young woman detective and our main guy get together. It was so obvious they had feelings for each other but they danced around that possibility with the plot. And, at the end, she sees him and goes chasing after but he is gone. Like smoke. So it is obvious it is being left open for another season. I don’t like that. Make another season or don’t. Holding your viewers hostage or making them decide how things went after, I don’t like that. I don’t think it was enough to say don’t watch it, but I definitely find the more nebulous endings annoying. I don’t want to tel the story myself, I want you to tell it to me screen writers.

#Awaken

#LeeChungAh

#NoomkoongMin

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For lovers of genre

I watched "Awaken" based on VIKI's introduction, expecting a crime thriller maybe in the style of "Flower of Evil" or "The Devil", two series I really adored
At the beginning, I followed with good expectations, thanks to a rather impressive incipit and with intriguing subsequent suggestions, even though the typifications of the main characters were not particularly original (the usual typecasting of the variegated team at work always reminds me of certain Japanese robot cartoons of childhood with the leader, the beauty, the clumsy and the nerd, those things, in short...).

However, as the episodes went on, I began to have more than one doubt about the direction of the series with a growing sense of annoyance, a red alert for a scenario completely different from the initial perspective; getting to the point, the expansion to Sci-Fi and things of this nature I had not really planned for and at that point the interest really dropped exponentially...
I mean, it's not that the story is particularly boring, it's reasonably elaborate and repeatedly tries to revive the attention with impactful cliffhangers, but the problem is that 'Awaken' really does come at a very late stage and smashes open doors from so many previous ones...

With everything we ‘ve had, from 'The X-Files' to 'Stranger Things', via 'Dark Angel' and their many epigones with 'special kids', it's a moment's notice to find yourself in such trite situations that you're able to understand much of the unfolding almost immediately.

The usual secret labs, the usual child-guinea-pigs, the usual mad doctors, between Dr. Frankenstein and the many crazed demiurges in a delirium of omnipotence, perhaps even parents of the aforementioned lab subjects
In overall terms, for fans of the same genre, it is certainly something that can intrigue and involve, but at the same time, for the aficionado with a little knowledge of the material, it is impossible not to notice the incredible accumulation of references, clichés and tired stereotypes that make the nose twitch, as well as the usual holes in the logic that often screw up the elaboration and development of many situations...

And it's a pity, because in my opinion the moral dimension of the story should have been highlighted more, thanks to the excellent performance of the main character Namkoong Min, capable of casting for several episodes the classic shadow of doubt on his true nature; it's also a shame for the little in-depth analysis between our super-child and the really disturbing mad scientist-mother, limited to the last episodes; the same goes for the police-daughter/father-scientist relationship, with an always excellent Kim Chang Wan in a role that would have deserved a better deepening, but then the police daughter (who we are told is also of great merit) really knows practically nothing about her father's work, for all those years! ?

The lead character in the guise of a wanted possible multiple homicide who calmly drives around the city, in defiance of roadblocks, checkpoints, camera recordings or phone interceptions (as seen in so many dramas or movies) is inexcusable, as is the Terminator-turn with the relative moving of trucks with his hands (but why?), with sudden and opportune super-powers...

A comic anthology is the three days wasted by Jamie (by the way, she, Lee Chung Ah, really beautiful -nda) and the nosey reporter waiting for the rain to cease so they can go by boat to the island-laboratory, and then the two 'super-boys' who come and go in a flash, at night, and how do they do it, maybe flying!?

It gets to the end rather tiredly due to the too many twists and turns of the drama with a pretty predictable and practically inevitable ending that leaves that inevitable sense of déjà-vu and general discontent quite marked...
Personally my rating is 7/10, fairly generous, more for the first part of the story and for some of the acting performances:
Of course Namkoong Min who certainly doesn't need me to tell him that (he's a class actor!) and something in the minor characterisations but at the end of the whole affair there are no particular desires left for second viewings...

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