I think this show deserves a lot of credit for telling a story that is miles away from the typical cliche' drama. It also deserves credit for establishing some highly unlikable bad guys and making no attempt to humanize them (which I like). This is entertainment. I like it when I don't have to feel conflicted about my distaste for the antagonist. The cast is deep. Lee Jung Eun is always terrific. Lee Soo Kyung sticks to the type of character where she excels but credit for being excellent at that style of character. I was not familiar with Jo Jae Ryong or Ryu Hye Young before, but they acquitted themselves admirably (especially RHY's Kang Dam). Lee David and Kil Hae Yeon were also wonderful.

But the cast is huge and weaving all of them in makes for an unwieldy narrative and it doesn't help that we lurch from this suspect to that suspect and back and forth between trials (both real and mock). It badly needed to crop 3-4 characters (like Woo Hyun's pointless copy room attendant and a couple of the school's administrators). More importantly, other than Kang Sol A, there was a rotating group of main characters at any one time but none of them had been developed sufficiently for me to care about any of them (including Han Joon Hwi who would have been a more realistic character if he'd slapped a big "S" on his chest and paraded around in tights and a cape).

The show somewhat redeems itself near the end with some clever twists, but it's not enough to really paper over some glaring flaws.