White Christmas attempts to be so much and fails at nearly all of it.

It succeeds at being a cheesy, atmospheric 2011 drama with a unique storyline. However, it leaves much to be desired in it's execution of everything else.

I thought that when Hyejung cut Mireu's hand in the same spot as Yohan and Mooyul, for some reason, described Yohan to the police with only that singular trait that Mireu would be framed as the killer. Yet... he isn't. And it is never mentioned again. This is just one example of a way in which White Christmas fails to fulfill it's potential.

I was optimistic when starting this drama, yet when the psychiatrist nearly gets away at the end because somehow the police didn't recognize his face when he simply told them he's 'actually the teacher, believe me guys', you have to wonder if KBS thinks you're a stupid little mutt that'll eagerly lap up anything they pour in your silly little dusty doggy bowl. The face of the serial killer that they are chasing, that has been displayed on a massive screen during the hostage negotiation, they completely forget and assume must actually be the seven day old frozen body with a gun in its mouth but a gunshot wound on his torso on the roof?

When the children push him over the ledge at the end, he says "I've won", as if we are supposed to contemplate if the children really did become monsters for pushing a serial killer that made their friend commit suicide, that the incompetent police nursed back to health, to his certain death. No, good for them. Is that really the supposedly big, morally grey question they left us with? Could they not have made it a little bit more ambiguous or thought-provoking? Them turning on each other while in the school was much more compelling and interesting, even if that was sometimes underdeveloped as well.

I'm being really negative, but the show had some merit. It was often so ridiculous it was funny, much like Boys Over Flowers which I love dearly. Chi Hoon falls over a small and not-at-all steep hill in the snow and then Moo Yul drops to his knees in despair. He throws him a rope and then screams in agony as he drags his limp body up the 30-degree incline, blood dripping from his hands from friction. I don’t even understand how Chi Hoon ripped up his leg so bad when he just tumbled down a snowy hill for ten seconds, but it would have been entirely feasible (not to mention much easier) to grab his arm and just drag him up either way. I was in shock watching this scene. It was some of the best unintended comedy I have seen in a K-Drama in my life. Not to mention the acting (in this show in general) is often almost so bad it's camp. When it's not frustrating or boring, White Christmas does have a Boys Over Flowers-esque campy charm to it.

I really do love when a show is atmospheric in a way that is served by its clearly 2000s-early 2010s camerawork. It made me feel like I was really there witnessing Hyejung flirt with Eunsung; I could almost smell the unintentional homoeroticism. And the classical music in the soundtrack was an objectively insane choice. That one non-classical song they kept playing also absolutely fucked. I want to try to watch again sometime to see if I would like it more a second time around. I just wish they did what they did... better. With more nuance. With a more substantive and cohesive plot. With less boring filler. A more compelling outcome. I would say "Remake when?", but I fear that that rendition would only take away the shitty 2011 camerawork quality that I love oh-so-much and leave us with all the flaws of the original.