Could've been better and I've definitely seen better. The writing was the biggest problem in this drama. It's not terrible, but it's not what I would consider good writing either. The basic idea of this drama is that it's a story about ordinary people living lives that would be considered "extras" in a traditional drama. And in some parts it is, but in many ways it falls back to the typical tropes of K-dramas. A dark past, a family secret, a hidden extraordinary talent. These don't feel very ordinary to me.

The only ordinary portion of this whole drama is the second lead couple. Both their relationship with each other to their struggles in work is something many people can relate to. It helps that both Ahn Jae-hong and Song Ha-yoon are very good at their jobs, enriching their performances with groundedness and understanding. I wished, episode after episode, that this drama was more about these two. They made this drama satisfying to me.

The main leading couple, on the other hand, is where many of this drama's weaknesses lie. Acting wise they weren't on their A game, Park Seo-joon especially. I'm just bored of him playing the same brash, shouty character over and over again. Their journey also don't feel genuine. Note that I said the journey, not the emotions, which I think the actors tried very hard at. There were too many external conflicts that became more and more ridiculous by the episode, further distancing these two characters from seemingly extras to actually secretly very much leads. In many ways, it felt like the drama was lying to me. Even their budding romantic relationship was off for me, as I found it to be childish with a big dose of unhealthy possessiveness.

This drama is weird to me because it showed one of the best examples of realistic dialogue and acting in the form of Seol-hee and Joo-man, but also made me aware what undeserved happy endings look like in the form of, well, the last two episodes. It wasn't a truly waste of my time but I wish it would've been better.

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There's something really special about this movie. It's a story about troubled youth, one we've seen at least a dozen times. But Set Me Free doesn't have cliched characters we often see in those works. Young-jae is particularly interesting, since he seems like a little devil in the making from the outside. But clearly there's more to him than his menacing ways. Young-jae is confused and afraid, burdened by the weight of the world on his frail shoulders. He's a boy who is left stranded by the adults in his life and now he must scramble through his days, desperately hoping that there's a light at the end of his tunnel. Choi Woo-shik well earned all the accolades he has received for this role, and his Young-jae definitely shone a new light on his previously comical image.

I think what I like the most about Set Me Free is the fact that it is both dramatic and grounded at the same time. Careful thought went into the making of this movie. It's not entertaining in a classic movie sense, but it leaves the heart wondering of the untold stories within our society. It's even more amazing that the movie is an autobiography of writer and director Kim Tae-yong. Despite telling his life's story, which had potential of being wrought with bias, he was insightful of all the things that happened in his past and gave hope to Young-jae, himself, and many other youths just like them, confused and afraid.

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Forgettable and uninspiring, it seemed as if the director/writer wrote a movie based off of a how to book on writing a melodrama and still failing. The characters were given little ambition and motivation, both in their lives in general and as part of the story. There didn't seem to be a general trail of interest in the movie. Instead we have little bits of potential stories that were left untold. The movie took a sudden turn for the worse when they tried to squeeze in a dramatic climax, only to leave the characters in a jumbled mess. The ending is a disaster and left all logic at the door in order to have a tearful ending that the director/writer desperately wanted. If you want to know what insincere storytelling is like, you've chosen the right movie.

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Solid all the way.

After hitting a ratings slump post Goblin, tvN put all their eggs in the basket for Secret Forest. It's a well-planned drama from start to finish and executed to near perfection. The episodes never got boring despite it focusing almost solely on its special investigation. The highlight is definitely the acting. Secret Forest put together heavyweight players Bae Doona and Jo Seung-woo as headliners and a breathtaking performance by Yoo Jae-myung, with the rest of the supporting cast keeping up to pace. The use of interesting composition, efficient editing, and instrumental heavy soundtrack gave the drama a cinematic feel. The ending was tight, though a bit too perfect for all the trouble the team got themselves into throughout the drama. Nonetheless, it was satisfying and retained a grayness that the drama kept during its course.

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