Prison Playbook (2017)

Series with no exaggerated plot, just plain pure genuine emotions

Initially, I wasn't interested about this because who cares about an athlete who suddenly have to go to prison at the peak of his career? However I have seen a lot of blogs and reviews about this series which made me wonder what's with this series that almost everyone love it and I can proudly say, watching this series is one of the best decisions I have made this year. It's definitely worth it. Every episode is so worth it.

What made me love this series so much is that it's not perfect. There were things I wished I've seen here but didn't and that's what made it better. Fangirl alert. Spoiler alert too. (I'm telling everything I feel about this drama from plot to characters and everything)

So these are the things that left a remarkable memory in my heart and brain that I would love to share to everyone:
- Lieutenant Paeng's character stood out the most for me. He was the most unexpected and well-written character in this series. I've seen Jung Woong-In in a lot of dramas and he's always the psychopath villain but in this series, his character is so much deeper than what he appears to be. (This series casted a lot of people who had strong first impression and mostly worked as villains which probably why the storyline worked well. From the start to end, this series reminded me that "It's not always what you imagined.")
- Most of the support characters are scene stealers. I know JeHyeok (Park HaeSoo) is the main lead. He had an interesting character and personality however a lot of characters really stole the spotlight. One of the scene stealer (which most would probably agree) is HanYang. He's the cute asshole whom you won't think or imagine would ruin his life for drugs. He really set the mood for most of the series. He made me laugh, hope, love, hate, cry and all sorts of emotions. Lee KyuHyung's versatility really helped in making HanYang's character come into life.
- There's a diverse relationship and connection among the characters. JeHyeok and JoonHo's unrivaled friendship that withstand even the strongest adversities. MinChul and Jean Valjean's father and son relationship with a pinch of betrayal and redemption. KAIST and HanYang's tease and punch relationship. JungWoo and HanYang, the preschool brothers. Lieutenant Paeng and Lee JoonHo's love-hate relationship. JeHyeok and Jailbird's brotherly love. JeHyeok and Crony's unbelievable shift of relationship from killing each other to caring for each other. The unexpected but cute HanYang and JiWon's relationship. And there's a lot more I probably couldn't mention. Just watch it and you'll see what I mean.
- The references made on Hospital Playlist. (I watched Hospital Playlist before I watched Prison Playbook and at the time when I was watching Hospital Playlist I didn't know the references. But now that I know. I can't help but feel so happy and ecstatic) There were lots of things that feels similar and also feels like a crossover in a parallel world or something. KyungHo dating his bestfriend's younger sister again in HP. KyuHyung's cameo as an owner of a Pharmacy (in relation to drug addiction from PP) and dating a college friend. Song JiWon from PP is Ahn ChiHong in HP. It was a great treat since I loved both series dearly.

There were definitely a lot more to expect and there were also a lot of things that I am curious about this series but I guess I'll leave it to my . I can't say enough about how much I enjoyed and loved this series. It's a really job well done for all the staff that made this series happen.

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I heard about this drama way back before and I don't find it interesting because all i thought it would be like a violent prison life but I was wrong I never thought that I would enjoyed watching this because for me it was so funny and was hooked in every character in that particular cell, each of them has different story to tell.

Je-Hyeok is a famous baseball player adjusted well in his prison life with the help of his inmates and his bestfriend Joon-Ho who is also a prison officer. But my most favorite character is Han-Yang a.k.a LOONEY grabe na ang tawa ko basta xa nga mga trashtalk hahaha... sometimes his normal and sometimes his druggie which is I loved the most hahaha... If he made you cry in Hi Bye Mama, here you will cry in laughter ???. And Captain Yoo (Jung Hae In) is so hot and his acting here is different from his other dramas that Ive seen. And if you hear the tweeting bird you already know what it means hahaha ????.

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This show is a such a humane show. For one, it tells a different side of a prison, something we don't often seen in drama. And it's never been done quite well this way. All the characters came with in-depth background and stories to themselves. It really does champion the "slice-of-life" genre. It was serious, comedic, sad all together. Even though I wasn't familiar with the main actor, Park Hae Soo, I found him utterly enjoyable to watch.

And as for Jung Hae In, this guy really just compliments all uniform he puts on. He looked damn good in a cop uniform in "while you were sleeping" and in here he looked damn good in a military uniform as well. Even the prison uniform, haha.

Overall: Great human show. Something different from the typical soap-opera kdrama.

Rewatch: yes.

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One of must-watch drama! This drama is unique in a way. A mix of satire, humor, and bromance. If you are looking for romantic like the usual K-drama, this is not for you.

However, if you are looking for a drama with Humor, Bromance, reality, deep messages, great acting from a lot of experienced and talented actors, and great cinematography, you are looking at the right place.

SPOILER ALERTS:

The story is focused on the baseball player Kim Je Hyeok, who accidentally killed a man who tried to assault his sister. He was sent to the jail where he has a hard time to adjust. Luckily, he met his best friend, Joon Ho who was working as the Jail Guard. With Joon Ho helps, and the Jailbird (a jailmate who has a lot experience being in prison for so many times.), he started to get accustomed to prison life. During his stayed, he met with other jailmates and find other stories about where they are coming from and start to have a brotherhood relationship with them. Not all the jailmate are friendly. Some had tried to take advantages of him and some had assaulted him, to the point where his injury was so severe and his career as a baseball player may come to an end.


AGAIN SPOILER ALERT HIGH
The more eps come to an end, the more interesting the story is. All the characters are very interesting. It is very interesting at the beginning of the series, there was a scene where Je Hyeok was seating on the car and went through a tunnel on his way to his trial and when he came out, he was in the bus on his way to prison. Then at the end of the series, there is the going through tunnel scene again, but this time he went as a free man and on his way to his come back games. The cinematography is just so beautiful and memorable.

The songs are really good. The song Bravo My Life by Eric Nam was a perfect choice for portraying Je Hyeok's life. I also like the fact they are using the classic song, "Time to say Good Bye " in the beginning as a premonition for Je Hyeok new's beginning in prison.

All the characters are great, unique and loveable. It's hard not to love and sympathize with their situation. I also love the fact, that there is a character who is shrewd without any reason at all (Captain Na, I'm talking about you. You remind me of my high school teacher). Although if I can have a complaint, I would like to complain about Looney aka Han Yang ending. I really really want a happy end for him! I was soooo sad but then again. It was actually pretty realistic in a way and bitter. It is true that once you are a drug addict, it will be very very hard to stop your addiction. But I still with a happy ending for him. He is my fav after all.

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Finest Prison Slice-Of-Life Drama met all my high expectations and then some.

Went into this with high expectations, since it has super high MDL ratings. Just finished it and must say, I am NOT disappointed. It starts as a story about a famous baseball player that accidentally kills the man who tried to rape his sister and turns into probably the finest Prison Slice-Of-Life Drama made. This is primarily character driven, and the ensemble cast are ALL excellent at portraying guards, inmates and their families. Their stories interweave as they interact and this is all very well done, with nothing feeling forced or strange. Kudos to the scriptwriters for this.

The 2 main leads are Park Hae Soo as Star Baseball Pitcher Kim Je Hyuk, and the handsome Jung Kyung Ho as his childhood friend, Lee Joon Ho. Both disappear into their characters. As a viewer, I found it IMPOSSIBLE not to like Je Hyuk - he's clearly protective of his family, is smart enough to "act" dumb and has a "psycho" mode. Joon Ho is the perfect foil, he's smarter but cunning enough to do good things for others by subterfuge, like when he tells the other guards to come watch Je Hyuk pitch so Lieutenant Paeng can change in peace, or when he goes off on a prisoner so the same Lieutenant won't get another demerit. That's a good man right there. Both romances were also done well.

Of the other cellmates, I found myself liking the old gangster Min Chul, the Innocent man in prison Captain Yoo, Kaist the swindler and towards the end I started to love Crony for how his arc turned out, as that last statement he made to Je Hyuk actually reduced me to tears. But NONE of them grew on me like Loony. When he took drugs he was smart. Then he went cold turkey and we laughed and cried as he went through withdrawals. Then, RIGHT After he got released ... argh, I was so angry when that happened both me and the spouse actually said "NOOOOO" at that scene. We were FULLY invested in him and even though what he did was probably more realistic it still hurt, bad. Great acting, and writing.

The guards were also fun - the smarter than expected warden, that obnoxious and hateable rules Chief Na, kind Leutenant Paeng, Prison guard Song the motormouth even the bumbling Dr. Go. Supporting cast also had their own story arcs, I especially was fond of Je Hee (Je Hyuk's sister) and Joon Dol (Joon Ho's brother the stalker level super fan).

The last episode made me cry, too many feelings. I was for the most part very satisfied and how nearly all the various plots wrapped up so there was hope, recovery, friendship and ultimately redemption. This is one of the game-changing Korean dramas that has elevated the genre as a whole and I hope more people see it.

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A nice watch but I wanted more

Overall a nice watch and a lot of mini lessons and touching scenes, but I'm kind of surprised it's rated THAT highly here. I think the beginning was stronger for me, more about JH dealing with his prison situation and who the people around him are, rather than the latter half which had more rotating bad guys and random baseball obstacles. I thought the drama would deal a lot more with morality and be heavier, but overall it seemed pretty light-hearted to me.

There are A lot of rotating characters, which makes sense given the prison system, but it just makes it feel like the writers dropped the ball on their stories. One side character that was consistently present throughout the entire series got a terrible ending; I know how unrealistic it can be to give everyone a happy ending when there's such a big cast but it just felt terrible to watch and so unsatisfying :'(

A lowkey star of the show — Paeng! So much depth in his character, from his own backstory to just how he interacts with the inmates. And Minchul was another fave of mine.

Obviously, I loved the bromance and the friendships throughout but I think it could've gone further as well if they handled more serious topics about unjust laws / redemption / life paths / power dynamics, etc.

Anyways! This was a fun one for me and as a fan of the friends-to-lovers trope, the fact that we got two of that was a huge plus.

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The story is exactly as the title says -- main characters are all very smart and you'll love seeing them put their brains at work to survive prison life. There are a lot of characters to keep in mind, but that also keeps every scene interesting without the scriptwriters needing to use stupid tropes/failures to drag the plot out. While there is a lot of life-or-death (and justice) at play, the scenes are also interspersed with amazing comedic relief, keeping the whole show pretty lighthearted and easy to enjoy. The way they use flashbacks as a story-telling device also keeps it interesting and makes it easy for the audience to keep up at the same time.

The casting was so appropriate, and the main characters portrayed the complex emotions so well! Special love to Lieutenant Paeng, whom I had only seen as scary villain characters before (coughcough, I Hear Your Voice). His acting here made me discover a whole other side of him!

Only reason why I didn't give this a higher score is I'm more into heavier/more intense dramas, but if you're looking for a lighthearted human drama with comedic relief, smart characters, and amazing acting, this is a must-watch :)

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NASAYO NA ANG LAHAT BY DANIEL PADILLA

This drama has it all: drama, comedy, romance, suspense.

Tbh I started watching it few years back but then I don't continue watching it because it's just not my style and the eps are so long and I am regretting it now.

No words can explain how I love this drama so much. It made me laugh and cry like there's no tomorrow. I'm curious what happened to Looney and the others but still I'm satisfied with the ending. This drama also tackles different issues that we are facing.

P.s. My rating for the rewatch value ia low because I don't rewatch dramas he he. Hence, it's definitely worth rewatching ^^

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What can I say, the people responsible for the Reply series hit it out of the park again. I realize I gave it a 9.5 but I will explain myself later as to why I docked it half a point.

First of all let's start with the story:

I loved it. Me and my son were watching it and I was like this reminds me of the Reply series and he was like uuuuummmmm that's because it was done by the same people lol. My favorite drama is Reply 1988 so it hyped my enthusiasm right off the bat. There were times in the story where I was like wth these were like main characters and with no warning, poof gone. Also the way they handled the drug portion of the story and Looney kind of annoyed me but more on that later. Other than that it was fantastic, You really fall in love with the characters and their struggles in prison. Also the back stories were pretty good as well for each character.

Characters:

I usually write the actors name and I may mention them but for now I will stick with their screen names.

Kim Je Hyuk: I actually love this character. He was a super great guy who just got the crap end of the stick for protecting his sister and really it was self defense in the end. He was pretty dense but also very caring about those around him. I will say you definitely did not want to mess with the people he cared about. He did a very good job of holding the story together. Plus he made me laugh quite a bit.

Lee Joon Ho: His best friend and corrections officer. Talk about charisma, I loved him and his acting was top notch. He was super smooth and hilarious as well. His relationship with Je Hee was super sweet.

Ji Ho: This is Krystal from f (x), I really liked her character but she didn't play a huge part but did add some really good relational aspects to Je Hyuk's personality which I enjoyed.

The Inmates in cell #7:

Kim Min Chul: Omg what a great character, even though he had done something terrible his persona in the prison was quite gentle but you def did not want to mess with him. In all actuality, his later parts were probably the only ones I teared up on. I was just hoping the best for him throughout the series.

KAIST: This guy was hilarious, his relationship with Looney totally cracked me up. He was a total conman but you still felt for the guy which is a testament to the excellent writing in this drama. When he left a few episodes before the end all of the sudden it was a total disappointment, it left the story of the character without any closure at all which sucked because he was a main character in the series.

Looney: What a hilarious character. At first he kind of annoyed me but later he was an indispensable part of the story line. I will say I just hated the way they portrayed drug abuse since some of it wasn't based in reality at all. I'm wondering if they were forced to portray drug abuse in this way to discourage viewers from taking drugs but some of it was ridiculous like how he was in withdrawls for almost a year, wth was that. The way they ended his character was also extremely disappointing which is one reason along with Kaist and Dr. Ko's characters I had to dock the drama a half a point.

Captain Yoo: Man did you feel for this guy. His whole story showed how the justice system in Korea is quite flawed. You'll see what I mean when you watch it. You'll be yelling at the screen going why in the hell is he still in there. It will just make you mad and show you just how slow the system actually is. On a brighter note, he was a super sweet guy and his interactions with Looney were absolutely priceless.

Croney: Now at first his character really pisses you off but by the end you love him. When Je Hyuk gets discharged and he hugs Hyuk and says you were the only person who ever treated me like a human being was very touching. I wish they would have extended his ending so we would have gotten some closure at least.

Another aspect of the drama were the guards who did and excellent job. One in particular, Lieutenant Paeng, was excellent. He really added heart to an otherwise cold system. Rough and rude on the outside but a real teddy bear on the inside. Without him the drama wouldn't have been as enjoyable as it was because he really added to the feels in the whole story.

Only a couple of gripes. The ones I mentioned before, like characters just abruptly leaving and the way drug abuse is portrayed really annoyed me. Also this is less about this drama in particular but Korean drama in general. I freaking hate how the last episodes go almost to the end with the main story instead of giving us any real type of closure. I mean they rush the wrap ups and leave us high and dry for some of the characters with little closure to their stories at all which is very disappointing. For me I wish kdramas would do a better job of wrapping up the characters and giving fans a bit more closure.

That being said, this was one of the best kdrama has to offer, I really can't recommend it enough!

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Prison Playbook is one of those dramas that reaches your heart. Since I watched the first episode it got on my top 5 (and i’ve already seen a bunch of them).
In the beginning I was very reticent to watch it, because I am not a fan of prison shows (as Prison Break or Orange is the new black), but on the other hand I’m the biggest fan ever of Jung Kyung Ho. So, yes, he was the main reason why I started it. And I have to admit that I didn’t regret it for a second since the first minutes of the show.
This drama is something really special. It can make you laugh for hours and later on, you would like to cry of emotions (and most of them are not sad feelings). That’s probably the best thing the writers, directors and actors have done here. They could make you feel thousand of different emotions watching the same drama.
Acting: I know this wasn’t the best role for Jung Kyung Ho, but anyway he’s the best brother-friend there could be for the male lead. Everybody’s casting in this drama was perfect. Overall, I liked very much Lee Kyu Hyung as “Loony”, he was amazing, and Jung Woong In as Lieutenant Paeng. Moreover, the interaction among the inmates was sublime.
Without a doubt, everybody should watch it.
Don’t hesitate for the prison main subject (as I did for a long time), the episode’s length or the almost non-existant romantic subplot (you are not going to care anyway that it doesn’t exist). I miss this drama already, I could continue watching it on and on and on. And I assure you, it’s the first drama I watched where I was not interested on what would happen at the end, because the development was so much more important than the ending. I’m sure I’ll rewatch it again.

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