Like a tire with a slow leak

This drama started strong. Then somewhere in the middle third it began slowly deflating, until by the end it was completely flat.

The premise of a fictional character with such a strong will to live that he begins to influence the writer and eventually more is intriguing. Pulling people from the real world to the world of the manhwa through the tablet was clever, and it was made clear that there had to be certain circumstances to switch universes - until suddenly that no longer seemed to be necessary. No longer moments of suspense or excitement where a "to be continued..." cliffhanger would normally occur, but instead characters were coming and going as they pleased without a reasonable explanation - except for when it would be inconvenient to the plot for it to happen. The same sort of inconsistent changing of boundaries also occurred with who could traverse between universes, characters creating themselves or being completely outside of anything entered on the tablet and the originally set idea that when the main character is doing something time doesn't flow normally for the rest. It was frustrating to see such a novel idea turned into an empty shell after an exciting beginning.

There were moments when the acting was the only reason to keep watching, but unfortunately the acting also became worse as they show progressed; I believe the actors also realized the story was completely derailed beyond hope by the midway point and they just wanted it to be over. The leads were well-cast, and Han Hyo Joo and Lee Jong Suk both have electrifying smiles. Unfortunately they were unable to overcome the plot holes and absurdities, but this was not through any fault of their own.

Finally, I'd be amiss if I ignored the ending. There was once again a sudden arbitrary rule placed so there had to be a happy ending and a sad ending. It didn't make sense with anything that had occurred so far, and Kang Chul's reappearance in the real world when the link had been severed felt like nothing more than the writer trying to force a fairy tale ending with no explanation. Really, the best way I can sum up both the happy and sad endings - my eyes stayed completely dry for both.

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Swag

This is a drama about love: romantic love, love between friends, familial love, love between classmates , love of sport, love of self, love from authority figures... almost any sort of love you can think of, there's an example in this drama. And it's a beautiful thing - as a viewer you can't help but feel embraced by all this love also, and it is a good feeling. The only sport where this sense of love and camaraderie was missing was with the rhythmic gymnasts - and they seemed quite miserable compared to every other student; miserable, jealous, and enjoying the problems of others instead of the more nurturing and friendly environment enjoyed by the swimmers and weightlifters. In some ways this also feels like a treatise on coaching methods.

I'm not going into details about particular characters - each of the mains had a different trajectory, different obstacles to overcome, and different ways in which they finally learned and grew., whether it was finding their ways to the beginnings of their times as national athletes, or coming to realize and accept the end of their competitive career. I will say that Bok Joo and Joon Hyeong's love story moved me a lot - they were both such sweet characters, and romantic love based in a strong friendship is quite endearing to me. Most of the supporting cast ere also well-developed and had their own journeys and opportunities to grow.

Two small things I disliked:

1. Nan Hee was obnoxious, irritating, loud, consistently in the way, and essentially acted like she was still in middle school throughout.
2. The rhythmic gymnastic athletes other than Si Ho essentially disappeared from the show somewhere in the middle, and the contrast between how unhappy they were in the beginning compared to the others was striking - they took their misery out on the weightlifters at first, but then just kind of vanished midway through.

All in all, this is a refreshingly funny drama, and definitely worth enjoying.

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Sometimes shorter is better

This actually began nicely - I was intrigued by the story and looking forward to seeing what came next. Sometime around episode 20 everything began getting ridiculous, and then for the next 20 episodes or so there was nothing happening at all, just week after week of the same ridiculous things padded by multiple flashbacks of things that had happened minutes before. Then all of a sudden the writers realized they had to actually wrap up all these dangling plots from 20 episodes ago, and the last 6 or so episodes have things happening at breakneck speed. Unfortunately the resolutions to most plotlines were generally absurd. I've watched disaster movies that had more believable storylines.

There are genuinely funny and sweet moments throughout, even in the worst episodes there were always scenes that made me laugh. In the end, though, the main reason I wanted to keep watching was to see exactly how unbelievably ludicrous the plot would finally end up.

The highlight of the soap is absolutely the grandmother, both in acting and writing. She was fantastic both being cantankerous and when her attitude changed. The best part was that this happened naturally over the course of many episodes rather than a sudden mood-swing as happened with every other character in the show.

Production-wise, the costuming was generally dreadful, and the sets often seemed like it was just some furniture placed in front of a green screen because they had no depth.

All the same, I watched all 50 episodes. I just think this would have been better served a 16 episode drama than has a 50 episode soap.

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This is the hardest review I have ever tried to write

My Mister is a superlative meditation on life. The description does not even begin to do it justice. This is, without a doubt, the best thing I have ever watched, in any medium and from any country - and yet my emotions and reactions are indescribable, in part because there were so many in any one moment. The writing, direction, and acting all came together in such a way that it almost felt as if I was experiencing events as they happened onscreen, rather than viewing them.

This isn't a story of people with perfect lives; instead it is a story of people doing the best they can. The screenwriter did a masterful job of showing that everyone has their own troubles. More importantly, it showed just how much a kind word or act can make a huge impact, and the power of coming together in times of joy, trouble, and tragedy. At times the crushing weight of what the characters (all of them, not only the leads) were dealing with seemed almost unbearable, but each time there was someone there to help lighten the load or help - sometimes in the most unexpected ways.

The casting for this drama was as amazing as everything else about it. Every character was perfectly cast - it was apparent that thought went into every one, even guest roles that were on the screen for no more than a minute. The cinematography was breathtaking, and the OST absolute perfection. The best way to describe it that I can think of is that everything about this drama was done with intentionality.

One other note, as a viewer of this drama in 2024. The representation of depression was very realistic, and some of the lines regarding it and the feelings of despair and hopelessness that come with hit particularly hard thinking of Lee Sun Kyun's tragic death.

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Terrible is too high of praise

Watching this, my overwhelming thought was how could a collection of people so absolutely stupid be enrolled in a university. Too many shallow characters, and it seemed like none of them actually took school seriously or studied. The entire show would have been more believable as a story about students in their first year in high school. The best characters by far are Yoo Eun and Oh Hyun Jung - they seemed completely out of place with the rest of this cast, and both actresses deserve high praise for their performances.

The description of the show claims that Mi Rae is insecure and begins to regain her lost confidence and discovers true beauty is on the inside. Funny, since while finally in episode 16 one could generously say she began to gain some self-confidence, she absolutely remained self-absorbed and shallow to the very end.. The character who actually grew as a person is, surprisingly, Soo Ah.

Extremely disappointing, True Beauty did this plot so much better

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Thought-provoking

This was an unusual story, with many layers of depth and meaning. The guilt, pain, suffering, and trauma experienced by so many characters was sometimes almost too heartbreaking to watch. The responses to trauma and loss, both big and small, were varied and realistic - and that made the story both poignant and beautiful.

The OST is beautiful, I'm sure to be listening to it for a very long time.

Incredible acting throughout, Lee Jun Ho and Won Jin Ha were perfectly cast and played their roles as survivors of a major tragedy well. Kang Han Na absolutely shined in her role as the conscience behind her brother and her ex-boyfriend - she kept them both doing the right thing even when they wavered. All the support roles were well-played, but I have to say that Na Moon Hee actually stole every scene she was in . Granny was one of those characters that will stay with me for awhile - which also tells just how good the writing is.

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Just okay

First, the positives.. This drama was funny. Extremely. There were times when I could not stop dying laughing. The scenes that were just the four friends hanging out together, whether enjoying drinking on the rooftop or all congregating for breakfast were endearing - as a story about friendship it was enjoyable. Every scene in the past with the little kids was brilliant. The mysterious landlady quickly became one of the most entertaining and compelling parts, and as the story unfolded I kept very much wanting to know more about her.

I believe in general the cast did the best they could with what they were given. The problem I had was that the main story was flat and not very interesting. The MMA scenes themselves were well choreographed and nice to watch, but it was hard to suspend disbelief sufficiently to actually be caught up in them, and to believe that the final fight would ever actually occur. The writing kept putting the women of the show in the position of being told what to do or treated like they couldn't decide for themselves or required rescuing, which was off-putting to me. Ae Ra was shown to be a strong, capable character, so why did she keep needing to be rescued? Why did Seol Hee keep getting shut down every time she tried to articulate what she did or did not want? This could have been so much more than what it was; a story about young people doing their best to overcome the odds against them should be inspiring and uplifting. In the end, though, it just felt like more fluff than substance.

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I liked it as a drama, but...

Yoo Jung was an abusive, manipulative, toxic character. I found it quite uncomfortable that whatever he did Hong Seol accepted it and rationalized it. There were also bullying classmates, and she continually found herself in extremely dangerous situations that she treated as perfectly normal. For example: why would she not block the phone number of an extremely creepy stalker? Even Baek In Ho often had a tendency to immediately resort to violence in any situation.

Even so, this was an unusual gem of a drama. The acting was quite impressive all around, but Kim Go Eun and Lee Sung Kyung were both phenomenal. Park Hae Jin managed to portray a sociopath with skill, and his moment of realization was masterful. Seo Kang Joon absolutely shined as Baek In Ho - both his performance and the character were stellar.

The story was well written, even while being disturbing, but I felt the ending was rushed, and it made me sad Seol was still pining for Jung three years later - he realized how harmful he was to her, but she seemingly never did.

I find it a bit odd that Viki tagged this show as a romantic comedy - the genre is more akin to a slow-paced psychological thriller or straight drama.

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why?

Why would a writer, with a fascinating story to tell, proceed to write it in such a ridiculous way that nothing about it makes any sense. It was frustrating, infuriating, even nonsensical at times. The makings for an excellent drama that would make even the most hard-hearted person turn emotional, and yet instead it was nothing but a mess.

Annoyingly every time there was a scene that should be suspenseful I instead was stuck thinking that the writer wished us to believe that every victim was just an idiot, all the police were bumbling fools, and that no one was even trying to solve the crimes at all.

The acting was superb, the cast did their best to make lemonade out of this lemon of a script.

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Heartbreaking

In the beginning, I enjoyed this drama because of how unusual it is. For me, the unsettling nature of how events unfolded left me constantly reassessing how I felt about characters. Nearly every interaction could easily change a dynamic, so I found it impossible to predict would happen next a few times. I had a couple of early guesses that were correct but they were not actually providing the impetus for the behavior as i thought - watching the story progress means feelings about nearly everyone and everything changes at some point.The end result is that as a viewer I felt the same uncertainty that Jin Kang had to be feeling the entire time as events happened to and around while well-meaning but misguided people hid the truth from her to protect her.

There were a few things to the plot that didn’t make sense, for example, Jin Gook’s visceral reaction to Moo Young from the very beginning. At a couple of points the plot’s misdirection provided a plausible reason, but those were continually shot down.There were a couple of other points I hit on, but that was the biggest.

Acting was exceptional. Seo In Guk’s phenomenal agonized reaction to the misinformation he was given about Jin Kang will be seared in my memory forever. Jung So Min’s frustration and confusion by everyone around her acting irrationally was masterful. And Go Min Si completely nailed the part of a troubled young person. The rest of the cast also gave stellar performances.

The ending broke my heart. Long after the closing credits I was still sobbing uncontrollably.

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Beautiful

This drama was fantastic from beginning to end. It's a beautiful story, directed impeccably, and all of the acting is superb. It made me laugh, it made me cry, and sometimes it made md do both at once. Truly a love story, not just between the main couple, but also the love between friends. I'm writing this review immediately after finishing, and I'm still feeling emotional about it.

One funny thing worth mentioning - Hyun Bin and Son Ye Jin are mentioned in the show - and this was the most chemistry on screen I have seen between romantic leads since watching Crash Landing on You.

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