When this drama first got announced I was very excited because I love the original series and kdramas. I couldn't wait to see how this adaptation would turn out, especially since the cast was perfect in my opinion. Overall I had a lot of expectations for this drama. Sadly, most of my expectations were not met.

This drama is a Remake which means that the original plot would be copy and pasted, but I still expected there to be some differences between the two, just to keep people that have watched the original engaged. When the trailer was released and it revealed that the drama would focus on the unification of South Korea and North Korea, I thought this would be the thing that would differentiate the original and this drama. However, apart from causing conflict in the drama, this plot point isn't used well and there was almost nothing else that differs from the original. This wasn't a huge setback for me though, since I already expected that the drama would turn out this way, it just disappointed me. Also, people that haven't watched the original series won't have this complaint at all, so I won't take points out of my review just because of this.

Since the original series is great and this drama followed its plot, the drama was interesting enough for me to get through, but it lacked a lot in terms of pacing and storytelling. I'm assuming that they're trying to fit the five seasons of the original into 12 episodes, so thats the reason the drama was so fast paced, but I don't think that's an excuse for the bad pacing it had.

The actors themselves did great in each of their respective roles and brought the characters to life, but the pacing was so off that it didn't let me get invested in any of the characters. Some of the characters' stories were revealed in these 6 episodes, but at the same time I felt like I learned nothing about them. And the characters that didn't get their stories told in these episodes I just didn't care about at all since they had little screen time. I think it would've been better if all 12 episodes were released at once.

In all, the drama did its job and retold the story of the original, but thats all it did, and it didn't do it well either. There was also nothing particularly special about it that would make me recommend this version over the original. It would've been much more interesting if this drama only took inspiration from the original and focused on a new heist plan, or at least didn't follow the original's plot as closely as it did. If the original version of a series is so good that you replicate it to a t without adding anything unique, then just don't remake it.

That being said, I would still recommend this drama to people that haven't watched the original because it is a good drama. But, if you're someone that has watched the original series and you're thinking about giving this drama chance, don't waste your time and just go rewatch La Casa De Papel.