At least the drama had Mi Ri

The first problem became apparent very quickly. Both male leads can't act to save their lives. Seo Do Young was stiff as a brick, the dude barely react or be able to open his mouth more than 0.5 cm. In contrast, Im Yoon Ho was overacting as much as he could while putting silly expressions. I don't want to see him in any other project in the future, the dude is really off putting. The silliness will lure you in but soon enough it will turn into another bloated melodrama minus the silliness. The "illness" plot was too dump, is that the best they could come up with? This made the whole last 30 episodes unbearable.

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Pain....

This is just... bad. This flat jaded narrative and these one dimensional characters killed my soul. I can't even be bothered to continue writing my comment.

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MY EARS!!

Things were kinda fine until the events started to loop endlessly in a corporate setting. This is exactly how most of these daily dramas die and wither away. This drama is manufactured specifically to trigger the viewers by having constant intense shouting with every other sentence, boosted OST playing every 2 seconds to accompany the shouting, unbearable archetypes like the intense hatred and favoritism of the stepmother for one daughters over the other, and the stupid amnesia. The male lead character became absolutely dull after he had the accident, in fact, the entire drama turned for the worse after that.

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Decent enough...

The first half was more fun than the latter. Watching Mi Yeon trying to take revenge on Hyo Seop was the best part. In fact, they were the best couple in the series. On the other hand, almost all the other couples were weak and lacked chemistry, especially Sun Ha. Speaking of characters, I was expecting more from Yoo Ha against her in-laws, a bit disappointed.

The drama itself is fine, it had its ups and downs, it can be a bit slow sometimes, it had some interesting events, and it had a handful of likeable cast members. It's a casual family drama with little melodrama, most of the conflict was with the in-laws which didn't last that long anyway.

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Uhh...

Oh god! It's an amnesia drama, the most intense kind too. It feels like the humans who worked on this dram come from an alternate reality or a parallel universe. This drama by far had the highest concentration of "buffoonery" in any makjang out there. Zero chill, ridiculous over the top and a "bruh moment" every other scene. All in all, not in a good way because this is the only thing the drama had going on for it, that is to throw as much makjang elements as fast as possible. The writer/director were speed running any% no-loot the human brain tolerance to "bullshit receptivity". Anyway, wouldn't recommend.

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NAH.....

The drama must have a big identity crises since it couldn't decide between being a family drama or makjang, constantly switching even within the same episode. Right from the beginning, EPISODE 1, when one of the family members took picture of Ji Na's necklace and, for absolutely no logical reason, put it on the internet, I could already smell the fuming hot garbage the writers are about to create. Guess what? I was 100% correct. This drama tips heavily on the baboonish side of the makjang scale.

Although Uhm Jung Hwa did a great job, but it's impossible for me to view her as an evil character. I didn't like how she suddenly became evil for no reason from episode 12. We were initially presented by a strong independent Yoo Ji Na (Uhm Jung Hwa) but 15-20 episodes later the writers made her turn to a bag of dirt and completely ruined any build up she had.

The drama had a strange pacing, it changes weirdly every handful of episodes with the biggest change came from switch between episodes 30 & 31 which created a big gap and disconnect in the story. Speaking of switching and change, I think the switch of the female lead ruined the drama.
Jang Hee Jin is absolutely a great actress but she just didn't fit well in this case. They even went on to replace/recreate all of the flashback scenes.

Another form of change/switching came with the love interest which shamelessly switched three times. It was straight up disgusting watching Hae Dang being with one man while sobbing/begging/crying/caring/dreaming/lusting/bitching/loving/chasing/pitying/thirsting/craving/running around for another man. Despicable and uncomfortable to watch! On the other spectrum, Jung Hae Jin was absolutely the only "good" part about this drama and nothing else.

After being the nastiest humans ever to walk the earth, suddenly everyone became angelic and have the highest morale of any other human for the ending. Great writing! It feels like their budget was small, it was mostly filmed indoor between 2-3 family houses with very limited number of outdoor scenes. I feel sorry for this cast to be involved in this atrocious project. The drama that followed it after finishing serializing "Man in the Kitchen (2017)" was much better than this. Can't recommend this, barely 3/10 for the cast's sake.

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NO!

I usually like Sung Joon but this is by far his worst project to date. At this stage of his career he shouldn't accept such projects. There's almost no story, just a very long sequence of plane clips. Who ever edited this turned up the saturation to a disgusting level. No wonder this was delayed for years because it's a failed project, dead on arrival. Absolutely a waste for the cast time and talent.

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Under the Queen's Stares

The drama really needed a better introduction to establish itself properly, it took me a while before it captured my interest. Others may not have the patience. By the time the drama finished, I had no idea how many princes were there. Most of them barely got any screen time, yet had some small side stories. While the prominent ones didn't develop enough. Quality over quantity would've been the right approach. I found the ending to be too subdued, soft, and tame after spending 16 very long episodes of building tension through countless slow-mo shots, mean stares, and passive-aggressive empty threats. This was another area that was lacking, the drama needed more ways to build tension. The drama had some unjustifiable, unwarranted, and under-delivered preachy moments that yanked the viewers out and ruined the atmosphere. This seems to be a common trend with modern titles. Anyway, I see that "Comedy" is one of its listed genres, although it had relatively lighter moments every now and then but these didn't adhere to the comedy genre in any shape or form. I would remove the tag as it's misleading. Speaking of misleading, the synopsis's description of the queen's character was mostly wrong and didn't translate as such into the screen.

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What were they even thinking!

Coming to this drama after finishing Im Kkeok Jung (1996) is such a disappointing shitty experience in comparison. This drama was fundamentally flawed in every imaginable aspect. The cast members are usually competent in other projects but the directors did such a poor sloppy job in handling the cast. The drama had 3 directors and still managed to fuck up! They must have been busy fighting each other over working on the drama.

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Decent

It's good but not quite up there. It's a bit unbalanced, some episodes were good and memorable while other ones were lacking any appeal like the depressed customer on a rainy day episode. The episodes that focused on the staff were generally better. It could have been easily trimmed down a bit for a better experience. One more thing that held the drama back was it's lack of commitment. The stories/relationships/interactions of the staff were always kept to a surface level which some may see this as lacking substance. The cast was diverse and kept you interesting. Choi Daniel and Shim Eun Woo were clearly the ones that stood out the most. Going into this drama I was worried that this is just a long format of a short drama quality but it turned out to be fine.

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A cheap flick

Went from promising to disappointing real quick. Cults and hypnosis/mind-control is the worst combination to make a mystery/thriller/horror drama. It gives the writer an unlimited pass for a lazy writing and this is what we got here. The cast was alright tho.

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Lazy

Soulless and dry. Not a good office romance. All men were creepy and cringe while women were selfish and entitled. Not to mention the dead chemistry with all of the three couples. The story was practically dead on arrival. Painful progression and dreadful execution.

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Better than season 1

Regarding season 1:
I found it to be very flawed from all angles and it only served as a learning experience for those who carried on with the second season. Its portrayal of a cult lacked a compelling thematic foundation, opting instead to draw inspiration from cheap rip-off D-grade movies themed around cults. Where cults are extremely over-dramatized to the point of crossing the supernatural territory. The cult apparently possessed super powers of hypnosis with only a few words spoken, even towards people who weren't perceptible to religious and spiritual beliefs. Everything surrounded the cult came off as cartoonish even within the context of a 'drama'. The narrative itself struggled to carry its own weight, particularly as it primarily focused on the perspectives of the outsiders. It always felt as if it was building up towards something bigger but it never got there. For a 16-episodes run, it needed a proper world building and foundation for the cult. Establishing a distinct "character" for the cult would have provided a stronger identity. Back to the outsiders, having the drama led by teenage characters was another weak aspect of it. Bland and cardboard characters. The mystery element was a crucial part of the drama yet it was lacking and under-delivering. The first season would have fared better as a standalone one-off movie rather than a drama. It doesn't make any sense why the drama was rated this high, according to MDL standards, especially when season 2 effectively addressed most of the issues with the cult and delivered an overall better package!

Regarding Season 2:
It managed to deliver a much more compelling package than season 1. The most important part is that it handled the cult theme properly. The characters and the cast were a lot more appealing than season 1. Having a more adult leading characters rather than teenager was a plus. Uhm Tae Goo was a perfect casting choice for his character. The story had a better and more natural progression than season 1. However, it got sloppier the closer it got to the ending. Speaking of the ending, it was a bit underwhelming and not as grandiose as I hoped it would be. Second season should have been a stand alone drama unrelated to the first one, not even in the name. If you don't feel like watching two seasons then you can ignore the first one and just watch the second.

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