Will be keeping my eye on this one!

I feel really rusty from not writing for some time, but this isn’t even my longest hiatus yet. Dropping by with a quick  review just because I’m excited about this one, and also to get me back in the groove of writing. Can’t believe March is already ending soon!

Summary of the show [spoilers from EP1]

The drama starts off with a cruel murder and fire that will tie three of our leads together – Ahn (Park Jin Young, GOT7) , Jae In (Shin Ye Eun) and Kang Seung Mo (Kim Kwon). May I also add that the younger version of Seung Mo is acted by Byeong Kyu i.e Ki Joon from Sky Castle, which is every reason why you should check out the show?

Anyway, Ahn’s parents died in the fire, Jae In’s dad was accused to be the arsonist and murderer, and Seung Mo saved Ahn from smoke inhalation by throwing himself and Ahn out of the window. From this accident, Ahn developed the ability to see people’s thoughts and secrets by touching them/related objects. Years later, by some turn of events, our leads find themselves digging through the past again to find out who was the true murderer.

My thoughts [mild spoilers] 

I’m not excited excited, like how I was after four episodes of Memories of the Alhambra, but this show is definitely off to a good start. Each episode is tightly paced and there’s a good balance between playfulness and thrill/crime. The psychological thriller aspect of the drama isn’t too daunting, but neither does it come off as juvenile.

Different parts of the show also come together rather nicely, like how Ahn discovers that Jae In’s the daughter of the alleged murderer (whom Jae In believes to be innocent). Ugh, I feel so bad for the father because they showed him to be a really kind ex-fire fighter who just wanted to help people. I’m rooting for you!

I was also pleasantly surprised by the time jump because I was kinda prepared for the entire drama to be set in high school (on hindsight though, I realise that would have made no sense since the leads wouldn’t really have any form of power). The first three episodes therefore set up a really nice lead-in for what’s to come next. Plot-wise, I’m hooked – just because they are hinting at Seung Mo not so subtly (but which also makes me think that he might not be THE one after all) and because the murders are pretty high-stake. I need my murders to be creative AND scary…those Japanese dramas have spoilt me.

Acting-wise, I’m also happy with what I’m seeing so far. Each lead (including Kim Da Som acting as Eun Ji Soo) is pulling his or her weight. I’ve had some recent thoughts about idols being (almost) instantly promoted to the position of male leads, but Park Jin Young surprised me.

He portrays Ahn well, as someone who is cheeky but also lonely and scared on the inside, and bounces off his lines with Kim Kwon really well too. Shin Ye Eun gives me Gong Seung Yeon vibes and I’m glad that Jae In is a female lead who didn’t start off annoying the death out of me. My favourite scenes though were those involving Kim Kwon and Byeong Kyu – most child actors match with the adult versions pretty well, but both of them really impress me with how they conveyed a sense of continuity in Seung Mo, especially the way Seung Mo speaks in a detached, cold manner. If you’d like to see Kim Won Hae take on a role different from his usual feel good characters (this guy acted in TWELVE dramas in the year of 2018 omg), be sure to catch his cameo here, which would prove to you just how versatile he is as an actor.

What I’m not so keen about however is the hinted love triangle between Ahn, Jae In and Seung Mo. I suffer from second lead syndrome all the time, and I dislike it equally when I’m torn between the first and second lead. I’m just hoping that this love triangle, if any, actually adds to the plot and does not create some form of frivolous conflict…Although I guess one way to remove the love triangle is to throw Seung Mo under the bus and make him the bad guy.

Anyway, here’s my guess thus far – I think the true murderer isn’t Seung Mo, but rather the one who kidnapped/held him captive when he was young. He was shown to be chained as a kid, and the witness who died was also chained for no reason. That seems to imply that his captor was taunting him. In any case, I see that the show tries to create depth in its writing, such as having Seung Mo stand in front of posters which said “The Mask” (haha, told you they weren’t subtle), so I’m eager to see what comes next.

Conclusion 

In other words, watch this. It’s gripping enough to make you stay but at the same time, it’s light-hearted enough to make it an easy watch (so far). I don’t think you would regret checking it out!

<3thoughtsramble

(P.S I’ve been much more active on Twitter just because reviewing each episode within 280 characters is much easier on the brain these days. Follow me there!)