La-i-peu on Ma-seu

I'm not a fan of the writing style that pushes the viewers too hard to interpret and speculate. You're expected to accept whatever is presented to you. If writers were to do so, they need a better structure and understanding of world building. Take for example the British series Utopia, it does it brilliantly.

The director must really love the Dolly zoom, although it looked good but I wish there was more visual variations even at the cost of it being experimental. You are already pushing your skill ceiling in all departments so why not shoot for the moon?

Anyway, it's a solid watch and will probably appeal to everyone.

Life on Mars has a solid story, however it doesn't really deliver in the end, though the serial killer story was intense at the begining. The small cases that took place and created the puzzle of the main story, the relationship between the members of the police team and the performances, were the highlights of the series. Especially the cases were really interesting and entertaining. The bromance and the dynamics of the team were so good that I'm wishing that there would be a second season, taking that epilogue in mind and the fact that they didn't really explained why he went back in time and how. But overall, it was enjoyable.

I thought it was good that the show brought up the difference in how women were treated in Korea 30 years ago. I know that Korea is still a very patriarchal society, and so much so that it drives a lot of Korean women to leave the country, and seems to be very big part of the reason for the abysmal birth rate of Korea (2nd lowest in the world). It also seems like a lot of effort was spent on recreating the Korea of 30 years ago. A big part of the charm of such a show is seeing how things have changed. It seems that from similar shows that take place in the current ear, things have changed a lot.

But not sure it this is so representative since 1988 is right after the constitution reform which followed decades of being under a fairly repressive dictatorship, and I would sort of expect a lot of repercussions from the change, and it does not seem like this is so evident in this series.

I am American, so not familiar with what Korea was 30 years ago. However, there is one fact I was able to check up on, and that was smoking. In 2000 it was about 35%, vs about 20% today, and at that point it was already in a steep decline. That would indicate that it had to be somewhere in the 50% range in 1988, and so few men probably did not smoke--And we see no smoking. See modern Korean series with lots of smoking, which I think it probably excessive, and none in this series. Too bad they did not try to do more to make it truly.

I will never forget the characters especially kang dong chul

Great acting, great cinematography and really great and unique storyline. Usually with these kinds of storylines you get so many plot holes but in this drama everything matches and has a logic behind it. Honestly I am baffled why the number of reviews (and I'm guessing overall viewers) are so low compared to other dramas. It could be due to the fact that there is no bold romantic relationship involved, although it exists. Overall, first 3 episodes couldn't get me hooked but starting ep 4 it was addictive and I think this is going to be one of the most memorable drama endings I have ever watched. No forced sad/happy ending or trying to just wrap things up. It was really satisfying to me.