User reviews

Finished South Korean series "Awaken" yesterday. I've tried some other Korean series before, but those that went my way were "meh". This one started out with some silliness, but later it was amazing. Good cinematography, amazing soundtrack, intrigue and suspense kept through out the whole series, although the sources of both did change. I mean, there still were some silly and unrealistic moments (especially those related to technology and science), but I found them minor enough compared to the quality of everything else to not be bothered by them at all. If you have 16 hours to spare - highly recommended.

This is a great sci-fi thriller that is tightly written with an interesting plot and great characters. The ML is by far the most interesting of the bunch, but all the characters are interesting and three dimensional. I enjoyed every episode, and I liked how all questions were answered by the end of the show. The only negative I would say about the show is it takes a few episodes to feel like as a viewer you know what is going on and what the direction of the show is. Just know that the whole show revolves around the first few scene, and wait for the plot to speed up. Once it does the show is addicting. The ending was somewhat open ended, but also not really at the same time - it was vague but also confirming of the viewers suspicions. I personally thought it was perfect. I really enjoyed this and think it is well worth a watch.

White night village is a place where over 25 years ago many people including children lost their lives in strange circumstances. We fast forward to today where a police officer assembles a crime team consisting of people related to those events and over the series we learn what happened and why. It is a clever plot and I would have rated 8.5 if it was possible as you are never sure where the plot is going and who are the real baddies. The entire cast do a sterling job and the direction and pacing is excellent with the team investigating a present day serial killer with links to the tragic events of the past.

This is criminally under-rated. I ve watched it 2-3 weeks back and i m still living in the drama. I just cant get it out of my system. The cast, direction and audio...everything is phenomenal. I d rate it above all the dramas i've ever watched.

Such a combination of crime-mystery, which are completely different from the traditional dramas, is not seen very often. According to Drama, the rating is very low which is probably due to cast influence. But if you ask me, I would call it one of the best contemporary dramas. If you have time, you can take a look, or you will miss something great.

This series is really surrounded by a very dark past. As you discover the events that took place 20 years ago, you start to see some twisted things. I really enjoyed watching the lead actor. He's pretty much one of the most intriguing characters I've ever seen. A person with unusual intelligence and a knack for being very misleading. I could say that he is one of those characters that seem to be in control of everything around him. My only disappointment was the ending. I hoped for something very epic for a series with a big hidden secret but the writer failed miserably to take any advantage of that. Something like the ending of of the movie Glass (2019) would have been perfect. Still, I believe it is a must watch!!!

Like most Korean dramas, this was interesting all the way through. Also like many Korean dramas, it had an overly-large cast of characters and stretched on like taffy. And as some have mentioned, the ending was rather sub-par. That fortunately didn't detract from the rest of the show, but would have preferred a more ingenious twist to the ending, or at least satisfying resolution.

Everyone did a good job of acting, but with such a huge cast some of the characters were somewhat superfluous. One gets the feeling they could have done this on half the cast and still accomplished the same goals. The only reason I mention this is because with the American-unfamiliar names (which aren't changed for purpose of translations), one tends to forget who is who and what role they play. If their role in the series becomes inconsequential, perhaps they didn't need to be in it in the first place.

Still, some people enjoy a large cast of characters, so it's largely a matter of personal taste. I give it 7 stars because of the somewhat weak and predictable / cliche ending... and the typical Korean habit of putting an 8 episode story into 16 episodes. But also because it does maintain interest all the way through.

Then there was the "Superman" bit, with one character suddenly exhibiting super-strength and not really explained. That somewhat jumped the shark.

Calling it a "masterpiece" is a bit of a stretch. It's just basically a typical Korean series. I've seen better, and I've seen far worse. It's worth watching.

This show is a masterpiece, beginning to ending, it has everything (as most Korean shows have) drama, suspense, mystery, & comedy. Some could argue that it could have had a better ending, but in my opinion it left me satisfied.

Wouldn't want to spoil the events, but in a nutshell, it's about a detective that tries to link the "horrible events" that happened 28 years in the past with a current string of murders. Slowly the pieces of the truth unravel throughout the series. If you get bored within the first couple of eps, be patient. You will definitely get hooked halfway through the 3 episode. Enjoy!!

I just finished and am contemplating watching again (just incase I missed anything).

The storyline was great with enough interest, intrigue and misdirection to keep you engaged. I am a sucker for sci-fi. Plus the fight scenes were great. It was a different flavour of Beyond Evil. The male lead character was played flawlessly by Min Nam-Koong. His sense of justice and protectiveness is reminiscent of Optimus Prime. The rest of the cast was great too, in particular Kim Won-Hae. He is always great in every series I have seen him in.

The pre-ending and the song, brilliant. The perfect ending to an amazing hero. The epilogue was ok too.

I want another season.

It's a decent thriller mystery with an interesting premise and a good performance by the lead. Namkoong brought a lot of character to his character while trying to work with what turned out to be a mediocre flawed script with the usual plot holes. The pacing became problematic halfway through, as it felt sluggish and failed to maintain an engaging momentum. Its length is a contributing factor to that. The village story wasn't big enough to work with. Both female leads were poorly written and their inclusion affected the drama negatively. There was a poor attempt to force a romantic plot line which felt contrived and disrupted the narrative coherence. It would have been fine if they were to commit and go through with it rather than abandoning that. Both female leads lacked chemistry with Namkoong whether it was friendship/professional/romantic. The ending followed a typical and predictable pattern for its genre resulting in an underwhelming and unsatisfying ending. There was clearly a massive bait trying to capitalize on the "multi season" trend.

I was pleased even with the ending. Good mystery throughout. As always, Nam Minmoong was superb!

This is a good series, but it does sag occasionally because the sequencing can be too long and limp for the actual plot and character development. Not enough attention is given to developing the female leads or the relationships between characters-considering the outstanding cast, this is a serious drawback. It puts more emphasis on plot than on character development, but even then the writer leaves too many holes that she continues to spin, and not effectively. However, the series can definitely be recommended for its terrific cast and directors who keep the audience's attention throughout despite the writer's occasional oversights.

"If you'd have all the money and power in the world, what would you want next? To live forever."

I didn't expect much when I started this drama. Sure, I finished the first episode and thought "ugh, another 16 hour show about serial killers." I was so glad I was wrong. Oh boy, It is MUCH deeper than that.

To be honest, it is extremely hard to express how dark and emotional this drama really is. As we arrive to the second half of the show we realize that our beloved ML is not only fighting against the antagonists, but also his own darkness.

The cinematography and music was on point. The combination of the dark atmosphere and the sometimes suspenseful, other times overly emotional music just came together perfectly, making a drama that feels like a punch in the gut - in the best way possible.

While some characters could have been a little bit more interesting, and some things did feel a tiiiny bit convenient and exaggerated, I have to say: everything connects BEAUTIFULLY. The writing is actually so good that even when you see a twist coming, you're still going to feel the things you're supposed to.

That is a word I would use to describe this drama: FEELINGS. All kinds of feelings and maybe too much of them, because I swear to GOD it ripped my soul apart.

The plot is really well done and there are many twists throughout it, constantly keeping us on the edge of our seat and eager to see what happens next or just simply feeling hopeless.

The three main leads are phenomenal and the side characters are great. The old man was my favourite. The acting is incredible. Seol Hyun's acting was just too good. At times I could feel what her character was feeling. I wanted to cry with her.

I could go on for hours about how good the fight scenes were and how explosive the chemistry between the leads was, but I'm just going to tell you to watch it. It's something everyone needs to experience. Go watch it.

So what is Awaken really like?

Addictive. Unforgettable. Emotional. Brilliant.

Also it's great to see more dramas get more than one season, but why not do the same with this one? There is so much potential here for a second season.

With a smattering of Inception for good measure! It took me a couple of episodes to get into this show, mostly because I was confused about how much disbelief I should be suspending. This is most definitely, as others have pointed out, a sci-fi show and not your typical crime procédural as you might have expected. It also, despite the description, contains exactly zero romance so don't get your hopes up if that's your thing. Initially a thrilling whodunnit, this show rapidly turns into an exploration of the corruption and greed of shadowy and powerful figures. The "science" is a little convoluted and confusing, but overall it's a gripping, exciting, and entertaining ride!

The synopsis sounded interesting but some reviews were kind of discouraging, so I started watching this one with my expectations on the floor. And you know what?

I spent my entire day off binge-watching it and I have no regrets. So many unexpected twists and turns, not to mention how much the characters grew on me. I'm in love and miss them already. Every single second was worth it!

I'm impressed by how it kept getting better and better with each episode. The comedy scenes were my favourite, they really added some love to this dark story. My only problem with it is that I really want to keep watching it and there are no more episodes.

If any drama deserves a second season, it's this one!

I'm up to Episode 11 and am totally loving this series. It's dark, quirky, has lots of very handsome men and a good sense of mystery in it.

It does, however, have the whole kdrama trope that "airbags in cars don't exist" which never fails to amuse me whenever a truck magically times itself to tbone a car perfectly as it's passing in almost every kdrama that requires someone to be killed off or nearly killed off. The world has moved on from not having airbags, it's time they depicted cars realistically. (Seriously the only time you see one in a kdrama is a comical 'slap the steering wheel in frustration" and it goes off.)

Anyway, airbags aside, this is a great kdrama to watch if you want to see everything except romance. Totally recommend it.

Namkoong Min always excels - a creepy psychological drama / thriller that always left me wanting to know more. The usual k-drama twists & turns, unpredictable with some unusually dark plot lines. Lee Chung-Ah is beautiful and a very watchable character although more development needed. As always I just want to eat ramyeon the whole way through and any other food shown on screen. Very watchable throughout as is typical and the acting just seems to be a better quality than western tv shows.

I'm looking forward to whatever Namkoong Min produces next - he fast became one of my favourites & this drama was no different. My only complaints is I wish the women cast were less either evil caricatures or simply props to the male characters & had more development of their own. Gongs mother for example & the female scientist and gongs father could have also had more development to explain the background more.

DANGIDY DANG. This show is good. It's the watch that can't be wrong.

"If you take 1 more step, you will see something so terrible that you will never forget it." Too late, I'm pretty much there.

↪Wakey💥wakey↩

28 yrs ago, under a conflagration, it opens. There's fire, mayhem, & bodies strewn everywhere. A boy wanders thru appearing oblivious to the carnage. White Night Village is no more. "I did this..." he declares. "I have partial amnesia just like you. All I know is something terrible happened there," we later hear from a survivor.

The next scene is current day insanity involving 3 box trucks & a police chase. Apparently, some nefarious unknown tipster ("The Architect") has been auguring abt what's abt to go down. He appears to be behind a series of 17 robberies - he's funding his next endeavor: Murder. Someone's going to die at a nightclub tonight, the note reads. The police aren't able to stop that, either. Is it murder, though? These guys weren't suicidal, & are offing themselves in very strange ways, often by the method most frightening them. Oh, & there's the warning notes. The deaths always follow the cryptic missives...

Namkoong Min is Do Jung "Woo". "I see a deep darkness in your eyes," one cellie opines. He assumed he was talking to another criminal. Woo is a police officer, he's just a little different. He likes to catch a nap in the holding cells every now & then. I haven't seen this actor before. I want to watch something else he's been in to see if he sports that I'm-cool-slouch all the time or not. Someone get this guy a good dentist! He must go through a dozen 🍭 a day. (With Supt. Do around, the bad guys will all be licked). Strangest of all, when Woo causes trouble, why does the General Secretary of the Blue House get involved? Woo is associated w/ the #113. K-writers don't randomly assign ###; there's always a deeper meaning. 113 is associated w/ progress, curiosity, intelligence, self-determination & reliance.

Lee Chung Ah plays the OCD afflicted Jamie Leighton, a special investigator from 🇺🇲. She suspects Woo immediately. His intuition is so good that he's more likely to be the culprit. Woo says: 'Rightbackatcha, babe. That's just what I was thinking about you.' It's obvious they are drawn to e/o, though not on a conscious level at first. On top of that, they each have lost memories from childhood, they are both orphans, & they each have a darkness inside of them. Her # is 114, which extends to family, Independence, exploration, focus, harmony & self-reliance.

Kim Seol Hyun portrays Gong Hye Won, one @$$-kickin girl. I 💘 her. She 💘 Woo, & she actively resists this truth. When she starts to suspect him, she has a conversation w/ her father, who replies, "We can never truly understand the minds of people... You can't truly know someone, so believe what you want to believe. People's hearts can't be fixed. It's not like your heart does exactly what you tell it to do. Based on every decision we make, everything keeps changing. When people say that everything in life changes, I don't think that it only applies to good things. Even bad things change. If you believe in someone, that can turn a bad man into a good man." The more I think about that, particularly in the context, the more interesting it gets. The first half of the statement is shown to be entirely true in 🅰, the rest, only partially so. Yoon Sun Woo plays Ryeo Moon Jae Woong/127, a # associated w/ great intelligence, exploration, self-reliance & teamwork. He goes through lots of changes & the actor handles them well. Kim Won Hae gets to play angry police brass - I'm a fan. I don't believe I've ever seen him rant on screen before. Baek Ji Won is Lee Taek Jo, Info Mgmt Director. She gets lots of work b/c she's not the type to be trifled with. Choi Dae Chul, who impressed me enormously in The Golden Spoon-8.1, is a cop along w/ Lee Shin Young, the pretty boy from Crash Landing on You-9.1.

Choi Jin Ho doesn't play good guys, so it's no surprise he's a big baddie here. Kim Tae Woo is the high level government official of the series. He's so SO good. I've seen him in That Winter, the Wind Blows-7, Black-9, The Spies Who Loved Me-4.5, Romance Is a Bonus Book-7.9 & Mr. Queen-9. He always impresses. Ahn Shi Ha plays Ms labcoat, Jo Hyun Hee. Well. She's creepy. The actress indwells her roll to the point of the viewer's unease. They blacken her eyes in some scenes to make them look like black holes. In ep14, she shows up in a vampire red coat. It's super-duper icky. I think it's a law in Korea that Woo Hyun appear in ½ of the shows made. He plays Jung Soon Gu here.

One theme is that it's the quiet ones you need to watch the most, but the main theme is that we cannot trust powerful people. The rules don't apply to superior people, do they? This goes double for politics. "Get this off the trending news & pull down the blinds!" "Then, even fools will know that something is off. If all the information they were reading disappears, it will backfire & they'll become obsessed w/ it. We are currently managing all the posts on active online forums. It's important to make them think that they're seeing everything. We'll gradually take the related items off... we'll make sure no one can access them online. We can distract the people w/o making it look so obvious... Making this story disappear should be easy. There's so much else to see." The powerful have a discussion on how to distract the public from the truth. And the show is titled: Awaken. A work of fiction? Not all of it. History is riddled w/ stories (& proof) of heinous corporate & govt programs. We'd like to think that's all in the past, but is that truly the nature of people & power? Ask some Africans. They will tell you illegal drug testing on children is a regular occurrence there, they firmly believe.

I grew up firmly believing the 🇺🇸 was a force for good in the 🌍 & people are basically decent. I'm not convinced anymore, though. Most people have a sense of decency, but too many don't. The 🌎 is full of sociopaths, psychopaths & damaged individuals who hurt others. I'm currently undergoing a serious reevaluation of how I see govt & the 🌍. There's so many rumors, reports, & recollections like the ones in this show. People also love attention & a good story - they'll lie for either. It's difficult to sort out. "Ominous feelings are never wrong," the show reminds us. The 🌎 feels ominous.

🅰 goes even deeper, right into lucid dreams💭: Believing 💭 are real & reality is a 💭. Is the author trying to tell us something? "Dreams were meant to be achieved," we hear from one of the most coldly /eee-ville/ players. The kids escape the island by using lucid 💭. By causing the adults to believe they were dreaming they hypothesized that some adults would want to let the kids go, that they would know what was happening to the kids was wrong & actually help them ~ in their /dreams/ at least. But these adults had let themselves become so depraved they'd forgotten about the kids long ago! They were obsessed w/ resentment & hatred over their own hurt pride. When they thought they were dreaming, they started attacking e/o! It's an interesting look at the evil side of human nature. It doesn't feel like fiction.

From science, physics & 💭, how can we leave out faith? "Faith is deemed unscientific. But the question is what separates the scientific from the non-scientific? In 1814, Laplace said that if someone could determine the location & momentum of every atom, using physics, they'd explain everything that happened in the past, what is happening at the present, & what will happen in the future. The areas which most people deem unscientific are considered to be w/in a realm of science to the people who realize this. That's why I'm going to take a scientific approach." 🅰 covers it all, primordial soup to 🍭.

There aren't many survivors of the fated inferno that wiped out the facility 28 yrs back. Woo meets one in dire need of medical treatment. "I'd rather die than have them take me back," she moans. The underlying premise of the show is heartbreaking. One of these poor, lost children decides to be an enforcer for his oppressors when he's older. He's decided to side w/ power; what he thinks is the winning side. "You decided to become their hunting dog," Woo accuses. 99 is associated w/ this person & corresponds w/ humanitarianism, compassion & idealism. Will he change course? He's become a plantation overseer. Unfortunately, this mentality is too common for weak & selfish minded individuals. If we all stood up together against evil, it wouldn't have a chance. Weak decision makers like this are those who enable evil. "You gave up seeing right & wrong. Who's going to respect that?" Our ML doesn't parse words.

When 2 individuals w/ a combined IQ north of 350 have a conversation, we might learn a new word. 🅰 teaches us a great new word: floccinaucinihilipilification, which is the estimation of something as worthless & making it seem so by evaluating it as such. For u word geeks: "floxy noxy nih hill ih pill ih fih 'cay shun". I can't wait for the chance to use it! There's some laughs, though probably not enough. They have typical fun w/ jokes about the ME & the autopsy room. "Can we disregard rank for a moment?" Woo's underling wants to know. Then she slugs him😅. There's a love story tucked in there. It's beautiful.

🅰 isn't beautiful, but it's deep, layered, & meaningful programming - the good programming meant to counter the bad programming. I recommend a heavy dose.

QUOTE📢

Death is the only thing that's fair to everyone.

Once you decide you're going to lose you don't get mad at anything, anymore.

〰🖍 IMHO

📣8 📝9 🎭8.5 💓6 🦋🎨7.5 🎵/🔊8.4 🔚8 🤗6 ▪ 🌞3 ⚡6.8 😅3 😭5 😱8 😯3.5 🤢5 🤔10 💤0

Age 16+ The subject matter is very serious and could be disturbing, especially for kids.

Rated TV-15

Re-📺? All-in.