Brief Story Line
Story focused on Jeongwon high school student Kim Bong-seok (Lee Jung-ha - Nevertheless series, Run On TV series etc) who was overly protected by his mother Lee Mi-hyun (Han Hyo-joo - The Pirates: The Last Royal Treasure, W: Two Worlds Apart TV series) as they tried to hide his super human ability. But Bong-seok's peaceful life would soon take an unexpected turn with the arrival of new student named Hui-soo (Go Youn-jung - Alchemy of Soul TV series, Hunt etc) who just moved in the same town with her father Jang Ju-won (Ryu Seung-ryong - Extreme Job, Life is Beautiful TV series etc). The class president Gang-hoon (Kim Do-hoon - Today’s Webtoon TV series, The Faceless Boss etc) who was the only son of Lee Jae-man (Kim Sung-kyun - Golden Slumber, Divorce Attorney Shin TV series etc) looked to take an interest on Hui-soo as well.
When a mysterious person named Frank (Ryu Seung-beom - Tazza: One Eyed Jack, Rays of Sunshine TV series etc) came to the same city and started killing off people with powers, it soon revealed the dark past of these students' parents. Things would get more complicated later with the appearance of other interested parties.
So what would happen to these students? And what was the past that the parents tried to hide? You could find them all in this series.
End of Brief Story Line
When I first started watching this series 3 nights ago, I only managed to finish 3 episodes. But the following night I ended 4 more episodes as I could not stop watching because I liked it a lot. Yesterday during the public holiday in Indonesia, I was able to complete the remaining 13 episodes as I wanted to find out the conclusion. It should have been a simpler task had it not been for the lack of excitement starting from episode 8 due to the shift in focus. Luckily the story picked up the pace again from episode 15 which culminated to amazing two final episodes.
Based on this, I could say that the series actually consisted of 3 parts. The first part was from episode 1-7 focusing on the kids, second part was from episode 8-14 focusing on the parents and final part from episode 15-20 the conclusion. What made me could not stop watching was actually the first part which felt light, cheerful and exciting with the mysterious nature of the abilities and the sweet relationship between Bong-seok and Hui-soo (both played wonderfully by people way older in real life than their roles as high school students). However, the second part was surprising for me cause of the complete change in tone to darker, heavier and gloomy. In fact, episode 8 and the first half of episode 9 were quite boring. But the change in focus of episode 10 did make me happy especially episode 11 which became one of my favorites. The subsequent episodes in this part were not able to make me felt as delighted as the first part.
Finally when I reached third part, I was totally excited again. I was so interested in finding out how it would end that I opted to continue watching till final episode (which was way pass my bed time). But it was all worth it, cause episode 17 was great and episode 19 was fabulous with episode 20 that have concluded everything. Btw, there was quite a long post-end credit scene in the final episode that you should not miss. I am sure you would have known why they had such scene. Before I forgot, I found out that the series was based on webtoon of the same title written by Kang Full whose prior works have been adapted to movies as well such as Hello, Schoolgirl, Late Blossom, 26 Years and few others.
Aside from the people I mentioned above, there were other actors who were part of the main cast, i.e. Cha Tae-hyun (My Puppy, Police University TV series etc) as bus driver Jeon Gye-do and Zo In-sung (Smugglers, That Winter, the Wind Blows TV series etc) playing a very important role that I better let you find out for yourself. In addition, there were so many additional cast too such as (Kim Hee-won - Unlocked, Angry Mom TV series etc) as PE teacher Mr. Choi Il-hwan, Moon Sung-keun (Vagabond TV series, Forgotten etc) as director of NIS Min Yong-jun, Kwak Sun-young (Hospital Playlist TV series, My Brilliant Life etc), Park Hee-son (My Name TV series, Seven Days etc) and few others that I am sure my wife would have recognized in support roles. Some of these characters would only be shown their significance in latter episodes.
For a series that was put under Action, Drama by Disney+, I think they actually missed out on the category of sci-fi and romance, cause the science fiction was pretty strong and felt a bit like superhero type plus obviously the various romantic stories. Some of the romance seemed like taken straight away from those melodramatic South Korean TV series. I might not be able to enjoy all of those, though I did like the ones involving the kids and Ju-won. During the first part, there were glimpses of information and few scenes which were clearer as we approached the second part. In term of action, this was not the full action kind, but they were done nicely with some CGI that were decent enough though few times might not be so great. It was definitely the factor that made this series had large production budget. Fortunately the series was a big hit for Disney+ and probably would make them interested to produce more in future.
Even though the premise might not be completely original (plus the involvement of another party that was introduced by the end of episode 7 had been used in so many other South Korean series), but the super abilities were certainly a plus point. Oh, I also like the musical score with perfectly placed background music that set our mood nicely. Overall it was a fantastic series filled with some well crafted action, very interesting story and emotional dramas. However, the sudden change in tone and the way the story told in second part that took a bit long was a bit of let down personally for me. I would probably be more satisfied had these were done as part flash backs rather than having 7 episodes completely about the story in the past (it probably would shorten the episodes too as I think 20 was a bit too long). Nevertheless, it is still enjoyable and I would be overjoyed if there is a second season.
Mike's movie moments rating: 4 out of 5 stars
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