Kdrama “Alice” Episode 1 And 2 Review

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The new SBS drama “Alice” has premiered to the top of its time slot and performed so well on its second episode. It’s also getting many favorable reactions from k-netizens and international fans

After watching the 1st and 2nd episode, I am here to discuss them.

Note: this will be a spoiler review of the said episodes in the title. This is a subjective review.

The intriguing confusing idea

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The reason I still watch SBS dramas is this, the fact that I feel that they’re still trying to reinvent themselves and come up with new ideas, unlike the other two main public broadcasting channels.

“Alice” is about time-travel and honestly that’s a very risky premise, to begin with. If you follow my blog closely then you know that I don’t usually like time-travel content. It doesn’t matter if it’s Korean, English, German, or any other language; I often feel that people just can’t wrap their heads around it.

The issue with plots revolving around time travel is the fact that they rarely make sense, and I don’t mean the idea itself but the execution of that idea, it usually ends up getting messy and stops making sense with the basic idea getting intertwined with so many sub-plots that it gets ridiculous as time goes by.

I haven’t seen many kdramas doing time-travel its justice, maybe “Signal” but they basically kept it to a minimal, which I liked.

The premiere of “Alice” was fun. It was so intriguing and engaging, everything moves at a fast pace and the idea is very interesting, taking time travel and making it a service available to the general public to heal their past wounds. Usually, time travel is reserved to individuals in a story so this is an interesting take commercializing the idea but it also creates even more space for possible error in the future.

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I would be lying if I said I understood the first two episodes that well and honestly, a lot of it didn’t make sense to me. Especially how the mother travelled back in time, stayed there and then somehow died but 10 years later, she’s still there. How many replicas are there? And if you die in one time stamp, does it mean you die in all of the past ones or what? It is still very confusing but I am intrigued.

The premiere goes about what you’d expect from a kdrama premiere, I was waiting for the mother to die the entire time and I honestly had a vague idea about the script, I just watched cuz its Joo Won and Kwak Si Yang. I love them, they’re talented actors.

The choppy editing

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I’ve noticed that the choppy editing is somewhat prevalent in SBS dramas. The first episode had many weird cuts and especially during the scene when the mother died, they’re trying to make things interesting by sticking so many different scenes together and it felt so out of place at the end of episode 1.

I know they want to attract people’s attention to the fact that the mother’s death was connected to so many characters but the way it was carried out was kinda choppy. I hope the editing improves for future episodes.

Pairing Joo Won with Kim Hee Sun

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I was worried about that particular point because I didn’t want them to be paired as couples, she’s old enough to be his aunt and honestly, I would’ve been seriously freaked out by that. I am glad their relationship will be that of a mother and son. I actually liked pairing her with Kwak Si Yang, that part where he fights his own son is the most kdrama thing ever I’ve seen in a while.

I also like pairing Joo Won with Lee Da In, I think she’s super talented and they suit each other so well, I hope to see them get romantically involved later on.

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I like the dynamics between the characters and can’t wait to see more.

Also, there is no point discussing the acting because everyone is just so darn amazing, exactly what you’d expect from this stellar cast. Everyone is so talented.

Will it be the next big hit?

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“Alice” has the chance to become the next IT, you heard it here first! I can see it has that potential to explode in popularity in South Korea and I think it’ll get somewhat famous overseas as well, but not as much as it deserves because Joo Won isn’t that big of a star overseas, he’s so underrated to international fans it actually hurts me.

As far as I know, “Alice” began shooting a while ago and the special effects required for the drama confirms that, and this means that the plot was revised a couple of times because the screenwriter has to finish everything up so the special effects team has an idea about what they’re about to work with.

This could mean that “Alice” will be more concise in its delivery and will likely make good sense because the screenwriter must’ve kept that in mind while writing and revising the script to be ready for special effects. Usually, kdramas are written while they’re filmed which is why oftentimes, the script quality deteriorates by the second half. I have higher expectations from “Alice” after seeing the premiere.

So these are my thoughts on the drama so far, have you seen it? what did you think of it?

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