Man Who Dies to Live (2017)

The controversy regarding the middle east content was only contained during the first 10 minutes to serve as an introduction while the remainder of the drama was solely in South Korea. Regardless of these 10 minutes intro, the drama had plenty of problems splattered everywhere. I've seen a much better performance from Shin Sung Rok in his prior projects to this one as well as from future ones, his performance here was just weaker than usual. The drama attempted to blend slapstick humor with more serious, emotional beats, creating a rocky viewing experience. The exaggerated extravagant persona of the father got kinda old and tiring halfway through and a change with the dynamics was needed. Which is also why everything felt so contrived and limited for a 12 episodes drama from the cast size to characters, pace, storylines and writing in general. Don't get me started about the writing, it was doing the bare minimum while relying on the high melodramatic and emotional moments to mask it as a big functional piece. Overall, the first half was decent enough but it didn't go anywhere after that.