(Forgive my crudeness, it’s been on my mind since I started watching this show and I really wanted to say it at some point.)
I recently finished this drama in less than a week despite having a lot of work to do because it was just too interesting. I will be avoiding spoilers as much as possible in an effort to avoid ruining the show, but there will still be some.
This isn’t going to be your typical review site content as I don’t normally do reviews, but I wanted to write something in praise of this show’s spectacular writing anyway. I’ve yet to proofread this, but I’m the boss so I can’t really fire myself for producing shoddy work… I think.
Not your typical time loop
I was skeptical at first when I saw this show, thinking it was just another cookie-cutter time loop story where the main character throws themselves at problems, using trial and error to finally succeed and achieve their desired outcome.
It was not. This show centres mostly around abstraction—logic and wit, instead of abusing the time loop to physically force their way through problems. This story is also unique in that it involves two people being in the loop as opposed to one, leading to a lot of unique character development. I hesitate to describe the characters because anything I can say will inevitably undermine their complexity and depth—the characters were all written with well-elucidated individual motivations, desires, and perspectives. Personalities and stereotypical characteristics were virtually irrelevant to the story as a whole—this story does not rely on stereotypes or “types” of characters.
In fact, one might even accuse this show of spending an inordinate amount of time fleshing out each character’s background, which only shows how dedicated they were to making sure each character was well-understood. There are no “good” or “bad” people in this drama—only “people”.
The technical aspects
This drama is not dubbed. I applaud their dedication to representing everything as faithfully as possible, with everyone delivering spectacularly-convincing and realistic acting.
In addition, it’s also shot in something close to the cinema widescreen format, which I particularly like as I use an ultrawide 21:9 monitor, but not precisely—I cannot figure out what aspect ratio it actually is shot in, as it’s both a bit too wide for Super Panavison 70 and just a bit too narrow for 21:9, but I like it anyway.
Due to most of the sound being recorded on location, it’s easy to appreciate the nowadays rare environmental sounds and ambient noise, providing further realism and immersion in the story. I can’t overstate how much this helps with immersion— the fact we still have directors who don’t think any and all noise is necessarily bad and should be completely eliminated in favour of lifeless and sterile recordings is comforting and reassuring.
The double-edged sword
Are the police on our side? Are they our friends or our enemies? The answer? It depends. If you’ve yet to watch the show, I recommend stopping here (and I mean here) as there will be some minor spoilers in this section, which may ruin the show a bit depending on your tolerance for spoilers.
Personally, I’m the kind of person who thinks trailers and show intros contain too much spoilers. Even the poster I’m using above is what I would consider spoilers as it shows the male lead who wasn’t actually in the time loop to begin with, with the reveal being a surprise for both characters… that I just spoiled… didn’t I? Anyway…
In this story, the police only have one goal: to do their job. Their limited knowledge and perspective each time they’re encountered in a loop determines how they’ll react to our main characters. You will find yourself constantly amazed by the sheer wit of the police officers, along with their unparalleled objectivity in spite of emotions, even to the extent of giving the benefit of the doubt towards suspects. Highly realistic, with little elements of drama for the sake of it.
In fact, there were many times where I was caught off-guard by just how sharp and perceptive the police were—as if they broke the fourth wall and inserted a real detective into the story. Remember: they don’t know what our main characters know. What they can do, however, is investigate and deduce the truth to the best of their ability. At many times, their impressive reasoning ability is the bane of our main characters as they struggle to fool the police into believing their made-up stories and end up suspects once again.
Hesitating to continue
I didn’t plan for this review properly, typing most of it on the fly, but I’m starting to hesitate further elaborating on this show. This show addresses several real world issues and morally-ambiguous situations—every character has their own mind and feels alive, with scenes where the characters all reacted so realistically it led to another failed attempt. “doh! of course that would happen…” is what the main characters would say with their palms on their faces if they were still alive.
It was as if the writers really imagined what each and every one of their characters would be thinking (why they were on the bus), what information was available to them, and what they would do in each and every situation according to their unique positions.
There were very little plot holes in this story, no obvious solutions that our main characters were ignoring, and it was genuinely an intriguing mystery. Even I was engaged trying to figure out what to do, not being able to find an obvious solution myself, just like what a well-written mystery should be like.
The pacing, as seen from the unusual 15-episode length, was also very consistent and never felt noticeably rushed or draggy at any point; this show was as long as it was supposed to be.
This is as far as I’ll describe this show. If you like a challenging mystery and thriller with very realistic and complex characters, this show is definitely worth watching.