You Can Check Out Any Time You Like
My first ever KDrama review on my blog, prompted by realising that 500 characters on Mastodon was nowhere enough to express how I felt about Check-in Hanyang. I started this drama because the synopsis on MDL made it sound like a fusion sageuk, basically a youth/college drama transported into the Joseon era. And the first few episodes felt a little bit like that, but were also setting up the revenge arc which was at the heart of the story—a minor detail the synopsis I read completely omitted. Particularly since 2023, K dramas of no more than 12 episodes have become much more common. So I was surprised that this one was 16 episodes of around 70 minutes each. That length contributed to one of the biggest problems I have with the drama – tonal confusion. When I speak of tonal confusion, I don't mean that I expect a Drama to have only one tone, or flavour. What I do want is for the Drama to be clear about which tone or flavour is dominant, and which is the garnish. This Drama, lik...