It’s slow, meandering, slice of life, and our characters take time to become more understandable and endearing, all of which are things which I think can work against this show.
However, at the same time, Show is thoughtful, thought-provoking and quite meaty, if you are so inclined to engage.
It’s not quite an escape from real life, like many of us tend to look for in our dramas, but instead, it’s a pretty great gateway through which to reflect on life.
My last foray into a fantasy kdrama dealing with angels and devils didn’t go too well (I’m looking at you, Angel’s Last Mission, cough), so when I heard some rumblings of dissatisfaction on the grapevine about how this show about selling one’s soul to the devil seemed a little all over the place, I was ready to give this one a blind pass without actually taking the time to check it out.
Thank goodness for blog regular Putri, who convinced me to give this show a try, after she’d watched it and really liked it herself.
Once I actually got going with this show, I was pleasantly surprised by how engaging I found it, and now that I’ve emerged on the other side, I’m happy to report that Show even manages its mythology reasonably well.
Since one of my pet peeves with fantasy dramas is that the mythology isn’t clearly presented, &/or crumbles on itself by the end of the story, I count this a pretty big plus in Show’s favor.
The mythology presented isn’t perfect, sure, but it retains its structure enough, and is true enough to itself, that I found myself reasonably satisfied on this point.
Which then also helped me enjoy the rest of the story more, too. Plus! I even found myself jiving with Show’s humor, uh, most of the time. Win, win, and win.
Thank you, dear Putri, because I hafta say, I’m glad I didn’t end up missing out on this one.
Starkly beautiful yet disturbingly dark, White Christmas explores the issue of nature vs. nurture in relation to the human condition.
How much of one’s fruit is a result of qualities inherent in one’s seed, and how much of it is due to how and with what you water that seed? Throughout its 8 episodes, this psychological thriller relentlessly asks the question, “Are monsters born or made?”
Depending on your preferred answer to that question, your mileage may vary with this one.
