Abyss - English version

Qui in italiano
As always, sorry for the mistakes 🙈

Genre: fantasy thriller
Country: South Korea
Network: tvN
Year: 2019

Native title: 어비스 (Abyss)

Screenwriter: Moon Soo-yeon
PD: Yoo Je-won (Tomorrow with you; Hi bye, mama!)

Number of episodes: 16
Duration: 60 min. circa

Leads:
- Park Bo-young (Se-yeon)
- Ahn Hyo-seop (Min)

Plot

Two aliens bring Cha Min back to life. The man is the very unattractive but wealthy heir of a major cosmetic company, and he is given the Abyss, a sphere capable of reviving the dead.

Min, however, finds himself looking very different: he is now a charming boy with the features of a model.

Meanwhile, Min's old friend, prosecutor Go Se-yeon, is killed, and the man uses the Abyss to bring her back to life.

She looks different, too: she is no longer tall and majestic as in the past, but she is short and with more common features.

Together, the two decide to investigate and find out who killed Se-yeon ...

Notes:

Abyss had intrigued me a lot (also thanks to the clever advertising by tvN), but unfortunately it failed to live up to my expectations, turning out to be a wasted opportunity;
it's not a drama that I would recommend, but all in all I don't regret watching it.
In the first episode the two aliens are played by Jung So-min and Seo In-guk, previously leads of Hundred millions stars from the sky . The cameo was certainly welcomed by the fans of the drama, who could see an unexpected happy ending for their favorites.

Things I liked:

Park Bo-Young's performance was - to me - a nice surprise. I had never seen this actress at work, and I must say that she is very good, both in comedy and in dramatic scenes. As Se-yeon she is very nice, although this left me a little perplexed at first, as that trait does not fit in well with the way the character is presented at the beginning of the story.
Se-yeon is probably the only smart character of the show (at least once, when [SPOILER] she manages to cleverly escape Tae-jin's trap).
The bond between the women is a point in favor of the drama. In the beginning, it seems that Se-yeon and Mi-do (Song Sang-eun) are destined to be sworn enemies, instead a beautiful friendship develops between the two. I loved how much Mi-do cares about Se-yeon and all the times when she offers to help the rest of the "gang". Another female character is Hee-jin (Han So-hee). She is presented as a social upstart and a traitor, but over time she forges a strong bond with the other two women.
The "gang", that is the group formed by the two leads, Mi-do, Hee-jin and detective Park Dong-cheol (Lee Si-eon), is well characterized. While the writing of this drama really left a lot to be desired, I believe that the portrayal of these people helping and taking serious risks for each other was successful. Throughout the story I grew fond of all of them, which was one of the reasons why I continued watching the show undaunted despite everything.
The thriller side of the drama is good. Oh Young-cheol (Lee Sung-jae) is truly a hateful character, and Se-yeon's murder scenes are more and more raw (by Korean drama standards of course) and gave me goose bumps as the truth unfolds.
The scenes between the two leads are really cute and sweet. I also really appreciated the ones set in the past, and above all the fact that the beautiful and popular Se-yeon already liked the mistreated Min when both of them were teenagers.

Things I didn't like:

the writing is truly mediocre and detrimental to the full potential of the drama.
The "good" characters constantly act stupidly: they split up when there is clearly an impending danger and they should all stay together, they face the enemy several times alone without a plan, thus discovering their cards, moreover
I lost count of how many times one of them is kidnapped, and how many times Hee-jin is left alone, when she would need an entire army to guard her!
During the story, characters do nothing but repeat to the "new" Se-yeon that she is ugly compared to her previous self, when Park Bo-young, despite being undeniably different from the actress who plays the lead at the beginning (Kim Sa-rang), is also undeniably very pretty. Furthermore, here and there the drama conveys the message that to be considered "beautiful", one must have certain characteristics, such as being thin and tall. For this reason I found very important that the "old" Se-yeon thought Min was charming because of his intelligence, and that the man's feelings don't fade when the rebirth changes Se-yeon's appearance.
How the Abyss works does not seem clear even to the writer herself, moreover the "instructions" that occasionally jump out of the sphere are visually quite ridiculous.
We will never know why Tae-jin (Kwon Soo-hyun) [SPOILER] helps his father and doesn't simply take advantage of his second life. "Genetic" cruelty? Attachment to an abusive parent from whom he had managed to escape? The mystery will accompany us.
Unfortunately, even the return of Min is very badly written.
Initially I had taught the Abyss was something like the Portrait of Dorian Gray , which allowed the dead to come back to life, but with features that mirrored their souls. Well, this only happens [SPOILER] to the leads and to the murderer Young-cheol, while the appearance of Hee-jin and Tae-jin remains almost unchanged, when, at least in the case of the latter, cruel and guilty as much as his father, there should have been some changes.