Sisyphus

What I liked:

1. Cho Seung-Woo was effective and mesmerizing as the ML. But Park Shin-hye was stiff and mechanical as a female fighter, assassin, and sharp-shooter. She was supposed to be something of a bada$$. I kinda liked that about the character. And I was especially relieved that she was a mature adult in this series-no baby-talking, toddler-like female lead who collected stuffed animals and lisped.

2. The supporting actors did a good job overall--I was never bored when they were on screen. Chae Jong-hyeop was endearing, but I wish he'd had more of presence and had more to do in this series. I also really enjoyed the actor who played President Park and the actress who played Bing Bing.

3. The pacing was good, the camera work was smooth, and the CGI was effective.

4. The plot was exciting and unpredictable.

What I didn't like:

1. The time travel was confusing. For example, I didn't get the double role of Kim Seo-jin, who in the beginning played a young psychiatrist, but also later portrayed "Agnes" an old woman who cared for orphaned time travelers. For her second stint, the same actress was attired in a frumpy dress, old-lady shoes, had her make up removed, and sported an unflattering hair-do/wig. Was she supposed to be fifty years old, or what? Was the time machine able to send civilians forward in time? Why was no one else older-just her? It made no sense.

2. I was also confused by the bunker. With Han Tae Sul looking for his brother, hunting for a would-be murderer, trying to design a working time machine, dealing with the impending end of the world (or maybe just the end of Korea?), and saving the endlessly distressed Seo Hae from her various misadventures--when did the poor guy have the time to draw up architectural plans, purchase land, refurbish the bunker, and stock it? And who was it for anyway? He talked as if he was building it for nine-year-old Seo Hae and her folks, but then he locked the adult Seo Hae in-and there seemed to be a chance that she'd be staying there quite awhile.

3. Speaking of the brother, what was he doing floating outside the plummeting airplane as depicted in the first episode? Was that ever explained?

4. What caused the end of the world? Apparently incoming missiles destroyed South Korea. No one in the public seemed to have any warning that this calamity was about to occur. It's true that Sigma talked at one point about downloading a huge missile-but where was he going to send it? To the United States? To just anybody? He obviously never completed that plan, so why was Korea being attacked-and by whom? Did I miss something?

4. Thin, slight, malnourished Seo Hae kept beating up and killing legions of bad guys-often forty at a time--both in the future and the past. Five or six times, gangs of trained assassins or soldiers surrounded her and five minutes later they were all dispatched to the great beyond. Once or twice she got a minor wound or scratch, but this babe could have overcome an army of terminators.

5. As for the romance, Seo Hae didn't seem to like Han Tae Sul all that much. She took every opportunity to punch him, insult him, scowl at him-plus she refused to answer most of his questions. He, on the other hand, couldn't get enough of this unpleasant woman. She warmed up a little at the end-but not much.

This is the most action-packed K-Drama that I have seen. I hate to give it a lower rating, which I did, but no fault of the actors. Both lead actors. Park Shin-hye and Cho Seung-woo did fantastic in their rolls - Park Shin-hye in the action packed gun scenes and Cho Seung-woo in his portrayal of the smartest man in the world - a computer coding genius and CEO. The lower rating is for the writers as it was confusing - are we now in the present, past or in the future? The ending is extremely confusing and if you have to go online to get an explanation and then find no one else gives a proper explanation either, then the writer hasn't done their job. I also don't care for writers that include story lines about nuclear war either as some of us are old enough to remember the fear we felt during the Bay of Pigs incident when we were told we weren't going to wake up in the morning. To use it for a movie theme I don't think is right and the word never used to be even uttered and now movies are made for entertainment. So All my stars go to the actors who did a great job and those who did the fantastic filming in the show - I am sure it was extremely difficult.

This is a pretty fun action series, light on sci-fi, heavy on "you need to suspend a LOT of disbelief to enjoy it".

If you approach it like you're watching a Hollywood action flick from the 80s, you'll find it entertaining enough.

The only real problem with this show, and it's a serious one, is the casting of the two leads. They are both easy on the eyes, but they were both terribly miscast for this role. For starters, the girl is a truly terrible actress, and is embarrassing to watch. I'm sure she's fantastic in rom-coms, since she really is beautiful. But this role demanded more, and she was entirely unconvincing--even though I was happy to suspend all criticism and just enjoy it. But boy howdy, is she ever a bad actress. Any situation that requires her to do something other than "be cute" is ruined. With one exception--she does a great job with the fight scenes. But that's maybe five percent of her screen time, and for the rest, you have to watch her acting like someone who has never been in front of a camera before.

But even worse is the male lead. He is a decent actor, but he is *terribly* unfit to be the romantic lead. He and the woman have zero chemistry. No, I take that back. It's not zero. It's _negative_. They are clearly repulsed by one another in real life, and their attempts at romance are so cringey that we finally had to give up on the series after twelve episodes. We only had 4 left, and we were enjoying the story, but the romance was really just as awful and unwatchable as many other reviewers have observed. And honestly it's the guy's fault. He looks much older than her, he acts and dresses cringily young, and he is much smaller than she is (in both height and weight). It's clear that neither of them likes the other, and every time they hug it's like cousin hugs. It was just terrible casting.

The rest of the show is pretty awesome, don't get me wrong. Great pacing, lots of plot twists, pretty decent time-travel sci-fi, and really solid, top-notch acting by the entire rest of the cast. The special effects for the postwar Korean Peninsula are outstanding, and overall the series feels like it had a decently high budget.

If you can put aside your confusion about obvious time-travel plot holes, and you don't mind the male lead pawing at the female lead like a sex offender grooming a 14 year old while she cringes away from him in disgust, then you're in for a fun ride.

This drama is cast OK, story still can be better when it is slight above average creativity. Directorship is also slight above average only. The effects is none, still a budget drama.

I only can give 7.3/10 which is slight above average because a lot of parts fall into less logical as the episodes nearing the end. Overall, its not that excellent as many dramas made in the year.

I recommend to watch this drama when you had nothing good to watch. !5 episodes are not that long so still OK. It seems that they will make Season 2 as I seen in the last episode that the way they made it.

If you are reading this, I come from the future to warn you to save 16 hours of your life and watch something else you might be interested in. I beg you to hit the play button on another show. The trailer does a good job of catching your attention, but sadly the show fails to follow through.

This show isn't the worst, but its story isn't well written enough, especially that awful ending. Sisyphus has all the ugly time travel problems multitudes of other time travel shows have.

A second season I could not hope for, because that would mean it would take all these talented actors' time away from doing other meaningful projects to try to salvage this average time travel show.