Extracurricular

...then episode 10 happens, and the typical blemish of Korean writers not knowing how to close out a story happens.

I would have given this show a NINE if it had ended after 9 episodes. Good premise. Gritty and engaging. Flawed a bit in typical K-show fashion that when the going gets tough, stakes are on the line, or lives are at stake, the main characters decide to.... you guessed it.... go it ALONE and stop communicating with each other. This is used time and again in these shows. But other than that, the first 9 episodes generally flowed pretty well. With the exception of folks not putting 2 and 2 together to get to 4. A bit too much obliviousness for believability, but it is what it is.

Which is EXACTLY the problem with episode 10. Everyone suddenly becomes completely aware and has crystal clear vision of things going on around them. And the writers put in about a dozen set pieces of reveals and confrontations, which could have been spaced out throughout the show (and solved one of the biggest gripes I had above).

It's like they needed to Black & White wrap things up, when they failed to realize that a more nuanced and vague ending would have served the running theme of the show much better and wouldn't be such a jarring change of direction in the minds of the viewers.

Very unfortunate, because I was looking forward to giving my first 8+ star review in quite some time. Alas, but because of lazy writers not pacing the show right for a big reveal ending, it was not meant to be.