Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars
Re-watch value: 0 out of 5 stars
Synopsis
*From DramaList*
“Abyss” is about a man and a woman who tragically die and are given another chance at life through soul-reviving marbles in a magical abyss.
Go Se Yeon was a tough, accomplished, and an unrivaled beautiful female prosecutor who worked in the Seoul District public Office but gets into a fatal accident and dies. However, due to the mysterious magical marble—Abyss—Go Se Yeon is revived, but now in a totally different appearance. Go Se Yeon now possesses a common appearance based off of how “good” her spirit was in her previous life.
Cha Min was the highly intelligent heir to Korea’s top cosmetics company but was also a smart, humble, and a kind-hearted man. Although he has both the brains and an astounding amount of wealth, he considers himself unattractive and is insecure about his looks. Like Go Se Yeon, Cha Min gets into an accident and dies. Due to the mysterious magical marble—Abyss—he comes back to life with a different appearance as an exceedingly handsome man just as bright as his spirit he had in his previous life.
Go Se Yeon and Cha Min begin to work as a lawyer and an administrator at a private law firm and decide to investigate the magical incident. Romance blooms in the office as the two intertwine together to accept their same fate.
Rambling
*beware of spoilers*
It’s been a few months since I finished off this one, so forgive me if the details are hazy and the thoughts are short, but holy hell, this was one catastrophically disappointing show.
The first episode was a dead giveaway to how unbalanced and problematic this show was going to be, but of course, I gave this thing a fair shake. In episode 1, we got an epic cameo from our star-crossed lovers from The Smile Has Left Your Eyes! (If you’re not familiar, go check out my review of that K-drama!) On the off chance that you didn’t catch that (melodramatic) show, both Seo In-guk and Jung So-min tragically die. So they make an appearance in Abyss as grim reapers or some sort of supernatural beings who simultaneously cause Cha Min’s death and resurrect him using the ~abyss~ marble.
Except they turn out to be aliens. That’s right, aliens. Their existence is never explained, and they literally never return to Earth.
Unfortunately, the fortunes of this show don’t improve greatly. I found it dull and repetitive. The stakes didn’t feel high, and whatever artificial suspense they managed to dole out was laughable at best. They wasted Park Bo-young, who tried her best to insert her infectious presence and talents into a script that wasn’t going anywhere.
I didn’t like how the ~abyss~ marble had rules associated with it that only manifested as a conveniently Korean-language projection in a time of dire need. And the rules were extremely arbitrary, in my opinion, and were abused to move the plot “forward” (I have never used air quotes in written language, but here we are).
For instance, if the owner of ~abyss~ dies, the next person revived by the ~abyss~ becomes the temporary new owner. The fuck? This stipulation put the ~abyss~ in the hands of a serial killer for the majority of the show, and to what end? He barely knew how to use it anyway.
My favorite and most problematic ~abyss~ law: anyone revived by the ~abyss~ will now assume the form of their soul, which may or may not look anything like the body and face that they were born with. I didn’t like how Cha Min had to die in order to be accepted in society and by his longtime crush Go Se Yeon. The fact that he was dumped by his fiancée for being ugly and then proceeds to try to commit suicide before getting wacked off the side of a skyscraper by Seo In-guk’s alien… What kind of message is that sending? It’s repulsive to think that this show is even suggesting that dying is better than living ugly.
To a lesser degree, Go Se Yeon is murdered by the serial killer and gets revived into Park Bo-young’s adorable little body. Except she considers herself ugly and decidedly gross compared to her original birth body (played by Kim Sa-rang). Gtfo.
The logic of the ~abyss~ soul appearance was further complicated by Hee-jin staying exactly the same, except getting a slightly darker complexion along with freckles. Her soul has FRECKLES. Not to mention our serial killer Young-cheol becoming an old man with the same face, his son Ji-wook getting a Prince Zuko scar, and a random old lady becoming a MAN! It was the worst Shallow Hal deal ever.
At the end of show, Cha Min uses his last “get out of jail free card,” using the ~abyss~ to revive Se-yeon, which FOR SOME REASON kills him.
Cha Min presumably gets thrown into what can only be described as a painful, desolate purgatory. The male alien who was originally played by Seo In-guk pays him a few words, with his presence being relegated to short cuts of varying parts of the face and body at distorted angles along with silhouettes—in short, the most they could do without the real Seo In-guk returning to play this obscure alien.
The details aren’t important here because he somehow makes it back to earth as some sort of invisible spirit or ghostly apparition. He gets spotted by the neighborhood trash collector dude, (who can somehow, someway see him?) and earned or bestowed a corporeal body again.
That roundabout, baffling happy ending felt more like one of those pitiful attempts at frosting a cake Pinterest-style and ending up with a catastrophe only suitable for memes. If you were thinking about watching Abyss, please, step off of the ledge and come inside for a better K-drama worth your time.
Did you see Abyss? Tell me your thoughts in the comments below!
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