Are You Human

There's a lot I want to say about this piece, but I'll try to keep it short. The series stirred up a lot of conflicting emotions in me. The biggest problem I see is the script. It's not that its missing a concept; on the contrary, it's brilliant. But after a great start in the spa and a few more episodes, where the viewer is introduced to a plot that promises much, there comes the classic, sometimes unfortunately boring tug-of-war over the chair. I also have a controversial opinion about the main heroine. I'm not sure I want to see her in anything else. After a couple of episodes where I liked her, she started to remind me more and more of Shin-hye Park's weepy cry-baby in The Heirs. I had the complete opposite experience with the main character, who I think is the best thing about the whole series. I already liked Kang-joon Seo back in the day as the wingman in Sly and Single Again and I have to say, he did his job wonderfully and played the robot with absolute brilliance. Almost to the point where I'll probably always kind of see it in him. Whether it was his slow neck movements, his slightly absent look, or the custom smile, he was fabulous. All the more so because he could turn into the most arrogant man under the sun without blinking an eye. The other thing I have to praise is the handling of all the "robot stuff". The effects were incredibly well done and gave the series a really unique atmosphere. Whether in the way the robot was built, its injuries and subsequent repairs, or just its eyes when it switched modes, it's all very nicely done. I read somewhere that it was one of the most expensive Korean series of all time, and I can't tell at all. I also enjoyed those big moments when the robot walks somewhere, you can hear the sound of its shoes, heroic music plays, and everyone's chin drops. They were good at that, but you can't do it all the time. As for the romance, I enjoyed the relationship between the two Shins and their mother more than the relationship between the main character and the robot. That's where I felt the warmth and emotion. I would definitely argue for the series to be at least two episodes shorter. Then maybe I would have gone up a star with the rating. (18.09.2018)