Just like many other reviewers, I was blown away by the first chapters and increasingly annoyed as the show progressed. If I were to rate the two parts separately, it would be 10 and 2.
The concept is brilliant: a child with a psychological disability, born of a time traveler, grows up to become a detective, and tries to solve the murder of his mother. It could have been a police procedural, an insight into mental illness or emotions, with a dash of action, sci fi, and drama.
The special effects are pretty good for a TV series, the action sequences are competent, and the cast is really talented (special thanks to the secondary cast members Lee Da-in, Kim Sang-ho, and criminally underused Hwang Seung-eon).
Sadly, Alice deteriorates into a hot mess because of an impossibly clumsy script and inconsistent world building. Many people go as far as calling Alice a rip-off of Dark (the German Netflix time travel series). I think it's taking it too far, but there are clear, ugh, "influences" in the second part.
I wouldn't mind that though if they were cleverly or even semi-competently executed. The way it worked out though, Alice is really a world without Winden. It seems the script writers were writing the script while trying to reenact the drinking sessions of Mr. Ko. Dark is a rare feat and it's hard to get close to its consistency, but c'mon!..
The key plot element is a tiny illustrated book that everyone was after - why? Because of a page saying that someone must kill someone else for the time travel to stop (and it was resolved differently after all)?
Some people travel to the past and interact with the younger copies of themselves, great. At least 4 characters though have carbon copy equivalents in 2020, as if they did not age a day after 30 years. Oh yeah, it's their doppelgangers, right? With the same names, relatives, and occupations, that is. And if I could accept Mr. Ko and his wife, as well as Prof. Seok with his inconsistent glass-wearing habits, what's with Tae-yi herself? Did both copies invented time travel? Oh wait, it wasn't a straight "invention", it was Jin-gyeom who traveled first, because the future Prof. Seok said "do you think it only took 30 years to invent?" and then in a different sentence said that he was a colleague of 2050 Tae-yi, who was in her 30s when she traveled to 1992. The same Tae-yi, already under her assumed name in 2010, acknowledged to the 2020 Tae-yi that it was her in 1992. So, wait, if it was the same person, she was what, in her 60s in 2050 when she became pregnant?
Prof. Seok is a funny guy, overall. In one sentence he says that it doesn't matter what one does in the past and it won't impact the future, in the next that if he goes to the past and warns past self, the past self will be able to avoid injury and benefit his current self. So which one is it, professor?
That is a major sticking point, actually. The Alice executives first were sticking with the mantra of "these are separate timelines". That, however, changed towards the end, when everything started influencing everything else, culminating in the ending that ran counter to what was established in the first chapters.
And, no copy of Dark will be incomplete without the iconic "Ich bin du". If the absurdity wasn't enough, the old evil Jin-gyeom brought a XIX century pistol to a gun fight with futuristic 2050 guns. Was he collaborating with Jonas / Adam in 1899?
The glasses of Prof. Seok (needs glasses to read, can hit a target with a pistol in the dark). The hair of Mr. Ko (full black in 2014, completely bald in 2020). The evil ("dark universe"?) Jin-gyeom subplot whose personality first merged and then didn't merge with the Jin-gyeom-prime. The extraordinary amount of time it took Tae-yi to figure out that she looked EXACTLY like Jin-gyeom's mother after she was told that she looked like Jin-gyeom's mother. The repeated failure to share important pieces of information after umpteenth deadly attack by assailants from the future.
And the ending, oh the ending. 2050 Tae-yi lives on; her son grows to become an architect. Somehow, he does not recognize 2020 Tae-yi - who, you know, looks EXACTLY like his mother, presumably alive? Do-yeon does not know him either; because, of course, who'd remember a classmate you thought was responsible for the death of your best friend, and who you were close friends with later?
I could go on and on, but you get the idea.
I understand that the plot may not be enough to last for the duration of the series they planned, but I wish the scriptwriters focused on the bits they did well. Like the "slice of life", the comedy, the action sequences. Really a shame.
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