Sisyphus: The Myth Episode 2 Rockets Up to 6.677% Ratings as the Action Plunges into Bipolar Absurdity
I, too, chuckled at the problems pointed out in episode 1 of Sisyphus: The Myth, from when Seo Hae kept crying to her dad, to her escaping from 20 armed agents by climbing on top of a train (suitcase in tow) and then sitting up there wind blowing of course, to the really stupid in every way plane crash to safe landing. But in setting the world building narrative of this time-travel sci-fi thriller I was okay with giving leeway, but hoo boy does episode 2 just fall off a cliff in WTF-land. I want so much to love this drama wholeheartedly but the writing is sooooo stupid!! I can’t believe genius Tae Sul hasn’t done more in his investigation to connect dots with what his hyung said to him before. Scenes with Seo Hae and the Chinese restaurant boy are like rom-com meet-cute scenes which awkwardly ruin the flow of the tense mood, and for god’s sakes why is she basking in the sun dappled roof for a good 2 minutes shit get running girl!.
Not to mention I cannot imagine how the head of the Entry Control Center and his minions are running around present day South Korea openly with their marked cars with sirens, guns, hazmat suits and blowing shit up without getting into any trouble with the present day authorities, and if they are actual government agents then stop acting so weird and shady and just be assholes straight up. It’s like a really baaaad Men in Black parody except with illegal future travelers to the past rather than actual aliens. I also am not pleased Seo Hae is Tae Sul’s wife, throwing a romantic angle increases the odds of the drama falling apart to try to grasp a happy ending, and also if she’s his wife in the near future how the hell is she still who she is in the farther apocalyptic future and then traveling back to the present. My head hurts from all this nonsense so far but I plan to hang on just to get some answers despite how much this episode was a scramble of my brain. I do think the premise has merit still, if Sisyphus is the central theme then all is futile and nothing anyone does will change anything but right now I just want to smash everyone over the head with a banana.
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Hahaha… thank you, Koala. But according to some fans of the leads, we’re haters for pointing out the flaws. And expressing our honest opinions (which is a capital sin, apparently) mean we watch the wrong dramas/don’t watch sci-fi/are nit-picking. What a wonderful blog you have here. Lol.
Ikr? And according to one particular hypocrite, stating your opinion also means you don’t know the cast. I’m a fan of both leads and I’m enjoying the drama, flaws and all. But even I didn’t see anything out-of-line with yours and some others’ comments. Ignore those people.
Hahaha…I know that hypocrite. They think no one will figure it out because they post under two (obvious) handles. Thanks for the vote.
I felt that, it’s like one scene after another is different and absurd. Like?? Yes all you said was what I questions. And I like ML previous drama stranger
This is a drama where I allow my brain to rest and let my eyes do all the work. I had a lot of questions watching the first 2 episodes, and made conscious decision that “it’s a sci/fi drama, SCI/FI!!!” answer would suffice. Although there’s a tinge of disappointment with the choice of drama for CSW, coming out from the air-tight plotted drama “Secret Forest”.
Okay Mister Tony Stark Jr trying to use the key he found on all the locks of in his house… that was beyond not smart. I expected an intelligent…genius man to recall which key is for which lock in his home already. He was the same genius to repair a broken airplane window with tape should I expected more?
I also had much fun using the fast forward button this episode.
This drama gave us such an amazing gratuitous scene when FL told waiter boy to strip off his clothes. He has a nice bod, but it was so nonsensical. If you needed to borrow clothes, get freshly cleaned ones from his closet or drawer. And somehow his clothes magically fitted her and not only that even his pants became skinny-size on her ? Her scenes with this high school level maturity guy seriously feels like I’m watching a drama within a drama. Can we have a romcom spin-off? They are actually cute together 🙂
The house party fight was ludicrous. It’s like they were standing in line at a barber shop holding a number waiting to be called to fight her with their gun. While she is distracted with one guy, another guy could had taken her down easily with their gun haha
The waiter boy was so annoying when he left the hiding place and essentially shouted that “he’s innocent, so leave him alone.” My eyes rolled and rolled like a ball in a pool billiards table haha FL then pushed him off and it looked like he was flying and then she did the same thing too, she flew to a different rooftop. It felt like watching a wuxia, historical drama haha
High school waiter wondered why those men were after her and trying to harm her, so instead of asking her a common sense question, “what’s going on” he started with asking her, “are you an illegal immigrant?” I’m not joking this is what he asked her lol
Just because this drama is a mystery-fantasy, it doesn’t give it free reign to do whatever it please with some common sense. Might as well let pikachu or katara from avatar the last airbender or Naruto show up in this drama if it’s a fantasy haha
Sigh I’m not sure if I should continue to watch or not, even if I do, I’ll need to suspend my brain and just watch it for laughs haha
The cast is so talented and brilliant unfortunately they are let down by poor writing and spotty directing :/
With all the things that happened, the scene with the clothes bothered me a lot. Hahaha. I was also wondering the moment she was asking for the pants if they will let her wear the same size as the guy wore, or made it “miraculously” fit her,.. and they did the latter. XD I expected so much from this drama, and so far, I am a disappointed. This is scifi but those people have no magic or whatsoever so they still have to provide at least some common sense. Even the FL has no special powers (????) aside from having fighting skills. I would still try to watch it next week. If I will still feel the same, I will just drop it.
I was thinking how unhygienic it was wear his PANTS of all things. Gross! They must be magic pants from Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants because they are so not the same size.
@jamie @ally
I’m ngl I did swoon at his body but it was indeed a ridiculous scene and it was unhygienic haha I’m not sure why she couldn’t wear the woman uniform/outfit that he originally offered her and then maybe take just the jacket only. Why did she also need his undershirt? Haha
I wonder if some gender equality advocates would raise an eyebrow at that scene? She demands he give her his clothes and doesn’t even look away to give him privacy as he’s shyly and reluctantly stripping. But when it’s her turn, she goes to a corner for privacy and glares at him for sneaking a peek till he quickly glances away. Some K-dramas have been sanctioned for alleged gender equality infringements and I’m curious where this weighs on that scale.
What an interesting thought! It made me thought of while you were sleeping drama where the FL was trying really hard to see 2ML shirtless body while he was changing while the ML was trying to cover it up because he was jealous haha
Laura, this episode had me in stitches. Stitches, I tell you.
Seo-hae, if you know associating with you means death for the other person, why drag this kid into something dangerous he knows nothing about? And afterwards leave him behind to deal with the repercussions of the mess you made alone?
That changing scene? Oh lawd.
The rooftop leap scenes? Lmao. I could almost see the harness ropes used for those stunts. And the kid landed like that without at least pulling a muscle?
The scene where Seo-hae flipped the bird as the truck drove off was hilarious without meaning to.
Tae-sul’s therapist is gorgeous. I first saw her in Graceful Family but she had short hair there.
You’re right. For a so-called genius, Tae-sul isn’t very smart.
Control Bureau leader and Sung Dong Il’s characters are caricatures and I love it! Lol.
From the preview, the main leads will meet in next week’s episode. I’m certain the ratings will go up.
There are three groups of people who will watch this:
* those who will hate-watch and bash it every week.
* those who will see it as good comedy and watch just for the laughs.
* and devoted fans of the leads who’ll attack anyone who doesn’t believe the drama sh/ts gold.
I’m firmly joining the second group. This is not sci-fi; it’s pure comedy. If Alice had been this hilarious, it’d have been tolerable.
You’re right, I didn’t think about it. Why did she drag this “high school” guy around with her and exposing him to all sorts of danger especially after he thought she was a ghost when she “glitched” and begged her to leave him alone because he’s the bread winner of the family. She should had just told him to hide and get lost.
He probably didn’t eat the entire day until after the actor filmed that scene to retained his sculpted figure haha
The bad guys all acted like FL was some kind of dangerous hot stove that couldn’t be touched with bare hands but idk she doesn’t seem much different than any other skilled fighter although she seems to have the jumping abilities of cat woman haha I’m not sure why more of the bad guys couldn’t enter the room and fought her rather than have the majority standing patrolling outside haha
I can’t wait until Saturday, I hope I’m not wrong but I feel like Vincenzo is going to be amazing
Idk why my comment to u isn’t here but I did reply back
Don’t sweat it. Happens on this site sometimes. The comment will eventually post when it’s good and ready. Lol.
I’m calling it she’s her own mother and daughter. They’re already hinting at Dark with all the “The Question isn’t Where” dialogue which is basically plagiarism.
Sorry but Alice was a big mess , i don’t think i’m ready to suffer another disapointment … Sci/fi doesn’t mean non common sense and absurdity . I’ll watch ep 3 to confirm . I watched Hello ? it’s me and it wasn’t bad at all . Now i’m wating for Vincenzo .
Hello it’s me episode one was okay but have you watched episode two? Didn’t like it.
As for Sisyphus, when I saw the wedding photo I had a sinking feeling. Sigh. I’ll give it it a few more episodes to decide whether I need to look for another drama.
On the bright side the 6% plus ratings means audience are tuning in. If it increases next week that means star power means more to viewers.
Park Shin Hye became a true ratings magnet despite of script quality, after the boost given by the Heirs.
The Heirs is her luck but Pinocchio, Doctors, MOA and even FBND are part of the reason she become a trusted name among Korean audien.
If she failed in all her project after Heirs, then she wouldn’t become who she is now… But she didn’t and continue winning.
Is it as absurd as abyss kind of level? Haha. I need to know.
this drama, what can I say about this drama, chapter one was a surprise, but chapter two was a much bigger surprise and surprises are not always good, episode two had many incongruities but for me to do a PCR in ashes It was a great … what? I’m sure they taught me that you can’t do that and a genius who knows how to joke about telomeres must know it, but the undeniable thing is that the drama has a fast and entertaining rhythm,
At the end of chapter two I said to myself, you are going to enjoy it or you are going to analyze it, because if you stay analyzing it you will not really enjoy it, I think I will enjoy it better, it is an entertaining nonsense, the performances are really admirable and we will not They delivered seriousness and a perfect script in the first chapters, those who stay already know what to expect.
I will support those that say science fiction, being in this case more fiction than science, LOL, I will get comfortable, I will disconnect my brain and I will pretend that I am watching an avengers type drama, you know logic type comes out of the window fun enters through the door.
I’m not a fan of any of the actors. But when you see the comments area … isn’t this series or drama being overly judged? I watched both episodes yesterday and it wasn’t that bad.
It is entertaining more commercial than anything else. But a lot of Korean dramas aren’t they? or am I wrong.
CLOY had a South Korean flying through the skies to a fictional North Korea. Mr Queen had a boy reincarnated into an ancient queen who behaved in an unbelievable way in her time and so there are many examples.
Even international. Money Heist or The House of Paper is very fictitious and entertaining and lately Lupin who looked so serious appeared with some obvious logical flaws.
I think many were deceived by the advances or was there a very high expectation? . In my country it is hardly promoted. I did not go with high expectations and I liked it
When I saw the blog post and the comments I wondered why people are judging him in such a way. It’s just one more drama.
Yes indeed. fixing a plane with tape and doing DNA tests on cremated remains is a masterful mistake.
Does anyone know if the penthouse opens on Friday or Saturday?
Neither of those two K-dramas called themselves sci-fi and both those K-dramas acknowledged their wacko-ness. I think there were high expectations for this drama and it hasn’t yet turned out how people expected? But that “judgment” is not exclusive to this drama alone. Dramas get flayed here all the time. Even CLOY and QC have their critics. Who is the “him” that’s being judged? Haven’t seen any actor singled out. The acting is not the problem. It’s the writing that’s being “judged”. Penthouse 2 premieres on Friday 19.
Yes. I have nothing against CLOY or other drama. CLOY was my favorite drama from the year before.
But I wanted to emphasize that the series are usually fanciful and not very real for the most part and this seems to be another series of that level. I am not talking about the actors I have not seen criticism of their performance.
It is true that many dramas are often judged. I myself Judge the end of Mr Queen. I just saw the post and wondered. Was it that bad? for me it was entertaining.
I thought Penthouse would go directly against Vincenzo and my inner evil wanted to see the audience war. But they would only face one day.
You wrote “When I saw the blog post and the comments I wondered why people are judging him in such a way. It’s just one more drama.“ I thought that “him“ was referring to an actor in this drama? Anyways, the flawed science isn’t the main issue, though. At least not for me. It’s more the writing, inconsistent characterizations and scenes that just don’t make sense. But the drama is still entertaining despite the glaring flaws.
Ufff, is it that bad? I was hopeful that it would be decent, I miss Park Shin Hye and was looking forward to watch this.
@Elena
Drama palates are different. I urge you to watch it and judge it for yourself. You could wind up enjoying it.
Ms. K, will you be peeling that banana first? ?
One again people talking about realism and logic in a fantasy/drama.
What part of time travel, time travel machine, and Korea is ruined is realistic and logical to you?
But what’s new when people are picking on dramas that they don’t like or have actors they don’t like.
Like I said previously, if you can’t take what the drama give you and go with it after the 1st few eps, the drama is probably not for you. PSH and CSW did say they want to give a different drama and not the same kind of dramas that we ususally see and find hopes in this fantasy world.
What make you an expert on what should happen in a fantasy drama? Are you the lord of the dramas? lol Fantasy doesn’t tantamount to lack of coherency and lack of common sense. People here can say whatever they want as long as it’s not distasteful. They own their own opinion.There are people who dissect dramas and movies for a living, they’re called critics, maybe you should tell them you frown on their profession unless they only speak of positive things lol You are telling me you’re going to accept a large frog in the next episode eating people and then marrying one of the leads? lolllllll
In a fantasy anything can happen. LOL so yes including whatever you said.
But if you can’t take what the drama give you then once again it’s not for you.
How hard is it to understand that?
But @jaja is partly right, if you can’t enjoy what a drama offers you, drama is not really for you, that’s fine because we are all different and in tastes there is no universal law, but if you don’t like a drama or the theme of any content and even so you keep seeing it just to maybe look for the negative points, that is no longer constructive criticism, it is only criticism and that’s it.
It is good that you do not like a certain program, it happens to me many times, it is good that you comment on the fallacies of said program, that is fine, it is free expression, but is it not healthier to let go of a program that does not satisfy you?
I apologize if there is a professional critic on the blog like the one your comment refers to, but I sense that in these comments there are no professional critics or experts on certain topics, simply admirers of in my case, oriental dramas. My question is why torture yourself seeing something you don’t like? it is not easier to abandon ship.
Ockoala stated it perfectly. You cannot give any drama a pass may it be sci-fi or fantasy just because it’s a certain drama
@isaa
People have many reasons why they want to watch a drama or not, if they want to highlight flaws, more power to them. No need for certain people to get upset at how others choose to live their life. People like @haha needs to read the novel 1984. Controlling people speech unless it’s completely positive is terrifying. You may choose to turn off your mind while watching this drama and see it as an avenger type movie, doesn’t mean others should. And even the directors of avengers gave their own take of time travel although flawed and tried to make it as realistic as possible according to their perspective. They tried to follow the rules they set. There’s articles on their thoughts of time traveling, it wasn’t random.
@ Haha
Your entire premise is incorrect to begin with. Sisyphus: The Myth is not a fantasy drama, it’s a sci-fi drama. The two genres are wholly different though there are cross-over elements when a book/movie/drama chooses to overlap.
2001: A Space Odyssey is sci-fi, Star Wars is fantasy
I, Robot is sci-fi, Lord of the Rings is fantasy
A hover craft is sci-fi, a flying dragon breathing fire is fantasy.
Time-travel is sci-fi, shooting lasers from your eyes is fantasy
The fundamental premise of sci-fi is that it is grounded in reality of science and math (as humankind knows it) but is not yet possible. For example: cold fusion is hypothesized but no one has been able to scientifically make it happen. But based on the scientific theories underlying it theoretically remains possible/plausible. Same with time-travel concepts. So yes, realism and logic IS needed in sci-fi, which posts vast technological advancements based on realism and logic which have yet to be developed.
Sisyphus cannot be a sci-fi drama and completely fail at adhering in the tenets of accepted science, it can stretch ideas sure but it can’t get it wrong from the start. Take the ashes DNA test, you cannot extract DNA from human ashes. Or the plane strike by the bird, physics says everyone will be sucked out of the cockpit and there is no way Tae Sul can even Mcgyver what he did in there.
That’s why the criticism of this drama so far is all valid. Even if the drama was fantasy and made stuff up like unicorns, fairies and soul swaps that’s fine too, but it also could also be validly criticized for poor execution or storytelling of those elements if it wasn’t presented with connectivity.
The director or actors did say at the press confrence that the drama is fantasy but based on reality. So in their mindset it’s a fantasy.
Time travel is a fantasy, no?
Everything has their own logic in their world. The time travel isn’t exactly realistic and logical in the 1st place. And every drama has their flaws. But if the little things bother you too much then maybe the drama isn’t for you. No need to hit yourself so hard to watch something that give you headache. Like I watch Chinese fantasy dramas and accept whatever crazy plot they gave without question ask. Because when you looking for flaws and focus on them you can’t really enjoy the dramas
But I guess some people want to on negativities side of the dramas to gain views and traffic too. It’s understandable.
Regardless, the drama is doing well in their own country and Netflix with their 1st eps. And thankfully most people don’t try to find flaws in the drama but focus on what message and story the drama try to send.
Yeah agree with @Haha. It was originally labeled sci-fi but the genre was changed (by officials) before the drama aired. It moved it out of sci-fi to mystery-fantasy. Don’t rely on Wikipedia. The PD said so himself at the Press Con. So mystery-fantasy. Get your facts straight please Ms Koala.
https://www.soompi.com/article/1454862wpp/park-shin-hye-and-cho-seung-woo-talk-about-their-perfect-teamwork-during-filming-sisyphus-the-myth
Calling it a mystery-fantasy doesn’t solve the problem of poor writing. And it’s disingenuous for the production to classify what is clearly a sci-fi based story into fantasy just to get around the logic and realism flaws.
If I made a detective thriller but failed to portray either the investigation steps logically or build the tension in a thriller and said the story was actually a fantasy horror that would be a lame way to ask for a hall pass from viewers.
But if Sispyus is going all in that is pure fantasy then fine, I won’t discuss the science based flaws and view it as anything goes. But it still needs to tell a coherent story and that has also been lacking especially in episode 2. So much of the action is genuinely WTF.
Like, why does Seo Hae need to make Chinese restaurant boy strip. She can ask for his leather jacket cuz she may think it looks cool but why his pants and shirts too? She doesn’t like the other clothes he offered then rummage through his closet for others. The strip scene felt like a dumb parody of Terminator 2.
And their escape from his apartment was the stupidest action scenes I’ve seen in years despite the high budget. The men in black took turns attacking her, she blasted her way out of the apartment but with 20 guns trained on her from below no one shot at her until she got a gun and was blasting back. I can go on and on. This isn’t a sci-fi or fantasy problem, it’s just nonsensical action staging.
Eh, I do really want to know what the heck the story is about but the poor execution is frustrating me to no end. I find it disheartening that viewers can’t share gripes without being told to either stop watching or called a hater.
Mrs Koala I agree with you since it is clear that the drama has underlying errors that from my perspective are somewhat serious, errors such as the DNA test have no logic in any genre perhaps except comedy. But the show gave us these errors from chapter one, this was the basis and we already know what we are going to face.
Just as it is heartbreaking not being able to comment against the drama without being suggested that if they don’t like it it is healthy not to watch it or that they are haters, it is also heartbreaking not being able to defend or comment in favor of the drama without being labeled as irrational or little understanding, even by the creator of the blog.
There are many posts on the drama and most of them talk about the obvious flaws in the writing, but this is one of the few blogs where I see that its participants shred scene after scene finding error after error, I repeat, for me that is not a healthy or constructive criticism. For me.
What is undeniable is that many of us, including myself, take something as simple as the plot of a drama and turn it into something more passionate, that’s not cute, someone mentioned that this drama would have three groups of people and it’s true, this post is an example how accurate that comment is.
So the best thing is to adapt to all kinds of comments and not take anything personally, I am confident that these disputes will decrease with the following articles, some will abandon ship, others will stay, others will love the drama and others will hate it. And that’s it.
Issa
Defending is not belittling other commentators which is what they are doing. And that’s true “not healthy” behavior.
Deconstructing scenes “is not healthy or constructive criticism?” If certain people choose to do so, let them be. They’re not bothering anyone. Only those who don’t like negatives comments are bothered because they’re biased. Most of the negative points are valid. If they want to refute a negative point, do it with logic and not with “it’s a fantasy so all of your point is invalid” smh
I don’t think that’s only because of Heirs . It’s true that she still has good ratings despite of bad scripts , i think that’s because she must be well loved as a person . Others with big hit dramas don’t always achieve to get steady good ratings .
OK, there are indeed scenes that mega-stretch the known boundaries of science, so I think this drama is leaning towards fiction-fantasy rather than sci-fi. But I’ll go wherever PSH and JSW’s combo and acting will take me, lol.
I was just reading recent articles over at soompi and turns out this drama is classified as fantasy-mystery by the director… so there, maybe the viewers will get along now and either enjoy this show for what it is or drop it. I for one will be watching for the 2 leads, I am not yet fully hooked on the storyline but sure, I can go with it. I just think there are scenes that could have been tighter if they were better directed/edited and if lines were better written. I hope the next episodes will be better.
Well CLOY is not classified as fantasy or sci-fi yet ML can jump off a cliff without paragliding gear and be suspended in the air while FL clings on to him.
To be fair..people did make fun of those paragliding scenes in CLOY.It defied scientific laws.?.That drama was already based on an absurd premise and got it’s due criticism ..But apart from that ,i think they tried to make things as much realistic as possible even when they had limited resources..There are so many incidents related to NK that may sound crazy at first but happened for real..Few months ago I read a news article that a defector who was a gymnast, jumped over the wired fence in DMZ to enter SK territory..The soldiers made him repeat this again just to check if that person was speaking the truth..
Therefore, the way they portrayed the movement across the border in the drama ..who knows someone may have tried it in reality. So many untold stories are out there.
As for sysiphus.. many people have managed to overlook the glaring flaws…Thus it depends on which feedback fans of the drama want to focus on..
I think this is site for haters who always say negative things about actors esp PSH,LMH and Suzy.We don’t mind critism regarding script or acting. But,some of the comments scream Pure Hate.
(Spoiler Alert)
– Seo Hae brought Sun with her bcz she clearly said he would be killed since he was with her(Like the Restaurant owner is dead)
– Don’t forget that she is from destroyed world where the air is toxic and there are no fresh foods or plants.That’s why the scene showed that SH is enjoying the breeze and sun ray.
What I believe is that each country has its own uniqueness which is always displayed in their series.
And to target large population, they would add appropriate romance or humor to balance the seriousness or show humanity sense.
(eg, even though Kairos has good plot,it fails in rating wise bcz there’s zero balance bet main leads)
It’s a pity that some of you guys watch the series with pessimistic mind.
People tend to read the comment section or review before checking out the drama. And this is only 2 pilot eps yet. There’re more to explore in future eps.
Have a great weekend everyone.
Your entire post is a walking contradiction. You said you don’t mind people commenting negatively on the script or acting but that’s exactly what you are doing lollll
Prove it that people are watching it with a pessimistic mind. Pointing out the genuine flaws doesn’t mean they are watching it with a pessimistic mindset lol
Prove it people are reviewing it before they check out the drama lol
Not one person mention about any of the actors in a negative way geez lol
Whoa..calm down people
It’s no 1 trending in my country, I‘m sure many people are enjoying the drama despite the flaws. Mind-blowing tht how many people here loathe the drama but kept watching.. lmao! I won’t be wasting my time.
They can hate all they want, but they cannot determine the ratings.
I couldn’t have dreamed of a better script.
And this is just the beginning!
This drama will become the new reference for Korean productions.
Never mind these negative people. The ratings in Korea speak louder