Iris (Korean Drama) was AMAZING. It's one of my favorite dramas to date. The plot was intense, and the audience really connected with the characters. Because of this connection, the backstabbings were extremely painful, and the plot twists were extremely shocking. When characters died, I cried, and I felt a part of me died when the show ended.
So I'm finally watching Iris II. There were two spin-offs that people believed were the sequel to Iris, but I didn't realize Iris II came out. So I'm watching it now. It's a definite continuation of the plot that started with Iris, and the first minute or two is a quick summary of the overall plot from Iris.
Ten minutes in and I started doubting its ability to live up to the name. Twenty minutes in and I just knew it wasn't going to be as good. The show has so much potential... But there are so many flaws in the way the storytelling is set up.
The reason why I was able to form such a strong emotional bond with Iris I was because the way it introduced its characters. There was definitely a main character. A single main character, male. He had a love interest, female. He had supporting characters. The entire plot was seen through his eyes. Indeed, the audience knew more than the character, but the main attention was on him. The side characters did get their own screen time without the involvement of the main character, and they were no less important in their role to the plot. Enough depth was given to them so that I cared deeply for them. But they didn't take over the main character's role. The first bit of plot left me with a need to finish the show before it even started because of its abundance in mystery. It left me as confused an puzzled as the character itself, before all would be revealed. That scene was extremely important in developing the connection I had with the character.
Iris II.... All the main characters were introduced within the first twenty minutes. Not that many characters weren't introduced in the first episode of Iris I, but the way they were introduced was extremely different. There were new characters for the new show, and old characters from Iris I whom I missed. Each of them were given a near equal amount of screen time, and each of them had a plot revolving around them. Instead of a deep connection with a single main character, I was expected to form a multitude of shallow ones for the variety of characters and keep track of all the different plots going on at once. This is something that should be for an epilogue of a show, not the beginning of a new one. Car chase scene, drug dealing scene, party scene. None of them leave mysteries that I'm dying to know more of. Nothing about the first twenty minutes gets me curious about what's to come. It may be a continuation of the plot of a different show, but it's still a new show and the first episode should captivate any audience.
Alternate opening possibility... The intro was a summary of what happened in Iris I. The intro ended with the main character dying and the fiance left on her own, with a close up of the killer. There were two ways they could have done this. They could have dove into the mystery of the murder and focused the plot around the killer, bringing the audience into the mysterious organization. Or they could have focused the plot around the fiance and her continued involvement years later with the organization. Either way, there should have been a solid main character for the audience to focus its attention on, and bring back the connection they would have had with Iris I.
Honestly, I'm only halfway in to the first episode, and I can't bring myself to waste more time watching this show. I think I'll just read the spoilers online. It's fast, and I can use my imagination.
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