I know that many people were confused or even angry about Hwall not returning for the second season but to be honest, I didn't even particularly care about that. It was his decision and surely the producers knew what they were getting into too when they decided to make a second season despite this. While I didn't think that the first season was outstanding or anything, I still appreciated the overarching theme and concept and high production value in terms of the filming and editing enough to want to watch the second season. Needless to say, I was beyond disappointed.

The second season suffers from much the same writing and acting problems as the first season, only that they are even worse. I saw a lot of people praise Hyuk's acting and portrayal of Se Hyun but to be honest, I thought it was just as bad if not worse than Hwall's acting in season one. In the first 6 or so episodes, his expressions are minimal, and even when I noticed a minimal improvement in the last two episodes, it was still not enough for me to want to praise it. Even Yoo Jun's acting, which was one of the few redeeming qualities of the first season, was reduced to him having to play a depressed, emotionless Yeon Woo. At times, I thought it was almost laughable how Yeon Woo consistently delivered his lines in a serious and earnest tone, even when it didn't even really fit the situation. It was like I was watching a satire of a mystery romance drama instead of something that was meant to be taken seriously.

As for the plot, nothing makes sense. I could understand why the first season mainly focused on the romance aspect and not the mystery, as the characters needed to be introduced and the concept of Probes and Monos needed to be explained to the viewer first before further delving into the world. However, to me, it is simply bad writing when almost all the things that were previously established in season one are either completely ignored or actively contradicted in season two. Due to that, it feels like the writers are just speedrunning from one new plot point and one new fact about the world to the next without any room for the viewer to take a breather and process the information in between. Sometimes characters know things they couldn't possibly know or suddenly have abilities that they never had before, such as Yeon Woo and his friends Joo Haeng and Min Jae suddenly developing advanced hacking and programming skills.

And while I thought the idea of a crime syndicate using Monos' desperation to sell them illegal drugs and surgeries to induce an artificial Color Rush was interesting, it was executed poorly. First of all, the motivations of the leaders of the syndicate seem extremely unclear and wishy-washy. If they were really only interested in finding a way to make Monos see color to capitalize off of it, then why not just invest in the further development of their drug Lazulata? It is clearly shown to be working and even Yeon Woo himself states that there's no way that a Color Rush could be faked like that. Why invest in some sketchy surgery, which is even said to put them at a loss, and take the lives of innocent people for no reason? Clearly, the leaders also don't enjoy having to get rid of the bodies, so why not just try to make the drug work for longer periods of time? It simply doesn't make much sense.

Even the way they wrote Yoo Han out of the story was bad. He got kidnapped by what now? Clowns in an amusement park? Really? Instead of introducing another mystery which they will probably never be able to resolve considering that a third season hasn't been announced yet and they have no way of knowing whether Hwall will be able to reprise his role should another season happen, this seems like such an ill-advised choice. There were so many ways how they could've written him out, just to name a few:

1. They could have said that Yoo Han's parents forcibly sent him away so he wouldn't be with Yeon Woo anymore. This would've made much more sense as it had already been established that Yoo Han is the son of an influential family and needs to be protected at all costs. Since Monos are said to be violent and often murder their Probes, it would have made sense for the parents to keep the two apart.

2. Yoo Han found out about the dealings of the crime syndicate introduced in this season before Yeon Woo as he wanted to surprise him by finding his mother for him. The organization found out about this and got scared because Yoo Han's family could ruin their plans. So they murdered him alongside their other victims to keep him from telling on them. In the end, Yeon Woo buries Yoo Han alongside his mother.

Even the production value has decreased since the first season: especially in the first few episodes, the show lingers on shots way too long, to the point where I sometimes thought my screen got frozen just to realize it wasn't. Furthermore, while the writing in the first season was already bad from a plot angle, it at least had a very distinct, almost poetic tone to it that made the show more immersive and added to its fantasy flair. This writing style was completely abandoned in the second season and instead, the writing just feels choppy, rushed, and comical.

I wouldn't recommend this drama to anyone because it honestly just felt like a waste of time and has little connection to the first season; it almost even feels like the two are completely different dramas at times and I really can't stand it.