This is my first review on MyDramaList so I’m sorry if this seems messy and has any errors. I also tried to split this into sections so it could be easier to read.

I was interested to watch this show because of Drake and Ohm. I am also a huge fan of thriller and mystery concepts so I thought “What could go wrong?”.Well, a lot apparently could go wrong.

Plot:
I think the plot of the characters trying to find who the ‘The God’s Hands’ are and how does this relates to Traffic’s sister is the most interesting thing about this show. The ending though was a monstrosity, to say the least. There were many plot holes and just as many unanswered questions. This show also relied on many plot twists that you could see coming as everyone was suspicious. Some of the plot twists were very weak at times that I even saw them coming before the characters realized. I even said out loud when Title ‘became’ a The God’s Hands member, “If anybody in the Blacklist was working on the inside it would be Andrew” and I was right.

The decisions the main characters made were laughable at times and were quite not logical which made it feel like it was dragging at times. Around episode nine is when the episodes started to really drag. I just wanted it to be over with it at that point and I wanted to move on.

Characters:
I have very mixed emotions about the six main characters (Traffic, Highlight, Andrew, Title, Jim Bae, and Bantad). While looking back at them in general, I didn’t mind them, but I don’t like them when I look at them closer. The characters had basic personalities and weren’t given much characterization beyond that. They also had very weak motivations (besides Traffic) of why they wanted to join ‘Blacklist’.

They tried to characterize the characters more through their romances with the veggie gang/other female characters. Which felt like a cheap cop-out and didn’t work as some of the romances were unbelievable. The romances between the characters also seemed very forced and rushed. There were times where I was cringing out of disgust at some of the lines they would say when it was supposed to be romantic. The love triangle of Highlight, Orange, and Title was quite interesting though but was also underdeveloped. The love triangle could’ve been developed more and would’ve been great at developing tension between some of the members of Blacklist.

I don’t mind the veggie gang or some of the other female characters but they could’ve been used more wisely in the plot of this show. They seemed like they were only there to give off hints to move the plot forward and also to give the main characters a love interest. I wished they had joined the ‘blacklist’ after a while and help the main six find who is a part of ‘The God’s Hands’.I also wished they were given personalities besides kinda being randomly snarky but still playing up to the damsel in distress. The only female characters that had some personalities were Orange and Laila. That is only because we saw more of them compared to the other female characters.

Comparing to ‘The Gifted’:
I was thinking about not even comparing it to ‘The Gifted’ as their differences to me have more weight than their similarities. I made a Venn diagram to figure out my thoughts on their similarities and through that, I’ve found that they have three similarities. They are both a group of high school students, they are both trying to expose the school they attend, and they have a similar cast.

I don’t have a review of ‘The Gifted’ but I am going to be comparing based only on season one of ‘The Gifted’ as I haven’t seen the second season. One thing I liked but also disliked about ‘The Gifted’ was the episodes that centered around one member of ‘The Gifted’.I liked it because the characters were very characterized but I disliked it because when it leads me to the central plot I didn’t care as it had spent so long on the characters. ‘Blacklist’ is the complete opposite as it focused on the plot which leads the characters to be less than desirable. ‘The Gifted’ is character-based and ‘Blacklist’ is more plot-based which is just based on this it’s hard to compare.

I would have to get more technical about cinematography, lighting, loose strings in the show, etc. Which including the technical aspects of the show then ‘The Gifted’ is better than ‘Blacklist’.

Would I recommend and would I re-watch it?
I wouldn’t really recommend it unless you want to watch it and a word of advice is don’t watch this right after ‘The Gifted’. Maybe wait a month or two to watch so it can be properly processed. I also wouldn’t personally go out of my way to watch this again even if was with someone. I would just be like, “You’re on your own for this one”.

General ending thoughts:
Honestly, this is not the worst thing I have watched in general and I don’t even think it’s the worst thing from GMMTV. This definitely one of those dramas that’s a hit and miss between its viewers.