ME: "SMILE. . . "

For all of it faults- and they were many!- ANGELS LAST MISSION has been my favorite show. Shin Hye-sun is one of my very favorite actresses- and she was never been better. The main love story was wonderful to the end. L did a great job as Dan the angel. Lee Dong-gun played his part well but his role was far too limited for an actor of his talents- a complaint that I could also make of his role in WHERE STARS COME TO LAND. Lee Dong-gun has been one of my favorite actors for a long time- ever since I saw him in SWEET 18. I hope he gets a better role soon (and it sounds like maybe he has).

I finally saw a scene in which Shin Hye-sun was not giving a fantastic performance: That occurred when she is lying in the hospital bed unconscious. The writer does find a way for Yeon-seo to meet her fate and fulfill the prophesy- she does die on the operating table- and then is revived immediately. A bit of a contortion but it worked.

And to answer Sailorjumin’s question- at the end Dan has been turned into a man.

I knew that something was different about Dan when he was not turned to dust outside the operating room. Instead he just faded out. God was doing something different this time. It certainly did not seem like a punishment. And then Kang-woo picked up Dan’s handkerchief – and the feather is still blue.

It turns black after Dan’s farewell kiss. Then we see it silver blue again- after Dan has returned to stay beside Yeonseo.

After many weeks have passed Yeon-seo goes to the park bench where they first met and sits there. Dan sits beside her- and suddenly Yeon-seo can actually see him. She reaches out and touches his chest- and can feel his beating heart. At that moment it is the handkerchief that dissipates rather than Dan. It turns to dust in the same fashion as Angel Noel did. The meaning is that that God has chosen to transform Dan from angel to man: Dan and Yeon-seo certainly understand that this is what has happened: That is why we see happy man and wife embracing each other in the joyous knowledge that they will have a life together.

It takes a lot to make an old lawyer cry- but there were tears streaming down my face.

It was a great drama. It has some plot holes, but it is a good story.

Kim Myungsoo has improved in acting! I have been a fan of Infinite since 2011, and it's great to see that he is learning and improving in acting.

Thank you for your recaps of this drama.

I was actually mad at the ending. Mad. There was no explanation, no reasoning behind it, just *pouf* wish granted, happy happy. What unadulterated bull hockey is that?!? The writer did a terrible job of explaining why this works in their wonky made up changing rules universe. I am usually satisfied as long as the ending works in the universe the writer created, but I don't feel like this is what we got. I feel like what we got is "Gee, the watchers want a happy ending and so, Viola! Cheer and goodbye. Cheap, bad writing.

The acting was great, but the writer should work on their craft. A lot.

Go to your corner writer-nim and think about what you did wrong.

I think my main qualm with this show overall is that it tried to be two different dramas at once instead of committing wholly to one concept. I think the original premise, based on the plot at least, was for this to be a cute rom-com about an angel falling in love with a human ala My Girlfriend is a Gumiho. But instead of filling the show with fish-out-of-the-water hijinks and silly love spats typical of a rom-com storyline, the writer tried to combine the rom-com concept with a serious melodrama about love and religion, which I think is where things went wrong. The end product ending up feeling like an essay without a thesis, where the writer only knew what they wanted their opening and closing sentences to be and filled in the rest with a hodgepodge of ideas gleaned from various other sources (MGIAG, YFAS, Black Swan...) that had no overarching purpose to tie them all together into a cohesive story.

Had they stuck with the Gumiho concept all the way through, I would have really enjoyed this one, even with the deus ex machina ending, since the fun journey makes up for the questionable logic. But the problem for me was that there were too many meaty tidbits that the writer dropped that teased a show that would tackle topics like God’s will vs free will, selfless-love vs selfish-love, and how love makes humans different from other beings, that I couldn’t help but get my hopes up for it actually being an insightful drama and then ultimately being disappointed when it failed to deliver answers to the serious questions it posed.

If the writer had been capable of telling the story I wanted her to, I think this could have been a phenomenal bittersweet melodrama, especially with Shin Hye Sun’s emotional acting chops. An ending where Lee Yeon Seo is like the grandmother with Angel Noel, left behind but able to move on in life thanks to having experienced the joys of true love, would have been fine with me. Or an ending where Dan chooses to accept Yeon Seo’s sacrifice to live the life he was originally denied because he truly wanted to live as a human, not just become human only to be with Yeon Seo, would have been good too. Sadly, the writer gave us a fake-out of both those endings which ended up making the miracle happy ending fall flat for me.

Overall, I think the writer fell victim to trying to be too many different things at once and succeeding at none of them, which made everyone come away from this with some level of dissatisfaction. Despite that Lee Yeon Seo will still be one of my favorite female leads and I’m grateful for the gorgeous soundtrack and the introduction to Shin Hye Sun this provided. But I’ll be staying away from this writer’s next work unless it’s billed as a makjang. I think she’d do pretty well with that genre.

Thank you SailorJumun for all your recaps on this show! And thank you beanies that I get to share this excruciating journey to finale with you.

The first 5 hours of this drama were memorable. Shin Hye Sun remains unforgettable.

This drama is not worth writing long essays anymore; I`m not gonna give that satisfaction to the writer.

I could have accepted them being apart--the god of Angel's Last Mission was set up to be hard, unmerciful, and unknowable, so it would have fit with the mythology of the show. I could've accepted Dan turning into a black wisp--I wouldn't have liked it, but again, I saw Angel Noel, this god doesn't eff around with the rules.

Somehow this writer has made getting what I wanted--them together--suck. It didn't make sense in the world that had been created. Dan's god was not merciful. He was not kind. He wasn't one to fudge the rules. He burned up the letters, which is about as literal as you can be with with a "I ain't trying to hear that bulls***" response as you can get. It feels like it was just thrown in at the last second because that's what the audience was clamoring for. It was the writer saying, "Here's your ending, now shut up." My time feels intentionally disrespected rather than just wasted like what happens with a typical drama that turns to trash. . . I feel like I've been flipped off and sent on my way.

Thank you so much @sailorjumun for this recap and for holding onto this drama until the end even though a lot of beanies dropped this show midway. I was almost tempted because as you said, the show was fantastic at the start, hobbled at the middle and a downright mess at the end. My work schedule is the same as well which is why I had a hard time juggling both work and drama that have the same trajectory over the last eight weeks. But I think the OSTs are what kept me in the loop. Hehe! Kidding aside, this is Shin Hye Sun’s best performance ever and I will be very mad if she won’t get an award for this project. She made me cry twice - 1) that scene on the second episode with her breakdown after visiting Mr. Jo’s funeral and 2) when she poured her heart out to Chief Jung saying she was torn between wanting to be crazy just to see Dan’s illusion versus living a happy life as how Dan would want her to be after giving her his life. Oh dear! Her grief tugged at my heartstrings as if I was the one who’s going through the pain. Excellent! Myungsoo captured what I thought an angel should look like and if ever I have one, I want it to be just like him. He gave a great performance as well and I thoroughly enjoyed his scenes particularly his comedic moments on the first few episodes. I wish these two will have another project together in the future. I’ll be the first to line up for that show. 😍

Overall, I am happy with this drama. The only thing I hate about it is the portrayal of God which goes against my belief. When angels were sent to kill Angel Kang Woo but ended up killing Seol Hee instead, I was like WHAT?!? What kind of God would do that? And then at the course of the show, God was portrayed as the big bad which is just abominable. I think that’s what upsets me the most. If not for the great casts, lovely OSTs and my fondness for angels, I would have dropped this show to be honest. I wished the writer stayed in the romcom genre and didn’t go into melo. But hey, I guess you can’t get all that you want! Still, it is an enjoyable 16hours ride.

to me writers strength is drawing out emotion as I was crying true the last two episodes. I am gonna remember our love birds for a long time, and happy knowing they got their miracle, and can live in peace as husband and wife❤️

deus ex machina intensifies...

Just wanted to stop by and say thanks for the recaps, Sailorjumun! I stopped watching a while back but have been keeping up with the recaps and watching select clips. My reaction to the end seems to be the same as everyone else -- namely, HUH? What just happened? I wish writers who write fantasy dramas were better at keeping track of their universe rules. Maybe someone can create an app for that?

Anyway, it really was a cute show at the beginning! I enjoyed the dancing and Shin Hyesun and L.

Seriously? All I wanted was for the ending to make sense, whether it was tragic or happy. Was that really too much to ask of the writer? Apparently so. I was so frustrated with this deus ex machina finale. Just poof! And they live happily ever after? But I have to say that it’s entirely what I expected at this point.

Clearly, the writing was the weak link in this show. We all talked at length about the haphazard “theology” employed throughout its run. The villains (Evil Aunt and Evil Cousin) were two-dimensional without believable motivations, which made them fall flat as antagonists. Ni-na and Kang-woo could have been great characters, but instead got the short end of the character development stick. Hoo Sunbae remained baffling until the end. But I do think the writing did one thing right: Yeon-seo. She was a fantastic character that will go down as one of my favorite women in kdrama. She was written with depth and not confined by typical gender stereotypes 👏. Oh, and our awesome lady butler stayed awesome.

Writing takes center stage for a show, so it’s understandable to judge a show by its writing, but I’d hate to ignore other aspects done well here. Of course we’ve all been gushing about how amazing Shin Hye-sun was in this role. I already really liked her as an actress, but she was truly phenomenal here. And I’ve already talked a couple of times about how much I love the way dance was utilized. But I don’t think I’ve mentioned one of the things that made the strongest impression on me since the beginning: the feel of the show. The beautiful OST, the editing and even the color palette created a whimsical atmosphere infused with underlying melancholy. This affecting atmosphere was part of the reason I stayed invested, and I think it helped the more emotional moments land even when things didn’t make sense.

All in all, despite the messy writing, I enjoyed the show. But I know I definitely enjoyed it more thanks to @sailorjumun's recaps and the ensuing discussions with beanies than I would have on my own 😊

... Reading this finale recap was almost as wild as reading the entirety of "The Perfect Wife" recaps in one lunch break.

Thank you for all the recaps. It's been quite a ride that we all had together.

The ending and how they loosely tied the plot together did disappoint me somewhat. The drama had such an interesting premise that I felt they missed so many chances and avenue in which they could have made the journey even more epic. The supernatural elements could have had more presence, the way it was done in Black and Goblin to ground us all into the fantasy genre. To make a drama in the fantasy or supernatural genre, I feel strongly that it had to be tangible enough to shake the core of our expectations or perceptions. Instead, what we get were mere arguments and second-hand (and skewed!) interpretations on the mysteries of the spiritual world. I wish they'd make it a little clearer on the rules where angels can become human and vice versa. And I did so wish that they hadn't made the "deity" into an entity so replete with petty human emotions such as jealousy and made such frivolous rules.

I guess the drama had wholly banked on the chemistry between the actors/actresses and it was their excellence in performance that carried the drama through to the end. I admit to looking forward to the beautiful relationship and interactions between Kim Dan and Yeon Soo that had solidified in the first half of the drama. I wanted so much for Kang Woo's character to have more depth and that his relationship with Nina developed into something more meaningful. It didn't have to be a romantic one, but I felt that they could have helped each other out even as friends in healing their respective emotional losses. Their relationship had so much potential.

But all in all, I would still rate the drama higher than some other trainwrecks this year. I usually prioritize emotional investment higher than technical perfection anyway, because, at the end of it all, I would usually remember how a drama or movie made me feel, instead of how it made me think. And yes, I did feel quite a lot throughout watching the show, despite the protests coming out of my brain.

@oldawyer @sychotic1 @hebang @linda-palapala @gemwendz @lumiere @quirkycase @hobakky @13infamyss @sal @blnmom

Thanks @sailorjumun and fellow Beanies for coming on this ride together with insightful comments and questions amidst stuff that got us going "Huh!?!?" I felt that it was still a pretty fun ride and enjoyed it, eye-roll and all.

I was re-reading what I wrote about the burning of the reports and how god was being painted in http://www.dramabeans.com/2019/06/angels-last-mission-love-episodes-23-24/#comment-3483668

An interpretation of the ending as an answer to prayer. This might be reaching, but in a show with inconsistency, I was looking for a consistent thread.

The overall mission was always too vague and open to interpretation in too many ways. This led to endless questions of, debate with, protests against and arguments with god. Despite Angel Hu and Dan and even KW accusing god to be guilty of a whole bunch of stuff like cruelty, unfairness, wanting his pound of flesh, ... they continued to pester and badger god to let them do what they wanted. (In other words they wanted what they wanted and barely considered that god may have had a plan). In any case, they went through the motions of 'praying' and hoping or demanding that their prayers be answered. Well, in the end some prayers were answered, and these in god's time, in god's way. One wonders if it was god's purpose to get them all het up to keep up the communication with him.

The reports were often written prayers, and their being self-destructed in flames, I always interpreted (as in the link to my past comment), as the sign of the messages reaching heaven, and likely accepted, but not necessarily that god would act on the requests in the way or at the time that the requestor wanted. Those that did not burn up immediately were under consideration, but could still be accepted.

Within the overall big plan of god, we see that there is the freedom of individuals to choose and set their own mini-missions/goals.

The smaller missions that were to support the overall love mission were given in the form of falling leaves stating a time and place where a beneficiary of the mission would be. When it came from god, it was mainly a mission. When it was written by someone else, it could work as a mission and a prayer. Thus it was consistent that Dan wrote on a leaf to set a mini-mission for YS to be at the Gisele performance, and YS did the same for Dan to meet her in the here and now. The time and place being right, with Dan right there, this prayer was answered immediately, and thus Dan fulfilled his LAST leaf mission by appearing in the flesh beside YS.

So maybe yes, what I hoped in my old post about god being painted black and then shown to be more reasonable after all seems to have happened, but we just don't know for sure, how or why... so yay?

The could have beens:
I believe some of us have been thinking for some time that Show should have used other worldly mythical characters like goblins or fairies since it did not want to work consistently with the concept of a caring Judeo-Christian God. It has added to theological misinformation and confusion. It could have been a great show with capricious god spirits and gun toting goblins instead of angels.

What I didn't like were that the characters who were meant to be 'good' and who were supposed to know better, acted inconsistently and out of character, and how they justified evil action under the excuse of 'For Love of the Other', when in reality it was mainly for self. This was never elaborated or shown to be erroneous.

I had hopes that were dashed. When Dan said that god had probably planned for him to meet YS and even KW, and I'd say Ni Na too, for a purpose, there was so much potential. At the very least the 'love' mission was expanded to include Dan himself, but it could have encompassed all good-hearted individuals.. I had hopes that the good changes in these characters would take place through their interactions and relationships. I hoped that the character developments would be driven interior-ly by the appreciation of the love that Dan embodied.

This did not pan out since it was generally some external force that drove the decisions and no one gave credit to Dan's goodness, except maybe in YS's case. Worse, Dan's interactions with the evil ones made him change for the worse, to choose an evil route, that led to Hu's destruction. What a disappointment.

In the previous episode when Dan disappeared from the hospital and YS flatlined, I thought how great it would be if they met each other in passing from life into Life. Well it didn't happen.

The positives:
What I did like was Dan's giving YS his breath in hospital, comes back into the picture again. We have come full circle to when in the beginning, Dan gave YS his breath of life on the bridge, while she was thinking of dying.

His being granted a chance to not leave entirely but remain near YS suddenly suggested that god was more compassionate than he'd been made out to be.

In the end, although it did not come about in the organic way that it could have, the 'love' mission was more than fully fulfilled since YS, KW, Ni Na and Dan learnt to love themselves, to embrace life and to care for others: a 180 degree turnaround from Episode 1. Therefore I feel in that sense, we had a sorta good ending. 😉

Thank you for the recap, @sailorjumun <3

Finally, 'tis done.

"Because if God was going to grant the couple their wish at the very end, then what was the point of Him being against them? No matter how much I think about — and boy, have I really thought about it — it doesn’t make sense to me."

^ This, coming from a 'religious' (goodness, with all due respect, I actually hate this word... A person of faith-- a person's faith itself-- isn't just a belief (system), but it's more than that... it's a lifestyle choice), it is to show that God, being God, and being the Creator of all things, has power and authority in and over all things--including who He chooses and orchestrates into our lives-- but He chooses to give us free will, He chooses to use us and to have us by His side to do things for Him, He chooses to give us choice and a choice of who we love; But because He is God, he can, and will, take it all away if He so chooses.... Many would say that this kind of God sounds selfish/narcissistic/mean, etc., but it's sort of justified and fair, because humans were created to glorify and to love God in the first place, because He first loved us (bible verse from
1 John 4:19)

i don’t know what drove me to read this after half losing my mind last week, but @sincerelytod i’m gonna need another dose of amnesia, please and thank you.

The best parts of the drama were Yeon-seo-Dan's bickering, their romantic scenes and Shin Hye Sun's acting. I liked the dance was a big part of the drama until the end.

The story was badly written : the God's rules were not clear and very stupid (like killing a human to punish an angel), the thriller part was stupid too because the motivations of her evil family were so lame...

When they write fantasy, they should do like a detective novel, starts by the end. Fantasy dramas always are messy.

We got a happy ending! Yaaaaas! But the way they wrapped things up was so abrupt, it ended before we could even wrap our heads around what was happening. I wanted to see their life at home. I wanted to see babies! THEIR 10 KIDS! sighhhhhhh maybe, I am just being greedy. Oh well. Still a good show. I will miss Dan and Yeon Seo as well as Myungsoo and Hye Sun's undeniable chemistry - possibly the best thing about this show besides Hye Sun's acting.

okay.
just.
with all the impending DEATH doom since ep 3(?), I totally thought that the point where he breathes his life into her would be the last scene & I was crying buckets & actually ok with it.
But show did a 180 on me!

I mean yay that otp lived happily ever after so why did we get SO many fake deaths in last 2 eps ??? Seriously.
In memory of past Angels being punished left & right, I hope at least Kang woo became mortal (which wasn't exactly confirmed).

But ok show, whatever you say.
Excellent acting SHS, even more in the second half. I'm thoroughly impressed.

Thank you for the recaps, & sticking through till the end Sailorjumun <3

So what I took away from this drama is that there's a god who doesn't listen to prayer but is swayed with a wonderful ballet performance? It explains a lot... we're basically living in a world ruled by the wishes of ballerinas.

Slightly less facetious, I'll just say that this drama was perfectly servicable and I don't regret watching it, but I also won't attempt to figure out wth it was trying to say - as the drama didn't know that itself either.

aww it was a good ride while it lasted. i'm still such a sucker for like bittersweet romances that are fated but tragic LOL

i feel everything you said in your recap. i'm happy they got their happy ending, even though theres so many questions.

him hanging around her without her knowing kinda reminded me of the ending of abyss too LOL but this made WAY MORE sense than abyss. we do not talk about abyss. lmao

Was the last four minutes of the show forcely inserted to make all the viewers have a happy ending? It doesn't make sense to me at all. What just happened? That's it? He becomes human? How? Why didn't the deity do that earlier? I have so many questions.

But kudos to Shin Hye Sun for this! I'm now a fan of hers!

Another thing in this show aside from the chemistry, Lee yeon seo/shin hye sun & Kim Dan/Kim myung soo that is perfect is the OSTs!
They’re 🔥🔥!!!
I’m not satisfied but not complaining either
It was a fun ride!

"That Yeon-seo would realize this and be content in just knowing that Dan was watching over her. And though that would’ve been incredibly sad… I would’ve liked it. It would’ve been the perfect bittersweet ending."
YES. I know exactly how you feel. And truth be told, this isn't the first time I'm dissatisfied with a happy ending. I do not like happy endings. And by that I mean happy endings emerging from death fakeouts. There's something powerful about Yeon Seo willing to do exactly what Dan wished for her to do if he's gone. She was willing to grow stronger and braver. She's in pain, but she wants to honor his wishes. I really admire that.

Thank you for the recap, I really appreciate it. I agree that maybe the ending seems a bit lacking in many ways. I was thinking to myself that it should make sense and watching it for the second time makes more sense to me : we’re watching these characters evolve from what it was before.

The fake deaths were necessary to establish the fact that one of them has to die and they both are willing to sacrifice themselves for each other. Dan, at one point was about to disown his belief and cross the bridge of no return, but instead Sr. Hu sacrificed himself-to just make a point that Dan had indeed changed him and that he considers Dan as his own family (and at the same time giving his blessings to the couple).

I think it made perfect sense. Like someone mentioned, Dan gave her, his breath of life in the earlier episode and then his dying breath to just let her live on. Yeon Seo, although was really sad, tries her best to honour Dan’s wishes, but she didn’t stop hoping for him to come back. Even the time frame kinda make sense too, they were together for 100 days and separated for the next 100 days and reunited at the same place again. Their selflessness and sacrifices, their resolution that their time together was a gift instead of torture, their faith to each other - was what different that Kang Woo’s and Angel Noel’s situation. They didn’t run away, they faced the challenge together, so this ending makes me happy, it was subtle but impactful enough for me to understand and appreciate.

The last couple of episodes were definitely messy but I liked our couple too much to be bothered. I think a bittersweet ending would have been better but as for why Yeonseo was able to be with Dan again at the end... I’m choosing to believe that it was because Dan was sent to paradise, and his paradise was with Yeonseo.

This was another one of the those dramas that could have been better, a lot better. The script had problems with continuity and its own world rules from the very beginning. The director could have molded the plot into a better cohesive (if he had time) story by toning down the religious elements.

This drama falls into the category of the actors outshining the script. But dramas are supposed to tell a story, which was the weakest part of the series.

Divine Logic aside, this show is still super cute so I'll recommend it to friends who like rom-coms. :)))

I started out really liking this drama. Usually this is not my type of show. But I like Shin Hye Sun so I decided to watch. But many people have pointed out the flaws and the unanswered questions. But my main complaint with the show was that Yeon Seo started out as a strong character but then allowed herself to become meek. I get that love changes a person but in this show I was hoping to see her become stronger and not so codependent on Dan. I was also expecting more humor and well more dancing. But both were lacking.

I found it amusing that Yeon Seo ended up in a coma. I was like am I watching her last show, Still 17. And with the evil sister I was reminded of Oh My Ghostess.

Even though the show was not that great I am happy that the people who needed to be punished, got punished. The sister got life in prison and the parents got sent to jail as well. In other dramas, I find it preposterous that the evil characters sometimes get happy endings. All their sins are forgiven and they are brought back to the fold. Here the baddies ended up where they were supposed to be.

For her next project I would like to see Shin Hye Sun do something different than a rom-com or a soap. Something with action or a court room drama or a medical show.

Now onto Hotel Del Luna.

Part 1 of 2

Thank you, @sailorjumun, for your recap and final summation of ANGEL’S LAST MISSION: LOVE. What a long, strange trip it’s been. I was gobsmacked by that ending that came out of left field. We got a full-blown miracle (Say Hallelujah! Say Amen!) as the deus ex machina that brought the story to a close. At least I think that’s what happened. It left me somewhat exasperated.

The significance of Dan’s name finally dawned on me. His mission had been to bring love into the life of the bitchy ballerina Yeon-seo. You know, the martinet who used to terrorize and torment her army of employees. Perhaps his name is a tip of the hat to Dan Cupid, which would jibe with the angel’s Puckish behavior. Thank heavens he wasn’t a chubby cherub with a bow and arrow. In any event, I thoroughly enjoyed L’s portrayal of Dan.

After beaucoup angst, criminal behavior, and worrisome angelic uproar, ANGEL'S LAST MISSION:
LOVE ended on an upnote as the baddies were punished and some of them repented. It was especially fitting that Nina retired to teach immediately after her understudy performance as Giselle, thus depriving her homicidal unni Luna of the payoff for which she had resorted to murder and violence. Evil Aunt and Uncle groveled, and headed off to the slammer. Redemption and forgiveness abounded, with former angel Ji Kang-woo gaining much-needed closure and peace of mind.

Archangel Hoo's sacrifice strikes me as the ultimate paternal expression of love for Dan, the angel and the man, that echoed his mortal father's apology. I was horrified that Dan would seriously consider killing a human, let along attempt it, and blessed Hoo for pulling a fast one to save his hoobae's soul. To paraphrase John 15:13 with a slight twist, "Greater love hath no angel..." Even so, I'm still trying to wrap my head around it. The hit man's death appeared to be an accident, but even throwing him through the stacked bricks could have been the kiss of dissolution for Hoo. Wasn't there some way to hogtie him in angelic gossamer instead of killing him? Or was this meant as a demonstration to Dan of what would happen if he killed Luna? Maybe I'd better not look too closely.

- Continued -

Dramas often suffer in inevitable comparison with other shows that I'm live-watching simultaneously. Sometimes they come off second-best because I don't have enough emotional bandwidth left over when I'm already mesmerized by a truly superior production. Because I don't watch a single drama at a time, I will always compare shows that I'm watching with each other, as well as dramas I've viewed in the past. NOKDU FLOWER has been such a well-written and executed drama that it has blown all my other shows out of the water. A certain amount of my frustration with ANGEL'S LAST MISSION: LOVE stems from having seen how meticulous attention to writing, characterization, and detail in general -- along with a terrific cast and crew -- paid off in spades in the case of the sageuk.

Early in ALML's run, I couldn't help but note that ARANG AND THE MAGISTRATE is one of my all-time favorite dramas precisely because of all the attention to detail that went into the creation of its dramaverse and supernatural characters. I was again reminded of A&TM a couple of episodes ago:

http://www.dramabeans.com/2019/07/angels-last-mission-love-episodes-27-28/#comment-3494976

Waste of my time. I don't understand why i keep forcing myself to watch those bad shows, already knowing the ending. Why are dramas always forcing a dramatic happy ending when IT DOESNT EVEN MAKE ANY SENS ? I'm tired of kdramas. I think i should really stop watching those rom-coms, i guess i've seen too many... Why do those become all so bad after 6-8 episodes...

I watched this for Hye Sun, and don't regret it. I just found that the God in this drama is super cruel. I feel sorry for Lee Dong Gun's character. He was being tortured for 15 years, unable to die, because of his love with a human. I don't see how doing Giselle brought him peace. I wish the ending could have used him a bit better to wrap it all up. My mom and I were guessing how it could possibly end. I wish this was how it ended:
Kang Woo, who is a human who was unable to die saves Yeon Seo and gets himself killed. In this process, we can see him finally RIP with Seol Hee. Since he sacrificed his life, somehow it paid the price for Kim Dan/Lee Yeon Seol.

To be quite honest, i think Lee Yeon Seol already showed her love to Kim Dan when...she proposed to him. They should have just made him human at that point. I didn't quite like the whole "I'll die for you, so that you can live" story line. I think Kang Woo was right, they're all being cowards, afraid to live by themselves.

Another ending would be that Yeon Seol dies and joins Kim Dan on the other side or he ends up being her grim reaper. Then they will be reborn again.... and meet up as kids? (lol at this, my mom pointed out that's not Christianity but more Buddhism).

I don't know. I think there were so many possiblities.

My greatest take out of this was...Shin Hye Sun is one heck of an actress. I think she's going to be my favourite kdrama actress. L - I really thought he was a pretty face. He is a lot better than before. I hope he continues to grow as an actor.

This was one big mess.
I could have easily made three different better endings, sad or not.
Like: How about she had actually been an angel, dancing before him as a child, and they had alternately saved each other, shifting between human an angel, but could only remember bits of it? That would make a whole lot more sense within that universe, … and both of them had at one time been very cynical and had to be saved from that by each other?
Another solution would be to let the G-oddity actually just make less and less sense, and so they would … end up revolting, … even if it meant dissipation, it would be a dissipation in spite rather than despair, know what I mean?
That ending would be even better if it resulted in some kind of revolution … that would be a grand story! Angry angels revolting … you know it has happened before (according to the Bible) … but maybe this time not angry that they should serve human kind, but that they should serve an envious and petty God! What a story that would be!
(I keep my own Christianity out of this, because this drama is so far from making sense within any religion I know of anyway. I am just talking about meaningful mythology or anti-mythology here. World-building).

Oh, BTW, the bingo card for this show is here:
https://www.dramabeans.com/members/CecilieDK/activity/1425025/

Another amazing performance by Shin Hye Sun! First time I've seen L, he did well too, but everyone was outshone by SHS. Loved the cinematography, dancing, and music, and I thought the ending was just right. I still don't understand the rules of this world, especially how a 12 year old died and became an adult angel. Though I like the idea that someone who had such a sad childhood was given a chance to live a happy life.

My biggest complaint was for Yeon Seo's dog, Gureum. I wish Kdramas would take a more believable approach to characters who have disabilities. The guide dogs in this show and in Blind both ran away from their human partners, and in Blind the dog even refused to return when called. True story: there were two guide dogs in the twin towers on 9/11 when the planes crashed into them. Amid the chaos, not only did both dogs stay right beside their partners, they both calmly and expertly led their person and a couple dozen other people the safest way down 70+ flights of stairs and outside to safety. They could easily have run out by themselves. The loyalty of these dogs far outweighs fear. Kdramas writers and directors: planning a drama with a blind character? Contact me, I'll gladly consult on your project! 🐶