It probably helps that I went in with zero expectations.
I had already had misgivings because I honestly never liked Seo Kang Joon, but I loved both female leads.Add to that the beanies trying to dissuade me from watching it. Yeah well that wasn’t successful, because 1. I love time travel, and 2. I usually end up not having the same reaction as the majority here.
And after everything else, I only just heard that this is by the same writer as Life and FoS.

What I have actually liked in her shows has always been the microscopic attention to details in her characterizations, interactions, and social commentary. So I decided to look at the show from a social point of view, and completely ignore the sci-fi preconception.

I can’t imagine watching this show one episode a week! It was so exciting it sometimes kept me awake at night and sometimes made me jump up and go take a walk to breathe. But I loved it. And I’m happy to report that SKJ redeemed himself for me.
I actally believe that the writer didn’t even mean it as sci-fi, only some fantasy elements in her story ala Don’t Look Up. But maybe the production company or thd network decided to bank on the sci-fi aspect.

There were a few points I didn’t like.

One, as I also saw mentioned in the recaps, the drama suffered from too much showing and not enough telling. If there was a little bit more telling from the Ghost we could be much more invested in her cause.

Two, the last episode was rather haphazard so it fell flat. I had braced myself for a disappointing ending so I didn’t hate it, but I would have if I had gone in blind.

Three, the brother. He was completely useless. I think he was only there to give Sae Byuk a sense of family, as he mentioned their mother too.

There were a lot of confusion and anger in the recap comments, I’m not going to argue anything. Most of them were understandable. Just giving my version of answer to a few common questions.
Why did Sae Ha have to die. Why did the Ghost come back in 2021. Why was her DNA broken and why did it change. If everybody has a time machine in the future won’t it cause chaos?

So here is what I think. Definitely not everybody has the time machine. I think the technology of the grid was invented in the future (the Ghost’s original timeline), and the desparation of a dying species led them to invent the time machine to set up the grid before the disaster hits. The Ghost is a scientist and she goes to 1997 and sets it up successfully, and goes back to her own timeline.
Then something happened that caused a change in her ancestry. Like Man Ok becoming a criminal, or Sae Byuk becoming a cop, and him killing her, or harming her in anyway. It might have been because of the change the Ghost made, or maybe her adversary made another change that caused it, maybe to prevent her from making the grid. So she had to come back to rectify it. Maybe she hadn’t even killed the janitor, or SH’s father, in her first TT. But remember she said I have done this so many times, and this is the only way for me, and the mankind, to live. So after many many tries she concludes the only way for this to happen is for MO deciding to kill SH, not SB. That is why as soon as SH went to the past her DNA became normal.
I know this in no way explains all the confusing aspects of the show, but to me this felt like a very easy and logical explanation which didn’t need overt assumptions and mind gymnastics on my part. And yes, this clearly proves that they set up the adversary storyline and why he wanted the mankind destroyed for a second season.

For what it worth, I freaking love it too!