The World Between Us
A 10-on-10 show

There are some shows that you really don’t know how to respond to, other than just stand up and applaud, and this one recently got added to that list of mine. I got curious after I discovered that the scriptwriter of Dear Ex and The Arc of Life had also written The World Between Us, besides the fact that this show had won a bunch of awards. At the end of a 10-episode binge of this taiwanese drama over 3 days, I figured why it was rated so highly, and completely agreed. My quick notes:
 
— Without spoiling too much, I’ll just say that this show is set in the aftermath of a violent incident, and through the points of view of the families of both the victims and the perpetrator, discusses a range of issues.  
— The themes are wide-ranging, from retributive justice, to post traumatic stress, to mental health, to criminal psychology, to media trials… This makes it a serious watch. But if, like myself, these are questions you have occasionally pondered over, you will not regret having watched this at all. To be able to tackle such a range in such a short span of time, and not make it seem preachy or pretentious, is a phenomenal achievement.
— There were some things I wish were discussed more (e.g., capital punishment), and there were some things I wish were less melodramatic, especially after the climactic mid-point, but I will put that down to creative license.
— The casting was excellent, although I was more partial to the actresses than to the actors.
— I loved the small editorial and production touches in the show, such as, how the closing credits changed as the episodes went by, how the palette changed, the documentary-style hand-held cinematography.
–The story is very real, and I imagine everyone would have experienced at least some aspect of the story themselves. I have, certainly.
— The fact that all the characters belonged to the same dramatic universe was extremely contrived, but it was used as a means to highlight ideological clashes, and give different points of view, and only enriched the storytelling.
— The end also deviated a bit from the realism of the rest of the show, but that’s okay. I’m not complaining.

Overall, this is a 10 on 10 in my books, and joins a very select group of shows. I won’t forget it in a while, and will be recommending it onwards quite regularly now. Please bear with me. 😂
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    wow you’ve already finished it !
    Glad that you’ve found it and that you’ve enjoyed it 🙂 .
    I agree with many points you wrote, can’t comment a lot but here’s the post I made about it when I finished it 😉
    https://www.dramabeans.com/members/kudoran/activity/908113/

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      I binged this 😂 I found it a really compelling watch. But it makes sense that you watched one episode a day. It’s a show to be savoured. Your review dates to before I became active on DB, so I missed it when you put it out! But it’s perfect. I like how we have used similar words to describe it – raw, real, documentary style… We picked on the same things!

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    Where did you watch this? I’m intrigued!

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      I had to darkside it because it’s not available for me here anywhere. I believe though that a bunch of other options might be available for some folks: Prime Video, Hulu, HBO Max, even some Netflix regions. (I’m not sure of licensing restrictions though!)

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    Yes, it’s been on my watchlist since forever and from all accounts, a 10/10 drama. Will watch ASAP.

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      Awesome yes please do! I hope you find it as thought-provoking and interesting as I did

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    It’s really is so so good! The main actress is fantastic and now that you tell me the screenwriter is the same from Dear Ex and Arc of Life, it makes so much sense why I loved this. I liked the main actor, too, but I have seen him in other things and brought some baggage from those roles with me.

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      I liked all the actresses, actually – the perpetrator’s brother, the news editor, the juice shop owner… The actors were okay, and played their parts. But I can’t say I’m a fan. I agree with you – I had baggage regarding the two male leads – the lawyer and the journalist – but the third chap, the director/brother was great. So different from his Arc of Life role, almost unrecognizable here.

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