To start, the CAST is perfectly fine. Switching up members was odd, but the new members are fun/charismatic and decent-to-good problem solvers.👍 Predictably, there's less chemistry within the cast now, but that's not noticeable compared to the actual issues. /2

The issue is production. It's like a marketing exec analysed what aspects were did well and gave a to-do list to an underpaid rookie team. Time travel? Zombies? Mukbangs? Just toss 'em in. Make shallow references to prior stories and unwrite their endings for this plot. /3

For specific points: A) The plot is shockingly cliche. The premise: The cast must visit various places in a time machine to find a magical stick/save the world. The plots are very surface-level and the story-telling is abysmal (the NPCs/settings are hilariously unsubtle). /4

B) The puzzles. By focusing on plot, puzzles were totally neglected. Across the first 3 episodes, there were only about 2-3 on par with the original. Most of the puzzles are "translate this text" or "search the room until you find notes" or "use this tool to open a door". /5

C) Shallow set design. I'm sad at how "lifeless" the new settings are, without unique locations/identifiers/characters. It's not too far from an amusement park ride with cheap props, fake walls, and underpaid actors. I think the difference in personality is just visible. /6

D) The editing is off. You can see hints of the original style, but it's way more awkward/cliche overall and some choices are bizarre. For example, picture this: After Jongmin finds that door in S1E1, they do a big hype montage of him finding things in future episodes. /7

E) They've stripped away the realism. They don't meet up outside and go to set. After E1, they just walk in with whatever costume is needed that day. When they're done, they cut from the time machine to credits. It's small, but the show feels a lot more inauthentic now. /8

The true frustration is if they were going to all-in on story, the plot should at least be more interesting/better-told than the average TGE episode. Instead, it's arguably worse than almost any TGE plot I can think of (even the fake surface-level Luckyland plot). /9

It's a shame, because the cast has quite a lot of potential, but the producers have dashed my hopes. Granted, I might be viewing the original with rose-tinted glasses, but I'd love to hear if other viewers share my feelings or whether these flaws were in the original. /10

For those interested, it seems like a cool person has taken up the job of subtitling it: https://www.reddit.com/r/korea... Feel free to watch/share your thoughts if you disagree with me, but I think I'm going to struggle to finish WATCHING the show let alone try to translate it lol. /End

@SquadBaechu I think they reduced the production budget and the PD of the previous season also changed. and moreover I think the previous season was not profitable and the audience was also far from expectations.

@DrWAP3537 I was aware that Jeong PD left, but I'm surprised to hear that S4 wasn't very successful. If true, I'm kinda even more disappointed, because a limited budget should push the producers to try and make the most out of each set and put even more thought into the details.