Disappointing spin off of the ground breaking IRIS. South Korean security branch, NTS, squares off against international energy terrorist cabal. Poorly acted, wrong headed direction, and a script with more holes than a rat infested wheel of Swiss cheese. The main lead is too young, and early on grins and mugs as if auditioning for teen boy band. A team captain is inept and foolish, as is a North Korean ex-elite agent. Don't get me started on the bane of K-dramas. The tears. Weeping, crying, sobbing like six year olds. Yet these blubbering basket cases safeguard the nation.There are exceptions, the chief being the Son Hyuk rogue baddie who excels.The director obviously knows action sequences, which are showcases. With actors, he seems clueless. As much as I blame the series director for foolish comic relief and histrionics, however, the main culprit is the ridiculous script. Long, gorgeous episodes in Italy - for no purpose. Two episodes in Japan, guarding a pop star - for no purpose. Double agents exposed, and then the duped side shrugs and says, "Well, they're sorry, so back to work." Initially, the main villains are USA agencies, which is a wonderful twist, only that thread is abandoned.

I haven't read all the reviews, but I read most of them. So I would say I'm in the minority, when I say that Iprefer this to Iris. The main reasons being, I think it has better characters, and to use words the director of nts uses, it has more light and shade in storyline and acting, The best acting came came from Kim Min-Jong and the actor who the aforementioned employs after in a very funny scene hitting him in the face a number of times. There is a delightful scene between the two of them where they try to gain information by pretending to be who they are not. i also liked Oh Yoon-Ah. This is the third thing I've seen her in, and the more I see her, the more I like her. She is not a great actress. But she is game, and wiling to try different things. She seems to like characters more than lead roles. She reminds me a bit of Cameron Diaz. Looking at her picture on Asianwiki, she looks a lot different. In Iris, a lot of the performances were rather one note. In this drama, at least some of the actors are given a chance to show they can do more than look very very serious. I thought there were some terrific gunfights Yes it has it's faults. There were too many people being saved in the nick of time. who the hell was oh yoon ha talking to on the phone after she had been out drinking with Soo-Ae's character. A major theme of this drama is redemption. Some viewers might not like the fact that a character who they would probably prefer to be killed isn't, and another character who it would have been nice if they had lived doesn't. As regards the plot about the north Korean agent from Iris. There are also some very funny lines in this, mostly coming from the characters i said i like. The director of Nts also said something i found amusing.He says says something about NTs upholding justice, and then says "you may find that cheesy and boring" You would never hear the director of homeland security in 24 says something like that.Regarding the special. It reminded me of the what was to me the best action scene, the one between the main villain, and another guy. in the first episode in the bathroom.

SPOILERS AHEAD!"Athena: Goddess of War" is a Korean action melodrama show that was spun off from the hugely successful "Iris" series. This show basically ramps up the same action and intrigue found in "Iris", but, it does so at the expense of providing the central dramatic themes that made "Iris" the more interesting and addictive of the 2 shows.I did not like this show as near as much as its predecessor, but I did still enjoy watching it. It only very loosely follows the events that occurred in the "Iris" series, and you don't really need to watch that show first in order to watch this one. Although, there are a couple of crossover characters involved that might make you scratch your head for a couple of episodes as to who they are if you did not watch "Iris' first…these "Iris" characters just got in the way here for the most part, and, they did not need to be incorporated (somewhat clumsily, I might add) into this show.Frankly, this show would have been better off it if had distanced itself from being an "Iris" spin off in my opinion…it's not a bad stand alone action show on its own, that would have likely been much better thought of without all the inherent direct comparisons to some other show.This show gets off to a blazing start action wise…It doesn't waste any time letting you know what you're in for. In the intro, 2 teams of secret agents are pitted against each other as they battle over a nuclear scientist who defected. Once that's wrapped up, they flash forward a bit, where various new crises are implemented by the baddies over time, while the good guys try to stop them…That's basically it!As with "Iris", there are a number of organizations and persons involved that are good, bad, gray, or undecided. They add a few more organizational & personal angles in this show though (which were mostly redundant)…this is not confusing per se, but it only serves to unnecessarily try to complicate the plot with very little benefit to the overall story. This show is by no means bad, particularly so if you're looking for an action series. There are a number of action scenes (several of which are quite impressive), and, the acting, production values, etc…are all above average. However, it lacks an underlying story with enough purpose to bring the entire production together to deem it a must watch show…It ultimately just follows a continuing pattern of: intrigue plot scene, action set piece scene, romance plot scene, then repeat.It's decent enough to reluctantly recommend…the first 8 episodes or so were, indeed, highly entertaining. This show gets bogged down quite a bit once the primary plot kicks in though. There's plenty enough talent and money involved to make it all work, and there are very few individual shows that are poorly written, directed, or produced. I think where it fails is a result of what seems to have been rush to capitalize on "Iris"…this show would have been much better served if the writers and story tellers were given some more time to think things through in advance…but, that's the way it goes!Bottom Line: Somewhere in the 6-7 star range…It's mostly watchable (even more so if you're just looking for some KTV action). Otherwise, on the overall KTV melodrama scale, I'm giving it 7 stars!

An agent (Woo-sung Jung) is transferred to the National Anti-Terrorist Service and must stop a secret organization from committing acts of terror. This series (20 episodes, 60 minutes each) is a spin-off of the "Iris" series (with different actors) and is similar in terms of its budget, high production values, and slick presentation. The difference, however, is that the first few episodes set things up as a brainless, high octane action flick with generic scriptwriting, bland scoring, and weak characters. It severely lacks the dramatic intensity that made "Iris" so addictive, but the major positive here is the action, which provides some excellent shootouts that are on par with (or even better than) most theatrical films. It's amazing what they did with a mere $17 million. Soo Ae and Ji-ah Lee provide some exciting "girls with guns" action early on, but grow passive afterward, which is kinda disappointing. The pacing is blistering fast thru the first 10 episodes but runs out of gas during the second 10 episodes when the action becomes sparse and of a much lesser quality. It's almost like the director got lazy and phoned it in, because things actually get pretty damn boring at times. This would have been awesome if it had ended after episode 10.