Rotten Tomatoes
Movies Tv shows RT App News Showtimes
Critics list

Pierce Conran

Tomatometer-approved critic
Biography:

A journalist, producer and consultant, Pierce Conran has been based in Seoul since 2012, where he serves as an editor of the Korean Film Council’s KoBiz website, works as a drama critic for the South China Morning Post and writes film reviews for Screen Anarchy. He is also an advisor for the Fribourg International Film Festival, Fantastic Fest and the Wildflower Film Awards. Pierce has also produced half a dozen feature films, frequently appears on radio and TV news, and occasionally pops up in Korean films, series and variety shows.

Reviews

Movies TV Shows
Made in Korea: Season 1 (2025) EDIT “Made in Korea exists in an exciting historical milieu with theatrically amoral characters, yet at this early stage, its message remains unclear” – South China Morning Post Dec 29, 2025 Full Review The Price of Confession: Season 1 (2025) 80% 3.5/5 EDIT “Hard to imagine the show without leads Jeon and Kim, who both lend an aura of respectability to a story that on occasion skirts close to being trashy fun rather than a brooding psychological thriller” – South China Morning Post Dec 5, 2025 Full Review As You Stood By: Season 1 (2025) 71% 2/5 EDIT “Treating its timely subject with all the subtlety of a bull in a china shop, the series comes off as performative despite its pretence of being informative.” – South China Morning Post Nov 9, 2025 Full Review Genie, Make A Wish: Season 1 (2025) 75% 1/5 EDIT “Rather than recapture the charm of fan favourites such as Secret Garden and Guardian: The Lonely and Great God (aka Goblin), this bloated concoction represents a colossal misfire. ” – South China Morning Post Oct 10, 2025 Full Review Dear Hongrang: Season 1 (2025) 80% EDIT “Although its style is frequently arresting, Dear Hongrang does not present itself as binge-worthy entertainment from the get-go. It feels as if the show’s aesthetics are meant to compensate for the excessive mystery of the plot.” – South China Morning Post Sep 11, 2025 Full Review Resident Playbook: Season 1 (2025) 2.5/5 EDIT “Since the protagonists do not really have the chance to interact with other characters on screen, the abundance of workplace romances is perhaps unavoidable, but that does not mitigate the fact that it is one of the weaker aspects of the series.” – South China Morning Post Sep 11, 2025 Full Review Heavenly Ever After: Season 1 (2025) 2/5 EDIT “Heavenly Ever After enjoys picking and choosing beliefs from Christianity and Buddhism and threading them together with some treacly but hollow moralising.” – South China Morning Post Sep 11, 2025 Full Review Mercy for None: Season 1 (2025) 88% 2.5/5 EDIT “While the show gets off to a decent start, its main dish – the action sequences – provides diminishing returns as the story devolves into a tired tangle of treachery.” – South China Morning Post Sep 11, 2025 Full Review Tastefully Yours: Season 1 (2025) 3/5 EDIT “Tastefully Yours foregrounds a curious paradox that exists at the heart of South Korea’s infamously competitive environment: its obsession with both authentic home-grown culture and aspirational high-class markers from the West.” – South China Morning Post Sep 11, 2025 Full Review The First Night With the Duke: Season 1 (2025) EDIT “The First Night with the Duke, which is based on Hwang Do-tol’s web novel of the same name, puts forward an amusing concept, but through its slapdash execution, it tends to feel half-baked when it should just be fun.” – South China Morning Post Sep 11, 2025 Full Review Squid Game: Season 3 (2025) 78% EDIT “With season 3, Hwang probes his darkest depths yet. Souls are crushed as one despicable scenario after another unfolds, bleaker and meaner than the last, each trampling over the dying embers of morality and decency.” – South China Morning Post Sep 11, 2025 Full Review Our Unwritten Seoul: Season 1 (2025) 100% 3.5/5 EDIT “Rather than a story about living as someone else, this was a drama about understanding other people’s circumstances and learning how to embrace what you already have.” – South China Morning Post Sep 11, 2025 Full Review Low Life: Season 1 (2025) EDIT “Something keeps getting in the way of our entertainment – whether it is endless macho posturing or haggling between middle-aged men before the work can truly get under way.” – South China Morning Post Sep 11, 2025 Full Review Our Movie: Season 1 (2025) 3/5 EDIT “It is a shame that Our Movie distanced itself so thoroughly from the moment of death, as up until then, it had been full of life.” – South China Morning Post Sep 11, 2025 Full Review The Winning Try: Season 1 (2025) EDIT “From the outset, there is little mystery as to what trajectory the show will take, but when it comes to stories with rigid formulas such as these, what matters most is charisma and chemistry.” – South China Morning Post Sep 11, 2025 Full Review Head Over Heels: Season 1 (2025) 2/5 EDIT “Head Over Heels had its colourful moments, but among all the artifice on display, these never coalesced into a satisfying viewing experience.” – South China Morning Post Sep 11, 2025 Full Review Beyond the Bar: Season 1 (2025) EDIT “What follows is a series of cloying cases that blossom in the heart but wither in the face of jurisprudence... ...The episodic cases are mawkish and manipulative, but at an even more fundamental level, the show is hobbled by poorly drawn leads.” – South China Morning Post Sep 11, 2025 Full Review Bon Appétit, Your Majesty: Season 1 (2025) 80% EDIT “With nothing new to offer us, the show instead winks at us, beckoning us to play along and indulge in its fantasy role-play and endless spread of delectable dishes.” – South China Morning Post Sep 11, 2025 Full Review Twelve: Season 1 (2025) EDIT “There is always some pleasure to be derived from watching Ma dole out punches to miscreants who deserve a good beating, but Twelve spends quite a bit of time beating around the bush, wasting time on playful but weightless banter.” – South China Morning Post Sep 11, 2025 Full Review Aema: Season 1 (2025) 86% 3.5/5 EDIT “Driving this show, beneath its vivid and voluptuous surface, is the suffering of those who had to pretend the hardest that nothing was wrong, those who hid their pain in plain sight, under cracked smiles and make-up: women.” – South China Morning Post Aug 23, 2025 Full Review Buried Hearts: Season 1 (2025) 2.5/5 EDIT “The series also began as a tender love story and would later morph into a tale of his secret corporate lineage. But in its attempts to be all these things by distracting us with new twists, the show wound up being none of them. ” – South China Morning Post Apr 27, 2025 Full Review Weak Hero: Season 2 (2025) 80% 3.5/5 EDIT “Weak Hero Class 2 ups the ante with fantastic fight choreography and some wonderful new cast additions... ...but its grander canvas does not always allow us to zoom in on the raw emotional details that added depth the first time.” – South China Morning Post Apr 27, 2025 Full Review Queen Woo: Season 1 (2024) 0/5 EDIT “Who thought that this was a good idea?” – South China Morning Post Apr 11, 2025 Full Review Romance in the House: Season 1 (2024) 3/5 EDIT “Overall, however, Romance in the House largely delivers on the promise of its title, delivering warm and fuzzy romance and family dynamics with a cocktail of comic high jinks and relatable drama on the side.” – South China Morning Post Apr 11, 2025 Full Review No Gain No Love: Season 1 (2024) 83% 3/5 EDIT “The show falters somewhat in its finale, which indulges heavily in traumatic memories and sentimentality while leaving some of the threads of its story dangling a little haphazardly.” – South China Morning Post Apr 11, 2025 Full Review
No Reviews Yet
Load More