Note: There are some spoilers ahead for Oasis, Episode 16, skip reading if you haven’t yet watched it
South Korean period drama Oasis, Episode 16 aired last night and, thus, brought the KBS2 melodrama to an end.
As I predicted yesterday, the drama also earned the largest audience of its entire run.
Oasis, Episode 16 grabbed 9.7 percent of the Korean audience nationwide, up from its previous episode’s already higher ratings of 8,0 percent.
In the nation’s capital Seoul, the drama’s ratings were similarly high increasing from the fifteenth episode’s 5.5 percent share to Oasis, Episode 16’s 7.2 percent audience grab.
For international Oasis viewers, however, while many seem to have stuck with the 16-episode drama to the end, now that Oasis has ended a large percentage seem to be unhappy with that ending.
Some even so unhappy they are wishing they had not started watching Oasis in the first place.
The Oasis, Episode 16 ending and international fans
Review-wise, many international Oasis fans are now slamming the drama for its ending.
A drama that some have said has been “all over the place” with its plot from its first episode, yet with many viewers sticking with it only to be disappointed with how the screenwriter chose to end it.
Due to that, the Oasis rating on My Drama List has now dropped to a 7.52 out of 10 from viewers who have completed the drama, with comments on the K-drama focused site ranging from:
The drama (and actor) did an excellent job of showing Cheol Woong was rotten to the core & that his jealousy made him incapable of change…and then they made him change in the last episode? How do you write a character so consistently and then throw that all away in 15 minutes?
to
I never really comment but you must be joking – this ending couldn’t have been worse – it does not make sense at all considering their actions. You are telling a story for 15 episodes just to turn everything on its head in the last 10 minutes. I really don’t get how a writer can ruin his/her creation in just a few minutes.
and
Ok, what the hell ending was that? I would rather have accepted Jung Shin/ Doo Hak/ Cheol Woong dying in the end. I really liked the 15 episodes. 15 episodes of suffering, being a doormat and now what just because they are brothers everything is forgotten?
This is a ridiculous ending. Even in more peaceful dramas, a main character dies, but they happily relive a memory when they were friends after all that has happened. I mean that was not even a time skip.
Interestingly too, while you will often get several people commenting more positive opinions on other Korean dramas that have recently ended, so far at least it seems just about every international viewer commenting on the site agrees.
They hated the Oasis ending.
Coming from writer Jung Hyung Soo, however, viewer’s comments are not that surprising considering most of the other dramas he has penned — Gye Baek, Dream, Damo and The Jingbirok: A Memoir of Imjin War — earned similarly low reviews on My Drama List, with only his 2007 period drama Jumong being rated above an 8 out of 10.
Then again, having watched the first episode of Oasis and dropping the drama right after due to its writing and overly melodramatic acting, I cannot say I am surprised at viewers’ disdain.
The drama, including Oasis, Episode 16, is now streaming via Viki, but be aware the always high and possibly-manipulated reviews on that site are never accurate compared to the drama they are rating.