This review may contain spoilers
All hail Kim Young Kwang, the saviour of this mess!
Oh, man. Isn't Kim Young Kwang such a wonderful, handsome, and talented - not to mention tall - actor?That's the best thing I have to say about the show.
The plot isn't great, and while I'm not far enough into it to see exactly what the main through line is (aka what exactly happaned to Jang Do Han's father and what form his revenge is going to take etc.), the sidekick stuff sucks and the Lee Soo Ji plot line is also quite boring - which is something of a remarkable feat considering we're talking about a disgraced detective whose very young daughter was murdered, and who then embarked on a one-woman fight against seemingly the entire country of South Korea.
It takes a lot to make a character in Lee Soo Ji's position unsympathetic and boring, and yet somehow this show has achieved it. I think the blame for that could be divided equally between the stupid script and the bad acting. Honestly, Lee Soo Ji's actress is so bland she might as well be replaced by a carboard cutout or a loaf of white bread. The performance might be better that way, honestly. She's just so aggressively... empty. She's suffering, and yet kind, patient and understanding, she's strong and decisive when she needs to be, never hesitates or faces moral dilemmas. She's unfairly punished, but bears that stocially - after, of course, losing her mind just enough so that she can be fired from the police force - and overall is just a big blob of NOTHING. No personality, no quirks or anything unique, she's just good and nice and cries sometimes, but in a pretty way. When gets off her motorcycle after a high speed chase in order to confront a criminal, her shirt is still tucked artfully into her jeans, because she's just that perfect.
The other two people on her team are just as uniteresting as her - maybe blandess is contagious. My god, watching them at work was torture. The hacker hacks, he presses keys on his keyboard and English words flash on the screen, so it's working, right? Anything with computers and phones is laughably unrealistic - Bo Mi has like seven computer screens in front of her showing live camera feed at all times, and seems able to find any random street in Seoul at the drop of a hat. How did she get access to those cameras?
How is it possible that Jang Do Han knew where Detective Nam was taking Soo Ji in order to kill her? Is there like one back street in Seoul where detectives take the people they've arrested in order to fake their escape and murder them?
Sure, when two (gun-less!) prosectors arrive to a stand off between a police and a known fugitive, then stand right in the bleeding middle, so that they can get shot in the back by their own side.
Sure, if you're a prosecutor you can just take a suspect away from the interrogation room, because reasons. You can just swan INTO an interrogation room, perch your butt on the table, not introduce yourself to the detective in charge, and start spouting nonsense and nobody offers any pushback.
Thank goodness for Kim Young Kwang - his character was by far the most entertaining to watch, and I'm not sure if he was just given better lines, his storyline was better written or he's just that good of an actor (honestly I'm leaning toward the latter), but the show actually had some character and life when he was on screen. I was curious about what was going to happen to him next and how his story would develop, and everytime they'd cut away from him, I'd skip as much as I could to still somewhat follow the plot along.
All hail Kim Young Kwang, the saviour of this mess!
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The drama is basically just whats listed above (Action, Friendship, Investigation, Thriller). The writers must have had specific things in mind and stuck to what they think is right. I liked how the drama went, my brain enjoyed it. Props to the writers for sticking to their thing and not sacrifcing the story or plot for entertainment and high ratings.
I'm rating this drama based on:
story (well written)
-The plot was consistent it had many twists and unexpected turn of events. I was even anxious on the days when episodes were released, waiting for subs and wondering what happend. The drama can glue you to your seat ( or bed wherever you watch it). But I don't recommend starting it with the normal kdrama expectations. As it's said "Story about a group of people who get together to overcome their pain of having lost their loved ones to crime." they don't work together to replace their loved ones, so don't watch it if you are gonna expect a lot of romance and if you are very into this gener. This is a very intense drama with very serious problems in society. Like I said it's very consistent and the writers didn't go off their way in the story with some other genres to get higher ratings. The other the great thing about this drama is how well the characters are written and that there are strong female leads.( I really like that)
acting/cast (great)
- I think that in this drama Lee Shi Young really shined as an actor. She also had great chemistry with Kim Young Kwang. Both actors were able to portray the characters, the tension and their relationship very well. I'm also glad to see that Key, Kim Seul Gi, Kim Tae Hoon got bigger roles. All of them are very talented, but I have to say that its great that Kim Tae Hoon got to play such a nice role! I'm impressed because so far I had only seen him do well as a villain.(Angry Mom).
music(surprising)
- I love to soundtrack, it really fits the drama and when it plays you know something is gonna go down. Idk but for some reason it reminds me of the movies Taxi(minus the tons of action), because when black eyed peas' track was played I would be like yeaaa. When the music starts. now I'm like oooooooo~ :D
- I would rewatch it for sure
Overall
I really liked this drama and I'm very content with it and I was able to see some actors in a whole new way. So I'm giving it a 10.... ( the last ep. were meh, but ok)
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