Vincenzo

BEST ACTION DRAMA OF 2021

Vincenzo Cassano is really a character that you won't forget and Song Joongki definitely gave justice to this character. This drama gives you a perfect balance of comedy, thrill, action, and romance. It is also perfectly casted in my opinion because every actor in this drama fits their role. The only thing that's stopping me from giving this a perfect score is the last episode. To be honest, for me, the latter half of the last episode is kinda dragging. I thought that the whole last episode will be packed with action and will keep me at the edge of my seat but I was kinda disappointed. Maybe I just expected more because of the quality of the first 19 eps. Nevertheless, this drama is still very worthy of your time! If you're looking for a sign to watch this drama, then this is it. Go watch the drama and get ready to fall in love with Vincezo Cassano.

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Mafia Style

Wow I really enjoyed this series although it was long, but it was definitely different.

It had everything in it, humor was hilarious they were times i just killed myself with laughter the FL was totally awesome, especially everytime she did that little hop and skip when she was happy. And her comments and her little scarsctisc quirks were just on point. The were tears and sad moments, then were times when you were like what the hell is wrong with these people.

I especially liked the ML his cool demeanour and i dont care attitude was what made the series. His quick thinking and response to tackling a situation head on was truly amazing.

This series gives a whole different outlook to mafia style and also the godfather!

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Really Loved It!

What can I say...I really loved Vincenzo and I am honestly not quite sure why. It was definately a rollercoaster ride. One minute so serious and the next slapstick comedy. I would go from cringing to laughing out loud. I noticed some said it was classified by netflix as a rom-com but I checked and that is not the case. It is definately more a dramedy as their really is very little "romance" in my mind. You spend the whole series waiting for the romance...I loved Song Jong Ki and how he played his character. I loved all the little side characters who were so quirky and ridiculous but you learn to love them and start rooting for them. The show portrayed how corrupt and disgusting society is and Vincenzo is part of that brutal world and yet you cant help cheer for him. He is the epitome of an antihero. Ok Taec-yeon, Kim Yeo-Jin were incredible. It is rare for me to root for a character to die but boy they made me do it! Kwak Dong-yeon was also amazing in his role. I must say the leading lady, Jeon Yeo-been, did not really do it for me. While she was not horrible, she was not, in my opinion fabulous either. That of course could be the writers fault but I found her personality a bit annoying. I get the writers were trying to make her very outrageous, loud, quirky, and smart but I never got the smart part. She just looked annoying most of the time and she was someone whose mouth worked faster than her brain. I would have given 10 stars, almost unheard of from me, except for the leading lady and the ending. That did not quite do it for me either. Give this show a try and I think you will entertained.

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I found it to have a really slow at the start but then BOOOOOOM

Was looking for a different genre of drama to watch. you know, something like a breather. And SJK and JYB were the main casts so more the reason to watch.

The first few episodes, I was trying to grasp what's the main plot and for me, I found the first few episodes a little bit too slow in terms of phasing. So I started to question whether or not this was worth the 20 episodes. Because you know, even for some dramas, 16 eps is a bit too long if the plot was static.

But then after episode 3 everything started making sense for me. Bit by bit the story gets more and more dynamic and before I knew it I was hooked.

Vincenzo is not really a perfect drama, it has its loopholes. One of which is that, they keep branding the male protagonist as a "psycho" but they kept on portraying him as someone who is capable of emotions, which is really contradicting. But you know what, overall I'm willing to turn a blind eye on those small loopholes because the charms of this drama outweighs them.

The ending was really satisfying. It was literally brutal. But anything else would have been a dishonor to the "mafia" image that they kept on building up since the first episode. It was sad to see Jang Han Seo die but I think if they all lived in the end, it would've been too good to be true.

Anyway, I'm not sure if this drama will get a S2. If it does, I hope Netflix does a fine job on it.

Kudos to everyone!!!!!

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Impeccable Series--Nearly Ruined by Writer Park Jae Bum!

I’m not sure how many times I have to repeat myself. I’m a writer of eight novels, and one of the most basic elements of writing is that you never sacrifice character for the sake of the plot. In other words, you don’t make a character do something that goes against the character in order to make the plot work. And writer Park Jae Bum makes a very rookie mistake in Episode 19 that carries over into Episode 20.

For the most part, Vincenzo is an impeccable series that is nearly flawless until those terrible 20-25 minutes—the end of Episode 19 and into Episode 20. We are extremely fortunate that this doesn’t ruin the series. As I said in the series “Mad For Each Other,” if you ruin the ending of a series, you destroy the series itself.

Vincenzo is a character on par with Jason Bourne or dare I say it—Batman (the comic character, not the live-action depictions) in which he’s like a grandmaster chess player. He’s always two or three moves ahead of his enemies. He’s also a master of assessing a situation and making the smart choice, not to mention his nearly infallible ability to predict what will happen next based on his enemies’ last move.

Choi Myung Hee has just arranged for herself to take the fall for Jang Han Seok. Despite the fact that we know why she’s doing it, it should be equally obvious to a character like Vincenzo. And yet, neither he nor Hong Cha Young can see the obvious: that it’s to get Jang Han Seok out of prison. That was rookie mistake #1 by Park Jae Bum

Jang Han Seok has abducted Hong Cha Young and Vincenzo is purposely brought to Jang Han Seok’s house in order to kill him. During the ensuing struggle as Jang Han Seok’s brother—Jang Han Seo—jumps him. Rather than helping Jang Han Seo subdue Jang Han Seok—who has a gun—Vincenzo rushes to free Hong Cha Young instead. Vincenzo would never do that. He would realize that the best way to keep Hong Cha Young’s safety—as well as Jang Han Seo—is to help Jang Han Seo take out Jang Han Seok. Now, if in the ensuing struggle, Jang Han Seok manages to escape, that’s all right. But I sighed with disgust when Vincenzo rushes over to Hong Cha Young instead. He would know that the best way to protect her would be to disable and take out Jang Han Seok. That was awful. And again, it’s something Vincenzo would never do. It goes against the intelligence and nature of the character himself.

Things briefly go from bad to worse as Vincenzo, who is now tending to the wounded Hong Cha Young, is literally watching the two brothers struggle with the gun—and only a few feet away—he still doesn’t rush to help Jang Han Seo. He sits and watches. Again, I was rolling my eyes with disgust at how ridiculous the entire scenario played out. It was obvious that they wanted Jang Han Seok to escape to set up the showdown for the rest of Episode 20.

As I said, the series was running smoothly, for the most part. Aside from some inconsistencies from the residents of the plaza and their fighting abilities as they go from an inability to fight to suddenly being experts, even though the so-called boxing winner can’t even throw a punch mirroring an actual boxer (a true boxer would know how!) the series runs like a fine oiled machine.

One more small issue--which most movies and shows take extreme liberties--is moving the gold bars. We see the bars being put into a piano, taken around in pockets and bags, sometimes 3-4 bars at a time. Gold bars weigh over 27 pounds each! (12.4 kilograms). While it made for some funny moments, it was highly unrealistic.

It's difficult to pen down the actual genre of this series, which often plays out like a black comedy and then transitions into a drama-thriller and then back again. I’ve marveled at the Koreans’ ability to fluctuate and do it seamlessly. It speaks to the genius of their writers, despite Park Jae Bum’s lapse in judgment and writing ability.

Vincenzo is a Korean-Italian consigliere—essentially one of the highest ranks in the mafia aside from the head man himself. He makes no apologies for his methods of dealing with those who would prey upon the weak and the helpless, and he brings his own sense of “justice” to bear against anyone—from lowly thugs to those sitting in power, bathed in corruption. Little do these people in power know who or what they are up against, nor do they realize what Vincenzo is capable of until it’s too late. It’s like watching very good chess players who think they can hold their own—finally meeting their match against a grandmaster. Vincenzo easily exposes their inabilities, and they find out soon enough that Vincenzo isn’t someone who makes idle threats. He means to do exactly what he says he’ll do. Jang Han Seok and his nasty den of lieutenants look at Vincenzo and laugh as though he’s just some character in a movie. But he outplays them and outdoes them at every turn.

“24”’s Jack Bauer—a special field agent for the Counter-terrorist unit once tells a panel of senators, “It’s sad that we live in a world where someone like me is necessary to do what needs to be done.” Vincenzo is of the same ilk. The higher-ups in corporations and political machinations believe they are all but untouchable and that they can do whatever they want. Someone like Vincenzo is able to prove to them just how wrong they are. But it also takes someone like Vincenzo to deal with them in complete and unforgiving ways.

I have always marveled at characters who are smart. I love Jason Bourne because of his ability to outthink his opponents. Batman is the same. And Vincenzo has those same qualities. Oh, he can fight and hold his own, but it’s his wits that make him formidable and such an iconic character. Song Joong Ki masterfully plays Vincenzo—who at times—seems light and almost playful, and other times as an absolutely scary opponent you would never dare cross if you understood him and what he’s capable of doing. He doesn’t play Vincenzo as a simple thug. And despite his background, Vincenzo becomes attached to the people of the plaza and will do whatever it takes to protect them. He calls himself a “villain” and yes, he often comes across that way, but he’s essentially a good man who simply finds himself using terrible methods to get the job done. Much like Jack Bauer, as I stated above.

The entire cast was nothing short of fantastic, and if it had not been for the major letdown of those 20-25 minutes, this series would have easily been a “10” for me. But, alas, those minutes put a big dent into a story that was running along so smoothly and so effortlessly. It’s just too bad that the ball was dropped temporarily. Still, it doesn’t torpedo the series, and it’s definitely worth a look. It’s not as great or as tautly written as “My Name” or “Stranger” but it’s most certainly good enough.

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Not so much Dark Action Series

When you going to watch the drak action crime based series then you already prepared for longer series with good episode length and accepting the fact that story will reveal slowly as it goes. Vincenzo has great story with great cast but there is something which lacks and it is the way story reveals.

I love this drama it has great actors, music, has some comedy, great action and great music. But it has flaws which we can see not do many but have.

I can re-watch this drama it is good and best for binge watching. You cannot relax until you completed.

Also I love the ending

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Missed potential in beautiful package

I think that no drama this year gave me so mixed feelings than Vincenzo. I’ve changed my mind about it multiple times while watching it and I’m still not entirely sure what exactly to think about it. For me this drama was just so uneven that it’s hard to give it just one score. But I’ll go point by point with this and hopefully at the end I’ll have my mind set.

The goodies:

Production
A while ago I’ve said that It’s Okay to Not Be Okay was the most aesthetically pleasing drama that I’ve watched this year. But after a bit of thought, I think that it should be ex aequo with Vincenzo on the first spot. While in It’s Okay to Not Be Okay more care was put towards scenography and costumes, in Vincenzo production itself was top notch. Photography and the way some scenes were shot was just so good that I think it could easily compete with western hight budget series in this category. And let’s talk about scenes that took place in Italy. Because you know what? They weren’t actually shot in Italy or anywhere near Europe. All of them were actually shot on green screen and even some actors weren’t in the same place, but were put together in post production. Which makes those scenes even more impressive.
For those interested, here’s material published by Netflix on their YouTube channel, mind blown, am I right?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eQz7orIi8Q


Acting
I mean, with a cast like that I wouldn’t expect anything less than perfect. And I have to say, all actors deliver. Song Joong Ki had a particular hard job with his character talking a lot of Italian but it worked out better than I thought. I mean, I don’t speak Italian, I’ve watched some analysis of his language skills made by actual Italians and they had rather good opinions of it. And for my ear it actually sounds better than his English from Descendants of the Sun where it sounded like he just got the text written phonetically to memorise. This time it sounds more natural at least on the first glance.
Amongst others I’d have to highlight performances by Ok Taec Yeon (obviously, but I have to say that he’ve done a hell of a job with a character that could otherwise be absolutely ridiculous and exaggerated) and Kim Yeo Jin (the same as with character played by Ok Tae Yeon. I’d say that this drama served a bit too close to comical relief with it’s characters, but was saved by top acting).


Comic relief
About comic relief, but this time the intended one. At some point I was really confused of what this drama is trying to be. Because amongst all those pretty intense mafia scenes we have those little hidden gems of comic relief scenes and characters that actually, after some time, fit perfectly as a bit of pressure valve after some emotional or just simply intensive scenes. I’d say that my favourite comic relief were the tenants of Geumga Plaza, they’re such an amazing blend of personalities that comedic scenes with them were a pure gold for me.

Characters (esp. villain)
There’s a lot of them, which not always is a good thing (about it later) but I have to admit that all characters in this series are very well developed and thought through. There’s basically no weak link here.
And let’s talk about the villain, because that was hands down the best played character here. Ok Taec Yeon done such an amazing job portraying Jang Jun Woo that he basically saved this character that otherwise could be unintended comic relief here. But the way this character progressed being more and more psychopathic was a masterpiece. That ladies and gentlemen is how villains should be written. The way that we know what they could do without them showing it it’s just enough to make us shudder.
About Vincenzo himself. At first I’ve seen him as a bit exaggerated with the notion of him being basically more Italian than pizza itself. But it kind grew on me and the way the character was developed made him more believable with each episode. Finally we have what was promised, a cold blooded mafia guy who’s not afraid to use cruel methods on people who crossed the line, at the same time being composed lawyer choosing peaceful (or semi peaceful) methods first.

Baddies

Pacing
And here we have first problem and the thing that I was most angry about it because it spoiled my fun from watching this series. Pacing. It’s really bad in some episodes. Somewhere in the middle we have situation when in episode we have 90% of nothing happening and one really amazing scene that made me not drop this drama. I’m used to filler episodes, but here they were really bad, especially that there was no point in having them, since we were basically always in the middle of the action. Maybe it was because Vincenzo has 20 episodes, maybe with 16 it would be much better. Luckily, this 10%, this one really amazing scene kind of rewarded us for waiting remaining hour filled with monotonous dialogues.

Plot
Plot was the thing that I’m the most unsure about whether I liked it or not. I think it’s still linked to pacing of the show but at one point I felt that too many things are happening. We had so many side plots that it was hard to tell what’s happening with the main problem. It made the drama look pretty chaotic and watered down. Especially with this amount of characters. Even tough well written the abundance of them made it pretty hard to follow who’s who and what is he/she doing.


So to somehow bring it all together. For me Vincenzo was a bit of wasted potential of being really amazing series. A bit of it was lost because of really slow paced plot but the good things remain underneath it. So maybe it’s not for everyone, maybe you just need patience for it.

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Ambitious 'buddy cop'/mafia plot weighed down by its own ambitions . .

There are some truly creative, cinematic and eccentric scenes that will linger. But, the episodes are long, and the core theme repeats over and over. Eventually, I came to the point where watching caused boredom or needless tension from emotional whiplash between the absurd comedy and the violence. It was time to stop.

In our modern era of corruption, narcissism, greed and nihilism perhaps only death and destruction can change things around. Vincenzo is an intriguing character with an innocent surface, hiding an ease with violence and revenge. Cha-Young (female sidekick) is along for the ride experiencing the vicarious thrill of well-deserved retribution in action.

Music fits the mood, would not rewatch.

I grade on other criteria as well:

Complex Themes: 8.5
Psychopathic 'dark triad/tetrad' individuals and their enablers cause wide-spread destruction and havoc on society, violence may be the only effective answer. Some people are beyond redemption. Courage can be found in unlikely places.

Character Growth: 4
At least 3/4 the way through there really wasn’t any for Vincenzo or Cha-Young.

Complex women/Relationships: 5.5
Here we have a full blown female villain and a female co-hero with barely any romance elements. I liked that the female villain’s clothing, demeanour and temperament was dowdy and unassuming and how it could change in a split moment into something more sinister. Note: low points for not having much substantive interactions between women.

Cinematography/Production Values: 9.0
Really top notch, shooting in different styles, different angles. Lots of changing of scenery. Great fight scenes.

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Great performance by Song Joong Ki and Kim Sung Cheol (episode 8)

I absolutely love Song Joongki on this show... but then again, I love Song Joongki (SJK) in all his movies and dramas. But since watching episode 1 to the current episode 8, it is very clear that he is carrying most of the weight of this show. The 1st episode, the scene when he was in Italy was great. That was the 1st 10 minutes of EP. 1. The rest of EP 1 went downhill rapidly when he returned to Korea. Only the last 5 minutes was worth watching. In between, the show was filled with the most annoying characters - the noisy, irritating tenants of the building ("the Tenants") who are overacting in very silly slapstick scenes . The worst character is the female lead, who is overacting and extremely annoying. Both the female lead and the Tenants fail miserably at humour with their overacting - which is more suited for a variety show. It is surprising because the rest of the cast were good. Even the gangsters didn't overact and they executed their parts well. The cast from Wusang law firm were good and the Babel cast too (fake Chairman and real Chairman). It is hugely disappointing that the brilliant acting of SJK and enjoyable acting of the Babel cast, Wusang cast and Gangster cast were marred by the silly, overacting of the female lead and Tenants.
There seems to be light at the end of the tunnel - Episode 8 has redeemed the show. This episode focused mainly on SJK (the female lead faded to the background). All you need to do is fast forward and skip the scenes with the Tenants in Episode 8 in order to enjoy it. This episode focuses on SJK and Kim Sung Cheol. What a delight to watch SJK and Kim Sung Cheol (KSC) acting together. KSC's portrayal of his character was absolutely perfect. Because KSC's acting was brilliant, it made SJK's scenes with him such a delight to watch because SJK himself is brilliant throughout this drama. This is absolutely the best episode so far. There is hope yet for this drama, as long as they totally minimise the role of the Tenants and the female lead. At the very least they should drastically tone down the ridiculous overacting and silly slapstick antics of the Tenants and female lead. Yes, the genre is "dark comedy" but there is nothing funny at all in the way the Tenants and the female lead are portraying their characters. In fact, it is jarring on the nerves! Everyone else in the show are doing a good job to make this show enjoyable. And THANK YOU to Kim Sung Cheol for injecting a life-saving performance in this drama together with SJK. I am praying that the upcoming episodes have further delightful surprises like what we saw in Episode 8.

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A perfect blend of humor and intensity

Vincenzo is a show that checks every box in my list of what makes a good drama. It has law. It has humor. It has thrill. It has good storyline and writing. It has beautiful cinematography. It has enough Romance to keep me on my toes. Couldn't ask for more.
This show was something I waited for everyday of the week. Every week I was so excited to watch it as soon as Netflix dropped it. It really keeps you so pumped and ends with cliffhangers every episode.
It has alot of impact on my daily life. I keep remembering the show looking at random things like pigeons, zumba etc.
I loved how well the writer really thought out the show and wrote it so intelligently.
This show is so balanced, every episode there was an equal amount of humor and intensity. So you'll never know how serious the next scene is gonna be and this doesn't tire you out and make you overwhelmed.
I remember really laughing out loud, literally to many of the scenes in the show.
The osts of the show are haunting and really well suited to every scene.
I really enjoyed most of the characters, they were well written and well executed by the top tier actors. The bts of the show was super fun to watch, I loved how comfortable the cast were so comfortable with each other.
This show really is so impactful, it made me stronger, I felt somehow empowered and ready to take on challenges (I know right, sounds a little unrealistic, but ngl I really felt it).
The only complain I have is the last episode, the first half made me almost want to reduce the rating to like a 8 lol. It was a bit too fast and overwhelming and some of the actions were unnecessary. But the second half kinda saved the show and increased my rating to 9.5. It was not a perfect ending but I felt vincenzo deserved "that" for his sins. If it were a perfect ending it would be unrealistic. So I dont actually have a problem with it.
Other than that, I loved the show so so much. It was beautiful. Highly recommended. Please watch.

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