BarbikaBored

Yes, because the story is not about who is the serial killer. Maybe it will help you, if you know who he is, so you can focus on the really important things. ;)

It's up to you. But if you continue the series, you need to pay attention for every single details to find out who is the sk, because after ep 6, the main focus will be on something else. The first six episodes are kinda prologue for the main story. And it is not about who is the sk. Even in the first episode, there was a scene, which maybe felt... odd, but it will be the most important thing for the only one plot twist from the end of the show.
Yes, the camera work and some editing are not that good, but the acting, characters and story will compensate everything.

The ending is the beginning of a dystopia. And everything before was part of a pre-dystopian world. (Mentioned from ep 1.) Also, the main lead dies at the end which is very sad and satisfying. (I hoped from ep. 2 he would die in the end!)

- 5 years later FROM 1994 and 10 years FROM 1994! Alias, the beginning of the episode.
" Should I watch this drama with calculator?" And with a notebook because of the names and events.
- Nature vs. nurture is far from the real topic of the show. Just saying. ;)
- "Whole nation law is decided upon voting by just 13 people." This is a reference for heavily corruption.
- "Nation leaders logical argument is "without psychopats there would be no wars or crimes"." 'Plot twist' in later on the series (part of the only real plot twist)!
- "Freshly baked scientist with closed circle of research is potential Nobel prize winner. Seems writer has zero idea what Nobel prize is and how it is nominated." Yes, it was so dumb! xD
- "Police releases potential serial murder even though they found decapitated heads in his outskirt house." Part of something later.
- "After releasing potential serial murder journalists most important question is about police brutality. Again I am confused whether this drama depicts 1990s or 2020s." These scenes were in 1994, as you can see in the beginning of the episode.
- "Death row inmate is prisoned with everyone. Death row inmate can send parcel with live rats in it. So nobody checks it in prison. Also delivery company is ok with it." He was just sentenced to life imprisonment for a reason. And the other thing is also part of the events.

Batman is not placed in a sci-fi world! (Is Wonder Woman a sci-fi? Because they share the same universe) lol It is fantasy! They are two different genre.
Also, Mouse is a pre-dystopian story. So, why is it a problem, if it has real world names and places when it is an alternative universe? It's a little illogical.

I hope you will enjoy the rest of the series.

The plot twist has never been who is the killer, but why and what happened. It is a complex story about what happens if a psychopath gains remorse and emotions. And also the real plot twist is in the last episode. A tiny little but the most important scene which changes the genre of the show in the end. Because everything up to that point is the beginning of a (kinda) dystopian Korea.

Keep watching! ☺ Maybe, you will change your mind. ;)

You mean, in live?

There is just one mostly well written woman character, but she is very interesting and has more screen-time in later episodes.

It's okay and very good, but I didn't talk about the meaning of the things, but the execution which was not that well, the writing wasn't that strong too (plot holes, useless characters, fillers and so on). As a matter of fact, these themes were told by other dramas in this year (like: Mouse, Awaken, LUCA, Beyond Evil, Taxi Driver, Sisyphus) much more better (not every) than TDJ. So it is not actually a fresh and unique idea, just placed in a poorly written dystopia to seem like that. It was just sold as one of the best show in this year, nothing more. Actually, the only pretty good thing about this drama (except KYH and JSA characters) is the marketing strategy. And as you can see, It works well.

"Therefore, some people will never understand a writer's thoughts." That is true, but It doesn't the viewers' fault, if the production team can't make it work as the writer wanted.
Also, You write about this drama as it is so complex, there will be a lot of people, who won't understand because of their lack of experiences, but this show is not that complicated at all. It was pretty straightforward what it wanted to be and everybody have the right to think what they want about the final product. In the entertainment industry, especially, in movie making field, there are risks and the intelligibility is one of them. On the top of that (in this year earlier), There were other series which dealt with similar themes like in this one (Mouse, Awaken, LUCA, Beyond Evil, Taxi Driver form the same production company). It feels like a mixture of them.
Personally, I can't see the so called specialty of TDJ after these projects. Maybe in KYH's background and it is with judges in a poorly developed dystopia, but that's it. Even Mouse was a better dystopia, perhaps because it was the story of the beginning of one.

It is a thing what he wanted to portray with some elements , but -on the other hand- there were problems with the script, direction, edition and there were some bad acting choices. These couldn't allow to show, what the writer really want with his story. There are some people who don't care what someone (even if it is the writer) tell about the story after the screening, rather what they saw through out the series. And maybe they think it is not the best show ever.
"In my opinion, this is not the fault of the script, which was good, but of the viewers themselves." Please, don't be so disrespectful with others, who doesn't share the writer's and your thoughts.

Google is your friend!

As BR said in the prison to BY, maybe in an other life. He killed too many people to live a normal life like others. And that was tragic with his past. He couldn't avoid his urge. But as we can see, He didn't have a need to kill someone frequently. Perhaps, at that point, He didn't feel any pressure to kill because there weren't any trigger. Anyway, the woman wanted to be killed, and she told him to kill her due to her plan (to show everybody in the country that: every psychopath is a killer, and known as a martyr not as another psychopath who she really was) . So, It was a clever move from him to not kill her. However, When he saw his father, there were a triggering (ep 2. parallel) moment. After that, he decided to kill him as he promised.

That would've been anti-climactic. The father was also a psychopath serial killer, who didn't have any feelings, so he would not have regretted anything, just did what he did before, when he thought his son was killed by his wife. As I said before, their mindset were different from a normal person and that fact was very well shown in the series. This aspect of the drama was much more realistic than a lot of other famous shows and movies. Also, in S. Korea, executions are carried out by hanging, there is no option with electric chair.

If you watched the series carefully, you can see that, the friend did things to be imprisoned, and this way, he can kill the father. In an earlier episode, he mentioned this plan to his colleagues and to the father too. So, there were a pretty high chance for him to become a murderer after his plan was carried out. On the other hand, BR owed to his friend, because he killed his brother in front of the whole nation because of BR's twisted mind. And what about YH's death? MC indirectly played a huge part of his death because of BR, the cult and his father.

For me, it didn't ruin his arc, because it wasn't about redemption for real rather atonement for his wrong doings which were monstrous and unforgivable. And what would be greater punishment than locked up for the rest of his limited life alone, without his loved ones, who hate him and kill his own father who hurt his bf and his beloved reporter. After all, He was a cold blooded serial killer, but in the end, with a lot of regrets. What type of ending would be more fitting for him after what he had done?
"Basically it was saying even if a serial killer gained emotions, it wont matter. Because they still are capable of killing. Even though JBR claimed infront of that lady he wasn't." Because of the urge, yes. It became a compulsive method for him. That's it. Some sk can hide it for a longer time but others can't just for a short amount of time. He was the later one. And he did his last one on purpose, for his friends sake, but it hurt him and he died painfully and lonely, which was fitting and very satisfying ending for his character.

Not really. He was in pain and cried when he killed his father as you can see in the show. He did it, because he didn't want Moochi to kill the father at some point and he promised to the riporter it too. So, He just kept his promise. Also, That was his atonement for killing MC's brother in live. And he could do something for his friend in this way whom was deeply hurt by him and his father cause for him trauma for a life. His mindset was very different from a normal person, because he was born as a psychopath and treated as a monster by his foster parents. He never got professional help due to the experiment of the O.Z. cult but - with different technics - pushed him to be a killer. Its not justify anything what he had done, He is one of the villains and the hero of this story. A tragic story of a monster. His character was truly complex.

"What was the point of his emotions returning then?" He never really had one before, so what he hasn't got, it can't return. He gained emotions because of the surgery. That was the core of the story: What would happen, if a psychopath serial killer gains emotions. The drama is a psycho-thriller for a reason, not a crime show.

For me, the ending was the problematic part of 'Mouse', since I am not a huge fan of dystopian worlds with sci-fi elements. I liked the ending and everything, it was great objectively, but when the events turned out like this, I knew, If the drama would've promoted as beginning of a dystopian sci-fi, I would've never watched this. xD
My concern is what if they make it less brutal than the original webtoon. :/

The whole story was about the concept, what happens if a psychopath serial killer gains emotions. So, that was on purpose to choose this kind of story. For this, they had to do something to have feelings and can decoded them. It was the importance of the partial brain transplant. There was no other option to make work something doesn't functional normally.
"his bad deeds are not based on the fact that he is a 'psychopath' or on the fact that he is having a mental disorder." And this is part of the twist.
" I still have some hope that Netflix will make Bastard into a series someday" I hope so too. There is a chance because Sweet Home was a success, so anything can happen.

The twist was not about who is the killer. The focus was on something else from ep 7 than the actual serial killer. It was clear from ep 2. that he is the sk and the other guy is just on the spectrum. The story was about something else. " it was closest to sci-fi (a tag that was added later), even though it was advertised as a crime/thriller series" We spoke with another user about the marketing failure of this drama (what the series about, twist, timing etc), and the missing sci-fi tag was one of them. So she added it later.
I have not seen Trap yet, maybe some days later. Is that good? Besides the ending?