Blkittykat

Before season 3 of Taxi Driver began airing, I remember reading an article, I think a feature piece, on Lee Je Hoon and his thoughts returning to the series. Now, I may be mis-quoting him, but I think he talked about the general pitfalls of creating multi-season dramas - like Taxi Driver.

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According to me, these can range from anywhere between tiny changes or big overhauls like
1. Changes in storytelling format
2. Changes to the cast and/or crew
3. Réduction/increase in episodes
4. Lack of story to tell
5. A complete loss of identity and essence
And the funny thing is, Taxi Driver did not commit any of these faux-pas, it's been the exact same from the beginning, so what happened?

Maybe it's that - maybe it's because they've been executing the same thing for 48 episodes now. But that's not what let me down about this season. The formula was a little different from it's direct predecessor, and a lot different from the very first season (atleast for me), without losing track of what the show was initially and will always be about.

The heart and soul of the show is obviously and outwardly, revenge - but it's also about retribution, growth and second chances. The Rainbow Taxi team is the core of the story, and all three emotions and the elements I would associate with them are completely intact in this storytelling operandi.

So what was missing? I'd say.. a little bit of magic.

The thing that made Taxi Driver, Taxi Driver, was what was missing. The formulaic narration apparently made the writers think extra hard about what they wanted to do, and in all the effort they put, I think they forgot to ask themselves if they enjoyed writing the story, and if we would enjoy watching it. It's a very solid effort, you can tell there was a lot of blood, sweat and tears put into this by everyone who worked on it, but whether those were happy tears, I cannot confirm.

The excitement, the rage, the sadness and the relief - all emotions I felt prior - felt tamped down. But the worst part was, it's like they tried so hard to invoke them in spades, but fell extremely short.

Each individual case was new, the indication that this form of storytelling was popular was obvious through the immense scale of filming locations and the sheer amount of celebrity cameos, from popular Hallyu stars, Dorama regulars, and even guest roles by actors whose works I'm incredibly familiar with, and that got the blood rushing.
The cinematography was vivid and fast paced, the acting was on point and all the individual components, adjudicated as individuals, left nothing to crave.
But as a whole, a sequel and in retrospect - they left much to the imagination.

I still enjoyed watching it but it was hard not to be bogged down by the same things that bogged down the drama. Lee Je Hoon was amazing as always, and so were the rest of the cast, all the leads and guest actors.

But unfortunately, I'm a little disappointed.