DramaAjumma

I think he always suspected Jin-mook but he had no evidence. That's why he's curt to him especially when he visits his mother suspecting him of ulterior motives. It's in SHK's performance. He never entirely trusts Jin-mook but he probably never expected him to kill his own daughter.

Probably for tampering with evidence and doing all kinds of illegal things with police files etc.

Shin Ha-kyun in a stellar performance here brings to life every facet of Dong-sik. The darker tortured side balancing the sometimes cheerful even whimsical side. This is no super cop but a deeply flawed human being who wears the badge uneasily, walking on the wild side but there's no doubting that he is a man in search of answers. For me, the drama is worth the watch just for his wonderful performance. It's a fascinating study of what goes on inside his headspace as the audience alternates between doubt, sympathy and perhaps even revulsion.

Fortunately there's much more to this than just Dong-sik or a whodunit that cast long shadows over a 20 year period. Sure there's a home grown killer lurking about but this is more about the impact of crime on people. Individuals certainly but the community at large absolutely. Every time a body is buried it is a festering wound carried silently by the community that refuses to go away. Time doesn't help. Changing the landscape on the surface won't until the mysteries are unearthed one by one. So talk of redevelopment seems laughable when the town's biggest mysteries remain unsolved.

Perhaps it does take the outsider to shake things up. Ju-won is as much an unreliable perspective as anyone else but what he does have in spades is resolve. He has his own baggage but in an unlikely partnership with Dong-sik, they are both able to gradually dispel the dark cloud that haunts Manyang.

Kudos to JTBC for bringing us this gem of a psychological thriller. There are hardly any action sequences in this but the conversations, interactions keep one on the edge of one's seat. It is for these kinds of stories that I continue to tune into Kdramaland.

Shin Ha-kyun is a veteran of the stage and screen. He's amazing. Absolutely.

This isn't just a gender flipped version of Kairos. Whatever that means. Please. Kairos isn't exactly the first drama or K drama for that matter to use this dual timeline device to change past events. Remember Signal? Here both leads are journalists with a connection undoubtedly but this involves political conspiracy and corruption in high places. It has an entirely different context to Kairos even while having a police procedural backdrop.

For me this is one of the best K dramas currently airing. It's tightly scripted and there's so much psychological depth to the characters. The cat and mouse dynamic between the leads really throws up a number of ideological and moral issues. The respective insider vs outsider competing agendas is, to my mind, extremely well done. Although SHK's character seems to have something of a saviour complex.
This is not about who the killer is. I don't think there's much question about who that is but it's about small towns and the kind of skeletons that lie in the cupboards of different homes. They're all interconnected and Dong-sik sees himself as its sentinel.
I wouldn't be surprised if that town has an even bigger, more explosive secret. There's something about the mental state of all these men that seem to indicate that.

I understood the plot fine. Nothing especially difficult or groundbreaking. I'm a sci-fi fan from way back.
And yes, I don't have to like everything just because others do. It's called having an opinion different from the crowd. Maybe you haven't heard of it before. But at least try to engage in respectful discourse without throwing insults. It's a poor reflection on you.

Everyone suddenly smartened up in Episode 5. Really? That first act took too long and was too repetitive. But Episode 5 was very decent. Definitely a turning point.

Ah... I see so this is really a Frankenstein story. Yes, it makes more sense to think of it in this way.

Because he had reached Level 4. That's when the host and evil spirit become one.

I'm not sure why you're attacking me personally. But yes, there are good C dramas out there just as there are bad ones. Maybe you haven't come across any.

I have no idea what the whinging and whining is about. It was a decent enough episode.

It is over-the-top.

So far so good. It's a sad indictment of modern mainstream journalism not just in SK but everywhere. Very well told.

It's not a terrible show by any stretch of the imagination. It's just that it could be a lot better. Most of the side characters are just props really for NGM and the villains.
There are good ideas but the script doesn't do them justice.
Who knows, you might like it.

It's very up and down TBH.

NGM can't get it right 100% of the time. His character is the most interesting one so I can't blame him for picking this project. He's not responsible for writing all the other characters.

I don't have an issue with that. It's one of the more understandable aspects of her character.
It's the romance that gives me whiplash.

I really wished I liked this more. Three episodes in and I'm really struggling to like the female lead. Unfortunately I don't find her antics funny neither do I find her well-written. Her interactions with LJS' character are very heavy-handed. Plus I'm not enjoying how they're integrating rom com tropes in the world building. The premise is good and there are fascinating ideas being toyed around. Sadly though I'm not wowed by this as I was hoping to be. Maybe I'm 4 years too late and there have been so many decent sci-fi/ fantasy dramas since.

My quibble is that you blamed audience expectation. ;)

If the audience thought that Jamie was important is because the show gave that impression in those early episodes. She had a lot of screen time especially with NGM. Plus she's on the poster with NGM and SH.

Don't worry, I blame the writer a lot here and elsewhere.