This review may contain spoilers
Oh Bong-yi Was Right! Trust Your Intuition, Ladies! See point 3, example 2
1. What did this series gain from the constant disrespect and blasphemy towards Christianity? The series could have done just fine without it, despite the ending.2. For a lot of viewers, myself included, the plot twist and introduction of way too many characters and subplots made this show too convoluted. The soundtrack was alright but after a while gets repetitive. There were times I could accurately guess what song will come on for the next scene.
3. There was lots of subtle misogyny, which isn't unique to this series or this part of the world. It could be taken as a critique of Korean society. Or, is it a normalization of said behavior to the viewers as if it's okay?
- For example, in episode 1, we're reminded about women's biological clocks. Yet, a Rutgers Uni study proves that men have a biological clock too, with declining quality of sperm at around 35-40 years old. The dad's age plays a role in fertility and if the pregnancy has difficulties or not; plus it impacts if the child has developmental issues such as schizophrenia or autism. Why wasn't the husband reminded of his biological clock, too? In that same episode, the husband decides he doesn't want his wife outside her room, so he tells her she looks tired. This controlling behavior was done under the guise of caring about her wellbeing. Initially she resists this, but gives in, and is physically led away, which was really condescending and weird. Does she not get to decide where she goes, when, and who she talks to? Is she just some object that can be moved around?
- Episode 2 shows the grandma cursing out her own granddaughter (Oh Bong-yi) who went through childhood SA, like a typical misogynist boymom. Turns out, Oh Bong-yi's initial dislike toward Bareum was correct, but she was pressured and gaslit into giving him a chance. So wrong how her grandma notices a button missing on a strange man's clothes, but not her own granddaughter's wound, and doesn't even offer her medical assistance. Then, the grandma was creepily trying to groom her granddaughter into getting in a relationship with an older guy that she wasn't interested in, and talking about her perversely behind her back to the guy. And then she assaults Oh Bong-yi for not being interested in Bareum, while demeaning her sense of self esteem. Why was there cute-sy music during these scenes, as if it's endearing and acceptable? It's sad the writers turned her into a pick me, when initially she had strong boundaries, and didn't seek men's validation. She still was admirable for having the guts to confront the guy.
- In episode 14, Bareum decides to get revenge for a boy victim, but when another victim is a girl, suddenly the psychopath becomes soft hearted and can't do it. This sends the message that boy's lives are somehow more important or valued than girl's lives.
4. It almost feels like this series wants people to start sympathizing with psychopaths, as subconsciously, the brain can't separate reality from fiction when viewing media. When the next big news story about a criminal comes out, will people who watched this series react with more sympathy to men who do evil things? Near the end, it was as if the perpetrator expected to just apologize to the victims, and the victims would forgive him by letting him slide and turning himself in - yet he knew how people in prison had 0 guilt over their crimes. Male entitlement knows no bounds. But there must be a woman behind all this, manipulating this otherwise noble man to do such heinous crimes! /s
5. If I'm correct, the killings specifically encouraged by Choi Hong-ju and Dr. Daniel Lee focused on active child predators or serial killers, such as Kang Duk-soo, not innocent victims. If Choi Hong-ju's manipulation didn't play a role in actual innocent people being killed, then she should be given a medal, not imprisoned. Some of Bareum's killings were done before any of Choi Hong-ju's manipulation. Regardless of if someone was whispering in his ear or not, he chose to do what he did, and he should take full responsibility.
Choi Hong-ju used her guilt (about being forced to lure victims for the head hunter, despite being a child and unable to refuse or face death), into a motivating factor for manipulating Bareum (contrasted with before, when the head hunter was controlling her). If Choi did not intervene, more innocent people would've been killed. In this series, it doesn't seem like the authorities would've done anything if she told them. If Bareum's psychopathic tendencies were an unstoppable force that the law couldn't stop, then, in a way she saved lives? From my understanding, I don't really think Choi Hong-ju should've been arrested.
6. I'm surprised there wasn't more of a focus on the blatant violations of medical ethics in doing such a surgery. Dr. Daniel Lee showed psychopathic tendencies himself with his experiments on mice, despite doing this to research the psychopath gene, it was still cruel and inhumane to the animals.
It looks like the show writers blame the heinous actions of a man all on a woman pulling the strings. It's as if there's the implication that women having political power is bad, or that wanting to nip the problem in the bud and reduce crime is evil. As if men should not be held accountable for their own actions, or something.
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Fascinating Topic, But Could Have Been Executed So Much Better
Personally, as a Christian, I don't appreciate the Christian symbols and some Bible verses being misrepresented by this (or any real life) cult, when any symbols or ideology could have been used. It's so unoriginal to negatively portray Christians, yet they won't do the same with other religions or beliefs. Is there some reason that this show was not made with a cult that uses the star of D avid, free masonry, a pagan sacrificial cult, or something original? Besides, even secular ideologies like the neighbor of south Korea is a cult, so cults don't have to even involve religion. I don't think this series did a good enough job to not basically slander Christians as a bunch of crazies. In some scenes, the cult's symbol of the boat under the cross is not even fully visible, for example, from perspectives looking up at it. It's sort of corny how they made the cross glow red, when any symbol in that color is going to look eerie. Near the end, there's some half-hearted attempts to counter this misrepresentation of Christians, but to some viewers' subconscious, the damage is probably done. Why did the show producers have the 1 friend out of the 4 guys wear a regular cross, not the cult's altered cross, in the scenes where he shamefully didn't want to save Im Sang-mi? Greed, power, control, and psychopathy were the main driving forces of the main leaders (Jo Wan-tae seemed atheist), not Christianity, but this distinction should have been clearer from the beginning.The soundtrack is really boring, which doesn't match the suspenseful, psychological thriller nature of this series.
The psychology of the main character's boymom (boymom-ism is kind of a cult of its own, this would make a good series topic), the cult, and the psychopathic leaders were the stronger parts of this series. The various methods of deception, the gradual increase of abuse towards members, the exploitation of people in desperate sad situations, and the claustrophobia-like feeling of cult members being anywhere in any job, was all covered well. The twists and turns of the plot, and costume design, are strengths of this series too.
OTOH, some of the plot is lacking. For example, why did the dad not just move with his family to another city, such as a big city with more jobs? Korea has more than just 2 cities. Another thing is, I feel like the main character (Im Sang-mi) constantly questioning things for years would have landed her in more trouble than what was portrayed. That's great that didn't happen, but the other members were hysterical, and it's doubtful they would have tolerated that much noncompliance.
Some characters were annoying, such as the main character's boymom. The boymom had the expectation of her daughter to put herself in harm's way against multiple boys, all to protect her brother, which is wrong and backwards. Even before the tragedy, the boymom was parentifying and negative toward her daughter. Is this a critique of the rampant favoritism of boys in many Korean families, part of what sparked the 4B movement that is now gaining traction worldwide? It's annoying how the female lead is only allowed to be strong and protective of males, but isn't allowed to be strong and save herself or other female characters. Jo Wan-tae, the curly haired sidekick manlet of the cult was really hateable. While it makes sense for this plot, more justice should have been dished out to him. At a certain point, there were too many characters and some didn't add much to the story.
Overall, this series could've been done so much better. Hopefully future kdramas about cults will take some lessons from this series' drawbacks.
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