chamomileteaandroses

unfortunately to me this season felt underwhelming in both revenge and emotional intensity which was caused by a few factors:

————> structure:
three episodes for a case felt dragged comparing to the previous format of two episodes per case (seasons 1-2); what’s even more ridiculous is that all cases got two episodes EXCEPT the final one (supposedly the darkest) only got two and as a result felt incomplete

———> lack of emotional impact from main characters
doki became almost like a superhuman with massive plot armor (even more than in seasons 1-2); still somehow writers managed to put him in three near death situations and i do have a huge problem with this for one particular reason- they just brushed it off each time, we have a dramatic action then a fast forward to doki being fine again, no concerned looks, no team boning; in my opinion dramatic scenes like these only work when emotions are involved, otherwise they look almost ridiculous and stir nothing in the viewer; sadly it happened in the finale as well which honestly disappointed me the most- why did doki basically let himself get shot and then jumped off the cliff when he could’ve easily just pushed the other guy off? it just doesn’t make sense, the entire season he fights people without a single scratch and then walks right in front of the gun? was that supposed to indicate that he feels guilty and wants to punish himself because of that female military officer who died? if so then why didn’t we get a deeper dive into earlier than 10 minutes before the end of the season?
the other thing i feel extremely disappointed about is the complete abandonment of doki’s trauma and ptsd, i might’ve missed how and if it was resolved in season two but i’m not gonna lie i expected it to come back to the surface once he rejoined military; that storyline was important because it was reminding us that even tho he has enormous power he’s still human with weaknesses just like the rest of us;

——> lack of one main storyline
another surprise was the fact season three doesn’t have that one main storyline that connects all episodes together (unlike in seasons 1-2);
overall it feels like with each season taxi driver losses more and more of that heavy atmosphere (not sure why it feels this way since the cases itself are still intense but it does to me); the fact this series wasn’t afraid of discussing difficult matters and would offer consolation without too much unnecessarily light moments (which changed for the worse later on) was exactly what pulled me in and made me watch it in the first place;

——-> sudden shift in morals
season three paints a new picture of the rainbow taxi team- not they are not afraid to kill during the revenge, this is probably the most important thing about this season and something that just doesn’t sit right with me; in seasons 1-2 kim doki was doing what he was doing to help people who were wronged and failed by the system, he was always in that morally gray area but he’d never kill his target, this season not only does it happen a few times where he and his team are ready to do so but also it’s never discussed or showed in any way whether or not they have any issues with that; to me personally kim doki was a well written character precisely because he still had his moral code, getting rid of it feels untrue to what we knew about his values from previous seasons;

i did like the first case the most i enjoyed the dynamic between doki and the detective plus ofc between him and the villain; this case kind of reminds me of my beloved the worst of evil; the kpop case is also a noticeable one so this season is still definitely worth checking out

even after pointing all of these out and admitting i am disappointed a bit i still think the entirety of taxi driver is worth watching and its one of best dramas i’ve ever seen :)))
i’d gladly watch season 4!!!