Behind your Touch (2023)

Funny, entertaining and cool characters but writing went downhill with the crime

Up to the latest episodes this would have been a 9 for me, I was loving it, it was funny and light and had an interesting plot and characters. There were a couple of things of why it wouldn't have made it a 10 for me but overall I was impressed and very pleased with how funny it was and how it was developing, that is until they started unravelling the crime storyline.

The mystery and crime in this show was interesting at the beginning and they did an ok job playing with the audience making you doubt if who you thought was the killer was correct. Personally as the episodes went I had it more and more clear so I was not surprised by the reveal and, although it was expected, not going to lie I was a bit disappointed at the same time because how his character was tackled.
The problem for me in the last few episodes is that they created multiple plotholes in the story and basically the writing went downhill, as well as how they decided to tackle the obstacles at hand. For most part of the show the premise has been that if a person had eyes closed FL couldn't see anything, but only in the last episodes it's revealed that actually she can hear in those blackout points, then it makes you wonder how she didn't hear anything the previous time she touched the killer, it made no sense. Sunglasses were an ok touch, but depending on where he was wearing them in the night you could have still seen flashes of lights in the distance or anything that would have made anyone suspicious and would have given away what they were using a lot earlier on. And this brings me then to, when they're chasing him in the last episode and knowing he was going to take the boat the next day, apply the same formula? Look for him in the night, desguise yourself and wear sunglasses?
The last episode is also made worse by:
- If she could hear there was absolutely no point in taking the killer out of the police station.
- She didn't even try to find Ok Hee with the information she had, it was not that difficult and she had a starting point, sweep the area with the police force and I'm sure they would have found her.
- Ok Hee Squad and Yong Myeong arrive to the area and keeps saying there is nothing around, but you could even see in the background there were some buildings so maybe stop asking and look around?
- Completely unbelievable the killer was able to take Ok Hee all the way there with his eyes closed. They spent half a show saying how it was impossible and there must have been a way, then he does it with his eyes closed like no problem for the final?
- ML and FL somehow manage to beat that group of people (super unrealistic to be able to beat all guys coming at you at once, but luckly they were doing like in videogames and only coming in one to three at a time...) and then after somehow they wait for a very long scene doing nothing other than touching their painful bodies in the background. No one tries to scape, not even the boss and ML/FL don't call the police...
- Earlier in the series I did think that this group of thugs would appear again at some point earlier in the story but they only brought them back for that? It was weak.
- The scene at the end with the prison was unnecesary and really added nothing, it felt dragged.
- What happened to the killer? Apparently he can even open doors and get other information to do anything he wants, how is he going to be contained in prison? Doubt the prison would believe he has powers and they need to do special arrangements for him. It's never tackled or explained, as are not the consequences of the actions of FL and ML in the last episode when essentially they go against the policemen in charge of the case, same when all of Ok Hee squad appears with the motorbikes and stop the policemen from moving.
- At times they were interacting with the killer in a manner that it felt they didn't even hold grudges against him.
A lot of plotholes were also caused by characters just playing dumb for the sake of the script, especially FL and SML. And I'm still wondering what happened to the cow, she had the most powers so maybe she's floating in space at this point... haha

This brings me to the characters. Generally I liked everyone except for FL, she was annoying many times, the classic dumb damsel in distress that puts everyone in danger and then blames others. At some points I was frustrated not going to lie.
Contrary to what I think is the general opinion I was not a fan of SML, his personality was pretty much made to keep you guessing and to be honest it's no wonder everyone thought it could be him, he was not clear and didn't give explanations, he was kept mysterious in that sense just for the sake of it. Who runs behind someone with a knife in hand and without even shouting or saying something? Who in their right mind knows who is the killer and still lives with him and doesn't go straight to the police? Why trying to tell her instead? The killer said he was smart, I think maybe he was intelligent but not smart., except for the message in arabic, that was smart but what are also the chances that FL would have touched the killer's butt then and not two months later? The plot said it would happen I guess, it was such a gamble.
The killer is ok for the most part, but I didn't personally like that the justification for his actions is pretty much that he's a psychopath doing things for fun. It's not the first kdrama I've watch that uses the same justification and I find it lazy, it's like creating the ultimate villain that is that way because yes. There is no real explanation to any of the murders and it did make me feel a bit dumb because throughout the series I kept trying to make connections between them and I think there were options to make the connection among them in one way or another. Instead it's just because they were there and maybe a couple because they rubbed him the wrong way a bit. I was wondering why he was obsessed with using that specific knife too, but there is no explanation. It's ok-ish I guess but not satisfactory to me.

I loved the comedy here, so many moments of laugh and fun, the references to 25/21 had me rolling. I also liked ML despite his flaws and I thought Ok Hee was so much fun with her squad and Kim Yong Myeong calling her eonni in that hilarious way. I did miss him in later episodes, he just disappeared once they put the comedy a lot more to the side.

I'm debating really if they should have chosen a different path for this series, in the sense that they could have kept the mystery and even crime (maybe not a serial killing but smaller cases?) and kept the comedy and lightheartedness all throughout the series. Even at the end when they bring it back for closure it felt a bit weird after all the crime and drama, I was not feeling it so much as the earlier episodes.

Overall I would recommend the series, it's entertaining and funny for the majority of the episodes. If you're looking for a romcom or romance focused series this is not it. It's not that there isn't romance, it's just not the main or secondary plot points of this show. FL likes SML but it's kept light, ML likes FL but it's kept light (although I have to say I enjoyed very much the way he would look her at times and the hints here and there, it was cute). Secondary characters like other secondary characters and their relationships are mostly in a comedy way, what it's fun romance that I enjoyed.

Not sure I would rewatch it, I would rewatch maybe until around episode 12 for the comedy, but I wouldn't rewatch after that.

Lees verder