viking
Disappointed but not surprised.
I'll keep it a buck fifty.
Story:
One word - elongated. Every episode follows the same stretched-out circular arc that is "pro-police cool detectives showing how stressful it is to catch criminals with a hint of thrill". By episode 8, the crux of the plot, which primarily revolves around the Subway Killer and minorly the Grasshoppers, clearly becomes staggered. I understand how kdramas are unique for their handling of arcs through long episodes etc. but the way they handle is in a far more different manner. There is a lack of character development in all of the main protagonists that make this supposed "drama/thriller" almost bothersome to sit through, stale even. The female lead is deliberated construed as a reckless, sometimes emotional, careless "victim" (when she really isn't) that pushes forward a very troubling idea of how a policewoman conducts herself, but also the misogynistic narrative that a woman can only be annoying, loud and rude in important positions within the police to be taken seriously. This is shown the most with the FL and Ma Ri, the supposed minor antagonist of the show whose baseless one-dimensional personality exists to drive the main leads apart and create convenient delays in the plot.
What bothers me the most is just how FLAT everything is, but also how mindblowingly incompatible the FL and ML are. There is no character development. Romance? Pft. The only reason the plot moves at all is because of lucky breaks and the recklessness of the FL whose behaviour the ML has to take accountability for. The FL is supposedly meant for us to sympathise with her (despite her brash attitude that doesn't seem to learn a lesson or two across 10 episodes, even though she literally got people suspended and was moved around divisions), because of her autistic sister who disappeared.
Why does this show make the autistic sister out to be a villain? They unevenly balanced the dynamic of the sisters so much so that it became weighted towards the FL. Most crime/thriller kdramas create situations that push for more clues and breakthroughs, like The Killer's Shopping List or Beyond Evil but this show does literally none of them in the first eight episodes. It almost feels like they're trying to take the sympathy of being autistic and shove it into a spooky murdering mess. I couldn't force myself to sit through this anymore because:
1) As an autistic person, I don't think the way they did the last couple episodes with the autistic sister and the Subway Killer, was healthy in pushing forward a more informative discussion on ASD.
2) The FL did not appear to learn from her own actions. Some main protagonists can play this "messy but relatable" character well like Devi from Never Have I Ever but the FL here will very rarely evoke a laugh, in fact, the comedy in this show becomes very odd to squish in given it tries to mix "grave, dark mystery" with "haha, arrogant fl vs arrogant ml who wins".
Acting/Cast:
The acting was average. Some scenes really did evoke emotion, such as the crying scenes from either the ML and FL given their backstories, but given how little character development there was, it eventually became a circular stale bread of dialogue being repeated amongst one-dimensional cardboard cutouts. Minor characters only added to this.
Music:
I actually enjoyed the choice of music! The OST is honestly quite intriguing. If you need at least one thing to take away from this review, perhaps let it be this song: Highlight (https://open.spotify.com/track/0mo6CutiqCo2hWBxuyl7HH?si=fadb5b7229d641a5)
Rewatch Value:
Very little point in rewatching in my opinion. It ruins the very stagger suspense they tried building up but also because of how mind-boggling the ending is. Anyway, it wasn't my cup of tea, but like what people say, one man's trash is another man's treasure. Hope this helps!
Story:
One word - elongated. Every episode follows the same stretched-out circular arc that is "pro-police cool detectives showing how stressful it is to catch criminals with a hint of thrill". By episode 8, the crux of the plot, which primarily revolves around the Subway Killer and minorly the Grasshoppers, clearly becomes staggered. I understand how kdramas are unique for their handling of arcs through long episodes etc. but the way they handle is in a far more different manner. There is a lack of character development in all of the main protagonists that make this supposed "drama/thriller" almost bothersome to sit through, stale even. The female lead is deliberated construed as a reckless, sometimes emotional, careless "victim" (when she really isn't) that pushes forward a very troubling idea of how a policewoman conducts herself, but also the misogynistic narrative that a woman can only be annoying, loud and rude in important positions within the police to be taken seriously. This is shown the most with the FL and Ma Ri, the supposed minor antagonist of the show whose baseless one-dimensional personality exists to drive the main leads apart and create convenient delays in the plot.
What bothers me the most is just how FLAT everything is, but also how mindblowingly incompatible the FL and ML are. There is no character development. Romance? Pft. The only reason the plot moves at all is because of lucky breaks and the recklessness of the FL whose behaviour the ML has to take accountability for. The FL is supposedly meant for us to sympathise with her (despite her brash attitude that doesn't seem to learn a lesson or two across 10 episodes, even though she literally got people suspended and was moved around divisions), because of her autistic sister who disappeared.
Why does this show make the autistic sister out to be a villain? They unevenly balanced the dynamic of the sisters so much so that it became weighted towards the FL. Most crime/thriller kdramas create situations that push for more clues and breakthroughs, like The Killer's Shopping List or Beyond Evil but this show does literally none of them in the first eight episodes. It almost feels like they're trying to take the sympathy of being autistic and shove it into a spooky murdering mess. I couldn't force myself to sit through this anymore because:
1) As an autistic person, I don't think the way they did the last couple episodes with the autistic sister and the Subway Killer, was healthy in pushing forward a more informative discussion on ASD.
2) The FL did not appear to learn from her own actions. Some main protagonists can play this "messy but relatable" character well like Devi from Never Have I Ever but the FL here will very rarely evoke a laugh, in fact, the comedy in this show becomes very odd to squish in given it tries to mix "grave, dark mystery" with "haha, arrogant fl vs arrogant ml who wins".
Acting/Cast:
The acting was average. Some scenes really did evoke emotion, such as the crying scenes from either the ML and FL given their backstories, but given how little character development there was, it eventually became a circular stale bread of dialogue being repeated amongst one-dimensional cardboard cutouts. Minor characters only added to this.
Music:
I actually enjoyed the choice of music! The OST is honestly quite intriguing. If you need at least one thing to take away from this review, perhaps let it be this song: Highlight (https://open.spotify.com/track/0mo6CutiqCo2hWBxuyl7HH?si=fadb5b7229d641a5)
Rewatch Value:
Very little point in rewatching in my opinion. It ruins the very stagger suspense they tried building up but also because of how mind-boggling the ending is. Anyway, it wasn't my cup of tea, but like what people say, one man's trash is another man's treasure. Hope this helps!
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