The plot isn't the deal. The deal is the acting and the pulpable tension. So, our hero Bong Sang Pil is an outgoing, fun-loving, secretly revenge-seeking (or maybe that's not so secret🙄) and a Batman level martial artist lawyer. After receiving a notebook full of incriminating details, he's back to his hometown Kisung from Seoul after 18 years, to tie some loose ends and finally meet the girl he was stalking for all these years🙄. I think I've established that I'm not a fan of the plot which kept unwinding in an incrementally poor way as the series went on. So many of the actions of so many characters don't make sense and can be put to questions that you have to turn a blind eye to those plot aspects. Which is why I won't go towards that route.
Instead, lets talk about the things I found absolutely unforgivable.
1. Lee Joon Gi is an amazing actor and I'm here partially for him and if he came off as anything close to cool, cute or even redeemable that's only because he's freaking good at his job; the script didn't help him at all. His character is this mix of two opposite spectrums, a flashy, quirky, charming guy and also a tortured, deeply vengeful and intensely driven man who was internally grooming himself for 18 years for revenge. Yet somehow his dialogues are the least powerful. There's no fun, punch or riveting sensation in the words he utters, especially later in the show. Joon Gi is still very good and he nails the 'fooling around charming guy ritual' and comes off as both cute and crazy at the same time but as the lead, he needed all the help from the script.
2. The romance needed work. Ha Jae Yi is a strong woman, understanding and smart too, but with attorney Bong her attitude needed to be established with care. Does she understand him better? Sees some parts of him others don't? Does she feel the same drive for a similar kind of revenge? We didn't get that. Their brief 'alone moments' had impact but they had no buildup and so felt out-of-place at times and ultimately did not amount to much. It was a little sad because I felt they could do better with more time or a better script.
3. The employees at the law firm: to be honest I'm not sure why they were needed. As the series progressed, they started to appear more to nibble at my brain😑. Most of the romance was hijacked because they kept interrupting, and they are so absolutely unfunny that it's awful on a new level.
4. The dialogues: God did they need a complete makeover! Both our leads suffer because of it and at times the entire story.
All these complaints, but I still loved this show. Rated it 8 when the average suggested 7.5. Why?
1. Ahn Oh Joo played by Choi Min Soo. This dude knocked it out of the park. He got better every episode. He had amazing chemistry with both Bong Sang Pil and Cha Moon Sook. Just when I thought his face-off with Judge Cha would be the thing to look forward to, he had that fun battle alongside Sang Pil, he was like those fun Marvel villains that you end up rooting for, but this is a guy who doesn't flinch from killing a kid. He was so tremendously good at being larger than life with his attitude, outlaw swag, cool stares, quirky noises and believe it or not, fitting dialogues that he's literally my highlight of this show. The MVP without a doubt.
2. The music: I liked the music for the tense scenes. They conveyed more than the crappy dialogues. There was tension, loss, grief, haziness from the end of a long-running game in the tunes. Especially towards the final episodes I appreciated the music.
3. Suk Kwan Dong. I didn't give much credit to the guy at first, but man did he deliver! He was funnier than that 'gag reel group' and yet had a weight to him. I couldn't believe it when his character ended up being the best the show offered. His character had real growth marked by a very real end. And the actor, Choi Dae Hoon - I've seen him in Flower of Evil where he plays a completely different role - I'd say he's pretty phenomenal.
4. With all the bad af writing the show still somehow brings up a sense of giddy excitement that have you at the edge of your seat until the end. I read somewhere that the ending was hasty, but it wasn't. I liked how the plot stretched to the very end. On the reflective side of the good guys this show was miserable, so I was glad they did not focus on that.
All in all, a fun ride. Lee Joon Gi, Choi Min Soo and to some degree Lee Hye Young are the real heart of this show, at their best they show what this drama could have been, and I was sort of content with that.