This should have gone up on Friday......oops.......
I am a little behind because this drama did end a few weeks ago, and that is okay! I am not the biggest fan of cop dramas/murder mysteries, but sometimes they can be fun to watch if they are done well. With these type of stories, as with most, the writer could just take an old story and not it reinvent it in a way that was interesting or fun. This does both very well though. They were able to take that psychological "what is a monster/psychopath" question and wrap it in the mystery of "who done it and how do we stop it?".
All that being said, I think that people who liked the drama White Christmas would like this drama. Maybe this drama could have been shorter, maybe White Christmas could have been longer, but there are similar themes in both stories and both the endings leave you wondering if people got what they deserved, and if they did or didn't, what should they have happened to them?
Aside from having an awesome cast, the story was also interesting. In murder mysteries the people have to find the evidence in order to catch the bad guy. In this drama, basically everyone and their dog knows who the murderer is, but they have no evidence. While I did like the way that this was done, there was a lot of waiting in the drama. It could have been shorter, but it wasn't bad the length that it was.
With the character of Gap Dong, we, as watchers, assume that they are going to catch the bad guy because that is the kind of drama that we are watching. If he got away, it would break the flow and there would be a lot of angry people. When they find the true Gap Dong though, no one knows what to do because he is smart and there are also many, many conflicting emotions and sacrifices. Back to what I said before about this being similar to White Christmas we also see how far our main characters are willing to go to reach their goals. We have the ones that are willing to risk everything and those that wants to believe that there is some good in everyone and that a monster can be brought back.
One of my least favorite parts of this drama was the romance. I don't think that the drama needed any romance, but the writer felt that there needed to be something there. Mu Yeom and Maria had a little something going on but it was never really taken seriously, it was just a passing fancy. I didn't believe that they actually liked each other on a serious level, it was more of a "we're in the same place going through the same thing" type of thing, but I felt the writer wanted us to be more emotionally invested in them than I was willing to be. It wasn't important to me and whenever they were having a "moment" I just waited patiently for it to be over.
On a completely unrelated note, I would just like to say how happy I was that they the female that worked at the PD swam. And not only did she swim, oh no, she swan a beautiful butterfly while wearing a real swim suit. It was almost too much for me to handle. THEN, she shot someone while wearing a swimsuit. This touched me on an emotional level and I'm not why, but it was a great moment.
Back on topic, I really enjoyed this drama. Yes, it probably could have been shorter, but the characters were great and it was written well. Don't go into it thinking that it is going to be a thriller, because it's not, but it is an interesting look into what people will do to hid the truth and what they are willing to do when they feel that they have no other options.
~ Alora
Something that pushes a good story forward is a good cast. We had Yoo Sang Hyun (who will always be Oska to me) as Mu Yeom aka Mad Monk, an obsessive police officer; Kim Min Jung as Oh Maria, a physiologist with a dark past; Kim Ji Won who played Rachel in Heirs (she was SO much better in this) as Ji Wool, as naive webtoon artist who wants to believe people are good; and Lee Joon of MBLAQ as Ryu Tae Oh, the Gap Dong copycat who gave me the heeby jeebies most of the time, he was seriously awesome as our four main people.
With the character of Tae Oh, at first he is just a handsome killer but as the story goes on, he becomes more sympathetic. If there is one thing that will get me every time in a story it is a sympathetic villain, those are the best kind in my opinion. Feeling that confusion of conflicting emotions as you learn more about a character you hate and you fight against your changing emotions is great, if annoyingly painful. Anyone who knows A Game of Thrones knows this feeling with the character of Jamie. Oh, Jamie, you poor, poor human being.
With the character of Tae Oh, at first he is just a handsome killer but as the story goes on, he becomes more sympathetic. If there is one thing that will get me every time in a story it is a sympathetic villain, those are the best kind in my opinion. Feeling that confusion of conflicting emotions as you learn more about a character you hate and you fight against your changing emotions is great, if annoyingly painful. Anyone who knows A Game of Thrones knows this feeling with the character of Jamie. Oh, Jamie, you poor, poor human being.
Aside from having an awesome cast, the story was also interesting. In murder mysteries the people have to find the evidence in order to catch the bad guy. In this drama, basically everyone and their dog knows who the murderer is, but they have no evidence. While I did like the way that this was done, there was a lot of waiting in the drama. It could have been shorter, but it wasn't bad the length that it was.
With the character of Gap Dong, we, as watchers, assume that they are going to catch the bad guy because that is the kind of drama that we are watching. If he got away, it would break the flow and there would be a lot of angry people. When they find the true Gap Dong though, no one knows what to do because he is smart and there are also many, many conflicting emotions and sacrifices. Back to what I said before about this being similar to White Christmas we also see how far our main characters are willing to go to reach their goals. We have the ones that are willing to risk everything and those that wants to believe that there is some good in everyone and that a monster can be brought back.
One of my least favorite parts of this drama was the romance. I don't think that the drama needed any romance, but the writer felt that there needed to be something there. Mu Yeom and Maria had a little something going on but it was never really taken seriously, it was just a passing fancy. I didn't believe that they actually liked each other on a serious level, it was more of a "we're in the same place going through the same thing" type of thing, but I felt the writer wanted us to be more emotionally invested in them than I was willing to be. It wasn't important to me and whenever they were having a "moment" I just waited patiently for it to be over.
On a completely unrelated note, I would just like to say how happy I was that they the female that worked at the PD swam. And not only did she swim, oh no, she swan a beautiful butterfly while wearing a real swim suit. It was almost too much for me to handle. THEN, she shot someone while wearing a swimsuit. This touched me on an emotional level and I'm not why, but it was a great moment.
Back on topic, I really enjoyed this drama. Yes, it probably could have been shorter, but the characters were great and it was written well. Don't go into it thinking that it is going to be a thriller, because it's not, but it is an interesting look into what people will do to hid the truth and what they are willing to do when they feel that they have no other options.
~ Alora
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