The plot was just brilliant! I loved the premise and the setting of the story. It's one of those stories that I could watch anytime without hesitation. The synopsis was enough to reel me in. The characters that the writers created were superb. Such depth to each character, such detail that you forget it's just fiction. The story had it's share of twists and turns that kept me at the edge of my seat. And the show didn't break it's streak until the end, which is commendable.
I simply bow down to the cast of this show. I saw some of the best performances I have come across in the time since I started recognizing good performances :P The actors are a part of the reason I'm silently praying for a next season. Anyone who's seen this show will probably agree with me that the actors did praiseworthy work.
It was an absolutely wonderful show, one of the best I have seen. I just need another season to make it perfect. Don't miss out on this one though.
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It's not horrible, tho, since I watched until the end. Why is that? Probably procrastination - I had a lot of things to do. And I liked Psycho a little bit too much to make sense. Probably was Park Hae-Jin, and his natural charisma.
But let's go to the point. It might interest you that in this drama there are good fight scenes and no romantic stuff whatsoever. You could even put a "dude flick" label on it since it appears to be made for the "big guys" who are mainly men and cry just one-sided tear when the man-pain gets a little too much.
The main character, the source of most of my snickers, is so mainly in fact that he only drinks whiskey, doesn't trim his hair for five years, lives like a dog and/or beast (his words) and speaks only in frankly weird-ass metaphors that are just as deep as a puddle.
If you have already watched enough stuff from this gender you know just the type of character that he is but if you haven't; well, you might enjoy this drama a lot more than I did. In fact, I even recommend it.
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The writing had plot holes, and tried too hard with being clever with metaphors; it got a bit too much towards the last few episodes. The pacing was a bit draggy at times, for an action drama. The overall acting from the cast was rather flat. They were either brooding or angry/shouting. Such a shame that Park Hae Jin wasn't given a meatier role.
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Since I feel that most dramas are made for women, it stands indeed somehow apart from the majority.
That's how I can explain the enthusiastic reviews it gets.
But that doesn't mean that it is really something different, that would be for me something good or interesting. It still relays on a convoluted plot that does only a slight amount of sense, being only a pretext for a collection of cool scenes. Each character could be nice taken alone, but is clear that they are together only because so says the script. Also, as usual, there are liters of tears running down, plenty of emotional flashbacks, countless tragedies befalling the main characters and so on.
That's what i find annoying about this drama: you are constantly left with the impression that what you're seeing was only thought to look good and to lure your emotions in a cheap way, without paying a minimum of attention to the internal coherence of the story.
In the end is still somehow enjoyable, I liked the acting and Jo Dong Hyuk, but is not something above average.
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Great action thriller.
I stumbled on this show on Tubi (US ad support, free streaming channel). I wasn't sure if it was going to be worth watching, but since it had generally high ratings and had Ma Dong Seok in it, I figured I'd give it a try. Boy was I positively surprised. This show, although it's definitely showing it's age a little, did not disappoint. I'd say the action is almost as good as Bloodhounds. The story keeps you guessing until the last few episodes and even though I wasn't sure how invested I could get in a crew made up of hardcore criminals, but their character arcs were written in a way that made them rather likeable. It was actually the female cop who was the most annoying. Anyway, it's only 11 episodes, very entertaining, with each episode ending in a cliff-hanger. Be prepared to binge-watch for a few hours.Was this review helpful to you?
What was great about the drama is that it was a great idea and you really felt for the criminals. I really enjoyed it, the action was good and they didn't waste time getting into it. I would love a season 2 just to see the all together again!
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You will love the PLOT TWIST...
A MUST WATCH. Thank your stars later....
Episode- 1 through 7 was mind blowing. I lived for the thrill in every single episode.
Episode - 8 and 9 were kinda difficult for me to watch...kinda boring in my opinion but contained important details related to the conclusion.
Episode 10 and 11 - My favorite... almost made me cry.
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One can totally show sympathy towards the character of Oh Goo Tak (Kim Sang Joong)
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My personal favorite... Lee Jung Moon (Park Hae Jin) .. One one line for him: "Once a psychopath is not always a psychopath."
He made me cry and fall for him too.
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Jung Tae Soo (Jo Dong Hyuk) such a romantic killer he was. Enjoyed watching his character development too.
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For some reasons I could not connect well with Park Woong Cheol (Ma Dong Seok). I don't know why. Maybe I missed something.
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Maybe some emotional fool (no offence. Sorry) would love her character but... Yoo Mi Young (Kang Ye Won) aka the female officer. But for me she was stupid af (Once again sorry)
But I also think that every action thriller has one such stupid character. Isn't it? (sorry)
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The post twister... uff... in love with that character. One could actually know (catch) that person from very beginning if one would completely submerge him/herself in the drama.
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Thank you, Maaya
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excellent & outta the magic hat
korean drama has certainly reached a high level of artistry. this one drama has got everything - handsome actors, action, tragic past, forbidden love... choreography of fighting scenes is excellent, also each episode is sure to unveil a mystery, everything makes u hold your breath!i love it, despite the fact that one can see the ropes of the story. this k-drama is so seductive as it is unrealistic, though pretending to be. the director sure knows how to press some of the viewers' buttons.
the filming technique is weird, they seem to magnify the skin's imperfections, while everything else is at normal proportion/ view/ angle? i guess its some kind of experiment but taken too far.
recommended.
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Foremost, the team of "mad dogs" is ultimately what keeps the series entertaining enough. Especially when the leads were pretty much a perfect cast for their characters. The overall plot itself also has enough twists and turns to keep the viewer intrigued, even if the details don't always make sense and the decisions are sometimes questionable. There's enough fast-paced action here where there really isn't much room to fast-forward on and it thankfully doesn't have any sappy romance.
Although I've dropped other series that have similar flaws, this one was just fun to watch. After all, the focus wasn't meant to be around forensics or detective work but on the woven relationships of the characters. It's like watching a comic book movie of a super-hero team made up of criminals. If it consisted of more than the 11 episodes, then maybe they could have incorporated more depth. The ending felt rushed but still left me wanting to see more of them in action again.
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This review may contain spoilers
Korean violence censorship at its funniest
This was actually such a fun time (until the end what was that????) Like I love the White Collar/Leverage-esque concept as always <33 And you really can't go wrong with Ma Dongseok (who's incredible in this by the way like I adored his character.) The plot for the most part is fun, it's this traumatized cop rounding up violent criminals to help him solve crimes and the main protagonist was actually such an interesting character like the scenes where it would go to the flashbacks with his daughter to his empty, lifeless state in the present was CHILLING. And ofc my crime found family's dynamic is also so fun, I love the minor details of their characterizations. Like how Ma Dongseok's character was a gang leader so whenever he tries to solve the crime he just pulls together a group of cronies and impulsively barges right into the problem (and is usually right like give this man more credit!!!) And then there's the hitman who will analyze the scene and think about how he would've pulled it off and is very analytical and smooth about it- everything about him, his appearance, his mannerisms, his speech- it's all very to the point and smooth. And then there's Park Haejin's character who just kinda zones out and is super OP? Idk but good for him. Idk i really enjoyed all of those characters and I actually enjoyed the writing on them and all the minor details, which is something that doesn't happen often for me when I watch an OCN drama. And the individual cases and how they got solved was also really fun. But idk... something about the plot as a whole and the main character's own vengeance based path didn't sit well with me. Also I'm sorry but why did they make the one female character so annoying??? Like she was just unnecessary first of all and it just felt like they were just shoving her in there just to have a female character? Why wasn't one of the 'bad guys' a woman or something instead of giving us this annoying character who really did nothing.Also my favorite thing about this show is how unintentionally morbidly hilarious it is. Like hitman going into detail about how he dismembered the woman he liked's husband right to her face was the funniest thing I watched last year. WHO JUST SAYS THAT???????????? Like I agree she deserved to know that he was the one who killed her husband but my man was going into unnecessary detail FOR NO REASON??? Idk it was funny to me for no reason. And then there was the part where they blurred out the bloody organs so all you can see is a bag of blurred blood. Which that also shouldn't have been funny but for some reason it took me out.
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The first half of episode 10 is actually quite good. I enjoyed catching up what I had missed in the 7 episodes I skipped over, but when the second half of the episode rolled around, I just got more and more frustrated at the drama series. Why are Korean dramas so frustratingly illogical and coincidental?!
Korean dramas have a habit of prolonging even the most intense scenes and story plots, ironically making them less intense with characters staring at a point slightly off-camera. Or they'll blur out knives (!) but not guns (!) in a show about murderers. Or they'll have characters just sitting idly in cars while waiting for important phone calls. Or they'll have V.I.P. victims taking instructions from a stranger over the phone, even after he says "I can't... I can't trust any of you!" (but you're trusting a random stranger on the phone, bruh). Or they'll have a character about to shoot a guy's head off, but oh-so-conveniently, they'll have another guy enter the scene just in time to stop him, but even when that's convenient (and I look past that), when the character falls onto the ground during the attack, and the gun is still near his hand, he doesn't grab the gun to retaliate, he just gets up and allows himself to be punched again.
Stop stretching out these scenes! Stop treating audiences like dimwits and that we can't solve things by ourselves. These scriptwriters need to stop laying out the details of a murder plot line-by-line as if the audiences can't figure it out ourselves, and as if we need a constant reminder of what happened the previous episodes.
Also, I bet if Korean dramas could take this entire series and trimmed out all the camera shots of characters staring emptily slightly off camera, I bet each episode could probably be at least 10 minutes shorter. Thus, the entire drama maybe one or two episodes shorter. Instead, they could use these two episodes and fill it with actual character development and actual story development, instead of filling it with prolonged over-dramatic stares.
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