A well-executed story about humane and inhumane issues surrounding death in our society. A stellar ensemble cast who are convincing in their roles and a soundtrack that perfectly fits the mood in each scene and situation right down to the music at the end of each episode. While this drama took on a very serious topic it also had humorous light-hearted moments and camaraderie. I never watched US CSI however, I did watch the early years of House and Jung Jae Young's character (Baek Beom) as the male lead reminded me of him; a cantankerous tortured soul, which he portrayed beautifully. I liked the fact that the writers made Jung Yoo Mi's character (Eun Sol) as the female lead strong and realistic; a young idealistic woman vying for her independence and identity through her job as a prosecutor. We as viewers can watch her personal growth as she acclimates to her job and various situations. Kudos to the writers for not turning this smart savvy female character into a typical k drama contradiction; unrealistically naive, bratty, turns into simple-minded high school girl in tough or uncomfortable situations. I look forward to season 2 and I hope there will be more character development and back stories for other members of the cast like Lee Stephanie (Stella Hwang) and Lee Yi Kyung (Chi Soo Ho).
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This review may contain spoilers
I don’t understand why is there a lot of negative comments for this drama. First of all, i would like to thank the writer and producer because this drama is just superb!! Im more into crime/action kdrama actually, plus Lee Yi Kyung was th 2nd ML so i was really looking forward for this, but I started watching it right after the drama end cause I don’t have patience so i could marathon it straight after it ends. (And i finished it in 3 days people, was totally immersed)
Well, this drama was one of the unique because it involves both crime and medical scenes into 1 drama. Lots of twist here and there, but not bad actually as it does makes sense. As for the cast, each one of them played their character well. And im super glad they focused on the 2nd lead character (Lieutenant Cha, Kang Hyun) as well, i thought they’re gonna waste them but nuh-uh. And of course my bae (Lieutenant Cha) really got me surprised, didn’t expect for those stunts at all, till now can’t believe they gave him such character and because of that he’s now got the main role as a detective again which is on the way!
Right and the ML & FL, such a good pair not as in terms of look but brains and personality. And the other casts as well, super hilarious and cute i should say, Im ready for season 2 guys! And its worth watching it again. Trust me for those haven’t watch, you will never regret!
(P.S: My first time writing a review and i feel the need to write, cause this drama is just amazing. Im a Kdrama maniac since 4 years and tons of dramas I’ve watched but i can assure you this is one of the best!)
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So, let me tell you what was the fuking problem with this drama:
1) The stupid/dumb/annoying lead girl
2) The annoying prosecutor guy (Kang Hyun played by Park Eun Seok)
3) The unrealistic side story
4) Everybody hates the main guy, who is the best.
1: Her character is the worst since the 1 ep, she's so poorly written, because she's intelligent but then...she can be super dumb and stupid. In the 1 ep, while they are investigating a body, she touches him without using gloves?? And she can't even do her job properly.
2: The prosecutor guy, no, the annoying prosecutor guy, who was useless at his job, his emotions and assumptions caused him to blame the main dude too much. A N N O Y I N G
3: Having a lead girl like that and an impatient prosecutor made the good story look less realistic.
4: EVERYBODY IS AGAINST OR HATE THE MAIN GUY. WTF?! He was the best: Realistic, serious, intelligent...but everybody kept judging him, for everything he was doing.
I kept watching the drama because I loved the story style, about forensic doctors, investigating bodies and finding the killers, the support cast was strong and made the drama very enjoyable (Lee Yi Kyung is damn cool and funny) and ofc the dope male lead who carried the show.
If in the season 2 the girl don't change I will not watch it...
Here's my review, sorry for being too negative.
BUT I'M GLAD THAT THERE WAS NO ROMANCE BETWEEN THE LEADS!!!
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This review may contain spoilers
I love the medical/mystery genre, i had high expectations at first but it all become a dull, emotionless drama at some point. From my point of view, they tried to imitate/remake the american series such as CSI... They failed horribly.
Acting/Cast :
UGH I JUST DIDN'T LIKE IT.
The only word the forensic doctor knows is GET OUT. He's always right. He's cold.
The female prosecuter remembers everything. She's a hardworking. She makes me remember the bad previous acting of suzy.
The other characters are puppets to the upper two.
All in all, you can't connect with the cast, at first you'd be hooked but then you become used to it and you realize you were fooled.
THE ULTIMATE REASON I HATED THIS IS :
Story : (a little spoiler)
The woman baek bom was in love with was in a vegetative persistant state ( Coma for like 20years). They made it known in an early episode so that they spice the story. AS IF! On the last episodes, he found out, when he went to the hospital, he held her hand and she's dead. Okay. Thank youuuuuu! I mean i know he needed to say a proper goodbye so that he can move on. But no, my mind can't accept this.
READ THIS NO SPOILER ------- ALSO, i watched all 32 episodes, the major surprise is the TO BE CONTINUED in the last one. I absolutely hate this, i searched everywhere if they were going to add new episodes or a whole new sequel.
I'm frustrated, but don't regret it all, they were some positive things, like the new criminals and their stories everytime and how you can find things through autopsy -The final message of the dead-.
Thank you all!
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good job for everyone who has spent lot of effort in this show.
Among all the casts, I like that Stella Hwang, she got the X-factor’s aura and spontaneous character. Without her, the show will be little bit boring.
Learn something from this show as well, like how medical science really work. LIke even if the body is badly decomposed, bone still able to give answer to their death.
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Yes, I just like Jung Yoo Mi as the female prosecutor!
This is a decent police and detective drama, not worse than American ones, on the contrary introducing a strong respect for every death and for every human body. Corps are not unnamed objects of the study, but they are worthy of respect human remains. I am grateful to authors for that.
The advantage of drama is that each character is a little bit incompetent and lacking.
Prosecutor Eun Sol, she is sometimes unprofessional and makes mistakes, but at the same time she doesn't sympathize with murderers or fear them. It was a great pleasure to watch Jung Yoo Mir in this role.
Forensic doctor Baek Beom, played by Jung Jae Young - Why does everyone hate him? I think he breaks the rules of Korean social etiquette and has no social competence. He is rude and he is cool.
Detective Cha Soo Ho: Lee Yi Kyung goes on the wave of his previous performance in "Eulachacha Waikiki" and he is funny here, especially when he tries to flirt with beautiful Stella, but also shows his honest, dramatic acting, and he is good.
Other characters are well-written as well. The first prosecutor, played by Park Eun Seok, is stubborn and blind to the truth, the other one, played by Oh Man Seok is mysterious and intelligent. Both of them have their proper place in drama.
Story line is a bit disappointing, because personal experiences and tragedy of the forensic doctor Baek Beom don't add anything to the investigation. It's a rule in kdrama to give a lot of flashbacks, but here it doesn't seem to be working.
Rewatch is problematic because if you know who the murderer is, the secret is destroyed!
Drama is entertaining, because the viewer follows the detectives and wonders if they can catch the killer, but also it shows the truth about death, does not use euphemisms and does not offend the viewer's intelligence.
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Bad copy of bad originals
You can clearly see the American influence in this production and to be honest it doesn’t sit well. This is the Korean version of CSI/NCIS and it has all the same weaknesses as the originals. Instead of the more usual focus on the machinations of internal politics, the slow unfolding of a crime, the in-depth character interactions (imo the strengths of Korean crime dramas), we have a series of crimes dealt with in one or two episodes and some two dimensional characters whose personalities have been clearly modelled on the American versions. Everything skims along the surface, with no depth and no character deviation or development.Crimes are solved in superficial and ridiculous ways in double quick-time and there’s a load of spurious criminal psychology. The convenient plot devices stack up and all credibility is trampled. The young female prosecutor seems to have inordinate amounts of time to hang around watching autopsies and never has to do anything boring like sit at her desk and work. She has a penchant for doing stupid things that get her into life-threatening situations from which she always miraculously escapes. Horrendous experiences abound with zero effect on characters who bounce back to what they were in as much time as it takes to run to the next scene. And just to increase the air of unreality, the director requires the actors to really ham it up…
If you like the style of CSI then you’ll probably like this. Personally I think it’s a really bad imitation of a bad American original.
What my rating means: 1 - 3+ Totally unbearable, but often compulsively watchable as you really can’t believe that it can be this bad.
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This review may contain spoilers
Why did I suffer through this?
I blame myself and my inability to drop a drama. Please bear in mind that this is just my personal opinion. I'm not saying others are wrong in their reviews, but I had a very strong reaction to this drama, hence my rating. This is time I will never get back! Needless to say, I'm not going to waste my time on Season 2.What I liked:
1) Though it's not my absolute favorite, I enjoy this genre of show, because there is usually enough going on that I don't fast forward a lot.
2) I loved the amount of screen time they gave Go Gyu Pil as one of the forensic investigators. There is something so loveably cute about him.
3) I liked the way Lee Yi Kyung's character of the policeman was toned down (except for the Stella arc, which I will address later). This actor usually plays characters that are over-the-top, so it was good to see him more serious.
4) The cases, for the most part, were interesting.
5) They didn't try to force a romance between the leads (though it felt like they were trying to go in that direction)
What I didn't like:
1) You can make a drinking game out of the number of times the line "Don't write a novel" was said. Overused is putting it mildly.
2) It's been a long time since I hated a female lead character so much. Not the acting, the character. Eun Sol is a brand-new prosecutor - early on, she looked like she was just trying too hard, but she based her decisions on "feelings" all the time. She says specifically that she became a prosecutor because she watched a lot of US tv shows (not a good reason to begin with), but she goes to a crime scene and moves the body!?! If you've only watched one crime drama in your life, you know that you don't do this. When she questioned suspects, she was always yelling at them and revealing things that you wouldn't reveal to a suspect. Then she complains that it's not like in US tv shows! She was always arguing with Baek Beom, even disagreeing with his findings. She arrested people without evidence. She took a drug cocktail (that had killed a student) to see what kind of reaction she would have, which gave her hallucinations, then asked if that would prove that the student had hallucinations! She could have died, and it's not like she didn't know what could happen! For me, this character never improved much.
3) Baek Beom - call me superficial, but I didn't find this actor attractive at all. It seemed to be that he would have been better cast as a bad guy. As for the character, he was a tortured soul, but there was absolutely nothing likeable about him and I didn't see improvement in him by the end of the series. He had no respect for anyone, was always yelling, and I don't think any self-respecting person would continue to work with him.
4) Stella and the Stella-Soo Ho arc. She was written in to be some sort of brilliant comedy relief and it didn't work at all. There have been shows when a character inserts English into a conversation periodically and it really works. Here, it sounded clunky. And her and the detective, that whole thing should have been left on the cutting room floor. It was a complete waste of time.
5) I'll put all the following under lazy writing, procedures, etc. a) My biggest problem was with the episodes concerning MERS. One of the forensic investigators runs out of the autopsy room because she's afraid. Everyone that has been in contact needs to be quarantined, I get it. So, they lock down the building to try to find her. (Leads are now locked in the autopsy room together and Eun Sol was even worse in these episodes). Many, many people wandering around, calling out her name, and no one thinks to look in the bathroom!?! Then they let her leave in an ambulance? Another prosecutor runs to the NFS to see how Eun Sol is - they were on lockdown! A group of them left the building to investigate something - but they were on lockdown. b) Putting on protective shoe booties and gloves before getting to a crime scene. These should be put on right before entering the scene itself, because you are increasing the cross-contamination the longer you wear them, plus they are a fall risk, especially if you are wearing them over four-inch heels like Eun Sol was prone to do. c) The ME was checking someone's pulse using his thumb. You never do that, there's a pulse in your thumb and you won't get an accurate reading. d) Unless things are completely different in Korea, autopsies are done using a Y incision, not a straight incision. e) Multiple cases of arresting someone without evidence, yet other times there's evidence and they don't arrest. e) Baek Beom's girlfriend that he thought died 10 years ago - Baek Beom's father had her kept alive all this time in secret. Why? Then she woke up for a minute just to die. Why? f) Baek Beom's best friend that died. He was your best friend, yet you didn't know that he had a younger brother?! I could probably continue on this for days, but if you have read this far, you get my point.
Should you watch it? Everyone else in the world seemed to like it, but for me, I can't recommend it.
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Epic thiller with a touch of romance
I'm simply in love with this show. This goes on to show how important forensics are in deciphering the truth. I simply love doctor baek bom. You won't even realise that he's not a real doctor. I also love Eun sol, the prosecutor. She has a warm heart, and she is the only one who understands the cold hearted doctor. I really loved their chemistry in season 1 and was disappointed upon seeing no such interaction in season 2. The fact that they do care for each other in a not so conventional way is what adds a new dimension to the story. I am really hoping to see them end up together in season 3Was this review helpful to you?
What made this show soooooo Goood for me is that the story unfolds with a clear end goal in mind(not that we are necessarily made aware of what that end goal is), I did not see many throw away scenes. Every scene, plot point and character thread is somehow carried through the whole season and is addressed in some small or large manner.
However before you make any judgement based on lack of character development, be aware that this story ark was written to take place over multiple seasons, thus meaning you will not have all story and plot threads wrapped up in a neat little bow by the end of the season.
The only negatives that I have regarding this is show is that the main character, does not seem to have any true agency or clear drive, if anything it feels as though she is just there most of the time to put all the other characters hard work into a file and then use said file in token court/interegation scenes .
Beyond that the show is interesting and fun watch. Everything feels so organic in its development that I can help but binge it.
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Brilliant!
This is one of the best Korean dramas I've ever watched. I think forensics dramas tend to be quite rare in the K-drama industry, but they were extremely popular in early Hong Kong dramas. I loved the entire concept of the show, the cases were extremely interesting and thrilling. I thought thatSeason 2 was even better than the first.This drama is really quite underrated and I think that it's a hidden gem that you all should recommend to your friends. My only complaint is that the female lead is a little annoying at the start.
In summary:
What i liked - story, concept
What i disliked - annoying female lead
Star of the show: Baek Beom, played by Jung Jae-Young (season 1), Jang Cheol, played by No Min-Woo (season 2)
Rating: 9.5/10
Watch to be amazed
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