Mediocre at best

The Killer's Shopping List has an intriguing premise and a really interesting first episode, but the moments of nail-biting suspense are few and far between and the comedy elements generally fall flat, giving a few light chuckles here and there. The main reason many of us might have watched this show to begin with was for Kwang Soo, and to give him credit, he does act really well here., though his character was sometimes quite annoying. He is supposedly a genius with an amazing memory, but he barely ever uses his talents, which is such a waste. There are a few other good performances, but otherwise the acting gave more daytime soap vibes than thrilling drama. Perhaps that was the writer's fault? The story is a mishmash of different genres (comedy, suspense, thriller, slice of life, coming of age, romance, to name but a few), and as the saying goes: a jack of all trades is a master of none. As mentioned, the serious nature of the plot meant that the comedy couldn't go too "out there", meaning much of it was rather bland and forgettable. The suspense meandered between small moments of tension, suddenly washed out by the more slice of life elements, leaving me often not really caring about the whodunnit aspect. And speaking of that: it was kind of obvious who the killer was going to be. Most people in the comments section of the site I watched it on had figured it out the moment the character appeared on screen. The red herrings were as obvious as the real killer, whose motives, once revealed, were unsatisfyingly hollow. I was hoping there would at least be some twists and turns, but the plot ended up being rather shallow and uninspired. I almost dropped this halfway through, but as it was only 8 episodes, I decided to just plough on through. Admittedly, the second half is better than the first, but I was still left surprised by how such a short show - a murder mystery at that - could feel so slow paced.

I managed to get it through it all, which usually means the show is at least a 5/10. I added an extra point just for Kwang Soo. I really missed him on Running Man and I want him to get more gigs, hopefully on shows better than this.

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