Catch the Ghost (2019)

What I loved: The main couple, and the other subway cops.

What I liked: The case-of-the-week format.

What I was meh about: The main plot. It was draggy in the middle, but kept me engaged in early and late episodes.

What I hated: Ha Ma Ri, the metro police in general (they're terrible at their jobs).

The driving force of this drama, for me, has been the personal stories of Go Ji Suk and Yoo Ryung. Both of them are very warm-hearted people who have had to take care of their disabled loved ones all on their own, so they both have experienced a lot of suffering. The case-of-the-week format worked for me as well, with each case having Ji Suk warming to Ryung's style of doing things more and more, as he comes to understand her drive to save people.

The main plot is admittedly weak, because the police seem ridiculously incompetent at finding clues to the Subway Ghost case. The way it's written, without Ryung's help they would never have figured out who the killer was. Lieutenant Ha Ma Ri is lousy at her job, because chooses to be a hateful bitch rather than be a good detective. Ma Ri ignores Ryung's pleas to investigate her sister's disappearance, as well as her theory that the killer used the subway tunnels. She also finds every opportunity to verbally spite Ryung and put her down because Ji Suk falls for Ryung instead of coming back to HER. Ma Ri could have been a great character, but instead she's just plain hateful, an incompetent detective with an inferiority complex.

I like this drama a lot, despite its issues. Some of the lines, like Ryung saying it was her sister's fault (if you've seen it you know what I'm talking about), made no sense at all, and irritated me because it had been established that due to her sister's Autism, her mental state was about the level of a two year old. How can a two year old be to blame for what happened? I can understand why the villain blamed her – he was out of his senses with grief and anger – but I don't understand why anyone else would blame her.
But 90% of the time I really enjoyed watching this drama. So I will recommend it to those who are a fan of slow-burn love stories that have a lot of spark, because the chemistry between Moon Geun Young (Yoo Ryung) and Kim Sun Ho (Go Ji Suk) is amazing in this drama.

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For starters, I am very picky with my dramas and I'm hardly able to sit through most of them if they don't have my fancy. However I do checkout a lot of new dramas and when I read the story and cast for Catch the Ghost, I immediately knew I would binge watch the whole show in a few days. And that is exactly what happened lmao. I waited for the show to be completely aired so that i could watch it in one go but couldn't help myself so I started watching it when only 2 eps were left to be aired in Korea. Somehow I still ended up having to wait for the last two eps as I watched the 14 eps in 2 days. The wait killed me...
Now for my review-
So the things I absolutely love about this drama:

Acting: Kim Seon Ho and Moon Geun Young!
I was so happy with both of their performances. Kim Seon Ho is such a good actor and he had my fancy ever since I saw his mini drama called You drive me crazy (another amazing drama) and he did complete justice to his character of a man who always tries to stay out of trouble, but finds his sense of duty after meeting Yoo Ryung.
Do I even need to say anything about one of Koreas most prestigious and critically acclaimed actress's, Moon Geun Young. She plays both Yoo Ryung and Yoo Jin really well and sometimes you'd feel like theyre actually being played by different actresses because of her versatility in both roles. The chemistry between KSH and MGY both in reel and real life is out of the charts for me, I had a LOT of butterflies, however dont expect a lot of skinship because there ISN'T a lot. (Side note: watch their interviews and the BTS of the drama, they're really cute uwu) The other subway officers are hilarious too. The "villains" acted well too and had us fooled for a good amount of time.

Story: For me the writing did get a little shabby at times and was sometimes stretched, but i find that to be the case for most investigative dramas. Catch the ghost is a breath of fresh air in terms of crime and investigative dramas as humour is also a huge part of it. Even if you're not impressed by the story, you'll forgive it as the humour makes up for it and doesn't leave you bored at any point. There are a lot of twists and turns so it's never monotonous at any point. The drama is very gripping towards the beginning and the end, although the few eps in the middle feel a little dragged

Music: The ost's are pretty good although none of them leave a huge impact on you. In saying this I dont mean theyre not good songs, I have a few of them in my music playlists too, for a matter of fact. The bgm isnt over the top which is also good.

Rewatch value: I would watch it again but maybe not for the story as the cats already out of the bag and I know the killer, but for the acting, humour and the chemistry between the leads.

Things I didnt like too much: The side characters like Ma Ri, Woo Hyuk and Won Chul (the PR rep of police) never caught my interest and were really good at making me annoyed. I didn't care for Ma Ri and her side story and was not able to sympathise with her. Sometimes, the characters did really stupid things and had the suspects escape multiple times becuase of their foolishness, which was very annoying. The metro team in general was so incompetent and it seemed like they were only able to crack the case because of Yoo Ryung. In the 2 years they solved the subway ghost case, they didnt have ANY strong leads and quite frankly did absolutely nothing towards the case, while the subway team solved it in just a week...

But overall I will recommend it to anyone looking for something entertaining with good acting and a new story. 9.5/10

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