Somebody

Oddly shaped and weirdly paced

The premise of Somebody is captivating. A serial killer, a psychological thriller, triggering storyline of flawed characters, a doomed romance, a technically flowered murder plot. Yet everything is wrong with it.

I dragged myself through episode 3 until I just couldn't bear it anymore. The pace was incredibly slow at mutliple times and made me want to drop this at episode 2 itself. With uniqueness in every corner, from LGBTQ characters to a unique female lead, Somebody still failed to impress me with its execution.

The immersive acting is the only thing that is good in this series. The production value and masterful acting of the actors is wasted at a convulated script and bitter direction.

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"psychic" series

There is no doubt that this is a "psychic" series, suspenseful and violent (you need to have a high level of concentration to understand the small nuances). The series gives a glimpse into the dark side of the era of artificial intelligence (AI), and the abuse of dating sites. A glimpse into the difficulty of Asperger's diagnosed people to read social and environmental situations. It has some social messages, concerning the question of what is relative morality.
The casting is perfect, the acting of all the actors is professional and perfect +++.
Clearly erotic scenes that are not typical of Korean series (I don't know how the actors stood it during filming, haha)
There were scenes that were borderline illogical (in my eyes) that damaged the credibility of the plot, this is not a fantasy series, the plot is based on reality and therefore it bothered me personally.

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A serie not for everyone

This series is definitely not for everyone. It can leave you feeling uneasy, wondering "What did I just watch?" For me, the question quickly became "Why did I love it ?" and in my opinion, that's exactly why it's so good. And also why so many people can hate it.

I've watched it twice. The first time left me completely unsettled (What did I just Watch ? ). The second time, I tried to understand the characters a little better. My advice? Don't try to understand everything. Instead, look at the cracks in each character. That's where the series became truly fascinating for me.

The pacing is very slow—REALLY slow. But it's not a flaw; it's intentional. The story takes its time to build an oppressive, unhealthy atmosphere that gradually gets under your skin. The discomfort isn't something that happens only during the violent (or intimate) scenes—it's present almost all the time.

Yes, there is a lot of explicit sexual content, especially for a K-drama. They are part of the disturbing atmosphere and reveal the characters' relationships with intimacy, control, and loneliness.

The soundtrack deserves a special mention. It doesn't simply accompany the story—it reinforces the oppressive atmosphere and traps you inside it.

The cast is excellent, especially Kim Young Kwang as Yun Oh. He delivers a chilling performance without constantly relying on exaggerated expressions or violence. What makes Yun Oh so unsettling is how unpredictable he is. At times, he almost seems detached from the world around him, yet tiny glimpses of humanity appear and disappear before you can fully grasp them. That contrast made the character unforgettable to me.
Kang Hae Lim (playing Sum) is really good and also as disturbing, because she's disconnected from the world in her own way.
Kim Yong Ji (Mok Won) and Kim Su Yeon (Gi-Eun) orbit around this strange duo, much like we do as viewers, slowlly getting pulled into their unsettling dance.
Despite sharing the screen with an established actor like Kim Young Kwang—whose presence is impossible to ignore—the three younger actors delivers equally convincing performances.

The more I stopped trying to judge the characters and simply observed them, the more fascinating the series became.

So if you're looking for a fast-paced thriller full of twists every five minutes, this probably isn't for you. But if you enjoy psychological stories that prioritize atmosphere, ambiguity, and deeply unsettling characters, Somebody is absolutely worth watching.

Somebody doesn't ask you to solve its mystery. It asks you to observe its characters.

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Bitter is the disappointment ....

I had seen the start of a review from my friend on a FB group we are in. I realised she had mixed feelings, but I liked the premise of the drama and thought it could be interesting. Sadly, on returning after my viewing and reading what she had said, yes, she hated it and she was right. That's OK - we don't always like the same things, and I would still have wanted to check for myself.
I made it to half way through Episode 4 before absconding. I'm 67, life's too short.
Disappointing, though - intriguing premise with good potential, and the actors were all great, and somewhat beautiful, which never hurts. If even I had been left in charge of the writing it could have been better!
Instead women are used throughout in the tired old trope of "thrillers" from the last decade to engineer themselves into positions of danger for the so-called thrill of us seeing them nearly get killed. With - to add insult to injury - bead lighting and bad music. The whole plot line was littered with fake after fake after fake. Shoddy nonsense and sad to say this cast was wasted on it.
The plot depends entirely on people making ridiculous decisions and behaving in completely unbelievable ways; on the total inadequacy of the police "investigations"; on random characters doing random things; and on the uncharacteristic ability of FL to kill someone with a razorblade - I just don't believe it's that easy, even if you have had a fetish about killing since you were a child.
I had hoped that at least a good part of the plotline would cover measures taken by the three women to catch the serial killer, but, here, too there was nothing but ineptitude - despite one being a cop, one a genius, and one for goodness' sake a shaman, with "powers".
I also thought that this was a very very sad, prejudiced and unrealistic depiction of someone with Asbergers syndrome. People who live on the spectrum of this disorder face enough prejudice and other issues when trying to build relationships and a life - this did them a disservice which is just shameful.
For me ... 2/10 - pretty people, good actors ... maybe squeeze out a 3 for the presence of nice broad shoulders and a pert bottom. I'm 67 but I'm not dead.

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Misunderstood

I'n only writing this after reading lots of reviews that bash some of the plot choices they chose to make in the drama. I think the direction of the story and character development is partly misunderstood by most people. I do share some opinions but i want to lay out other possible meanings.

The story feels quite purposely made to be open to interpretation, but it also explains a lot about the characters in a way that it's not directly conveyed, but rather "alluded" unto, and it can easily be missed depending on how you take it. Let's tackle different points.

Yuno's victims: it's easy to question why did his victims ever go to meet a stranger that they knew absolutely nothing about. Yet this does happen in real life. Hell, even i am guilty of this. So it's not that unbelievable. Besides, Yuno might have tried to lure other people that were not shown maybe because his tactics failed and they were smart enough not to pursue him, so they never fell to be his victims. Maybe they only showed us the women he succeeded into luring, and coincidentally, only the women that were lonely and horny enough to take such a risk.

Yuno's backstory: this is most commonly misunderstood as something that was not dwelved into enough, and while it's true, they actually gave us important information during a scene where the bestfriend trio was talking about how mentally deranged individuals work. They talked about childhood trauma being closely connected to one's mental health and such, but they also said that some people just never want to change, be it traumatic childhood or not. This could very well be our peak into Yuno's past. We know his mother abandoned him, but that can be the reason he became a sociopath as well as a fruitless detail, as we know too little to establish if it was traumatic enough. Maybe Yuno was born with sociopathic tendencies that were only accelerated by certain things happening such as his mother's abandonment, or the first time he's shown killing a woman by choking her during sex. Maybe his mom abandoned him exactly because she feared being around her son, so it was not a trauma induced disorder at all. Or maybe his mom (or dad) absolutely abused the shit out of him and they made him be what he is (was) today. Could be any of these.

Gieun: this is the one thing i agree with as her being dumb asf. I just kept forgetting that she was a cop because she made choices so dumb i hardly believe anyone would make, let alone a cop, such as the second encounter with Yuno. She really thought she did something when she showed up the second time alone in her scary wheelchair, ready to confront the very same FLEXIBLE man that let her out to die. Great thinking. I couldn't empathize with her.

Shaman lesbian: while i get that that was thrown into the plot randomly, i feel like it adds to the realism of the show. It shows that people have unconventional upbringings, it makes it feel less "planned", if it makes sense? Just like real people. She goes out clubbing, she goes with many women, she is dedicated to her shaman lifestyle be it for family reasons or whatev, that's fine. This is a character that has a life outside of her usefulness to the main story. That alone deepens her character. I felt like the very fact that she was a lesbian but opposingly also a shaman, showed her character well.

Besides these misunderstood points, i can only criticize some of the dialogue. I get it - it's made to be driven by silence. Subtlety in the acting, in their expressions. Even selfinterpretation. But sometimes i feel like they overdid this side, only to take a lot from the dialogue, leaving it almost superficial and nonsensical at times.

But again, this can also be interpreted as it being intentional. Yuno and Kim Sum fell in love not over talking for hours and hours about all kinds of things, but over saying only what is necessary, and most importantly, they fell in love over recognizing their similarities and shared needs. They needed each other for what they lacked and what they had. They needed each other because they were both alone, because they were both misunderstood by the rest of the world. It's something deeper than saying "its unrealistic how they fell in love, they barely even talked."

Overall, i think this was a fine drama. The actors showed impeccable acting, as the acting was what held this drama up. The ost had some memorable moments for me, like when they played that beautiful cover of Scarborough fair. I liked how they managed to fit that song into a sadder, more grim rendition.
My score is not a 10 because of the poor dialogue in certain parts (where it was needed) and the weird ass blunder by Gieun. And also because i did not think it was THAT great of a story.

Thank you for reading my take on it.

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Subjectively dreadful

This review is not a synopsis of the storyline, but rather a rant about the cinematography.

While I personally found the story itself interesting, and the characters initially intriguing, the whole show was awfully produced. From unnecessarily long, one-cut scenes (imagine a regular show where a scene sometimes feels long-winded, slow and awkward, then multiply that by 10) and a lot of silent, eventually extremely boring moments, each episode became exceedingly more dreadful. I understand the producers were attempting to create an eery, uncomfortable feeling with this, but they dragged each scene on for a lot longer than needed. This type of cinematography might be perfect to some (few) people, but I would argue the average person would lose interest rather quick and find it annoying.

I found myself yawning a lot and skipping 2-3 minutes every time there was a sex scene or emotional scene, because basically nothing was said or done for most of the duration that could not be summarised in the first 10 seconds. It's not that it even made me feel awkward (which it did), it just felt so insanely and dreadfully boring.

The show had so much potential and the two main characters were well-written, although sometimes irrational and confusing (I assume that's what psychopaths are like and the producer wanted to convey that). I feel it's a shame it got butchered by an awful attempt at being different and "edgy".

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for those with a distinct taste

*Contains Spoilers*
I liked the beginning. It was very promising and hitting the right spots in my brain. The whole drama in general is for people with a distinct taste. It is as someone else described it "poetic", it has an appreciation for art and detail. I felt like certain details were there for a reason even if not directly explainable. Toward the middle of the series I started getting a bit lost. I loved the romantic aspect of the lead male and female but I wished for something good to come out of it instead of taking it into such a dark tragic ending. Maybe because I am biased towards romance I expected something rather positive to come out of their relationship. Unfortunately the exact opposite happened. Then again, their romance LACKED emotion.
A lot of the time I felt odd watching this drama, it is almost as if the writer wanted us to view it from the female lead's point of view. Her mind, her distinct way of thinking, and perception of things. I did not feel comfortable watching it but I did not want to stop either.
I wish the drama was 16 episodes instead of 8, with more life to it, better turns of events, less simplicity, more sophistication, a rather happy ending than a tragic cold one, and more romance than emotionlessness... this is probably too much to ask for and it is never going to happen.
Now that I think about it, I just wish to see the two lead actors or one of them in a whole other romantic drama instead. I don't think this one was meant to be romantic anyway.
As for the serial killer, I wish we got more into his mind and personality. Like why did he suddenly turn into this person? a parentless childhood is not enough for me as a viewer to understand all of this violence and thirst for blood.
AS FOR THE ENDING?
What was THAAAT... I mean I saw it from a mile away that she is going to be the one to kill him, though I thought she would kill herself right after him. Staying alive after killing him was not that explainable... because all the time we saw her she seemed to genuinely like him. I know they might have wanted the viewer to be caught by surprise that she kills him after showing all this support/ liking for him, but I was not surprised. All that time I was wishing they would not go for this typical ending. I can see where they wanted to go with this whole drama but I feel like they did not have enough time to bring it to life, the writer could have added a lot more too. :(

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Well…

I Watched it 2 months ago and all I can say is, is that I truly think this is one of the most forgettable kdrama’s of this year. It’s slow, but not in the good type of slow. When the show gets interesting it then just brings your back interest down. Every woman that the killer hooks up with have no personality and all are just alike imo. The detectives are stupid. I don’t understand the ending at all…and sm other shit I can’t even put into words. I personally feel like the writers had many ideas they wanted to implement into the show without thinking how it would work yk.

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Just Too Much

I’m American, so it’s not like I’ve never seen all the R-rated stuff in nearly everything produced over here. But I’ve had enough of all that, which is why I mostly watch Kdramas now.

I’m unhappy to see any westernization of the genre, but I’m not saying that these types of dramas can’t be made. I AM saying that anything with the degree of depicted animal cruelty and disturbingly vivid forced intercourse needs a substantially stronger warning about content than I understood from the rather tame description.

Yes, I know that shows put a little blurb top left at the beginning to list the possibly offensive stuff to the audience, but with Kdramas, I’ve never felt like I had to actually pay much attention to those. Guess that’s changing…

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