This one is surprisingly tough for me to review. The gist of it is that there are some truly amazing acting performances, and the scenes of interviewing serial killers are enthralling, but outside of that I didn’t find too much unique about this show. I’ll be honest: this review is mostly a list of my complaints, since other reviews are so positive about the show I feel the need to talk about some negatives.
Kim Nam Gil undeniably deserved an award for his performance here. The degree to which you believe that this is a man who has seen the worst of human depravity is remarkable, and you can see this heaviness weigh on him and how it increases throughout the show. It is also intriguing to learn about the inception of criminal profiling, although to be honest I have my doubts. Occasionally in the show there were times when I thought it actually didn’t help catch criminals all that much. It’s not that their assessments weren’t accurate, but it sometimes only helped affirm a suspect was guilty when they had already been caught. I also thought it was kind of weird that being trained in psychology or psychiatry wasn’t required, although I’m sure that’s a thing nowadays. Another thing that bugged me a bit was how Kim Nam Gil’s character was a little too perfect. He was not only empathetic and smart, he also happened to be a good fighter. The fact this is adapted from an autobiography probably helps explain the extreme positive light. Speaking of fighting, I don’t love how they handled the one female detective. The kind of weird power dynamic between her and Kim Nam Gil’s character was uncomfortable and I don’t like how they undermined her competency. The autobiography origin of this story also probably explains the overall structure of the story. It has multiple serial killers, so there are basically story arcs with each killer. Since this is a 16 episode show and not a monster of the week type show, I found the pacing a little off. And to be honest, it was a bit repetitive at times. Towards the end I wasn’t motivated to finish because there wasn’t a bit culmination of things to look forward to, just another serial killer among the list of ones we have already seen. Ultimately what I think makes this show great are the amazing acting performances, and the interview scenes with the serial killers were fantastic. I don’t think this show is bad, it’s fairly good, but I’ve seen enough thriller/mystery serial killer type stuff that this didn’t do anything new for me (despite the show trying to do the profiling angle).