NotMuch
It’s a comedy, so if you are looking for a serious execution of the premise, you’re at the wrong place. But if you are someone who wants to see a character with a severe lack of self-identity that it’s almost painful in its humour, like getting mercilessly tickled – this is a drama for you. Because going into it with the wrong expectations can kill the experience.
The plot is almost like a cat and mouse chase, with a twist: an innocent man confuses himself as a serial killer, leading to a series of events that will help capture the true psychopath. What makes the story a 9/10 though? The characters, smart writing, and a great pace (mostly).
The writer tried to be meticulous. It is an almost absurd premise – before it aired, I dreaded that the whole drama would fall in on itself. Yet the situations that led to the mistaken identity – the mental state of Dong Shik, the people surrounding him, and the little intrusion of happenstance – made me see the possibility of it happening to some poor soul in the real world. After all, it is not all that absurd for someone with a poor mental health (thus low self-esteem) and little emotional support to latch on to an identity that isn’t theirs after losing their memories if it makes sense to them. If the writer can make you accept that, the rest of the story flows really well.
The characters were very fun. Yoon Shi Yoon pulled off Dong Shik so convincingly, it’s beautiful. His expressions, internal monologue, infamous psycho eye-shift, frustration, and – good God – sheer stupidity was a pleasure to witness. Dong Shik was funny without trying; he was so caught up in his identity of a psychopath, he created the most exasperating, slap-your-knee hilarious scenarios. Then there was Bo Kyung – Jung In Sun (the actress who plays Bo Kyung) is small, but she makes you believe she is a police officer who is more than capable of catching criminals, which she most certainly was. She is intuitive, smart, and funny in her own little ways. Then there is Mister Psychopath himself – Park Sung Hoon is so good a playing psycho characters, it’s scary (until I see the reassuring behind the scenes where he is an absolute sweetheart). His psycho laugh is my favourite. He is not a character that has much to add to the comedy, but he most certainly adds to the intensity of the drama by making it darker, which gives it the balance it needed. The ones whose antics and unexpected heroism will make you laugh the most, all while being crucial to the plot, are Dong Shik and Bo Kyung’s sidekicks, arguably one of the best I have seen: Taek Soo and Chil Sung. They did not disappoint. At all.
I want to commend the writer again for giving the characters little eccentricities which were not cheesy and were not wasted (thankfully). For example, Dong Shik’s obsession with horror movies kicked his imagination in various places; Bo Kyung’s hallucinations (which were induced whenever her subconscious detected she was doing something wrong) gave us insight into her thought process and how intuitive she was while using it to move the plot along, and so on.
The only reason I deducted a point from the plot is because it dragged a bit around episode 9 and 10. Furthermore, the last two episodes were enjoyable, but I still feel that they lacked something, though I cannot pinpoint it. Still, the rewatch value is high in this one! And the BGM really gives it a character of its own.
The plot is almost like a cat and mouse chase, with a twist: an innocent man confuses himself as a serial killer, leading to a series of events that will help capture the true psychopath. What makes the story a 9/10 though? The characters, smart writing, and a great pace (mostly).
The writer tried to be meticulous. It is an almost absurd premise – before it aired, I dreaded that the whole drama would fall in on itself. Yet the situations that led to the mistaken identity – the mental state of Dong Shik, the people surrounding him, and the little intrusion of happenstance – made me see the possibility of it happening to some poor soul in the real world. After all, it is not all that absurd for someone with a poor mental health (thus low self-esteem) and little emotional support to latch on to an identity that isn’t theirs after losing their memories if it makes sense to them. If the writer can make you accept that, the rest of the story flows really well.
The characters were very fun. Yoon Shi Yoon pulled off Dong Shik so convincingly, it’s beautiful. His expressions, internal monologue, infamous psycho eye-shift, frustration, and – good God – sheer stupidity was a pleasure to witness. Dong Shik was funny without trying; he was so caught up in his identity of a psychopath, he created the most exasperating, slap-your-knee hilarious scenarios. Then there was Bo Kyung – Jung In Sun (the actress who plays Bo Kyung) is small, but she makes you believe she is a police officer who is more than capable of catching criminals, which she most certainly was. She is intuitive, smart, and funny in her own little ways. Then there is Mister Psychopath himself – Park Sung Hoon is so good a playing psycho characters, it’s scary (until I see the reassuring behind the scenes where he is an absolute sweetheart). His psycho laugh is my favourite. He is not a character that has much to add to the comedy, but he most certainly adds to the intensity of the drama by making it darker, which gives it the balance it needed. The ones whose antics and unexpected heroism will make you laugh the most, all while being crucial to the plot, are Dong Shik and Bo Kyung’s sidekicks, arguably one of the best I have seen: Taek Soo and Chil Sung. They did not disappoint. At all.
I want to commend the writer again for giving the characters little eccentricities which were not cheesy and were not wasted (thankfully). For example, Dong Shik’s obsession with horror movies kicked his imagination in various places; Bo Kyung’s hallucinations (which were induced whenever her subconscious detected she was doing something wrong) gave us insight into her thought process and how intuitive she was while using it to move the plot along, and so on.
The only reason I deducted a point from the plot is because it dragged a bit around episode 9 and 10. Furthermore, the last two episodes were enjoyable, but I still feel that they lacked something, though I cannot pinpoint it. Still, the rewatch value is high in this one! And the BGM really gives it a character of its own.
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