ShortCircuit

If he deletes those photos - even one of them - it's over. It wasn't enough to just get infatuated with some random dude (which means he could get infatuated again), but if he erases Oh Aew's existence from his past... he's unredeemable.

But I guess he won't delete them. He still doesn't get a pass - he particularly didn't care about Oh Aew's feelings even after he had promised there was nothing for him to worry about... If the director wanted a relationship, Teh would've been fine with it.

That's a level of trust breaching I myself could never get past. I hope in the last episode they won't smooth things over - better a clean break and some hope for the future than a relationship built on what-ifs waiting to happen.

PS Props to both MLs for their acting in this episode - I felt each of Oh Aew's tears (I noticed he cries beautifully even from the first series), but also Teh's level of hormones rising each time he saw the director. They're both rather good actors, and now I'm torn. I liked Krit better in the first one, but the script isn't too generous to him this time. Billkin was more lucky in that department LOL.

If things remain unsolved... could there be a third series?!

After ep 4....

No, there's a Flower Demon/Fairy (hopefully I don't mangle the actual title) that was attracted to people reciting beautiful poetry. She would reward those who recited something really good with a shower of flowers/petals, and chase off those who recited bad poetry. IIRC from the novel, WWX actually deliberately drove her out of her mind with bad poetry, LOL, because well - he's WWX. Also IIRC, she had one of the Yin Metal pieces, but it was taken from her by the Wen Clan at some point, and her garden where poets would be welcome was left barren as she fled.

In the drama, much of this is left out, and mostly the scenes are mixed with the drama of the clan that Xue Yang took personal revenge on. The most that suggests anything having to do with the Flower Demon is that rain of petals falling on LWJ while the people are crowding to hear some poetry recital.

The statue in the beginning is a qi-consuming goddess that people created through centuries of worship, she has nothing to do with the Yin Metal at all - or with the Flower Demon either. In the first two eps, she's not even there at all, actually, but as an illusion made up in order to create more chaos in the region by someone who really REALLY wants chaos to attract some rogue spirit to that place... in order to maybe get offered and accept a new body - *hint, hint*.

Have you watched the chibi donghua yet? It's called Mo Dao Zu Shi Q, and it's made up of really short episodes - some 3 minutes of actual content, and then the OP and ED songs. There's a whole episode dedicated to WWX annoying the Flower Demon and LWJ saving his a** yet again, LOL. It's very cute :)

Edit: this episode, actually (there's EN translation available). All episodes basically involve some kind of flirting between WWX and LWJ that had to stay out of the drama, because of censoring. You have been warned :D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Heyn1-sKwBk

There are more than 3 (at least one more, is implied, is with Xue Yang, because he never gave it away - and there might be more, can't tell you in order not to spoil it.) One piece was with the Flower Demon (the one who would throw flowers / petals at poets who recited something interesting for her) but she was forced to flee and the Yin Metal was robbed by the Wen clan. I don't remember how precisely they put it in the drama (I guess they linked it with the destruction of the clan manor by Xue Yang and skipped the explanation about the poetess). The only part I remember is the petals thrown around Lan WangJi while he, WWX and NHS were looking for the pieces of Yin Metal themselves. Anyway, WRH never got all the pieces and he never stopped looking for more, but XY had disappeared at some point and he never really knew precisely how many of them there were, either.

I learned a few things off this article - one, that YT is a media channel for right-wing politics in SK (that wasn't something I really expected, given the supposed open-for-all media YT is supposed to be; is SK really all that right-wing? By which I don't mean alt-right or anything slanderous. It's just that I expected young people - who tend to be those who follow people on YT and/or have their own channels - to be more of a left leaning kind mostly due to them being young, I admit.)

And two, that I learned my maths wrong, LOL. If they were married in 2012, haven't they been married for 9 years now? Article says it's 6. Maybe it's a typo.

As to the rumours - all marriages have their rocky places. If anything of the rumours are true - either the infidelity or the divorce threats - it's their own problems to work through. I do expect this to be some kind of misshaped publicity stunt from someone. Oh well...

After the first episode - I was almost afraid to start it, because the first part/season was great and I didn't want it spoiled.

But it looks like it's going to be a good sequel, keeping fingers crossed. The only thing missing so far is a great song, like Skyline was for ITSAY. Skyline is on my permanent playlist, I hope we get at least a remix of it if not a new good song.

KYG is really on the point at the end. Someone who strayed once will stray again. If they ever make a second season of it, it'll probably be about the downfall of DCK.

I didn't expect to like this as much (even with the strange veer into action flick for two eps, lol, that came out of the blind side (eps 13-14 or thereabouts, when KYG started beating teams of thugs everywhere he went out of the blue - and winning most of the time too.) Which reminds me - it took me most of the series to think about how KYG's name sounds in English... I mean, Young Goon. Kind of funny, though there's probably no problem with it in Korean. When he started kicking people's a**es, his name kept coming to my mind, LOL.

Overall, I wish they'd stayed with the lone killer thing and not make it so over-reaching. It's creepier when it's one deranged mind, but becomes too improbable with a whole fleet of ready-made serial killers working inside the police as vigilantes.

But I liked it anyway, so there's that.

Second season, is there a chance of it? The acting - particularly from the two MLs - was phenomenal, I enjoyed the cameos, and I kept noticing how elegantly Kim Hyun Joo walks, which she did, so many, many times. I like her voice too. Too bad her storyline with the revenge on the thumb cutter got changed into a whole conspiracy.

So, I want a second season with the same cast... It's becoming all the rage lately, so there's still hope.

Done with it...

At this point in time I'm willing to bet the killer is the guard who keeps pestering KYG whenever he returns home. KYG remembered the face of the killer wrong when the memory was fresh and he would have definitely remembered his own father, I guess he could be remembering DCK's face wrong too after so many years.

But I like the story so far. If DCK turns out to really be the killer, props to the actor :D DCK really seems a committed do-gooder so far :D

After episode 8...

The Good Detective, Mad Dog, Nobody Knows (bromance isn't between the leads, the lead is a female detective - highly recommended, though!), Signal, Tunnel, Time Between Dog and Wolf, Midnight Runners (a movie) - for starters. I don't know if the bromance tag is used in their description, but this is an important aspect in these dramas/movies.

Myself, I like the found family trope too - so if you're inclined to branch out in that direction, then maybe give a shot to Healer, Save Me, Bad Guys, The Uncanny Counter and Life on Mars. TUC is more of a superpowers story than detective though - still good.

If you define romance by kissing and/or sex scenes, then yes, this is not a romance. If you define romance by everything else romance entails, then yes, this is one of the best romances in dramas yet.

One of TU's subplots is the subtle, sweet, passionate, painful, tragic, hopeful and soulmate-level romance, IMHO. But there's also a lot more than this to the drama - give it a chance to develop some. Or better yet, just in case, try the novel first, and if you like it, trust the drama fans that the adaptation rises to their expectations.

I'd tell you to watch HIP not for the leads but the SML... but can't explain why without spoiling it. Whenever you feel like it, you could give it a shot - it's more than it looks to be. :)

No clifhangers on the main plot. There's no way the villain is going to be transported to season 2 (unless in flashbacks). It has to have a whole new plotline, and as this is a detective story, there's plenty of police plotlines going 'round :)

Hopefully they do as good a job as in the first season. Keeping fingers crossed.

Just started Watcher, kind of a similar vibe to Beyond Evil, though it might have some lower marks in the end, don't know yet (too soon to tell).

The Good Detective might be a good try, less serious in mood but also good two-detective dynamics between the MCs.

Nobody Knows is a great series, more psychological than whodunnit, but amazing chemistry between MCs and support cast.

Bad Guys (the original, not the sequel or the movie) is great, too.

Maybe Mad Dog, too, just for the teamwork and Woo Do Hwan (in case you haven't watched anything with WDH in it).

Voice, too - the first season is the best one IMHO. I haven't lost hope with the 4th one (yet to come), but well, after 2&3... (first is its own beast, the second and third change the ML from Jang Hyuk to someone else and the mood changes completely.

Edit and if you want to have your heart broken in a supposedly light-hearted, paranormal, idol-MCed drama, try He is Psychometric.

The first few eps are the ones that either catch and hold you, or not. They set the dynamics between the characters, and later on, when there's a bit - or more - of politicking - the dynamics is supposed to tide you over. IMHO you're supposed to empathize with either of the MCs (because the serial killer is not a main focus in the story) and get involved with their respective paths.

For me, it was HJW's quirks that first caught me, but later on I was moved by LDS' troubles. Them becoming an actual working team came later on.

I'd advise you continue watching it, if you're so inclined, but you can also move it to on-hold for when the mood for gray-area detective stories comes on :)

PS For me it was an overall 8.5, but 8.5 is a high mark for me, and I do like detective/police stories.

So I see the shenaningans are beginning again... Checking Top Shows for something interesting and tried to watch, I find that a drama rated 9.1 by 23k users of MDL is ranked 7th while a drama released a week ago, rated 9.1 by 2k users, is ranked 5th. The top two dramas are also ranked 2&3, with an equal 9.1 mark, by around the same amount of people - some 19k, give or take a few hundreds. None of them are 1st though, what's the 1st rank drama on MDL, does anyone know?!

Also, those thousands of missing comments out of the blue, too...

But let's pretend this is a merits-based system, not a byzantine, unknown and unexplainable marking system and move on.

I stumbled upon a Korean person's reactions to TU and fell yet again in the re-watch mode. This drama is an ever-giving gift. I still have no other coming closer to it. I just wish there was some decent competition... It's hard getting your heart handed to you on each episode...

You're right, KJM didn't directly kill LYY, but he as good as did - he had kidnapped her, cut off her fingers etc, when she escaped. If it weren't for him, HJW's father wouldn't have hit her with his car.

But that's not the most important thing. Why would he cut off her fingers, though? BSJ did keep annoy him with her finger pointing (I misremembered it was Jae Yi's mom who did that, in a drunken rage) but LYY was too shocked to do something like that. It might have meant something to him.

Re: not needing to understand the killer's motivation. No, I don't actually sympathize with murderers or serial killers (in drama or real life) but some sort of logical explanation is usually presented. What I meant was that he had a lot of details (caring for LDS's mom, the stutter, the complicated relationship with his (?) daughter, etc). Usually, when there's a fleshing out of a character, you can better love/hate them. Too bidimensional and you wouldn't actually care if he's caught or not. The drama provided a bare minimum, but well, let's say it was just enough.

By the way. How come LDS's mom knew that there was something wrong with the wall? Did she always know, did she suspect, did she go mad after the shocks of seeing her son arrested, her husband dead, her daughter maybe being walled up in her basement?... Those are some details that would have enhanced LDS's backstory, IMHO.

But I'm happy with what we got. I'd like a second season :D

What remained partially unexplained - or maybe I lost track of it - was WHY did Kang Jin Mook kill Yu Yeon in the first place? Did she witness him killing Ju Seon? And why did he kill Ju Seon after all, he hadn't been married yet and hadn't had cause to break down and start killing prostitutes of other women who reminded him of his (unfaithful) wife?

I got the finger pointing part of the serial killer psychopathy (after all it was thrown at our faces heavily with even LDS threatening KMJ to stop pointing or he'd cut his fingers off.) But WHY did it bother KMJ so much, and how come he was known to be a stutterer but he was pretending to be one (much like LCJ pretending to limp), had he done that all his life? The one person who was legit a murderer was somehow left a bit undeveloped when the second half of the story started.

Does anyone here speak a bit of Russian? All those words that LCJ threw around didn't sound much like Russian to me, LOL. Good thing they got Korean-translated so we knew what he was saying.

Also, some praise for the character of Jeong Je. That poor guy wasn't so stable probably in the first place, but to go two decades without even realizing he'd hit his own lover and then to believe he'd killed her after all... His mom was a fool but also a psycho.

A good drama, in the end. I'd have loved a bit more tightening of the plot, but it wasn't that bad, and I'm completely ready for season 2. I hear they're all the rage lately. Can we bring it on somehow?

This should be called Beyond Evil: A Love Story.

It started with distrust and mutual dislike, went into a cautious dance around one another in order to see how they think and what makes them tick, then somehow it suddenly clicked and they were an old couple, reading each other's mind and going the distance for one another. I loved that progression. I want more.

Now that this origins story is told, how soon can we get another season? Even if it's just HJW with some undercover help from LDS, it should happen, IMHO. I mean, it isn't so far-fetched. If The Good Detective got a second season, why not this one?

The best thriller in the past six months is still Flower of Evil for me, but this comes rather close. I'll be checking the actors' past and future careers.