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The Uncanny Counter korean drama review
Completed
The Uncanny Counter
1 people found this review helpful
by crystalhydra
Sep 2, 2023
16 of 16 episodes seen
Completed
Overall 8.5
Story 8.0
Acting/Cast 8.5
Music 7.0
Rewatch Value 5.0
This review may contain spoilers

Curlies~

If you throw the logic out the window sometimes, it's really enjoyable to watch. I'll write the part with spoilers after I finish the general part of review.. I really have few questions.

Uncanny Counter tells a pretty neat story of a young man who finds himself gaining powers to fight evil spirits and help them reach the place where they belong for all the wrongs they comitted. I kind of forgot how does it feel to watch a series about someone "special". Because our boy So Mun can be called special. Other counters get a second chance in life waking up from a coma in exchange for risking as counters, but So Mun was walking around with his friends. Special~. Being special did not end on that *points* you know what I mean, if you watched.

He joins for a simple, yet sacred for him reason - he wants to meet his parents, who passed away in a car accident and working as a counter will give him this opportunity. And this is our story about the evil spirits and the evil in human hearts. The story binds several characters to the main unfolding plot. And many might find it unsatisfactory, but I looked at it from the angle where evil spirits are not the most evil you might find, they basically want to become more powerful, so they consume human souls left and right, but the greed in person's heart may lead them to act far inferior to beasts. But due to supernatural elements and the tone set to be not too realistic and depressing, it helps to elevate some of its' moodiness, but doesn't end up being clownish. Despite the fact that the story about the main evils stretches very predictably for entire season, but along the way there is a feeling of satisfaction for the entire build-up frustration when the evil is finally punished.
UC also has a strong theme of family and bonding, because after So Mun joined the counters he felt that they were like his family.
Some of the characters, especially So Mun, really grew and changed. Some really don't need that much of a development, but small changes here and there were present.

The acting in the show was great (sometimes was a bit too much for me though, personal preference, nothing more), so were the characters, you really cheered for them, there are a lot of heartfelt and tear-inducing moments, but because there was enough of emotional scenes I find that it's not good to binge (and I binged the last part of the series), because you may feel fatigued. I bet when you watch with enough pause between episodes it may not feel like that.
The only downside to entire series is that it feels draggy in later part, but it can be said about many shows with 16 episodes or more. But in general it was quite entertaining.

Oh yeah, big thanks to vfx ppl on this show and those who decided not to use too much of cgi, that's why a load of action scenes and less cgi made it pop and not to make it too fairy.

/SPOILER PART/

Now, I can talk about few spoilerish parts that stuck to my head.
- The biggest question marks in my head . The first one was during the council time and So Mun being stripped off his abilities, I can understand the motivation behind this action story-wise, but before that I felt that the whole system of "breaking" rules was reallu outdated. By this time it was obvious that actions of evil spirits and humans were interconnected and distinguishing one from the other was impossible, all actions were directed for the greater good. But when it comes to the main evil spirit I was sitting and thinking - they know it's powerful, why would you have only few people after it, if it's so dangerous. I mean I thought there were only these few counters (silly me), but when it downed on me that they surely have more I had another question - why don't you send people to catch the bastard? But of course our main heroes should do these themselves, otherwise it would be too convenient. But knowing that the guy is SO dangerous, it was strange not to do it and later they sit around the table with worried faces.
- The part where So Mun thought it was his negative thoughts that drove for the territory to appear made me say "Dude"...
- OH YEAH! The one part that was in my opinion hysterical. Although the acting was great, but when it came to the scene with staffs I laughed like a b*. All those noises and poses sent me flying. Honestly, if someone else was at home they might think I'm watching AV.
- Some say this series have too much going on about humans and not about catching evil spirits, but the past of two counters involves humans and that's the setting you get.. you expect no humans an donly evil spirits there? As I said earlier I do find that it was more about how horrible can a person be, harboring evil.
- Another laugh I got from the "hell" scene when evil spirits land at the point of their destination. Honestly, a mud bath? It was funy to watch them in those neon lights, a bit of dry ice, mud floating around and extras crawling around. It left me with a silly feeling instead of feeling dread. Even a simple spotlight on the person in question and reaching out and dragging the person into nothingness would feel like a horror instead of a bunch of people wriggling around, playing as if they're going to "eat" the new guy.
- It's a wishful thinking for the shows to be shorter and wrap up the endings in an upbeat manner, the story would be more compact in this way, especially when you have one main villain (the evil spirit in our case), but it's just a dream, I know.
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