Adorable orphan himbo with uncomfortable superpower meets smart, confident girl on a quest to clear her father's name.
This is basically the core character dynamic of this drama. We also get the unfailingly entertaining big brother/little brother/unconventional found family combo that always seals the deal for me.
He is Psychometric manages to go even beyond the excellent weaving of relationships among interesting characters and builds upon a comfortably intricate plot.

There are only two downsides in this otherwise outstanding drama.
First and foremost, it is notably lacking in the suspense department for a thriller. We come to expect every turning point of the plot (except for the main one that is, however, given out with 3 episodes of not-so-subtle hints before the final revelation) because it is foreshadowed clearly just before its occurrence.
The story itself remains engaging nonetheless, it is just not very thrilling.

My second criticism is about the choice of founding much of the plot resolution on a (M. Night)Shyamalan type of twist. It is a cool gimmick but decreases, inevitably, the whole drama rewatchability.
These are the main drawbacks in terms of screenplay, but I don't think they affect much the drama's overall enjoyable vibe. The cast, in fact, makes a very fine job in drawing the viewer's attention.

My favorite character is Kang Sung-mo, which is played by the impressive Kim Kwon. He is a new entry in my kdrama hotties' Olympus as I don't think I've encountered him in my previous viewings.
His character is definitely the most complex as he undergoes a progressive humanization throughout the story. Starting from an inscrutable, rational, super-human (as in "very-little-like the humans we know") upstanding hero (on the metaphorical pedestal of a rooftop apartment) that functions almost like a deus-ex-machina for the young protagonists, he descends all the way to the underworld (the subway abandoned station, the underground prison) becoming the irrational, sub-human executioner driven by the need for survival, protection and revenge.
Although a diagnosis of alexithymia makes everybody question his ability to feel emotions, we are often reminded that being unable to express emotions is indeed different from being unable to feel them.

Park Jin-young is fairly convincing as the warmhearted himbo. His Lee Ahn is cute and endearing and does a great job of lightening the tone even when the story grows darker. The character also serves as a counterpoint to Sung-mo, in many ways. For example, where a teenager Sung-Mo made a terrible choice (he regretted soon after) because he felt trapped in the absence of trusted adult guidance, teenager Ahn was able to turn his life around and overcome his anger (thanks to the guidance of the very same Sung-Mo).
Shin Ye-eun also does a decent job, although she isn't particularly brilliant. I think the main couple has the highest romantic tension in the high school episodes and it mellows out later on. The actors have chemistry, but it feels friendly in nature more than romantic. I think it is a writing choice resulting from the intention of focusing more on other plot points and themes. In this respect, the brief moment of angst between the main couple was a bit useless and felt perfunctory.
The second couple is much more entertaining, in my opinion.

When reaching the end of this drama someone might think the writer is implying that a bad seed is a bad seed and it is impossible to transcend genes and conditioning.
Both father and son seem to be condemned to the same fate of isolation from society. They are both behind bars, yet there is a fundamental difference in their confinement. Whilst the father is sentenced to never leaving those bars, not even the invisible ones tying him to his horrific childhood, Sung-mo is instead finally allowed to escape the prison of his past through atonement. I loved the fact that despite the terrible murders he committed, the writer didn't opt for an unredeemed suicide and instead told us that the hardest choice is asking for forgiveness and living to atone for the hurt caused.
It is a very Christian solution and, in fact, there are explicit Christian references all throughout the drama as it is also apparent with the theme of forgiveness that recurs in the relationship dynamics of the characters every so often.
The writer makes another important point by including a reflection on collective responsibility. The monsters in her story are the product of a faulty and corrupted society.

I believe there is also a theme of disgust: people picking their nose and leaving boogers under the desk, people eating things found on the floor, people touching corpses, people pulling nose hairs and flicking them in other people's faces and ongoing talks of festering wounds. Is it because human condition is inherently execrable? Who knows? I don't.

I really liked the visual representation of psychometry although it didn't make much sense with the shifting POVs (does Ahn see things from hi POV, does he see them from the object POV? It varies).

The title of the review refers to the fact that it is funny (only to me) to see Cho Byeong-kyu limping again after watching the Uncanny Counter (albeit chronologically speaking HIP comes first).

Female Empowerment Score 4/5 we had to sacrifice the female detective to convince men to take responsibility for their actions. On the other hand, I love the natural comradery, the girl friendships. I also love that the women in this drama are smart and don't wait around to be saved but, instead, become the hero they need.