I'm writing this review in contrast to those who have given this show perfect marks. I believe it's a bit overrated, and tbh, it fell short in a number of aspects. It's also far-fetched to say that this was "one of the best dramas ever created." I'd say the rating should be just around 8-8.5, in my honest opinion.

WHAT DIDN'T WORK:
It had quite a number of flaws, many of them being on character development. There were a ton of flat and boring characters, who lacked clear motivations, and realistic boundaries in the series.

Starting of with the male lead, Hwang si Mok. He is known to have a personality disorder due to a brain surgery that removes his capability of feeling human emotions, most specifically empathy. There were a lot of scenes and minutes proving this. But those scenes I believe are meaningless, and just made the show draggy because it didn't in any way move the plot. There was no clear connection on how this disorder affects Hwang Si Mok's judgement or how he would have solved the mystery and why he was so determined to stop the corruption in the prosecution.

If he had been a normal person, or without having this disorder, would he have acted differently? Given how the series built his character, I believe he would have done the same thing. So why include this meaningless angle at all?

Han Yeo Jin, the female lead was also a dull character. She's a character that the series would just force everyone to accept that she's good just because she is. There are no developments on why she is acting the way she is, or why she's helping Hwang Si Mok. Also, come to think of it, there was no other background given in the series towards her identity, aside from that of her being a police officer.

Kim Jeong Bon, Hwang Si Mok's supposed middle school friend/classmate. There's no information at all given to their supposed "friendship" that should motivate him to help Hwang Si Mok in his endeavors. I found it a bit weird that he suddenly was so determined into helping Hwang Si Mok, who is barely an acquaintance, and who he just randomly met after 20 years.

I could say more flaws like these for many other characters. I think the only characters who had real depth in the series were probably Dong Jae Seo, and Chang Jun- Lee, but then their character development also came a bit late.

Aside from poor character development, the pace was unusually slow for the genre. I wouldn't say that 16 episodes were too much for the series' content, but some of the episodes could have been used to again, better character development, rather than just watching the leads stumble to dead end after dead end of the mystery they're solving. A lot of the scenes involving solving the mystery could be compressed further to give way to better content.

WHAT WORKED:
I think what's good about this drama is the fact that it had a clear focus, and never bent away from the plot. This is probably the main reason why the audience stayed with it until the end. (despite its many flaws) It developed a desire among the audience to know the end, and how the culprits would be caught.

The script was also something praise-worthy. Dialogues were very realistic and is based on actual spoken language, and not cheesy/heroic type of lines, especially those said by the leads. A lot of thrillers/action dramas or any drama for that matter fall into the pit of trying to make the leads act like superheroes or super cool characters by making them say unrealistic cheesy speeches as they capture the culprits, whilst heroic music plays in the background. Pretty sure we've all encountered this in one drama or another.

The acting, I'd say was good, in the sense it was realistic, and not overly done.

OVERALL:
The series could have been much better if it had paid more attention into creating more tangible and deeper figures amongst its leads. By doing this, it could have bettered its connection with its viewers. Only then would the audience have a deeper reason as to why to watch this series, other than just having the desire to know the show's end.

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