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  • Location: Berlin, Germany
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vylmen

Berlin, Germany

vylmen

Berlin, Germany
Vagabond korean drama review
Completed
Vagabond
3 people found this review helpful
by vylmen
Oct 7, 2020
16 of 16 episodes seen
Completed
Overall 9.0
Story 9.0
Acting/Cast 8.5
Music 8.0
Rewatch Value 9.5

The Morality of Democracy

You're free to enjoy this as an action with romance and light comedy, but it's really asking the question of what a democratic nation's priorities should be. What it's prime directive should be and how smoke and mirrors can easily fool its citizens, as they don't want to believe complicated plots.

What makes this show work is that it has a good moral story combined with action scenes to keep the pace and light touches of romance and comedy to settle you down. The moral dilemmas visited in this series are the ones we need to solve in the next few decades. If greed motivates a leader is that really worse than some ideology of a great nation. What influences do global conglomerates have on local economics? Can our journalists really uncover or even see all the angles? It forced me to think about these and not all have clear cut answers.

Don't look for realism in the action, don't question whether this is possible. It's not as over the top as some of the McG repertoire such as Charlie's Angels and the Fast & Furious series, but it's still up there in the realm of "just not possible, but looks really cool". But the actions sequences have that feel where you keep rooting for the underdog(s) to make it out alive. Given the constant threat of people with a lot of power and money, that's not always a given and that keeps you worrying.

The show also makes crafty use of hindsight: showing a surprise and then explaining it afterwards. The chemistry between the two leads works well, though the female lead sometimes drops the ball when displaying emotions of loss.

Perhaps the best trait is that the show starts with its ending and by the season finale, you hardly remember it. Then - it's all brought into focus and the realization creeps up, that this whole season was really a setup for season 2. Don't worry, season 1 got tied up pretty neatly, but I am really looking forward to that next season if it comes. It is deserving of one.
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