Hello and welcome back! These are the dramas I finished this week. If you're interested in previous reviews, click
here and if you want to see a list of my Favorite Asian OTPs and Ships, click
here!
KDRAMA
FINISHED Falsify/Distorted (32/32): In modern society, journalism has lost its integrity, and journalists who focus on the facts have disappeared. However, we've seen that there are still journalists who seek the truth, and if there is at least one person who is willing to look, the truth will come out from the darkness. Here we have two journalists. One is a "media jackal", a journalist who will write any story, fact or fiction, in order to get views, and the other is a "vegetative journalist" who hasn't been able to write a single article for five years. These two journalists, with the help of a prosecutor work together in order to seek the truth.
I've been in the mood for a new investigation drama so when this one popped up on my drama feed, I jumped right into checking it out. Though it follows journalists, I didn't really expect it to be like Pinocchio tbh cause the synopsis made it sound more like Hush and that's exactly what I ended up feeling after I checked it out though I can't decide if I think the show was better written or if it's cause I liked the main character leagues better than any of the characters in Hush. In the end I think it's both. I need to be in the right mood to check out a show that's almost entirely based on corruption but since I knew what this show was going in, none of the villains bothered me. I actually really liked that our heroes all came from different positions rather than all working at one newspaper so they came with different side characters and worked parallel to one another in order to find clues in the puzzle they were trying to put together. Every character was fun to follow and I really liked the hints of romance we got to. The villains were defeated perfectly and I was happy with the somewhat open ending. 9.5 / 10
FINISHED Rookie Cops (16/16): A coming-of-age story that captures the spirit, challenges and passion of youth as two students at the Korean National Police University experience life's charms and traumas whilst trying to become full-fledged cops. From bridging generation gaps with harmony to finding their own romance on campus, two very different students work to achieve their dreams and aspirations in the line of duty.
Given the fact that this show pretty much takes place in the same location with a similar storyline to Police University it's obvious that there would be comparisons between the two but to this show's credit I honestly think it did a better job that Police University did! This show ended up feeling a lot more similar to Law School in the end with the way it focused on the kids being at college with the actual police work/investigation side taking a back seat. In fact it wasn't even until the final 1/3 of the show that we even focused on the bigger mystery! The characters were all much more interesting and I liked the fact that a lot of them played such big roles in the plot progressing. I loved that we saw more than just the main couple get together and tbh parts of me thought the second couple were cuter at different moments. The way the mystery played out was perfectly paced and the more we saw of the villain the more evil he became but I also liked the way the show pulled the rug out from beneath us time and again so we thought one thing only for it to be another. The ending was perfect minus the fact that one of heroes died but that did not take away from this show but rather made it better in my opinion. 8.5 / 10
FINISHED Through The Darkness (12/12): Back in the 1990s, the citizens of Seoul were gripped with a paralyzing fear after a series of brutal attacks and murders occurred. A mysterious figure dubbed ‘Red Cap’ was stalking women on the streets then killing his prey, seemingly without provocation. His habit of striking at random made it impossible for the detectives to predict his next move. At the top of their minds is what could be triggering him. Aware of the American F.B.I. and its successful use of criminal profilers to identify serial killers, the head of the Criminal Behavioral Analysis team, Gook Young Soo recruits Song Ha Young, a quiet, reserved, incredibly perceptive former detective for his team. Gook believes using this new psychological method will give the police an edge in capturing 'Red Cap' and ending his killing spree. Homicide expert Yoon Tae Goo and his officers question the value of this approach and are resistant to entering such uncharted territory. To quell their scorn they need to convince that this radical crime-fighting approach will increase their arrest rates. Does Song Ha Young have the ability to gain the trust of callous criminals while seeing through them? Is he clever enough to outwit them? But more importantly, does he possess the emotional fortitude to withstand the process?
Knowing me and my love for crime/investigation dramas you had to have known that I was going to check this one out right?? Having watched it, I'm a little torn about this show if I'm being honest cause I feel like it started out so strong and somewhere in the middle it started to lose me. Like on the one hand this show is so creative cause it's actually telling a real story of the very first Korean profiler which means that the show focuses on actual police work rather than the typical stories of corruption like in most crime dramas but I think that also doesn't work in the show's favor cause then that means the pacing for this show is so slow. Rather than having a bunch of different cases, we really only focused on a few and they dragged and dragged and dragged. Having said that I did enjoy Ha Young even if I didn't care for all the story about him being so emphatic that he took on serial killer emotions but I did enjoy watching all the different ways our profilers were able to outwit the killers during interrogations. I also really liked the positive message this show tried to give off and the fact that the title for this show was so perfect for describing the show. Ha Young fought against the darkness of things will never get better and once he came out the other side he was so much stronger for it. 9 / 10
