Choi Gang Hee, Kwon Sang Woo, Lee Won Keun, Shin Hyun Bin, Kim Hyun Sook
Drama Rating: 6/10 Neck Score: A
I liked it enough to binge watch it over the weekend, but was left unsatisfied by the ending. It was like it wanted to be too much, and in the end was rushed and too open ended. I liked it when it was just two stubborn detectives, one a cop and the other an ahjumma, but when they tried to make it a romance it fell a bit flat. They definitely had something, but it wasn't the romantic kind of love, so I was glad that they left that as open as the rest of the end. It was pleading to be at least a 20 episoder, or have a sequal season, but it was neither of those things either.
They had plenty of cases where they built up the characters and developed relationships. They also hinted at a bigger mystery of what happened to his first love and what happened to her parents, but they didn't really start tying it all together and giving us any information on that until way too late in the show. The last two episodes were way too rushed and almost felt like a totally different drama. It made the last episode so draggy, because I knew it was ending, but it was acting like it had 4 more episodes to go. This made it both draggy and rushed as they crammed all they could in, and then left it open, saying they solved that much of it, but it's not over yet. Duh duh duhhhhhhh.
Lame.
I knew they were going to try for a romance, but I kept being conflicted about wanting to. I saw him liking her, but I thought it would be ridiculous for her to like him back, especially when she was married. They also didn't do a good enough job making her husband unlikable. I don't cotton to cheating and having couples get divorced so the OTP can be together, so the only way to make that work would be to have him be a complete evil jerk, or have their marriage be over right at the beginning, before any main couple relationship could start. They did neither. The husband was only human and an idiot, and it was clear that he loved her (although he probably loved himself a little more). He could also just be weak and ambitious. None of those are quite enough to lead to cheating or a divorce, but maybe a fight and some repenting are in order. It was ambiguous whether any cheating actually happened, so I could never completely hate him. That's just my opinion. I was torn a lot because the main couple does have a good chemistry, but not necessarily romantic. Friends is fine. It's almost a bromance. Although the real bromance is steamier.
I did love Sissy Cute Neck's (I'm sorry, that
Phantom nickname will never go away) relationships. He had a puppy crush on his "teacher" and an awkward bromance with the male lead, who loved to tease him. It was great. I loved the couple pajamas parts.
I really think they didn't use the main plot enough. The second female lead was barely in it. I would have loved to see more Jang Do Jang, and to know much sooner why our detective was so obsessed with catching him. So many things could have been better. It was ok as it was, but ultimately disappointing.
What was not disappointing, because Ahn Kil Kang is never disappointing, was the side characters and secondary romance. I was hoping that was going to go down from the start. Yes! Other than that, it was decently creepy at parts. I loved the creepy use of that Rose of Sharon song, it did its job well, but as for well written and ending, the drama stalled and putted across the finish line.
