Making you fall in love with a character and killing then killing them. Man do I not get tired of that when done correctly. The challenge therein is to, first of all, make you fall in love with the character. Easy. But how do you make the audience fall in love with the villain?
Bimilui Soop, A.K.A Stranger is a Korean Drama that revolves around Prosecutor Hwang Si-Mok and police detective Han Yeo-jin. What just starts as a very simplistic-looking murder case very quickly turns into a nasty and deeply rooted case of corruption and crime within the public appointed system.
Initially, we learn about Hwang's peculiar brain surgery that eventually turns him apathetic. It is easy to think that brain surgery somehow helps him solve cases faster and with more precision. But the truth is that he can think about cases more clearly simply because relating to someone or something else emotionally would only cloud his judgment.
There is so much I loved in this series. It literally has so much to love in it. There is a lot of things going on. No wonder each episode is an hour long and each season has 16 episodes. The story is very very saturated with meaningful events. There isn't a single moment in the series which is "useless filler".
What may seem as a useless filler initially will later come back in a future episode to either explain an event or to create more depth.
Although there are 2 protagonists, each and every role in the story has so much detail and depth to them. There is so much personality in each character that every one of them could potentially bud out a separate spin-off series.
It is very uncommon to fund such a level of attention being paid and so many resources put into characters that aren't the protagonist. It truly made me appreciate the series even more.
There is little fantasy in the series. Every event is very in line with reality. One could assume that the series is based on real-life events but it is completely fictional.
The entire series sheds light on how easily corruption can lay its roots in the highest public offices. The villain from the first season even breaks it down. Claiming it all started with a mundane lunch that was paid for by a businessman that led to buying expensive gifts which led to a whole chain of corruption from which there was no escape.
In season 2, one of the good guys in the prosecution office verbally breaks down to the protagonist how powerful suggestions can be. A non-verbal prompt for help or favor can start a sequence of ping-pong like giving and taking of favors which only grows and grows until it becomes a fully-fledged corrupted system that fuels crime.
There are plenty of examples in the series showing how corruption begins within the police and prosecution offices and how it leads to unpunished and ignored crimes. Everyone from politicians, high-ranking officers to petty criminals get involved and create an abysmal level of crime at the highest and lowest level.
Pandering to businessmen, abusing authority, burying unsolved crimes, dealing with backlash, and even puppeteering crimes. The show has the whole 9 yards. But it still pushes you to fall in love with the "bad guys". Not all of them, of course. A few key members of the "bad guys".
I found myself shocked when I realized I had become super attached to the villain of the first season and internally rooting for him. What a surprise!
The show does this multiple times. They somehow find really meaningful ways for you to root, love, feel sorry among many other things for the "bad guys".
"Good things happen to bad people. Bad things happen to good people".
The quote from Afterlife instantly comes to mind. And in Stranger, some of the bad guys are actually good people who have fallen into a net of bad things, and just like a fly in a spiderweb, they can't get out until it's too late. But they always have the best intention in their hearts. It is contradicting, but understandable.
If you love realistic crime and investigative shows of crime then is a must-watch. The show might feel very long and straining. Because it honestly is. However, it is also fast-paced (in some sense) because there is just so much happening with so many people at once. It becomes hard to keep up even if the story evolves slowly. The build-up to the climax is extremely exciting and at the end of season 2, there is something extremely satisfying. But I won't spoil that for you. ;)
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