The basic premise of the show is that an honest and hardworking cop's career progression hits the buffers when his superior, with whom he's friendly and remains loyal to, is accused of corruption and forced out of the force. Our hero is sent to what's perceived as a dead-end position, that being the department that holds evidence relating to cold cases. From a storytelling point of view this was genius because the writer of the show (and unusually all the episodes were written by one gent and not a team of writers) could then either have our hero investigate cold cases or take on cases that happen to fall into his lap without him getting too wrapped up in police bureaucracy. Helping our hero is a lady civil servant in charge of maintaining the records relating to the cold case evidence and a technical and scientifically inclined fellow who's like an early one man CSI team. All the stories are different and aren't always concluded as you'd imagine.
I only stumbled across this show a week or 2 ago and I'm not sure why I'd never heard of it until now. If there was any justice in this world (and the older I get the clearer it is to me that there is very little) then this would have been a hit and run for a very long time. It's an underappreciated gem of a show so if you get the chance check it out - I don't believe you'll come away disappointed.
Reviews
2 Reviews
The Cursed
(2020)
So far so very good
24 September 2020
Admittedly I've only watched the first 6 episodes, but I'm really enjoying the story up to now. I can see the similarities to Death Note as another reviewer mentioned, but I was reminded of the old movie 'Curse of the Demon' based on the story Casting of the Runes by M.R. James. Our decent heroes stumble upon a strange world of witchcraft where they need to get up to speed on the rules of the game pretty quickly before some truly nasty villains catch up with them and do them harm.
I'm relatively new to Korean dramas, but if you enjoy tales well told (and who doesn't) then give them a try. The stories tend to be more fantastic and melodramatic than their western counterparts, but I enjoy thriller/mystery/fantasy shows so I'm all in. Acting is as good if not better than in western shows and the writing in the shows I've watched so far (Dr. Prisoner and Signal) is well above the usual standard I've grown accustomed to. Perhaps they have trouble spotting the landing and getting the ending of the final episode of their shows to be as satisfying as I'd like them to be, but I'm so busy enjoying the journey that if the ending doesn't quite hit the bullseye then it's there or thereabouts and I'm entertained enough to search for my next Korean show to sample.
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