Drama Views - Bad Guys (2014)

My first drama review in a long time because it's the first drama I've watched in 3 months! Grrrr school. But it was a great choice for a drama watching comeback because this was AMAZING.

Bad Guys is about a team of 1 cop and 3 criminals coming together to capture other criminals. There was a nice mix of episodic cases and explorations of each character's back story. Highly highly recommended! To all those people who keep saying Korean dramas are all about chaebols and poor girls, it is not true and Bad Guys is just one of the many that isn't AND of high quality.



Pros

Perfect specimen of a man.

 - I feel like I say this for every review, but FANTASTIC ACTING. The main 4 characters, Oh Gu Tak (Kim Sang Joong), Lee Jung Moon (Park Hae Jin), Jung Tae Soo (Jo Dong Hyuk) and Park Woong Cheol (Ma Dong Seok) were all brought to life by the amazing portrayals. I particularly loved Jo Dong Hyuk, whom I've never seen before but totally made me notice him from his first appearance. Freaking handsome, with brooding charisma and that deep voice. Why isn't he more famous? I've seen the other 3 before in other shows, and they are all consistently great.

- Grey characters. Our crime solving team are literally made of guys who have done legit crimes - murder, framing people for murders and all sorts of other nefarious things. I loved that despite them having done bad things, they still had good sides to them, because isn't that how it is in the world? To me, this show was all about their redemption - to pay for their misdeeds and start life anew as a compassionate human.

- A complete visual treat. Cinematography was on point all the time, and the many action scenes were never a bore to watch. I kept feeling like I was watching a movie instead. It really helps that Jo Dong Hyuk and Ma Dong Seok REALLY look like fighters.

Cons
- Writing that fell apart at times. It's very difficult to write a crime thriller without plot holes, and Bad Guys was no different. The clunky writing in episode 10 especially which made me really disappointed because I loved the series until then. It also made me have a disconnect from Oh Gu Tak because I simply couldn't understand what the hell was different between the evidence then and now (both still circumstantial) that he was now sure Jung Moon killed his daughter. And then Tae Soo and Woong Chul decide to go after Gu Tak and Jung Moon respectively just because of some stuff that suspicious Prosecutor Oh said? What made me even more frustrated was that when Tae Soo was trying to get Gu Tak to explain himself, Gu Tak kept giving false answers and saying 'That is the answer you want right?' when he could have just explained everything properly!
Thankfully the episode 11 finale was gripping and managed to tie up most of the holes, leaving me a satisfied viewer.

- A very confusing female lead. Yoo Mi Young (Kang Ye Won). One minute she was all about upholding justice, next she decided to throw away her mentor because he kept information from her and joined hands with the suspicious Prosecutor Oh, then she decided she was going to uphold justice again. Doesn't help that I wasn't too fond of the actress' portrayal of the character either.

Favourite Scenes:
When Tae Soo begged for forgiveness from Sung Jung. I read some comments that his reason for killing her husband was so selfish, but I don't think that was out of character. He was a professional hitman!!! Killing people was nothing to him, no matter the reason. But when he saw how much hurt the woman he loved was going through, that was what made him realise the gravity of his actions and why he turned himself in. I think he was definitely selfish and definitely needed to pay for his crimes, but when he repented and was so obviously genuinely sorry, my heart broke for him.

Anything that had the 3 bad guys (not including Gu Tak since he knew how everyone was related to each other and had his own personal vendetta) saving each other, teasing each other, or just enjoying each other's company. I love how their relationship went from animosity to begrudging respect to real friends. I'm not usually a big fan of bromance but who knew the relationship between a psychopath, a strong fisted mob boss, a contract killer and an off the rails cop would be so heartwarming?

Would love for a season 2 with just the badass quartet solving crimes every episode, now that most of the back stories for each character has been explained.