40somethingahjumma

I went into this not knowing what to expect but a couple of episodes in, I found myself thoroughly entertained by the hijinks of a pojangmacha owner (Hwang Jung-eum), her long-suffering manager (Choi Won-young) and a supermarket customer service guy (Yook Sung-jae) in contemporary South Korea. Apart from the usual nagging from Neflix, I had seen/heard next to no press on this. As a rule I’m neither a fan of supernatural fantasies (I must be one of a handful people who haven’t see Goblin) nor of slapstick but I adored this one from start to finish. I found myself rolling around in laughter at the inventive, sometimes wacky humour. At other times the show transitions wonderfully into something unexpectedly poignant and heartwarming. The key to why the juggling act ultimately works is the clever storytelling which more than makes up for some of the show’s production limitations. Because the show locates itself as a supernatural fantasy, it’s obvious that Hwang Jung-eum’s pojangmacha owner is not your usual street bar-owning ahjumma. Weol-ju is a 500 year old ghost/spirit who’s earning credits by helping individuals with all kinds of grievances. It’s her punishment for hanging herself on The Sacred Tree in her Joseon past and causing mayhem. She has been tasked by scary persons in the Afterlife with helping 100 000 humans and when her job is done, all will be forgiven. The tricky part of course is getting the remaining clientele to come to the pop up bar and spill their guts. This is where the customer service guy comes in. This idealistic and unassuming young fellow has the uncanny ability to get people to open up garrulously even when he doesn’t want them to, which is 99% of the time. Although he sees it as a curse, it’s handy skill that Weol-ju is eager to exploit. After some cajoling, bullying and sleight of hand, the young Kang-bae joins Weol-ju and Manager Gwi in what turns out to be a really good cause. The trio have all the makings of a low-key superhero team-up. Each member has their own skill set which come in useful when they meet desperate, helpless individuals… dead and living… who are seeking help to resolve some grievance that they’re lugging around. As they spend more time together, our trio start acting more like a family. As with every superhero show, there is a villain. I didn't mind him even if he was a tad on the cliche side. It certainly didn't affect my overall impression of the drama or the resolution. The story flip flops between two timelines: Joseon and 21st century Korea. No, there’s no time travelling involved in case you’re wondering but the show gradually gives us insight into Weol-ju’s tragic past as a gifted shaman who fell in love with a prince that she helped. It was a romance that ended badly with long-ranging reverberations. In one of her better efforts, Hwang Jung-eum plays up Weol-ju’s cantankerous, shrilly side with no small amount of glee. She is both terrifying and self-righteous. Belying the shrewish disposition, however, is a heart of gold. Her culinary skills are to die for (so we're told) but more importantly she has an awesome fusion wardrobe to match. Choi Won-young was awesome as Manager Gwi, an enigmatic spirit being who has an unspoken agenda for putting up with Weol-ju’s bad temper. He really needs to play these sorts of non-villainous lead roles more often. I don’t remember the last time I saw him play a straight arrow but I can assure everybody that he didn’t sign up for the drama just to play mediator between two opposites. I wasn’t familiar with Yook Sung-jae prior to this but his versatility here impressed me. His comic delivery was right on the money. I especially enjoyed his push-pull with security guard, Kang Yeo-rin who happens to be the only human being who can resist his ability to make her open up. There’s no doubt that he holds his own with his seniors all throughout the drama. Despite the financial constraints, the world building maintained a high level of consistency. It drew on a hodgepodge of various religious and mythological traditions with something of a satirical edge as exemplified in its depiction of Corporate Afterlife. I experienced a reminder or two of Journey to the West. It’s good to see an increasing number of K dramas benefiting from the 12-episode format. So far it’s yielded only good things from the ones I’ve seen. At the end of the day, as is to be expected of a drama of this nature, it is a morality tale encompassing morality tales. Although there’s truly nothing new under the sun, there are lessons to be learnt by everyone, whether they be 500 or 25. Even the higher-ups of Afterlife Inc make mistakes. Plot/ Story: 9 Acting/Cast: 10 Production Values: 8 Re-watch Value: 8.5

This show only goes from strength to strength. The latest episode is a clear demonstration that there's at least a decent roadmap as to where it wants to go. I was amused and somewhat gratified to read Choi Won-young's Seok O-won mouth the very same lines that I had written about previously. All the predictably good stuff about "just because you can doesn't mean you should", "this is an intrusion into the realm of the gods" etc etc. It's clear that the show is presenting him as an antagonist to the prevailing Alice narrative although it's unclear how much of that hostility plays out in actual violence. Seok O-won, the head of the Kuiper Institute of Advanced Sciences, believes that time travel is possible. A charismatic man of science to boot. He is the first one from 2020 to state that unequivocally but he also styles himself as a critic of it. It's a dangerous proposition and it's not hard to see from recent events that he has a point or two. Science is a tool, neither good or evil in and of itself but in the wrong hands, it can go very very badly not just for the person who uses it but for others around them. My fascination with Alice lies mainly with its philosophical underpinnings and explorations. The big ideas of life, that sort of thing. I don't think it does anything spectacularly different from a lot of sci-fi and perhaps visually some aspects of it might seem a bit cheesy. But the storytelling is very good and what it tries to do, it does well. Besides I'm always a sucker for a decent police procedural even if it takes a back seat to mind-bending sci-fi. People are getting murdered and not all of them are mysteries. The audience is privy to the ins and outs behind the bloodlust. The ones that remain unsolved up to this point and the ones whose motives are known. Both feed into the overarching moral dilemmas related to using time travel supposedly in the betterment of humanity's lot. The debate is this: Just because we can use time travel to do good (in varying degrees) there are costs... and trade-offs. Do the gains outweigh the losses? Are the gains offset by the losses? It's a crucial principle that should inform all manner of public policy on all levels. This is a point well-made during this season of Covid-19. To put it in medical terms, "Is the cure worse than the disease?" When the head honcho of Alice, Ki Cheol-an says to a defensive Eun-soo's mother that by killing her 2020 self, she has now left her beloved Eun-soo without a mother. The show allows the full weight of that statement to land on the grieving mother. A gentle rebuke of her blind selfishness. Not too many will quibble with the fact that she loved her daughter and she was still grieving in 2050 that her daughter had died at 17 because of a single event. She blames her past self for being lax and complacent and thinks she would do a better job equipped with foreknowledge. But as the scenario plays out, the murder is inevitably discovered because let's face it the lady is hardly a criminal genius. 2050 mother is now on the run from 2020 law enforcement and needs rescuing. On top of that 2020 Eun-soo is now motherless and Dad is wifeles and grief-stricken. The future for them might arguably be bleaker than before. In a fit of emotional rage with no one to hold her back, Eun-soo's mother commits an irreversible crime. The incident also highlights the difficulty of prediction. It's almost impossible for us mere mortals to know what will happen. It is possible to look at history and make a few good, educated guesses about the big picture of where the world is headed. That's certainly not beyond the pale. But on an individual level, it's much harder. With regards to Eun-soo's mother she was so fixated with the one event... the death of her daughter... that she forgot about the good times that they shared. In 2050 she was trapped in the past that was 2030. Revisiting the past could have been helpful in the grieving process but it was more about course correction which led to the overreach and then murder. In the end she swapped one form of grief for another. The other so-called related moral lesson for all concerned is about how humans deal with suffering and grief. Again, universally and perennially topical. Again, this has long been the subject of science fiction. The film Equilibrium, a favourite after the manner of Fahrenheit 451 springs to mind. A stoic utopia "no place"... or more appropriately dystopia created with the underlying assumption that eliminating emotions is the only way to control human beings and gain a peaceful society. In Serenity, a similar project was also undertaken by the government to turn everyone docile except for the fact that it led to serious, deadly side effects to creating that brave new world. Seok O-won's view of time travel is worth chewing over. From what I understand he doesn't believe that changing the past can change the present/future. What it does is create an alternate one. Essentially the past cannot be changed, only the future. So he seems to subscribe to not just the multiverse theory but also alternate timelines. The original timeline that the traveller comes from remains largely unchanged but at a certain point it branches off in a different direction due to the (inter)actions of the traveller. Like Star Trek 2009. So it seems there are no father paradoxes in the Terminator sense, just alternate selves living and making different choices due to different levels of knowledge. This could well be the underlying principle of Alice. That of course opens up other serious moral and ethical issues. It isn't just a case of going back and committing murder to change things. There is the issue of "rights" and authority. What are the implications for others when we do this? Who arbitrates this universe hopping? This is my problem with the Alice management. They've made themselves the Lords of the universe when they have no omniscience. This exactly Seok O-won's point. It's a power that human beings can't handle. This is more dangerous than a ghost story where people complete unfinished business before going to the afterlife like in Mystic Pop-up Bar. All good stories are ultimately about family in some form. Families are essential, a headache and often a lifelong grief. Interpret that how you may. But they're a human impulse because it's a place of belonging. No one should be alone. Both Tae-yi and Jin-gyeom end up being orphaned at some point and are adopted by kindly souls along the way. Go Hyeon-seok and his wife lost their own son and they did what they could to make sure that he had a home after his mother death. Eun-soo will now be motherless. Min-hyuk who is picture of stoicism to his colleagues is adamant that despite being the poster boy of professionalism he is capable of grief. He grieved and is probably still grieving for the family he lost. Or more accurately, the family he doesn't know he has. Jin-gyeom was fatherless... and then he was fatherless and motherless before moving in with the Gos. The little girl at the beginning of the show with the Alice book, Dr Jang's daughter was motherless apparently and then she was fatherless. She may or may not be the little girl who becomes the Tae-yi who grew up in the Hope orphanage later.

This is my favourite thing on K telly right now. It has the potential to be a great show, one of the year's best. Will it be another Life on Mars? It's too early to say. It's clear that Yoon Tae-yi's re-appearance in his life knocks Jin-gyeom off his general equanimity. As he wrestles with not just with her uncanny resemblance to his long deceased mother, spars with his birth father and grapples with the unfathomable possibility of time travel, his confusion about this new reality is exacerbated by inexplicable murders. Last week we had a future self travelling back to the past to kill someone who had wronged and embittered them. This week a mother kills her past self for not doing enough to protect her daughter and makes a failed bid to be a substitute. It goes beyond irony and paradoxes. She punishes and kills her past self for being inadequate as a mother in the belief that she, the future self, can do better because of hindsight and foreknowledge. Seems extreme. However, future Mum has brought something potentially life-threatening with her to the past. It does beg the question as to whether it is a result of the time travel or the collision of past and present or some new pestilence hitch-hiked from the past. Of course there are consequences and the lesson seems to be... "just because you can doesn't mean you should." It's one of those things one learns as a child from the adults around us as a caution about leaping into places where even angels fear to tread. A cautionary advice against hubris and the breaking of fundamental moral principles. It's often been used against genetic modification of foods. It's a warning against playing God. It's the age old question of whether humans can really control nature without it coming back to bite them. I gather from the first episode that people have been time travelling for a bit with relative success. So why the anomalies of the last few episodes? I imagine that the show will provide the answers to that. Hot Dad aka Min-hyuk attributes it to a particular psychological profile. It may well be that. Or there could be much more to it. For a project/ endeavour the Alice crew are a noisy lot bringing a lot of attention to themselves. Take the big gunfight in the library for instance. Some of it was having to clean up after somebody else's mess but maybe they're counting on the fact that no one finds the entire idea of time travel possible in 2020. I suppose they're setting up these confrontations between father and son in anticipation of some kind of reunion.

I was so excited to see Kim Ji-hoon in Episode 9. Finally he's in something that I can watch. The man looks like he's living off the spring of eternal youth. I've missed him. There's a lot that can be said about Ji-won and Hyun-so but as long as they don't broach the elephant in the room it will always be the elephant in the room. I feel sorry for both for different reasons. Surprisingly they're both naive for different reasons. Hyun-so believing that he could perpetrate the deception (even if he never meant her any harm) for as long as he could was naive but I imagine he was caught up in his own facade without realising it. So the plot thickens. Glad to see some progress in the investigation. Dr Baek has always been a bit of a shady character. I've always found Ji-won's team leader a bit suspicious. Just something about him that feels off.

As much as I am reluctant to say this, I am really struggling with season 2 right now. There are several reasons for that. The pacing is the obvious factor. The window dressing is another and then there’s the relentless information overload. It almost feels like I’m watching an entirely different drama from the first season. The theme, premise and messaging of the show are loud and clear. It’s the laborious storytelling that’s taking some of the enjoyment away. It’s not all bad. The leads are still doing what they do well. Although until Episode 6, it seemed as if they were being sidelined by more flamboyant, bombastic characters. The level of cynicism was turned up several notches in the last couple of episodes. It’s one thing to hear about all the political blackmail that bureaucrats play amongst themselves but it’s still startling to hear that kind of talk leave the lips of indiividuals with unfiltered frankness. Choi “Dirt Collector” Bit is very adept at it and I imagine she would have to be to get to where she is. I don’t doubt she’s a shrewd operator who’s running her own affirmative action programme with one hand but one gets the feeling that she’s offering Yeo-jin a Faustian pact with the other. It’s clear that she’s just doing what everyone in her position does not just for the organization but also for self-interest. Sure, it would be good for there to be more women holding top positions in the force if they qualify but from my perspective I think it might be more important to have quality officers in the field. This is the incongruity that I feel and I’m sure it’s deliberate. Just looking at the police as a public sector organization ( and I don’t just want to pick on the cops either) for instance, it’s clear that there are systemic problems… of nepotism, corruption and even bullying. In other words, it is a microcosm of all the problems of SK society. So it’s laughable… to me at least… that we have the cops and the prosecutors squabbling over investigative rights when both houses need a thorough spring clean. I imagine this is where the show is going with all of this (albeit at snail’s pace). Look, I’m sure there are good arguments to be made for either side of the debate. But the more the audience is privy to all the ridiculous political blackmailing that goes on behind the scenes, the more I’m convinced that neither side “deserves" anything. If anything, the powers of certain people should probably be curtailed. The entire criminal justice system is appearing to be one intricate extortion racket in arm twisting. TBH I don’t know what to think of Chief Woo. While Choi Bit seems baldly ambitious, Woo Tae-ha seems much more enigmatic. He seems to play the game that everyone else is playing while giving the impression he’s running another game on the side. I wonder from time to time if he didn’t bring Si-mok in just for his “image”. He must know that Si-mok is something of a maverick and not easily manipulated. In fact, I feel that we’ve been plonked right in the middle of a gigantic chess game and the pieces are being shifted around at some unknown person(s)' pleasure. Although I consider myself a realist, it is chilling to think that competent people are obliged to chuck their consciences at the door before they can reach the higher echelons of these organisations. There’s obviously full frontal gatekeeping going on. Nothing surprising. Happens everywhere. But the egregious cynicism of Episode 6 even managed to send shivers down my spine. It’s clearly the case that the likes of Si-mok, Yeo-jin and even Dong-jae are merely cogs in the machinery that they think they support. It’s not hard to see why Yeo-jin’s morale is at a low. She wants to support her organisation except that she’s having a hard time with what that organisation is. Is she barracking for a side just because she happens in it? She didn’t join a side necessarily to be a part of the war with the prosecutors. After what she’s been asked to do she must be questioning her own reasons for being a cop in the first place. Is it her job to protect the police’s interest even if that goes against her own conscience or even when that works against public interest. It's rough on everyone (audience included) that Si-mok and Yeo-jin are seemingly on opposite sides of the investigative rights dispute. I don’t think they are in the final analysis. But right now the line has been drawn by other people and they’re being forced to toe that line. However, they are individuals who have aspirations for themselves and their respective organizations but that comes into conflict with what the people who run these "cabals" are trying to achieve. That’s why they’re clinging to self for dear life. Si-mok, the most radical individualist of them all as far as that world is concerned, is the textbook outsider. He is perceived as a danger because he can’t be controlled in the way his superiors would like to. He is the anti-social personality that doesn’t have the usual need to belong or to please. He’s not an idealist either. That’s why he can be the Dirty Harry of the prosecution’s office taken out of the proverbial drawer when needed. He does what he has to even if he offends all the right people. He beats to a different drum. Chief Kang knows better than most that someone like him is needed in the office because he is dogged to a fault. But he is wary of the potential for disruption that he poses. Si-mok clings for dear life to his own sense of self in a way no one else does in that world. I am one of those who wouldn’t mind a low-key romance between the leads. The foundations are already there. While Si-mok maintains a certain level of aloofness with most, Yeo-jin is someone that he clearly treats differently. His relationship with her is differentiated by his consideration for her as he follows up on orders dished out by Chief Woo. He does his own legwork and then takes it to her for confirmation. He understands her dilemma only too well as talk about the restriction line surfaces. At times taking a stand doesn’t seem to make a difference in the scheme of things. Structurally nothing changes. But maybe what’s at stake is something much more personal. I liked the way Dong-jae was humanized in these episodes. He wasn't my favourite person last season but he was always an interesting foil to Si-mok. But here he's much more than just a bootlicking social climbing public servant. He's also a husband and a father who is playing the game as well as he can so that he can be there for his family. I'm looking forward to what they do with his disappearance. It's something the show has been in dire need of after such lengthy set-up.

As someone who has a penchant for mind-bending, time travelling sci-fi, my view is that this is really one of the best from Kdramaland. I don’t think there are sufficient hyperboles in my vocabulary to adequately express my love for this… what could easily be termed… masterpiece. It’s not a word I use lightly or often but it is reserved for works of art that demonstrate thought and care. The drama, in my opinion, succeeds on many levels, as a uniquely South Korean historical crime drama and as an adaptation of the popular British series of the same name. It’s one of those rare adaptations that captures all that is good about the original while adding its own flavour in a spirit respectful to the source material. The main cast made up of Jung Kyung-ho, Park Sung-woong, Oh Dae-hwan, Go Ah-sung and No Jung-hyun is terrific but there’s no denying that the drama belongs to the talented Jung Kyung-ho who is fantastic in what he achieves here as a man out of time. Central to this mind-boggling piece of science fiction is Han Tae-joo, a highly competent present day detective with a bent towards criminal forensics and chemistry. He’s a by-the-book-guy and is being “punished” for blowing the whistle on some shoddy policing. In an attempt to get back onto the field, he helps his prosecutor ex-girlfriend who is trying to nail a... yes… wait for it… a manicure-obsessed serial killer who is particularly adept at covering his tracks at the crime scene. During a wide scale hunt for the killer, Tae-joo is shot for his troubles and then run over by a black vehicle. Like the BBC series, David Bowie’s “Life on Mars” plays in the background before he falls to the ground and succumbs to his injuries. When he wakes up, Tae-joo finds himself right in middle of a main thoroughfare in 1988 with a complete costume change. This also marks his first encounter with Park Sung-woong’s Kang Do-chul, his future frenemy at the police. The two butt heads from the word “go” and all manner of hilarity ensues when the two duke it out with words and fists. The fish-out-of-water scenario is no doubt played up for every bit of humour as Tae-joo wanders around 1988, a confused lost soul, repeatedly questioning his own sanity when he hears voices, the sound of medical equipment, sees light flashes and when tv characters break the fourth wall. He can't work out if he's dreaming, hallucinating or sleepwalking. Moreover, 1988 South Korea is a different world to 2018. It is a place where “criminal forensics” is a foreign language, workplace sexism, as well as police overreach are par for the course. In other words, political incorrectness rules. Tae-joo is kept busy by the seemingly anachronistic presence of the Manicure Murderer who seems to pop up like Wonderland’s White Rabbit leading him on an endless chase for the truth. As he pieces various clues from the era to solve the serial murders of the future, he is forced to confront fragments of his own childhood memories that have been unresolved until now. As time progresses, Tae-joo gradually becomes attached to the people and place he calls home in 1988. The quandary becomes more pronounced as the voices in his head and his grudging affection for his colleagues enact an emotional tug-of-war in which he doesn't know where he stands. The best thing for me in this drama as someone who watched the original is how the show draws on stories from the original and adapts them in accordance to actual South Korean events into the storytelling. In terms of how it draws the audience in emotionally, I’d say that this version surpasses the original. Speaking as someone who was a teenager in the late 1980s, I adored the attention paid to props. It brought no small amount of nostalgia seeing typewriters and cassette recorders as part of the furniture. Like the original this version keeps the audience guessing about what in the world is going on with Tae-joo. To avoid giving away too much I will say this. Just like the original, the ending of this will leave you wondering for days to come. The show can be interpreted in a multiple ways and I have my own views on this. Despite that I highly recommend this and it’s a journey worth embarking on. Plot/ Story: 9.5 Acting/Cast: 9.5 Production Values: 9.5 Re-watch Value: 9

What would you do or say if a stranger approaches you with the unbelievable opportunity of going back in time — a year earlier — to do it all again? Would you take it? What would you do differently? This is the predicament that detective Ji Hyung-joo, played by the versatile Lee Joon-hyuk, is presented with as he grieves inconsolably over the brutal murder of his beloved partner and brother-in-arms, Park Sun-ho (Lee Sung-wook). He isn’t the only one. 9 others in his cohort are similarly invited to partake in this “reset” — individuals who all carry some kind of emotional baggage and compelling personal reason to get onboard this seemingly farfetched proposition to change the past. What all these individuals have in common is perhaps an inhuman desperation to act. It is almost always the case that time travelling to fix the past in Kdramaland is a dubious notion fraught with problems. It is no different here. For Hyung-joo, things goes well at first immediately after the reset. Armed with foreknowledge he apprehends his partner’s killer preemptively and earn commendation for preventing other related crimes. For Shin Ga-hyeon (Nam Ji-hyun), a popular crime writing web cartoonist, she manages to avoid the car accident that paralysed her waist down but the law of unintended consequences come to haunt her in other punishing ways. Soon, one by one, members of the reset group fall prey to inexplicable deaths which cause our resident detectives to become embroiled in a fight for survival. One of my favourite parts of the show is watching Hyung-joo, initially a second-rate cop grow as a detective and character while navigating the biggest mystery of his career. Lee Joon-hyuk is adorable in the role and especially in his interactions with Nam Ji-hyun. Romance isn’t a key feature here although their chemistry is delightful and there are subtle hints all throughout that these two collaborators have growing feelings for each other. The razor sharp Ga-hyeon is a great sounding board for Hyung-joo who in both his official and unofficial capacity is forced to grapple with a series of deaths related to the “reset” group. Is there something inherent in the reset mechanism that is flawed? Or are there other unknown sinister forces at play? The cast and the performances are undoubtedly the best thing about it and so it should be because as one peels away the insanity one layer at a time, it is clear that this rollercoaster of a drama ultimately about character. Central to the reset idea is its enigmatic proponent, Lee Shin, a clinical psychiatrist whose good intentions of wanting to give people second chances might be a cover for something possibly less altruistic. Her motives are unclear all throughout and the show has viewers questioning them all throughout as she deals with the fallout from the reset. The show benefits greatly from the 12 episode format. The plotting is tight and the mind-bending storyline keeps viewers on their toes. Just when you think you know exactly what’s going on, the show throws in a twist or takes a different turn which leaves you re-evaluating your cherished assumptions. Of course I never expected the show to satisfactorily explain the temporal device although some explanation is offered. In the end the time travelling element is merely a vehicle (no pun intended) for the show to explore age old questions of predestination and individual choice. Plot/story 9 Cast/acting 10 Production values 8 Rewatch Value 8.5

It occured to me that the production values for this is pretty good for a television series. Each episode just seems to fly by and I'm engrossed by everything including all kinds of potential time travel paradoxes in the tradition of Nine or Circle. Now and again I get the odd pang or two reminding me of the Terminator franchise. I've read some criticisms of the CGI elsewhere but honestly I haven't really noticed or cared. I guess for me all of that is secondary if the storytelling is decent. I am someone who is still fond of classic Who. I'm excited to finally see Joo Won in something that I can sink my teeth into. It seems to me that Park Jin-gyeom has people that he cares about and is partial to. Mum aka Park Sun-yeong aka Tae-yi was one but high school friend Do-yeon seems to be another. He seems capable of showing genuine emotions for people that he has strong attachment to. It was telling in the way he reacted to the possibility of Do-yeon being seriously hurt or dead. His threats, accompanied by acts of violence is proof that he does care but it takes a much longer time for him to respond to them than for the rest of us. Everyone except him thinks that it's fait accompli that he and Do-yeon will end up being a couple despite all his protestations to the contrary. She's certainly his best and only friend. She puts up with all his quirks and for her it's par for the course. At least I don't get any sense that she's trying to change him to be a more "normal" guy. So when he demonstrates these rare moments of consideration for her, she is somewhat confident that well... she occupies an important place in his hidden affections. On some level she might seem screechy and bossy but there's no doubting that she cares... that there's something about her demanding personality that draws him out of his shell. So Alice is an organization that allows people in the future to travel back in time in order to right wrongs or prevent tragedy from occurring. I'm sure those who established this service had the best intentions but as we've seen, the system is open to abuse. Time travel to fix things seems to me to be fraught with inherent dangers... primarily the law of unintended consequences. I was going to ask why 2020? Perhaps it's because the show chooses to focus on Park Jin-gyeom as an adult copper. It still doesn't, however, answer the question. There must be something about 2019 and 2020. A time window perhaps? Because if I were Eun-soo's (the girl who was purportedly "kidnapped" by her mother) mother, I wouldn't be visiting when she's 7. Maybe closer to the time when she's ready to go overseas. Her mother's future self tells her that going to the US was what made her sick. What if her sickness isn't a result of going to the States but something that started earlier, as the arm scratching shows? And what if the arm scratching is symptomatic of something that occurred only as a result of the time travel. That could be the pandora's box that the Book of Prophecy made reference to. It could be that some "fixing" of the tragic past will have other kinds of tragic results. Why do people assume that fiddling around the past necessarily leads to a happier present? The ability to fix the past doesn't come with the gift of prescience that allow the user to know what possibilities lie ahead with a different choice or a subtle interference. I enjoy the irony of hot Dad time travelling tour guide becoming Jin-gyeom's adversary for a bit. It was interesting that Dad aka Yoo Min-hyuk was told that Tae-yi had married after 1992. He and his boss doesn't seem to know that she was killed so that tells me that someone in the organization has a different agenda or isn't onboard with the founding aims.

Yes. I suppose that's what I am saying. ;) I thought I might have misunderstood the Peter Principle but I went and did a bit of reading and clarified my understanding on the subject. My misunderstanding might have come from the fact that some companies deliberately use this as a strategy of dealing with undesirable staff that can't easily be removed from the organization. Although I don't think that's the case with Yeo-jin. There are also those whose ambition outstrip their competence and they have the right connections to get them those promotions. I think that either side (police and Prosecutor's Office) could quite easily make arguments that the other side can't be trusted with more power. Of course. All organisations are made up of flawed human beings who are more often than not driven by self-interest. Too much power can certainly lead to abuse and corruption. But in the end it's a case of who watches the watchmen. In some countries there would be bodies like an Ombudsman or some kind of a third party that would oversee complaints about those organisations and ensure some degree of accountability. (That's also what the other half was suggesting should happen if neither side are willing to budge) It is true that neither side don't seem ready to compromise. And I agree that the prosecutors feel like they're being shamed into submission while the cops feel hamstrung. The reality is nobody is willing to give up power without getting anything in return. What I think will happen that will make them work together to resolve this is if a major scandal breaks out that affect both parties. It could potentially be the bribery-suicide case which could just be the tip of the iceberg. It might not just be cops that are dirty in this instance. It also occurred to me that the bribery-suicide case is a good example of how internal corruption do far more to damage organizational morale than anything outsiders throw at them.

The show is definitely off to a good start. It moves quickly and there's enough time to get one's head around the characters and the world building. Kim Hee-sun whom I haven't seen since Faith is good as Mum. As is Joo Won in the lead role as yet another antisocial personality. (They seem to be all the rage in Kdramaland at the moment. How many have we had so far this year already?) I don't think there are any doubts that the leads will do a good job. Or the rest of the cast for that matter. It's the timey wimey storytelling that I'm worried about going wibbly wobbly. Kim Hee-sun plays Tae-yi, a book grabbing time traveller who when travelling to 1992 discovers that she's pregnant. She decides to hang around in 1992 as Park Sun-yeong, ditch her travelling companion and give birth to bub. She makes this decision after reading the forbidden Book of Prophecy with the last page torn out. Bub grows into Jin Gyeom (Joo-won), an enormously bright kid with a smaller than normal frontal lobe... probably a result of radiation while Mum was zipping through the time travelling wormhole. While Jin Gyeom is in high school, mum is killed by a mysterious gun shot while a tell-tale drone hovers about. For the first time, as he weeps over his mother's body, the unemotional Jin Gyeom demonstrates an outpouring of grief. He later tells the lead detective he wants to be a cop. We are left in no uncertain terms that the show pays homage to Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland as is the practice in recent days. Alice is not a person but possibly a facility or a time machine or some kind of temporal device which is activated by a card that looks like a souped up retrofitted 3.5 inch floppy. It seems to be the case that time travel here occurs without too much disruption to the space-time continuum... until it probably does. Of course this doesn't even begin to delve into the ethics of the entire business once past, present and future selves start to intersect. The episode ends with Jin Gyeom coming face to face with a woman who is either mum or looks a lot like her.

I've been trying to avoid spoilers as much as possible since I've only watched the show up to Episode 8. The writing of the show has been very good so far. That's the highlight for me. Happily the storyline doesn't fall along predictable lines. Every episode is edge-of-the seat stuff and I'm routinely reminded of Hitchcock in the way the cat and mouse aspects play out in the way the story continues to unfold. The premise is fascinating and the execution so far is stellar. The next best thing of course is Lee Joon-gi's performance as Do Hyun-su. I expected him to bring his A-game to this and of course he has, playing someone who has ASPD and has learnt how to fit in with the wider world. It isn't that he's purposefully inauthentic to deceive but it's more the case that being himself only seems to lead to misunderstanding, bullying and ostracization. Labelling children is a two-edge sword. While it might help others to "understand" that an individual might be wired differently, it can also lead to irrational fear. Do Hyun-su despite his inability to empathize seems better equipped to act more rationally and thoughtfully. He wants to live his life quietly with his family but his past inevitably catches up with him. It was clear practically from the early days that he wasn't his father's accomplice, if indeed his father was the infamous serial killer of their hometown. It strikes me as interesting that the so-called "normal" people are the ones who are causing the most problems and doing the most damage to the social fabric because they don't have a good handle on their emotions. For a guy who is supposedly unable to empathize, Hyun-so is loath to kill. He defies expectations in that regard. If he can negotiate his way out of a bind, that's what he does. To him that's rational. All of the violence that we are privy to in the drama are done by others because of greed, anger, grief and fear. Societies are obsessed that people with mental disorders causing problems and chaos in the main while forgetting that most crimes are committed as a result of normal human passions that aren't brought under control. That is to say, people who aren't driven by emotions are seldom the problem. Ji-won admirably acts in a way that is true to her creed that she only believes what she sees. There are flaws with that perspective but the upside is that she is driven largely to be evidence-based. Even if she believes that their marriage has been something of a lie, she knows, after a bit of testing and investigating that Do Hyun-so isn't the demon that he's been made out to be. I certainly don't think that their marriage is a lie in the way she thinks of it. While he might not be the ideal family man she thought he was, Hyun-so isn't a villain. His attentions towards his family was always benevolent. After all, it's clear from the flashbacks that she pursued him first despite his attempts to fend off her overtures. All he did was learn to dance to her tune and be the man he thought she wanted. He was more like the manga Absolute Boyfriend, learning how to be perfect husband and father even if he didn't have feelings for them. He responded to their feelings in the best way he could. He isn't less human just because he isn't driven by emotions like the rest of humanity but there are advantages because emotions don't overwhelm him. This is what JWon has to navigate.

FInally caught up with all the recent episodes. It's always a little more onerous when the other half is involved, trying to find a time when we can both watch it together. But since he's the only one who has a job at the moment, I shouldn't complain too much. :P To be frank, I find the p***ing contest between the cops and the prosecutors rather ridiculous. Of course if anyone takes the trouble to do a bit of digging, all kinds of proverbial skeletons will turn up in the closet. Mind you, I don't necessarily think that getting to the bottom of what happened to Song Gi-yeong is a bad thing. That certainly speaks to a toxic workplace culture which could do with exposure and reform. Whether SGY was bullied to the point of suicide or if there was a conspiracy to make his death look like a suicide, it should be a completely separate issue to that of investigative rights. Trying to find dirt to make the other party cower and give in is basically replaying the tit for tat. Already we see in the rental scam case that quibbling over investigative rights is hampering the real work of seeing justice done. As someone who has been on committees before, I'm certainly not expecting them to hold hands and sing kumbaya. ;) But is the police-prosecutor's council really just a showpony for public consumption? There's potential for good to come out of this. However, this combative, adversarial approach they're taking will lead nowhere if they continue to carry on with the belligerence. If they continue to squabble over investigative rights, aren't they playing into the hands of perpetrators and would-be perpetrators? A house divided is not only prey to the attacks of external forces but their effectiveness in terms of being able to carry out their brief is also undermined. Fundamentally people of good will should want the same things. At least I'm sure Jang Geon, Yeo-jin and Si-mok all want to do their jobs well even if their bosses have other political agendas. Ultimately that's what a "criminal justice system" is about. I'm not so naive to think that one can entirely remove politics from this but someone needs to blow the whistle and referee the brouhaha, remind all the egos why their organizations were set up in the first place. Seo Dong-jae is set up as an obvious contrast to Si-mok not just in terms of how they work. DJ is the inveterate brown-noser while Si-mok is instinctively uncomfortable schmoozing with his supervisors. He is the perpetual "outsider" or "stranger" to the politicking and the cronyism. DJ wants to get ahead and will do what he can to build his networks. But SM actively eschews all attempts to be manipulated into playing everybody's game. He maintains his aloofness from the fray. It's is also interesting that the show takes the trouble to show Yeo-jin's "homesickness". Her former team leader astutely observes that despite her promotion, she is in all likelihood lonely in her new position which she came to her old team to recruit someone for the P & P council. We sense that she's bored from the doodling she does in her notebook. Jang Geon comes to same conclusion later from a bit of gossip he overhears between current colleagues who are openly resentful that the "newbie " on the team got a plum spot in the newly formed police-prosecutor's council. In her new position, she has become a "stranger" even within an organization that she's been a part of for years. This is a major problem in many organization as highlighted in The Talent Delusion. People who are good at what they do get promoted which is right in a meritocratic system. But promotion often means going into a job that doesn't effectively utilize their skills or at least take into consideration why they were highly regarded in the first place. This is an issue that's not often addressed in workplaces. The reality is that Yeo-jin isn't a desk jockey. It isn't an effective use of her abilities although she was undoubtedly hired for her field experience. All that to say that the promotional structure of an organization is often not conducive to getting the best out of the existing talent pool. Speaking of workplace culture, the case of Song Gi-yeong also suggests that good people are not encouraged in the system to do the right thing. People with integrity aren't wanted. There are certainly internal issues that the police organization needs to address outside of trying to gain more investigative rights. Reform within is just as necessary.

Okay, this looks to be a serious sci-fi show at least on par with Circle. At least they seem to be making some effort with the world-building. Everything in the 10 minute trailer shouts quality and I'm definitely on board. Of course having Joo-won onboard is always fantastic.

Hospital Playlist (2020) *Non-Spoiler Review* Five lifelong friends now in their 40s. All five are clinicians with various specialisations at the top of their game. All five call one hospital — Yulje Medical Centre — a home away from home. A place where life and death hangs in a balance. A place where men and women armed with all the tools of modern medicine mediate that space battling to prolong life where possible. It’s also a school where people imbibe life’s lessons while facing the reality of one’s mortality. Its inhabitants share in laughter and tears. Even with the frenzy and urgency of day to day tasks, some even manage to fall in love. Hospital Playlist is a collaboration between director Shin Won-ho and writer Lee U-jeong in the slice-of-life genre located firmly in the context of a busy city hospital owned by a philanthropic religious family. The heart of the hospital is depicted in the individual and intersecting trajectories of the hospital staff who act as friends, colleagues and potential lovers. These are their stories of heartache and triumph as they navigate best practices and their own professional goals. Clearly not all doctors are equal and not all are equally committed. Central to this are the five friends who are presented as archetypal caregivers, the best in their field while they oversee the up and coming practitioners under their tutelage. For those brief moments out of the hospital, the five friends gather together over meals bickering as only close friends can while they take time out confiding in and confronting each other. They also reform their old band after some cajoling and arm pulling, hence the playlist. This is a friendship that has survived failed marriages, family dysfunction and an assortment of emotional upheavals. The slice-of-life format points appropriately to a kind of transience in a space where people come and go. Each episode contains overlapping stories of staff and patients from all walks of life, young and old as they play out their existential adventures in the ICU, the OR, the ER and in the general wards. The weekly juggling act is no easy task with a cast of thousands trying to deal with multiple threads. If there is a flaw in this generally slick production, it would be that. Not that it does it badly but it’s obvious that at times (especially towards the end of the season) the show groans under the weight of a myriad of subplots that don’t always meld comfortably. That, however, can be mitigated by a second viewing. As a whole the drama achieves a high level of consistency in terms of its own goals. It keeps the main thing the main thing, maintains a sanguine tone and never falling into melodrama for its own sake. I, for one am certainly keen to see where it goes in the next two seasons. Plot/Story: 8.5 Cast/Acting: 10 Production Values: 9 Rewatch Value: 9 (I’ve seen it multiple times already)

The Good Detective is not your standard detective fare. I went into it expecting a straightforward police procedural and a race against the clock to save an innocent man's life. I was expecting a Grisham style The Chamber thriller. Instead what I got was a somewhat complex, bleak but ultimately hopeful morality tale concerned with individual choices when presented with real moral and ethical dilemmas ie. what drives individuals to do what they do. The cops and politics storyline is the backdrop to a drama about men and women, who in their pursuit of truth, are up against mammoth external obstacles that threaten to consume them and yet the battle begins within an almighty struggle of the will. The story largely revolves around the investigative misadventures of Detective Sergeant Kang Do-chang, his savvy post-burn out partner Oh Ji-hyuk and a newspaper journalist, Jin Seo-gyeong. After a bumpy start, all three become more cooperative when a matter regarding a death row inmate is brought to their attention. "New" evidence emerges that the inmate at the heart of the matter, Lee Dae-chul, might not be guilty for the crimes he was allegedly accused of. This scenario creates a quandary for the trio and their associates because re-opening the case, as everyone suspects, will be akin to opening pandora's box. However, there's that troublesome, pesky thing called "conscience" that comes into play The first half of the drama sees the gang in a race to save Lee Dae-chul from the executioner while navigating through political roadblocks posed by those who have reasons to bury the truth. Rather than a large scale organized conspiracy, it's more a case of an intersection of various agendas at play, all having their own reasons for wanting Lee Dae-chul executed. There's a bit of a twist, a few nasty hits before those on the side of the angels pick themselves up and start again. The second half sees the motley crew painfully persevering to make gradual inroads to clearing Lee Dae-chul's name. The title might be interpreted in two ways. Firstly it could be a reference to the main character Kang Do-chang but when we first encounter Kang Do-chang, it's not a moniker that he wears well. At the start of the show, he is on the short list for a long overdue promotion. Despite his experience and achievements, he has seen younger men and contemporaries climb the success ladder that's eluded him. Just as he decides that he can only get to the top by not rocking the boat, the Lee Dae-chul case lands right into his lap again. As if Do-chang hasn't got enough on his plate, his impoverished, recently divorced sister with self-defeating alcohol issues seeks refuge with him. Of course the titular detective could on the other hand be pointing to an ideal type rather than an actual person because before a man becomes a cop, he is a flawed human being first and foremost. So an argument could be made that the show is fundamentally an exploration of what that good/exemplary detective looks like. Or how as the story progresses, Kang Do-chang and all those within his circle begin to take on the attributes of a "good detective". One of my favourite parts of the show has to be the male camaraderie especially among Team 2. The banter between Do-chang and Ji-hyuk especially could possibly be my most favourite thing in the drama. I am especially partial to the backhanded compliments, the understated sympathy and the wry humour. There's so much affection and respect between the men belying the barbed personal comments and the jibes. The male relationships are so well-written here, very true to life. At least in my experience of watching men interact. But it is a joy to watch the two male leads become true brothers-in-arms over time. Props to Son Hyun-joo and Jang Seung-jo for their convincing performances. Much praise should also be given to Oh Jung-se (who is rather ubiquitous these days) for his excellent turn as the villainous Oh Jang-tae. In general, the performances of young and old, newbies and veterans alike were better than decent. As for romance, it is played out in understated fashion within the confines of detective work. Oh Ji-hyuk and Jin Seo-gyeong are kept on their toes all the way through as they pursue various lines of inquiry but they steal the odd moment or two over drinks for Ji-hyuk to make his shy confessions and backhanded compliments. Overall I am of the opinion that this is an excellent thought-provoking crime drama that's not just about catching baddies and putting them behind bars. Although some might find the resolution a tad controversial, it does end on a hopeful note. 1. Plot / story 9 2. Cast / acting 8.5 3. Production values 8.5 4. Re-watch value 8.5 If you're interested in reading more about the drama, go to my blog. Beware of spoilers.

Hello all... Thanks for the welcome @abs-oluteM and @wallflowersforjane I'll do my bit. I suppose we should do this chronologically but since we already know the outcome... why pretend otherwise 😉