before watching signal, i started my korean crime drama series by watching strange. i saw my junior from medical school days getting excited about the upcoming stranger 2 in netflix. obviously i got interested as she had a good taste in movies. and turned out she was right. it was good. i had to wait until the second season is finished before continue watching the second season. although i never saw any of the casts before, aside from yoo jae myung, turned out they were good.
title: stranger
cast: cho seung woo, bae doona, lee joon hyuk, shin hye sun, yoo jae myung
genre: crime drama mystery, police story, politic-related drama
hwang si mok (cho seung woo) is a young, righteous prosecutor that had a medical history of hypersensitivity that lead him to undergo a corrective surgery while he was still a young kid. unfortunately, the surgery had a side effect. he lost his sense of empathy and lack of social skill. growing up, he managed to hide his condition while doing good in his job. working as prosecutor makes him prone to bribe but he managed to dodge all the bribes. but one time, he got introduced to a man by seo dong jae (lee joon hyuk) and later that man was found dead in his home by si mok because he had an appointment with that man.
because of that homicide case, he met with han yeo jin (bae doona), a police officer who was pissed at him at first, but amazed by his investigative skill, thus the two got closer even though the public prosecutor department and the police department was a bit tense at that time. when the police department found a clue about the culprit, suddenly the case went so smooth, that si mok became suspicious. his superior (yoo jae myung) also told him to close the case which got him even more curious. unfortunately, they had no other evidence, so they just investigated it quietly.
then suddenly si mok's superior got promoted to chief prosecutor. many people commented that it was thanks to his father in law who was a well known businessman. but he made a stir after a news about a possible corruption in public prosecutor department broke out. he decided to form a special unit to bring anyone that's proven to be corrupt, whether it's the police or the prosecutor. and here si mok met with yeo jin again, together with eun soo (a young prosecutor that got backlash after people found out that the culprit that the police caught in the first homicide case was falsely accused and killed himself later) and yoon se won (another prosecutor that was seemed neutral at first).
together they made a stir both in the police department and public prosecutor department. they didn't know who's to believe because everyone seemed to be angry at them. the chief prosecutor then resigned from his position only to get another promotion at the blue house. seo dong jae then followed his mentor to the blue house because he made a trade with si mok to become an ear in the blue house as he knew that si mok was suspected their superior to be corrupt as well. their investigation somehow got related to the first homicide, so they were back investigating the same case again, only this time, following evidence of corruption.
as the story goes on, we also find out that eun soo's father was a prime minister that was accused of corruption but his father denied that and even the bribe money that was found in their house as evidence later disappeared. later all the evidence pointed to former chief prosecutor's father in law as the man behind it all. but he was so powerful and so many people were backing him so si mok's team even got disbanded at first. shockingly, they found out the killer from the first homicide accidentally, and it was someone close to their teams! talking about surprise. another surprise was eun soo then got killed and it gave si mok a bit evidence to chase former chief prosecutor's father in law, then with another sudden turn, the chief prosecutor was the one behind all the crumbs that was left for si mok to find. unfortunately, he knew that he was involved in the same corruption case as his father in law, and he decided to take his own life rather than spending time in jail. sadly, though si mok finally caught the real killer and even made light all the corruption in the police department and public prosecutor department, he was considered as someone that betrayed their own, so he was transferred to a small public prosecutor department outside seoul.
- all casts were good, even the supporting ones. no wonder since mostly i've seen them in other drama.
- clothing and makeup were matched with the job. no flashy outfit and makeup for the police officers and prosecutors. both yeo jin and eun soo didn't seem to wear a lot of makeup, which is good since they were busy at their work.
- no plot hole. everything is explained well in the drama. the reason behind chief prosecutor got si mok to investigate the corruption case, to the culprit behind the first homicide.
cons:
- i was curious, which one does si mok like? eun soo or yeo jin? he seemed close and comfortable with yeo jin, especially after she found out about his condition. but he was pretty shocked after eun soo's death and even beat himself for not protecting eun soo. sometimes i hate that si mok couldn't express his emotion and the actor did good in portraying emotion-less si mok.
- since this drama also tells story about corruption, it's sad to see how even in other countries there's corruption in police department as well as justice department. and that the right one got demoted at the end even though he's the one that's right. somehow i wish si mok got promotion instead of being transferred. oh well.. but it leads to another season, so i'm not complaining much.
rating: 9/10
binge worthy: yes
recommended for: action thriller seeker, murder mystery lover, don't mind a drama that doesn't have pretty face casts.
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