Early Access: Beyond Evil E1 (Patreon)

E1. This is a case of my following drama buzz that's leading me far out of my wheelhouse. I was absolutely not planning to check out Beyond Evil, because I'm not much into crime stories or serial murders, and I'm also not much into stories about possible psychopaths (which I infer this might be, from its Korean title "Monster"). BUT. Everyone's had such good things to say, that I kinda feel like I will be missing out, if I don't give this one a look. And so far, I'm intrigued, and I am enjoying this more than I'd expected. A promising start.

As far as first impressions go, I'm relieved that Show doesn't appear to be as relentlessly dark as I'd thought it might be, from its ominous title. Aside from the first few opening minutes - which, not gonna lie, made me wonder if I had the fortitude to power through a whole hour of darkness - the rest of the episode is much more balanced than I'd imagined.

We get reasonably solid introductions to our pair of lead characters, which help me feel like I've already got some sense of who they are, and there's also come context building, in terms of the formation of their (very) reluctant partnership, and the police station dynamics that exist around that. This gives me a sense of confidence that Show isn't just going to go ham on serving up dark and murdery things, but will continue to tease out characters and relationships - and maybe even some sort of reluctant bromantic feels between our leads, who are frustrated and perplexed at having to work with each other.

I'd completely forgotten that Lee Do Hyun makes a special appearance in this show as Shin Ha Kyun's younger self, so it was SUCH a treat to have Lee Do Hyun suddenly appear on my screen during the flashback to Dong Sik's younger days. I echo everyone else before me: whoever had the idea of casting Lee Do Hyun as young Shin Ha Kyun is freaking brilliant!

I would have never thought of Lee Do Hyun, while thinking of younger actors who could plausibly be a young Shin Ha Kyun, and yet, watching Lee Do Hyun on my screen, I am so taken with this casting decision! Their features are more similar than I'd thought, and given the story developments, I can totally see how a young, carefree Lee Do Hyun might turn into a jaded Shin Ha Kyun, whose painful secrets are etched into the lines on his face. Very impressive.

And how awful, that Dong Sik's twin sister suddenly goes missing, after leaving the house in order to meet Dong Sik. I'm guessing that Show will play with the idea of whether Dong Sik is behind his sister's disappearance, particularly because of Show's title. My gut says, though, that Dong Sik's probably innocent, but we will have to see how our story unfolds. If Dong Sik is innocent, though, I can imagine that on top of the shock of his sister's disappearance - except for her ten fingertips, which are gruesomely left behind, eep - there would also be a lot of guilt at play, since she only left the house because of his phone call.

I'm also very curious about why and how Ju Seon ended up being murdered as well. All we see of her is her bickering with Dong Sik over him overstaying his welcome at her cafe, and talking about a blind date, and then the next thing we know, she's lying dead in a field. Could she have been killed by her blind date, then? Also, why is Dong Sik filled with guilt over her death? Clearly, there are things that we don't know yet, about this whole situation.

Shin Ha Kyun's doing a great job of portraying Dong Sik; I already feel like there's such an interesting bundle of contradictions about him. On the one hand, he appears jaded and hardened because of all that he's gone through in his life, and then on the other hand, there's a kindness and compassion that shines through, like when he cradles Grandpa Bang, who's freaking out, and soothes him and tells him everything's ok. Plus, I do think that Dong Sik shows a good amount of patience for the group of fighting, gambling ahjummas, before he actually raises his voice and reports them for illegal gambling. And then there's that indication later in the episode, that Dong Sik might have reported them for their own good, and I love the idea that Dong Sik's being protective under the guise of being impatient.

I love the idea that Dong Sik's well-versed in the law, and can rattle off relevant articles of the law whenever he needs to, and I also love that he appears to be super observant, and in possession of an almost photographic memory. I mean, we're not told that he has a photographic memory, but the way he's able to rattle off the license plate of Joo Won's car, when he'd basically only seen it go past him around a street corner, is pretty darn impressive.

I didn't much enjoy Yeo Jin Goo in the last thing I saw him in, which happened to be Hotel Del Luna, so it's good to see him in a new role, with fresh possibilities. My gut feel with Yeo Jin Goo, at least for now, is that he does better at dramatic roles compared to romantic roles (I thought he was so blah in My Absolute Boyfriend, on top of being blah in Hotel Del Luna, that I forgot how blown away I was, by his turn in The Crowned Clown), so it's great to see him in a dramatic role again. I do think that there will be lots of room for him to impress with his acting chops in this show.

So far, I find Yeo Jin Goo pitch perfect as Joo Won, our well-heeled, well-connected Inspector from Seoul, who suddenly arrives in the sleepy small town of Manyang, where things are a lot messier than he's used to. His finicky habits with hygiene and cleanliness, coupled with his aversion to being around other people, and his reluctance for people to associate him with his influential father, add up to a whole lotta frustration in his new posting, and I can't wait to see how this develops. Will he ever get more comfortable with getting his hands dirty, and will he ever warm up to the people that he's now planted among?

It becomes clear that Joo Won is here in Manyang because he's specifically interested to solve the murder of Bang Ju Seon. Alongside that, he's also suspicious of Dong Sik's involvement in his twin's disappearance.

With that layered on top of the prickly feels that are arising from their very different personalities and the circling of two alphas, I feel like there's going to be lots to mine from the relationship between Joo Won and Dong Sik, going forward.

The generally laidback, slightly bumbling atmosphere of the police station is quite a welcome breath of fresh air for me - which is something I never thought I'd say, since one of my pet peeves is how drama police are often made out to be so ineffectual. However, in a drama where things promise to be pretty dark and possibly gruesome, the warm, familial atmosphere of the police station feels rather comforting - at least, so far. We don't know if any of these friendly policemen is actually a serial killer, after all. 😬