On These Episodes:
Villains, Villains, and more Villains - Tae II’s backstory - Puppy love continues - The Chief’s reasons come to light - DNA test don’t lie - The team assembles - Bitchy Villain was duped - Chief doesn’t get to say goodbye - Bad Villain should have been an actor - 1 year later.
I’ve been a bit on the busy side of life while this drama was aired. Between completing my thoughts for DramaFever’s Drama Club, work, and real life the blog was at put on the back burner. Sorry guys. It wasn’t my intention to forget you all. If you want an episode by episode, please head over to the Drama Club at DramaFever. This is going to be a little review over the rest of the episodes and the series as a whole.
I wanted to touch base on Tae II’s story. His brother came out gay and I totally understand how it is not the norm in Korea. Heck, there are still people in USA who aren’t happy today. I was a little annoyed over Tae II’s actions. What was he so upset about? I assume he and his brother were close. Was he pissed his brother didn’t tell him before heading to the parents? Or was there something else?
Tae II may feel he helped cause his brother’s death. Granted, he wasn’t the one driving the car. I felt he became a detective because his brother wanted to be one. I just wasn’t very impressed with the backstory and wasn’t needed IMO. Despite Tae II doing the right thing, his parents are horrible. Yes, parents want their children to succeed, but to disown them for not wanting to become a doctor isn’t their choice. His parents need to let him and his brother make their choices in life be it good or bad. In the end, I still hated his parents.
Dae Gu and Soo Sun’s relationship was one of the highlights for the series. Yay for the writer for getting this right. These two were able to develop their friendship which turn to, partnership to a romantic ship in a natural way. Dae Gu didn’t step away after confessing his feelings. Heck, neither of them became a noble idiot. A win in the column for the drama. Towards the end of the drama, I know some people hated seeing Soo Sun became the girl who just waited to comfort Dae Gu. For me, it felt right this was her role. He needed someone to balance him when the world was spinning.
Chief Kang was by far my favorite character. She had a complex past and good reasons for the choices she made. She wasn’t a villain, but she wasn’t a hero. Her partner killed herself due to the injustices of the Prosecutors office. The Police Department has no power in the grand scheme of things and the Prosecutors were dirty by filling their pockets with money. She became Assemblyman Yoo’s person in hopes of getting him into office to help grant the Police Department the same rights as the Prosecutors. No surprised Assemblyman Yoo didn’t hold up to his promise.
I like the shades of gray her character had. The reason Games of Thrones is such an interesting TV show for me happens to be no one is truly a good guy and things are complex. She was the one who hides the evidence of Ji Yong’s mother death, but was Dae Gu’s sponsor/second mother. She may not have gotten to apologize or explain her reasons to Dae Gu, but she left an impact for me. Greatest KDrama character so far this year.
The villains were overly outrageously evil. Boots is the only villain I forgive in this drama. He wasn’t the greatest villain, but he didn’t twirl his mustache and laugh. He was the boogeyman in Dae Gu’s mind since he was the only villain to have come at him. It is Madam Yoo and Assemblyman Yoo which gave the villain a bad name.
Madam Yoo is the normal spoiled rich lady with a short temper who believes money means you can get away with murder. Her reasons for attempted murder towards Ji Yong’s mom was due to the boy being the son of her husband. A tip in the future for villains in the same situation, double check by running the DNA yourself - comes back positive, divorce your husband and make his dirt poor. End of story, why make the innocent kid and mom part of the problem since the kid didn’t do anything and mom is staying out of your hair.
Assemblyman Yoo is the worst villain ever. I can’t tell if it the actor or the writing for making this character so bad. The actor needs for his next job not to be typecast as the douchebag dad/grandpa again. I’m not sure I would continue watching another drama with him in it as the same villainous character. Once okay, but twice, I’m going to throw a punch. Getting back to Assemblyman Yoo being a 2 dimensional villain, he just wasn’t interesting. He wanted to be rich and powerful which isn’t new but the writer could have twisted the character in getting his money and power. Instead he lied to his daughter to get his wife’s money and blamed the whole problem with his daughter. By this point in the drama, I didn’t care.
The real DNA test came back negative thank goodness. A win for the writer. I hoped the birth secret was fake when it first came up. The drama gods answered my prayers. Considering part of the drama was wondering if Dae Gu was secretly part of the family, I’m a little upset who was his father never came to light. I did wonder if the case of the rape girl the Chief was working happen to be Ji Yong’s mom. It happened some 26 years ago and it would make sense why mom didn’t want to talk about it and why the Chief became Dae Gu’s sponsor.
The downfall of this drama was the writing. The big twists were weak, the cop work sloppy, the villains just laughable, and the rest of the story was just downright predictable. Now it wasn’t like the mess which is known as Heirs nor did it give me a case of blue balls like MHIYD. It missed out on giving serviceable storylines that could develop ALL the characters. The ending episode was trying to keep the suspense, but didn’t get the memo, it had already left the building.
The one year later was just fanservice, but I’m not going to complain about it. At this point, I think evening the writer knew something needed to be given to the fans for staying on the crazy train ride. Yes the drama wasn’t good, but it wasn’t unwatchable. I lowered my expectations down at some point in the drama, but I did stay for the cast and the characters. Our team of heroes are the MVP of the drama. The interactions with one another’s character helped me get through the flaws of the drama without wanting to destroy my computer.
The Sum Up:
If you want 2 dimensional villains, sloppy police work, but fun characters - You Are All Surrounded is the drama for you.
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