You're All Surrounded

I did make it to the gym today even though I'm not 100%. Did a slow hour or so on the treadmill and a bit on the weight machines. Was a bit dizzy. Headache-y. Dodgy throat. My only hope is that if I get sick again that I lose another 5 lbs. Ha. Anyway, I was feeling like It's Okay, That's Love was about to go into the depressing angst-y phase (I'm about to start episode 12 out of 16 and it's about that time) and I wasn't quite up for it, so I started You're All Surrounded because it looked like a silly buddy cop/ensemble type of thing from the clips I'd seen.

So. Well. It mostly is that, I guess, but it's got some dark undercurrents too. Seriously. Are ANY of the Kdramas that appear to be silly ever JUST silly? NO. NO, they are not.

Ah, anyway. It's billed as the story of four rookie detectives on the Criminal Investigation Squad (not a place you normally find fresh recruits just out of the academy, but there was a crackdown on corruption and the turnover at Gangnam station was big.)

BUT it looks like the main plot thread is really the story of Eun Dae-Goo (played by Lee Seung-Gi, another singer/actor type who I haven't yet managed to see in anything else, though he's in a few things that are on my list). Eleven years previously when he was in 8th grade/final year of middle school/about 15/16), his mother, a school nurse, was supposed to testify in a case. She was murdered to prevent her testimony and he was there to witness it (Dark, I'm telling you). Seo Pan-Seok (played by Cha Seung-Won, who is actually older than me (!) and quite the dashing looking devil in most pictures) was the detective working on the case and due to some suspicious circumstances, Dae-Goo (this name/identity is a disguise) thinks he might be involved somehow. So he disappeared way back then and did who knows what for 11 years, to pop back up now.

The girl also knew him then, though they weren't on the best of terms for silly reasons. She's Eo Soo-Seun (played by Go Ara, who I also haven't seen in anything before, though she's in a lot of things in my queue). She's obviously destined to be Dae-Goo's reluctant love interest at some point. She also witnessed something the night Dae-Goo disappeared/the night his mother died. As a character, she's hard to get a handle on so far as she seems rather clueless but determined. Since we last saw her as a 16/17 year old wanting to be a singer, no idea why she's become a detective other than to throw her into the mix. If there's not a real reason for it that works plot-wise, I'll be annoyed by this. PLOT CONVENIENCE IS NOT A REASON, KDRAMA WRITERS.

One of the other rookies I have seen before -- Park Tae-Il (played by Ahn Jae-Hyun). He was the little brother still in high school in My Love from the Star. So it's interesting this was filmed right after that and now he's the "handsome detective" part. AND it looks like this was only his second part, My Love from the Star being his first, which is interesting as I liked him in that. He's 31 now, so was mid 20's when this was filmed. Still looks like a baby. Anyway, no idea why he's a detective either as he's obviously got some money based on his outfits in the show.

The last rookie is the comic relief guy Ji Gook (played by Park Jung-Min, who looks to have been in a load of movies). Can't say much about him as yet other than that he's the puppy of the show (character-wise, not age-wise).

Anyway, the rookies all have good hearts but keep screwing up. I've watched two episodes so far and I think I like it, though I honestly would rather have not had that whole depressing back story. Just a buddy cop show would've been fine, thanks very much. I don't think Seo is a bad guy either, but there was definitely enough circumstantial evidence to make it appear so. And how a 15 year old with no family or money or ANYTHING when he ran off (covered in his mother's blood) survives on his own and manages to get a new identity is beyond me. But I'll reserve judgement on that for now, I guess. He's obviously the clever character. I also hope that Soo-Seun doesn't prove to be a total idiot. Is it too much to ask for a competent female lead?

Edit: 1/3 the way through episode 4 and dammit if this show isn't way too effing depressing. How come every clip I saw (including the montage one) made everything look light and fluffy??? Probably going to pause it for now and come back to it later. Or alternate with Waikiki or something.

Edit 28 March: Have made it through episode 13 out of 20. I have some thoughts. Overall, I'd say that I'm liking it. It's not nearly as funny as the clips or description would have you think and the pace is kinda slow. Some of the reveals are taking too long when anyone who has ever watched ANY television before knows from the first episode that there's gonna be some kind of "birth secret revealed" thing -- it still hasn't happened, though it's been teased as a kind of joke by the Superintendent played by Im Won-Hee (did I mention he's in this too? He's one of the reasons I thought this show would be funnier than it is -- he's always completely ridiculous...he kinda makes me inwardly cringe as he's so over the top BUT seeing him usually means there's a good amount of funny). It seems like it should have been more like the normal 16 episodes. I don't know why it's 20.

That's not to say that it's bad. It's just taking too long. The most egregious bit is that we've known for AGES that Soo-Seun (who, happily, hasn't turned out to be a total idiot, though she does trip over her shoelaces an inordinate amount of times for an adult) has the missing pendant but has never told anyone else about it, even though just about ALL else has been revealed about Dae-Goo's past. Considering that she's even taken it out to look at it and has reminisced about her report to the police way back when, it seems ridiculous that it hasn't come up yet.

But, it's not a bad show. The romance part is VERY slow burn and low key, which isn't necessarily bad -- it is, after all, mostly a mystery/cop show. So I wasn't expecting a whole lot from it. Though it'd be nice if that was sped up too, along with the plot...especially because Dae-Goo really seems like he wants/needs a hug and Soo-Seun's mom has already basically adopted him.

Interestingly, the younger actors are so much better than the older ones -- the Big Bad Assemblyman played by Jeong Dong-Hwan (and perhaps the father or grandfather of Dae-Goo? Or something...I'll find out whenever the birth secret is finally revealed.) basically seems to want to convey any emotion by widening his eyes. He's very one note. He's been in about a billion things so I'm assuming he isn't always like this, but not impressed with him here. Moon Hee-Kyung as his evil bitch daughter isn't really any better. Maybe it's the evil character thing in this show. They seem very transparent and same-y and their motivations aren't really all that complicated. Basically, as bad guys, they're just dicks and very flat, even the conflicted Chief of Police who's in it with the Big Bad but has also protected Dae-Goo for years is just...eh...kinda generic bad guy.

My guess is that Dae-Goo is the son of the husband of the evil Assemblyman's daughter and his mother was that guy's real love. We'll see if I'm right or not.

Anyway. Liking Go Ara and Lee Seung-Gi a lot. Actually, all the "kids" are doing a good job. Dammit, I'm old. Also, Song Young-Kyu (who plays the former cop turned bad dude who killed Dae-Goo's mom) has a ridiculously good voice. I gotta see if he's in anything else where he's not a bad guy.

Edit: Through episode 16 and...ok, it's generally good still but man it definitely is too long. And they've finally sort of gone over Chief Kang's motivation -- apparently, 27 years before when she was a young detective, her partner killed herself after some corrupt prosecutor failed them on a rape case. So her whole goal has been to get this independent investigation thing going by supporting current evil assemblyman/former upright police chief dude. So...um...how exactly did this noble goal morph into let's kill people and cover crimes up? It doesn't seem to make any sense to me.

On a side note, poor Tae-il got stabbed and beaten up and I'm watching the scene just going Oh no! Not the handsome baby! Stop!

Continued in this post...