Live (2018)

LIVE is one of these rare dramas that makes you forget the general thought that Korean dramas are unrealistic shows, full of clichés and improbable situations. Of course, we still love these typical dramas but sometimes we've seen too much of this parallel world and we need to escape it, at least for a moment, to come back to reality.

Reality is what defines Live the best. The drama tells the everyday lives of a bunch of people, of different age and gender, that are linked by one commun point, their job as police officers. Honestly, when I first saw the main poster and then read the synopsis, I was not interested. The daily lives of police officers? Doesn't sound appealing to me. I still gave it a try after reading all the great critiques it received. After one episode only, I was sold.

Not only the directing is absolutely flawless, but the cast, the script, the music; everything was done perfectly and the quality of this drama equals foreign shows and movies. The main theme music is so beautiful and fits the drama perfectly (Family of the year- Carry me). I love it when Korean directors shows us that they are able to make masterpieces when they put their heart at it. I only have love and respect for every person involved in this amazing drama.

So what about the police officers that I talked about? Well, the synopsis does revolve around the job of policemen, but it is so much more than that. While you learn a lot about the police force in modern Korea, and you take a closer look to this profession with all its ups and downs, you realize that police officers are just normal human beings who struggle to make a decent living through their job and all the difficulties that come with it. This drama is about humanity, solidarity, empathy, the way we treat each other and the way we chose to live our lives.

Truly, I got so attached to this amazing cast, it will be difficult to start something new. I feel like taking a break to appreciate what I've seen and not directly jump into another show. There was a lot of characters but every single one of them had an equal importance, I cared for all of them and was invested in every story.

This drama will make you smile and laugh. It will also make you cry and at times, make you angry. You will be left overwhelmed by all kinds of feelings.

I will surely watch this drama again and I recommend it to everyone for a great life lesson.


PS: Live has a similar vibe to My Mister or Prison Playbook, and is equally stunning but unfortunately was left unnoticed , for reasons that I ignore

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This show is simply superb. The story is incredible, the characters' development is compelling and the acting is amazing. I feel as if each character resembled someone I could see in real life. Bae Sung-Woo's character's development from a harsh and unsympathetic police officer who doesn't show care for his loved ones to someone who shows up for his wife and understands the pressure on his fellow officers was one of the best parts of this show. I loved the focus on An Jang-Mi's character, an older woman in the police force and her struggles to reconcile with the nature of her job and the corruption of the force. My only gripe with this show is that they don't develop Hye-ri as much as they could have, and that the show at times errs on uncritical support of the police. However, these pale in comparison to the story and the characters in the show, it is a must-watch.

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I initially started watching Live for the sole reason that Lee Kwang Soo is a main character in this drama. Not really expecting much, I started watching and I didn't get hooked right away. I started liking the drama at around episode 4; I couldn't stop watching then.

This drama had me take a roller coaster full of mood swings. Crime scenes would make me all flustered, love-related scenes would make my heart flutter, and all the sad scenes would make me down right cry a bucket of tears. The relationship of all the cops in the patrol division is nothing but lovable. The characters in this drama are complex; you could hate one or more of them by the start of the drama, but you'll most likely be attached to everyone in the patrol division at the end of the drama because of the incredible character and relationship development of everyone.

I rated this drama a 9.5. Along with Live, I rated Healer, Mr. Sunshine, and Scarlet Heart the same. Live isn't as heartbreaking as Scarlet Heart and Mr. Sunshine nor does it have an extremely rich story as Healer with a lot of plot twists but Live has this unique characteristic of reeling you in despite the plot being simple. I guess it's the complexity of everything coming from a simple story that makes this drama so appealing (if that made any sense at all).

Something I realized after watching this drama is that you should trust the rating of the dramas in MLD. I usually hesitate first before watching a drama due to various reasons. I hesitate maybe because the synopsis doesn't appeal to me, or because I subjectively don't like the cast. You should get rid of these standards when choosing a drama to watch. Trust the ratings! If you're still unsure of a drama, read a few reviews then make a final decision. But I guarantee you, most of the time, the ratings won't disappoint!

I'm sorry for the vague review, because this is my first time writing one.

To cut things short, this drama is a must watch! I cant recommend this drama enough.

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I can only regret not apreciating this show earlier. When watching the last episode I cried for all the emotional scenes and it really made me realise how much I cared for the characters, especially Oh Yang Cheol and Yeom Sang Soo. I put this drama off for a week before watching it on a wim and i'll admit, I was going to drop it around episode 8 I think it was when Choi Myeong Oh kissed the main female lead and that scene really annoyed me as they emphasised it alot and made it seem really important.

This drama is not your normal crime drama to where there is a main antogonist in which your playing cat and mouse with until when you catch him in the end, it's not a drama where the leads have super intellegence or they able to see scents or see the past from touching objects. Instead its a drama in which is very realistic and stays grounded throughout the whole show showing how a normal person would react and act in certain situations. They give us 4 very different leads who have different ways of thinking but at the end of the day they are all policemen and they all have one goal. 'Live' touches subject of crime quite heavely and almost had me drop it again after the whole serial r*pe case. That case was especially hard to watch as they were only highshool and middleschool girls who can't do anything in them situations and made me realise there are things like that happening aroudn the world without our knowledge and it really makes you self reflect.

With the characters, they were all very raw and real which i quite enjoyed for once.

The main male Yeom Sang Soo is a person who build a strong sense of duty by the end of the show and shows us how a real cop should act compared to all the corrupt ones that are out there. At the start of the show he was the only charcater I like as he didn't piss me off and acted how I wouldv'e in certain situations. I allready saw him as secondary leads in other dramas so it was very cool to see him as the main and have his spotlight which he deserves since he is a great actor.

With the female lead Han Jeong Oh, I can't lie I really hated her character at the start and her personality really urked me because she was snobby and so nonchalantly blunt with Sang Soo's feelings. When we start to hear more about her past it really made me self reflect because I judge her whole character just based on a few annoying scenes and never considered her backstory which I will now do that. When she was working with the patrol division, she was the most realistic as I truly feel that an actual person would act like her. This was my first drama for this actor and I can't say i'm going to actively look for her other dramas but if I see another one which is promising I'll watch it.

Now with my favourite character in this show Oh Yang Cheol. He easily couldv'e had the show center around him becasue the events he went through and the character development he went through was amazing to watch. We see his relationship with his wife and people around him of how they improve through out the show. The relationship between him and his wife was in my opinion a lot more tasteful to watch than the leads, they go through a divorce and get back together through a number of trials within and outthe family which brings them closer. Also the relationship between Sang Soo and Yang Cheol was great to watch as they went from hating eachother to deeply respecting eachother whihc was heartwarming to see in the last episode.

The OST was quite good in this, the OST 'Someone like you' was done by EXO aswell and another one called 'Why Why Why' by Punch. Overall the OST was very solid and I would listen to them by themselves.

Overall if your looking for a crime drama with very real characters with no abilty which makes them an ace then watch this drama. Personally I would not rewatch this drama just due to the fact of the whole serial r*pe case which made it very hard for me to watch even if it's fiction.

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One fantastic drama that I will always go back to, and suggest to any kdrama fan

I LOVED this drama, its well written and thought out. It feels real, it shows real life crime issues and depicts real stories that happen all around the world.
The music is amazing and used effectively, it adds to the emotion of the scene its used in. I love so many of the songs in this drama and I'm still searching for one of the songs used ( I don't think its a fully released song sadly )
The cast was also really great, I liked the actors they chose because they aren't SUPER well known ( Like Suzy or Lee Minho, Kang Bin ect.) ( I'm not bashing the actors either! Kwang Soo is one of my favourite actors/entertainer.) It added to the story making them seem like real people"
Overall a fantastic drama and one of my favourites.
( Would also recommend watching Voice, When a snail falls in love, Guardians/ Lookout, and medical examiner dr.Qin for similar feeling dramas)

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I finished watching this drama a few hours ago.
It's one of the best, if not the best, korean dramas I've seen so far.
Before watching it I wasn't sure whether I would've liked it or not as the plot didn't really convince me, but now I am sure I would've regret it if I didn't pick it up, this drama is a must watch.
I usually watch crime/police dramas since these are my favorite genres but I love when there's even a tiny bit of romance, since it makes the drama more pleasant to watch.
This drama has a lot of romance but it's well-developed throughtout the story and I'm sure it wouldn't bother those who don't like romance, since it doesn't ruin or cover the crime/police part.
I LOVED how friendships are developed and how strong they are: I found myself being happy when two or more characters made up or when they had a party.
There are a lot of emotional scenes and touching themes, you will drop some (or a lot) of tears, either of joy or sadness, so make sure to keep some tissues near (I rarely cry but one of the episodes made me cry).
The OST is amazing and it makes those emotional scenes, that are already great by themselves, even better.
The characters are well-developed, especially Sang Soo (best character imo, props to Lee Kwang Soo for his acting).
I gave a 10/10 to "Rewatch Value" as I would probably love it as much as I did the first time.
Another thing I appreciated is the ending: I often found myself disappointed or not fully satisfied by how dramas end, since some of them have cliffhangers or don't answer all the questions, but this is not the case as everything is clear.
There would be a lot more to say about this drama but I think this is enough to get a grasp of it.
I hope you're going to watch it (if you haven't already) after reading this review.

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I honestly waited a long time to watch this series because I couldn’t really tell what it was about. I decided to give it a try. It is very upbeat and somewhat gruesome at the same time. I honestly thought this was more on the side of comedy and police work but it was not. It was a police drama, plain and simple. Is revealed various cases most of which appear to be crimes against women. I honestly felt like I was watching a series of the USA drama special victims unit. there were some comical aspects to it most of it was not comical it was serious, sad and gruesome. This is one of those shows that I feel should have a disclaimer that says viewer discretion advised. It is mature because it talks about things that are mature in nature mostly domestic violence and sex crimes. So if you’re looking for an upbeat comical police drama this might not be what you want here. But if you’re really into those cases that are graphic, bloody and deals with victims you may like it. Can’t recommend this as comedy even though it has a little.

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I so love this drama and frustrated that it took time for me to watch it. I just watched it because it has a very high rating here in mydramalist. I watched its rival SITR instead which i didn't get to finish because oh no... such a waste of opportunity for this another could have been. Anyway, I thought Live is going to be something like a sitcom because of LKS. Lol. But oh boy, I was totally wrong. I love how this drama showed the life of police officers, the corrupt force, and their most of the time annoying manual. It didn't focus much on the victims and investigations just like Miss Hammurabi. It's kinda painful to watch and I symphatize with the good policemen. It must have been hard to offer your life to protect the citizens then the same citizens will condemn you about this and that without proper evidence. I also hated how one-sided the media can be at times. After watching this, I don't think a lot of people would want to be a police officer. Lol. I also like that romance was made low-key while putting more focus on their camaraderie.

Anyway, this one is definitely a good watch. I will surely miss the cast. How I hope there's a season 2!

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Gritty Drama

Perfect casting of great actors, added to a well written script, really make this drama a cut above the rest.
It is very hard hitting, with many of the crimes portrayed being distressing and brutal.
The lives of the rookies this story follows, from jobless to serving police officers, is so good.
The stressful, unappreciated and abused role they fill is at the fore, countered by the few corrupted members on the force, who sadly tarnish them all. Couple this with internal politics and an establishment happy to throw those with less power under the bus to meet their needs, makes me wonder how anyone would choose policing as a career.
If this drama is based on the reality of the Korean police and legal system, it is damning. However, it also shows the closeness of a team, of partnerships where they see more of each other than their own loved ones at home and the impact of betrayals on the moral of everyone associated.
The toll the job takes on personal lives is also touched on, with not just the case stories, but those involving the main characters' families being played out too.
Whilst disturbing, incredibly frustrating and upsetting, it is also funny at times and uplifting at others.
I am so pleased I watched it and would recommend this drama to others.

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