Miss Ma, Nemesis (2018)

butchered source material + a lot of nonsense

This show starts up fine, but very quickly goes downhill at a rapid pace. The characters are unlogical in their actions (like fugitive that doesn't care too much about leaving fingerprints, being seen in the broad daylight or even dealing with other police investigations as an amateur detective and gaining fame out of it - ridiculous!) and seems very artifical in their choices and behaviour.

Absurds are multiplying with each episode, with my favourite one being the scene when a woman commits suicide by taking too much pills - despite the fact that it did happen MOMENTS ago, neither her loving husband, nor the protagonist, who needs the woman badly as a vital witness, tries to make her vomit, etc. They just chit-chat with her till she dies!

If scenes like that wasn't idiotic enough, we have a crazy doppelganger of the main protagonist! The doppelganger is sooo irritating in her rudeness and senseless actions, that even the protagonist seems to loose her determination to find her daughter's killer and just play as doppelganger says... out of boredom, I guess.

You can check my reaction for episode 31 (in Episode Guide section of the show), for the worst thing the scenario offers in terms of logic of the crime. It's just too much if you care a bit about human psyche or logical assumptions.

But what is absolutely ther worst for me is how they buthered the source material - they used at least 3 of A. Christie novels and each of the them is scrippted and filmed in a slang-bang manner. The whole drama makes no space for the viewer here to actually try to solve any of the cases of Christie's novels. Actually, these mysteries feels like a homework that protagonist does because... somebody had to, I guess. They are not a pleasure to watch, they have no good tempo and they definately do not invite viewers to use their intellect. Very, very dissapointing. I cannot help but to think that the writer was very bored with the novels and just tried to get his job done without any shade of love for the source material. Especially "A Murder is Announced" feels like a not funny parody of the actual book, but the other mysteries aren't much better. Absolutely the worst adaptation of Christie's stories that I've seen so far.

I do not recommend this show to anyone.

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Inventive remix of Mrs Christie's mind set against a sinister and violent background.

Miss Ma, Nemesis Viki SK Episodes: 32 Duration: 30 min. 15+
Screenwriter: Park Jin Woo Director: Min Yeon Hong, Lee Jung Hoon
Ms. Ma was falsely accused of killing her daughter. After she escapes from prison, she tries to clear her name and reveal the truth about her daughter’s death. She is later unexpectedly joined by a "niece" who's reasons for appearing are revealed only slowly. A small team of unlikely allies gradually materialises, and they become a family sharing an apparently impossible goal. This is a dark story, very complex plotting, not always bearable to be honest, but there is a form of humour offered by the warmth of many of the supporting characters. Thank goodness.
Mostly set in a small community, Rainbow Town, affluent, very pretty, some backbiting gossipy women, but little real malice. Appears to be inhabited almost exclusively by women and police officers, which is quite funny.
In episodes only 27 minutes long a significant amount of time is given to repetitive flashbacks – they add nothing much though in later episodes there is more point to them. Slightly frustrating that the eps are so short but that means 32 eps = 16 which is bearable
The main story follows the apparently hopeless efforts of the heroine to clear her name and get revenge, That plot is dark, twisted, violent and very involved. It is interspersed with life in the town, which becomes a hub for a series of apparently unrelated murders which are based on Agatha Christie. Like Christie, they are fun and intriguing, but not as well written and the 'solutions' offered get minimal explanation as to how she reached them. She is however clearly extremely observant. In most of the cases, the alterations of Christie's plots is intriguing – others are more straightforward. That said, I recognised most very quickly, though the solutions were not always identical to the original, which is good.
Lots of interesting supporting cast, and characters – though they can be slightly charicaturey... Nice to see some of them cast against type, if only slightly ... Jung Wong Un as the policeman who originally put Ms Ma away, has doubts after her escape, and steps back from pursuing her, even after he believes he has found her.
I warn you though, the Christie connection is a bit of a red herring – though if you like the dame, you'll enjoy them. The main story is much much darker and more violent, though the worst of it is pixelated ... it's more involved, sinister and hard to see how it can be resolved, as characters are targeted and eliminated. It does happen: though I spotted the culprits early on, it was hard to see how it would sort out. At the end, the sleepy warmth of Rainbow Town and the unexpected friendships there are waiting for our heroes to come home. As you knew they would be, so telling you this is not really a spoiler at all.
Viki's reviews give this a great score, but I never altogether trust them. Reviews on MDL are only two - one is for 10.0 the other for 1.0, so - very mixed! The lowball one is fixated on the lack of logic for a woman on the run getting involved to solve multiple murders instead of keeping out of the eye of the police – though in fact the story gives a perfectly clear explanation for this. On this occasion the Viki reviews are much fairer than MDL. I give this a healthy 8.5/10.

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