Military Prosecutor Doberman (2022)

Refreshing

Maybe I've been watching way too many historical dramas about kings in disguise and ladies in disguise who are smart and read books and stuff, but I found this drama a genuine breath of fresh air. It is very fast-paced and there is virtually no romance and the main leads are generally likeable and they have a dog so it's all great. In all seriousness though, there are many tropes that are so often found in law dramas - the heroine is a petite boss lady who beats up gangs of cartoonish villains in her spare time and there is revenge for dead fathers and dead mothers and good always prevails against insurmountable odds - long story short, it's cliché-studded. It's almost a miracle that among all that there is a moving story with two-dimensional villans and a friendship and some truly profound moments, and yet here they are.
The ending is stupidly rushed, that's true. I took half a star away for that.

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This drama got dog actor

Military Prosecutor Doberman 8/10
-plot: whole drama goes around military crimes and military prosecutors.
Male lead is prosecutor which sold himself for money and does dirty work for others.

Female lead is newbie prosecutor which got into business for personal revenge.

Both got complicated past connected to military and each other.
Mystery is part of story, but not very big mystery they will let you know most of it early on. Since this drama is about law and military its focus will be how to show mystery to world.
Genre -Action, Military, Mystery, Law. Little bit of romance

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a criminal enquiry that will keep you hooked

the story is about the life and experience of a military prosecutor in the korean's army. the thing is I am not interested in army's stuffs and one of the things I love the most in korean's dramas is the absence of weapons (especially fire arms) and the controlled violence. but it won't be the case here. it's bearable but it's definitely here. you'll also get to see uniforms all the time, and all their rank's stuffs.

despite all this, the story is really captivating. they managed to take unexpected turns many times, a lot of characters have unusual relations, or change their relations. you won't be able to wait to know what happens next. I also got to learn a lot about korean's military system, wich you hear a lot about in many dramas because they have two years of mandatory military service between their 18 and their 30. I wasn't aware that south koreans feel like they ARE in war with north korea, or that they could be anytime.

I didn't like the (none) chemistry between the 2 main characters, and their love story just felt odd. if the villains personality was well documented, it wasn't the case for the support roles. nonetheless I watched this drama in 4 days and enjoyed it. if you love weapons, action, a sprinkle of violence and army's stuffs, this will definitely make your day!

enjoy this with friends and beer after work. have fun!

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UNDERRATED!!!

Super intriguing storyline and interesting how everything ties in and comes together!!

LOVED the entire character development of whether it was the leads and or the antagonists~

The cast were seriously perfectly chosen for each of their roles and I ESPECIALLY loved one of the "antagonists" from the beginning - No Tae Nam kdajf;lsakdjf!!

Not too much romance but just the PERFECT splash - both showed great professionalism for the storyline and overall their job roles.

Even the side characters/stories were humorous to watch as well.

Aside from the plot - actually has some action scenes which were really cool and unexpected. Loved the tussle and struggles for power, politics, and justice. Seriously, everyone's acting was superb!!

In addition - really touches on the injustice system within the military which you don't know about / see everyday.

Overall, I really recommend this as a good watch!

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Exciting and action packed military crime drama with a very light romance element

9/10 is my rating. This is a 2022 South Korean military action drama with 16, 60 minute episodes

First I will provide a synopsis then review

Synopsis
A tragic "accident" takes the lives of Do Bae-man's (Ahn Bo-hyun) parents as a young child and he is raised by his aunt. Not wanting anything to do with the military because of its association and reminder of his parents, he drops out of school in middle school which makes him ineligible for mandatory military service. He becomes a lawyer though and applies to many law firms. No-one is interested because of his educational history. Despair sets in and an offer he cannot refuse comes along from Yong Moon-goo (Kim Young-min) who tells him if he serves as a military prosecutor for five years he will hire him in his private law firm once he finishes the military stint. What Doberman (nickname) does not know is Young-min is closely associated with Major General Noh Hwa-young (Oh Yeon-soo) who is evil and corrupt. She is the first female to rise to such ranks and got there through nefarious means. Additionally she owns a defense company she acquired through her criminal activity. As Doberman approaches the end of his enlistment and prepares to join the private law firm, Cha Woo-in (Jo Bo-ah), joins his command. Some of her actions immediately capture Doberman's interest and he knows there is more to her than the by the book outstanding military prosecutor she portrays. It is not long before he discovers she was the heir to a conglomerate and leads a double life as "red wig woman." In her other persona, Woo-in seeks justice against corruption where acting outside of the law is the only way to capture the bad guys. Over time, Doberman comes to realize she has very personal reasons for going after Noh Hwa-young and that they have connections and reasons to work together.
Review
It is very exciting when the "red wig" lady takes down the bad guys. Her martial arts prowess is super hero level. Doberman is also a formidable force but the red wig lady is a level above him. If you like action and exciting fight scenes then this would be an appeal. The central conflict is very heavy on the good versus evil. And the lines between good and evil get blurred frequently. The characters were all very well developed and there wee some redemption arcs. There was a love triangle and a hear warming bromance. The back story on what happened in their past was very interesting. I enjoyed this show from start to finish and would highly recommend it. I read before I watched it not to be off put by the title. And I have to agree it is not some overly serious series with some by the book military prosecutor where you watch case after case of them towing the military line. The nickname doberman has more to do with how the main character's name sounds than a central part of his personality. It is mentioned and he does compare himself to attributes but he is a way more complex character than that and he is one of the characters on a redemption arc.

Spoilers*
There were some minor things that I felt could have been improved that kept this from being perfect to me. For me, they danced around the romance between Woo-in and Bae-man the entire series. It made sense early on that wasn't a focus but I was expecting more to develop with it after they were on the winning end of their conflict. But they literally wait until the fade out scene for them to kiss and you cannot even fully see their kiss as it is behind a tree and the camera both fades and moves out of the scene. If you are not a romantic or do not like series where romance is a central aspect, that would be a plus. As someone who enjoys the romance, it was disappointing that they waited that lone to show that they would be together then gave us so little of them as a couple. I was disappointed that Doberman was such a money driven prosecutor in the beginning. And there was no really good reason for it. He wasn't aware of what happened with his parents so it wasn't like well the whole system is corrupt so I might as well be. That wasn't the reason. The only reason seemed to be he quit school early to avoid becoming a soldier because of what happened to his parents and then it impacted his ability o get a job as a lawyer under normal conditions. Even so I could have seen him talking that offer he couldn't refuse but he didn't seem to have any moral issues with it. They tried to show he had remorse over that after she "changed" him but there was no basis for him to be like that in the beginning. Because he had no believable reason for being a corrupt prosecutor it did not make sense when he changed because of her. A big deal was made out of him learning about how his parents died and who was responsible but then, in the end, he did not have the moment with his parents where it was like "see I got them" like they had with Woo-in. It was like it bothered him just not overly so. His Aunt's relationship with his superior was cute and unexpected but the redemption arc for his superior was missing. They implied that his aunt changed him, and had him acting more like a "military prosecutor" but it was very brief and not well developed in that regard and it was hard to believe his moral to a fault aunt would have accepted a man that had any level of corruption. CEO Kang had feelings for Woo-in and was part of a very obvious love triangle but they did not dive into that at all which is a factor of them just not focusing much at all on the romance. I liked CEO Kang and felt like making him have enough wrong doing that he gave up his company in the end and just went off to start over was disappointing. Winning would have been like his company was restored. No Tae-Nam (Kim Woo-seok) had a huge redemption arc going from an evil character to one of the heroes of the day by taking down even his own mother to root out the evil. There was the whole story with Tae-nam and the bullying and abuse that was going on, on the front line. One of the characters was set up to make his military life hell but that became such a minor scene that the build up was disappointing. There was also sexual abuse occurring and a point was made of focusing on that as part of the "hell" going on in those front lines but it was never brought up again. It would have helped to explain why the soldier snapped. It was also an opportunity to show how Doberman had fully changed in that he could have showed some empathy for the soldier that snapped by allowing his mother to give him the glasses but he didn't and it was Woo-in who showed that glimmer of mercy. They could also have had his sentenced reduced and not pursued the death penalty in acknowledgement of the horrible abuse that soldier suffered. Life in prison seemed a more fitting sentence than death and it would have been more in line with being a moral prosecutor. Tae-nam mentioned several times how his Doberman was like his only family so for him to give his dog up, when he actually could have used the support for his Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) was out of character for him and unfortunate they did not use that as part of Tae-nam's redemption arc - that he never gave up on "family." He even volunteered to work with dogs so it would have been more logical he got his dog back. I wanted to see them more in action as military prosecutors the show was so focused on central conflict that there were no interesting side stories that gave that "slice of life" of being a military prosecutor. I am going to circle back though and say despite all of this it was a very good and exciting series with an interesting and unique premise.

#MilitaryProsecutorDoberman
#AhnBoHyun
#JoBoAh
#KimWooSeok

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I think this drama is beautifully written. Even the subplots were really engaging, I wasn't tempted to skip any episodes even if I sometimes feel like the villains are too powerful or too many to fight.

ML is the male military prosecutor named Do Bae-man (hence the name Doberman), who loves money.

FL is also a military prosecutor, fiery and mysterious at the same time, who wants justice at all cost.

Both were victims of greedy and power hungry people. Both were hungry for justice. They found each, fought side by side as comrades and then as friends with the same cause.

I just wish for a bit more of romance. Not just the hint of romance they gave at the last minute of the show. Anyway; good story, good actors, good OST, sure rewatch.

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Military Prosecutor Doberman (2022) - This drama is really one of the dramas that is good but because of the same pacing and plotline with what I have watched before, this becomes one of the typical dramas out there. Still, I recommend this one, and also, I really felt hatred towards the villains. Dealing with the military prosecutors which is very new to me, it's a plus. The plot twists are predictable. The signs of romance in between is not so apparent or maybe it was not given that importance, which for me is a plus as well. I like that they didn't really push the romance in between, or if there is, only a little part of the whole drama.

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It seems to be a love it or hate drama

I read some of the reviews before deciding to give my 2 cents. It seems people either loved it or hated it. Not much in between. The people who hated it i think kinda missed the point though. I'll agree that the writing was thin at times. The writing seemed to get dristracted at times and didnt give solid resolutions to any issue. And when it did appear to it rushed by it to quickly to feel satisfied.

The one thing i think a lot of people missed (or maybe im reading too much into it) is that every single "main" person in this drama was flawed. Not a single person could be deemed as a truly good or a truly bad person with the exception of Noh Hwa Young. The writers truly gave us a villain to hate. I actually appreciated this as I hate goody two shoes heroes. They don't exist. People do bad things for good reasons and vice versa. People are flawed and this drama made that abundantly clear.

After saying that this also showed the character growth of Do Bae Man and
Noh Tae Man crystal clear. Both of these men learned from the circumstances and mistakes of the past and became better for it. Should they both have been punished for those mistakes? Probably but it is still just a show not reality.

I dont know if these ramblings made sense but I'll end with I will most likely watch this again and be frustrated by the same issues but I think overall I came away feeling satisfied with the whole experience.

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This was my first drama with Ahn Bo Hyun and I've definitely become a fan.

My favorite thing was, I think, the message that you can mess up, even badly so, but in most cases - murder excluded, of course - you can turn your life around, make amends and become a good person in the end.

I really liked the fine balance between funny banter/kick-ass scenes and very serious issues, especially when it came to mistreatment in the military. The drama knew when to pull back, when not to try and be funny.

Another great thing was the unexpected pairing that was Doberman's boss and his cop aunt. They were hilarious. And so sweet at the same time. And the fact that Doberman was very, very happy for them was the cherry on top for me because I expected the drama to go down the usual route of the ML not wanting his aunt to be in a relationship with his boss. So, thank you for that.

I must say that the role of a soldier really fits Ahn Bo Hyun. He's just the right type to play a guy in a uniform, he has the perfect presence for that. I very much approve!

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Both the leading actors did such a wonderful job with their roles, they were equally important to the story, had amazing action scenes as well as emotional ones and both were total eye-candies hehe ?

The law cases were also pretty interesting as well as the side characters, although No Tae Nam didn't become likeable to me even after the sort of redemption arc. Oh and the scene with Do Bae Man's aunt in labor was very cringey to watch ?

The OST was bomb! All the music matched the scenes really well, especially the song "My Zone" was really catchy and badass, it suited Wu In really well.

My final rating is 8.5/10.

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Doberman Bites and Doesn't Let Go!

Military Prosecutor Doberman is a fun ride that navigates through both corporate and military corruption. This isn’t something new, as we’ve seen plenty of stories with this combination, but this series certainly brings a new sense of style, combining drama, comedy, and thriller genres.

Captain Doh Bae Man (can’t believe it took me a whole episode to get his name connection!) is a military prosecutor who was orphaned at a young age when his parents (both military prosecutors) were killed in a car accident (of course, it wasn’t an accident). So many people in K-dramas are killed involving a vehicle, that it’s tantamount to the number of Americans in American series killed by gunshots!

Doh Bae Man is initially a self-serving prosecutor who uses the power of his position to put money into his pockets. As far as he’s concerned, nothing else matters. Suffering from memory loss, he doesn’t recall the details of the accident that took his parents’ lives. On the side, he works for Yong Moon Goo, then head of a prestigious law firm who promises a high position in any law firm that Doh Bae Man wishes as soon as he’s discharged. In exchange for handling (or in Doh Bae Man’s case) mishandling cases, he’s given boxes full of cash from Yong Moon Goo.

Little does Doh Bae Man realize that there is something sinister going on around him at the military base he’s assigned with General Noh Hwa Young being in the center of it all. He also doesn’t realize that there is a connection between the general and the death’s of his parents. It isn’t until Captain Cha Woo In is assigned to his office that she nudges him to start connecting the dots.

Cha Woo In also has a dark past with General Noh Hwa Young, as the general also ordered the death of her father in order to take over his company, IM Defense Industries, which was a major player in signing contractual deals with the military. However, General Noh Hwa Young isn’t just about gaining money, but power. As part of a secret society of high-ranking military officials who all wish to nudge Korea into a future that they want, Noh Hwa Young wants to be the top-dog. She has a spoiled cowardly son in Noh Tae Nam whom she wants to complete his military service.

We see corruption at its lowest as General Noh Hwa Young skillfully manipulates and removes anyone or any obstacle that gets in her way. She’s frightening enough to make any military official quake in their boots, and Oh Yeon Soo, does a fantastic job with the role, ensuring that Noh Hwa Young is a very cool, calculating person who should never be underestimated. Too often, we’ve seen men assume these types of roles, so it’s incredibly refreshing to see a woman take on the role of chief villainess.

As Cha Woo In helps Doh Bae Man peel back the layers of corruption as well as his own lost memories, Doh Bae Man begins to change. He realizes that he’s also been used by Yong Moon Go, and that it is finally time for him to utilize his office for which it was intended: to carry out justice.

Doh Bae Man is an extremely intelligent prosecutor who is a master of manipulation and seeing things that nobody else is able to see. He’s a bit reckless sometimes, but too often, we see how he’s the mastermind behind so many amazing plans. Ahn Bo Hyun is fantastic as the confident, often arrogant Doh Bae Man who flashes his boyish charm to manipulate witnesses or convicts into doing what he needs them to do.

Cha Woo In is more level-headed and less emotional than her counterpart. Aside from being an absolute master of hand-to-hand combat, she’s smart enough to allow Doh Bae Man to regain his memories on his own rather than simply tell him. She knows that it’s far more effective for him to do it this way. However, Cha Woo In doesn’t have Doh Bae Man’s gift for seeing the “bigger picture” and doing what is necessary to carry out their plan. At first, this makes her a bit of a “weak link” in the courtroom, until she begins to understand what’s going on. She tends to be a bit too naïve and trusting where being cautious and calculating is far more prudent. In short, these two make a fantastic one-two punch team as they begin to learn from each other and how to use each other’s tactics.

Kim Young Min is probably my favorite actor of this series as the very cool and highly intelligent Yong Moon Goo. I tend to prefer villains who show their prowess with intelligence rather than with brawn or ridiculous, over-the-top outbursts. While he isn’t immune to revealing his frustrations, we see just how formidable he is, and as a viewer, we wonder who will win out: Yong Moon Goo or Noh Hwa Young? The high-powered lawyer or the high-ranking general?

The series only has a few minor problems. First, is Cha Woo In going around a red wig as a vigilante. This was almost as laughable as Clark Kent hiding his Superman disguise with a pair of glasses. So many people who know Cha Woo In, fail to recognize her simply due to a red wig. Had she kept her sunglasses on, it would have worked. This ended up going way too far.

Next, we have too many actors—who are supposed to be military generals—not acting like military generals at all. They have no esteem or presence as a military general would. Only Noh Hwa Young is the exception. The worst is easily General Heo Gang In, who acts more like a bumbling, inept fool. He’s so bad that he’s not even believable as a military person at all. Jung In Ki’s interpretation was an especially poor one and completely unbelievable.

Finally, the level of bullying that seems to emanate at all levels of the Korean military makes anyone wonder how in the world the Korean military can function at all. We hardly ever even see soldiers on duty. They’re all playing sports, loafing around in their barracks, and having free reign to come and go as they please. Given that corruption was from the very bottom all the way to the very top was just too much. I understand that the writers probably wanted to do their best to expose this type of corruption, but for this story, it was a bit too much. It was overkill.

Still, don’t let these minor issues fool you. This is a solid series with something for everyone. The plot twists themselves will likely have you guessing what’s really going on. I was also tremendously relieved that the series didn’t get sidetracked with a silly romantic storyline that would have pulled everything off course. They saved the one kiss for the end. We knew there was something between Doh Bae Man and Cha Woo In. There was no need to go any further than that, especially when their focus (their goal) was on the case. Just like a Doberman, this series is likely to bite you and not let go until the very end!

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