This review may contain spoilers
This is a 10 but i gave a 9 !
If after finishing a drama you feel the need to share your thoughts and write a review,this means the drama was really good or really bad.So you want either to encourage people watch it or prevent them and save their time.Koreans never fail to surprise me.Once again i didn't say i wasted my time.
I didn't pay too much attention when this released. I had seen the title but wasn't interested enough to search it further.My bad!Big mistake.I started this right after i finished "Insider" Two revenge dramas back-to-back.I thought it would be too much but i was wrong.
I will summirize the basics briefly.
Music:i was hooked by all OSTs(i think there are 5 songs in total)Beautiful songs,catchy, perfect both intro & outro.In the future when ill listen any of the main Osts i will definitely remember it was from Military Prosecutor Doberman.I also liked that half of the lyrics are in English so finally i could understand what i was listening!
Production/Direction /Cinematography:A+++.Excellent.I didn't expect less to be honest.Especially i liked some direction tricks.I found very smart the presentation of the flash-backs as "live" scenes,passing infront of characters eyes.
Nothing was cheap,all at top level.
Cast:Judging by the result, everyone was chosen perfectly.Especially the Villains.
Acting: Superb!Natural.Dynamic.Passionate.Every performance was great.The one who really stood out for me though was Kim Woo Seok with his stellar acting.(because his character was really outstanding here,ill talk later about this)
Characters :
Do Bae Man,our ML: A dis-likeable character.Yes this is not a typo.In early episodes he is despicable,greedy,with no ethics.No respect to his job(he is a Military Prosecutor)He does all for money.He crosses all the -moral-lines.Actually i almost hated him.
BUT..here we have one of the most interesting and substantial character's development.From a total asshole,cocky and arrogant man to a kind,compassionate and righteous human being.An 180 degree turn.
Cha Woo In,our FL:A badass,strong,cold, smart, determined to take her revenge at any cost.Finally a well-written female char who doesn't play the sweet and innocent Dame.She is a badass with a cause!She is not just a beautiful face.The minus is there is no depth in this char.What you see is what you get!
Noh Hwa Young,our Female Villain:A psychopath.A true monster.A career woman who stepped over bodies to climb the hierarchy.A "mother" who doesn't deserve this sacred title.Cold as steel.Manipuative.Abusive.Murderer.A nightmare character,one of the most interesting villains ive ever seen in a Kdrama.And the actress deliverd all!
Noh Tae Nam,our Main Male Villain:What words should i find to praise the writer for this char!As i mentioned above,an outstanding character.In this drama i chose him as my favorite one.Yes i know he is the bad guy.He is evil,more than bad.But i loved him the most.
A rich-spoiled brat who thinks he can buy everything with money,including people.You can't help but hate him.Curse him.Wish him to die an agony death!Want him to pay for all his sins.But as the story goes,i ended from hating this char to loving him more and more.It wasn't forced or rushed.It was a smooth ride.The second best character development ever and what a treat!In the same drama!Thank you Mr writer!
His road to Redemption wasn't easy.Noone is born good or evil,Circumstances,environment and life itself drives us to make right or wrong choices.What matters is to acknowledge all the wrongs we did and try not to make the same mistakes.
He is such a sad and broken soul.His past is dark full of pain.His whole life is under his mother's manipulation.He was mentally and physically abused by her.This of course does not justify his evil deeds.But he worked with his inner self and tried to be a better person.Iam sorry for the mild spoilers here but i really loved this char so i want you at least not to hate him!
Closing with characters i have to mention the 4th Infantry Div. law Officers.The supporting chars who works with our main leads.One of the reasons i gave a 9 and not a 10.I didn't like any of them.(and i loved them all at the same time!i will explain in story)Simple because i found them just caricatures.And i was annoyed.A lot!
Story/plot: the second reason Doberman didn't get my perfect 10.No,let me say.I loved the story.I did.But i will be completely honest here.With this drama i felt i have a split personality!My half self wanted to give this an 8.My other half was shouting this is a perfect 10.Well thats why i gave a 9,somewhere in the middle!Why?Because....
This is a very heavy Revenge drama.To be more accurate the reasons behind our Ml's revenge are heavy and strong.The drama is also dealing with some really heavy issues like rape,abuse,bullying, Ptsd etc.So what i didn't like or what i really wanted was the story to has a more clean line.What i mean by this?It was like i was watching 2 different dramas in 2 different screens at the same time.The comedy element plus the comical characters-the caricatures i mentioned-was too much.Found all this out of place.Ruined the "serious" part of the story.Of course some funny and cute moments are always necessary in a drama.Can't be all the time in a dark mode.But the use of comedy wasn't suitable here.Is different to have some funny moments now and then so for the story not to be so heavy but still this mix-up was annoying to me and for my taste.
Ofc i laughed alot with the funny scenes and the "caricatures"were all excellent but i felt "guilty" Like the fun part was my "guilty pleasure"You know what i mean,right?
Continue with the story,there is a flair between our Mls since they first met.But both were focused on their revenge.They have some sweet and cute moments and all the time story immplies there is going to be a future romance.And yes indeed will be.But we don't see it.This side note is for the romance lovers.Don't have your hopes high.No kisses here!
Oh dont forget to say another thing i loved.Extra bonus:I had my fair dose of Kang Young Seok! ("blondie" from Insider.Yayyyy!)
So this is a Revenge drama with many funny moments.If you don't mind this,go watch it.Is really good!
Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
Stressing but refreshing (idk how that makes sense but it's fr like that)
Watching this (or anything) on going is stressl but also really exciting. And though this isn't to the point where I'm very obsessed that I talk about it 24/7, it's still really good and got me excited enough that I resubscribed to my trusty drama streaming app to watch it (I really only do that when I really can't wait to watch something). I haven't watched a lot of military themed dramas. Probably just D.P. which is solely about military and that's it. Well now with this too. And just the idea of a military prosecutor sounds new and interesting.I really think all the characters are very well written, and my personal favorites are Kang Hajun and No Taenam. Though Hajun is more of a side, I think he still plays a very important role in the drama. He's not part of the military but is supporting Baeman and Wooin from the sidelines, equivalent to what Moongu is to No Hwayoung. Ngl when he "switched sides" I felt sad and panicked but still wished it was all just a play to get insider information (Oh to know that I'm right was the best feeling fr I was so relieved) He wasn't the strong guy but he was sweet and I loved his bickering with Baeman a lot (the tom and jerry in dramas will always get my heart). And No Taenam's character really got to my heart. Never will justfy his actions in the start of the drama, but I really loved his character development. It happened pretty slow, but smoothly. I loved how slowly he was being nice to just this one person (and eventually made him survive because of his nice acts to him), and to see him continue to be a nice person and stood up for the person who kept him alive and stood up for himself made me really proud and happy. It was really... the perfect character development.... Probably one of the best character developments I've ever seen.
Was this review helpful to you?
I’m tired of rich brats
The title says it all. The acting was fine, the action was fine, I loved the Doberman.But I don’t like dramas that try to make viewers sympathize with awful people.
I also find using sexual assault as a plot device to be so disrespectful. And just because it didn’t “fully happen” is irrelevant. The drama depended on that way too much in the first few episodes and then I could tell they would try for a redemption arc which I found to be totally gross.
Trigger warnings for: parental abuse and sexual assault.
Was this review helpful to you?
Do Bae Man is A Horrible Dude you Cannot and Should not Root For in this poorly written Affair.
The ML is a scumbag full stop. Im all for redemption Arcs but when your starting point is bowing down before a voilent series rapist and promising you'll get him off while the victim is barely coping with the terror of repercussion then well its hard to redeem. (The rape was horrendous btw)The fact then there is basically no redemption arc makes my mind boggle. Literally immediately the apparently righteous FL (who is the one supporting the rape victim along with the MLs aunt who is a detective investigating his case) is smiling and having Chemistry with the ML. He has now gone pro rape victim not because he cares one bit but because FL reveals to him the rapists family killed his parents. This revelation makes him sad and angry (again not because he cares about the poor terrified woman who has just been raped and is living in fear of reprisal because she had the guts to go to the police and is terrified a scumbag like the ML will get her violent scumbag rapist off) no its because it affects him it makes him angry he happily got on his knees for this dirtbag but now Seemingly he is righteous and all is well Eh no its not, not by a long shot. I cannot understand anyone who could root for a scumbag ML like this and then having him have "chemistry" with the badass FL Just totally demeans her. Seriously i will never watch one of this writers dramas again on principle. What a waste of Jo Bo Ahs character. If she was written as using the ML but also planning on teachimg him a lesson maybe but that does not happen. God its one parhetic show.AVOID IT ALL COSTS Unless you like pure stupidity and crassness.
Was this review helpful to you?
A sad backstory does not absolve you of sexual assault or being a horrible human being
Noh Hwa Jang being such a weak character despite the hype she’s supposed to be receiving in the show was odd for me. I thought she was miscast. Her expressions aren’t stern or ambitious, they’re just placid and expressionless. Also, she does NOT have the physical prowess to be beating up fully grown soldiers in the Korean army. The scene where she’s bullying some low level NPC in the urinal was a joke. Even her stabbing motions had no power. The guy with his head in the toilet was doing all the work in the scene.But that wasn’t even the deal breaker. It’s Tae Man’s character and the messaging that the show seems to be moving towards is “if you have a shitty parent you can be a trash human being without repercussions” — and it’s not like he was a general douche or asshole, this guy had a history of aggravated assault on people, blinding people, r*ping girls, sexual assault, drug abuse and probably more but oh!— you have a shitty mother? Say no more, your sins are forgiven. What kind of shit story is that? What are they trying to say? Bae Man being such a sunshine patriot character was also incredibly off putting considering he got so much screen time. Man, I’m just annoyed thinking about how late I stayed up watching this only to realize what a waste of time and resources this hot flaming chumbuxket was.
Was this review helpful to you?
Super SATISFYING drama in a while!
Great drama in terms of depths of story and characters' growth! I think it's like becoming trend in Korea to have antagonist-like leads which I like it, lesser on the pure good against pure bad kind of plot setup. Though it's quite a serious drama that touches a lot on sensitive topics like the corruption and power abuse within military, there are still quite a few comical moments that helped to wash away the heaviness of the plot.What I really like about this drama is that they made a lot of effort depicting all characters' growth in a logical way as the story progressed to which I really felt sad for Noh Tae Nam towards the end after realizing he was actually all alone growing up. Nobody was there to teach him the right things nor was there any emotional support given to him when he needed it except for his only pet dog... At some moments his situation made me feel how great would it be if someone nice actually appears in his life to truly care for each other.
So what I didn't really like was the sudden background music whenever they had an important moment... Wish the sound effects could be more subtle to suit the serious ambience.
Though not much romance going on until like last episode, I really like the main leads' chemistry and their hidden feelings for each other~
But honestly I applaud for the drama's courage to speak so much about such topics which you may never see in another country's drama/movie production~ Guess only Korea really goes all out with depicting social issues and political corruption.
Was this review helpful to you?
So Cooool.
Firstly the cast is amazing. As Im watching this I love the story, I love how strong is the FL and also ML. There aren't many kdamas with both strong leads.The music is better than in a dramas that are mainly based on music. I was happily surprised by this, and also it made it whole more exciting and dramatic. The music actually reminds me bit of a drama Idol:The coup It was just too dramatic with the music , but here as it's action drama, it's okay.
As I'm watching it now then after about 6 months after watching it whole i will watch it again :) it's seriously that good.
Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
I love Ahn Bohyun but ????
I am writing this review simply to explain why I dropped this drama and why I think you shouldn't watch it if you were curious. It has a minor spoiler but nothing huge for the overall storyline.TW!!!: rape, sexual assault
I started this drama because I'm a fan of Bohyun and because I was interested in seeing Jo Boah in a role like this. However, the minute the show started I was worried already. The ML is a d*ckhead and one thing I cannot stand in kdramas is ML's who are a*sholes and get some stupid, poorly written redemption arc and we're all just supposed to forget they were a*sholes. But this drama truly takes it up a notch with the level of a*shole-ness (for lack of a better word).
The ML basically serves the rich and is their pet (Doberman), which irked me to say the least but I thought okay we'll get a redemption arc, or he'll have to defend something un-defendable and realize how f-ed up this has all been... But no! In fact even after his main client rapes a girl and films it (a very Burning sun-like scenario might I add, art definitely reflected reality), ML wants to help him and is looking for ways to work directly under him. They even have drinks in if I'm not mistaken the exact same place where the rape happened. I was properly pissed off already and seeing ML's redemption arc beginning having nothing to do with yk questioning his own immorality, I gave up. And for this I think you should not give this drama a chance at all.
Also, such a waste of Jo Boah and her character??? I actually liked her in this and thought the action suited her well but even she couldn't keep me interested.
Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
crazy bitch and her weapon
I just don't like the way they are harassing and forcing DBM to take her(FL) side. If a person does not want to take revenge even after knowing the truth or not knowing the truth, then forcibly harassing him for her(FL) own benefit, trying to take back his forgotten memory, is real torture.You are causing him an accident so that his memory comes back are you crazy? (even doctors do not instruct/prescribe that kind of stunt) What hypocrisy, you are saying that he will decide himself, I have left him free, but the very next moment you reach to trouble him.
Don't play with the memory of those whose memory is lost, do not know if he goes mad, goes into trauma, or whatever.
I am feeling FL is more a villain than a villain, who can go to any extent for her own benefit. But she is showing as if she sympathizes with Ml. she shares the same pain (bullshit) . she is really a crazy bitch who just to make sure he becomes her weapon is going low to hurt him.
Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
Revenge, Action and Redemption
This show has got to be one of the few shows that show the process of redemption of an originally horrible, irredeemable character. It was 2 characters in this show. Do Be Man and No Tae Nam. NTN's actor did an amazing job portraying the complex character that is No Tae Nam. One would argue, NTN never went to prison, which is unsatisfying. But people fail to realise military was his prison. Its the one place he never wanted to step in. I originally hated his character and never thought I'd end up feeling bad for him, or even like him. But the writer did so well with his character.The show was great, and is perfect if you are looking for a revenge drama with minimal, and I repeat.. m i n m a l romance. Bullying, sexual harassment, abuse and rape were subjects discussed in the show. The show did a great job showing how much bullying can break down a person, even the nicest most calm person.
Overall, solid show, with a good cast. I will miss being Bo Hyun and Bo Ah together in a show.
Was this review helpful to you?
Bel mix tra azione, adrenalina e procedurale
Un drama che mi ha appassionato dall'inizio alla fine e che è riuscito a mantenere un buon livello di attenzione .Rientra nella categoria procedurale, ma gli autori sono riusciti a creare un buon mix tra scene d'azione e momenti adrenalinici. ci sono tanta azione e momenti adrenalinici,
e ho trovato funzionale l'epilogo dopo il passaggio di tempo con la chiusura degli archi narrativi più importanti.
Le storyline sono ben delineate gli autori sono riusciti a gestire a sviluppare tutte le storyline caratterizzando bene i personaggi e le situazioni. Ricorrono anche qui vari trope soprattutto legati al genere, ma sono per lo più funzionali o espedienti narrativi. Inoltre ho apprezzato che siano riusciti ad equilibrare anche i momenti comici lasciati ad alcuni personaggi specifici.
Come in "Vincenzo" ho apprezzato come gli autori abbiano sviluppato la connection sentimentale tra i due protagonisti.
Tra l'altro la serie sarebbe stata validissima indipendentemente dall'esistenza del lato romantico. I due personaggi protagonisti insieme avrebbero fatto comunque scintille.
In generale di rewatch non ne faccio e se li faccio guardo solo alcuni spezzoni della serie o alcuni episodi.
Lo consiglio a chi potrebbe piacere una storia di vendetta, redenzione e giustizia, con una validissima colonna sonora e del romanticismo solo accennato.
Was this review helpful to you?
