There’s this saying that a lot of Korean dramas start out good then become bad after the first eight episodes. The exact opposite happens in Stranger/Forest of the Dead/Forest of Secrets (why so many titles? I’m going with Stranger for now -.-); and I’m a bit disappointed. I think I should have managed my expectations but the problem is that this one got compared to Signal a lot. I wasn’t necessarily looking for something similar to Signal in terms of plot, but I wanted something with at least the same level of suspense and excitement. I think Stranger didn’t know what it wanted to be. It wanted to be a thrilling murder mystery but it was more of a commentary on corruption in law offices. If they had managed to blend all these genres into an intriguing, compelling story then that would have been great but what you have after a mildly interesting first episode are eight more episodes of false alarms and red herrings. During this time, there is a bit of a whodunnit going on. I normally love whodunnits, but the execution in the first eight episodes is at best eye rolling or at worst, boring.

The focus for the first eight episodes was guessing the identity of a murderer. So viewers were made to follow the stoic lead character as suspicion was transferred from one character around him to another. That in itself was not so bad, if it weren’t for how slow paced and ridiculous the basis for suspicion was at times. In one episode, the police arrested someone simply for being in the same area as another victim. This person who was arrested was not even in the same building as the victim. The only basis for arresting this suspect was that he knew the said victim. The police in Asian dramas are usually not depicted as the smartest (how else would the Sherlockian main character get to shine and dazzle us with his/her wits?) but even for dramaland, this was way beyond my personal level of tolerance. The fact that the plot treated this arrest as justified (one corrupt prosecutor sees this as an opportunity to blame an innocent suspect) instead of berating the police for how dumb they were was unacceptable. Usually, when an innocent is framed, there is at least some basis for it, such as you know- actually being in the scene of the crime? -.-

In another scene, a comatose victim is given a bodyguard by the police to protect her because she was supposedly the only one who saw the murderer. The problem? The bodyguard is only there to protect her sleeping arse by the day because you know, we all know that there is absolutely NO WAY the murderer would attack her by night. Because killers need their rest as well. -.- There’s dumb and there’s unforgivably dumb.

In other episodes, the main lead transfers his suspicions to other supporting characters but there’s no excitement for viewers because it is made obvious that the latest suspect cannot possibly be the murderer. They are either too sleazy, too incompetent or too emotional. There’s this sleaze bag Dong Jae who doesn’t do anything but lick the head honcho’s butt. When he’s not being a sycophant he’s peering at other people from behind hallway corners with frightened-I’ve-definitely-got-something-to-hide eyes. He gives you that same disgusted feeling as watching an evil minion/side kick because you are simultaneously annoyed and entertained by watching him even if you know he’s not the big bad of the story. I guess that counts as a positive because the actor playing him definitely did a good job in portraying a scum bag who wasn’t particularly evil.

I liked the main lead, Hwang Shi Mok, a lot. I thought he would be one of those cold-hearted geniuses who weren’t particularly nice but placed on a pedestal by the writers but he turned out to be very likable. He is exactly the kind of person you wouldn’t mind having as a friend, as a boss or as a mentor, even if he isn’t communicative. The guy had determination and a quiet intensity that made him interesting and more importantly he was a really nice person anyone would have wanted on their side. The only problem is that he had a condition that made it hard for him to express emotions and this was either used against him, or caused others to misunderstand his intentions.

Police Lieutenant Yeo Jin is another likable character (the actress Bae Doo Na has a gruff no nonsense personality that fit this role so much) but to be honest, she didn’t really do much. She had her best bad ass moments in the latter half of the series (tracking a suspect using video cams, chasing another suspect down, having a little fist fight here and there if she needed to) but in terms of figuring things out, solving clues and making connections, she hardly had any contribution which was disappointing. The only thing is that viewers were made to think that Yeo Jin and Shi Mok were equal co-stars but the truth is that he is the main character…and she is just supporting. If these expectations were set from the beginning, then her lack of contributions in the field of detection, along with her lack of screen time in the first eight episodes, wouldn’t have been so noticeable.

I think the supporting female lead Eun Soo did a lot more sleuthing than Yeo Jin. I really liked Eun Soo because she had her own personal goal and was very relentless about it. She was the type of character you expected to be naive and to not stand out much, but she turned out to be just as determined and single minded as Shi Mok.

I think Stranger’s success lies in its characters. They were interesting and you really cared about them. The only thing is that they seemed to be caught up in an inferior plot.

The plot finally picks up again after eight boring episodes because it finally focuses on what the drama is about- corruption in law offices and the police force where murder just happens to be a symptom of a bigger disease. I think Stranger would have been better if it had ten episodes instead of sixteen because then they could have removed all the unnecessary, pointless plot lines and gotten straight into the most exciting, relevant parts. I would not say the latter half was as exciting as Signal or other suspense thrillers. Stranger wasn’t really a thriller, it lacked the suspense and edge of your seat excitement to be called that. But it worked on some level as a drama that had an occasional interesting moment thrown in.