If the intent with Bad Guys: Vile City’s opener was to be impactful, I have to say it was successful. Not only was it impactful it had me wondering why I had kept off watching it for such a long time. I thoroughly enjoyed the first installation of Bad Guys, not that I see this as a sequel but more as an extension and a pivotal one at that. The extent to which law, order, and justice are marginalized, making gangsters out of those who swore to protect the sanctity of the law, is horrifying. I can only imagine how bad it must’ve been for anyone, let alone a team of prosecutors, detectives, and public service persons, to take extreme measures of hiring and working with lawbreakers to catch criminals.

I couldn’t for a life of me understand why this group of law officials turned gangsters would need Noh Jin Pyung (Kim Mu Yeol), a rookie prosecutor on their team. Not only that, throw him in the chaos and expect him to follow suit blindly. I was baffled until I realized Noh wasn’t just a witness that could bring Jo Young Gook’s (Kim Hong Pa) criminal organization down but was a pivotal member of OH Goo Tak’s (Kim Sang Joong) Bad Guy’s. It all starts to make sense.

Aside from the impressive opener, I hadn’t realized Joo Jin Mo was part of Bad Guys: Vile City’s cast. I genuinely enjoy his method acting style. The way he immerses himself in his roles, and particularly here as Heo Il Hoo, a widely feared, former violent mobster who turns to the right side of the law after an assassination attempt, was fantastic to watch. Kim Mu Yeol, on the other hand, I was not familiar with until this drama, and he has my respect. The way he delivers the role, the conflict between good and evil, always on edge, constantly torn between law and lawlessness, was beyond impressive. Woo Je-mun (Park Joong-hoon) is another actor I am embarrassed to say I had never encountered before as an experienced prosecutor on a crusade. After losing two colleagues trying to follow the letter of the law, he decides to employ the same dirty tricks his target uses.

The same goes for Ji Soo as Han Gang-Joo, a young man, a killer who lived his entire life as an underdog, making every sacrifice to support and protect his younger sister. After an assassination attempt on his sister (meanwhile, the mayor’s secretary), Gang-Joo joins the investigative team, both for revenge and atonement. There is no forgetting Jang Sung Cheol (Yang Ik-June), psychopathic gambling, drug addict detective, broken to no repair but ironically determined, without compromise, to fight corruption to his last breath. Of course, there’s no forgetting Ji Seung Hyun as hitman Joo Jae Pil for the short time he was in the drama. He is a versatile actor who seems to excel in any role he takes, be it a sensitive veterinary in You Are My Spring to a morally ambiguous newspaper report in The Good Detective or a straight and narrow conglomerate in Hello Me.

A lot happens in Bad Guys: Vile City and when one takes a closer look at the totality of what makes a group of prosecutors and police detectives unafraid to deal out random violence and torture, but not only that band with an ex-mobster and an assassin, one can understand why they become determined to cross the line to battle organized crime, get revenge, and end institutional corruption in their city. More than the method Bad Guys: Vile City uses to reach its goal, it’s the journey it takes where a group of people who have nothing in common bond and come together beyond their common purpose sets it apart from other like dramas in a way including Bad Guys.