Welcome to the family, Regals, we're all so happy to have you here!

so true about Rescue me. all the creepyness and despair became more vivid because of great writing (for the most part) and acting. Father Baek imagined himself to be the good guy and the light, when he was actually the demon. the visual symbolism in the clothes and lighting also helped deepen the discrepancy between appearance and true nature.

there were many baddies this year who were as derailed. Hyun-Soo in Suspicious Partner also had this tilted picture of himself and his victims, like he was doing the society a favor and protecting justice by killing. And Cha Min-Ho just had no empathy for others, even his closest family. His self-preservation relied on annihilating every possible threat. He seemed to believe that he has every right to step on others.

I'm in awe of Father Baek for the same reasons you mentioned... it's a bit sad though that happenings in the real world is pushing us towards darker shows. There were a lot of times this year when I tried to start a fluffy kdrama but felt guilty about escaping when the world felt like it was going down in flames...

Indeed, there were so many dark thrillers this year. And it seems to get grislier and grislier...

I agree with what you said about Father Baek, he was such a creepy but very effective speaker preying on the emotional weaknesses of the people around him. Personally I've seen something similar in real life to what he does, where the focus is so much on human suffering that it seemed deliberate, finding a common thread that would be sure to resonate with almost everyone (like poverty) to have more impact. That's what made Save Me so frighteningly real.

Although, my fave would have to be Dr Mok. Not that I admired his work (lol), but the high level of intelligence our villain had made Tunnel so thrilling and his character so compelling. And I loved the twist where the audience already knew who the villain was earlier on and it was a cat and mouse game to see who discovers who first

Thank you for your paean to 2017's psychopaths, Regals!

Whatever the case may be, 2017 didn’t disappoint with its delivery of soul-crushing misery to wallow in throughout the year. But enough about American politics, let’s get to the dramas!

ROFLMAO!

VOICE was the only show I watched among the ones your mentioned. Kim Jae-wook was chilling to behold as Mo Tae-goo, as lethal as he was hunktastic. But he wasn't alone. Dear Old Dad the transportation mogul made him what he grew up to be, and Kim Roe-ha as his adult supervision protected and fostered his "talents" -- while being an efficient and gifted killing machine himself. In what other show could we find clues to the genesis of a serial killer hiding in plain sight in his choice of cultured reading material: Goethe's poem "Erlkönig"?

Kim Young-kwang had a field day as antiheroic Prosecutor Jang Do-han in LOOKOUT. His mission of revenge for the heinous official misconduct (gee, that sounds almost civilized) perpetrated against his father decades earlier by Chief Prosecutor Yoon ended up eating him alive. Yoon's utterly sociopathic offspring hellspawn was a chip off the old block, and even his mom had to admit that he was murderously warped. Jang recruited as collaborators people whose lives had been blighted by Yoon and his minions, so the show basked in inky blackness seeming ripped from the headlines. "Into each life a little rain must fall." In the case of LOOKOUT, it was a veritable Noah's Flood of unmitigated evil.

MAD DOG had its share of powerful executives whose consciences had obviously been surgically removed at birth. Morally-compromised hitman Lawyer Lee was as cold-blooded as Mo Tae-goo, Yoon & Yoon, or any of his employers, but at least he was honest about it. In addition to insurance scams and killings, inhumanity was dished out by everyday people such as Kim Min-joon's adoptive parents who summarily threw him out on the street at 17 when they finally succeeded in having a baby of their own. The icy callousness of the backstabbing perpetrated against each other by the airline and insurance honchos was no different than their heinous treatment of the public -- and the Mad Dogs who sought the truth about the crash of Flight 801. Unlike many Kdrama villains, they were resourceful adversaries -- veritable Energizer Bunnies of Evil who gave the Dogs a hard run for their money. When truth and justice finally prevailed, it was all the sweeter for the good guys' dogged persistence.

- continued -

Ah, one more dark drama that deserves mention: MONEY FLOWER. This weekend drama is not being recapped at DB, but I've been able to follow it pretty well.

Jang Hyuk is simply terrific as a wreaker of vengeance playing an even longer game than Prosecutor Jang Do-han in LOOKOUT. His way of going about it is cunning and ruthless. It is such fun to watch him set his ducks in a row -- sometimes only to be thwarted by his antagonists. Again, it's a case of villains being smart, cagey, and ruthless themselves. Kim Mi-sook, who plays Evil Grandpa's equally evil daughter-in-law, makes Lucretia Borgia look like a Girl Scout. (She was also terrifically over-the-top as Chef Jung-sun's batsh*t-crazy mom in TEMPERATURE OF LOVE.)

Usually I pass on revenge dramas, but this one hits the spot. I admit to being a Jang Hyuk fangirl who would watch him read the phone book. But MONEY FLOWER is ever so much more fun. ;-)

As a bonus for this Regal's essay topic, a little mood music:

The Nylons: "Prince of Darkness" (One Size Fits All, 1982)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5p5dItbbfQ

Toronto's incomparable a cappella quartet. Check out their live videos up through 1989 for this lineup. They're phenomenal. ;-)

Mo Tae Goo! The sexy, handsome, cool and charming psychopath that I couldn't bring myself to hate him lol Kim Jae Wook is seriously charming as a bad guy.

Im with you on the i love thrillers but not really romcom kind of thing. And Father Baek is definitely creepiest of the bunch for me Cha min ho/sun ho from defendant would be one of the best villians of the year for me i actually shed a tear when you could tell he really liked his "wife" despite all the evilness and even his brother's child and that somehow made me cry and i dont cry for villians i dont.

While I wouldn't say super dark thrillers are shows I regularly watch, I will say that this years Rescue Me sounded particularly intriguing. With many of the Beanies' positive comments about it, it's been placed on the always-growing "To Watch Later" list.

Thanks for this post @regals and for all your work this year!

I, too, love thrillers, dark or otherwise. But I also like rom-coms equally. Sometimes I'm even able to enjoy the .mkjg type of dramas. :D

Thanks Regals for the review !

@regals unfortunately our tastes are too different, I can't stand thrillers. Nonetheless I am glad to have you here. After all, the more the merrier, right?😉