But have the gangsters been to confession recently? 🤔

During the first impressions post, there was a lot of mention about lack of characterization for Ji Chang Wook's character and I didn't really understand that. We *do* end up knowing everything we need to know about him (he's belittled, he has little chance of advancement at least in part due his drug using father, likely because of the issues with his father, he turned violent & delinquent until a cop came into his life and gave him much needed guildance and understanding. He also may have or is developing an inferiority complex due to all the belittlement and his family background). We also see he can be aggressive. What type of characterizations were people looking for? His motivation for joining the operation is to rank higher than his wife.

I was NOT expecting a love triangle and I did not want it. That completely made me roll my eyes and consider just turning off the show.

Why do people never seem to get over their first loves or crushes?! 20+ years can pass and they are the only people still in someone's heart.
She *has* a husband and yet here he is trying to worm his way into her life and steal her away.

Also, there is an issue if a new low ranker has a relationship of any sort with a cop but not if the big boss does?

I hate this so much that I don't even wanna watch the show but if I don't then I won't know how we got to the opening scene. Sigh, it's frustrating.

I have lost my trust in Ji Chang Wook’s ability to pick good dramas, I still remember how great he was in Healer, but I don’t think anything after was good, so I wait a bit before giving it a try

I have only watched the first two episodes, but I'll continue with this show because it's just good enough that I want to see what happens.

My most lasting impression (besides a near contact nicotine rush from all the cigarette smoke) is that roughly one third of the fighting sequences I've watched so far could have easily been edited down or out and replaced with more relationship and character development scenes. For that first love reveal to have had real impact (imagining, for a moment, that we didn't already know of its existence from the trailers), there should have been more than three very brief scenes of the leads' marriage. And maybe it's just the case that Gi-cheol is an extremely straightforward character, but if his path to the top was going to be that basic and predictable, we certainly didn't need all those scenes in the first episode to establish it. Or maybe it's just that I wanted a more interesting origin story than what we got.

Regardless, although I think this is a decent, watchable drama and all the actors are giving strong performances, it pains me when I think about how much better it could have been if the writers had put the characters and relationships first and the plot and action second.

I said Gi Cheol was interesting because stuff actually happened with him compare to Ji Chang Wook's character but it was confusing stuff haha

Like he was recuited into a gang solely because he could fight and had a little clique who could also fight? I don't remember specifics but I didn't think he was *just* a DJ given he was recruited with a promise of running clubs. I thought he *was* a club manager who just enjoyed DJing and he was being offered more places to run.

I'm intrigued by this one. I've seen two episodes and I plan to keep going. But for the life of me I can't understand why Gicheul went from DJ to drug kingpin. Was it just because he felt disrespected? Or is there more to the story we haven't been told yet?

So we started, my romcom addict friend and me, and to my surprise she asked to watch the 2e ep immediately. I credit it to Ji Chang Wook charisma, though Wi Ha Joon smile is not far behind.

I wish cigarette were banned from kdrama too. Good thing that we do not have odovision!
I hope that the fight scenes were for these caracterisation episodes, and will be shorter from now on.

They managed to get the father of the beloved dead ganster on board for the con, but did not plan anything with his wife? What sort of couple life do they have?

shall we consider the magic thrust-generating watch a ppl?

The intro transition in Ep 4 was CLEAN wtf.

The rotating camera with the musical box music, and the split screens sliding back into themselves with the two halves of JCW’s face, one bathed in light, the other in shadow?
Dude.

Oh I hate the love triangle so much!!!😫
And with these types of stories, it almost ALWAYS seems like the undercover cop is the one who loses the most in the grand scheme of things. Hell, even in the small scheme of things, they lose the most.

I'm wondering if the wife is gonna end up having feeling the Gi Cheol in part because he's always making sure to try to endear himself and be a part of her life. I'm not saying she would necessarily fall for him but some complicated feelings might emerge.

Where can I watch this, besides on Disney+?

I had high hopes for this show because Ji Chang Wook is not only good looking, he’s a very talented and versatile actor. I’m also learning to appreciate the talents of Kim Kyung Nam who was so good in Eternal Monarch among others.

I struggled getting into it because I’m not a huge fan of undercover cop/crime dramas but I persevered and just finished episode 7. The main theme of the show seems to revolve around violence. Lots of violence. Violence between the good guys and the bad guys, violence between the bad guys themselves and sadly, there’s just not enough to interest me when they’re NOT beating each other to a pulp.

Darn it, I really looked forward to this. I may peek in from time to time because there are a lot of episodes left. Maybe it’s time to go back and rewatch a Chang Wook oldie but a goodie (Healer?) and wait for the last 2 episodes of Destined with Me.

Unlike other beanies I fell in love with this show and I'm looking forward to Wednesdays because of this. It's getting more and more interesting and I like the relationships shown in it.

I suppose I must be a bit contrary because I don't mind being dropped into a story with no context and having to work out what is going on from what happens next. How often are we fed information, in order, in scenes from our own lives? If we are in a club or gambling den and a fight suddenly breaks out, do we know why, the names of the brawlers, their history and relationships? Of course we don't. So much of real life is piecing together things we only partially know and in guessing the motives for why people do what they do.

This is one of the reasons I simply cannot bear the copious flashbacks to school, teenage years, etc that we are required to suffer in the majority of k-dramas. It happened in this immediately after talk about school (as though the conversation wasn't enough and we had to see it enacted). This kind of thing makes me crazy and I absolutely hate it, but so far (I'm 4 episodes in now, about to start the 5th) it looks like this spoon-feeding will be kept to a minimum.

I'm no fan of violence and have FFd through much of it, or looked away, but I am supposing it's there for the authenticity of the subject and/or because male viewers are less squeamish and Disney wants them too, not just all the ladies cooing at JCW. The excessive smoking is also killing me, just as it did when watching Mad Men some years ago when almost no-one took a breath without reams of smoke in it - but I am intrigued by all the different gang allegiances and bust-ups, the double dealing and back stabbing, and if there is to be a love triangle, what a situation to invent, and we know it will eventually become impossible and stupidly dangerous for all concerned.

So far I think it's clever and absorbing with so many tensions and hierarchies between the gang members, it's hard to guess who might survive until the end with so many lies, tricks and subterfuge leading to volatile situations in every episode. I for one am thoroughly enjoying it, even though absolutely every character is so lacking in morals I wouldn't give them the time of day in real life.

Just finished episode 7, which is all of the episodes that have come out so far. This is definitely Ji Chang Wook’s best drama since returning from the military, and I would say it’s a high-quality drama even without my Ji Chang Wook bias. The plot, character development, themes, acting, etc., are all stellar. I almost dropped it because of the violence, but it gets less gory/senseless later on. For those who want something lighthearted or romantic, this is not for you. But the human relationships depicted in the drama handle well the themes of friendship, duty, loyalty, and betrayal. Really looking forward to the next episodes!

Jang Gicheol continues to shine in his one-man comedy show.

While everyone else is fighting tooth and nail to keep things together, whether those things are an undercover op and/or a drug cartel, Gicheol:

1) Thinks he'll be able to marry his high school first love even though he's literally a gang boss and she's a cop...who wait for it...comes from a WHOLE FAMILY OF COPS. Yeah, let me know how that's goes for ya.

2) Falls deeper into bromance with Junmo, after being saved for the fiftieth time. Continues to be completely and hilariously oblivious that Junmo hates his guts. Aside: Junmo's swag walk away from the gang while muttering under his breath was awesome.

3) Literally raises his brows at the Chinese/Korean lady's interest in Junmo and sets them up on a (kind of) date, again oblivious that Junmo is actually squirming under the lady's attention and is kind of married to none other than first-love-san.

Conclusion: Gicheol is more funny than intimidating and it's surprising that he's lasted this long in this business. Jeongbae is a lot smarter.
I really thought he was going to catch Junmo's sunbae wire-tapping in that van. I guess you can only be the boss if you can pull off a catwalk in the middle of all the lower ranks.

Still, I'm excited for when Gicheol fully realises the double fold betrayal of Junmo and Euijeong....what will he do to get his revenge?

I DO have thoughts on this drama, but I have no time or energy and its low priority rn. So I will just wait and see if a. I finish it and then b. the end and see if I can be bothered lol.

Unfortunately, I was super bored during 6+7.

Anyone still watching this? I am, and overall think it's a decent show with a great performance from JCW, but 6&7 were very frustrating. I want to watch the drama where the marriage is a more significant part of the plot. I already complained about the fact that we were initially given so few scenes of these two in their married life; at least one third of the time given to showing Gi-cheol's rise to power could have been given to flashbacks or present-day interactions between Junmo and his wife. And I understand that once Junmo went undercover, there was and is no way he can have substantive interactions with her. Again, flashbacks would work! Just something to remind us of their connection so the fallout and Junmo's obvious ever deeper fall into the abyss that is gangster life would more deeply resonate, with this viewer at least.

I also know that the wife (and yeah, I'm blanking on her name because she gets so little screentime) is the one technically in a love triangle, but her relationship with Gi-cheol is completely chaste and there's never a moment where any viewer would wonder if she's swayed at all by him. She's made so little progress with him as far as getting him to confide something compromising to her that I'm not even sure why she's bothering anymore. But meanwhile, Junmo has now had roughly the same if not more interactions with the Chinese Korean drug trafficker than he's had with his wife, and they are much more flirty and suggestive than any other interactions in the show (with the exception of those brief flashes of people groping each other at the club, I guess, although based on the preview, seems like Junmo may be about to be groped and do some groping of his own, just not with his wife). The possibility that he is truly swayed by this woman is much more pronounced than anything in the supposed triangle, and again, because we've had so little between husband and wife, the emotional impact of all this is severely blunted.

Again, I think this is overall a good show, but I want to see the one that was advertised, with the marriage given more than a few seconds of consideration in favor of endless scenes of beat downs and gangster negotiations.

I'm sad this drama doesn't get the weekly recap. I just want to comment about how sad Jang Gicheol is, despite his criminal activities and his violence tendency, but well at least he's honest 😏 and the impending doom when he finds out his right hand man and his 1st love turn their back on him🥺
Ep 7: Junmo if he felt guilty someone died because of him (the reporter whom Gicheol send) why he didn't call ambulance after he retrieved file SMH

I have just caught up and I am really enjoying the show.
Well, not the violent parts which I now ff through but it does pose dilemmas for JCW's character, his choices, what he is willing to do and makes him overall an interesting character to delve into.
I think this is a great role for him and he is doing well showing the complexity of his situation.
It's also nice to have a break from male leads who have been stylised to perfection and covered in makeup.
I agree with other beanies who have mentioned the lack of scenes with the FL and JCW showing them as a married couple to make us care more about the undercover situation and the supposed love triangle.
They could have easily cut back on the violence, I get the vibe they are going for, give the viewer some credit.
Same for the smoking, it's getting really monotonous, surely they could have thought of something else for the actors to do.
WHJ's character seems pretty realistic so I'm finding it hard to believe that he could be in any way delusional thinking he would have a chance of a relationship with a woman who is a police officer and who also has a family of police officers.
I wish the show would explore their characters more and really flesh them out. WJH's character does seem 2 dimensional at this stage but thankfully he is a good actor and has this quiet intensity and charisma to pull you in.
Watching the last couple of episodes, it has only dawned on me now that JCW's direct contact, Dohyung Seok, is played by the actor Ji Seung Hyun who is GC's husband Won Moo in My Dearest. He looks much better without the beard :)

I wasn't sure how far the romance is gonna go, but ep8 was indeed far away!!
I can't picture a future for our married couple. Eui-jeong was struggling after watching Jun-mo in that bloody fight. I really liked their warm moments in ep4, but now we just see them being anxious around each other,
About Eui-jeong and Ki-cheol's conversation, I had the feeling that Eui-jeong was not completely lying to him.
However about the scene with Jun-mo and Hae-ryeon it seemed more one sided (and definitely long!)

i am watching this, which is surprising because i don't like violent dramas. but after watching/hiding behind my fingers MOVING and all the violent gore --- i think i must be acclimated to bloody fighting violent gore now. 😳

the fighting in this one isn't very hard for me to watch...
is this a good thing?

Whatever happens in the future, I want Junmo to take revenge against the bad cop, so he can die only after he did it! It looks the cop is still after him.

Episodes 8 and 9 were intense, phew.
Both the boys acting is phenomenal.
I have never watched 2 kissing scenes while saying to myself-"Noooooooooo"and feeling so uncomfortable, squirming in my seat.
I really don't hold out high hopes for a happy ending for anyone at this stage.

I feel like Junmo’s character changed after seeing Gi-cheul’s informant die and after seeing his wife with Gi-cheul…he actually killed people during the ambush at their hideout whereas he managed to avoid that before; he vengefully injured the rival gang member’s foot like a maniac; and his interaction with the annoying cop had a sinister tone. He’s becoming like a real gangster, more desperate and hardened, understandably so given all he’s endured, but I was hoping he’d come out of the undercover operation unscathed and still “innocent.” It’s really sad to see him being swallowed up by the darkness and I’m hoping he can get out before the point of no return. Watching this is torturous because the acting and characters and exploration of good and evil is so fascinating, but I feel so terrible about all that is happening.

I really want all the bad guys to get arrested, for Junmo and Eui-jung to be together again, and for Junmo to get his promotion, so that all of what Junmo has sacrificed is worth it…

I jumped right into episode 9 and I am hooked. I have been reading your comments and knew a little about the story, so thanks for all your input. I will be watching this one for sure.

I don't feel the same as some Beanies do about wanting to see something of their marriage before this operation began. They are relatively young, have no children, haven't split up/divorced, so presumably they have stayed together because they wanted to, despite her family's low opinion of him. The fact he took this undercover job in return for a double promotion tells us how much he was prepared to risk to keep up with his wife and the expectations of her family. I don't see how a few sunlit lovely dovey scenes would add anything to what we can surmise for ourselves.

That being said, I'm surprised his wife has been doing so well in her career considering she's an absolute idiot and not only that, she is undermining him just as her family do, by inserting herself, uninvited, into an undercover operation as though he's not capable of doing the job he was trained for *and how much first-hand experience of undercover work does she have? Any?

By doing this her amateur dabbling has compromised his (and her own) safety and given him even more to worry about. The pair of them have taken stupid risks in order to communicate and what exactly has her contribution been? Nothing. Instead, she has had a front row seat to watch her husband descend into savagery, to see the things he is required to do undercover - which he has presumably sanitised and drawn a discreet veil over in the past, telling her the bare minimum so his actions don't change him in her eyes, but how can their marriage ever survive this? There is so much to get over if they get out of this operation alive. He might get his double promotion but will it come with a side of divorce?

I'm so tired of Meaningless Media where that either straight up is, or seems to be, or just ends up being out of sheer stupidity, the entire point.

I would say watch this for JCW's performance, which was actually very good, but also... don't, even if you're the kind of person who can do that, because it's not worth it.

For me, the biggest issue this show faced for basically its entire run was that not a single person's motivations for why they did literally anything was properly justified, if it was justified at all.

There was no point during this show where I thought, "Yes, it makes sense for you to be doing this, and for this to actually be happening." And I don't mean surface level immediate actions, although plenty of those made no sense either, I mean not a single greater point in this was actually justified.
They tried, at times, but nothing was convincing, about why these people would be doing this, to these lengths, that the result or the reasoning was somehow WORTH it.

Especially, ESPECIALLY not the starting motivation to begin this at all:
"Drugs = bad" is not enough. Not for these characters, not for these stakes.
"Insecurities/ Self Worth" is not enough either, and functions as a plot device not properly set up or developed anyway.
So what. What else is there? That's what it boils down to!
So if your starting motivation is THAT unjustified, therefore the entire plot, and therefore the show's entire existence... doesn't have a good enough reason to exist.

And then I got to the end episode with my trusty ffwd button and went, "maybe that was the point?"

But then that begs the question, WHY was it the point, and since I also don't have an answer for that, and the show didn't provide one either, that leads me to the charming conclusion that actually still, no, not a single thing in this show was justified, not even its nihilism, which I would've rejected anyway. Yay.

Actually, I suppose that is fitting, isn't it, that in the end it was merely inherently irrational, beginning to end, because that's inevitable if you approach your storytelling like that.

I survived this till the 9th episode. Five mins into ep10, and I just... gave up. I will distribute awards to all those who finish this show 😂 Here, have a pickle.

Can’t say I like the ending at all. It’s just sad that Jun-mo and Eui-jeong are heading for splitsville. I am at a loss as to why he’s giving up on her. I’ll wait for more comments to appear to see what others are thinking about the ending …

It was quite disapointing.

Gi-Cheul being betrayed by his friends just before the end, by Junmo, by Eui-Jeong made me wonder how he got the position in the first place...

It's the issue with this drama, it was built on nothing. Junmo was barely introduced, we didn't get to see him as a cop before he was sending in the hell. We didn't really see their couple, married life, why they loved each other. Again, I never felt like Gi-Cheul and Junmo was sharing a deep relationship compared with the other guys. He saved his life and it was all.

How a smart woman like Eui-Jeong could think it was a good idea to be a part of the investigation by seducing the bad guy in front of her husband? At the end, she was the one who always pushed the limits when Junmo was trying to maintain them.

Ji Chang-Wook was really good in this role and was the best part of this drama.

i ended up actually liking this drama. i just finished it, stalled for so long...

JCW was great in this role. WHJ was also! so were the women leads. i don't get why people didn't like this. the commentary seemed focussed on JCW's choice of dramas, it seemed?

that's silly. this is the right genre for him. i got so tired of the cute. that was Jang Geun Seok's downfall. he tried to milk the cute too far. i loved JGS in You're Beautiful - he was an absolute riot - but it went to his head!

so did the success of Healer for JCW, i think. his appeal isn't the cute (tho it added to his action expertise)... i liked his whiny character in Five Fingers (even tho his character irritated me), he was very good in that melo.

he had HEART, in the end... after all that brutalism, he didn't lose himself completely and i think that's the end point. yes, they couldn't survive the carnage as a married couple, but that wasn't the point of this drama.

it was about his initial insecurities, feeling less than his "successful" cop wife? he proved to himself that he was capable, but it came at such a huge LOSS that he'll never be the same, even though he tried to "save" his 'boss' and chinese 'girlfriend'....

that's my 2 cents, anywho.

The director made these comments about the backstory of the show

" -It wasn't clear what kind of couple Junmo and Uijeong were. The reason for not emphasizing their past more.

▶Originally, there was a narrative, but it was boldly removed. Ki-cheol wants to change the present because of the past, and Jun-mo is a person who changes for the sake of the present. Rather than taking all of that, Jun-mo tried to show the present in progress, and Ki-cheol tried to show the past story. Junmo thought that the character should be shown naturally in the meantime. She went on the assumption that they loved each other just because they were a married couple. She thought that starting off by showing everything about how she loved might make the story loose, so she chose a fast tempo.

- Junmo's past history has not been resolved much. Is this for the same reason?

▶I thought it would come out naturally as the case unfolded later. So she thought that ‘Jun-mo ended up doing this’ would also come out in the story of her solving the case. Since this is not a movie but 12 episodes, I thought it would be presented naturally as it is a drama. Since it is a story about many crises and overcoming them, I thought the audience would follow along.

Taken from this article https://v.daum.net/v/20231025152636460 which has been translated via google.

I loved this drama so I hated how much the writing was weak . I sigh when I think about how great it could be.
I agree about how others said about not knowing anyone's motivation. Why exactly Jun-mo shot Ki-chul? Did he intend to do it ever since he helped him run-away? Why Hae-ryun loved Jun-mo to this extent? Was she that stupid that couldn't figure out that Jun-mo is deceiving him? When Hee-sung and Jung-bae took each other's hands? Why Ki-chul was so dumb?
I actually understand the divorce. I saw that coming. Though it was sad and I hoped it won't happen.
JCW was excellent. Now I realized how much I missed JCW being in an action.

I just finished the final episode and have to say that even in spite of the hardcore violence, I absolutely loved this drama. Blood and guts is not my thing but the story, the plot, the twists and turns and above all else, the complicated relationships and how they played out were all top notch.

So much moral dilemma heaped on people with almost zero morals, but in the end, there was a glimmer of loyalty from Jun-mo towards Gi-cheul, in allowing him to escape for a chance to live that 'normal life' he craved; towards Hae-ryeon in warning her to stay out of Korea and China for her own safety, and also from her towards Jun-mo (even though he had lied to her, wrecked her business and put her in danger). She found out who he really was and that her fantasy of leaving with him could never happen as he was married and an undercover cop, yet she chose to protect him from being unmasked before the final operation. Jun-mo had an honest (if you can call it that) relationship with them both, in that he felt some loyalty towards them based on their shared experience, because in all the betrayals that came thick and fast they never betrayed him - nor he them (in his undercover ID as Seung-ho).

In the end, the international drug operations and all the gangs were cleaned up, but those two individuals near the top of the chain went free. What damage could Hae-ryeon do on the run from her father, and Gi-cheul was almost forced to live the anonymous normal life he hankered for. Predictably, used to winning he couldn't bear the idea of Eui-jung and Jun-mo living happily ever after - as if that would even be possible after what they had been through - so he decided to turn the screw a little more. If he couldn't win, neither would they.

The irony in the final scene when Jun-mo visited Gi-cheul's grave and left his wedding ring beside the necklace his wife had already laid there (given to her by Gi-cheul) was such a great image. Everything had been ruined, everything abandoned, and there was no going back for anyone.

I thought it was an absolutely terrific drama, bravo.

I just finished episode 12, I’m super late to the game but have been busy the past few weeks. This drama was amazing, I loved all the moral dilemmas, and even though the ending was tragic and sad in the dissolution of their marriage, it was satisfactory in that it made sense. I’m still trying to think through why Junmo killed Gicheul before he would have killed himself…at first I thought Junmo shot the gun out of his hand so he couldn’t kill himself, but Junmo, who had always been averse to killing, chose to kill first…was it because Gicheul’s suicide would be worse for Euijung’s conscience? Or because people who commit suicide suffer a worse fate in the afterlife? Now the blame is placed on himself. How sad Junmo always takes the fall for Gicheul. Gicheul betrayed Junmo by coming back to ruin them even though Junmo let him go, but Junmo was still loyal to him in the end. And then Euijung’s reaction as Gicheul died was telling - her feelings were genuine. She even put that cross necklace at his grave…I mean was that necessary…she should have more respect for her husband than to do that. But the seeds were there since episode 1, before Gicheul re-entered her life, since she still kept that necklace despite being married to someone else. All her meddling in the investigation didn’t accomplish anything of substance…perhaps it was a subconscious excuse for her to get close to Gicheul again. I’m not sure if Junmo had genuine feelings for Haeryun, but if he did, he didn’t act on them as he could have. Anyway, the biggest loser in everything was Junmo.

A lot of people complained that no one had a viable motivation for everything they were doing. I don’t agree. Junmo is a loyal guy, and he finishes things to their completion. Once he was in that deep he wanted to make it worth it; he had to keep going for there to be enough evidence to get the international arrests, not just a few in Korea. And the district attorney’s pushing was enough as his superior. Euijung was motivated at first by her concern for Junmo, but she kept in it for her love for Gicheul. Gicheul’s common sense got warped because of his “true love”…it’s not that uncommon in real life.

I had pretty low expectations for this drama but I have been pleasantly surprised. It’s not a genre I would have normally chosen due to the darkness and violence, but I kept wanting to see JCW succeed, and in this he certainly did. The drama is still haunting me, in a good way, making me feel the regret and what-ifs the characters are probably feeling about the choices they made. However, it’s not the kind of show I want to watch again…it’s too tragic, and I want something to lift my spirits. The acting, writing, plot, character development, everything was great, overall a stellar production.