“Bad and Crazy” (배드 앤 크레이지)

By Jae-Ha Kim
jaehakim.com
December 23, 2022

☆☆☆☆
Ryu Soo-yeol (played by Lee Dong-wook)
K (played by Wi Ha-joon)
Lee Hui-gyeom (played by Han Ji-eun)
Oh Kyeong-tae (played by Cha Hak-yeon)
↑Note: Korean names denote the surname followed by the given name.

I was initially super excited about watching this series. And when it was finally available on a streaming platform that I subscribed to, I started watching it immediately … only to find myself disappointed that this K-drama didn’t hold my interest. I tried, really I did. I made four different attempts to finish this series, but ended up stopping halfway through.

Maybe I’ll go back to it later when I have nothing else to watch? Maybe not. But for now, I’ll share a few thoughts about what I’ve seen.

The premise was interesting and had the potential to be a really good crime procedural where almost everyone is crooked. There are maybe a handful of good cops, and the rest are aligned with dirty politicians and higher ups in the police force. Our protagonist Soo-yeol is no exception. He has a reputation for being lazy, taking bribes and looking the other way.

He is hounded by an enigmatic man named K, who is violent — but in a righteous way. He wants Soo-yeol to get his moral compass back and right as many wrongs as he can. This isn’t an easy feat, given that the latter wants nothing more than to climb the department ladder and land a cushy job — which means kowtowing to everyone.

K is an excellent fighter whose soft side appears only when Hui-gyeom is nearby. She is one of the few clean police officers in the precinct. She also happen to be Soo-yeol’s ex-girlfriend.

As the story progresses, we learn more about Soo-yeol and K’s backstory and why they are seemingly bound together to clear a deceased cop’s name. And we watch as Soo-yeol remembers what it was like when he joined the police force to serve the public, rather than the corrupt political elite. Together, they will face a Russian-Korean mob and, more frighteningly, the forces of evil amongst themselves.

All this sounds pretty good, right? So why did I stop watching a series that’s just 12 episodes? Because the writing got progressively weaker, making each subsequent episode seem much longer than it’s running time. Also, as much as I adore both Lee Dong-wook and Wi Ha-joon, their overacting became a running gag that grew much too redundant.

Airdates: Twelve episodes (ranging from 65- to 75-minutes each) aired on tvN from December 17, 2021 to January 28, 2022.

Spoiler Alert: Most viewers will figure out quickly enough that K is a manifestation of Soo-yeol’s inner consciousness. Soo-yeol — who was adopted —was born as In Jae-hui.

© 2022 JAE-HA KIM | All Rights Reserved