“Abyss” (어비스)

By Jae-Ha Kim
Substack
July 20, 2020

Go Se-Yeon / Lee Mi-Do (played by Park Bo-Young)
Cha Min (played by Ahn Hyo-Seop)
↑Note: Korean names denote the surname followed by the given name.

The “Abyss” isn’t the K-Drama that I had hoped it would be, but there were enough elements to keep me interested in watching it ’til the end.

Se-Yeon is a beautiful and whipsmart prosecutor who is brutally murdered — possibly by a serial killer. Min is a wealthy and brilliant businessman whose only “flaw” is that he’s physically unattractive.

Through a series of events that find them both dead — and then revived by a glowing orb known as the Abyss — they take the form of other people. Se-Yeon takes the form of a former colleague, Mi-Do. And Min is stunned to realize that he is handsome enough to walk the runway. Revived people are supposed to take the form of their inner souls. But it’s never explained why Se-Yeon takes the appearance of a living person, while Min is transformed into someone who seemingly never existed. (And, later, others are reborn looking exactly like their old selves.)

While we’re talking about looks: I don’t think I’m the only viewer who had a difficult time believing that the new Se-Yeon (portrayed by Park Bo-Young) was any less attractive than the original Se-Yeon (who was played by former Miss Korea Kim Sa-Rang). But it was repeated over and over how Park’s Se-Yeon was short and homely compared to Kim’s Se-Yeon.

The serial killer element of the series is intriguing and holds your interest, even though it’s clear from the get-go who the murderer is. There is an accomplice. While you won’t be 100 percent sure who that might be, your first guess is probably correct.

One of the neat aspects of “Abyss” was how the orb changed colors each time it was used to save a life. At first, I thought the colors had to do with whether the deceased had been a good or bad person. But then I saw a pattern: red, orange, yellow … It was clear that the Abyss wasn’t infinite and that its power would cease after the last color of the rainbow had been reached: purple.

Airdates: Sixteen 60-minute episodes aired on tvN from May 6 to June 25, 2019.

Spoiler Alert:

The serial killer is a well-respected, but sadistic and abusive, doctor. His accomplice is his biological son (Kwon Soo-Hyun), who was adopted as a child by a wealthy prosecutor, who had killed his own wife and crippled their child. It was never explained whether that was an accident or deliberate.

© 2020 JAE-HA KIM | All Rights Reserved