"Through the Darkness" (악의 마음을 읽는 자들) KDRAMA & My (Spoiler) Impressions of the first 2 episodes.

If you are familiar with, or had watched Netflix's "Mindhunter" (FEATURES on POPCORNX), then "Through the Darkness" is the parallel to it, or at least Season 1, thus far having watched two episodes in into the Kdrama.

Scroll thru to find out more about the series, currently screening on SBS in South Korea.

AsiaWiki has a succinct condensed synopsis: "A story of criminal profilers who struggle to read the minds of serial murderers. Song Ha-Young (Kim Nam-Gil) is a criminal profiler. He is calm and has charisma. He digs up cases and looks deeply into the human mind."

This SYNOPSIS reads longer: "Ha Young is a criminal behavioural analyst. He looks cold on the outside but, he knows how to understand and see through people better than anyone else. He decides to become a criminal profiler who always puts the victims and their families first and takes full responsibility for them to the end.

Young Soo is the team leader of the Criminal Behavioural Analysis Team, and he acts as a headman of the Forensics Squad, who knows what true authority is. He realizes the importance of criminal psychology from the beginning, and therefore, he establishes the Criminal Behavioural Analysis Team with Ha Young. As predicted, hideous murder cases with no motive occur in a row, and finally, the need for the Criminal Behavioural Analysis Team begins to emerge." (Text via viu.com)



"Through the Darkness" ("악의 마음을 읽는 자들" / literal title: "Those Who Read Hearts of Evil") is directed by Park Bo-Ram, based on on fiction novel "Akui Maeumeul Ilneun Jadeul" by profiler Kwon Il-Yong & writer Go Na-Moo (published September 28, 2018 by Alma), as scripted by Seol Yi-Na. The series stars Gong Sung Ha, Jin Seon Kyu, Kim Nam Gil, Kim So Jin, Lee Dae Yeon .... The screengrab below of the main cast is via mydramalist.com / as is the poster seen up top):

Season One consists of 12 episodes, and airs every Friday & Saturday (22:00-23:10 time slot), started January 14th, and ending March 12th, 2022.

As of this blog-feature, I've devoured the first two episodes (and am keen to continue but not binge, as I found it quite heavy) and impressions shared here will be based on them.



Put it simply, I would consider this KDRAMA to be in the "prestige" league. The setting is undeniably grand to the point of styling and wardrobe (none too sure about the English working on the Ferris wheel in the park from the opening scene :p), with edited South Korean news to buffer the transitions of 1997 to the 2000s.

Think of this as the South Korean-equivalent of Netflix's "Mindhunter", with the book "Mindhunter" as the literal inspiration and catalyst for the formation of what will be the first "Criminal Behavior Analysis" unit in South Korea (by the end of Episode 2), if the series would have you believe. Another series to refer to is "Criminal Minds" - which essentially is the result of the formation and implementation of "Criminal Behavioural Analysis".

The first two episodes were a somber look at what we constantly see in crime KDramas, the existence of serial killers and the birth of the price procedural set in motion to be able to identify the criminals and their behaviour.

WARNING: The following scene in the video is a straight-up SPOILER to the incident dubbed "Red Cap" in the first 2 episodes...! This was an exhilarating scene, to say the least, IMHO.



The scenes where Song Ha-Young visits the rapist Yang Yong-Chul (excellent job tho) in prison (to seek his knowledge of a crime), who revels in extolling information to Ha-Young, is a mirror of when Holden and Bill interviewed serial killer Edmund Kemper (in both seasons of "Mindhunter"). Treat the criminals with decent medicom of respect and attention, and they'll open the floodgates of sharing their knowledge. "Use a criminal to catch a criminal", as it were.



This is not about a crusade for justice and bringing down irresponsible cops and behaviours, - although it does not shy away from showing it, letting the audience be the judge instead, as crime committed go unpunished, while others paint a tainted picture of South Korean justice back in the days. But things do proceed with righting wrongs.



The character "Song Ha-Young" is without a doubt thus far the center of attention and main protagonist, played by Kim Nam-Gil (whom I last saw in "The Fiery Priest"), but slimmed down for this role. His deadpan/pokerface demeanour and reactions remind e of actor Alan Ritchson in Amazon Prime's recent "REACHER" series, as both men's characters are as such: literally pokerfaced and the abject lack of emotions shown on their faces, and where folks are easy to foist the "lifeless acting"-tag on ... which is understandably so, to the casual viewer, and cannot be denied their own validity, innit? I had to do my own (re)search online to find out about the character himself, based on the novels by Lee Childs, but not everyone who watches the project know of said motivations.

The difference being that western series and this Kdrama, is that the script allowed a collection of scenes which reveal and show the character's motivations and reactions, from an early age, hence we are given the opportunity to "understand" why Ha-Young is why he is, IMHO.

Is this much adieu about 2 episodes into "Through the Darkness"? Perhaps so, but it also means - at least to me - it had gotten my attention to want to ramble on for so much with so little LOL



You can catch the series on Viki.com (unable too watch in Singapore) and here on viu.com (Watchable in Singapore).

Cheers,
Andy TOYSREVIL