Tempest, on Hulu

Seo Mun-ju sort of wants to be like Margaret Chase Smith or Mary Bono, but instead of succeeding her late husband Jang Jun-ik in office, she intends to replace him as a presidential candidate. It will be rather tricky, because he represented the hawkish party, while she was appointed UN Ambassador by the incumbent president, the standard bearer of the dovish party. Fortunately, she has the backing of Jang’s powerbroker mother, but the services of her mysterious bodyguard will be even more important in the political K-drama Tempest, written by Jeong Seo-kyeong, which premieres Wednesday on Hulu.

Apparently, Seo and Jang were not like Mary Matalin and James Carver. They could not dismiss their political differences so easily. Frankly, they never really got along so well, but Seo had resigned herself to loyally standing by him during the upcoming campaign. That is why she resigned from her post at the UN—or maybe she just didn’t complain when Pres. Chae Kyung-sin fired her.

Regardless, she is genuinely horrified when Jang is assassinated in a spectacularly public fashion. Coincidentally, it happened just as Jang adopted a more conciliatory tone towards reunification. Even more disconcerting, he seemed to be expecting it. Consequently, he secretly transferred his family’s entire fortune to her. Seo wants to know why Jang was killed and her candidacy obviously shakes up the establishment and foreign powers—judging from all the work it generates for Baek San-ho.

Baek, formerly of the U.S. Special Forces, now works for Valkyrie, which sounds a lot like Caddis in Butterfly. He also has ties to the North Korean underground railroad through the Catholic priest, who was also happened to be Jang’s spiritual advisor. Baek apprehended the assassin, but could not prevent his cover-up-facilitating suicide. Eventually, Seo agrees to hire him as her chief of security, but Baek has another client who wants him to protect the widow-candidate—at least for now.

Based on the first three episodes provided for review, Jeong and company clearly sympathize with the doves rather than the hawks. Yet, perhaps ironically, the series takes North Korea’s imminent collapse as a given. That seems debatable, since Kim Jong-un has become the leading supplier of arms and enslaved soldiers to Putin.

Regardless, in the world of Tempest, the question is whether the DPRK provokes the U.S. into nuking it out of existence or somehow the South manages to peacefully integrate the North. Unfortunately, Baek learns her husband’s source in the White House, Assistant Secretary of State Anderson Miller, has reason to believe the Trump-like President Houser will soon agree to the former (even though a Hawkish posture towards North Korea is embarrassingly un-Trump-ish).

Frankly, the politics are rather confused in these early episodes, perhaps because Jeong is trying to keep the intrigue murky. However, Seo’s relationships with both Jang and Baek are quite engagingly complex. In fact, Gianna Jun Ji-hyun is perfectly cast as the emotionally reserved and somewhat standoffish Seo. Likewise, Gang Dong-won is steely, but in a sensitive brooding kind of way, as Baek.

Blood Free, on Hulu

Considering Greenpeace blocked the cultivation of life-saving Vitamin A-enriched “Golden” rice in the Philippines, how do you think environmentalists would respond to entrepreneur Yoon Ja-yu’s laboratory-cultured meat and vegetables? Judging from the unhinged protestors outside her corporate offices, probably not well. In fact, she receives so many death-threats, she needs a bodyguard of Woo Chae-woon’s butt-kicking caliber. However, the former Korean Naval officer has his own agenda in the ten-episode Blood Free, which is now streaming on Hulu.

Woo showed up just in time, soon after a stockbreeder deliberately took a header off an overpass, onto Yoon’s SUV, in protest of the economic threat her company, Blood Free, represented to his livelihood. Soon thereafter, her lab’s computers are hijacked by a ransomware gang. Not so coincidentally, Woo had an encounter with the same gang during his military career.

His presence is not a coincidence either. The former president, Lee Mun-gyu helped facilitate his recruitment. Several years ago, Yoon was present when a terrorist bombing killed dozens of people and forced the amputation of Lee’s legs (along with his political career). Since then, Woo and Lee have suspected the official story was a little too pat and convenient.

Initially, Woo intends to investigate Yoon, but he gets distracted saving her life repeatedly. Clearly, someone has it in for her. The suspects include a Shining Path-style terrorist group, Park Dae-seong, the chairman of Blood Free’s closest corporate competitors (and awkwardly Lee’s son-in-law), as well as every farmer, rancher, and fisherman in Korea.

Although Yoon talks a green game (her company is called Blood Free, after all), the series does not feel very environmentally focused. In fact, there is sometimes a Fountainhead-Atlas Shrugged vibe, as the government and special interests constantly try to pull down the innovative company Yoon has built with her blood, sweat, and capital. On the other hand, the storyline of terrorist-collaborators hiding in the upper echelons of government and industry is very much in the tradition of paranoid, post-Watergate thrillers (maybe there are some similarities with The Terminal List too).

Regardless, Ju Ji-hoon is as steely and hardnosed as it gets portraying Woo. He is not a superman, because Superman never bleeds, but his many cuts and scrapes just make him look tougher. Han Hyo-jo is also terrific playing the outwardly driven and inwardly sensitive Yoon. Lee Mu-saeng, Jun Suk-ho, Park Ji-yeon, and Kim Sang-ho also add lot of color as Yoon’s suspicious lieutenants. However, nobody can out-sleaze Lee Hee-jun as Seonu Jae, the Prime Minister (and the son of Park and grandson of Lee. It’s small world, isn’t it?).

Chief Detective 1958, on Hulu

Lee Je-hoon’s unit is like the “Untouchables” of post-Korean War Seoul. Unfortunately, the rest of the Jongnam station is very touchable. Awkwardly, the station captain is probably the most corrupt of the whole crooked Jongnam lot. To fight crime and serve the common good, Lee and his teammates must frequently work around their colleagues and superiors in creator Park Jae-beom’s Chief Detective 1958, which starts streaming today on Hulu.

Eventually, Lee becomes the revered central character in the vintage early 1970s K-drama Chief Inspector, to which Chief Detective 1958 serves as a prequel. However, when the new standalone series opens, Lee is new in town, having just transferred from Hwangchun, where he set the national record for arresting cow thieves. He figures he should keep arresting criminals in Seoul, but the blatantly corrupt Choi Dal-sik keeps releasing them and forcing him to apologize.

Yu Dae-cheon, the honest leader of Investigative Unit #1, counsels patience, but Lee is spoiling for a fight. He finds a natural ally in Kim Sang-sun, the hard-charging Lethal Weapon-like detective nicknamed “Mad Dog” because of his habit of biting suspects. They soon recruit Jo Gyeong-hwan, a burly laborer, who is tired of seeing average folk getting pushed around. They also poach the college-educated Seo Ho-jeong from Unit #2, because Lee understands they can use someone like Charles Martin Smith’s forensic accountant in de Palma’s The Untouchables.

Unit #1 will definitely fight corruption in the Jongnam station over the course of the series, but they also work separate, discrete cases each episode. Out of the first four episodes, their plan to catch a band of armed bank robbers in episode three, “Highwaymen,” is the best written and directed. We have all seen thousands of bank heists on TV, but Park and writer Kim Young-shim come up with some wild new wrinkles.

The case of infants murdered by an evil orphanage in episode four, “Yellow Turtle,” is so grim, it out SVUs Law & Order SVU. To its credit, it also challenges attitudes towards disability. Unfortunately, many of the American servicemen depicted in episode two, “The Headstrong Unit of Jongnam,” are just villainous caricatures. No matter how virulent racist attitudes were in the 1950s, there is no way a white 2^nd Lieutenant would dare strike a Korean American First Lieutenant and expect to get away with it. The American military has had a few issues in the past, but chain of command is absolutely sacrosanct.

Wonderful World, on Hulu

No matter how powerful they might be, your political connections cannot protect you from an enraged Mamma bear. An ambitious politician’s money-man learns that the hard after killing Eun Soo-hyun’s son. He beat the wrap, but he was no match for her car. However, there will be further consequences for everyone in Wonderful World, which premieres today on Hulu.

Congressman Kim Joon’s fundraiser hit Kang Gun-woo with his car, drove around with him hidden in the backseat, and then tried to secretly dump his body while he was still living. It was too late by the time Eun found him, but if he had been taken directly to the hospital, he probably could have been saved. Kim puts in the fix during the trial, but when he still refuses to apologize afterwards, Eun dispenses some poetic justice.

Apparently, Alvin Bragg is also the DA in Seoul, because a murderer like Kwon gets released, whereas the victims are prosecuted to the fullest extent. Of course, the bereft Eun hardly cares, at least initially. However, Jang Hyung-ja, an older inmate, takes Eun under her wing and revives her spirit. She too is a murderess, but her circumstances were much less extenuating. While committing a crime of passion, Jang also accidentally killed Kwon Seon-yool’s parents, for which she has always been deeply sorry. Knowing she will soon die from cancer, the older inmate convinces the soon-to-be released Eun to find Kwon and convey her contrition.

It turns out Kwon is a rather shadowy figure in his own right. In addition to his black bag jobs, Kwon has some game-changing secrets of his own. Yet, Eun starts to develop a strange rapport with him, based on their shared experiences as the victims of violent crime—unless someone is getting played.

Wonderful World has some of the elements of Gillian Flynn/Liane Moriarty thrillers, but they are often subservient to the angst and melodrama that are stereotypically associated with K-drama. Perhaps, it is worth noting the series’ enormous domestic popularity. However, straight thriller fans will find each episode is conspicuously padded-out with overwrought dramatic moments for Eun to shine. Each installment could easily lose fifteen minutes, oftentimes more.

This is indeed a showcase for Kim Nam-ju, who makes the most of Eun’s agony and outrage. Given the circumstances, it is impossible to not sympathize with her, even when she is dealing with her somewhat hypocritical jealousy over Kang Su-ho, her husband, who refused to move on from her, even though she refused to see him throughout her imprisonment. More to the point, Kim taps into some deep and dark emotions, while still staying relatively grounded.

A Bloody Lucky Day, on Paramount+

Oh Taek has a hard ride ahead of him and the unfortunate cab driver does not even have one of those beaded seat-covers. His biggest problem will be his customer. The stranger is a talker and also a serial killer, who soon shows his violent side during their long drive to the port city of Mukpo in the ten-part A Bloody Lucky Day, which premieres today on Paramount+.

Oh is an amiable fellow, but mistakes in life left him deeply in debt. He felt “lucky” when he woke up, so he figures it must be coming true when Geum Hyuk-soo offer of one million won for a ride to the notorious smugglers’ port. Of course, there is a reason he is vastly overpaying for the long-haul ride. He needs to get out of town after his recent murder has been discovered. He conveniently happened to be a resident at the hospital where the barely surviving witness was taken, but he still left too much physical evidence behind this time.

At first, Oh assumes Geum’s grisly stories are very bad jokes, but he soon realizes he has a psychopath in his cab. His passenger’s macabre origin story might hold relevant clues for later, but Geum’s claim an accident left him unable to experience the sensation of pain makes him particularly scary, especially when he demonstrates with a sharp knife. However, Oh really starts worrying when Guem hints he knows more about the cabbie than he initially let on.

This is one heck of a dark Korean thriller, almost as grisly as I Saw the Devil. Frankly, bingeing it can take a toll on your soul. It is a visceral white-knuckle ride, but ten episodes is still pushing it. There are a lot of flashbacks, most of which are justified, revealing events and context at moments of maximum impact. Even with a little padding, Pil Gam-sung does a heck helming all ten episodes. Bloody Lucky Day is dark, but its darkly stylish.

Lee Sung-min, who has evolved from a schlubby everyman character actor to gritty middle-aged protagonist in Shadow Detective is perfectly cast as the sad-eyed, angsty Oh. Few thesps could handle the cabbie’s descent from naivety to a very angry place, so convincingly. (Bloody Lucky Day is the kind of show that lends itself to an overuse of the word “dark.”)

Speaking of dark, Yoo Yeon-seok is so creepy and menacing as Geum, each minute the psycho is still breathing will stir-up viewers’ bile. He is maybe the evilest human-monsters you will ever see in a TV/streaming series, including Hannibal. On the other hand, Lee Jung-eun is absolutely heart-wrenching as Hwang Soon-kyu, the grieving mother of one of Geum’s victims.

Bargain, on Paramount+

Imagine getting trapped in a 1970’s-style disaster movie with the absolute worst people in the world. That is the position Noh Hyung-soo finds himself in. Of course, he is one those gross characters. He thought he was coming to the remote hotel for a questionably legal sexual encounter, but instead, a gang of organ-harvesters intends to auction his inside parts to the highest bidder. Then a massive earthquake interrupts everything in creator Byun Seung-min’s six-part Bargain, which premieres today on Paramount+.

Park Joo-young lured Noh pretending to be a high school student offering her virginity for sale, but she will actually be his auctioneer. About a dozen potential buyers will bid and then the Mandarin-speaking surgeons from Mainland China (the world capital of organ-harvesting) will carve him up, sort of like when you order a live lobster in a restaurant. It is almost like divine retribution when a sudden earthquake rips a giant hole through the center of the hotel.

Suddenly, Park and Noh must work together to survive—or so he keeps telling her. Obviously, neither really trusts each other, but they recognize they are probably the best of the bad lot. Civil war erupts among the organ-harvesting gang, between factions loyal to the boss and his chief deputy. Park would probably side with the boss if she had to choose, but she does not feel much loyalty, since she was also trafficked into the gang.

Meanwhile, they also must contend with the clan of troglodytes in the basement that dispose of the bodies and the increasingly unhinged buyer, Guk-ryeol, who keeps insisting Noh must make good on the kidney he purchased for his dying father.

Clearly, Bargain is the sort of feel-good drama, where everybody learns we are all just the same deep down: nasty, brutish, and mean. The first three episodes are so dark and scuzzy, you might want to take a quick shower before proceeding further. However, the brutal fight scenes and karmic payback of the last three episodes are definitely satisfying, in a grungy, exploitative kind of way.

Moving, on Hulu

Stan Lee always cautioned his superheroes: “with great power comes great responsibilities.” That is especially true for super-heroic parents. They are desperate to keep their powers and those of their offspring hidden from their old deep-state bosses in South Korea’s NIS. However, a superhuman assassin is hunting them all in the new Korean series, Moving, which premieres today on Hulu.

Lee Mi-hyeon has the super-heightened senses that every bratty child fears their parents must have. She is indeed one protective mother, but she has her reasons, as viewers will learn. To start with, her son Kim Bong-seok is unable to control his mysterious floating ability. Technically, they can sort of manage it with weights, but when unencumbered, he starts to rise, especially when his emotions are stimulated. That will make a relationship with Jang Hee-soo, the new senior transfer, tricky to pursue. Fortunately, she is surprisingly understanding. It turns out she has Wolverine-like powers to immediately heal, just like her father, Joo-won.

Some of the mysterious teachers at their high school seem to have an inkling about Kim and Jang’s powers, but they try not to let on. Instead, they have super-powered class president Lee Kang-hoon keep an eye on them. The two almost girlfriend and boyfriend are largely unaware of their interest. They also do not realize Lee Mi-hyeon and Jang Joo-won share some dramatic history, along with Kim’s father, Kim Do-shik.

After seven episodes mostly focusing on the super high schoolers and Frank, the Korean-American supervillain working his way through a super-powered hit-list, Moving takes an extended, Dark Shadows-worthy detour into the past, explaining how Kim’s parents met, as super-human black ops agents for the NIS precursor agency, before the democratic transition.

This flashback is so extensive, it feels like an entirely different series. Jang Joo-won’s origin story takes so long, devoting an entire episode to his early days as a gangster, the producers of the Fast & Furious and Mission Impossible franchises probably would have split it into two movies. In fact, the thirteen episodes provided for review do not even manage to return the series to the present time yet.

Arguably, the flashback episodes might be better than the high school-focused timeline, but they are definitely darker. Some viewers might be annoyed that Frank’s bosses are stereotypical CIA villains, but it obviously does not bother Disney (Hulu’s owners), since the CIA also worked with the bad guys in their recent Indiana Jones movie. At least a North Korean supernatural appears to be positioned the climactic villain.

Regardless, Han Hyo-joo is terrific playing Lee Mi-hyeon. Having a teenage son does not appear to have aged her a day, but she is a supernatural, so okay. Ryu Seong-ryong (who has notably played both good guys and bad guys in films like Extreme Job, The Target, and War of the Arrows) is perfect as the invulnerable on the outside, brooding on the inside Jang Joo-won. Lee Jeong-ha is mostly likably nebbish as Kim Bong-seok, but his character’s awkwardness can be trying. However, Ko Yoon-jung is quite charismatic as Jang Hee-soo. Plus, Moon Sung-geun is spectacularly scummy as the dirtbag deputy intelligence agency director.

Shadow Detective, on Hulu

Detective Kim Taek-rok is old, but he is still a little intimidating to his colleagues, for good reason. He always pursues the criminals the rest of the force is too scared to take on. He also knows where a lot of the bodies the crooked police chief had buried, because he did some of the burying. He is still only mildly bent compared to some of his old comrades. However, that makes him vulnerable to the schemes of “The Friend,” a blackmailing mastermind, who frames him for murder in the eight-episode Shadow Detective, which premieres Wednesday on Hulu.

Det. Kim is getting too old for this…stuff. Frankly, his slightly fuzzy memory is almost a blessing. He has done things he is not proud of, but what really troubles him is the price his family had to pay. Ironically, it was because of honest police work that a brutal criminal targeted his now grown daughter, when she was a young child.

Regardless, he never went on the take, unlike Chief Seo Gwang-su or Woo Hyun-seok, who became the Chief’s liaison and fixer for Geumo City’s elite special interests. Kim always regretted not talking Woo back to the straight-and-narrow. That is why he agrees to meet his old chum on what will be Woo’s final night. Unfortunately, their heated meeting makes it too easy for the friend to frame-up Kim for his murder.

Even though he is already under suspicion, the Friend forces Kim to re-investigate cases that will potentially reflect discredit on the Geumo police. The first few are easier, because he was partly culpable, but they get trickier when he doesn’t know which corners were cut.

The mystery/thriller business in Shadow Detective maybe isn’t quite as insidiously clever as writer Im Chang-se might hope, but it is a terrific showcase for character-actor Lee Sung-min (who has been in a ton of films, like The Witness and The Spy Gone North). Det. Kim is a great character and Lee brings out all his prickly eccentricities, to their fullest. He ages up a bit to portray him, but he does so completely convincingly.

It is also jolly good fun to watch him curmudgeonly jawing with Det. Lee Sung-A, the closest thing Kim has to a protégé. She is quite a down-to-business butt-kicker, thanks to Kyung Soo-jin’s massively deadpan performance. Jin Goo is appropriately slippery as Kook Jin-han, the hard-charging new major crimes detective, who is determined to bust Kim. Kim Hong-fa is also entertainingly sleazy as Chief Seo, just like he was in Chief of Staff (playing the sleazy mentor of the Squid Game star’s girlfriend).

Yonder, on Paramount+

In Charlie McDowell’s The Discovery and the subsequent, derivative Next Exit, scientists discover the existence of an afterlife that holds cosmic implications. In contrast, Dr. K decides to invent one for his own peace of mind, digitally. Kim Jae-hyun, a journalist and grieving husband, suspects K’s scheme is as hubristic as it sounds in the six-episode Yonder, directed by Lee Joon-ik, which premieres today on Paramount+.

A few years into the future, new Korean euthanasia laws have the National Health Service working overtime to keep up with demand. In compliance with regulations, Kim helps his wife Cha Yi-hoo end the pain of her fatal cancer, but not before she is visited by the mysterious Seiren.

He soon deduces Cha contracted the services of the By N By corporation to download her memories and place them in a VR world known as “The Yonder,” from where Cha contacts her shocked husband via video emails. At first, he assumes they are deep-fake spam from Hell, but he realizes differently when he starts digging into the By N By. He even interviews Dr. K, whom he assumes is a deceased neuro-scientist, speaking to him from the Yonder.

It all sounds too good to be true, especially since real flesh-and-blood people are considering ending their physical existence, to join their loved ones in the Yonder. Unfortunately, that might include the extremely vulnerable Peaches, a member of his informal Yonder-family support group.

In addition to The Discovery, etc, Yonder also shares thematic similarities with Pantheon, but its heartfelt, ultra-morose tone is K-drama all the way. Writers Kim Jung-hun, Oh Seung-hyun, and Kim Sung-cheol definitely focus on the emotional response to the speculative technology rather than the underlying coding. Yet, that allows them to build to a surprisingly distinctive climax.

Kim Jee-woon’s Dr. Brain, on Apple TV+

Brain scientists are often a little socially awkward, at least in movies and TV, but Dr. Koh Se-won takes the brain biscuit. He can literally get inside peoples’ heads, but it is almost impossible for him to open up to anyone, not even his wife and son. However, when they are taken from him prematurely, he just so happens to have technology to help him get answers, from other people’s memories. Of course, as with any great innovation, his revolutionary process comes with unforeseen side effects and complications in Kim Jee-woon’s six-episode Dr. Brain, adapted from Hong Jac-ga’s web-comic, which is now streaming on Apple TV+.

The exact circumstances are not spelled out, but Koh was born with a different brain structure that contributed to his intellectual brilliance, but also put him somewhere on the spectrum. Despite his impassive emotional reserve, he marries Jae-yi and they have a son, Do-yoon, who is very much like his father. Unfortunately, Do-yoon was killed in a freak accident, from which Jae-yi never recovered—except maybe he didn’t. Suddenly, Dr. Koh has reason to wonder.

Using his handing-dandy brain-synching apparatus, Koh is able to transfer memories from recently dead brains into his own. It is a process he is still refining. It turns out he also inadvertently synchs many of their skills and instincts. However, the process is dangerously erratic when attempted with a living brain. Instead of true memories, Dr. Koh is flooded with images from their subconscious. Regardless, each time he synchs, his brain absorbs another huge download. If it were not for his atypical brain structure, he probably could not handle it.

Dr. Brain follows in the tradition of psyche-plumbing thrillers like Spellbound, Battle of Memories, and Dreamscape, where the subconscious is an equally important setting for the drama to play out as the offices and homes of its primary characters. It definitely plays to the strength of genre auteur Kim (Age of Shadows and I Saw the Devil), who brings a bit of a horror sensibility to first installment (a la Flatliners), before setting into psychological-thriller bag for the following five episodes. There are some devilishly inventive developments, including a brain-synch with a cat. Yet, Kim always keeps the conspiracy-driven tension and suspense cranked up high.

Lee Sun-kyun (the “have” father in Parasite) does the nearly impossible. He scrupulously maintains Koh’s emotional frozen nature, while making us care about his plight. Lee also believably portrays the changes that come over the scientist as he continues to transfer other people’s memories and feelings into his brain-basket. It is a real challenge, but he totally pulls it off.

Yet, the fan favorite of Dr. Brain is sure to be Park Hee-soon, who is wonderfully sly and grizzled as private investigator Lee Kang-mu. He and Koh come to collaborate together in an inventive way that would be spoilery to reveal. Regardless, whenever he comes on-screen, everything kicks up several notches. Seo Ji-hye does not get much backstory or character development as the cop investigating the bodies that start to pile up, but she is appealingly no-nonsense and quite credible in her action scenes.