Mad Dog Series Thoughts
Aug. 6th, 2020 08:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
iariaFor the last couple weeks I've been watching this series and really enjoying it. Great cast/characters, excellent found family dynamic, interesting cat-mouse -- not only between our heroes and the villains but between the different factions of villains.
+ The end sequence was perfect - Bad Dog working a new case with Min-joon finally one of them and Kang-woo on the way to be reunited with them/take up his place in the family again. The added bonus of Seo-ra being a part-timer. The final world being Min-joon calling Kang-woo 'Hyung' - awww! I loved how hopeful it all was.
+ I absolutely loved the Mad Dog team as found family with Min-joon slowly becoming a part of them. My favourite part of the show. I loved how explicit it was that's what they were and how much they all meant to each other. I loved how Min-joon and the Mad Dog team both very reluctantly ended up caring for each other. It was all so effectively done. There were too many moments to name but a couple:
- Super adorable moment at the end: Kang-woo saying they needed to put something in Min-joon’s hands, Min-joon looking confused at his hands and Soon-jung reaching over to hold his hand and the two of them smiling at each other. Awww!
- Noo-ri giving Min-joon a threatening shovel talk over Ha-ri and then immediately telling him that they’ll protect his back too.
- The scene where it's revealed that Noo-ri had a tracker on Kang-woo and then tells Soon-jung he doesn't have one on him because 'I don't care about you' and Soon-jung immediately puts him in a headlock and demands he care about him too. It was super cute. I loved Noo-ri's absolute confidence that Soon-jung would find and free him from the hospital and Soon-jung's refusal to consider doing anything else because he knew Noo-ri was counting on him.
- Everyone's fear and panic when Ha-ri got targeted by Lawyer Lee. That was a great tense sequence.
- Kang-woo taking all the blame for the law-breaking they needed to do to take down Hyun-gi/Hong-joo to protect everyone else.
+ I particularly loved the team's unwavering loyalty and love for Kang-woo. Some of my favourite moments:
- When Kang-woo starts beating on Jin Chul at the airport, gets dragged away by the police and then Soon-jung immediately jumps in to beat on Jin Chul - having no idea why Kang-woo did it but following his lead because if he'd go to such an extreme obviously Jin Chul deserved it and that'd good enough for Soon-jung.
- Noo-ri's "Don’t make requests of me. If you want me to, I will do anything." Also Kang-woo's little head touch in a later episode and them smiling at each other.
- Ha-ri punching Min-joon in the face when he called Kang-woo a victim before Kang-woo could do it.
- The scene in episode 4 where the guys cover up a seemingly asleep Kang-woo with a blanket. I loved them admitting that they listened in on his conversation because he didn’t say to turn off the sound as well and his amused grin at it. I loved Sung-joon straightening the blanket at his feet as he left.
- On Kang-woo's side I loved his threat - "If you touch my kids again I’ll kill you with my bare hands."
+ I felt so much for Min-joon. Corrosive regret can be the worst – his brother found him and tried so hard to make them family again but Min-joon was so consumed with anger at him and distrust of what he offered that he refused to show that he loved him too, and then it was too late. It’s clear that a lot of his drive was the guilt consuming him.
+ Kang-woo and Min-joon was probably my favourite relationship. I really loved the slow burn of their enemies to family relationship. I loved how they started being genuinely worried and over-protective of each other, and the thin line of keeping secrets because they didn't trust each other to keeping secrets because they wanted to protect each other. The whole section when Min-joon was living with Kang-woo was lovely. I loved them sharing a meal, the first shared meal since his family died, and Kang-woo telling Min-joon it was delicious and their smiles at each other.
+ I loved Min-joon (and Ha-ri) sadly contemplating the sterile shrine to his family that Kang-woo's home was. I loved how emotional and upset it made Min-joon.
+ I enjoyed Ha-ri/Min-joon a lot. They had a lot of great little moments - I loved Ha-ri backing Min-joon into the wall and the trope switch of it. I loved Min-joon giving up the proof in Hyun-gi's safe in order to protect Ha-ri. I loved him taking her scarf and then coming back to put his jacket over her. I loved how bad he was at feelings and the constant push/pull between them.
Also everyone else's reactions to their courtship were delightful.
+ I loved that when Kang-woo and Min-joon were going to go off on their own in episode 12 Ha-ri and Soon-jung showed up, because they knew what they were going to do, and called them on how selfish they were really being.
+ Things would have gone so much easier for Min-joon in the beginning, and everyone else, if he simply hadn't approached them in such a combative fashion or actively antagonised them constantly. I get it - he can’t believe in or trust people (for very obvious and understandable reasons), and Kang-woo wasn't ready to listen to anything he had to say at first. But with all that money he could have tried hiring them secretly instead.
+ I liked the little background Soon-jung/Nurse Oh Seo-ra romance but it was their jail scene in ep 15 that really sold them. I loved Seo-ra's reveal that she'd been arrested many times over confrontations with abusive family members. I always appreciated her helping the team but this really showed that she was very much one of them with the inability to accept horrible behaviour and how she views the world. It made her being a part of the team at the end very satisfying.
+ I liked Manager Park and his friendship with Kang-woo a lot. He ended up getting the plot I was expecting for Hong-joo. I loved him best in Ep 16 when he got really getting into running the Mad Dog op. It was really cute. I loved him getting all hangdog sad about being an outcast at work and Soon-jung and Noo-ri immediately being all sympathetic and encouraging him to take lead. I loved all of them teasing him about their nickname for him. I loved his reaction to Min-joon/Ha-ri during the op. His inclusion to the team in the final episode made me regret it didn’t happen earlier because it was really fun and I wish it had been revealed that he'd joined the team at the end.
+ Hong-joo's storyline went in such an unexpected direction. I thought the series would have her innocent and siding with Kang-woo and it ending with Kang-woo finally moving forward either with her or it being implied they might get together. Colour me shocked when she sided with her dad, doubled down on it and then was revealed to have actually be super complicit/a bad guy from the beginning. Possibly worse than any of the others considering she knew the faults in the plane and still put Kang-woo's family on it. Yikes.
+ I ended up unexpectedly kind of loving Hyun-gi/Hong-joo. I mean she only allies with him in the end in a desperate bid to save herself and still seems to hate/disdain him and yet his complete devotion to her despite that made go 'yes please, give me more', lol. I actually felt really bad for him when she told him to his face that she despised him. Yet despite her saying that and how she betrays him multiple times it seems to have just made him more impressed with her. She meets him standing in the spot his father died/was murdered by her father in a deliberate act of cruelty and it doesn't deter him at all. I rather enjoyed how he was revelling in her being forced to side with him ("my Hong-joo"). His reaction to them being taken down being to look at her and softly apologise (for failing to protect her) was just icing on the whole thing.
+ I really enjoyed all the power-plays and back-stabbings and shifting loyalties between the conspirators/bad guys. It made to plot much more interesting and fun to watch. I like that their inability to not do any of that and trust each other is basically what gave Mad Dog the ability to take them all down.
+ I like that it was really his behaviour towards his underlinings that took Hyun-gi down. If he’d been better to them and inspired loyalty it’s very possible all his machinations would have succeeded and he wouldn’t have been caught despite all Mad Dog did.
+ Not everything got completely wrapped up in a bow which I guess is true to life. Prosecutor Jin doesn't seemed to have faced any consequences for siding with Prosecutor Ohn in the cover up. The cellphone recording of Hyun-gi soliciting murder doesn't get released (for some reason). Also the sentencing felt off for me. Kang-woo got a year in prison for wiretapping but the main three conspirators get 7 years/5 years even though their actions killed a bunch of people on top of numerous other crimes committed?
+ It was a great surprised when I started this that Woo Do-hwan was in it too. Never heard of him before and then I ended up watching two dramas with him at the same time. He's so great in both but I think I actually ended up appreciating him as an actor more in this series. He does such a great job.
I also really loved Choi Won-young and Yoo Ji-tae. I thought they were both excellent here. YJT sold Kang-woo's anger and grief so well and I found CWY's Hyun-gi a lot more fascinating then he maybe should be on paper.
+ The end sequence was perfect - Bad Dog working a new case with Min-joon finally one of them and Kang-woo on the way to be reunited with them/take up his place in the family again. The added bonus of Seo-ra being a part-timer. The final world being Min-joon calling Kang-woo 'Hyung' - awww! I loved how hopeful it all was.
+ I absolutely loved the Mad Dog team as found family with Min-joon slowly becoming a part of them. My favourite part of the show. I loved how explicit it was that's what they were and how much they all meant to each other. I loved how Min-joon and the Mad Dog team both very reluctantly ended up caring for each other. It was all so effectively done. There were too many moments to name but a couple:
- Super adorable moment at the end: Kang-woo saying they needed to put something in Min-joon’s hands, Min-joon looking confused at his hands and Soon-jung reaching over to hold his hand and the two of them smiling at each other. Awww!
- Noo-ri giving Min-joon a threatening shovel talk over Ha-ri and then immediately telling him that they’ll protect his back too.
- The scene where it's revealed that Noo-ri had a tracker on Kang-woo and then tells Soon-jung he doesn't have one on him because 'I don't care about you' and Soon-jung immediately puts him in a headlock and demands he care about him too. It was super cute. I loved Noo-ri's absolute confidence that Soon-jung would find and free him from the hospital and Soon-jung's refusal to consider doing anything else because he knew Noo-ri was counting on him.
- Everyone's fear and panic when Ha-ri got targeted by Lawyer Lee. That was a great tense sequence.
- Kang-woo taking all the blame for the law-breaking they needed to do to take down Hyun-gi/Hong-joo to protect everyone else.
+ I particularly loved the team's unwavering loyalty and love for Kang-woo. Some of my favourite moments:
- When Kang-woo starts beating on Jin Chul at the airport, gets dragged away by the police and then Soon-jung immediately jumps in to beat on Jin Chul - having no idea why Kang-woo did it but following his lead because if he'd go to such an extreme obviously Jin Chul deserved it and that'd good enough for Soon-jung.
- Noo-ri's "Don’t make requests of me. If you want me to, I will do anything." Also Kang-woo's little head touch in a later episode and them smiling at each other.
- Ha-ri punching Min-joon in the face when he called Kang-woo a victim before Kang-woo could do it.
- The scene in episode 4 where the guys cover up a seemingly asleep Kang-woo with a blanket. I loved them admitting that they listened in on his conversation because he didn’t say to turn off the sound as well and his amused grin at it. I loved Sung-joon straightening the blanket at his feet as he left.
- On Kang-woo's side I loved his threat - "If you touch my kids again I’ll kill you with my bare hands."
+ I felt so much for Min-joon. Corrosive regret can be the worst – his brother found him and tried so hard to make them family again but Min-joon was so consumed with anger at him and distrust of what he offered that he refused to show that he loved him too, and then it was too late. It’s clear that a lot of his drive was the guilt consuming him.
+ Kang-woo and Min-joon was probably my favourite relationship. I really loved the slow burn of their enemies to family relationship. I loved how they started being genuinely worried and over-protective of each other, and the thin line of keeping secrets because they didn't trust each other to keeping secrets because they wanted to protect each other. The whole section when Min-joon was living with Kang-woo was lovely. I loved them sharing a meal, the first shared meal since his family died, and Kang-woo telling Min-joon it was delicious and their smiles at each other.
+ I loved Min-joon (and Ha-ri) sadly contemplating the sterile shrine to his family that Kang-woo's home was. I loved how emotional and upset it made Min-joon.
+ I enjoyed Ha-ri/Min-joon a lot. They had a lot of great little moments - I loved Ha-ri backing Min-joon into the wall and the trope switch of it. I loved Min-joon giving up the proof in Hyun-gi's safe in order to protect Ha-ri. I loved him taking her scarf and then coming back to put his jacket over her. I loved how bad he was at feelings and the constant push/pull between them.
Also everyone else's reactions to their courtship were delightful.
+ I loved that when Kang-woo and Min-joon were going to go off on their own in episode 12 Ha-ri and Soon-jung showed up, because they knew what they were going to do, and called them on how selfish they were really being.
+ Things would have gone so much easier for Min-joon in the beginning, and everyone else, if he simply hadn't approached them in such a combative fashion or actively antagonised them constantly. I get it - he can’t believe in or trust people (for very obvious and understandable reasons), and Kang-woo wasn't ready to listen to anything he had to say at first. But with all that money he could have tried hiring them secretly instead.
+ I liked the little background Soon-jung/Nurse Oh Seo-ra romance but it was their jail scene in ep 15 that really sold them. I loved Seo-ra's reveal that she'd been arrested many times over confrontations with abusive family members. I always appreciated her helping the team but this really showed that she was very much one of them with the inability to accept horrible behaviour and how she views the world. It made her being a part of the team at the end very satisfying.
+ I liked Manager Park and his friendship with Kang-woo a lot. He ended up getting the plot I was expecting for Hong-joo. I loved him best in Ep 16 when he got really getting into running the Mad Dog op. It was really cute. I loved him getting all hangdog sad about being an outcast at work and Soon-jung and Noo-ri immediately being all sympathetic and encouraging him to take lead. I loved all of them teasing him about their nickname for him. I loved his reaction to Min-joon/Ha-ri during the op. His inclusion to the team in the final episode made me regret it didn’t happen earlier because it was really fun and I wish it had been revealed that he'd joined the team at the end.
+ Hong-joo's storyline went in such an unexpected direction. I thought the series would have her innocent and siding with Kang-woo and it ending with Kang-woo finally moving forward either with her or it being implied they might get together. Colour me shocked when she sided with her dad, doubled down on it and then was revealed to have actually be super complicit/a bad guy from the beginning. Possibly worse than any of the others considering she knew the faults in the plane and still put Kang-woo's family on it. Yikes.
+ I ended up unexpectedly kind of loving Hyun-gi/Hong-joo. I mean she only allies with him in the end in a desperate bid to save herself and still seems to hate/disdain him and yet his complete devotion to her despite that made go 'yes please, give me more', lol. I actually felt really bad for him when she told him to his face that she despised him. Yet despite her saying that and how she betrays him multiple times it seems to have just made him more impressed with her. She meets him standing in the spot his father died/was murdered by her father in a deliberate act of cruelty and it doesn't deter him at all. I rather enjoyed how he was revelling in her being forced to side with him ("my Hong-joo"). His reaction to them being taken down being to look at her and softly apologise (for failing to protect her) was just icing on the whole thing.
+ I really enjoyed all the power-plays and back-stabbings and shifting loyalties between the conspirators/bad guys. It made to plot much more interesting and fun to watch. I like that their inability to not do any of that and trust each other is basically what gave Mad Dog the ability to take them all down.
+ I like that it was really his behaviour towards his underlinings that took Hyun-gi down. If he’d been better to them and inspired loyalty it’s very possible all his machinations would have succeeded and he wouldn’t have been caught despite all Mad Dog did.
+ Not everything got completely wrapped up in a bow which I guess is true to life. Prosecutor Jin doesn't seemed to have faced any consequences for siding with Prosecutor Ohn in the cover up. The cellphone recording of Hyun-gi soliciting murder doesn't get released (for some reason). Also the sentencing felt off for me. Kang-woo got a year in prison for wiretapping but the main three conspirators get 7 years/5 years even though their actions killed a bunch of people on top of numerous other crimes committed?
+ It was a great surprised when I started this that Woo Do-hwan was in it too. Never heard of him before and then I ended up watching two dramas with him at the same time. He's so great in both but I think I actually ended up appreciating him as an actor more in this series. He does such a great job.
I also really loved Choi Won-young and Yoo Ji-tae. I thought they were both excellent here. YJT sold Kang-woo's anger and grief so well and I found CWY's Hyun-gi a lot more fascinating then he maybe should be on paper.
