After seeing the first episodes of Alice, I checked its registered nationwide viewership ratings right away, and I couldn’t agree more to its relatively high rating.
I have a soft spot on SBS Friday-Saturday drama slot this season, and it is definitely continuing with Alice.
Joo Won and Kim Hee Sun stars in this time-traveling themed series. Rounding up the main leads are Kwak Si Yang, Lee Da In, Choi Won Young and Kim Sang Ho.
Giving a clearer look from its initial plot sketch, the new SBS series traverses the story of Park Jin Gyeom, an apathetic detective who stumbles on a cryptic case that could be the clue he can work on to unveil the mysterious death of his mother.
First Look Rating: 
Alice Opening Week Story
Time-travelers Park Sun-young (Kim Hee Sun) and Yoo Min-hyuk (Kwak Si Yang) are closing in a mission to obtain an important book for their organization ‘Alice’. From year 2050, they go back to 1992 to steal the book of prophecy.
They are not aware that its owner handed an important page to his daughter, who was in the brink of being killed by an assassin from the future, keen to retrieve the same book.
Preparing to journey back to where they belong, Sun-young decides to stay after learning she is pregnant. Against Min-hyuk’s warning of how the child in her womb was exposed to radiation, her mother heart did not waver to keep the child.
Raising Park Jin-gyeom (Joo Won), Sun-young recognized the warning is coming true for her son. Diagnosed with Alexythimia,a rare inability to empathize with other people’s emotions, Sun-young tries hard to understand her son’s situation.
When Jin-gyeom became the suspect of a high school girl’s death, his mother fervently look for a witness to absolve him from the crime which he really did not commit. Fortunately, a witness came in and cleared the accusation on Jin-gyeom. It was revealed that the young girl opted to commit suicide because of school bullying,
Little by little, Sun-young’s heart gladdens as Jin-gyeom adapts to his stoic personality. He genuinely acknowledges not being the best son to his mom, but he is focused to make up for it.
However, one night, when he refused to accompany his mother to buy more liquor, she unfortunately got killed with cryptic gunshots that can barely seen by the naked eye. In her dying moments, she tells her son to stay away if he meets someone who looks like her in the future.
Cryptic Clues + Cases
Years later, Jin-gyeom works as a detective at Nambu police station. He has built a close relationship with Team Leader Go (Kim Sang Ho) and his wife, with whom he lived together since his mom’s passing. Other than that, his other closest person is the bubbly Lee Da In (Kim Do Yeon), his former classmate whose career becomes a journalist.
A missing child case assigned to JIn-gyeom’s team turns to a baffling point when the missing child emerged after three days. Relaying information that she was with her mother, their team gets busier when a murder ties up with the same patterns of police cases. Clues of strange drones and inconspicuous gun shots appearing to be not of this world led to a labyrinthine dead ends.
Alice
Meanwhile, what Jin-gyeom and his team do not know is the existence of “Alice”, a time-traveling facility housing clients who want to heal wounds from their past lives. It’s the same organization her mom belongs to, and his biological father Min-hyuk is still affiliated with.
Yang Hong Seob, a crude time-traveler with brother issues, unfortunately defied the rules of Alice. Inadvertently killing his brother he marked Jin-gyeom who stumbled on the killing when he sees a drone lurking nearby a building.
Connecting the time machine he learned from the missing child and the words of nefarious Hong Seob, he also met the five-year old Hong Seob who has bruises all over his body, and felt happy that his brother died,
Stumbling on a stranger card inside adult Hong Seob’s wallet, he reckoned the same card belonging to his mother. All the perplexing details beyond human’s understanding pushed Jin-gyeom to seek an expert.
Hurrying to meet the physicist who can help him, he was not prepared when he sees a woman with the very same face as his dead mom.
Opening Week Peak Points & Musings
Vaunting a sci-fi themed story requires confidence, and if the premiere week continues its scintillating start, it’s gonna be a great news for K-Drama fans.
The mix of drama, thrill and comic notes piques interest that your attention while watching the series remains unswerving. Clear narration, imaginative plot and interesting characters make Alice deserving of full marks on its first launch.
Particularly, the interaction of impassive Jin-gyeom to lively characters like Team Leader Oh and Do Yeon, is one of the key points worth anticipating more in the series.
I had to check Lee Da In’s dramas before and I remembered how she has this really knack on comical spirit. Her conversations with Jin-gyeom spur smiles and laughter effortlessly.
Joo Won paints another interesting role, a feat he frequently inclines to, and is always successful in doing so. Paired with Kim Hee Sun’s nuanced acting, there’s more to the puzzling world presented by Alice.
What has been established so far is the ripple of effect that would shake Alice and the world Jin-gyeom lives on. The mysterious “book of prophecy” is also hinted to be a hinge in unfurling the mystery.
What will befall when Min-hyuk realizes Jin-gyeom is his son? Why did Sun-young give Jin-gyeom a strange warning? Will Jin-gyeom manifest time-traveling abilities?
These and more are what we should look forward to in the riveting world of Alice.
Photos: SBS
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