At a time when crimes committed in South Korea can be pinned with circumstantial evidence and forced confession, the importance of analyzing criminal behaviors spins the story of Through The Darkness.
Featuring a highly-intuitive hero, the new Friday-Saturday series of SBS provided a subtle, nonetheless gravitating police procedural series. To run a dozen episodes, it seems to go for different cases to be tackled by South Korea’s first profiler and Behavior Analysis Unit.
abbyinhallyuland watches on Viu
Opening Week Rating:
Through The Darkness Opening Week Story
Uniquely recluse, Song Ha-young (Kim Nam Gil) gets transferred to a new station that has been chasing after a notorious sex offender and house thief labeled as the “red cap” case.
While working on the red cap incident, a new murder case happened and the suspect acquainted with Ha-young was detained with valid circumstantial evidence and no strong alibi.
Deep down, Ha-young feels unsettled about the culprit being pushed. His investigation tells an evident contrast to how the killer acts and how the culprit they are holding behaves.
Consequently, Ha-young earns the ire of his superior Captain Park for reminding him to conduct a proper investigation. His superior even forced the suspect to confess against his will.
Seeking help from forensic scientist Kook Young-soo (Jin Sun Kyu), they assess what was missed during the investigation and found a fingerprint of an unknown person.
Passionately driven to form a profiling team that would assist in hard-to-knack cases, he invited Ha-young to join.
Those Who Read The Minds of Evil
A few months later, another murder case happened with the same MO in the same neighborhood. But Ha-young’s friend has been locked up in jail, hence it caused contradiction. Ha-young visits the “red cap” case culprit to inquire why he thinks the man they got is not the murderer.
Pointing out that a habit is unique to every person, he shares that like detectives they also have strong hunches. He asserts that the man they put in prison is not the killer.
When a young man was taken to the police station for breaking inside a house, Ha-young takes an interest. Fortunately for the woman, her husband arrives in time.
All the bullet points to Ha-young’s collated investigation match the young man brought for burglary. His methodical questioning eventually finds the young, clever and elusive criminal.
Unfortunately, the police station confronts the public’s rage when the truth was revealed. Imprisoning an innocent man who faced police brutality made the higher-ups unhappy.
Young-soo urges his friends to provide the formation of a behavioral analysis unit as a solution to appease the public. Successfully getting the nod of the Commissioner, Young-soo offers it again to Ha-young. With utmost desire to bring justice, he acquiesces.
Through The Darkness Opening Week Musings
Polished and easy to comprehend, Through The Darkness takes a subdued route with its narrative. For its opening week, the series has declared a stance of its direction to unearth what goes inside the evil minds of crime perpetrators.
Returning for his comeback drama, Kim Nam Gil operates his latest character with a compelling flavor. A few crime series have endorsed the truth of how criminals and police have similar ways of thinking. Kim’s rendition of Song Ha-young fits the bill as he is strangely fascinating for his tamed, empathizing and clever characteristics.
His insightful attitude deviates from the usual spunky K-Drama detectives we are familiar with. Nonetheless, his oddity correlates to the pensive mood of the series so far.
Accordingly, the depiction of a highly-sensitive hero aiming to analyze lawbreakers’ psyche makes a worth-investing pitch.
Riding the recent crime psychology trend, what sets this series apart is the limited ways in how old-school profilers conduct deliberation to their cases.
The newer dramas we’ve seen previously have all the technology resources that are not present in Through The Darkness since its premise is the infancy stage of the crime behavioral analysis unit.
I mentioned the unobtrusive storytelling earlier, the series is also quite chatty too. But strangely, the minimalist tone would not bore you. If you like a weekly serving of crime-solving stories, you would never go wrong with a Kim Nam Gil series.
Catch up on the latest episodes of Through The Darkness every Saturday and Sunday on Viu!
Photos: SBS
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