Mystery Queen

Mystery Queen

7.5/10

Mystery Queen

Genre:                                Episodes: 16                           Year: 2017

Mystery

Comedy

Synopsis:

Yoo Seol Ok is a housewife with a passion for solving mysteries. After befriending a local police officer, Hong Joon Oh, Seol Ok assists the police in solving cases, despite the disapproval of Detective Ha Wan Seung.

Cast:

Choi Kang Hee (Yoo Seol Ok)

Kwon Sang Woo (Ha Wan Seung)

Lee Won Geun (Hong Joon Oh)

Shin Hyun Bin (Jung Ji Won)

Kim Hyun Sook (Kim Kyung Mi)

Jeon Soo Jin (Kim Ho Soon)

Park Joon Geum (Park Kyung Sook)

Park Byun Eun (Woo Sung Ha)

Yoon Hee Seok (Kim Ho Cheol)

Ahn Kil Kang (Bae Gwang Tae)

General Thoughts:

I’m glad I watched this after I knew that a Season 2 was confirmed, else I’m not sure I would have liked it as much. But knowing that there was another season on the way left me free to enjoy the characters and their interactions without having to worry too much about any sort of closure. 

It's not every day you come across a mystery-comedy

‘Mystery Queen’ is an interesting little show that really took a bit of a risk. Mystery-comedy isn’t a well-travelled genre, and it could have ended up a complete disaster. I am happy to announce that far from being a disaster, the show snagged a great niche and did a great job. The comedy was never overplayed, and I didn’t find the mystery aspect too dark- there was a nice balance of funny and creepy.

Sherlock and her Watson

The whole show was a bit tongue-in-cheek and I loved that about it- so many K-Dramas (including other comedies) take themselves waaaaay too seriously. I mean, the main characters’ names are basically Sherlock (Seol Ok) and Watson (Wan Seung)- and that’s totally my style of comedy. I adored that Seol Ok was a housewife who couldn’t cook, and the running joke that resulted from this tiny character trait was just hilarious. My only other experience with Choi Kang Hee has been ‘Protect the Boss’ (yikes) and I must say, she made me completely forget about that experience as she sucked me into her new character. She was the perfect fit for a pretty, nosey Ajumma. She wore a pretty shocking wardrobe throughout the series that paired with the bob haircut really sold the housewife vibe. However, stick a bit of makeup on her and put her in a nice dress and she really became quite cute- which made it believable that there just might (emphasis on the might) be two cute policemen crushing on her. Choi Kang Hee did an excellent job at making Seol Ok sweetly endearing rather than irritating, as the way her character was written did lean a tad to the annoying side.

Nothing if not persistent 

However, Choi Kang Hee’s bright-eyed innocence and love for those around her made Seol Ok into a lovely character. Admittedly, there were times Seol Ok was annoying (like her insistence that she saved herself after Wan Seung un-buried her), but beyond that her sneaky sleuthing was great fun. Kwon Sang Woo was a new face for me, and I really loved his take on Wan Seung. Rather than being the cool,

We all love  good man-child

arrogant detective who was great at his job, Kwon Sang Woo gave Wan Seung a slightly annoying vibe. Not annoying as in ‘gosh this character is so stupid I’m annoyed’, but more picky and in-your-face that it was clear he was annoying other characters (such as Seol Ok). A childish kind of annoying. Which was great, as it wasn’t really what I was expecting, and it made his character so much more approachable than if he’d been a classic don’t-mess-with-me cop. I’m currently also watching Lee Won Geun in ‘Jugglers’ (because it would be far too sensible to only watch one drama at a time) and he’s basically K-Dramaland’s new puppy. Which is fine as he makes a great puppy. The character of Joon Oh was pretty straight-forward and easy- he’s the likeable, easy-going cutie who brings the ajumma and detective together. All that’s really required to play the role is a cute smile. Which Lee Won Geun has down pat. That being said, I did appreciate the little bit of romantic tension that Lee Won Geun brought to the role, making it seem as though he might have an inkling of romantic interest in Seol Ok, but being completely oblivious to it. Shin Hyun Bin as the weird other love interest (but not really) for Wan Seung was okay, but the character was so poorly written I don’t think it would have mattered which actress played her. She was an uncomfortable character to have around, and I think the drama flowed much nicer when she wasn’t in it. 

Remind me again why you're even in this story?

I actually really liked the directing of the show, as it made each case seem like an adventure. In all actuality Seol Ok is just putting pieces of information together and telling us what happened,

The characters' chemistry was fab

but the way we were shown how Seol Ok put those pieces of information together was always interesting. The whole drama was filmed in quite a novel way- feeling much more like a crime book than a crime show. Where it really got its draw was that it made finding and interpreting the clues engaging, rather than simply having them be a means to catch the culprit. A lot of the time I find crime dramas a tad boring, as after a while I just want to get to the end and solve the case, but ‘Mystery Queen’ made the process of solving the case so much fun that I was happy for the show to take its time explaining and exploring each crime. The show earns another point for not having all its criminals be serial killers. Because there’s only so many ways you can make serial killers seem different from each other. Because each of the criminals and their motives were different, the smaller criminal plot lines kept my interest for much longer than usual. Except for maybe the last plot-line about the old ladies poisoning each other because no one really cared about that.

Worst case for sure

What Was Great:

Sherlock and Watson:

The highlight of this show is of course its two main leads. They were delightful characters on their own, but together they were completely charming. The frenemy relationship was easy to get behind, and it was simply enjoyable to watch how these two strangers became each other’s biggest supporters.

They're hilariously wonderful

Initially Seol Ok thought Won Seung was lazy and uncommitted to his job, and Won Seung thought Seol Ok was oblivious and interfering. The addictive quality in this drama was definitely watching the two start to rely on each other, and not just at work. Won Seung was invaluable to Seol Ok for showing her what love and family really meant. 

If Wan Seung doesn't like him, he's got to be a bad dude

Due to her husband’s family taking her in after her parents passed away, Seol Ok thought that was the biggest show of love and dedicated herself to this family. However, after a while it became clear that while Ho Cheol wasn’t exactly the evil husband we were expecting, he for sure wasn’t the husband that Seol Ok deserved, or the husband she thought he was. I always get a bit worried when shows have their leads married to someone else, but the writers did a great job at showing Seol Ok’s marriage break down without her feelings for another man being the primary cause. I appreciated that neither Seol Ok nor Wan Seung saw the other in a romantic light until it was clear that Seol Ok’s marriage wasn’t going to last. Yes, they were close and other characters (and us viewers) had suspicions that they had romantic feelings that they weren’t aware of, but there wasn't really a true hint of romance until after Seol Ok realised her husband was cheating on her. I liked that it was Wan Seung’s support and his friendship that led Seol Ok to believing she deserved to be treated better- because if this is how far a friend would go for her, shouldn't her family do at least that much?

Goodbye crappy husband, hello spunky detective

While it was sad to see the completely loving and trusting Seol Ok realise she wasn’t nearly as loved as she thought, it was a pivotal point in the story. Possibly my favourite moment in the show was Seol Ok standing up to her husband about his unwillingness to help her with her parents' case.

They really were the perfect team

The ‘You say don’t do it because it’s dangerous, but others say let’s do it together because it’s dangerous,’ line was superb, and in my mind is one of the best descriptions of unconditional support. Won Seung never made decisions for Seol Ok, and he never took away her autonomy. While he always poked fun at her and teased her, he stood up for her when it counted, and Seol Ok was able to rely on him during one of the hardest moments of her life. For me this was the peak of their relationship development, and showed just how far the two had come over the course of the drama. Rather than dismissing him as useless and trying to do everything herself, Seol Ok started to rely on Wan Seung and acknowledged his input during cases. And rather than Seol Ok being the one trailing after Wan Seung trying to be let in on the cases, it was Wan Seung who was following her around, begging her to help him catch the criminal. The two were a hilariously delightful combo, with just the right amount of romantic tension. 

The running joke of her falling for his bad-boy charms was one of my favourite things

Non-Episodic:

As the primary draw of this drama was the characters, I appreciated that we weren’t bombarded with a new case every hour. Rather than having a new crime and a new criminal to catch, the series as a whole had maybe four or five crimes that it explored slowly and in depth.

I almost forgot that you could have criminals in K-Dramas that weren't serial killers

This allowed our characters more time to interact with each other, and let them experience great character growth that you don’t always get when they’re so busy catching a new criminal every episode. Most of the crimes were so well thought through that spreading a case out over a couple of episodes didn’t slow the momentum at all.

I'm still not sure if I like Inspector Woo though...

The show still felt fast-paced and smart, as it really let the detective duo explore every scenario in as much depth as possible. Most of the crimes were actually introduced earlier before they got full attention, which gave the show a really smooth feel, rather than having it seem as though random crimes just kept popping up in this neighbourhood. The best example of this is the panty-thief case. This plot was introduced while we were focused on another crime, and I initially thought it would just be a funny side-story. However, when the young girl was murdered, it felt more personal than a random character dying, because we’d seen this girl around for a few episodes, and seen her interacting with our main characters. Not only did her murder then become the present crime to be solved, but was also used to further develop Wan Seung’s character through his guilt at not giving her concerns his proper attention, and his determination to catch her murderer. This case also linked into the next case about the duct-tape killer, and brought Woo Sang Ha into the spotlight. 

What Wasn’t:

Promise of Season 2:

While I’m super excited that there’s going to be a Season 2, and it’s one of the reasons I actually watched the first season (K-Dramas so rarely get second seasons that they have to be pretty good if they do), I did think that the show was relying too heavily on getting another season to finish its story.

You...you can't finish your drama on a cliffhanger! I mean you can but it's pretty sucky.

Generally speaking, I like my seasons to have a complete feel about them where a second season would be nice and might explain things in more detail, but the first season is still able to stand as a whole and complete story on its own. That’s not exactly what happened here. I suspect that it was due to the fact that the show was in talks of a Season 2 while this season was still airing,

But WHY did you try kill that girl?

but the BIG mystery (the one about Wan Seung’s first love and Seol Ok’s parents’ murder) did not come anywhere close to being solved. By the time the end of the show comes around, we are aware that there’s something bigger behind these crimes, and have a pretty good idea of who’s behind it, but the why is still a big ol’ question mark. And that made me pretty disappointed. Yeah, I get that there’s now a whole other season to explore this mystery- but what was the point of the first season then? Leaving it this way basically renders the whole first season into being set up and character introduction. Unfortunately the fact that ‘Mystery Queen’ now relies on a second season to finish telling its story means that my opinion of the first season can now be heavily influenced by how good (or not) the next season is. If the next season is brilliant then hooray we’ve got a great story and two excellent seasons of it! But if it isn’t then it means that the first season that I loved is now ruined, because the story wasn’t finished properly. If the first season was able to stand on its own then it wouldn’t matter if the next season wasn’t as good, because Season 1 would still be a great drama with a complete story. Second seasons are also pretty risky in that you’re never guaranteed the cast will sign on. As is the case here. Thankfully our leads Choi Kang Hee and Kwon Sang Woo will return as our detective duo.

How can this squad return without Joon Oh?

But Puppy Policeman Lee Won Geun and wannabe fiancé Shin Hyun Bin didn’t sign on for Season 2. Which is a bummer because I loved puppy’s relationships with our leads, and the lawyer seemed like she was stepping up to be a bigger player at the end of this season. At this point it’s not clear if the characters will be written out of the next season or if they’ll bring in new actors for them, but either way its a bit of a let down.

Recommend?

This is actually a hard one, because I would recommend it for the A+ banter and the absolutely awesome relationship that developed between our detective and our Ajumma- however, depending on how Season 2 goes, the actual big mystery may end up slightly disappointing. So…long story short, if you’re wanting fab characters definitely watch, if you’re wanting a fab mystery maybe wait until Season 2 is finished and see.

My new favourite odd-couple