Player

Player

6/10

Player

Genre:                                                   Episodes: 14                                  Year: 2018

Action

Mystery

Synopsis:

The Crime Proceeds Redemption team consists of Kang Ha Ri, a con man, Im Byung Min, a hacker, Do Jin Woong, an ex-fighter, and Cha Ah Ryong, a getaway driver. The team works together to bring rich and powerful criminals to justice, while stealing all their illegally gained funds along the way.

Cast:

Song Seung Heon (Kang Ha Ri)

Lee Shi Un (Im Byung Min)

Tae Won Seok (Do Jin Woong)

Krystal (Cha Ah Ryong)

Kim Won Hae (Jang In Gyu)

Yoo Ye Bin (Choo Yeon Hee)

General Thoughts:

OCN is back with another rag-tag, home-made family of vigilantes. I feel like OCN gave birth to this genre back with 'Bad Guys', and that 'Player' is a much more light hearted, modern version. Not that I’m complaining- I love groups of criminals that band together to take down bigger criminals while finding loving, meaningful relationships as they go.

Nothing says besties quite like stealing millions of laundered dollars 

While not as dark or detailed as other vigilante dramas, ‘Player’ was still a fun and interesting watch. Most of the time I had basically no idea what was going on in the plot, why the bad guys were bad, or how our team was going to come out on top, but the main group of characters were just so funny, and their relationships were so enjoyable to watch that it didn’t really phase me.

I have no idea what's going on, but it's fun so whatever

The writing wasn’t exactly fabulous (I’m pretty sure this was his first drama), but it wasn’t downright awful. I could see where the writer wanted to take his story, and it was clear that there were certain scenarios that had been really well thought through. But unfortunately one good idea does not a good drama make. This show didn’t really do very well at connecting all its good ideas. When we got to one of those scenarios that had been well planned out, it was easy to watch and enjoy, but the lead up to the group’s missions often left me feeling confused. The PD was also pretty green, and while it didn’t show all that often, I will say that the fight scenes were hard to watch. For starters, it seemed like they were trying to make the fight scenes too cool and too badass. There were a lot of camera movements and rapid switching of angles, and while that occasionally added a sense of urgency and dramatic tension to a scene, most of the time it just made it hard to see what was going on. Which is a total shame, because the fight scenes seemed really cool and well choreographed.

I could never tell who was winning the fights- I just assumed it was the Player Team

And while it made sense for Jin Woong to be able to take on so many bad guys at once, and even kinda believable for Ha Ri, I often found myself having to suspend my disbelief when Ah Ryong was able to take down so many gangsters at once. Or worse- when Byung Min (the group’s computer nerd) got into fights and won. It made our good guys seem way to overpowered, and the bad guys way to bad at fighting.

Confidence is the best accessory

Like, this is literally their job. They are paid to fight people- there’s no way they’d be that bad at it. That being said, one of the show’s bright points is that it was so good at balancing humour with its more serious notes. The rapper between the characters rapport always pretty jovial, so it didn’t feel awkward or forced when that lighthearted attitude carried over into more serious scenarios. I also really enjoyed the soundtrack. I thought it was the perfect mix of songs, and never found that they were overused. An emotional scene can become less emotional if it’s paired with a track that we’ve heard 500 other times throughout the drama, but I think ‘Player’ did a really great job at matching its music to its scenes. The acting was great all round, particularly from our leading man. Song Seung Heon gave Ha Ri the perfect mix of arrogant confidence and veiled compassion. It can be hard to make a character with unclear motives likeable, but Song Seung Heon did an excellent job at keeping Ha Ri loveable by showing how much he cared for his teammates, but also managed to keep the mystery surrounding his identity and his personal involvement in their cases.

I didn't care what this team was doing as long as they were doing it together

Krystal isn’t the type of access who can get me excited about a drama just by seeing she’s in it, but she has a knack for choosing roles that compliment her strengths. She played Ah Ryong nicely, and had great chemistry with her co stars. Lee Shi Un has a looooong list of credits as a side character, and while he does have a flair for comedy, it was nice to see him take on some more serious scenes here.

The price of breaking out from your comedic side-kick roles

While Byugn Min was used for comedy quite a lot, his character arc did get quite dark towards the end, and it was satisfying to see that Lee Shi Un is able to bring in the heavy emotions when he needs to. Tae Won Seok might have been type cast for this role (I mean, K-Drama doesn’t exactly have a large number of super beefy actors at its disposal), but I thought he did a great job at bringing out Jin Woong’s softer side. Any man of his size would have been just as able to look scary and throw punches, so it was enjoyable to see how Jin Woong became such a marshmallow outside of physical confrontation. Tae Won Seok was so good at being a giant softy that I kind of wish the show had shown a little bit more of that side of his character. I always say that I enjoy Kim Won Hae being serious rather than comical, so it was nice to see him in another serious role. While his character could somehow be frustratingly slow (why would you not get suspicious when you’ve been called out of the blue to the the building your sunbae was murdered in? Why?), but he was an enjoyable character all the same.

Wait, you're telling me there are high level prosecutors in K-Drama that aren't corrupt? 

Vigilante dramas so often have the criminals fighting the worse criminals, that it was nice addition to have a regular, law abiding prosecutor brought into the mix. While In Kyu did bend the rules a bit by turning a blind eye to what Ha Ri and his team were doing (and even actively helping them on occasion), it was still nice to have a prosecutor in a K-Drama that wasn’t evil or corrupt. 

What Was Great:

Players:

By far the best part of this show was our rag-tag team of heroes. It was fun seeing Ha Ri pull them all together, and it was even more fun watching them work together on their plans.

The camaraderie was fabulous

The bickering between the members was always fun, and it was lovely to see how they all pulled together to form their own family, particularly around Ah Ryong. As a getaway driver wasn’t something the group particularly needed all that much, it was nice to give Ah Ryong a role outside of that. While the three boys were all good friends and worked together well as a team, they never quite hit that ‘family’ dynamic until Ah Ryong was brought into the mix. Unlike the boys, Ah Ryong was more a victim of circumstance with becoming a petty criminal, and all the boys were extremely protective over her. As fun as all the group’s schenennigins were, the best parts of this drama were definitely when they were banding together to look after their beloved dongsaeng, Ah Ryong. While the plot was pretty messy, it was insanely fun to come on this adventure with this particular group of characters, and their fun family dynamic made this show an easy, enjoyable watch. I’m glad that the writer kept romance out of our main four too.

Three examples of the 'Don't Touch My Donsaeng' look

It almost looked like the show was hinting at a romantic relationship between Ha Ri and Ah Ryong, or even between Ah Ryong and Byung Min. While I probably wouldn’t have minded if they had paired Ah Ryong up with any of the three boys in the team, I kind of preferred that we kept everything neutral, and that both Ah Ryong and the boys were delighted at having them simply be oppas.

What Wasn’t:

Bad Plot:

For the most part I’m not quite sure why anything happened in this drama. I had a basic idea of what was going on, but the details flew way over my head. I knew enough to know who it was our team was fighting against, but did I know why? Nope.

This window of doom is as confusing as it is suspicious

And as fun as the team’s heists and plans were, I found them a little tricky to follow at times. Quite possibly because they always seemed to go wrong. Once or twice would have been okay, but it seemed like our team messed up their plans far more often than they got them right.

This was Ha Ri's masterplan? Because it's terrible.

Which made them feel more lucky than talented. I also think the final confrontation was a bit of a disappointment. The crew had done some pretty crafty cons in this show, so to have them take down their biggest nemesis by a simple hidden camera felt super lame. Super duper lame. I failed to see what made the hidden camera so dangerous and risky and hard to do that it would take Ha Ri years and years of planning. For all the show’s talk of ‘That Person’ being the best manipulator and greatest criminal influence, he sure went down pretty easy. I never really clicked on to how all the smaller puzzle pieces fit together to create the big picture, or why Ha Ri had to bring down all theses other corrupt men to get to ‘That Person’ either. I kind of knew that somehow everyone was related and it all made sense, but it was never super clear and there was never that ‘ah ha!’ moment where it all came together to form one big cohesive story.

Recommend?

No, not really. While the characters and their family dynamic were cute and fun, there are other ragtag vigilante dramas that have an actual understandable plot driving the team.

Fun but forgettable