The Game: Towards Zero

The Game: Towards Zero

4/10

The Game: Towards Zero

Genre:                                                  Episodes: 16                                         Year: 2020

Mystery

Thriller

Synopsis:

Tae Pyung has the ability to see a person’s death when he looks them in the eye. When he meets Detective Joon Young, hers is the first death he cannot see, and he works with her to capture the infamous ‘Midnight Killer’.

Cast:

Taecyeon (Kim Tae Pyung)

Lee Yeon Hee (Seo Joon Young)

Lim Joo Hwan (Goo Do Kyung)

Park Ji Il (Nam Woo Hyun)

Choi Jae Woong (Han Dong Woo)

Shin Sung Min (Yoon Kang Jae)

Lee Seung Woo (Ko Bong Soo)

Park Won Sang (Lee Joon Hee)

General Thoughts:

I had a bad feeling about this drama ever since I saw the poster. It’s eerily similar to another terrible drama that Taecyeon has made. And that show was also a supernatural mystery/thriller. I feel like Taecyeon needs to just stay away from supernatural mystery/thrillers because they’re not doing him any good.

Try a new genre Taec...

I mean, ‘Let’s Fight Ghost’ was alright but that was more of a rom-com anyway. Sigh. Anyway, while the premise of ‘The Game’ wasn’t the most revolutionary (someone can see death) and has been done in other K-dramas (‘Black’, ‘While You Were Sleeping’), it’s still an idea that really grabs my attention.

Cool idea, cr*p execution 

The ability would be such a double edged sword, and I really enjoy seeing the different takes and complications that writers can come up with surrounding this topic. Unfortunately, the writer behind this particular drama is pretty new, and wasn’t really able to bring all their ideas together to form and interesting and comprehensive story. It was never really explained why Taecyeon’s character (or the old man mentor) had this strange ability, and the reasoning behind why he couldn’t see some deaths were murky at best. If the reason he couldn’t see Joon Young’s death was because Do Kyung was going to kill her to get at Tae Pyung, then why was Tae Pyung able to see the deaths of all the officers that died in the bomb explosion Do Kyung planned? The show sort of tried to touch on this towards the end of the drama, with Tae Pyung suddenly not being able to see the victims of the bombing- but is that because Do Kyung’s reasoning for the bombing changed? Then how come his reasoning to kill Joon Young was always revenge on Tae Pyung, even before Tae Pyung had met her? It was weird and inconsistent.

Man, it would be super helpful if Tae Pyung had seen this 

And beyond this, Tae Pyung’s power wasn’t even used that much anyway. The first time it is used is to introduce us to the mechanics of how his power works in an irrelevant mobster plot line. The second time is to introduce us to Joon Young and the rest of the police characters. After that, there are no other police investigations that require Tae Pyung and his ability- he solely works on trying to apprehend Do Kyung. Nothing else. Which made the drama draaaaag on a bit. There were no other smaller plot lines to pad out the cat and mouse game that was going on between Tae Pyung and Do Kyung, and due to this hyper focus on the back and forth between these two characters, not a lot was actually happening in the drama.

If only there were, I dunno, other cases the police could work on

Until the final few episodes the other characters that filled in the investigation team Joon Young was in didn’t get any character development at all. The character development between all the characters was pretty poor all around really. Even our two leads. Beyond the strange not quite father-son relationship Tae Pyung has with his mentor, Teacher Baek, and his very quickly developed feelings for Joon Young, Tae Pyung doesn’t actually have a lot going for him.

Well that happened fast

Joon Young had perhaps a little more going on, with the death of her father and working to solve the Midnight Murders once she discovered that Do Kyung’s father wasn’t actually the culprit. But still, considering that the entire show centred around the relationship of these two characters and the impact their relationship had on Do Kyung, not a lot actually happened between them. Early on in the show other characters were commenting on Tae Pyung and Joon Young having feelings for each other, which honestly came as a bit of a surprise to me- how do these other characters know that? From what  was seeing on my screen, Tae Pyung and Joon Young weren’t really treating each other any differently than they were treating other people. However, after the weird beginning where we had to be told that they were ‘in love’ by other characters because the show didn’t know how to express them falling for each other, their relationship was actually done quite well. There was always an element of respect in their relationship, and while Tae Pyung could be a bit overprotective of Joon Young, he always let her make her own decisions even if he didn’t think they were the best ones.

This drama would have gone a lot smoother if they'd both made better decisions 

But in saying that, it’s not like Joon Young disregarded Tae Pyung’s opinions either. She always considered his thoughts, but acted in the way she thought was best (even if most of the time she was kinda wrong). They were a sweet couple come the end of the series, and you could really feel their affection for each other. For Taecyeon I wouldn’t say this is his best performance.

Tae Pyung is not exactly a 'fun' character 

I think he’s an actor that struggles when his character isn’t written well, and boy was Tae Pyung not written well. His character got basically no development, and his decision making was sporadic and nonsensical. Tae Pyung was trying so hard to prevent Do Kyung’s death scene from becoming a reality, but it felt like every single thing he did pushed Do Kyung towards that exact same death scenario, and thus Joon Young’s disappearance/assumed murder. It felt like Taecyeon struggled a bit to find the emotions behind his character’s actions (and who can blame him when he has a character that makes so little sense). I like it when actors take a step out of their comfort zone, and while Tae Pyung was a newish type of character for Taecyeon, I couldn’t help but be a bit disappointed that his natural charms were hardly present in this show. In my opinion, Taecyeon is best when he can be a little bit goofy with a silly, endearing charm and then undercut that with solid emotion. Tae Pyung was just too moody and broody and just not all together a very fun character, and it feels like a bit of a waste to cast an actor that oozes a certain type of charisma, and then just never utilise that charisma into the show.

Sooooooooo broody

Like, I knooooow that an actor is supposed to take on a whole new persona for each new role, but like…why not use what you have to your advantage, right? Similarly, the character of Joon Young had minimal development and at times made questionable choices, and similarly I felt that Lee Yeon Hee’s performance suffered due to the lack of depth her character was written with.

None of the actors were given very much to work with...

I’ve not seen her in any other show, so I don’t know for sure if it’s just this role, but she wasn’t great here. In the first few episodes I actually wondered whether I’d be able to make it through the whole show with her acting. However, as the episodes went by, Lee Yeon Hee settled into her character more, and I got used to the way she was acting Joon Young. Lim Joo Hwan rounds out the three main characters, and as usual his acting was fabulous. I had absolutely no idea what in the actual f*ck his character was doing or why he was doing it, but I could most certainly see the emotions that were driving those behaviours. Just like the other two leads, Do Kyung was a terribly written character, but unlike the other lead actors Lim Joo Hwan had the acting skill to really drag his character along and make something of him as best he could. All the other characters were on screen for such a short amount of time that it’s pretty hard to comment on the actors behind them. The detective unit were an enjoyable bunch though, and I was pretty happy whenever we were treated to a group scene. The lawyer and old man Tae Pyung knew felt like unnecessary additions to the story though, and I won’t lie, I wasn’t that upset when Old Man Teacher Baek got killed off.

Wait, you're telling me we aren't supposed to feel happy that this happened?

I am 100% over stuffy old men who have a whole bunch of information that could be very relevant and useful who just…don’t divulge said information. Like why? Why would you purposely make life harder for everyone else? Selfish butthead. 

What Was Great:

The Wrap Up:

While Tae Pyung’s whole seeing death ability was relatively useless the entire show, it provided quite a nice wrap up for the drama. Usually K-Dramas (and most mainstream media) end their stories on happily ever afters with all the couples being together forever.

Everyone's back together again

It was quite a nice surprise that ‘The Game’ concluded on a happy, yet realistic note. Joon Young woke up from her coma that she fell into due to Do Kyung’s attempted murder of her, and Tae Pyung completed his prison sentence that he received due to his murder attempt on Do Kyung. Even though I didn’t love that Joon Young was comatose for so long and then so quickly made a perfect recovery, on the flip side it provided the time for Tae Pyung to serve his sentence and take responsibility for his own wrongdoings. And then Tae Pyung and Joon Young get to be together, and they are happy and in love- hooray! Tae Pyung can now see Joon Young’s death, and sees that she lives to an old age and passes away peacefully in her sleep in the sunshine. But he does not see himself. Maybe he’s already passed away, maybe he’s just out of the room, or maybe they don’t stay together. The uncertainty of the future was still there in a realistic way- just like Joon Young, Tae Pyung is just as in the dark about how their relationship will turn out. They are on even footing. It also drove home the show’s message (even if the rest of the show kind of didn’t). How a person dies is not a gauge of how they lived- it is simply one short moment in their whole, long life. 

Even if the rest of the show was hit and miss, the ending was spot on

What Wasn’t:

The Bad Guy:

Man oh man, Do Kyung was just a complete mess. And not in a good, interesting way. In a weird, confusing way. Basically the entirety of this drama rested on having an engaging and sympathetic villain. This show was all about moral dilemmas and the effect of the media, and where blame should be/is placed.

Oh Do Kyung, why do you suck so bad?

Only Do Kyung was not an engaging OR sympathetic villain. There are certain things you just can’t have a character do if you are wanting the audience to feel pity for them and connect to them emotionally. And one of those things is murdering an innocent teenage girl. It is very, very, very difficult for audiences to connect with a character that goes around murdering innocent people.

Yeah, there's no coming back from this...

It’s a tricky concept to pull off, and as such it is a concept that not a lot of shows try to do. ‘I Remember You’ was an amazing drama, because it made a psychopathic murderer into a pitiful and sympathetic character. But in that show, I don’t believe we ever actually saw Park Bo Gum’s character actually murder anyone. It was implied, and then confirmed that he was the killer, but we never saw it play out on screen. Because knowing something and actually seeing it are a little different. In ‘The Game’, we saw Do Kyung kill not one, not two, not three, but FOUR innocent people for his weird and petty revenge. As well as finding it hard to connect to Do Kyung because he was a full on murderer, it was also hard to relate to and connect with Do Kyung because his revenge plan was pretty stupid, and he was wildly hypocritical. I do not understand on what planet killing people and leaving traces of his father (the assumed killer, whose DNA was wrongly identified) was supposed to make any of this better? While I kind of understand that if the DNA from the previous murders was found on a new murder that it may spark a reinvestigation as the supposed ‘murderer’ was in prison and thus unable to commit the crime.

Do Kyung- WHY ARE YOU SO BAD AT MAKING PLANS THAT WORK

But then Do Kyung’s Dad was at the hospital at the time, so rather than doing anything useful, Do Kyung leaving this DNA evidence behind just implicated his father even further. And he also seemed super confused when the mother of the girl he murdered killed his father because she believed that he was the one who killed her daughter. Like, did you not factor in other people’s emotions? If you are so ready to kill someone because of what was done to you and your family, why would you not assume that someone else could do the same?

So to avoid this becoming his reality he...did exactly this

So in the end, his whole stupid revenge didn’t help his father at all, but instead got him killed. Good one. I also completely fail to understand Do Kyung’s animosity towards Tae Pyung. It’s kind of understandable that he would be upset about Tae Pyung telling him of his suicide death as a child, but I have absolutely no idea how Do Kyung thought of that as the moment that derailed his life and turned him into a murderer? Like…how does that make any sense at all? (Spoiler Alert- it doesn’t). Do Kyung’s turmoil over being the one to kill Joon Young was also insanely stupid. If he’s so torn up abut being the one who kills the woman he loves then just…don’t. Is it really that hard? The show didn’t make any sort of claim that now that Do Kyung had started down this path that he needed to kill Joon Young in order to carry out his revenge. He just did it to mess with Tae Pyung. And he wanted to mess with Tae Pyung because of something that happened when they were children. Like, seriously dude, get a grip. Do Kyung’s hypocrisy was also a huge barrier that prevented him from being a character that you could pity. While his situation was horrible, and no child should have to go through that, it also didn’t justify anything he did. Being branded as a murderer’s son doesn’t magically allow you to do horrible things and get a pass for them.

Shouldn't his revenge centre on the cop who falsified evidence and not some random kid from an orphanage? 

Just because a reporter took photos of you and your Mum being harassed because of a false accusation, doesn’t mean you can go and kill that reporter’s daughter and get off without any consequences. Do Kyung kept calling Reporter Lee and Tae Pyung murderers to insult them and defend his actions towards them, but it was like- mate…they have killed no one and you have literally killed four people with your own hands, so who’s the real murderer here? It was super frustrating and didn’t make him a villain that was engaging, nor a villain that furthered the plot. It was a huge downside of this drama that Do Kyung’s character and motivations were written so sloppily, as really these aspects were supposed to be the central part of the show.

Recommend?

Nope- watch something else.

Oh, well it was all bad. Still wouldn't recommend it though.