They say a story is only as good as its villain.

For me, this is usually the case.

And the way to make a villain GREAT is by making them scary, because if a villain is not convincing the hero's conflict has the risk of becoming bland.

The reason we love a villain like Voice season 1, or Remember, is because we see with our own how RUTHLESS he is.

The second reason these villain's work so well is because they're not just side characters but an integral part of the story. They're given convincing back stories. They are not one dimensional.

That's how you raise the stakes.

As opposed to this kind of story telling Watcher takes the less interesting route. The perceived  danger their villain possesses just doesn't seem devastating enough so it becomes a mediocre story. And anyone could be the villain so the villain is very much one dimensional and their so called origin stories seem petty and ridiculous. 

In fact, pretty much everyone in this drama does things, that are morally WRONG, from planting evidence, to choosing a loved one to be tortured, to using a young boy's traumatic event to distort the facts but why they did it, their justification is just as petty and as ridiculous as the bad guys.

So why did I still like it?

Because of that one scene where Han Suk Kyu stands in front of the mirror and starts fixing his hair.

That. Was. Brilliant.

There were many such allusions to the Nietzsche style nihilism and I feel like that's what they should have done more of instead of falling into the trap of becoming a rather typical storyline.

And also I'm not sure if anyone noticed that Watchers is also the word for nephilim, the fallen, and they were also 'Giants' a word frequently alluded to in the script. And that's why the main characters were all 'fallen from grace' type characters.

I don't know if this last episode was second season fodder but I guess I'll try it for sure but I'm not exactly waiting for it tbh it just wasn't that good but it is entertaining.