It's been a long time since I've written any reviews, but it's about time I got back into writing them.
Have you watched a preview or trailer for something you were excited about only to end up being disappointed with the end product? I'm sure many of you have just like me. The K2 is one of those dramas that have a good premise but poor execution which ends up leaving you dissatisfied and disappointed.
The plot of the drama sounds simple enough: A soldier with a tragic past becomes the bodyguard of a presidential candidate's wife as well as the candidate's daughter. Not the most original story, but still it sounds like it'll be interesting enough to keep you entertained. The problem arises with the execution. As soon as romance is thrown into the mix it just starts to mess everything up. Now I love romance dramas. They're my most preferred genre when it comes to K-Dramas. But the majority of the times, romance doesn't work very well in a drama that's clearly marketed toward the Action/Thriller genre. And the romance part of the drama definitely suffered and we're left with a half-assed, rushed love story.
Between Je Ha and Anna (the main pairing), you can see from Anna's perspective why she falls in love with Je Ha. He's handsome, a gentlemen, he can fight, saves her life and protects her countless times, and overall he's her Knight in a Secret Service suit. So of course you can see why she falls in love. But from Je Ha's perspective, you're left wondering "What does he see in her?". Yeah she's pretty, but she's also your typical damsel in distress. Now I have nothing against damsel in distress characters but when they're utterly useless is when I do have a problem with them. Sadly, Anna is one of those useless types of damsels in distress. Knowing and seeing that for myself with the drama, I just came to the conclusion that Je Ha loves Anna more out of pity than anything else, and like many have said on this site, the chemistry just isn't there.
But moving on to the real star (stealer) of this show is actress Song Yoon Ah who plays Madam Choi Yoo Jin, the wife of the adulterous presidential candidate Jang Se Joon. I remember reading an article on a writing site with a title along the lines of "Protagonist and Main Character... Same Person?". To summarize, we always use the titles Protagonist and Main Character to mean the same thing. But there are many times where the Main Character isn't the Protagonist. In the case of The K2, yes the drama is named after Je Ha's codename, and yes he is the main character, but the story isn't about him. With Je Ha, sometimes you end up forgetting why he's even there to begin with. He also doesn't develop much at all as a character. He remains the same from beginning to end.
The story is really about Choi Yoo Jin. Choi Yoo Jin is the one who drives the plot. She's the main catalyst that pushes the story forward whereas Je Ha is just the guy that gets caught in the middle of a political war between two corrupt politicians. With Choi Yoo Jin we learn about her past, what drives her for wanting to become the First Lady of Korea, why she puts up with her sleazebag of a husband, her little schemes/plots to deal with the competition etc. She dances between the lines of good and evil making you wonder if she's really bad enough to be the villain. If she really was the villain of the story that the creators intended for her to be then they did a piss poor job of making me hate her. That's one of the biggest sins a writer can commit which is making you root more for the "villain" than for the hero. I love the character of Choi Yoo Jin. If it wasn't for her charisma and beauty I probably would've dropped this drama. Song Yoon Ah definitely deserves all of the praise she gets for her portrayal of the Madam.
One of my other biggest gripes about this drama is the action scenes. Many of them just dragged on and overstayed their welcome. It also didn't help that there was constant shaky cam and fast jump cuts that can easily disorient you, or for others it'll give them motion sickness. I despise that with modern day action/fight scenes. Man do I miss the days of Jackie Chan's 80s and 90s action films where you can actually appreciate the fight scenes without getting a headache.
Plenty of plot twists to look forward too as well. Some shocking and others just plain stupid that completely ruined the flow of the story. The music was pretty great. Especially the instrumentals.
Overall this drama could've been way better than it turned out to be if it was given more time and episodes.
I didn't intend to make this review so long but I had a lot to say. If you enjoyed this review then great. If you didn't then that's fine too.
Like I always say, watch the drama for yourself and make your own judgement.
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