To sum up Heartless City, it is a combination of Infernal Affairs, Shawshank Redemption and maybe CSI. The story is well crafted and tightly written to keep you on your toes. There are so many twists in the story that keep you hooked, and I mean HOOKED, to the show. Facades are slowly peeled back to reveal the relationships and connections between the characters through secret conversations and flashbacks that tease the real story, layer by layer. Utterly fascinating and addictive. It’s no wonder that the writer spent 6 years perfecting the script. As a general theme, it is difficult to pinpoint any one character being the hero. There are no heroes, no one emerges blameless. Everyone perpetrates a wrongdoing in some way. This is what I really like about the story. What stops me from calling this a perfect show is the middle part of it - about episodes 11-15 - during which the story did not develop much. There’s probably at least 2 episodes’ worth of wasted story. The good point about this show also becomes a flaw later on. Loyalties and alliances that keep shifting and changing are only interesting up to a point. After a while they become tiring to follow (that’s what I felt). Perhaps that's just me being lazy. I like that the love affair is not the central relationship in the show, which gives good time to the other relationships in the story - the sisterly relationship between Jin Sook and Soo Min, the brotherly relationship between Soo and Shi Hyun, the father-son relationship between Hyung Min and Commissioner Ji, etc. I also like the ending. Jung Kyung Ho is, no doubt, the star of the show. I noticed him from the show Smile, You in which he played such a cheery character that it was hard to imagine him playing such a fiery, smouldering bada**. I’ve never liked Nam Gyuri - I always found her look too plastic and thus restricting her ability to emote. However, the transformation she makes as a character is interesting to watch. Even though I didn’t like her face (literally), I think she does a decent job, though I would have preferred a more established actress to portray the character. I have never seen any of Lee Jae Yoon’s shows before. I think he did a pretty decent job. The soundtrack is pretty exciting and sexy. All in all, a good, serious and heavy watch.