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Suspicious Partner (2017)


A clever combination of characters and actors, well-constructed juxtaposition of comedy and serious court cases, strong leads Nam Ji-hyun (Bong-hee) and Ji Chang-wook (Ji-wook), and a compelling main villain (Dong Ha playing Hyun-soo) make this very entertaining.



Ji-wook’s law firm team is hilarious trying to work together.  It is so funny how Mr Bang refers to Eun-hyuk (Choi Tae-joon) and Ji-wook’s adoptive father Mr Byun (Lee Deok-hwa) as his children!  Throwing Bong-hee in the mix makes the group even funnier and the little boy Jae-hong (Kim Ye-jun) sitting in their meetings is the icing on the cake.



Realising that Hyun-soo is a serial murderer makes him creepier and creepier as the episodes go by.  Dong Ha does an excellent job in this role.  I don’t think I felt much sympathy for him, which some people did, but you could understand how he turned out this way.


when the murderer is a mild, friendly kind of guy

when the murderer in him comes to the fore

Ji-hyun is a natural comic and was just 21 when she did this show – very impressive!  It was my first time watching Ji Chang-wook and Choi Tae-joon (without realising then that he is the one who married Park Shin-hye!), who are both also very competent actors and well-suited for comedy.  The weak link for me was Kwon Nara, acting flatly as the very flat character Yoo-jung.  I could not see how Eun-hyuk could like her for so many years.  Ji-hae is a far more interesting character, much better played by Kim Ye-won, and should have won the mini battle for Eun-hyuk.  


cute how the girls end up based in Ji-hae's apartment


I liked how the friendship theme came through the four guys, who were funny, supportive, loyal and sensitive to each other’s worries and needs. Excellent job there!  



There were many funny scenes and my favourite one was when Bong-hee tells Ji-wook that she heard someone whistling the eerie ‘murderer’s tune’, as I will call it, then whistles it so poorly he cannot make it out!


who's whistling that tune??


whee...whee...whee...

 

this is a tune?


Now for my questions about some legal aspects of the show:

- It is okay for ladies to wear ‘formal’ shorts to work as a prosecutor?

- How could the District Attorney get away with so many illegal actions – false accusations of Bong-hee’s father, manipulation of the young Ji-wook, releasing the group of rapists who were influential people’s sons, and planting evidence to incriminate Bong-hee? Anyone could tell that Bong-hee was innocent so why did everyone keep saying she killed his son?  Just because of his amateurish piece of ‘evidence’?

- How can Ji-wook prosecute his former intern (Bong-hee), and the guy whom he had previously defended as a lawyer and who later stabbed both him and Mr Bang (Hyun-soo)?  Surely there is too conflict of interest here?

 

Apart from making one scratch one’s head over the laxity of the legal system, this is a very amusing and intriguing show.



20 episodes, SBS

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