Boiseu

Maybe I'm being a little unfair, but I started watching this coming off the back of Stranger (Bimilui Soop) which is really very good and fancied watching another Korean series.

I like the cast and some of the stories within the main arc are pretty cool. But as others have said, the decisions made by the Golden Time Team can be really dumb. They seem to spend a crazy amount of time listening, watching, before actually doing! They display the time onscreen since the calls came in, which seems redundant when they are so slow to respond.

Also, unlike Stranger, the cops seem to carry guns more often (in Stranger they always seemed to have tasers) yet seem like they really don't want to use them at all, as they would rather wave them around than actually shoot them.

And yet......I must admit I'm enjoying it and its cheesiness. The cast are good enough to keep me watching, as are some of the contained stories.

Just goes to show how important a script is. You can have good actors, and a good story with appropriate twists and cliffhangers. But the captions have got to go. I understand that it's incredibly complicated to try and convey the depth of what is happening in bite-size captions, especially with cultural and linguistical differences. But...really ? Almost every interaction between characters goes something like this: Character 1-"The suspect is in the alley"...Character 2-"So...what you're saying is that the suspect is in the alley?" I'm 5 episodes in and it just continues and continues. Quite maddening. Decently entertaining otherwise.

I thought the series got off to a sluggish start-the wife of a police officer is stalked and killed by a smooth-talking, elegant killer armed with a sort of ball peen hammer and the story drags while the officer grieves. Then, the authorities think they have the culprit, but another (female) officer-a call centre operative-claims the voice of the suspect does NOT match her recollection. Thus, we encounter the unique 'hitch' of this show: this girl has amazing hearing, a skill she has developed diligently. As work begins on other cases, this 'gift' plays a big part, and we suspect one day, she will identify the voice of our mysterious serial killer with the 'slugging device'.

The series contains forensic errors, and some unexplained plot elements, which savvy viewers in the Western Hemisphere will detect easily, but the gifted call Center Officer & the cop with the murdered wife, and their new team, combine for suspenseful episodes, if you stick with it. This 'gifted faculty' thing is catching on: we have Monk with his obsessive-compulsive attention to details; Sniffer, a Russian crime series with a human bloodhound; and the defunct LIE To ME about a human lie detector. It all makes for fun if you suspend your belief a bit. It all started with Sherlock Holmes, you know, in Victorian England, and his gift of observation & deduction.

So, despite its faults, and some grisly moments when the mysterious killer strikes, we are going to wait this one out TIL our gifted girl nails the bad guy.

The trailer was promising but at the end I must say it was a disappointment. So many things that are unrealistic: Emergency call center, code zero, everybody would know what their job is but they wait to get orders from the female main character to track a mobile or a car? - One person drives within a few minutes from one crime scene, to a press conference to a 2nd crime scene and the local forces arrive at the same time or even later - one gets within three minutes to a crime scene, the other detective hasn't even left the police station in the same time - sometimes they need to press on the micro to talk and sometimes not - very slow reaction time, they wait at their desk for all the information and then run to their car, or they discuss instead of trying to find the victim, really? - and who would only walk around a corner or go into the interrogation room to make a confidential phone call? etc. I know it's TV but serious it's annyoing when they make such unrealistic scenes.

The show isn't perfect but it's really entertaining. I think that's the main idea of every show. Don't compare the show to CSI or anything like that, because this is different. Season 1 has some really good episodes. Don't focus on the details and just enjoy the show.