Mad Dog

Following the death of his wife and son in a plane crash Choi Kang-woo, former leader of Taeyang Insurance's investigators team, sets up his own team, called 'Mad Dog' that will investigate fraudsters using methods that bend the law somewhat. Two years later he crosses paths with Kim Min-joon, a former fraudster whose brother was the pilot who had according to official reports deliberately crashed the plane. Min-joon believes his brother was innocent and wants Mad Dog to help uncover the truth. Initially they don't trust him but soon they uncover evidence that something is wrong at the airline and insurance company; something certain individuals will go to great lengths to keep secret.

This was a really enjoyable series. There was a good sense of drama, plenty of twists and turns and a real sense of danger at times. There was also plenty of humour which was unforced and didn't get in the way of the story. The 'Mad Dog' team was full of fun and varied characters. The villains are suitably villainous... if airline vice president Joo Hyun-gi had a moustache I'm sure he'd have twirled it! Instead he made do with wearing his tie in a peculiar way. There is lots of scheming as our protagonists work to uncover the truth and the villains seek to hide it or shift the blame onto somebody else. The cast is solid bringing some humour to their roles without getting silly. Overall a solid series that is well worth watching.

These comments are based on watching the series in Korean with English subtitles.

The story is lengthy and complicated - I think this worked against it because there were far too many characters with small parts to keep track of.

Kang-Woo is an insurance investigator until his wife and child are killed in a plane crash. He then leaves the company and starts one of his own - Mad Dog.

He is joined in this friends, Cheetah, an ex con, Noo-ri, a genius hacker type young man and Ha-ri, a young woman who has been in love with him for a while it seems. Later they are joined by Min-joon - a somewhat arrogant young man seeking to prove that his pilot brother did not commit suicide thus bringing down the plane deliberately and killing many on board.

This part is played by Do-Hwan, and the major reason I kept watching such a convoluted story. Of course there is a major villain played by the excellent. Choi Won - Young. I have to say I prefer him as a goodie, but no goodie would wear a tie in the half in half out of the collar style as he did here - one wonders at what goes on in the heads of designers - and what doesn't go on in the heads of those that wear their efforts. But then South Korean fashions - particularly for women and bizarre beyond belief.

The series is too long at sixteen episodes and the interest is not really maintained when our five intrepid heroes are off screen.

Particularly Do Hwan - or did I mention that !!

Worth a watch - but it does sag in the middle.

I grew quite fond of Korean crime genre. They tend to provide excellent stories with complicated intertwining plot. What I love about this genre is the never ending give and take and creative schemes from both the fighting parties. Mad Dog is all that and more with shocking reveals and hints of romance between Woo Do-Hwan and Ryu Hwa-young, who really was the undeniable beauty of this series. The ending was really good and a great way to end the series on a satisfying and fulfilling note. It was really cool to watch. A must watch!!!

This series is driven by the machinations of 3 baddies, who successfully keep the heroes and ourselves guessing. In particular, Choi Won-young was very good value.

It is a shame, then, that the goodies did not achieve the same success. Although I have seen the actors playing them elsewhere and appreciate their talents, these did not gel in this series. This may be because the writers were more concerned with sparky dialogue than with believable characters and relationships that you can invest in.

As a result it was sometimes hard to maintain the level of interest necessary to follow the convoluted plot.

Nevertheless I have decided that that is better than a score of 5. It's not scintillating but I did stick with it until the end and do not regret doing so.

This feels exactly like 2017 kdrama, and if you are fan of kdrama you understand what I mean. Current dramas have increased HUGELY their quality since 2018/2019 and they keep getting better and better.

Its good enough and entertaining but you can see the twists and plots a bit earlier than they actually happen. Low budget script with many holes but good enough for you to overlook them.

Woo Do-Hwan is an amazing actor ( he is also extremely hot in this) and I adored him on Tempted, The King and My Country and I thought his performances there were too notch ( specially The kings double character which he nailed) but maybe this drama because its an earlier one i can seem to see owning his character, maybe im overthinking it but i see many expression that doesn't seem natural.

Rest of the cast is good and experienced, the only ones I have seen little about are the two younger secondary leads from their team.

I think this is okay for an afternoon where you don't know what to watch and this will do the job but there's too many good thrilling crime dramas better than this one.