La-i-peu on Ma-seu

'Life on Mars' is a series that deals with horrible crimes especially against women. I surely understand that there will be some scenes that would make me uncomfortable. Lots of rape and killing scenes. However, the same scenes are repeated in multiple episodes, especially the most brutal parts as flashbacks. The close ups of panties or inner parts of the legs stand out. The director has no empathy towards the victims while the main characters show some respect for the dead. Jung-Hyo Lee should be ashamed that he treats female victims just as dead bodies.

Women are hit so many freaking times. Okay, I will try my best to put myself in the director's shoes. 'It's the 80s, and that's what happened in the 80s in Korea.' My answer is that I got it the first time Officer Yoon was slapped in the face. Officer Yoon, victims, and witnesses all get slapped at least once in every episode. More absurd things happen after they get hit. Not one character really cares or points out there's something wrong with it. They are just observers of women hitters, and the show goes on as if nothing happened. This is what Korea is like in the 2010s as well? The series is based on the 1980s, but the audience is living a life in the 2010s.

How Jung-Hyo Lee utilizes actresses in the series is disgusting. Officer Yoon solves almost all the cases, finding the most crucial clue and presenting impeccable research, not Han Tae-joo. She does not get the recognition she deserves IN the story or OFF the camera. As a character, she remains serving coffees to co-workers till the last episode. As an actress, she is used as a prop to 'explain' the details of the crime rather than to actually 'show' her doing police work or taking initiative. Director Lee loves to show the skin of actresses unnecessarily. In the last episode, when prosecutor Jung tries to get out of the media crowd, her blouse rips, and the camera zooms in her spaghetti sleeves and shoulders (again), and it's freaking creepy. Even without that particular scene, the high level of attention from the media is already delivered to the audience.

Is the series well-made if it does not have aforementioned problems? Not really. Plot organization is amateur. I stayed on watching till the episode because I wanted to know the ending of the present time of Han Tae-joo. The process of getting there is painful to watch. If this is how the police procedure worked in the 80s, South Korea would be a cesspool of crime by now. The plot development is crude and has many holes. The pacing is slow and elongated. 'Signal' wannabe, and it failed miserably.

I will never forget the characters especially kang dong chul

Overall it's a good series and I really hope it end well but its quite disappointing. The acting for the main character was amazingly done. And I really hope that season 2 will come but maybe it will not happen.

I thought it was good that the show brought up the difference in how women were treated in Korea 30 years ago. I know that Korea is still a very patriarchal society, and so much so that it drives a lot of Korean women to leave the country, and seems to be very big part of the reason for the abysmal birth rate of Korea (2nd lowest in the world). It also seems like a lot of effort was spent on recreating the Korea of 30 years ago. A big part of the charm of such a show is seeing how things have changed. It seems that from similar shows that take place in the current ear, things have changed a lot.

But not sure it this is so representative since 1988 is right after the constitution reform which followed decades of being under a fairly repressive dictatorship, and I would sort of expect a lot of repercussions from the change, and it does not seem like this is so evident in this series.

I am American, so not familiar with what Korea was 30 years ago. However, there is one fact I was able to check up on, and that was smoking. In 2000 it was about 35%, vs about 20% today, and at that point it was already in a steep decline. That would indicate that it had to be somewhere in the 50% range in 1988, and so few men probably did not smoke--And we see no smoking. See modern Korean series with lots of smoking, which I think it probably excessive, and none in this series. Too bad they did not try to do more to make it truly.

Life on Mars has a solid story, however it doesn't really deliver in the end, though the serial killer story was intense at the begining. The small cases that took place and created the puzzle of the main story, the relationship between the members of the police team and the performances, were the highlights of the series. Especially the cases were really interesting and entertaining. The bromance and the dynamics of the team were so good that I'm wishing that there would be a second season, taking that epilogue in mind and the fact that they didn't really explained why he went back in time and how. But overall, it was enjoyable.