Ramnagel
Joined Mar 1999
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Ramnagel's rating
This is an excellent movie about a true serial killer case, the first in fact, in South Korea's official history of such things. The period is 1986 about, which is significant for a couple of reasons. There must have been serial killers there before. And that is significant because it is a reflection on the lack of police competence in that country prior to that date. In fact, one of the most interesting aspects of the movie for a Westerner is how squalid and brutal South Korean society and people could be. The binge drinking and violent drunken behaviour, the brutal torture of "suspects" to extract "confessions", the rundown and squalid aspect of buildings and people's homes, the poverty and lack of education. It is a far cry from the view Westerners have today of shiny modern South Korea, which has undergone impressive economic growth and revival since then. Secondly, it is significant for realising that DNA testing and modern forensics were not not widely available in the eighties. Which made forensic serial killer cases really challenging.
Overall, the story, the acting, the characters, the humour, the horror of it all... were totally worth watching.
Overall, the story, the acting, the characters, the humour, the horror of it all... were totally worth watching.
The show Better Off Ted did this sort of comedy way better. That show's jokes were way funnier, the "neurodivergent" characters did not seem politically correct and forced, which is the case with Unstable. In essence, though the Unstable was OK, it did unfortunately suffer from a bit of preachy political correctness, which limited the scope of its humour and wackiness. When will people learn that "educating" your audience in your particular take on social politics is tiresome? It comes across as a sort of heavy-handed condescension. People can figure out those things for themselves and do not need to be constantly spoonfed little lessons, thank you very much. Better Off Ted is a classic because the show writers understood this.
Unfortunately, after a strong first season, the show became increasingly infantalized. Little moral, goody-two-shoes lessons for children became frequent and saccharine to the extreme. Costumes made the kids merely look like kids wearing bad outfits. The story was dumbed down to the point it became embarrassing. The proposed scientific "solution" by the "bad guys" contained zero scientific reasoning. When it comes to solving a deadly viral pandemic, or even discussing it, one expects some science and virology to be involved! But no, the bad guys were just plain bad and very comfortable that their plan was justified by kindergarten-level words and reasoning. The final season was deeply unsatisfying, I'm sorry to say. It was no better than a weak Santa fairytale. Perhaps the story worked better in the comic book medium.