[HanCinema's Drama Review] "Hello Monster" Episode 6

Apparently enough clues have surfaced that Hyeon has bee able to identify the true culprit behind the cases we've seen to date. It certainly didn't seem that way to me, but then I'm not a genius criminal investigator. And as per Hyeon's usual disregard of proper narrative structure, his explanation of how he unraveled the mystery comes at the beginning of he episode rather than the end. The true villain begrudgingly gives Hyeon a few more inexplicable clues before making a quick getaway.

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From a meta-standpoint analyzing "Hello Monster" has quickly turned into an exercise in absolute befuddlement. Now the fact that the crimes appear to have direct parallels to Hyeon's backstory and personality doesn't seem like a coincidence beget by scriptwriting. Rather, the implication now is that there's some kind of insanely elaborate plan going on in the background and these crimes are being provoked under the explicit assumption that Hyeon is going to solve them somehow.

And where does that leave the actual cops? Well...slowly picking up the pieces in the background mostly. While Hyeon is so busy being analytical he seems genuinely oblivious to the nasty looking blood stains that pop up all over his body, Ji-an and and friends struggle just trying to keep up with Hyeon's class- let alone provide anything more directly useful to the plot. Even little Hyeon and little Ji-an have the exact same dynamic, where Ji-an's the one who acts like she's the protagonist in the story even though Hyeon is the one with the skills necessary to actually solve these mysteries.

I'm a little fuzzy sometimes trying to remember what actually happened in any given episode of "Hello Monster" after the fact. But the drama has this really rewarding quality of making more sense the more thought I put into it. I can't tell whether this is because "Hello Monster" is genuinely a good drama or whether it just manages to avoid being a particularly bad drama. It's just pretty strange for a show to be at its most entertaining when I'm not actually watching it.

At the very least "Hello Monster" benefits a lot from a very consistent tone. The cast is quite good, and I especially like how Hyeon and Ji-an are just as confused about their repartee as I am. Usually when a couple asks the question "why are we even hanginging out together", the response is to split up, not to continue hanging out together. Even as their relationship lacks much adrenaline Hyeon and Ji-an are always just one music cue away from mystery time.

Review by William Schwartz

"Hello Monster" is directed by Kim Jin-won-I and No Sang-hoon, written by Kwon Ki-yeong and features Seo In-guk, Jang Nara, Choi Won-young, Lee Chun-hee, Park Bo-gum, Min Sung-wook and more.

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