[HanCinema's Drama Review] "The Girl Who Sees Smells" Episode 12

The cliffhanger last time and the cliffhanger this time are for the most part the exact same cliffhanger. "The Girl Who Sees Smells" is having difficulty justifying its running time at this point. Even under the most charitable interpretation by all rights Jae-hee really should have been caught by now. Moo-gak actually manages to catch Jae-hee committing an explicit crime- at the very least there should be probable cause for a warrant. And a cursory investigation of Jae-hee's cellar would quickly reveal the existence of the books, and then it's game over.

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Yes, I am aware of the fact that this is the exact same opening paragraph from my last review. If "The Girl Who Sees Smells" is determined to be as repetitive as possible, then why should I be any different? The one minor change this time around is that the police monetarily act somewhat competently. Emphasis on somewhat. Since when do police need permission to enter someone's home if they think a crime has been committed?

From a screenwriting perspective (the only perspective by which anything in this drama makes sense), this is done so that Jae-hee can quickly cover up more evidence. The problem with this is that there are in fact two records of the conversation- and one might think that Cho-rim would ask her father why he sent that message. Well, actually, not really, because no one in "The Girl Who Sees Smells" ever thinks to actually talk to each other about anything.

This makes the situation with Moo-gak and Cho-rim irritating as well, because Moo-gak's arguments only have the semblance of credibility because the writing in this drama is always turning itself into knots giving Jae-hee every possible advantage. I wasn't expecting his habit of doodling to be relevant- I wasn't even sure why he was bothering to do that until by sheer dumb luck it manages to save him once again.

That's the larger issue I have with "The Girl Who Sees Smells", is that I already know how it's going to end. One of these days, instead of getting another arbitrary advantage courtesy of the screenplay, Jae-hee's entire scheme is going to be unraveled because these writing tricks are going to stop showing up to magically save him. My very low hope at this point is that the cliffhanger this time is going to be resolved in a way that's not infuriatingly stupid. I'm not very optimistic as far as that goes.

Review by William Schwartz

"The Girl Who Sees Smells" is directed by Baek Soo-chan, written by Lee Hee-myeong and features Park Yoo-chun, Shin Se-kyung, Namkoong Min, Yoon Jin-seo, Kim So-hyun, Choi Tae-joon, and more.

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