[HanCinema's Drama Review] "The Girl Who Sees Smells" Episode 8

The focus this time is more completely on the serial murder investigation- unfortunately. Part of the problem with giving Jae-hee improbably effective crime-committing superpowers is that I start to wonder why he doesn't use them more consistently. The man can take advantage of all sorts of information he stumbles across by accident- yet he can't be bothered to remembered how to stab a person in the vitals? Isn't he a chef? Isn't this, like, the one thing he would have an actual logical reason to know?

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From a narrative perspective, of course, the reason why Jae-hee can't kill Moo-gak is because Moo-gak is the main character and if he dies we don't have a drama anymore. It's for this reason that "The Girl Who Sees Smells" ends up being another case of a drama that's technically well-written, in that it's been properly storyboarded, but the logic is just irrational enough that the suspension of willing disbelief ends up being broken.

Just as one example- the cops realize this episode that the crimes are committed using a large car that can carry other cars. This explains why Jae-hee is able to move about unimpeded. But this information should also make it very easy to identify possible suspects. The only people who own cars that size run transportation services. Even if the license plate is fake there's a very good chance that all of the vehicles in the city can be accounted for except for the one Jae-hee happens to own.

But then that's another one of Jae-hee's powers- the ability to purchase goods and services without leaving a paper trail. This would make sense if Jae-hee just paid in cash but he doesn't, because then people would recognize his face. And somewhat inexplicably, the people who do recognize him are just plain not suspicious because...I guess he's a celebrity? Bear in mind that the reason a celebrity would be less suspicious is because their movements tend to be well-documented. Which Jae-hee's rather obviously are not.

"The Girl Who Sees Smells" does have some strong points- the title character, for one, and the concept, as well as the general romance. It's unfortunate that a near-death situation is necessary for Cho-rim to get closer to Moo-gak but, well, it certainly could have been handled worse. The lead actors continue to look cute together. Unfortunately the mystery plot is just making me increasingly mad at this point, and we're not even halfway through. I can't think of any way the drama can continue to have Jae-hee out in the open without just resorting to more contrivances.

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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