[HanCinema's Drama Review] "Masked Prosecutor" Episode 12

"Masked Prosecutor" is getting desperate. It'll pulling out all of the stops and taking a gamble, which unfortunately hasn't worked out for the best. The romantic scenes are quite adorable, but a lot of the deeper emotional material misses the mark.

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A lot of it - but not all of it. Sang-taek is quickly becoming a favorite because his story is rich. His personality and his deeds are less than admirable, but the dilemmas he faces are present and real. While a detestable person, he has a father's love for both of his daughter's, and that makes him a character that a viewer can invest in. The show focuses a lot on the interactions between Sang-taek and Min-hee, but little do we see Min-hee truly trying to come to terms with her terrifying conception and sad birth. She'll mull over a recent conversation, but not with her situation in general. Only for an episode did it plague her. Unlike Dae-cheol's situation that drives him, Min-hee's doesn't correspond well with her behavior and gets lost depending upon the scene. It's as though the writer only makes her troubled when it suits the plot.

While the romantic interactions give the show some desperately needed levity, the tropes and the stereotypical K-drama plot bog it down. Not one trope is subverted or used cleverly. It's used cheaply to increase tension, like Min-hee pushing the masked Dae-cheol away when it would clearly be smarter to inform him of the situation at hand. Or having Ri-na attempt to step in romantically after eleven episodes of near romantic inactivity.

As for Dae-cheol's family, his mother and half-brother Hyun-woong, they have been mishandled. His mother was so hard to read and now she wants her son, but also wants to keep the lifestyle that she cruelly sacrificed him for. I suppose it makes her selfish, but the path her character took to arrive to this point has been quite convoluted. Like her, like Ri-na, Hyun-woong has been underdeveloped so the conclusion of this episode not only came as a surprise, it had no real basis in any previous behavior. He had a hardened face and felt stifled, but the explosion of violence Hyun-woong displayed did not fit him. Where was the buildup? Was it to be inferred by a few drinking sessions and a few stony faces?

I think it will be Sang-taek who will take "Masked Prosecutor" to its end. He's turned out to be such a rich character. Hopefully my predictions will be correct.

Written by: Raine from 'Raine's Dichotomy'

Follow @ raine0211

"Masked Prosecutor" is directed by Jeon San, written by Choi Jin-won, and features Joo Sang-wook, Kim Sun-a, Uhm Ki-joon, and Jun Kwang-ryul.

 

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