[HanCinema's Drama Review] "Military Prosecutor Doberman" Episode 2

Prosecutor Cha used to just be Woo-in, the namesake of a famous defense corporation. But now her identity is being hidden for reasons unknown. What we do know is why Prosecutor Cha put on a wig and sunglasses to beat up a whole a lot co-conspirators in a sex crime. Apparently she personally knows Se-na (played by Yoo Hye-in), the poor young woman who was lured up to their room and gave the popular singer Allen (played by Park Sang-nam) a mild gash on his face.

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And right there "Military Prosecutor Doberman" takes a pretty big step backwards when it comes to its own mystery. Prosecutor Cha being motivated by justice for a rape victim isn't a particularly interesting motivation, especially when her even knowing Se-na at all is presented as a mostly random coincidence. What's of considerably more interest is that she must be working for somebody. Yet the fact that Prosecutor Cha kidnapped half a dozen guys and is apparently keeping them in a garage somewhere is played off so nonchalantly as to practically be comedic.

The plot as it relates to Prosecutor Doh isn't much better. An incredibly clumsy information dump from his first scene here actually leaves me more confused about the crime he's investigating than I was before. What I especially don't get is what any of the story right now has to do with military police. The only crimes they can investigate are ones involving the military, and I'm not sure the military has anything to do with any of the crimes we've seen so far.

They certainly don't have anything to do with Allen, who we're explicitly told received an exemption from his mandatory military service. I likewise felt rather disoriented at how our presumed villain, CEO No (played by Kim Woo-seok) is portrayed. It took me way too long to figure out that he was even supposed to have a job. CEO No has no apparent responsibilities aside from menacing young women alongside his pop star friends.

Maybe later episodes will better explain what exactly is going on with this backstory, but by and large the second episode killed almost all of the intrigue that the first one inspired. I noted the climax as particularly irritating. Not only does it feature our heroes winning a rather improbably staged street fight, it concludes with Prosecutor Cha's carefully crafted disguise being discovered practically at random. That's just sloppy.

Review by William Schwartz

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"Military Prosecutor Doberman" is directed by Jin Chang-gyoo, written by Yoon Hyeon-ho, and features Ahn Bo-hyun, Jo Bo-ah, Oh Yeon-soo, Kim Young-min, Kim Woo-seok, Kang Mal-geum. Broadcasting information in Korea: 2022/02/28~Now airing, Mon, Tue 22:30 on tvN.