Like many others, I’ve had lots of opportunities to catch up on entertainment on Netflix while waiting out the circuit breaker period in Singapore. I mean, how many meals can one cook in a day? And one Zumba session daily is enough for me. In between, there’s work, family time, and Netflix.
It’s been a case of exploring the multitude of Netflix offerings and I’ve managed to go through a few series, mostly K-dramas including the must watch Crash Landing on You. While my preferred fix is period dramas, there seems to be a dearth of them recently. I turned my attention to other genres and stumbled on a series called Live.
Live is about the lives of police officers, centring mainly on a group of rookies who were mentored by patrol officers and led by their superiors in Hongil Patrol Division. Each character has a story to tell and their stories are so real that I would give this series a five-star rating.
Here are five reasons why I think they are good:
- Relatable characters. Live does not feature renowned stars or even eye-candy celebrities. Instead, its line-up comprises support and relatively unknown actors. Main lead Lee Kwang Soo is probably the most familiar face because of his height and role in the highly popular Running Man series. Perhaps its because of the lack of star power that makes the show’s characters so relatable. Their struggles with getting a job, staying in the job, finance, and relationships are so down-to-earth real.
- Great acting. The cast more than made up for being not eye-catching with their looks with their great acting. They portrayed their joy and pain, ecstacy and heartache so well that I feel like joining in their triumphs and suffering together in their defeats.
- Excellent story line. The stories deal with societal issues and major challenges facing the police force in Korea. This includes political interference, abuse of police, and the constant need to keep up a good public image.
- Simple romance. Instead of typical lengthy love triangles that seem to be the mainstay of every Korean drama, there’s only one and it did not last long. It’s just enough to show that relationships can develop while working together, yet not so draggy that the outcome is only discovered in the last episode.
- Well edited. The series is well edited with each episode starting with a little more background than the end of the last. While this technique has been applied in some other recent series, this is done really well in Live.
According to AGB Nielson, viewership grew from 4.337 percent in the first episode to 7.730 percent in the last with an average of 5.798 percent.
This 2018 series is one that grows on you. Its characters, the plot and the realism of police life outside the glitz and glamour make this a sleeper hit for me. It’s well worth binging on!
101reasons.blog 