Okay Kill It I find myself wanting to write more words on you than initially intended.
I like how every time bad endings happen I feel the need to write several thousand words proving that kdrama writers are incompetent at their jobs, even for the most mundane of dramas, instead of just yaknow, accepting it and moving on. Like we know Sic. We know they suck. We don’t need another 2000 word essay on it. “But yes yes you do!”- my subconscious probably says. *smh*
Anyway. Splitting this up as much as possible so that @mary doesn’t kill me again for breaking dramabeans. If you’d rather read it as a google doc, un-split, you can do that here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/19vMUpzH9LAAOtJ-Kwa2exivuGuujDMf3EeOqlVbUzFs/edit?usp=sharing

Kill It Final Review

First of all- more dramas should be twelve episodes. ESPECIALLY actions and thrillers. I’m so glad this was made as a 12 episoder. If it were 16 it would’ve dragged, I would’ve got bored, and nobody would’ve been happy and this would be more ranty. But it wasn’t and it didn’t which is somewhat amazing. Seriously I wish more shows would choose this format because over half the 16 episoders I have watched start to drag in the last quarter cos their story isn’t long enough for that many episodes (that or their writing and structure is just shit, and in reality its probably both of these and). Many 20 episoders face the same problem and should be 16 episoders. I think the only 16 episode show I have wished was longer was Radiant Office and that’s because it could’ve been 30 episodes and I wouldn’t have been bored. Hello slice of life done correctly. But I digress.

This show had a rough start. It was all over the place, the editing was weird, the directing was weird, the characters were jarring (that’s putting it nicely), the plot made no sense and seemed too convoluted. However I think it did find its feet after about episode 5 or 6, and definitely by episode 7. It settled down on the ridiculousness, and I thought for the most part the ending half was well paced and structured. I knew what was happening, each episode actually made sense and wasn’t all over the place, and was ordered in a way that had really important emotional bits to forward the character arcs and the plot, but also had action and practical plot progression too. I think it had a reasonable balance of tension and calm in the last half.
And it was supported by pretty cinematography, an (admittedly often times over the top) intense soundtrack, decent action choreography and decent suspense writing.

It wasn’t perfect though.
There were definitely too many smoky whisky room talks between our various villains discussing their evil deeds, which I found boring, and Hyun Jin being a detective was nice and all but I also tended to get bored if Soo Hyun wasn’t on screen.
Because ultimately the side characters of this show weren’t the strongest. With possibly the exception of Seul Gi.
From my perspective everyone was only really interesting because of their relationship to Soo Hyun and therefore the plot. They weren’t really interesting as people outside of that. Take Soo Hyun out of the show and I wouldn’t give a rat’s tail about anyone here; I only really cared about them based on whether or not he cared about them.
In Hyun Jin’s case it might be argued that this show is misogynistic and has gender issues because the female lead only exists for the male lead, but I think it was more of a base writing flaw than any kind of gender issue because EVERYONE only existed for Soo Hyun, and also because Soo Hyun could’ve easily been a female assassin and I think this story still would’ve turned out the same way. The writer just wasn’t that strong when it came to characters.
There were also several inconsistencies which were never addressed in relation to the secondary and tertiary characters.
Like, the Prosecutor just kinda turns up out of nowhere, is described by a tertiary character as crazy, and then proceeds to get less and less “crazy” for the remainder of the show. He also at one point makes a call to someone that is shot as if he’s shady and in with the bad guys, or maybe someone else, but this is never addressed, and so he just remains the typical Good Guy Righteous Prosecutor. So his character goes nowhere. Although I did appreciate the snark in the last episode.

The real filial or romantic relationships between Soo Hyun and both Hyun Jin and Seul Gi were never really clarified so one just has to guess what happens there. Was Hyun Jin an exact replica of Soo Hyun’s deceased biological sister or was she just a random replacement?
The plot was interesting but brushed over finer details A LOT. I’m not gonna list them all, but the amount of times Soo Hyun got caught on camera, or left something somewhere so he could get caught? Yikes. It happened so often I’d almost believe he’d be canonically stupid enough to walk into a SWAT shootout… oh wait.

The Villains-
They were vile, and uncaring, and all the cronies paranoid, and Do unflappable. But they never really even made my skin crawl or anything. They were shallow outside of their actions.
Hyeon Woo wasn’t even that interesting. Like his character didn’t go far, and dwindled into nothing once he didn’t have the upper hand. Although I liked the interaction between him and Soo Hyun at the end.

I both wish this show had more depth, and am glad it didn’t.
I think it did really well in some parts, right up to the ending. I really liked that they used the love and trust of a child like figure (and figures at the end) to instill a sense of family and reason and motivation in Soo Hyun, I really liked the idea of Seul Gi being alone except for this weird family she made for herself, which started with an assassin. I liked that dynamic. And I think their goodbye also would’ve been more befitting of a leave and never comeback ending, than a death ending.
I think it did better than shows like HMS and BTLIOF at the depth, because it didn’t fake depth and then never live up to it, only to reveal itself to be quite shallow. It just never really properly delved into its depth at all, kept it at arm’s length and therefore to me watched as a simple action with dash of heart instead.
However the lack of depth and poor writing also meant we never really got to know any of our characters fully, despite glimpses here and there, and that always leaves one feeling a little bit underfed.

The Ending-
Here’s a wild idea: They shouldn’t have killed him.
But Sic, he was a murderer and an assassin!!
And?
They had to kill him!
No. No they didn’t. They didn’t have to kill him or Do. In fact I think not killing either of them would’ve made more of a statement than killing both of them.
cont.

14
22

    1/3
    We know Do is a bad, incredibly selfish person who will trample anything and anyone to get what he wants. And we know in the eyes of people like Hyeon Woo he deserves death, and in the eyes of his daughter, to be punished for his crimes legally.
    To Soo Hyun… well see Soo Hyun became an assassin, to survive. He says that in the last episode, in response to the claim that he can’t be anything BUT a killer.
    And something that always frustrated me about Hyeon Woo and this show is that it kept trying to slot in this idea that Soo Hyun was born a killer or whatever, a la the themes of I Remember You and Come and Hug me. But then Soo Hyun would answer these claims, not with indignation that no no he wasn’t, and not with guilt, but rather by throwing back Hyeon Woo’s allegations and attempt at manipulation back in his face, to which it is revealed, Hyeon Woo is definitely the least mentally stable of the two.

    Because I don’t really think the question about whether Soo Hyun was a killer born or not, despite how many times it came up, was really ever important. What was important was how Soo Hyun was effected by the people he’d chosen to care about. Namely Seul Gi and Hyun Jin. They were both willing to forgive his past if only maybe he’d stop just once, and not hurt himself or others anymore. This was reiterated several times throughout the entire show.
    We never really saw Soo Hyun’s reaction to it. Like he basically reacted to most things with stoicism, but we know he cares about these women, because he continually saves them and hangs out around them. We know he cares about what they think, because he does little things throughout the series when they suggest that he does.
    So a natural progression of this character development, minimal yes but still there, would be some kind of final response to these relationships that he has that bring out the Non Killer in him. No? Because that’s how I’d develop that character. It wouldn’t be a redemption as such, but just a response to how these people have affected his life. Because they have. And he knows it. And we know it.

    So Soo Hyun knows that Seul Gi and Hyun Jin do not want him to a) die, b) hurt himself and c) kill any more people. He’s knows this. He knows how the two main people in his life feel.
    He also knows that it’s a royally stupid idea just to barge into the evil villain lair with no plan, barely any backup and no escape route, and end up in a standoff against a SWAT team. Since he does this anyway I’m going to have to ignore it.
    So he’s there, in the villain lair, in the final climax surrounded by a SWAT team and the woman he, presumably since the show didn’t tell us anything otherwise, loves and cares about. He knows that Hyun Jin doesn’t want him to shoot. He knows Hyun Jin doesn’t want him to die. He also knows, because he’s not an idiot, that if he shoots, the SWAT team WILL kill him, because that’s what they’re for.
    So what does he do?
    He shoots anyway.
    Why???
    Why!!!!???

    8
    0

    2/3 We have conflicting things in the finale here.
    On the one hand Soo Hyun wishes to protect the women he loves, and the people he cares about from any more pain and suffering in the hands of Do, and the only times he has ever killed people outside of it being a job is in retaliation to his pack being threatened, harmed, or killed.
    On the other hand though, everything about the way this episode was set up. From Seul Gi’s phone call, to Hyun Jin’s phone call, to his conversation with Hyeon Woo about dealing with things his way, to the rest of the show, the rest of his minimal character development, points to him actually finally respecting the people he has chosen to protect and be the better person, just once, for them, as opposed to the killer everyone else will see him as. He’s also painted as a victim of the evil machinations and the manipulations of Do and Hyeon Woo just as much as he is painted as the badass killer who gives and takes no shits, and who doesn’t seem to have many if any moral qualms about his kills.
    And then in the end the show decides to go with the message that yes he is a killer with no moral qualms, no character development, just a protective instinct, and therefore has to die.
    Which is a depressing message. And also renders him pointless as a character.
    He started a killer and he died a killer. Just with slightly more purpose. Woohoo. What was the point in the show again?

    He dies, so… what the “good’ guys can live? I don’t even care about the “good” guys (who also broke the law several times in obtaining information to apprehend the perpetrators just by the way) as individuals outside of their relationship with Soo Hyun. So what, he dies and I’m just supposed to go “and everyone who deserved to live happily ever after did. The end”? Where is the interesting story in that! Where is anything in that? Why should anyone watch this show if it’s just a story of an assassin who does stuff and then dies? Where’s the pay off of any kind, narratively or otherwise?

    They didn’t have to redeem him, they didn’t really have time. We all know he’s capable of unflinching manslaughter, but an ending where it shows he actually heard the people he loved, and chose just once, just once not to kill someone, and more importantly, not to kill the Most Evil of Them All?
    Wouldn’t that have been a more fitting ending? Wouldn’t that have been more powerful?
    It would’ve given him one last piece to his character, not redeeming him and not excusing all the deaths previously but at least not make it look like the show was for nothing and he survived all those years for nothing.

    6
    0

    3/3
    I would’ve preferred a Bourne Ultimatum ending. (movie not book)
    (Spoilers for those of you that haven’t seen the Bourne trilogy, also if you haven’t seen the Bourne Trilogy WHY not, you should go do something about that.)
    Jason Bourne, was brainwashed by a clandestine government operation into becoming an Assassin. Then he refuses to kill some dude because the dude has kids, escapes and spend the rest of the movies trying to figure out everything, why he has weird memories and dreams, why he has all these super soldier skills and a bank vault in Switzerland with a trillion passports in it and a gun etc etc. Oh wait does any of that sound familiar…? :O
    In the end of the trilogy he finally reveals to everyone who needs to know about the clandestine very illegal government assassin program, and confronts the bad guy only then to be chased to the top of a building, overlooking a river, where he is fired upon and jumps off the roof.
    I think he also kills the bad guy prior to this, I can’t remember.
    And then everyone’s like where’d he go we can’t find the body, Jason Bourne dead? Alive? And all the final tie ups of the plot happen interspersed with this shot of his body after it hit the water, not moving.
    In the very final shot of the movie, the body suddenly starts to move. And then the credits roll.

    Jason Bourne, assassin, has definitely killed people, who tried to kill him or the people he cares about, or who are up to no good clandestine illegal government business, gets away.

    Things that would’ve been so much more satisfying and made so much more sense:
    Soo Hyun, assassin, lab test baby, who has definitely killed people, who tried to kill him or the people he cares about or who are up to no good clandestine illegal child and organ farming business, in one final swoop, prove to everyone that the bad guys are who they are, and what they’ve been doing with absolutely no chance of them getting away, give all the information he can to the people who can make this happen, say his goodbyes, face down the bad guy, and then disappear. Injured but alive is the final thing we know about him.

    This show is like Lookout but not like Lookout.
    It’s like Lookout in that stupid avoidable events happened that lead to a death of a main anti hero character I really liked.
    It’s not like Lookout in that I was okay with Do Han dying in Lookout, just not like     that>/i>, because it fitted his character as a tragic antihero, whereas with Kill It, I don’t think Soo Hyun should have died
    at all, because it makes his character and any development he had, worthless.

    Of course there’s no way the creators of this show thought about this show as hard as I am, so they honestly probably only killed him because they wanted to be Edgy and Tragic and provide a visceral audience reaction, not because anyone actually thought about it as a story.

    7
    1

      The problem with leaving the big baddy alive at the end is that he would have gotten everything swept under the rug and restarted. The numbered children were into the 200 range; that many of the powerful owed their lives to the BB. Could SH make a big enough mess that those who owed their lives to the BB could not bury? What would that mess look like, especially if it did not include more killing? A creative answer to that would have paid for a lot of plot sins!

      And no, SH did not need to die. That was just lazy writing.

      1
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    So are you Sicclone2? Or has Mary killed you more than once?

    2
    1

    I feel the need to write several thousand words proving that kdrama writers are incompetent at their jobs

    I’ve said it before – Korea doesn’t have nearly enough writing talent to feed all those good-looking cheekbones actors and actresses.

    They shouldn’t have killed him. But Sic, he was a murderer and an assassin!!

    I guess Sic doesn’t approve of killing assassins. Must have something to do with the name “Sicarius”.

    3
    1

      I guess Sic doesn’t approve of killing assassins. Must have something to do with the name “Sicarius”.

      Who, me?? Oh I don’t know what you’re talking about. It’s not like I have my own character who is oh so similar to Soo Hyun either. Not at all. Absolutely completely unrelated to my name also. Totally.

      4
      0

    I can see how this is an equally emotionally powerful, yet a much more meaningful ending. But since it’s clear from the beginning that the writer didn’t have any intention to write something inspiring or meaningful for Soo-hyun or any other characters, I never hope that it would go there. Besides, I thought this drama is ridiculous enough to give us a nonsensical happily ever after ending that my first reaction to Soo-hyun’s death is immense relief that the writer isn’t that crazy. (Or maybe they really should just go full-on crazy and made this drama a thoroughly ridiculously entertaining journey??)

    3
    1

      The meaningfulness of him being alive at the ending is important, but equally so the common sense of it to the story. This was only ever a simple action story. Having him leave and disappear, when he is the protagonist but one who has killed, would’ve been the obvious ending and fit the tone of the rest of the show.
      But like you, I didn’t actually expect anything of this show, was even surprised when I started enjoying it, and called him dying from episode 7. Nobody making this show gave a shit about common sense endings or not, deep and meaningful or otherwise. They just wanted raw shock factor.
      I would assume at this point all kdrama writers are just trashy hacks if it weren’t for the occasional drama that proves me wrong.

      4
      0

    Oh, wow. Thank you for taking the time to write this. Like you, I didn’t find the villains compelling enough. I was probably looking for someone as scary as the likes of Choi Won Yong in I Remember You / Hello Monster and Jung Woong In in I Hear Your Voice.

    As for the ending, I was hoping for something similar to Zoe Saldana’s “Colombiana” or Ben Affleck’s The Town. For Soo Hyun to still be alive after everything and escape to another country. Writer-nim could probably have borrowed the following line from Ben Affleck’s character, which was in the goodbye letter for the female lead: “No matter how much you change, you still have to pay the price for the things you’ve done. So I got a long road. But I know I’ll see you again. This side or the other.” I already have Nana’s Hyun Jin pictured in my head as heiress sitting on the board of Saehan FT while the letter is narrated in a voice over by Soo Hyun. 😅

    3
    1

      Ah you’re welcome. I really wasn’t planning on writing this much. The show isn’t THAT good… then again I basically just do this at this point because it helps me break down writing processes and become a better writer myself.

      Oh I like that ending too. Basically I just wanted him to be alive and disappear. Whether that happened a la Jason Bourne or Ben Affleck or whatever.

      5
      0

    Shades of LOOKOUT showing with this.

    1
    1