Amen and amen! As I mentioned to sicarius in the LOOKOUT alternate endings thread, the brothers' reconciliation arc could have been explored and used as a basis for Do-han's peacemaking with himself and Su-ji. It would have dovetailed nicely with a heart-to-heart on forgiveness between Su-ji and her Mom. Alas, a missed opportunity for SDW's beautifully expressive acting. But maybe at the time the role as it was written was exactly right for the actor, if not the character.

Until LIVE airs, I'll keep my fingers crossed. In case of emergency, I'll break glass and watch SOUL MATE for the third (fourth?) time. Or maybe watch WAR OF MONEY, which I think is the only one of SDW's shows I have yet to see. ;-)

@saturtledaisy,

Late reply, but just wanted you to know, after watching the final 2 episodes raw today (they will be available with Netflix subtitles next Friday), that LIVE was terrific. The entire cast of characters (15) are memorable, the back stories, vignettes, and incidental cases are well-written, and the performances across the board are rock solid and at times electrifying. The ensemble cast is top notch.

And PD Kim Kyu-tae did a great job with the camera work. There was none of the SCARRED HEART zooming in to inspect the actors' pores. There were some really well-done slow shifts between dual foci that worked well in showing the facial reactions between 2 people, for instance. And nice use of reflections in mirrors. The action scenes were really well done. There were many foot chases. The cast got quite an aerobic workout.

My hat is off to Writer-nim, cast, and crew for presenting such an uplifting and lovingly crafted tribute to police officers. Just keep scrolling down this thread. It is the fangirl * fanboy home of the LIVE Lifers' Brigade in lieu of an official DB recap thread. ;-)

*confesses to everything and anything*

Omo! I just realized that I said this way back when and melona bars were featured in the second episode! @sicarius! I must be clairvoyant. Here’s the gif @azzo made af it! http://www.dramabeans.com/members/azzo1/activity/421153/

I highly recommend SOUL MATE. It's not your usual romance... and the music is terrific. ;-)

I really was glued to the screen with that student protestor scene. It was so well done, and the music being soft and subtle, interspersed with silence and screaming, the slow motion, the close ups of the hands, the faces, everything was directed perfectly in my mind. I love the music in this, the retro feel gives it more grit. For some reason it takes me back to those cop shows in the 80’s, like Hill Street Blues. Now, why my parents would let a five to ten year old watch that is beyond me, but I just remember the music mostly, and how it felt. And this scene is how it felt, even to a seven year old, who had no life experience, but knowing police were ultimately good and sometimes they did things because they had to, not because they wanted to, and feeling the unfairness of it all.

PakalanaPikake reporting for LIVE discussion, Chingus. Thanks so much for including me.

Sending carrier pigeons to:

@cloggie, @kurama, @frabbycrabsis, @johnb, @egads, @xhuizini, @gonebarefoot

who mentioned LIVE in Open Thread and What We're Watching last weekend. The more, the merrier. ;-)

Thanks for staking a discussion spot for LIVE, @hades.

The student protest scenes have raised a ruckus, according to a link @cloggie brought to my attention on my fan wall:

https://www.soompi.com/2018/03/23/live-apologizes-controversy-remaking-protest-ehwa-womens-university/ .

All I can say is that the realism of the scenes reminded me only too well of the antiwar protests, student sit-ins, and race riots during the 1960s. And Kent State, which occurred in May, 1970 and involved the Ohio National Guard.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCS-g3HwXdc

LIVE also shook loose a memory of going shopping in Hamburg, Germany, on a Saturday when I was off from my internship job in the autumn of 1978. I saw busloads of police in riot gear assembling along the Alster to head off to the (antinuke?) protest a couple of blocks away in Mönckebergstraße, the main shopping street where demonstrations were prohibited. I got my butt out of there pronto.

Thanks for paging me, @ally-le! Am tickled to be able to yak about this drama with @azzo1, @hades, and fellow Beanies. ;-)

Why did you freakin’ try to swim at high tide, in the dark, to find a guy that you said was dumb for going into the ocean to save a drunk guy himself?

Because Detective Ho-cheol had his partner's back. And he wouldn't have had it any other way. And because people who are drawn to the profession are wired that way. Why do some people run into burning buildings? My husband had a colleague who was literally handing in his paperwork to resign from the NYPD to return to practicing law when the first plane hit the Twin Towers. He took back his badge and went to assist, and died in the line of duty. "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." (John 15:13)

Detective Ho-cheol going into the surf after Yang-chon dove in to (successfully) rescue the drunk -- only to die himself -- was bad enough. But learning that their collaring of the murder suspect after years of dogged police work resulted in Yang-chon being defamed by higher-ups who'd botched the original investigation just made my blood boil. No good deed goes unpunished.

I agree with you about that riveting scene of Han Jung-o asking Corporal Myung-ho if what she saw were unusual. What he didn't say spoke volumes. For more on the scene, see paragraph 5 of
http://www.dramabeans.com/members/pakalanapikake/activity/414123/#acomment-424402 .

Myung-ho doesn't speak rashly. I especially like how he handled his negligent colleague's situation, and read him the riot act to do the right thing -- even as he encouraged him to take the bus instead of further exhausting himself by driving long-distance on his vacation. He put up with his friend Ban Jong-min's anger over what the latter perceived to be Myung-ho's betrayal until he knew his buddy had cooled off enough to mend fences with him. The guy is a straight arrow, but also compassionate, and I like that very much. Whereas many of the other officers are vocal and hair-trigger, he is more soft-spoken and only appears to be laidback, as evidenced by the way he made short work of cuffing the club owner who was acting like an idiot in the back of the police car. (Manseh, Shin Dong-wook!)

@ally-le,

I’ve not seen any of them in anything else, except for Shin Dong-Wook of course, and they all command attention on screen.

Au contraire, mon chère. You've seen Jang Hyuk-jin, the guy who played the detective in the brown leather jacket who helped collar the murderer in the stakeout. He played the craven Dr. Song Hyun-chul, Chief of Surgery, in ROMANTIC DOCTOR, TEACHER KIM. And the blue-jacketed KTX steward in TRAIN TO BUSAN. I know you saw those productions. ;-) He was also in MAD DOG (as Mad Dog's assistant manager of fraud investigation), BEAUTIFUL MIND, SIGNAL, and MISAENG. He caught my eye in HWAJUNG.

Sang-soo's hyung (Kim Tae-hoon) played Jang Do-han's rival prosecutor Kim Eun-joong in LOOKOUT. I know you saw this one. ;-)

For some reason I'm thinking you might have watched the following:

Sung Dong-il (Ki Han-sol of the bodycam) was big bad in both timelines of LEGEND OF THE BLUE SEA.

Kang Shin-il (drowned Detective Ho-cheol) played a minister in SEVEN DAY QUEEN. Jang Hyun-sung (Eun Kyung-mo) played the father of the title character.

I don't think you watched TWO COPS, but Lee Si-un was a hoot in it as Yong-pal. He was hilarious.

I love that conversation with Yang-chon's kids as well. It really, really hit home when the sister was explaining to her brother why their parents should divorce.

It is brutal, but the characters are making me stay. I don’t think we’re going into the litigation aspect to figure out what happens after the criminals and victims are handed over. Which I think is very realistic to what police officers see. They arrest the individuals, but they have no idea what happens to them once they go to jail or the detectives or prosecution get a hold of them.

And Yas!!! to the soundtrack! Unlike any police procedural I’ve ever seen.

@frabbycrabsis,

Oh Yang-chon is indeed a tough character to like. He's antiheroic -- but also a softie. And his family life is a shambles, not just with his wife and kids, but with his parents as well. I'd love to find out why he became a police officer.

I haven't been able to figure out what gives with Jang-mi Noona, either. She seems to have a serious case of burnout. She has also referenced menopause a couple of times, so I think she's totally at the end of her rope and not suffering fools gladly, be they hungry offspring who can't get it together to cook their own instant ramen or a workaholic spouse. It was mentioned in passing that Yang-chon had beaten romantic rival Eun Kyung-mo to the punch when he married her. Maybe she's gotten fed up and wishes she'd married the other guy. -- But would that have made much of a difference? They all work in the same meat grinder of a profession.

I noticed that Jang-mi seems to have a warm relationship with her father-in-law. It's interesting how she told him she was divorcing his son, and it didn't seem to bother him. (Is father-in-law a retired cop himself?)

It suddenly occurs to me that perhaps Jang-mi has some kind of health problem and she's no longer willing to settle for a half-baked life.

After watching episodes 5 and 6 raw, it seems the gruesome first assault case might be coming back into focus. Or maybe I'm just totally confused.

@frabbycrabsis I loved it when Jung Yumi's character was badass and put those handcuffs on Yang-chon. With everybody around the table grinning at him getting a dose of his own medicin.

I think the relationship between Kwang-soo's character and Yumi's is very interesting. He's competitive and thinks she's getting the more interesting case but she's really been hit by the double whammy of that sexual assault case and the murder. I like that she understands that this is part of the job. So far, she seems smart and resillient.

Hi, @veeee!

Thanks for joining us. I appreciate the recaps of LIVE, SHOULD WE KISS FIRST, GRAND PRINCE, and GREAT SEDUCER over at Drama Milk. ;-)

Instead of a police procedural or documentary, LIVE strikes me as more of a character study of people who work as police officers. We had a ringside seat during training because the two leads weren't already cops when the show opened. We got to see how two young job hunters arrived at their decisions to go into law enforcement as a profession.

I'm glad we were privy to the rigors of training designed to weed out candidates who weren't suited to the emotional, intellectual, and physical demands of the job. The thing to keep in mind is that all of the cops have had this training. The only difference is that the seniors at the precinct have street experience and more time in the job than the rookies. Some things cannot be learned from books, in the classroom, or even in the field under supervision.

As we follow the three rookies, I find it interesting to observe the differing approaches of the various mentors and team mates. Oh Yang-chon is a hardass. After seeing him getting choked with an electrical cord when a stakeout suspect got the upper hand on him, I could understand why he was so adamant that his academy students learn how to properly handcuff prisoners. Ditto for his badgering of the female cadet who couldn't handle rappelling. Seeing the practical application of academy lessons later on the beat makes me view the training scenes in a new light.

Oh really? Does it turn out to be another kind of procedural? I was really impressed with the first two episodes and am already behind the next two. However, I was really impressed by this police drama that showed a humanistic element involving the police and not really a procedural. If they are going the procedural route then I worry if I should even spend time on the rest.

You have to give it more than two episodes, but you'll get blown away. As so many beanies have said, the trick of this series are the characters: it's totally a character-driven show. It deals about how ordinary people that decide to dedicate their lives to the common good deal with everyday police situations, from the very trivial to the gruesome deaths and rapes. It takes a lot of courage to do this job, and it can take a toll on you.
My favorite part is the relationships and interactions between the characters: halfway down the show, when relationships are more or less established, that is when magic starts to happen. Noh Hee Kyung's writing has that special thing (I don't know how to describe it) that makes you love and root for the people on the screen. And the interactions are so natural and authentic that it's hard to say it's a kdrama because, frankly, dramaland is not the most realistic mirror of life. They manage to be natural and quirky at the same time, so they feel like real people and not stereotypes (the good cop, the bad cop, the lazy cop, the cool cop, the gentle friend-zoned character, the feisty heroine, etc that were introduced in the first episode).

If only I could read and understand it. Lol.

- continued -

He keeps her focused on the work at hand, but later follows up to see how she's faring, and shares his own coping mechanisms.

I never got the impression that Yang-chon's father was a ghost. Jang-mi noona spoke with him at the hospital when she was caring for her parents and he was taking care of Yang-chon's mother, who seems to be unconscious. Apparently he was pretty abusive towards mom. -- And now I think I understand why Yang-chon beats up his juniors. Somehow he has managed not to beat up his wife and kids. Hmmm. I wonder if that's why he works long hours and isn't home much: to avoid temptation to act like dad did? Maybe that's why he said, "I didn't beat up you or the kids" to Jang-mi when she told him she wanted a divorce, and he was trying to understand why.

Is Yang-chon's mom unconscious because dad beat her up? Sheesh.

I didn't notice that walking-out-walking-back-in thing, but that is so truuuuuuuuuuue. OMG they do do that all the time.

I feel like Jung-oh is being set up to be a very good police officer, a "genius" police officer dare I say? She notices very tiny things that everyone else misses. I wonder if she will move out of the local office and into one of the bigger units by the series end.

Meanwhile, SS is just struggling to get by. I am pretty concerned with him and that knife wound too, yeash.

Re: Jung-o’s mom and her mental health issues. It may look like an excuse, but she probably can’t help it. She exhibits tendacies if a personality disorder too—probably borderline personality (where she splits the world into all good or all bad and if you do what she wants you’re good and when you don’t, you’re bad). I’m not a psychiatrist but have patients like her. Their issues are so debilitating to them that they can’t see the forest for the trees. And empathizing or sympathizing with another individual’s plight (especially if it’s in direct competition to their own) is nearly impossible for them. Can they do it? With a ton of counseling maybe, but their baseline is so far off the empathy scale that it’s really difficult to get them to not think of just themselves. However, I’m reminded of the scene in the second episode when Jung-o got into the police academy and she was there to celebrate with her on the sidewalk. A normal person doesn’t dance in the street, usually, but she did—probably part of her psych issues too. She’s really emotionally sensitive, but when she’s happy, she’s overly happy and when she’s sad, she’s depressed. (I haven’t seen ep 5 yet—so I may be way off here.)

You will love episode 7!!!

@cloggie,

It's taken me a while to warm up to Yang-chon. After the revelations about his family of origin, I have to hand it to the guy that he has turned out as well as he has. He's a complex character who goes for broke. Despite his own best efforts, he's gotten the short end of the stick at work more than once. I can appreciate how he's trying to get all the rookies wised up.

And yes, it's really sad that, despite his best efforts, they weren't enough to build a lasting marital relationship with Jang-mi noona.

I’m so glad you’re continuing to recap this on your Drama Milk site. Ep 5-6 were tough for me. Human trafficking is hard for me to watch, as is child neglect and abuse—I’ve see it played out in real life more than I would like to admit—and then the woman and her disabled daughter. I actually know someone whose mother tried to get her and her brother to eat rat poison with her to kill themselves when they were children. Her brother would have done it because he was very young, but my friend refused, so her mother didn’t go through with it. I can’t imagine being so destitute to kill yourself and your kids. Horrific. But the daughter in this had no choice because she had an NG (nasogastric) tube, and her mother just put the poisons down the tube. Too real. However, I’m glad the show has given me a lovely love triangle. I’m looking forward to ajealous Sang-soo, because Myung-oh is so good being so cool, and it’ll play off well. I laughed out loud when he walked in and said, “You shouldn’t be touching her!” And then citing the manual, to (unsuccessfully) hide his infatuation with Jeong-oh. And the roommate saying exactly what I was thinking afterwards: “You lost to Myung-oh.” Yes, looking forward to this, immensely.

Thank you for recapping over at Drama Milk, V!

I finally remembered on Friday that the Netflix subtitles are out. I watched ep. 7 raw last weekend, but completely forgot about 8 because of GRAND PRINCE and SHOULD WE KISS FIRST.

Yes, I most certainly realized that Yang-chon and Sang-soo are birds of a feather, and that's one of the reasons why they lock horns. I loved how their little slumber party at Dad's house resulted in a meeting of the minds. As both episodes played out, it became clear that Yang-chon has had some difficult karma with his own mentors. Their injuries in the line of duty, and his own, are never far from his mind. I think he actually worries a great deal about the safety of all his colleagues, not just the rookies, but he doesn't like to admit it.

There were tantalizing bits of background information on various characters in episode 7, along with progress in teamwork between mentors and rookies. After the unremitting bleakness of earlier episodes, this week's installments felt a little lighter to me. Maybe that's because although one undercover operation appeared to be blown (the stakeout of the sex trafficking ring), it actually was salvaged. Meanwhile, an undercover sting at a night club successfully bagged the target. At last Sang-soo's efforts bore fruit, and Hye-ri helped bust the pickpocketing operation with her old fogey mentor. The rookies' hard work is beginning to pay off.

Yang-chon's personal and professional history has been marred by paternal violence at home and apparent errors of his own that led to his mentors and partners being injured and killed in the line of duty. His father's violence towards his mother propelled him into a career as a police officer, but it was a case involving a 15-year-old who was lost (literally, or did the child die?) that turned him into a relentless "mad dog." Might that also be the cold case that he and his former partner, Detective Ho-Cheol, finally solved? It makes me wonder.

The sauna scene was revealing. In a nostalgic moment of surprisingly brotherly fist-bumping, we learned that Yang-chon and Senior Inspector Eun Kyung-mo had been partners. (IIRC, in an earlier episode it was stated that he even outranked him at one time.) Did rivalry over Jang-mi drive a wedge between them, or did something else? The other revelation: Yang-chon's back sports numerous scars. It's not just his mentors and partners who've been wounded in action. He's also caught grief repeatedly because Sang-soo has been impulsive or because he himself has been an inadequate mentor.

(end part 1 of 2) - continued -

- continued - part 2 of 2

At the precinct (in an apparent pre-sauna flashback?), Chief Superintendent Ki Han-sol noted the leg wound peeping through Yang-chon's torn trouser, and tells him to clean himself up. He commented that Yang-chon's zeal for police work -- and propensity for getting wounded in the line of duty -- made it especially hard on Jang-mi. It seemed to come as news to Yang-chon.

Interestingly, Senior Police Officer Choi Myung-ho was mentored by Yang-chon. Is that why he has only one friend in the precinct? Is he tainted with guilt by association?

Rookie Hye-ri finally turned a corner in her rocky relationship with retiring mentor Inspector Lee Sam-bo. She has been so prickly and politically correct that I've found her to be off-putting. We got a glimpse of her back story (witnessing her father's loss of a hand in an industrial accident), but still don't know why she decided to become a police officer, as far as I recall.

Someone asked in a comment and I couldn't find it. Now it's bugging me because it sounds so familiar.

My usual google-fu couldn't turn up an ID for the song. I had a hard time hearing the words.

Welcome aboard, @mrsdimple. You've come to the right place.

I agree with you about Yang-chon. The dude is turning out to be less of a jerk than he appeared at the start of the show. He's hampered by unfortunate communication and social skills. Is there some way to mainline the memes from Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People directly into his brain?

I second you in your adulation for Senior Officer Choi and Han-pyo. ;-)

I thought the Yang-chon's father was going to turn it off.

Also now that you mention it, I'm curious about Myeong-ho's past as well.

me as well with Yang-chon's character. I kinda like him as a mentor and police but when he comes home, he becomes a total gruff jerk.

Also among the the three rookies, I kinda relate to Hye-ri the most. Not overly talented as Jeong-o or even as eager and competitive as Sang-su but wanting to be recognized all the same. And as episodes flow by, she is gradually warming up to her mentor.

Addenda to episode 9:

Like @veee on the Drama Milk blog, I'm concerned over the abdominal issues two of the senior cops have been experiencing. Methinks adhesions from Han-sol’s having been gut-stabbed would be better than some of the alternatives I can think of, which range from various cancers of the gastrointestinal tract to bleeding ulcers. Given the amount of soju he puts away, bleeding esophageal varices are a worrisome possibility as well.

After another rewatch, I confirmed that Sam-bo seemed to have abdominal pain before the bikers kicked the stuffing out of him.

We got to see how Jung-o drew upon her own real-life experience in dealing with several cases. In the home invasion/sexual assault incident, she assured the victim that her privacy would be preserved when the woman worried how her fiancee would react. I’m willing to bet that young Jung-o had begged Jang-mi to keep her own close call secret from her mother, whose precarious emotional state was volatile enough. Perhaps meeting a single solitary adult who took her seriously and understood her situation was what kept Jung-o from rebelling and getting into deeper trouble.

Note: It appears that the perpetrator is a repeat offender with a tracker on his ankle. I wonder if Jung-o's zapping him with her taser shorted it out?! Whatever. I'm glad that she zapped the perp when he appeared to threaten her and the victim, and that Yang-chon backed her up. I hope they lock this guy up and throw away the key.

In the spousal abuse case, Jung-o was concerned that the family’s two daughters were at risk because their father’s daily drinking and violence towards their mom made them reluctant to go home. In attempting to be loyal to their suffering mother, they put themselves at risk. It drove Jung-o to advocate on their behalf. I’m willing to bet that her attempts to avoid her own mother’s volatile emotional outbursts led to her becoming entangled with the prostitution ring from which Jang-mi rescued her.

I’m also reminded of the domestic violence to which Sang-soo was exposed as a child. Although his mother is no longer out of control, she drunkenly beat both him and his hyung upside the head after their father died. I think that’s one of the reasons why he shied away from Jung-o when she patted him on the head during their bike ride. (As if learning that he’s been consigned to the friend zone in apparent favor of Myung-ho weren’t upsetting enough.) Until I see the episode with subtitles tomorrow (Friday the 13th!), I won’t know for sure.

Yang-chon's father seems to be losing it, especially after learning that the neighbor ahjussi killed himself. Is he only hanging on because of his comatose wife? When he started digging up the lettuce plants in the field, I got the impression that he didn't think he'd be around (or maybe strong enough?) to harvest them in the future. Yang-chon's family is falling apart, and I feel for him.

@xhuizini, you're welcome for the LIVE discussion reminder. ;-)

Re: Myung-ho/Jung-o proto-romance, it might be a false alarm. After losing one significant other in the line of duty, he might actually be better off with a civilian. If LIVE is supposed to be a healing drama, then maybe the mere fact that he meets anyone who catches his attention is great progress for him -- kind of like Choi Young thawing out in FAITH after meeting Eun-soo.

Maybe they'll decide to be just friends. On the other hand, Jung-o has had to be a hardass to get through her life, and may be noticing that that particular adaptation no longer serves her well. It will be interesting to see how the situation unfolds.

Yang-chon telling people they can't divorce cracks me up. I like that Live's characters know how to laugh at themselves! Well, everyone except Nam-il, who's just a sad sack at the moment.