#MadDog
Hey Beanies! 😊 @attiton and I are doing a watch-and-chat of Mad Dog here on the fanwall, and you’re welcome to join us! One of us will post a comment here every so often as a place to talk about a set of episodes. I’ve seen eps 1-3, so I’m going to add some thoughts on those in the comments below.
@seeker @elinor

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    So I thought this was going to be the insurance version of Numbers, and I think that’s the general idea, but it hasn’t gripped me yet like Numbers did. But I’ve been told it gets better, and I get to enjoy Woo Do Hwan’s lovely, lovely voice, so I’m definitely continuing! I was much more affected by the story and passing of the insurance maknae than by the ML’s own family trauma. As soon as we meet the new insurance guy (the SML from Our Blooming Youth!!!), I knew he was going to die, but it still hurt. Then I was surprised to see Park Sung-Hoon (!!!), playing a villain… again. I’ve also been weirded out by the fact that the only (?) female character is being used as an eye candy prop – I think they are going for a bit of a Mission Impossible vibe? Oh well. So far, it’s an easy watch that doesn’t demand my whole attention or deeply involve my emotions, which is a win!! And also Woo Do Hwan 😍

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      I love how, on Viki, there’s a Soompi article there on (my) Mad Dog page with the headline, “What To Watch If You’re Already Missing Woo Do Hwan.” I mean what does one do if one “already misses” Woo Do-hwan while watching Woo Do-hwan? I think that’s happened to me during Joseon Attorney! Imagining the moment when he wouldn’t be speaking in his dulcet tones and gallivanting 🙆‍♀️

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      OOH. I just had an idea about why this doesn’t feel like Numbers. Because the “one-upsmanship” game is between two people that I want to both LIKE. There’s no villain like Han Je-kyun to just hate on. I mean, even though he was our dear Seung-Jo’s dad, that was no reason to care for him.

      We can hate the insurance fraudsters like the economic fraudsters, but it’s like the good guys are one-upping one another, and that’s sort of a waste. Maybe that’s what settles down and makes the show more enjoyable?

      I won’t spam to much more—to do that would drown out other folks who want to join in, I am aware—but I’ll have one last larger post below and then will join the commenting crowd on other folks’ ideas!!!

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        I really like that idea!! I think that describes well what I’m feeling. There’s disharmony and discord right now, but I know they do team up, so… hopefully the dynamic shifts to the more enjoyable soon!!

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      While watching I didn’t realise Numbers was gripping … still tuned in weekly. Yes I get the vibe you’re going for.

      The ML trauma is a hard one to sympathise with … well-worn trope but just can’t seem to recall anyone where it really hit you.

      Yes we are all in for our Woo Do-hwan fix!

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      What ?? Ok, I though that Number would be the accounting version of Squad team 38 and Mad dog an insurance version. But I utterly disliked Numbers, and I adored Mad dog even more than the other fraud-team investigation.
      I love Woo Do Hwan, and the dynamic with Yoo Ji Tae not unlike in Healer.

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      Numbers grabbed me from the start because it was passionately acted, dramatic, all-in nonsense right out of the gate. I was wondering how accounting was going to be made (a) interesting and (b) not Tracer and it let me know immediately. This is taking a little more time to set a tone. I wasn’t as skeptical about insurance fraud investigation being an excuse for lots of action, because insurance cases by their nature can involve accidents, death, mysterious circumstances, deceit, and dangerous circumstances.

      I’m into ep. 5 now and this has predictably turned into The Woo Do-hwan Show for me, too. I’d never seen him except in a few bath random scenes from Joseon Attorney, and he is living up to the hype.

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    I’m going to start it this weekend – maybe even tonight!

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      YAY!!! Join us!!! Depending on everyone’s watch schedules, we can probably discuss a couple of episodes a week! (P.S. sorry for the spoilers 😅)

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        No worries, I assume there will be spoilers here and there and I’ll probably forget these particular ones anyway because what you wrote is meaningless to me without context. I’m excited!

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          So excited. I have kimchi jjigae to eat (I left my Korean food desert!!!) and my suitcase to unpack and then I’m going to remind myself what the first three episodes were about…more v. soon.

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    Uh, I think how I’m going to do this is post in smallish bits with one idea each, so folks can respond to subsections rather than one long post? I’m gonna wing this. It may not work.

    Poor Gen X: Yet Again Never Measuring Up
    If I’ve said it once, I’ve, well, said it once—these poor Gen X male actors! Both Yoo Ji-tae (Kang-woo) and Choi Won-young (bit part here, but the co-ML in Mystic Pop-up Bar) have this way about them that drives me up the wall. There’s like a macho swagger to them that, like, angers me. Probably because they’re close to my age and remind me of men I actually know rather than fake men that I can distance myself from like our dearest WDH. It only makes things worse that they have to play against actors like WDH, Ji Chang-wook and Yook Sung-Jae.

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      I really liked Yoo Ji-tae in Healer – like a LOT – but here there’s an intangible something (swagger, like you said?) that just annoys me in this role 🤷‍♀️ … So far, at least. But Woo Do Hwan already delights me in his role, so it all evens out. I think because the plot is leaning too hard on the melo this early, it has actually taken me out of the emotions, which means I watched all the tragedy dry-eyed (a rarity for me!).

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        My biggest issue with Choi Won-young so far is: why is he wearing his tie that weird way, with half of it over his dress shirt collar? I thought it was a wardrobe malfunction the first time, but it’s consistent.

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          Yeah, that tie/collar thing becomes like his “schtick/concept,” doesn’t it? It feels deeply 1984 to me, somehow, like something “High Wham!” would have worn. Also, how wrong could I have been about the “bit part” thing? I sort of which his part were, indeed, smaller so that we wouldn’t have to look at these “fashion choices” or, now that I’m on a rant and can’t stop, his horrible haircut!!

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            YEAH what is up with his collar/tie disarray? Is it supposed to indicate fashion? Dissipation? His lax moral character??? I’m so confused every time I see it and his weird haircut that looks like he did it himself

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            @hopefulromantic For no really good reason except my own direct enjoyment (and work procrastination), I’ve been reading back over our–excellent and witty!!–commentary here and want to back up and say that I missed your suggestion that the “tie thing” is an indication of dissipation.

            I laughed super-hard at that. I wonder if it’s because I know the character better now, or because…yeah, I think it shows “dissipation.” Or maybe…I WISH it showed dissipation.

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            @attiton Haha YAY! 😂 I must say, I think the commentary generated on these Mad Dog threads is pretty excellent 😁 👌

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          There seems to be a slit on the left collar where the tie goes in and the comes out on top of the right collar. Very distracting and unfashionable … perhaps an idol can carry it off in a concept photoshoot but here the skewed tie and bad haircut makes him look like a wannabe.

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            In today’s post—I got a good screenshot of this horrid fashion geometry 🙂

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    On the Backstory Episodes
    I agree totally with Hopeful that the first two episodes are all backstory, Episode 1 being “backstory to insurance fraud” and Episode 2 being “backstory to co-ML’s trauma.”

    Here’s something interesting. I watched (it turns out) 2.5 episodes only maybe three weeks back. As I was skimming episode 1, I thought, “Hey, this was more interesting in retrospect than it was while I was watching the first time!” Like when the building fell down, I was anticipating WDH’s “experiment” on the roof later, and was all, “Huh! Interesting!” But, of course, I couldn’t have had that thought the first time through…what would it be like to have a drama that’s only good on second watch? I mean, not a very good drama 😆

    I also remembered that I literally sat on my FF button for the entirety of episode 2. It was a mix between “yes yes, sad sad…got it.” [Eek, I’m cold-hearted!] but also “I don’t want to sit through an entire makjang hour of his sadness and the horror of losing your family!!! Perhaps I’m not the right audience for this particular approach to backstory. But again, going through it again quickly, it was like studying for a test and sort of knowing the material. “Ah yes, this and that plot point…interesting, yes, THAT is going to come back.”

    Sounds like you’re in a similar—although nicer—boat, Hopeful, insofar as episode 1 was more interesting to you than 2.

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      Haha oh no, I used FF for all the scenes of him crying over his family 😅 I just couldn’t connect with his style of crying (contrast that with WDH in Joseon Attorney, when he had me ugly-sobbing for 1.5 episodes)… think part of it is that the reveal and descent into deep emotions is too soon – I’m not so fully invested within the first two episodes to cry for his loss. If the reveal of his personal connection had come later, maybe I would have cried with him. Dramas do need to take some time to create those connections with the viewers, I think. These are all such great observations, Seon-ha!! Much deeper than my reflections, which were much more along the lines of, “LOOK! Park Sung-Hoon!” 😂

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        Oh my stars, I cried so much over JA. That second-to-last episode, I think it was. Why did people hate on that drama so much?? I think it was all the other characters, perhaps 🙂

        As for my comments, I hope they don’t limit conversation or set any expectations that folks don’t want. I like to start conversations, not stop them!

        Are you going to try Kidnapping Day because of Park Sung-hoon? I know @elinor is watching. I’m going to wait and see…Blue said it turned dark in episode 2, and I can’t imagine that it’s going to be too dark for me.

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          I’m going to wait and see with Kidnapping Day – especially since Blue said it turned dark.

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            I love it so far! It’s not that dark, yet – it just delivered what we already knew would happen, which is murder. Or rather, discovery that a murder had occurred. The show is premised on kidnapping, murder, and the dad/kid duo being fugitives so of course it’s got that darkness, but it has definitely delivered the “comedy” part of “dark comedy.” Dive in!

            I’ll be back with Mad Dog reax today.

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            Thanks for the report, @elinor! It does really intrigue me, but I think this one may be a better bingewatch for me so that I don’t have to wait anxiously week to week 😊

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            The thought that Dramabeans was gone for good and I’d never hear @elinor’s thoughts on Mad Dog…let’s just say, it didn’t make my yesterday any easier 🙃

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        Yeah, I FF’d or ate my salad without looking at the screen A LOT during the crying. He’s sad, we get it, next. I also had to look away from most of the plane crash scenes because that was simultaneously too fearfully real and too poorly CGI’d, if that makes sense.

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          This will, forever more, be how I think of you when I imagine you not wanting to watch a part of a drama:

          Elinor: “Ooh, I fear that this will be both poorly done and designed to tug on my heartstrings.”
          Show: [Does exactly that]
          Elinor: “How to cope? Which do I choose? Fast-forward button??? Or, better yet…salad????”

          Glorious. Just glorious.

          I just get angry, fast-forward too far, then have to rewind some because I over-shot, making a one-hour show last easily 90 minutes, when I could have just watched and gotten it over with. I’ve got no “salad option,” is what I’m telling you.

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            😆 Salad is usually a poor choice for my drama-eating because I have to look at it if I want to get it on my fork instead of my lap. I may have to develop a list of salad-worthy dramas or classification of salad-ready scenes.

            I have developed better FF/rewind skills over time, but still often panic-rewind back to exactly the point I started to FF in the first place. I wish there were more forward/back options on streaming platforms. Prime and Tubi are the worst – 30 seconds is the only option, which is usually too much.

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          It makes perfect sense! It is simultaneously so real and so NOT real…

          Sometimes I FF, sometimes I mute 🤷‍♀️

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            But do you have a “salad option,” Hopeful??? If so, what is it?

            Also, I’d take a “mute video” choice. Like when Kang-woo tells the “boys” not to monitor his conversation with what’s-her-insurance-CEO’s-daughter and they’re like “fine,” but only turn off the video monitor…but still listen? I’m way more affected by sight than sound, and I only understand 10% of the Korean anyway…but I would still be able to tell when to turn the sound back on!! And, hey, I could eat my salad during that time!!

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            @attiton I don’t have a salad option, but maybe I should! (Does checking emails or Dramabeans count?) If the culprit is primarily auditory – i.e., excessive aegyo or crying or shrieking, I’ll mute. If it’s scary-ness or I think there will be a jump scare, I cover the screen. If there’s something really terrible happening, like violence *with sound effects,* I cover the screen AND mute and only peek at the subtitles to see when it’s safe again 😅 Maybe I’ll just start calling that strategy my “Salad Option.”

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      I liked how the drama introduces / sets up Woo Do-hwan’s character in episode 1 –

      a. The very first scene narrating a story about insurance scams.

      b. Then nothing till halfway through the episode when he has meet-cutes Ha-ri and Kang-woo. We are led to believe he is meeting them for the first time and is just trying to be a good employee to the architect.

      c. Meeting the Mad Dog team at their office is where he first shows his hand a bit.

      d. The end of the episode reveal about his identity.

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      Random thoughts which popped up while watching episode 1:

      – Omo that’s the guy from Oldboy (remembered him from Healer much later),

      – Omo omo that’s JIN MU (from Alchemy of Souls), then spent most of the time expecting him to turn on a dime,

      – building collapse triggered my Just Between Lovers shopping mall collapse trauma,

      – Eh … does tapping fingers like that actually increase mental acuity?

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        Also Woo Do-hwan makes the perfect Black Agent Kim Do-ha from My Lovely Liar complete with glasses and black suit.

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          While backstory for a drama character is important – to set up the character, understand their motivations, what to they want where they are headed – episode 2 even with chock-full information seemed like a filler. Nothing which could not have been conveyed in 10 minutes.

          Also drama, show (in character’s behavior, interactions, responses) not tell (in painfully elaborate detail) is a good way to tell your story.

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            Although the drama sets up Kim Min-joon as a character who is many steps ahead of the Mad Dog gang, at times Yoo Ji-tae’s acting prowess tends to over power Woo Do-hwan.

            Admittedly, Choi Kang-woo is not a particularly endearing character, and Yoo Ji-tae’s acting is old school but Woo Do-hwan’s relative lack of acting experience shows. He barely put a foot wrong in The King: Eternal Monarch and Joseon Attorney.

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        Shaman does it in DWY…and she seems smart!

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        The “Omo, that’s so-and-so from so-and-so!” has been really fun with this show 😄👍 Lots of famous faces!

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    Oh, side note before I start my last post here (which is way shorter than I thought!)…Do you think that Min-joon is actually afraid of bugs (from that scene in the architect’s office)??? Also, every part of me wants to call him Jan, because this stupid Notes app understands “Jan” as a name, and I don’t have to ride herd on typing Min-joon which can come out as ANYTHING after auto-correct gets a hold of it.

    Episode 3
    Oooh, I’m not so fond of deus ex machina/one-of-a-kind illnesses.

    Oooh, I’m not so fond of anyone hitting Woo Do-hwan like that.

    Yeah, I’m still not gripped. I need to see these guys working as a team. Also, for them to stop being proud assholes. Too much to ask? I’m still in…I am promised improvement!

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      Lol I didn’t think he was really afraid of bugs, but maybe he is?? And yes – I need everyone to crank down the arrogance by a LOT. Sheesh, you all want the same thing (I think), just collaborate on a solution. But it should get better!!

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        I hope this is the usual kdrama exaggeration during the character establishment phase, and everyone will calm down a little and swagger and pose a little less. I appreciate that Ha-ri, as of ep. 3, is already showing less of a tits-and-ass approach and more skill and resourcefulness – although women should get to use whatever tools they have in a man’s world, which so far this show definitely is.

        I also dislike the rare-illness trope, but I googled Lafora disease and it might not have been the worst one to pick, as it does cause seizures that manifest the way the guy who died in the car fire showed.

        I want Min-joon to be afraid of bugs so we can have some sort of ridiculous situation from which Ha-ri can rescue him later on.

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          I’m so glad you Googled it, because I was too lazy to do that and decided to give them the benefit of the doubt – “it’s just crazy enough to be real” was my approach 😅 I’m glad it had plausible authenticity at least!

          Pt. 2: I want that too, Elinor.

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          “…usual kdrama exaggeration during the character establishment phase”

          It does tend to be too much in all characters.

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        The “afraid of bugs” did seem put on at first watch but by the end it was confirmed that not only did Min-joo know all about them but was playing the Mad Dog team.

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    @dncingemma This was the first post (there have only been two).

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