THE SHORT VERDICT:
A slick, stylish crime procedural with a vampire twist.
Plot-wise, it feels a little piece-meal in the earlier episodes, but it really grows into its own by the final stretch. It’s engaging, witty, and well-written, with some excellent attention to detail and a glossy, polished finish to boot.
I’m not a fan of crime procedurals nor of vampire-related content as a general rule, but I really liked this.
THE LONG VERDICT:
I was genuinely and pleasantly surprised by this series, because there was just so much to like.
I’m going to try to break it all down, so that we can see all the awesome pieces that came together to make this show, well, awesome.
STYLE & CINEMATOGRAPHY
This show is just So. Very. Stylish. The first thing that leaps out at you is that this show is one stylish beast.
Seriously. The style and cinematography played such a large part in making the series so edgy, slick and cool, that I felt the need to properly give appreciation where it’s due.
Aesthetics
One of the big reasons I’m not into crime procedurals or vampire stories is because both types of stories usually entail a hefty serving of blood and gore, and I am no fan of blood and gore.
There is indeed a fair amount of blood in Vampire Prosecutor, but the show really ups the ante by making the blood appear – for lack of a better description – stylish and even rather pretty. Yes, there is some gore, but nothing that an average viewer can’t stomach, and most of the time, it’s presented so beautifully that you get distracted enough to forget that it’s supposed to be icky and gross.
I mean, check out these blood shots:
Right? Who knew that blood could look so good?
Even the visible traits of our vampire are subtle and elegant. There are no super-long fangs, nor sparkly skin, nor deformed facial features.
Instead, the fangs are small and understated, and the only other physical trait is incandescent blue eyes.
Very tasteful and sophisticated, I thought.
Time-Lapse Sequences
Everything is gorgeously shot, and to up the intensity, snazzy time-lapse sequences are regularly used as pre-cursors to regular scenes, either to place us at the required moment in time, or to set the tone for a particular scene.
Some fabulous arial shots are employed in these time-lapse sequences, and these are also often inter-spliced with shots from various other angles to very cool effect.
Just take a look at these:
These are often night sequences of the Seoul cityscape and sometimes the color palette is desaturated to add a cool – perhaps almost clinical – veneer to our world.
I also found that the time-lapse scenes were used to good effect, to give us a sense of the high velocity at which this world spun. This added tension and style to our storyboard.
Everything was so darkly beautiful.
Split Screens
A nifty range of editing techniques are employed to keep everything on our screens interesting, varied and textured.
Split-screens, varying from simple 2-screen splits to dizzying multiple screen splits, are used fluidly and interchangeably with regular single screens. These often give us a sense of multiple angles to the same set of circumstances as different characters’ points of view are shown to us simultaneously. Sometimes it feels a little overwhelming, coz your eyes aren’t sure where to look, but it does give a heightened sense of movement, which I feel adds to the suspense.
Freeze Frames
The freeze-frame technique was often combined with reverse-motion, particularly when our prosecutor team was in investigative mode, analyzing sequences of events.
Often applied in unexpected ways, I felt it really added to the style quotient of the show.
Freeze-frames were also combined with regular frames or even fast-motion frames, particularly in fight scenes. Our resident vampire’s skillful fighting was elevated to new levels of badassery with the use of this freeze-frame technique.
Just look at him go here:
So. Cool.
Who knew a vampire kicking ass would look this awesome?
All in all, I thought the various style elements came together beautifully to create a completely modern sensibility in the show which was both visually arresting and utterly riveting.
Kudos, show. Nicely, nicely done.
THE CHARACTERS
Yun Jung Hoon as Min Tae Yeon
Yun Jung Hoon is pitch perfect as the broody, cool, highly intelligent prosecutor who also happens to be a vampire. And who looks fabulous with smoky guyliner, I might add.
When we first meet him, he is intense, rather aloof and highly focused on solving the case at hand. His adeptness of mind and agility of thought is impressive, and he is all business while he outsmarts pretty much everyone else:
At other times, particularly with – or in reference to – his close associate Soon Bum (Lee Won Jong), he allows his cheekiness to peek through, and he shows flashes of adorable when he smiles:
He also regularly shows moments of dry humor, which I love:
And of course, there are also times that he goes all fierce and badass, either when he’s vamping out (which surprisingly isn’t even all that often), or when he’s dealing with baddies with pizzazz:
As the series progresses, Tae Yeon slowly starts to show vulnerability as well, and Yun Jung Hoon portrays that vulnerability with perfect sensitivity and restraint:
I really enjoyed watching Tae Yeon as a character unfold over the course of the series. Yun Jung Hoon did a fantastic job making Tae Yeon come to life, building him up as an effective anchor for the entire show.
I loved Tae Yeon as a character, and Yun Jung Hoon became Tae Yeon for me. Love.
Lee Young Ah as Yoo Jung In
Lee Young Ah did an excellent job portraying the prosecutor who’s new to the team and anxious to make her mark.
Prosecutor Yoo has got a number of things stacked against her: she’s new to the team, she’s young, she’s a woman in a man’s world, and she’s small and petite to boot. But she’s determined, energetic and perky, and doesn’t easily take no for an answer.
She’s cute, but she ain’t no pushover, and that rawks:
As the series progresses, we start to see some of her wry humor, and more and more of her personality shines through.
I love this particular “tsk” face of hers:
By the end stretch of the show, her personal baggage gets drawn to the surface, and her tough exterior peels away to show us glimpses of her inner vulnerability:
I started out feeling fairly indifferent to Jung In as a character, but by the end, I really liked her. Kudos to Lee Young Ah for imbuing Jung In with facets of steel and of velvet.
Lee Won Jong as Hwang Soon Bum
Lee Won Jong as Soon Bum provides a fantastic foil to cool, charismatic Tae Yeon.
Soon Bum is vain, bumbling, and full of hero worship for Tae Yeon, and their interactions are often laced with humor at Soon Bum’s expense.
As a character, Soon Bum often brings the funny, mostly without even trying.
He has a strong weakness for sexy women and is often distracted during important discussions because he’s too busy ogling the sexy coroner (Kim Ye Jin):
Soon Bum wants to be as badass and cool as Tae Yeon, but is often left trailing behind in Tae Yeon’s blaze of glory.
Here, he’s getting as much of a heroic moment as he can, kicking the baddies that Tae Yeon’s already taken down:
[MINOR SPOILER ALERT]
My favorite comic scene involving Soon Bum is in a later episode when he gets his head stuck in a helmet while kidnapping an information source:
When Soon Bum realizes his head is stuck in the helmet, he moans, “What the heck? Why is this helmet so small?”
His “victim,” tied up nearby, pipes up matter-of-factly, “It’s not the helmet that’s small. Your head is big. Really big!” *snicker*
Victim then panics and backpedals, “A man.. should be big everywhere. You’re really handsome. I’m jealous, Hyung-nim.”
BWAHAHA!! I literally laughed out loud at this scene.
The humor in the show gets better and better as the episodes progress. Seriously.
[END MINOR SPOILER]
While Soon Bum provides a lot of fodder for humor in the show, he’s not just a cheap comic device either. His love for Tae Yeon is deep and genuine and some of his scenes with Tae Yeon are really sweet. (More on that a little later)
In my opinion, this is hands-down the best role that Lee Won Jong’s played. Ever.
Kim Joo Young as Choi Dong Man
In comparison to the rest of the cast, Dong Man is a relatively minor character, but he rounds out the team as the maknae / intern who does a lot of the grunt work for the team.
He’s like Soon Bum-lite in some ways, because he brings some humor to the show in a similar fashion to Soon Bum: his facial expressions and his ogling of the sexy coroner.
Similar to Soon Bum, he does have his flashes of seriousness and intensity as well:
Although Dong Man is a fairly minor character, he is an indispensable part of the team and by the end of the series, I had a genuine affection for him.
THE RELATIONSHIPS
Bromance Central
The most awww-inspiring relationship in the show is the bromance between Tae Yeon and Soon Bum.
They are as different as chalk and cheese, but their trust and affection for each other runs deep.
[SPOILER ALERT]
When Tae Yeon gets backed into a corner, the only person that he trusts and calls on, is Soon Bum.
After Soon Bum hands him the blood samples that he’d asked for, the conversation that takes place between the two is sweet, funny & embodies the affection and regard they have for each other.
Eager to help, Soon Bum asks, “What should I do now?”
Tae Yeon replies wryly, “Don’t die, and keep yourself alive. I’ll call you when it’s time.”
Soon Bum nods, and then adds perfectly earnestly, “From now on, if you’re short on any blood to drink, call me immediately. I’ll consider it as a blood donation and pull out some of my blood for you, okay?”
Aww. That is just the oddest, sweetest thing to say, ever.
Can’t you just feel the brotherly love in the air?
[END SPOILER]
It Smells Like Team Spirit
At the beginning of the series, the team members feel dispersed and scattered, with only Tae Yeon and Soon Bum sharing a bond.
By the end of the season, however, the banter between them is cute and funny and points to a deeper connection and trust among them. It’s sweet to watch how the team members come together as a united whole.
[SPOILER ALERT]
Towards the end stretch, when suspicion is cast on Tae Yeon and he is being hunted by his own superior Chief Jang (Jang Hyun Sung), each of the team members do all that they can to support him, help him and root for him.
Jung In lies to Chief Jang that she hasn’t seen Tae Yeon, when she totally has; Dong Man tries to buy time for Tae Yeon by first shielding his computer screen from Chief Jang, then putting himself in the way of the SWAT team running after Tae Yeon, and Soon Bum slips Tae Yeon keys to his handcuffs so that he can escape.
I loved how every single member of Tae Yeon’s team never doubted him for even an instant, even though empirically speaking, the evidence was against him. That’s trust, yo.
The bonds of unity start to show themselves in the language as well.
In their conversations with Tae Yeon, both Jung In and Soon Bum use the word “uri” (we). Jung In says to Tae Yeon, “We’ve been doing fine until now” and Soon Bum says, “We’ll always be on your side.”
Tae Yeon’s thoughtful response, as the relationships sink in for him, is: “Those (“uri”) are nice words to hear.”
Indeed they are.
[END SPOILER]
Hints of Romance
There isn’t a full-blown romance in the show, but there are certainly hints of attraction between Tae Yeon and Jung In. I like that the writers tease out the attraction bit by bit over the course of the series.
This makes every little hint of attraction all the more meaningful. Every look and every turn of voice, everything that’s done, as well as everything left unsaid and undone, takes on deeper shades of meaning.
Importantly, this treatment of their potential romance allows the action to take center-stage.
THE CASES
Here’s where I finally reach a bit of a flaw of the show.
At the beginning of the season, I found the episode-to-episode crimes a bit of a letdown. I’d expected each episodic crime to be more smartly written. Instead, the earlier episodic crimes seemed a little too simple and convenient, which I felt took away from the show’s cool factor.
If the writers had managed cleverly written, Oh-I-totally-didn’t-see-that-coming types of crimes from the get-go, that would have taken the show to a whole other level.
The good news is, the episodic crimes got more interesting as the series progressed, and by the end of the season, the show had found its sweet spot.
THE OVERARCHING STORY
The details of the overarching mystery are dispensed to us, bit by bit, from episode to episode.
All we know in the beginning, is that Tae Yeon is single-mindedly trying to solve the big mystery of his sister’s death. The details of how she died, when she died, where she died, and what happened that night are hazy at first, but the big picture starts to take shape as the writers divulge more tidbits of information to us over time.
As we progress through the series, and as more clues to the Big Bad are revealed, the show starts to feel less piece-meal and more whole. It almost feels like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle floating around in space, inching their way towards one another and slowly fitting together, piece by piece. The entire series becomes more interesting and absorbing as a result.
MY THOUGHTS ON THE ENDING [SPOILER ALERT]
I have to say, I was very satisfied with the ending.
There was no cliff-hanger ending – something that I’d wondered about, since the show has a second season – and no lazy writing either. Plus, a lot of questions that we wonder about all season long get answered by the last episode.
There is suspense, tension and excitement as well as sadness and pathos as we unveil the mystery of the Big Bad and Tae Yeon comes face to face with the truth that he’s been searching for all along.
One of the most heart-wrenching parts of the last episode was the death scene of Tae Yeon’s doctor-bartender friend (Park Jae Joon).
In his last moments, he desperately urges Tae Yeon to drink his blood in order to save himself, that he might be strong enough to catch the Big Bad.
I found this scene really sad, not only because it put Tae Yeon in such a terribly conflicted position, but because of the desperation of doctor-bartender to find some kind of redemption through his death.
The huge amount of guilt that he must have been living with, knowing that he was the one responsible for creating the Big Bad, and therefore indirectly responsible for all the carnage over the years, must have been crippling.
The unveiling of Chief Jang (Jang Hyun Sung) as the Big Bad was a pretty big surprise, though that unveiling was done in stages over the last few episodes. It’s true that sometimes your enemies are a lot closer to you than you think.
On top of that, I thought the twist that the writers served up, about Tae Yeon’s sister Yeon Ji being the unwitting Smaller Bad, was cleverly done and yet full of pathos.
I found Yeon Ji’s story very sad.
She was an innocent victim even while she was part of the big bad. I pitied her. Not only had she died once before, she’d been brought back from the dead and turned into a vampire by pure accident, and being as young as she was, she couldn’t control her bloodlust. And now, she had to die all over again.
So, so tragic.
I could feel Tae Yeon’s helplessness, distress and pain as he came face to face with the fact that the only way for the cycle of murders to stop was for his beloved sister to die – again. *tear*
What this does, though, is give us a deeper understanding of Tae Yeon’s sense of righteousness and justice.
He’s the kind of prosecutor who will relentlessly pursue justice, regardless of the personal cost. And that’s the kind of prosecutor I want to see stick around for Season 2 and perhaps beyond.
THE FINAL VERDICT:
Cool, badass and full of substance. Gotta love him!
FINAL GRADE: A
POST-SCRIPT:
This MV captures the essence of the series’ polish, edge and style without being overly spoilery if you haven’t seen the show. Just imagine all of it in HD. Vampires never looked so good.
Enjoy:
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Enjoyed Vampire prosecutor and Vampire prosecutor 2 inmensly. Are there more seasons. Hopefully , would like to see more
There was talk of Vampire Prosecutor 3, but sadly, it doesn’t look like it’s going to happen. Coz firstly, it’s been quite a while since they started talking about it, and more importantly, Yeon Jung Hoon has said that he does not want to rehash the same role again. So unless they switch things up and make it interesting enough for him to say yes, it doesn’t look like it’s happening. :/ Sorry to be the bearer of not-so-promising news!
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Hello. This is A.K.I.A. Talking…
Thanks for the great review of Vampire Prosecutor 뱀파이어 검사 (2011) Season 1! I enjoyed it a lot.
I added it to my collection of reviews for the show. The show has now an average score of 80%.
Here is a link to the page if you would like to give it a look:
http://www.akiatalking.com/2015/01/vampire-prosecutor-2011-season-1.html
Thanks again for the review. If you want to do something with my blog, please contact me.
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I watched the 1st season, read your review, watched 2nd season, wrote my own review. i think we have a different definition of “badass” because Tae Yoon is good boy to the bone. Acting on his own or being mysterious doesn’t count as badass. I can’t also understand since when friendship is called “bromance”. That’s misunderstanding. There is close to none romance in the series, and it’s one of the good points of Vampire Prosecutor.
I liked the distinctivity and rhythm of season 1. Season 2 lost the artistic feel to it, which made it similar to other crime series, which is bad. The aerial shots, the split screens, tho looking nice remind me of USA-made criminal/procedural series, so it’s nothing special. The fighting scenes are made in a cliche style. This isn’t “something new” but it’s a good series, in the end.
The tsk face you liked in my opinion was “can’t she make a face something less obvious”? It was like she didn’t control her face muscles. I expected better from an actress.
Hello Kama, yes, it does look like we have different definition for some things. 🙂 In my books, badass simply means cool, with a bad boy sort of edge. And a bad boy isn’t necessarily, well, bad. Heh. That makes my world sound rather confusing, doesn’t it? Another thing that I think we define differently, is the word “bromance.” In k-ent and in the k-blogosphere, we use the term “bromance” to refer to very close platonic relationships between men. So in the case of VP, there was bromance. But not romance. And like you said, not having romance was not a bad thing, for the series.
I also found that S2 was not as artistic as S1. I liked the original series much more for its elegance and artistic touch. S2 was a lot more straightforward with its blood and gore, and I found that a little.. well, unimaginative, I suppose.
Putting VP in the context of Korean television, VP’s use of aerial shots, split screens etc is a departure from the norm. Well, it was a departure from the norm when it aired, anyway. Nowadays, with more procedurals on the k-scene, and more experimentation with genres, there are more shows that use these elements. And while the fight scenes might not have introduced new moves, I liked the way the moves were delivered. Yun Jung Hoon delivered Tae Yeon’s moves with a matter-of-fact ease that I found very fitting for the character’s cool essence.
I get what you’re saying about Lee Young Ah’s interpretation of Jung In, and concede that she might’ve come across as a little obvious. I don’t recall that it bothered me, though. Perhaps I was more interested in Yun Jung Hoon being a vampire, heh. 🙂
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I would have immediately watched VP -if I had not already done it- with your review (specially because of the blood’s pictures that are so beautiful *_* sometimes I don’t need more to decide to watch a drama XD one actor I like, some great pictures on the net and hop I’m ready to watch 50 episodes or more). I actually kind of understand why you said on season 2 that season 1 was more stylished 🙂 but like I said the cases were less thrilling in season 1 and the characters relationship were less deep (except for Tae Yeon and Soon Bum’s bromance that was already present in season 1). The thing I also didn’t like in season 1 was the past of Jung In. I liked the final twist but I thought it was a bit too much (specially her reaction…I could understand her but the scriptwriter’s true intention and writing were too visible. It wasn’t subtle enough. I could almost see them pulling the strings to guide the audience’s feeling. Don’t know if my explanation is really clear XD).
Anyway I can’t wait to see season 3 🙂 (I’ve seen that Yun Jung Hoon had refused to play in Endless Love -gosh the casting would have been so perfect if he had accepted! him + jung Kyung Ho and bye bye me- so maybe it was because of VP season 3..maybe it’ll start sooner than I thought héhé -fan mode: glowing crazy eyes, drool, hysterical laught- XD)
Right? The blood is so pretty in Season 1! 😀 It’s true that the cases in S1 were less well-written than the cases in S2.. I guess I’m shallow that way? I really missed the elegance of S1 when S2 came around. The emphasis on fleshing out character relationships in S2 was very good though. That made up for the lack of elegance in my mind. 🙂
I read that Yun Jung Hoon wasn’t particularly keen to do VP3 unless they put in something new and fresh for his character. Basically, he didn’t want to do more of the same. I can see where he’s coming from, from an actor’s point of view. He wants to stretch himself and not get into a rut of doing the same things over and over again. I do hope VP3 materializes, coz more our resident vamp would be great. And I can’t see anyone else playing Tae Yeon, tbh. Yun Jung Hoon’s become Tae Yeon for me. ^^
WHAT? You’re destroying all my dream if this is true T-T I want to see him in a third season (oh no he can not be replace by someone else!). I understand his reason but they made a end that need a season 3…he can’t refuse fruoqhjfezgutoeighotrj >_< Haha me too Youn Jung Hoon is Tae Yeon. I'm currently watching "Sad Love Song" with him but…that's hard to not think about him as a sexy vampire/prosecutor and to focus on his role specially since he plays a rich guy with a bad hair cut and bad fashion taste (kind of break the picture) XD
Well.. let’s hope that there’ve been more positive developments on getting him on board VP3, coz like you, I have trouble seeing him as anyone other than our beloved vamp. XD I mean, sexy vamp > rich guy with a bad hair cut, any day, right? 😉
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Your review has made me add Vampire Prosecutor to my TBW list! I actually keep meaning to watch it, but I keep getting distracted by other shows. But I think the slightly episodic format with crime solving would keep me interested. I love short arcs in series because sometimes the focus on an overarching plot can easily be led astray and the momentum can really grind to a halt.
Yes, do check VP out!! I found it surprisingly easy to like, despite my general indifference towards crime procedurals & vampire stories. The episodic arcs make it a nice show to catch just an episode of a day – so that you still have time for other shows 😉 – and the overarching mystery keeps you coming back instead of just dropping it halfway. It’s also short, at just 12 eps ^^
Its only 12 eps? Wow! I realized after watching K2H I really love subplots, and I’m actually a huge crime procedural junky (and may have seen parts of the Vampire Diaries…but I won’t admit to anything). Suddenly this show is rising higher on my TBW list!
LOL! XD If you’re a crime procedural junkie and a closet vampire fan *cough* 😉 then you should find VP a pretty nice watch.. The earlier crimes were a little too simple, but it gets better ^^ Maybe you’ll find 12 eps insufficient & embark on Season 2? 😀
Awesome, awesome review as always. 🙂 I was actually surprised by how good the show became — I expected the style but not the substance. And I was so, so pleased that the team actually formed. (I love good teams!)
Lee Wong-jung was the breakout actor for me, because I’d been so turned-off his character in “Equator Man” (as we were expected to be) I couldn’t imagine ever liking him. But he was so awesome and adorable and loyal as Soon Bum. It made me really, really respect the actor. Pulling out those two completely different reactions takes skill.
Lee Wong Jung is another wonderfully versatile actor. He pulls off both the bad guys you love to hate and the good guys you want squish. 😉 He was nasty in Warrior Baek Dong Soo too… In real life he is a total teddybear and I loved the story of how he wooed his wife.
What IS the story of how he wooed his wife?? I’m super curious to know! 😀
It’s been so long since I heard it but basically she was his sunbae at the theatre college (I think) and he had to work hard to get her to take him seriously. How’s your Korean? Here’s the Happy Together episode (for the VP cast) where he told it, pt 1: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xt6zw0_vietsub-happy-together-ep-219-part-01_fun The rest of the parts can be found there as well.
There was an English subbed version too but it’s gone from YT now. Pity, as it was really funny.
Thanks for the link, Timescout! My Korean can’t quite handle rapid-fire speed which is characteristic of variety, so I found an eng subbed version on daily motion.. So adorable! Until daily motion got stuck on me & wouldn’t stop buffering, gah! >.< Gonna try again another day. Hopefully it'll cooperate with me then!
Oh, your search fuu was better than mine. XD I couldn’t locate the eng subbed ver @ Dailymotion…
Thanks Betsy! I’m glad you enjoyed the review! VP surprised me too! It really came together in a fabulous way by the end stretch, and I found myself loving it a lot more than I expected to!
Yes, Lee Won Jong is absolutely ADORABLE in this, and I really disliked his character in Equator Man, just like you did! This is by far my favorite role of his – so comical, so bumbling & yet so sweet at the same time! ^^ I wish he’d play likable characters more often!
Ah, uri smexy Min Tae Yeon. You are absolutely right, Yun Jung Hoon IS Tae Yeon. I couldn’t imagine anyone else playing him. YJH is not the most versatile actor but he truly fit into this role, made it his own. Vampire Prosecutor was probably my favourite drama of 2011. There were others that quality wise were perhaps better but VP is the one I seem to remember the most fondly. 🙂 2011 was a pretty good drama year over all, for me anyway.
I make no bones about it that I do prefer bromance and friendship over romance, especially when it comes to action and procedurals, so that’s one of the reasons I realy liked VP. Then there’s The Team! I love teams. XD Tae Yeon and Soon Bom were so cute, the best couple of that year, LOL!
VP is such a stylish drama, it was lovely to look at but I think that the camera trickery sometimes bordered on excess bling. Not that it bothered me. Btw. did you know that the director is the same who was behind QIHM? He does have a distinct style.
I agree that the early cases were not all that interesting but they did get better as the show progressed. I must say I liked the S1 cases much better than the S2 ones. I guessed the Big Bad pretty early on but the other reveal about TY’s sister came as a total surprise. That I did not see coming. I’m also dying to say something about certain characters but that might be spoilery for S2, though I never saw their fate otherwise and it always surprises me that other’s did not see it the same way.
As it is, I’m sort of dying to talk about both seasons with someone. I’ve so far been talking to myself, so to speak. I don’t often do reaction-posts unless I’m really hooked and I did that for both season, LOL! I also went all meta on the VP vampire ‘mythology’ in one of my early musings.
Have you started with S2 yet? If not, just a word of warning. The 1st episode is very violent and I mean VERY. I love procedurals/mysteries/cop shows so blood and gore generally don’t much phase me. I’m also ok with violence if it’s not the of gratuitous kind and in ep 1 it skirted very close to that. Even I ff’d through some of the scenes. Anotheir thing… keep your eyes pealed to the screen and you wits about you as it’s packed with info, a lot of which you’ll easily miss if you don’t pay attention. It’s also very confusing that they did not date the flashbacks in the first few episodes, so a lot of people were totally clueless about the ‘when’. There are clear clues but I guess it was so fast paced that many did not notice them.
VP is sure making me wordy, LOL!
Wow. This has got to be the most epic comment on the blog so far! Love it! You deserve a prize, Timescout!! ^^ If I could make VP have multiple seasons, ie, 5 or 6 or 7, I’d make it happen, just for you!! 😉
Y’know, I did not know that the PD for VP also did QIHM! It makes total sense, though, now that you point it out! He does have a very distinct style, which I like! Very sharp and very stylish.
Indeed, Yun Jung Hoon IS Min Tae Yeon!! <3 I can't imagine anyone else playing Tae Yeon. Not only that, I think I might have trouble separating Yun Jung Hoon from this role – he just EMBODIES Tae Yeon so perfectly!!
Thanks lots for the warnings about the violence & gore in S2! I am JUST about to start watching it, and I don't generally like violence and gore. I watched VP despite not generally being into crime or vampire shows simply coz it had such a fabulous reputation that I just wanted to see for myself what the fuss was about. I think I might've been put off S2 if I hadn't been forewarned about the violence & had just met it head on 😛
Now, with blinkers in place in case of excessive violence, I'm ready to take on S2! Woot! 😀
LOL! I tend to go on and on when I’m writing about something I love. I do hope there will be S3 because… well, you’ll see when you get to the end.
I like the slightly different take on vampires that VP has and imho S2 is very much about the history of the vamps, about TY’s ‘family-tree’ so to speak. 🙂 It also has a different director. His style is pretty similar to the previous one but there is a very distinct tonal shift that may not sit well with everyone. The Team is still themselves though and that’s what matters most, to me anyway. The Big Bad is kinda awesome but scary as hell!
Ep 1 hits the ground running, so a lot of what they show starting from the very beginning matters later on, even on what we learn in later episodes. Pay attention to the details in the opening sequence and anything connected to that and it should give you clues about the ‘when’ of the ep 1 flashbacks. *g*
Looking forward to your take on it all.
Y’know, I thought I read somewhere that S3 is in the works.. not sure if that’s really the case.
I saw just about a minute of S2, ep 1, coz I was testing to see if my video file was playing properly, & I already felt like there was a different tone about it. I’m not sure how I feel about that yet, but I do kinda wish they had kept the tone consistent with the first season, just coz I enjoyed S1 so much. But still. It’s too early to tell, maybe I’ll like it just as much ^^
Thanks for the very useful tips on navigating the details in S2 ep 1! I’ll keep my eyes peeled for them! Er, whenever they’re open, that is! If it’s too gory I’m gonna close my eyes! >.< heh
S3 is in the plans but whether it’ll get to be done is another thing. I know for a fact that YJH is not keen to singing up unless they add something new to the mix as he doesn’t want to go over the same ground again. Understandably. On the other hand it won’t be the same if the same cast doesn’t come back or if they change the premise too much. That’s what happened with God’s Quiz – I loved the first to seasons but dropped S3 after a few episodes as I didn’t like the changes and I also happened to read about the ending, which sucked so…. we were not amused.
Btw, I think you might like GQ – it belongs to the same ‘family’ as VP with a series long mystery arch but it’s perhaps slightly more humorous. Another great team and I loved Ryu Duk Hwan’s quirky Jin Woo. There’s also an OTP and for once I was not miffed to have that in my procedural. LOL! Have you seen the VP S2 teaser that is a sort of crossover with GQ? Funny!
Yes, I can understand YJH wanting growth for his character.. It’d be boring for him as an actor otherwise. And they just CAN’T make VP3 without him! He IS our vampire prosecutor! Hopefully that means that his condition / request will be taken seriously?
I did see the crossover teaser! I haven’t seen GQ but I found the teaser hilarious all the same! Now that GQ comes with your endorsement, I just might have to check it out! 😉
Wow! Love your review of vp! You captured its essence nicely. It is definitely my favorite drama of all time. I love Min Tae Yeon and the others. They make such a cute, awesome and kickass team! 🙂
Aw thank you, Amy!! I’m glad you enjoyed the review! 😀
Yes, VP rawks big time, and so does Min Tae Yeon, and by the end, the team dynamics was full of awesome! Love! <3
LOVE this show! LOVE your review! (as always 🙂 – will you do a review of Season 2?
Aw, THANKS kakashi!! 😀 😀 And yes, I plan to review Season 2! I’m just about to start watching it, and I’ll review it once I’m done! ^^
cool. I’ve watched it, but mainly raw, and I plan to watch it again with subs these days, too. I’m such a fan! I wished Yun Jung-hoon did more dramas …
I was really taken with him in Season 1 myself! <3 I'm not sure if I'd be able to see him in any other role BUT as our favorite vampire prosecutor though! 😉 He's just PERFECT for the role! 😀