[Funcurve Review] "Mrs. Cop"
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"Mrs. Cop" is an action thriller about a team of police officers that deal with violent crimes like murder. Our protagonist is the leader of this team, and we follow her in a rollercoaster ride to solve various cases while witnessing how she struggles to balance career and family at the same time.
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I've never been one too keen for crime dramas. I find that it often follows the same formula: episodic storyline starring a ragtag team who strictly fights for justice, coupled with a bigger plot of corruption, the revelation of which becomes the ultimately climax, and justice always prevails in the end. In my experience, this formula works, but it can also be boring without the right balance of character development and if the cases are not well thought out.
In the case of "Mrs. Cop", this formula worked in its favor.However, in the case of "Mrs. Cop", I find that this formula worked in its favor, because the drama not only gave us reasons to care about its characters, but also revealed the corruption early enough for a full closure. Otherwise, the underlying corruption would have seemed like a last minute plot line thrown into the mix, rushed through without tying up all the loose ends, much like other crime dramas I have come across before. Fortunately, that was not the case with "Mrs. Cop" as the drama had much more to offer.
Episodes 1-4 Review 
The early episodes of "Mrs. Cop" introduce us to our investigations team and main characters. I must say that I didn't quite click with the drama immediately, but was able to slowly grow appreciation of it over time. We meet Choi Yeong-jin (Kim Hee-ae). She's a hard working officer, who struggles to balance both her job and her family, often leaving her daughter to be taken care of by her sister. We see Yeong-jin's team tries to catch a murderer, but it's proven difficult due to some bribery in the police force, as well as the slippery murderer constantly finding loop holes to get away. What really bothered me though is the diminishing sense of realism when you see a group of at least five police officers trying to take down one person. Yet somehow they always fail to do so for a variety of silly reasons, one of which is that a rogue police officer decided to go off on his own.
Despite the somewhat unrealistic and slightly forced setup of the storyline, I do like the fact that the drama gave Yeong-jin a child so we could see two diverging sides to her: a no nonsense cop and a loving mother. But to the drama's credit, both aspects of Yeong-jin played into each other to make her a consistent character overall. For example, she never gives up on cases because she cares about keeping the promises she made to the victim's loved ones.
Both aspects of Yeong-jin played into each other to make her a consistent character.Yeong-jin's caring personality is a stark contrast from others. Her superior and long-time friend, Park Jong-ho (Kim Min-jong), is portrayed as a blind follower, listening to the police chief even when he realizes something doesn't quite add up during a case. "Mrs. Cop" intended to make Yeong-jin look considerate and righteous when she fought back against the chief's decision, but inevitably made Jong-ho look cowardly for not doing so. Despite the drama trying to paint her as a picture-perfect character, I however, see flaws in Yeong-jin. She's hotheaded and makes promises that she doesn't know if she can keep. In my opinion, how emotionally invested she gets with the cases is in fact a flaw for a cop because it affects her objectivity, which can come off as unprofessional at times.
We also meet the antagonists of the drama during these episodes: President Kang and his son Jae-won. Jae-won has actually committed murder, but his father and secretary do everything they can to cover it up. President Kang himself isn't a stranger to killing and embezzlement either, allowing the drama to set up a truly unscrupulous antagonist. I'm curious as to how the drama will factor them into the overarching plot. Will they be the only consistent appearances in an episodic drama? Or will they lead into a bigger plot? Only time will tell.
Although the first few episodes of "Mrs. Cop" had their issues and didn't grab my attention as well I had expected, I'm hoping the next ones will, now that we're gearing up to dig into the meat of the story.
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