[HanCinema's Drama Review] "Delightfully Deceitful" Episode 2

In its first week, "Delightfully Deceitful" had ratings of 4.551% and 3.464% for its Monday and Tuesday timeslots respectively. These are fairly average ratings, but not really below average for what it's worth, given that "Delightfully Deceitful" lacks an obvious core concept. On paper the drama sounds like a legal procedural, but Moo-yeong's lawyering is a bit of a weak point really, given his lack of clear ethical foundation and motivation in regard to legal services.

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It's a bit odd to think how, despite Ro-woom being the enigmatic sociopath at the center of a murder mystery, Moo-yeong is the more inscrutable character. Our only real hint as to his motivation is the bookend section that shows how as a kid, he appeared on the same television program that made Ro-woom famous. The twist learned from these segments is that Moo-yeong doesn't seem sociopathic or psychopathic at all in these sections. She just seems like a normal kid from a poor family.

The clear implication is that the Jeokmok Foundation, which played an outsized role in Ro-woom's life after this chance encounter, did something to Ro-woom to change her. Ro-woom herself denies this, interestingly enough, claiming that she was always like this. But Ro-woom is also scheming to murder everyone she can find who's connected to the Jeokmok Foundation, something that the supposed actual murderer of her parents, Choong-sik (played by Park Wan-kyu-I) rather bizarrely seems to approve of.

More important than Choong-sik in the grand scheme of things, there's Yo-han (played by Yoon Park), Ro-woom's probation officer whos listed as the second lead despite his role not seeming all that important. He's threatened by Ro-woom into backing off thanks to Da-jung (played by Lee Yeon) and Ringo (played by Hong Seung-bum) spying on him. How and why Ro-woom even has friends willing and able to do favors like this for her when she's been in prison for ten years is...unclear.

The oddest aspect of "Delightfully Deceitful" is that the show's at its most compelling when it's hard to tell what's going on. Maybe it's just because she keeps using asides to explain them, but I'm not very impressed with Ro-woom's cons- especially when she seems capable of coming up with something more convincing than just bullying hospice staff. Likewise, Moo-yeong's explanations of his actions in court don't really work for me either. His behavior is being flagged as unusual and it's not clear why no one seems to care.

Written by William Schwartz

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"Delightfully Deceitful" is directed by Jamie K Lee, written by Han Woo-joo, and features Chun Woo-hee, Kim Dong-wook, Yoon Park, Park Sojin, Lee Yeon, Yoo Hee-je. Broadcasting information in Korea: 2023/05/29~Now airing, Mon, Tue 20:50 on tvN.