[HanCinema's Drama Review] "Pride and Prejudice" Episode 2

I really admire just how professional all the characters in "Pride and Prejudice" are. Yeol-moo and Dong-chi, rather than trying to keep their past relationship a secret for no good reason, are completely open about the situation. Yes, it's mildly embarrassing, but someone was going to figure it all out sooner or later. This also allows for other characters to have their personalities fleshed out by reacting to this unexpected situation. Typically, this too is done professionally. All around the investigative team is a class act.

The main exception to this rule is Hee-man (played by Choi Min-soo). He, however, has a good excuse for being so straightforward and direct- Hee-man is the boss. By design, he can say pretty much whatever he wants without any expectation of personal consequences. And I also love how he's a boss who's actually there and mostly helpful. Too often the people in charge are either villains, incompetent, or a complete non-presence. Hee-man is exactly the kind of management I'd expect from a team this capable.

The investigation this episode doesn't go as smoothly as the last one, but it's a testament to their general abilities that the team is able to recover from their hiccups and ultimately make the arrests anyway. Note that the main obstacle in particular is created by Yeol-moo- the newest recruit on the team, and the one least likely to appreciate that they have operating procedures for a reason. Her going maverick is less a proof of the independence of Yeol-moo's character as it is a sign of inexperience.

But even then Yeol-moo still knows what she's doing. Rather than react as a predictable damsel-in-distress, Yeol-moo has quite a bit of agency when things go wrong. The criminals too, to their credit, don't react as moustache-twirling villains would upon receiving new information, instead attempting to save their own skin and avoid committing any more crimes. This is quite effective in terms of humanizing them, even if at the end of the day they're bad guys who need to go to jail.

"Pride and Prejudice" continues to work excellently as genre fiction. While there's more personal character development this episode, it never overshadows the importance of the working environment. The appeal and maturity of the characters is a welcome one- I particularly enjoyed one scene where I only belatedly realized that Yeol-moo and Dong-chi were actually discussing an event in their private lives rather than a work matter. They really are that cool-headed.

Review by William Schwartz

Advertisement

"Pride and Prejudice" is directed by Kim Jin-min-I, written by Lee Hyeon-joo and features Baek Jin-hee, Choi Jin-hyuk, Choi Min-soo, Son Chang-min, Jang Hang-sun, Lee Tae-hwan and many more.