[HanCinema's Drama Review] "The Girl Who Sees Smells" Episode 3

It would appear pretty definite at this point that most of the characters are, in fact, just as incompetent as they look. Take Yeom-mi (played by Yoon Jin-seo). She's the one running this criminal investigation, as far as I can tell, because Yeom-mi is the only character professional enough to actually focus on the facts of the case rather than get involved in petty male bickering. Moo-gak does at least get credit for trying to be professional- his main embarassing moment of goofiness is mostly a result of Moo-gak forgetting that interrogation rooms use two-way mirrors.

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As far as the murder case goes, "The Girl Who Sees Smells" is getting into the backstory way sooner than I was expecting. I still find the case rather unconvincing, mainly because the bad guy, too, is really incompetent. It's hard to imagine how he's been able to go undetected for so long when literally every single murder plan he comes up with falls apart the minute a random passerby shows up.

So I'm skeptical that this mystery is going to go in a compelling direction. At the same time, though, the fact that writer Lee Hee-myeong is putting this out in the forefront so quickly leads me to believe he does have an actual plan. What's more, there haven't been any particularly obvious flaws in the actual construction of the mystery, so it's entirely possible that there's actually going to be a convincing explanation for all of this.

As for the romantic comedy elements it's still mostly just Shin Se-kyung and Park Yoo-chun looking cute together. That's not necessarily faint praise. I actually rather like how Cho-rim and Moo-gak are in this rather awkward stage of just sort of mutually annoying each other. Moo-gak's failure to help Cho-rim at a critical moment is unsurprising, given that he has an actual job. And yet not only does he feel bad, Cho-rim's disappointment is rather subdued.

This very much gives the impression of sensible people who are struggling with tasks not really appropriate to their skill level. I'll be rather amused if by the end of the drama Cho-rim and Moo-gak have decided to trade career aspirations. At present I'm still not all that sure what to think of "The Girl Who Sees Smells", but the production is a strong enough one that I'm willing to entertain mild optimism at the moment. Seems like the least I can do, really, given how patient the lead characters are.

Review by William Schwartz

"The Girl Who Sees Smells" is directed by Baek Soo-chan, written by Lee Hee-myeong and features Park Yoo-chun, Shin Se-kyung, Namkoong Min, Yoon Jin-seo, Kim So-hyun, Choi Tae-joon, and more.

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