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Memorist korean drama review
Completed
Memorist
0 people found this review helpful
by riri89
May 2, 2020
16 of 16 episodes seen
Completed
Overall 9.0
Story 8.0
Acting/Cast 10.0
Music 10.0
Rewatch Value 7.0
This review may contain spoilers
First of all I'd like to say that I normally watch a drama when it has fully aired, but with the Memorist I watched it as it aired. It is a different experience and to be honest, I don't think this is a drama you should binge through. I enjoyed watching two episodes back to back and then coming to this site and read everyone's comments and join the discussions... it somehow became a special drama maybe because of it.

If you are expecting a drama that shows you where it's heading and hints heavily on the culprit from the first episodes, you will be sorely disappointed! This drama is a rollercoaster and for the most part, a very thrilling one.

Analysing the main characters of the show, I will start from Dongbaek, the memorist detective. He is a little firecraker who ends up more times than I can count in the hospital, he's cocky and comes across as arrogant but hides a painful past. What I liked about how the show approached his powers, was when they spoke about how scanning people's minds can actually be violating someone's human rights... and honestly it is a valid point. Therefore, for his scans to be considered as evidence, like with any other type of evidence, they have to be collected legally and with a warrant.

Han Sunmi is the female lead and a great profiler. She is cold and smart and determined to find the culprit for her father's murder. I found at the beginning of the show that her personality was a bit inconsistent but eventually the writers seemed to have found the balance and made her a more solid and likable character.

Both main characters are surrounded by various side characters who don't have much space in the story, but are well written. My favourite characters being DB's team members who, as the story progresses, grew in me a lot.

The story also features plenty of evil characters, but by far the most important is Jaegyu. Mysterious at first, you eventually get to know his whole life story, and to be honest, I ended up sympathising with him. His character was by far more interesting than the eraser, which brings me to what I DIDN'T like of the show

The Eraser:
Few times a show introduces a character that truly terrifies me, but in the memorist they did a great job with the eraser. This evasive character full of hatred and insight. I had never thought before that erasing people's memories could be such a strong weapon until I watched this show. From beginning until the final episode, his identity is never revealed, and once we find out it is Dongbaek's sister, it kind of makes sense... it couldn't really be someone else and yet... it left me feeling really disappointed. I'm sure if I re-watched the series all over again, I would find a million reasons why it doesn't quite fit right, and the series had been so good until then that my expectations were maybe too high.

All in all, I was going to give the show 10 points, but the last two episodes dropped it to 9. It is a VERY different and enjoyable drama whether you like crime shows or not, and it does make you think much more than I am used to.
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