The first three episodes of the upcoming Disney+ streaming show, ‘Seoul Busters,’ features irreverent humor that goes no-holds barred with its humor and comedy. Unlike other comedic K-drama cop shows that takes its storylines seriously while dropping comic moments and funny dialogue here and there, ‘Seoul Busters’ is more about having fun and cracking jokes at almost every turn. It feels more like a situational comedy than a comedic cop serial, which means that it has a different flavour but is still distinctly a K-drama.
The 12-episode show is about the worst performing squad in the violent crimes police squad. They include Moo Jung-ryeok (Park Ji-Hwan), who is a tough talking, hot-headed, former member of the National Boxing team; Jeong Jeong-hwan (Seo Hyun-woo), an obsequious detective who is always pandering to anyone of authority; Seo Min-seo (Park Se-wan), the only woman in the group who is as tough talking as the guys but is secretly hiding her longing for a boyfriend; and the rookie, Jang Tan-sik (Lee Seung Woo), who appears to be not very bright or not at all capable but is extremely enthusiastic and eager to be helpful.
Combined, they form the lowest-rank squad and are a constant pain to their superintendent. It’s so bad that they were forced to relocate in a former day care center when their office was up for renovation. The visual comedy of these tough talking police detectives trying to work in the setting of a day care center. The building interiors are colorful, there’s a ball pool, a slide, and most of the chairs are built for children. In two episodes of the first three episodes, there’s an interrogation scene where they are in a room with tiny chairs and tables and the Moo Jung-ryeok and the suspect have to play out an interrogation scene while sitting in seats made for children. The idea of it is hilarious.
Things change when a new captain is brought into play. Enter Dongban Yu-bin (Kim Dong-wook). He’s smart, capable, and multi-awarded and while he was set for a job at the administrative level, he requested to be transferred to violent crimes as he feels he still has much to learn on the field. He is perfect in every way, entering a crime scene and observing little details that is shown to the audience by subtitles popping out with every detail that catches his attention. He has relatively poor social skills, though, and as he is assigned to the squad, Moo Jung-ryeok immediately dislikes him, Jeong Jeong-hwan tries to get to his good side, Seo Min-seo is fighting her growing feelings for him, and Jang Tan-sik is trying his best to still be helpful.
The first episode of the 12-episode series is set to establish the characters and the milieu and introduces us to the first case. The second and third episode shows the detectives at work, trying to solve the case and getting into hilarious shenanigans while playing out the dynamics of the new team. The first case gets resolved by the end of episode three before they introduce a new case, so it seems that the show may take on an episodic structure with the goal of seeing if Dongban Yu-bin has what it takes to raise the squad from the lowest to the level of even being competent.
While the first case is solved through some detective work, the intricacy of the crime is revealed so it creates a whodunit structure, the show is really more focused on the humor aspect. It is not afraid to go highbrow or even low brow (sometimes even veering into toilet humor). It seems nothing is off limits at the moment and so how the show will continue to evolve will be quite interesting.
For some reason, the show reminds me of ‘Brooklyn 99’ and if the humor continues in this vein, it’s going to be a fun 12 episodes.
My Rating:
SEOUL BUSTERS is now streaming on Disney+. Watch it here.
