All cops are bastards, except maybe Son Suk-ku in this because something about him chewing gum is just so captivating…
What it's about
After being discharged from the army, Lee Tang is depressed, bored, and unable to muster any motivation to move forward in life, until he discovers his accidental talent of killing evildoers.
The take
Life can be funny sometimes, with the way accidents can lead us to what would make the entirety of our lives. Usually, these accidents lead us to a new career, maybe the love of our life, and sometimes a new life path altogether, but for recently discharged Lee Tang in A Killer Paradox, it leads to finding that his talent is killing evildoers, accidentally or otherwise. It’s funny to see Lee accidentally getting away with murder and the way his imagination conceives of his serial killer victims, but the show also gets into intriguing thought experiments about the morality of his actions, as well as the way we try to reconcile the tragedy of a lost life, with the terrible consequences of the actions they did with their lives. It’s enjoyable, with the great cast and the unique cinematography, but the writing, structure, and thriller aspects fail to maximize what’s so interesting about A Killer Paradox.
What stands out
With an intriguing premise, an empathizable protagonist, and fun cinematography, A Killer Paradox has interesting ideas but the pace vascillates widely across episodes. The first two episodes start so slow that the succeeding episodes have to speed up in order for its plot to fit its near eight hour runtime, killing the momentum of whatever the drama had going for it.