I must say this show was nothing like I expected. I didn’t know what to expect, honestly, but definitely not what I got. ? One thing I will say, though, is that unlike most K-dramas I’ve seen, the show actually started out terrible but got better.

Beyond evil was a perfectly serviceable “whodunit” script. I thought the way they introduced the murder of Dong-sik’s sister was very effective and it immediately set up Dong-sik was the prime suspect. After the time jump, though, it started to suck. The problem is that the writer tried too hard to make everyone seem like a suspect early on. First 5-6 episodes were wasted setting everyone up as crazies but instead of creating suspense and mystery, it only made the characters extremely unlikable and cartoonish. Even after that, the show continued to play cheap tricks and introduced distracting story threads to make the story unnecessarily complicated and confusing. This actually mirrored what two main characters did throughout the show in which they kept playing tricks on other characters to get themselves deeper into the case and find the “whole” truth. By episode 8-9, I started to not believe what’s being said and done because I knew in a few scenes, they would show a completely different version of the story than what they led you to believe. Once you realize the trick, there’s no going back. What’s sigh inducing about it was that the story itself was such a simple one. Just another cliche cover up story involving powerful people. A simple murder case turned out to be much bigger kind of story. You’ve seen this many times. Bad guys might as well have name tags saying “I’m guilty”. Although, there were some twists along the way but by then, the show already burned through too many false twists that I wasn’t moved or shocked. There simply isn’t much going on in this world they created to warrant 16 episodes which seems like a common K-drama problem. Also, I must say that what took place in Han Ki-won’s house at the end was probably the most cringe worthy scene in TV history.

As for two main characters, they went way overboard to fulfill their respective nut job roles. Dong-sik has the crazy laughs and bulging eyes with red eye make-up to go along with it. I’m guessing he was channeling the Joker??? Joo-won, of course, has to be the opposite so, naturally, he has no emotion and social skills. He basically sees suspects everywhere and flat out asks people if they committed the crime!!! It’s hard to go along with any of this because their motivations and backstories were not disclosed early on. I was constantly wondering why they were acting that way and put off by their strange behaviors.

The secondary characters did fairly well. I liked Chang-Jin, Jae-i and Ji-hwa. Chang-jin was a stand out as the former gangster turned CEO/killer/Russian quipping all around entertaining guy. Ji-hwa was great as a childhood friend turned detective who’s basically only calm and settled character in the show. I’m liked Jae-i as the sad deli owner but felt like she disappeared towards he end.

Music in this show was atrocious. What’s the deal with the weird crying/wailing music? Once again, another cheap attempt at creating a creepy, uncertain atmosphere but off putting.

Like I said, it’s not a bad show but it could have benefited by cutting out 5-6 episodes to make the story tighter and not waste viewers’ time with cheap tricks. Viewers are not as dumb as some of these writers seem to think. Just give us good stories and we can figure things out by ourselves. Hopefully, they’ll learn.