"Grandpas Over Flowers Investigation Team" Episode 10

The drama appears determined to make the viewer lose any sort of confidence in the narrative design underlying "Grandpas Over Flowers Investigation Team". We start with a flash forward to a preposterously ridiculous super evil villain cliche- one that's portrayed with the utmost seriousness. There's no joke here. It's just, choose wisely Joon-hyeok bwa ha ha did I mention that I'm evil.

I don't know what's going on with the villains here. Yes I'll grant that?fiction isn't?necessarily supposed tobe plausible but the only reason this guy's any kind of threat is because the script keeps throwing up these ridiculous backdrops to establish that the man can't be arrested, and presumably still can't be arrested even though he's committed all these crimes for which there must be some sort of evidence. Like, say, Joon-hyeok's testimony.

It's awkward because as bad as all this stuff is, the actual invesigation part of the drama is reasonably well done here. The team is trying to get to the bottom of the motivations and structural nature of the conspiracy they're faced with. This involves more age-swapping antics, as well as neat little negotiations where the characters share what they've learned and everyone, as a result, has to think that much harder about the next step.

The various lovelines of the drama are also given some decent development. It's not presaged by much, but still, it's fun. Joon-hyeok losing it over his sister getting cute with his co-worker never stops bing funny, and the comedy is only accentuated by the fact that these are all young men in old people bodies who can't let on to the fact that they're actually?even more charming and handsome than they seem. Now there's a princess kissing the frog story I can get behind.

Then, though, we inevitably get back to the villain doing the evil stuff and I really have to emphasize- we don't even get to see him do th evil stuff. Mostly it's off-screen, and then we see the results, and then it's another cliched predicament and I'm just left wondering, how exactly is he managing all this without leaving any evidence? And why does this drama keep doubling down on the damsel in distress stuff? That's not even a fun cliche. But then that's the drama we're left with right now. A lot of fun that's bookended by bad action thriller?scripting without the?thrilling action?parts.

Review by William Schwartz

"Grandpas Over Flowers Investigation Team"is directed byKim Jin-yeong, written byMoon Seon-heeand featuresLee Soon-jae,Byeon Hee-bong,Jang Gwang,Kim Hee-cheol,Lee Cho-hee,Kim Eung-soo.

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