[HanCinema's Drama Review] "Bad and Crazy" Episode 12

The final episode of "Bad and Crazy" opens with some fairly dynamic zaniness. Inspector Ryoo tries, and mostly fails, to brute force his way out of the mental institution. But eventually he sheds this buffoonish plan for a more devious one involving drugs and blackmail. Five months later, he's finally executed this plan, even anticipating that the surprisingly murderous Doctor Hong (played by Kim Sun-hwa-I) would just try to have him assassinated.

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I briefly wondered whether Doctor Hong was a part of the conspiracy surrounding Doctor Sin, also known as Yoon-ho, since his untouchability was never actually explained. But "Bad and Crazy" provides no actual answers when it comes to that situation. In the end Doctor Sin is defeated by a mere background check. You know, they don't let literally anyone practice psychiatric counseling. Doctor Sin would have needed a medical license for that, and I have no idea how he managed to get one with a fake identity stolen from a mental patient.

The finale of "Bad and Crazy" makes a lot of callbacks to earlier episodes as part of its greater send-off for K. In practice all this really accomplished was agitating me because I remembered when the conflict was based around far more fearsome obstacles than a psychoanalyst who's beyond reproach for completely unclear reasons. The final takedown of Assemblyman Doh, for instance, relied not just on that villain's hubris, but Inspector Ryoo's own flawed character and Patrolman Oh's dedication to justice.

All of the supporting characters beyond Inspector Ryoo got little out of the ultimate story arc. Despite her high billing, Detective Lee had almost no screentime after the big kiss scene with Inspector Ryoo. When this is finally brought up again late in the episode, I was surprised to notice that Detective Lee herself didn't really seem to know whether they had gotten back together. I don't think we ever really found out why they broke up in the backstory either.

Instead of building up the characters, the setting, or even the mystery, "Bad and Crazy" chose to use its last few episodes to tell the extremely boring story of Yoon-ho's petty quest for vengeance. For all that emphasis, we never even get the answers to such basic questions as to how Yoon-ho knew Inspector Ryoo, or how and why he was committing all those crimes. All in all, "Bad and Crazy" ends on a much weaker note than where it started.

Review by William Schwartz

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"Bad and Crazy" is directed by Yoo Seon-dong, written by Kim Sae-bom, and features Lee Dong-wook, Wi Ha-jun, Han Ji-eun, Cha Hak-yeon, Kang Ae-shim, Kim Dae-gon. Broadcasting information in Korea: 2021/12/17~Now airing, Fri, Sat 22:40 on tvN.