Bullet Point Review: Queen of Mystery 1 & 2.

Spoilers Ahead…

• Queen of Mystery starts off with a hilarious episode — Yoo Seol Ok (played by a charming Choi Gang Hee), loves to solve the small petty crimes of her neighbourhood with Officer Hong (Lee Won Geun), but without the knowledge of her mother-in-law. Then, in one of her (initial) crime-solving outings, her mother-in-law and her friends suspect that she might be having an affair, and with a few calls, a few guesses, they figure out where she is. They are right of course, and the whole process is a noteworthy nod to how women are inquisitive in general and can figure out anything they set their minds to, and when this skill is put to good use, like solving crimes, it can do wonders.
• Then again, Seol Ok isn’t your average daughter-in-law. She can’t cook but can solve crimes that leave even experienced detectives baffled. She uses every opportunity that takes her out of her house, be it grocery shopping or a visit to the dry cleaners, to solve mysteries. These mysteries are not just limited to crimes; during one of the shopping trips, she easily deduces where the supermarket is going to sell the half-priced eggs, and happily walks out first, with a large carton. Later on, when Ha Wan Seung (played by a delightful Kwon Sang Woo) accidentally sits on these eggs, she cries out hysterically in the middle of a crime scene and fears what her mother-in-law would say. In another, she reminds herself to buy tofu, and in one of the best scenes of the series, she keeps getting interrupted by her mother-in-law’s calls when interrogating a murder suspect.
• She is sort of the Miss Marple of this dramaverse, and Choi Gang Hee plays her with sincerity. She is smart and fearless and she is also aware that her family underestimates these qualities of her, but she never complains. She understands the importance of family, especially having lost her own, and is determined to keep this one, even if it means to give up what you love.

• This unique angle is completely lost in the second season when Seol Ok is divorced. The story’s selling point was about a housewife solving crimes where she is as worried about catching the culprit as she is about buying groceries and reaching home on time to cook dinner, but by making her a single and available, and a part of the police workforce, it becomes like any another crime drama out there.
• Also, I really loved how the initial episodes of season one concentrated more on the mystery part of the crimes — about the who, the why and the how. It felt fresh and some of the scene transitions were very innovative, but halfway through the show, the pace slows down, and we get caught up in the office politics, and a lot of time is wasted on getting Seol Ok involved in every case.
• In comparison, the last few episodes were too fast-paced. The deductions and emotional moments are lost to action, which wasn’t a problem, as they were very well executed, but knowing that there was going to be another season, the show could have handled the climax in a more smoother manner.
• The second season is definitely superior (even with the loss of many of its characters from the first season and Seol Ok’s marital status) thanks to its tight script and a humorous cast. The success of the first season seems to have brought more well-known faces like Kim Won Hae, Oh Min Suk, Kim Ming Sang, and Min Sung Wook to the show, which results in quite a few laughs.
• The season also works well as a standalone show as there are very few mentions about the (central) unsolved case from the previous season. Instead, we get bigger and a wider variety of cases ranging from murders, sexual assault, revenge crimes, arsons to missing persons.
• The screenplay is very well written, and the drama uses the multiple characters to its advantage by letting them each handle a different case, (in other words, the subplot). They are cleverly overlapped, and thankfully not confusing, which keeps us hooked until the very end.
• Another aspect that I really found really creative was to use the new characters introduced in some of the cases as victims later on. We are emotionally involved with them, and so is the main cast, and like how the characters are now motivated to work hard to find the killer, the same way we are motivated to stay with them.
• The lighting is beautifully done. The hazy green of the interrogation room, the yellows and reds of the markets, and the blues of the skyline, they help transcend the story to a more mystical style, but there are moments where the lighting is too harsh, especially the deep reds, and oranges.
• The long shots (in the first season) are beautiful, especially those shot near the sea and the cherry blossoms.
• Thankfully, the Queen of Mystery never gets too close to technological aspects involved in the investigation like hacking, tracking and most of it is a door to door investigation, talking to witnesses, walking around and making notes and deducing the movement of the criminal. With season three in the works, let’s hope more of that continues.