“Why did my happiness disappear at once? Nobody answered. And nobody will answer.”

Korean drama TEN has to be the best crime series I’ve seen in a while. Dark and moody, it doesn’t shy away from the sort of horrific crimes that other shows are often too tame to depict. The first episode was an hour long special that felt like watching a movie. At first I was bored and I thought I had it all figured out, but of course I didn’t. The ending hit me hard, and I ended up in tears. Its been a long time since a drama or movie left me feeling so devastated. The drama is beautifully shot, with a wonderful OST and surprisingly good acting. I liked all the characters and wanted to know more of them. The second episode was more creepy than the first, but I still ended up heart broken and in tears.

Sadly as the episodes went on I lost that emotional connection with it. I still loved it, the crimes were still well thought out, the show was still beautiful to look at and the OST was still carefully chosen and always appropriate. But somehow the later episodes just didn’t connect like the first two. And the cracks began to show- mainly a problem a lot of these shows have, in setting up amazing characters and yet…never quite fleshing them out. Taunting viewers with snippets, bits and pieces, but never quite following up. Well, I lie. They shoved all the back story into the very last episode. Which was jarring to say the least. There were definitely some issues with pacing towards the end.

And I ended up feeling let down by Ji Hoon’s back story and the reason behind how he is. I loved his somewhat unstable nature- “the monster who hunts monsters”- and to see it all reduced to the classic cliché of well, you’ll see. I hate that cliché, or rather I hate the way it is used. I am now halfway through the last episode and can’t bring myself to finish it. I do still hope there is a second season though. This is one series very worthy of it. And maybe the characters will be better developed over time.

(Really, I just want something on the level of the first episode. That episode came very close to being perfect.)