[FIRST IMPRESSION] Black (2017)

First first impressions post! 'Black' is a 2017 OCN drama about a detective who is possessed by a Grim Reaper, and a girl who can see the shadow of death. They work together and try to save lives. At the writing of this post four episodes have aired so far.

It seems as if there have been more Grim Reaper dramas than usual since the success of Goblin (e.g. The Universe's Star, Black) - or has Goblin just made me more aware of them? Nonetheless I was drawn to this drama by the interesting plotline and famous (not to mention very good looking!) cast. Go Ah Ra has beautiful eyes which are a relatively light brown, which is unusual in South Koreans. I'm sure it played a factor in her being cast for this role since her character has special vision. 

There may be spoilers up to episode four from this point onward. 

Like most fans (judging from the comments section), I found episode one to be really interesting but started getting confused during episodes two and three. There's a lot happening - Moo Gang's detective squad are working on multiple cases, Ha Ram is dealing with reuniting with her childhood crush and digging into the truth behind her father's death, and Man Soo has his own problems with his older brother and Royeol Insurance. While we don't know exactly how, everything that's happened so far to all the characters (literally, including every single case the detectives have been working on) seems to have some relationship with the '1997 Mujin case', even though we don't know much about that either. The drama throws bits and pieces of information to you without explaining how they fit together, and that made me question why the drama was being confusing.

At the end of episode four however, I started appreciating how this drama made me think. The major question being thrown around at the end of episode three was: If Ha Ram can see when a Grim Reaper is inside a human, why can't she see 444 inside Moo Gang? I was also wondering how 444 flashbacked to the burger cafe since he's not supposed to have Moo Gang's memories, and speculated that 444 was the GR who collected Ha Ram's ex-boyfriend's soul.

These questions got answered in episode four, and addressed in such a way that I realised the writer was deliberately teasing us with bits of information without painting the full picture. I'd gotten so used to being spoon-fed information that the moment I wasn't being walked hand-in-hand through the plot, I dismissed the drama as confusing. But I'm beginning to find that the questions I'm holding onto make me anticipate the next episode so much more, and I can't wait till how everything is related is revealed. One thing I'd still insist though, is that I wouldn't have realised the newlyweds at the beginning of episode two were Ha Ram's parents if a fellow fan hadn't pointed it out in their comment. Ha Ram being of both human and GR descent makes so much sense and adds another dimension to the story. Unless the writer intended us to realise this later in the drama, it really wasn't made clear.

My current observations and speculations:

• The younger boy in the photo with Jun is Oh Man Soo, the current president of Royeol Insurance. There's some history involving Jun, Man Soo, Ha Ram (and as we know already, Sun Young (the doctor) and Jin Sook (the lady who froze to death)) and the 1997 Mujin incident.
• Man Soo's older brother, Man Ho, mentions how Man Soo doesn't know 'what kind of person [his father] really is' and how he's cleaning up the mess his father made. Man Soo's father's close friend Mr Commissioner General is also based in Mujin and knows something about Jin Sook based on his reaction to the CCTV footage. Both of them were probably involved in the 1997 incident.
• Moo Gang visited the mental hospital to get the tape off the nurse who was working there. The villain shows up a month later and, angry at not being able to get his hands on the tape despite being so close, kills the nurse while inflicting maximal pain. I'm not completely dismissing my initial thoughts that Moo Gang has an ongoing psychological issue though (it would explain the medication he's taking).
• Ha Ram wasn't able to see the Grim Reaper inside her father because, like 444, he hid his identity by only wearing black.
• Ha Ram's mother knows that her husband was possessed by a Grim Reaper. It explains why she didn't follow up his death and had negative feelings towards him.
• I agree with a fellow fan's hypothesis that the person trying to kill Moo Gang wants his eyeball to open the basement door.
• 444's ex-partner who lingered after collecting Ha Ram's ex-boyfriend's soul knows the detective with anger-management issues, who makes a passing comment about someone called Soo Hyuk who died. I don't know how he fits into the story yet.
• It's really cool how when Ha Ram foresees the person's death by touching the 'death shadow' she's actually touching the Grim Reaper.

Questions I'm waiting to be answered:

• Why did Moo Gang not (or pretend not to) recognise Ha Ram? I've seen fan hypotheses that Moo Gang is actually possessed by a Grim Reaper since the beginning of the drama because he's died somewhere between childhood and the present. It would explain why he doesn't recognise Ha Ram and the mother's claims about how hard it was for her to keep Moo Gang alive. Also, when he gets shot as a hostage it's to the temple - the exact location to release a Grim Reaper who's possessed a human. However I'm not completely convinced by this (maybe I just want Moo Gang to be human haha) and I think there's more to Moo Gang's past.
• So far there are two villains being presented to us. Villain 1 is the one behind the repeated attempts to kill Moo Gang, and Villain 2 who has the spider tattoo and scar on his face. How are they related to each other?
• Why didn't Ha Ram say anything despite seeing Moo Gang on the bridge which the student jumped off?
• And of course - what is the tape and why is everyone after it?

As I'm also watching While You Were Sleeping, the whole vision-from-the-future and let's-prevent-what's-supposed-to-happen-from-happening concept isn't as novel as it would've been otherwise. Which is a bit of a shame cause it undoubtedly dulls Black's impact to some extent. At least it isn't a case of 'Kill Me Heal Me' and 'Hyde, Jekyll and Me', which unfortunately even shared the same air time.

That brings me to the end of this blog post! Overall Black is sitting at a promising category two for me, and I'm looking forward to the upcoming episodes. If you want to follow my post-episode thoughts more closely, you can usually find me in the comments section on dramacool :P Feel free to say hi, I'm always happy to discuss drama! :)