The newest MBC blockbuster drama “The Veil” has aired this weekend and this calls for a review!

“The Veil” is led by Namgoong Min and is a blockbuster action drama about an elite field agent named Han Ji Hyuk [Namgoong Min] at the NIS (National Intelligence Service). He has a perfect record and immense skills at completing missions. However, when it appears that he’s driven an organized crime syndicate into a corner, he vanishes.

After a year, he resurfaces and decides to join a crime syndicate to find the traitor responsible for his downfall.

This is also one of the most; if not the most; expensive MBC dramas ever made, the average episode cost around $1.1 million to make which means that the drama has cost at least $12 million since it has 12 episodes.

Today, I am here to discuss my thoughts on “The Veil” and talk about why I liked the premiere.

Note: this will be a spoiler review of the said episodes in the title. This is a subjective review.

The setting and plot

“The Veil” is a blockbuster drama, filled with action and no dull moments. It was so fun to watch, it felt like a movie. You can see the quality is amazing and a lot of hard work has gone into making sure this project comes out the way it did. I can feel the sincerity and hard work through the final project and I can tell everyone is taking this super seriously.

If you watch spy American TV shows and movies, then such a setting is just average, however, if you don’t really watch many movies and dramas about espionage, this must have been a pleasant surprise for you.

The level of violence used in the drama is also shocking and this is coming from someone who sees a lot of gore content. I didn’t expect them to take it this far, I like it a lot because it tells me the gangsters are not to be messed with, they are a real dangerous threat and their level of sloppiness and violence is terrifying to look at.

There are some kdramas with similar themes but we mostly see such a setting used in K-movies, this makes this drama stand out among all the currently airing weekend dramas.

The ratings also vouch for that, it has already surpassed 8% in ratings and is the number one drama in its time slot despite going up against “One The Woman” which took over the penthouse time slot, the time slot that has long dominated the weekend ratings battle.

For a drama that has aired on a time slot for the first time, this is huge. I also believe [correct me if I am wrong], this is already one of the highest-rated MBC dramas for 2021.

The budget and episodes count

If you read my reviews, you already saw this coming. I have been talking about the decline of MBC and KBS dramas quality for years. With the introduction of Netflix in South Korea, the quality and budget used for kdramas have gone exponentially up. MBC and KBS started lagging behind, stuck in a repetitive cycle of casting amazing actors for mediocre scripts causing their slow death.

It seems that at last, MBC has taken initiative to catch up. Cutting down on the episodes count from the standard and upping the budget. It must have not been an easy decision to make but I am glad it was done.

And who is better to take on the challenge than Namgoong Min?

It is the perfect recipe.

The fact that “The Veil” is only 12 episodes long is amazing news in my opinion, this means the script will be more compact and denser. This means, there will be less filler content, something the majority of MBC dramas struggle with.

The performances

If you’ve watched “The Veil” and have been keeping up with internet reactions then you’ve probably already seen people talk about how Namgoong Min will probably take home the daesang award at this year’s MBC drama awards.

It’s been only two episodes but I can already tell this will be one of his best performances to date. This actor is brilliant and so fun to watch. The dedication he has for his craft is amazing, the transformation he’s gone through for the role is a testimony of that.

I loved his performance in the first episodes, I couldn’t take my eyes off of him. He’s so captivating. I haven’t seen much of the rest of the cast but everyone involved in this project is a pro so I have no worries.

My expectations of “The Veil” have gone up dramatically following the premiere. I think the drama has a chance to break through the 10% ratings mark and even aim for the 20% if it continues to be this interesting.

I can’t wait to see the rest of the episodes.

So these are my thoughts on “The Veil”, so what about you guys? did you like the episodes? let me know what you thought in the comment section below.