Joo Won’s new drama “Stealer: the Treasure Keeper” is here at last, let us discuss the premiere episodes!
Note: this article is a first-impression review, it doesn’t mean this is the writer’s final thoughts on the drama. This is a spoiler review.
Man, I can’t believe it. It’s been three years since we’ve seen Joo Won in a drama. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that he is returning with a new project and this project seems like it was a return to his older projects that he’s done in the past that found more success.
I was very critical of his previous drama, which I thought was convoluted to say the least. Of course, In case of Korean dramas, or any dramas for that matter about time travel and whatnot, it tends to become convoluted and very messy very, very easily. So, it was already going to be an uphill battle. But now with this one, I feel there is a lot of room to say some very interesting things about the state of Korean culture, heritage, history and more, not to mention who benefits from stealing these valuable pieces and why its such a huge market to begin with.
The first and second episodes were filled with exposition to the max which I think was done fine…. It’ll depend on how immersed you were in the drama, the more on the fence you were, the more likely to notice just how much each character talks as if they’re introducing the plot to the audience and not because they actually speak like that in real life. Granted, this is why exposition is a must but it does need to be done a certain way so the average joe does not notice it. I wouldn’t say this drama did a good job on that front some of the times, but the main plot is very intriguing and suspenseful which helped me digest the information much better.
Another thing I liked was how the drama just gets into the story immediately, there is no needless introductions, and you barely get to catch your breath. Having a character be moved from one department to the other serves as a good introduction to the audience who probably would be lost without a character being introduced newly to such dense environment and must be lectured on the terms and all of that jazz.
I was rooting for the skunk and I could see the hard work that went into the set pieces and the action scenes by him, I don’t know if he’s doing his own stunts or not with this one, but I appreciate the hard work put into the drama thus far.
I also liked the epilogue scene from episode 2 which shows it took time, money and so much experimentation to get to the state we see him in right now. I thought it was a beautiful touch.
I expect other set pieces to match the ones in the premiere episodes which will be definitely fun.
I found it very intriguing that we get to understand how criminals actually hide such things, I had no idea it had to be done like that or the lengths and smart brains it takes to trick the government. The amount of research that went into this pre-production must have been insane. The production team has done a great job so far.
I was initially surprised to learn that the drama is only 12 episodes long, but I think this is better. It also makes sense because I’d imagine its not going to be the easiest to come with so much content about stealing cultural assets without it getting ridiculously expensive on the production side while also appearing repetitive.
I have a hunch I am going to love watching this drama this spring.
So what about you guys? What did you think of the comeback drama of the Korean actor Joo won? Let me know what you thought in the comments section below.
