In trying to be more cerebral, the series becomes less fun—exactly what a whodunit shouldn’t be.
Less than a week ago, the most watched Korean drama on Disney+ just wrapped up. Nope, it’s not a rom-com, nor does it star global K-drama superstars such as Park Bo-gum or Lee Min-ho. The most streamed K-series on the platform that’s steadily growing its K-content is Nine Puzzles, a whodunit cop thriller led by two talented actors, Son Suk-ku (My Liberation Notes, Big Bet) and Kim Da-mi (My Beloved Summer, Itaewon Class).
I binge-watched all 11 episodes in less than a day, and here’s my spoiler-free review of the series for The POST.
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Stellar acting, uneven writing
The series stars Kim as Yoon Ena, a high school student who discovers her murdered uncle’s body alongside a mysterious puzzle piece, only to become the prime suspect. A decade later, Ena joins the police force as a criminal profiler, when she finds herself pulled into a new series of murders connected by similar puzzle pieces.
Son joins Ena on the hunt for the puzzle killer as Detective Kim Han-saem, who initially suspected his younger colleague of murdering her own uncle. While trying to solve the new slew of gruesome deaths, Ena continues to struggle with fragmented memories from the night of her uncle’s grisly murder.
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Rounding out the cast in support roles is an ensemble of just as dependable actors: Kim Sung-kyun (Moving, Reply 1988) as Captain Yang Jung-ho, Park Gyu-young (Squid Game 2, It’s Okay to Not Be Okay) as therapist Lee Seung-Joo, and Hyun Bongsik (Sweet Home) as rookie cop Choi. The series is directed by Yoon Jong-bin (“Narco Saints”) and written by Lee Eun-mi (“Tunnel”).
The best thing about this series is the acting—from our leads down to the bit parts. Even the cameos and guest roles were by some of South Korea’s most established actors like the great Ji Jin-Hee as Ena’s late uncle, Superintendent Yoon Dong-Hoon, and Park Sung-Woong as the shady developer Kwon Sang-Beom.
The weakest link, however, is the writing. I think the series is trying to do so much with so few episodes. Perhaps if it were the usual 16-episode K-drama then the characters would have been much more well rounded, rather than reduced to near caricatures, which unfortunately is the case for our two main leads. The inconsistent writing also led to less heart-pumping moments, which should be a given in a drama billing itself as a ‘thriller.’ Where are the thrills and chills? You have to wait for the last few episodes for this.
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Both Kim Da-mi and Son suk-ku are known for being among South Korea’ s most versatile actors, but in Nine Puzzles, Kim’s Ena, who was supposed to be smart and charming, yet a little bit eccentric felt one-dimensional (and sometimes already annoying) and only showed the slightest of vulnerability in the last two episodes. Son’s Han-saem was also reduced to a mere sounding board for Ena’s ideas, whereas he could have been more a proactive partner in the search for the serial killer.
I was literally pulling my hair at how underused these two actors were in the acting department. We could have had a deeper, more compelling series if they had a more nuanced character study and better lines! Maybe for season 2 (I’m assuming there will be a second season because of the high viewership), writer-nim, could you give more time to exploring our two leads? This goes especially for Son’s Han-saem. We hardly know anything about him. What is his background? Why did he join the police force? What are his motivations and why is he so reserved? What a waste of the actor Son Suk-ku’s talents!
I was also wishing for more light moments between our two leads. There was chemistry, yes, but I wish we saw more of Ena and Han-saem working together after they have already started being more comfortable with each other. I was looking for more pizza-and-coffee moments at their “home base,” the writer, however, decided to put an abrupt to end to this.
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Underwhelming resolution
Another irk is how some of the more pivotal moments happened off-screen, making the transition in between a few scenes jarring. Again this observation goes back to the series having only 11 episodes, with each running no more than an hour. I think the production tried to do so much with so little time. I am repeating myself, I know, but because it’s frustrating! The series has so much promise but fell short in delivery.
My biggest disappointment in Nine Puzzles was that conclusion. I was like—is that it? After all that build up it all just boils down to that underwhelming, anti-climactic climax? I guess apart from being uneven, the writing also veered toward being lazy, especially in the second half of the series.
Overall, it was still binge-worthy, especially with each episode only roughly around 40 to 50 minutes. Nine Puzzles also tried to tackle social ills like corruption, inequality, and even mental health, adding depth to what could have been a mere killing spree by a deranged serial killer.
But alas, it was trying to do way too much, and perhaps, that’s where the problem lies. In trying to be more cerebral, Nine Puzzles became less fun—exactly what a whodunit shouldn’t be.
Still, I’m looking forward to a more polished, more nuanced season 2.
Rating: 3/5 stars.
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