Wanted is about a popular actress (Kim Ah Joong) who is forced to do missions on a live television show after her son is kidnapped in order to meet the kidnappers demands. She is helped by a violent crimes unit detective (Ji Hyun Woo) who is determined to solve the case and a TV producer (Uhm Tae Woong).
Wanted was a solid drama that presented a mostly engaging suspense story. It jumps right into the action with popular actress Hye In’s son getting kidnapped. Right from the get go, everyone involved is faced with the morality of what they are doing. Should we really meet the kidnappers demands by airing this on television? Is it right to allow an audience in on this sort of thing?
And as the missions continue, the stakes become higher as people start dying. Backlash from the audience grows as they blame the entire production for killing people by airing the show.
We have Kim Ah Joong as Hye In. She’s forced into an unthinkable situation after her son is kidnapped. But she will do anything to save him, and she has to pull herself together in order to put on a show and complete the missions.
It was my first time seeing Kim Ah Joong, and I found her extremely bland in this role. Most of the time she donned this blank emotionless face. Of course, there were times she cried, but because of her overall demeanor, I was never able to connect with her emotionally and was never able to really feel her pain over having her child kidnapped.
Ji Hyun Woo fits the role of the dogged detective perfectly. He’s the one with the kind heart who would help someone in a heartbeat. I found him to be the be most engaging of the main characters. And for me, the most moving parts of the drama involved his connection to one of the missions.
Uhm Tae Woong was a great choice for the T.V. producer only concerned about getting ahead with the program. He has a cold, callous demeanor, but that is exactly what allows him to get the job done. I was unable to really connect with him because of his personality, but he was very needed for things to move forward.
There are a lot of supporting characters either on the production team or the police crew. I tend to enjoy shows that cover only a short time period. Wanted does that with only about 10 days occurring from start to end. But with so many characters and multiple cases going on, I didn’t get a chance to get deeply involved with any of the main or supporting characters.
The pacing of the drama was pretty great during the first half of the drama with some nice cliff hangers thrown in. But there’s a point just after midway through where things seemed to slow down. The ending does tie everything together pretty well while going very in depth with the kidnapper’s motives and taking a hard look at the morality of our choices.
Overall, Wanted was a nice, solid watch. It gives a decent exploration into the morality of our decisions and if the end justifies the means. It was a bit lacking in really developing the characters and making them empathetic. But it had a good over-arching story with the kidnapping of Hyun Woo. Then the smaller mission cases nicely tied in with that. It wasn’t exceptional, but it was well executed and interesting.
My Rating: 6.5/10
Click here for more Kdrama Reviews.
Sign Up to receive email updates of kdrama reviews, casting news, trailers, and more.
Kdrama Kisses 
Leave a comment