Review – Two Cops

I didn’t realize this was going to be a supernatural comedy until the end of the first episode.  Two Cops is the phone “nickname” that our lady reporter gave our gentleman detective after noticing he seemed to have two personalities.  One, the intense and focused detective with incredible fighting skills and a keen sense of justice – and Two, the goofy, flirtatious conman that mystically takes over our detective’s body sometimes after they were both involved in an accident together.  This may be the best role Cho Jung-Seok has ever played (just kidding, he’s been great in quite a few shows) – as he gets to seriously show off his acting chops by being two believably different personalities inside one body.  Everything about him changes, his tone of voice, his physicality, the look in his eyes.  Its one of the best examples of one actor playing two people that I can think of.  Kim Sun-Ho plays the conman, when he’s in spirit form, and excels as the lovable lawbreaker.  Hyeri is simply adorable as the feisty reporter caught between these “two” men.

Overall, this is a buddy comedy.  A bromance.  A mix-match personality pairing in the style of Lethal Weapon, Men in Black, Bad Boys or even Midnight Run.  There’s a little romance mingled in there, but really… it’s about two dudes.  And it was adorable.  This show was a wild, fun ride that I highly recommend.  True, the first half was a bit more zany and fun than the second half, but it will still overall awesome and I loved it.

Overall Rating – 9/10.  Two Souls and One Hot Body.

More about Two Cops… with spoilers…

Okay.

This show has a LOT going for it.  First of all, the two souls sharing one body angle was nicely done.  You get Cho Jung-Seok pulling double duty as two characters in a lot of scenes, but then you also get him playing off of Kim Sun-Ho in other scenes.  Sometimes they’re both around.  Sometimes one is in the other.  The scenes shift back and forth, reminding you other people can’t see Kim Sun-Ho.  There’s a lot of comedy gold there, having one cop seemingly arguing to himself.  Or switching personalities.  They’re both extremely lovable characters, so regardless of who was in the scene – it was fun to watch.

And of course, they both have the hots for the same girl.  Our lady reporter isn’t sure what to make of her split-personality suitor… but hey, it’s Cho Jung-Seok no matter how you look at it and that’s a lot of good looks to look at.  Honestly, our lady reporter was the weakest link – as she’s not necessarily that great of an actress.  However, this role didn’t really call for too much emotional strain so I didn’t mind.  She was cute and feisty and played well with all the dude characters she was surrounded by.

The other great thing this show brought us was how fun it is when cops and criminals work together.  The con man brought in all his white collar crime buddies, “The Avengers,” to help deal with the bigger fish…. ie, the murders and human traffickers and psychopaths.  You had the three dudes who worked in the bakery who were always willing to lend a hand.  You had the black market plastic surgeon.  And you had Young Pal, the leader of a small band of ruffians who I loved.

You know I love Lee Si-Un.  He’s my ideal K-Husband.  He plays Young Pal, a zany criminal who can’t help but do the right thing when called upon, to perfection.   He’s always telling stories about himself and getting his team riled up with chants and demonstrations…

When gave his team a knife demonstration and made the raddish bunny with the carrot bowtie?  Oh, how I love him.

There was even a cute side romance story between a wealthy cop and a shameless pick pocket girl.  They were so adorable!  When she goes in for his wallet and he thinks she’s grabbing his ass?  I died.

There’s an over-arching plotline about who is responsible for some accident that happened 16 years ago – that links all our main characters – and the cover up and conspiracy behind it.  There’s a mysterious figure on a motorcycle who keeps trying to murder everyone.  And there’s also lots of nice episodic mysteries to be solved, some of them quite intense.  It was a nice balance.

We even got to spend several episodes in the Korean men’s prison.

Though there are some emotional moments and heartfelt confessions and perhaps a little sniffling on my side while watching… overall, it was a comedy.  And a very funny one at that.  I thoroughly enjoyed the shenanigans and giggles as I marathoned through this show.  Everyone seemed to work easily together and had casual chemistry and I didn’t feel the need to fast forward even once.

It was a hit.  I was in comedy heaven.  I highly recommend it.