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The Mind Reader
Based on the webtoon of the same name, Dr. Frost is a Korean drama about a genius psychology professor. He helps the police solve mysterious crimes on the side through his shrewd observations and incredible analysis of the criminals’ minds. Don’t be surprised if this sounds familiar — it is indeed very similar to Sherlock Holmes. In fact, the setup is almost an exact replica. The main character Frost’s (Song Chang Eui) brilliance in logical deduction and observation of details are just like Sherlock’s, but so are his lack of emotions and awkwardness in social settings. Frost has his own ‘Dr. Watson’, a 3rd year psychology major student named Yoon Sung Ah (Jung Eun Chae) and ally in the police department, detective Nam. Whenever Nam has an unusual case, he asks for Frost’s help. And of course, Frost’s equally talented nemesis ‘Moriarty’ is not absent from the drama either.
Traditional ways of catching the suspect don’t work in Frost’s world.
With so much parallels to Sherlock Holmes, why is the drama worth watching at all? The answer lies in the focus on the psychological states of the involved parties and the exploration of mental issues over the crime itself. Traditional ways of catching the suspect don’t work in Frost’s world because most of the criminals have a mental issue. They are often not conscientious of what they’re doing. This makes the process of analyzing and proving who’s guilty much more interesting to watch. On the flip side, a major disappointment also stems from the lack of complexity in the crimes. The cases themselves become increasingly dull over time and significantly weakens the drama’s thrill factor.
True to the essence of Korean drama, Dr. Frost also adds its own flavor by amping up the melodrama ingredients compared to Sherlock Holmes. It leverages Frost’s hidden past and his complicated relationship with fellow psychologist Song Sun (Lee Yoon Ji) to stitch together underlying plots that reflect depth in his character. For what it’s worth, if you’re not expecting elaborately planned criminal cases and simply looking for a new twist to a crime drama, Dr. Frost is a good candidate.
Episodes 1-2 Review
Dr. Frost opens with a thrilling chase scene to set the mood for the drama then quickly transitions to introduce the main characters and their relationships. Frost becomes a psychology professor at the university upon the request of his mentor and long-time friend Dr. Cheon. He meets his assistant Sung Ah at school, who is polar opposite in personality. She’s empathetic and human, but naive in analyzing a situation and trusts people too easily. Needless to say, they don’t exactly jive, which makes their interactions rather amusing to watch.
Developing in parallel are the crime cases, which are generally isolated and solved at the end of each episode. While not totally intricate and mind-blowing, the cases in these two episodes did have original, unexpected twists and maintained a sense of suspense and mystery.
The drama also hints at an overarching backstory waiting to be unraveled by presenting scenes of a mysterious lady and depicting the love-hate relationship between Frost and Dr. Song. I can’t help but wonder how they’re all related and what really happened in the past. Curiosity propels me to keep watching.
Episodes 3-4 Review
Frost and Sung Ah’s interactions continue to be a delightful highlight with signs of Frost warming up to her and becoming more appreciative of her contributions. In contrast, Frost’s relationship with Dr. Song becomes more of a drawn-out melodrama with no further clarity other than the fact that she holds him accountable for her younger sister’s death.
Meanwhile, much to my disappointment, the cases quickly deteriorate in complexity and lose their thrill as the criminals become increasingly obvious. Progression and motivation of the crimes also feel less convincing while loose ends are not tied up thoroughly at the end of the cases.
What helps carry me to the next section of the drama is another hidden theme of Frost’s mysterious past — a traumatic accident during his childhood that turned his hair all white and caused him to lose emotional apathy.
Episodes 5-6 Review
Dr. Frost finally picks up again with two key plot lines running in parallel — explanation of the past and development of a new threat in the present. First, in the present, detective Nam comes to Frost with another bizarre case of seemingly unrelated individuals who are all committing suicide out of the blue. A closer look reveals that someone who is just as good as Frost in psychology and mind control is intentionally targeting people around him, as if to prove a point. Could this be Frost’s ‘Moriarty’? How is he able to control people? What’s his motivation? More questions pile up in my head as the episode wraps up with the case unresolved and the criminal unexposed for the first time.
Interestingly, rather than continuing on the topic of the unsettled case, Dr. Frost shifts gears to delve into the past. At last the drama reveals the history between Dr. Song and Frost and what really happened to Dr. Song’s sister seven years ago. The pleasant surprise comes from the fact that the truth lies deeper than what it appears to be on the surface. It took Dr. Song seven years to finally get to the bottoms of this belated discovery.
Episodes 7-8 Review
The next two episodes of Dr. Frost are the most uninteresting ones to date. The drama enters a slump as the cases grow more and more predictable and unexciting. Not only has the drama lost almost all of its initial suspenseful and mysterious appeal, the mood becomes even lighthearted at times — a jarring and unnatural transition for the series.
In addition, now that Frost and Dr. Song have put their past behind them, progression of the underlying themes and development of the main characters have stalled a bit as well. Rather than weaving in threads of the previous plot line regarding the unresolved suicide case and Frost’s new rival, the drama chooses to focus on random and unimportant topics like Sung Ah conducting her first consultation and detective Nam’s daughter’s accident.
Knowing that everything will need to get wrapped up in the final two episodes, I watch on with my fingers crossed that the closing storyline would not disappoint.
Episodes 9-10 Review
Dr. Frost finally evokes my interest again. The drama resumes the enigmas around the man behind the previous suicide case and spices it up even more. Frost’s rival strikes again but this time creating false memories that leads to the deaths of two people who are associated with a murder case from 20 years ago.
Meanwhile, flashbacks of Frost’s childhood reveal more around the accident that led to his parents’ death and his drastic change of character. The unexpected twist is that Frost’s own memory doesn’t seem to be completely accurate. What’s real and what’s fabricated? Who’s the actual culprit? Clouds of mystery resurface and I eagerly try to figure out how and why these events are connected.
The last episode does tie all the disparate plot lines together in a reasonable way, but not without a few letdowns. For one, the explanation and closure of events were super rushed. As a result, the ending felt pretty anticlimactic despite all the built-up earlier in the drama. Secondly, perhaps due to the same problem of running out of time, a number of loose ends were not addressed, leaving me feeling somewhat unsatisfied.
Despite its ups and downs, Dr. Frost did manage to showcase an interesting variation of the classic Sherlock Holmes detective storyline. The final scene of the drama clearly hints at a second season to come and I can only hope that the it will be even better.
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