Taxi Driver (Season 1; spoiler review and discussion)
Taxi Driver is a crime and action K-Drama with a significant fan base, especially right now, when the second season begins airing. However, I must admit that after watching the first season I have mixed feelings about the show.
The premise is simple, the Rainbow Taxi company offers an unofficial service: revenge. If someone feels wronged and is a victim of a crime, they can request Rainbow Taxi to take revenge on their behalf. So, in a nutshell, it is a vigilante show: main leads are investigating crimes and exact “justice” on behalf of victims. It seems that the show takes an inspiration from 1982 American show “Knight Rider,” the show which made David Hasselhoff famous. The premise is almost identical. Despite Taxi Driver taking place nowadays, there is a lot of nostalgia in the show, starting with vintage taxi car the main lead drives, and ending with the music which is definitely inspired by 1980s.
The main lead is Lee Je-hoon as Kim Do-gi, the titular taxi driver, also the main “muscle” of the operation, a former Navy Seal and expert in all kinds of martial arts. He is assisted by Jang Sung-chul (Kim Eui-sung), CEO of Rainbow Taxi, Ahn Go-eun (Pyo Ye-jin), a skilled hacker, and two mechanics, Choi Kyung-goo and Park Jin-eon (Jang Hyuk-jin and Bae Yoo-ram). At the same time, prosecutor Kang Ha-na (Esom) is determined to uncover the truth behind the Rainbow Taxi.
The Rainbow Taxi takes on different cases: abused disabled workers at jeotgal factory, bullying, revenge porn, and phishing scam operation. Instead of handing over the suspects to the police, they impose the punishments themselves, including incarceration, which is done in cooperation with Baek Sung-mi (Cha Ji-yeon), a local businesswoman specializing in not so legal ventures (and who, in a sort of the twist, ends up being the main villain of the show). Baek Sung-mi’s prison is extremely inhumane and humiliating, and while the show introduces that as a one of contention issues among Rainbow Taxi crew, it’s surprising the creators of the show decided to feature such arc in the first place.
The Taxi Driver rightly suggests there are consequences to Rainbow Taxi’s actions. The whole operation is going haywire in the final episodes, the imprisoned criminals break free, it turned out that Baek Sung-mi was profiting of the prisoners by selling their organs (pretty gruesome, if you ask me), and the prosecution is closing in on the whole crew. However, while the show indicates that the Rainbow Taxi crew crossed the line, and their operation is essentially a criminal organization like those they hunt, it stops short from following with that and, in the end, our leads are able to avoid any accountability. As indicated by the finale, even prosecutor Kang Ha-na is joining them (although the actress, Esom, is not coming back for the second season, so I guess that arc is closed).
There are plethora of shows with vigilantes and superheroes, but most of them at least suggest some sort of cooperation with official law enforcement. Taxi Driver, for the most part of the first season, ignores the official law enforcement entirely and has an idea of supplanting the whole justice system, meaning, the whole process from investigating and hunting down the criminals up to incarceration and punishment is done by the Rainbow Taxi.
Another recent show, which is doing the same thing is The Good Fight on Paramount+ (and its clones elsewhere, like Skyshowtime, etc.). In the last season of this show there is also an organization which hunts down criminals and incarcerates them completely supplanting and ignoring the official channels and law enforcement. It seems to me that both shows have a very troubling underlying message: 1) official criminal justice is ineffective and ailing; 2) criminals do not get the punishments they deserve. The only solution is taking matters into our own hands, in short, the people have to supplant the justice system and exact punishments for crimes themselves. That’s a very troubling idea.
Democracies all over the world were fighting and still fight in many countries to have a truly impartial judicial system, which doesn’t respond to public opinion or the whims of the people, and judges everyone fairly. While nowhere is it perfect, it at least strives to attain those ideals. It is still a huge improvement over what criminal justice looked like in the past. Nevertheless, the shows like The Good Fight or Taxi Driver seem to suggest “screw all that, let’s come back to lynching,” because this is what it amounts to: when people take “justice” in their own hands, we’re back to public lynching and judging everyone guilty until proven innocent.
That’s not the only problem with the Taxi Driver. The writing of the show is very weak: the realities of many situations are not believable, with plot holes and other problems plaguing the show. Two of the most problematic episodes are focused on “revenge porn” and related problems. So the main antagonist is U Data company and their management, apparently a cloud (?) storage company. This company “in secret” actually distributes illegal videos, including, apparently, revenge porn and such. I presume, the whole plot is based on the case of Sora company (or Soranet) which was specializing in revenge porn in South Korea.
Nevertheless, the tech know-how in the show behind this case is not even on a preschool level, and they got all the details wrong. In a sort of anti-tech crusade, the creators of the show portray U Data as a tech startup (Silicon Valley style or something) which only unofficially deals with illegal materials (apparently indicating: all tech companies are predators and led by criminals). The real Soranet was illegal porn sharing site, not an official company or startup, and, as I understand, the content was uploaded by the users, usually “the creators” of the illegal content themselves (e.g., people installing spy cameras in restrooms, motel rooms, and such). In the case of fictional U Data, they have a special division which “uploads” videos, but from where and how, they don’t explain. In addition, the whole U Data management is portrayed in a very comedic (almost grotesque) way, really undermining the seriousness of the issue of revenge porn and personal tragedies it brings. The lack of verisimilitude in the show dealing with such heavy topics is really staggering.
There are other issues with the show. The main lead, Kim Do-gi, is seemingly indestructible, taking on literally dozens of criminals only by himself, despite any injuries sustained. There is almost no single firearm in the show: I understand that Korea has strict gun control laws, but criminals do not care about things like that. I presume it’s because it would be difficult to justify Kim Do-gi’s martial prowess had he faced assailants with firearms (and the show would have to portray John Wick-style killing of the bad guys, which is usually avoided by K-Dramas).
In sum, I have mixed feelings about Taxi Driver, and the whole show makes me feel uneasy. It seems to me that this show preys on feelings and opinions many people have, i.e., that there is no real “justice” in the world, and law enforcement don’t do their job properly. Nevertheless, vigilante justice is not the answer. The real solution is hard work on making the justice system more effective and less prone to corruption, but I guess this is not as spectacular as some guy “exacting justice” by beating up a bunch of thugs . . .
Taxi Driver on Wikipedia and MyDramaList
