The Uncanny Counter (Review)
(경이로운 소문; aired from November 28, 2020 to January 24, 2021; 16 episodes)
The Uncanny Counter is essentially a K-Drama version of CW’s “Supernatural” with a mix of a typical K-Drama conspiracy plot. Instead of demons, main characters battle “evil spirits,” which is mostly a semantic difference, as these evil spirits behave and work nearly identically to Supernatural’s demons. Even the CGI when an evil spirit transfers from one body to another in the form of black smoke (and changes their eyes to pupilless black) is identical.
The evil spirits of The Uncanny Counter are not fugitive demons from Hell, but the souls of dead people who escaped from Afterlife (again, only a slight difference in regard to Supernatural universe). And our heroes are not hunters, but “counters” (I must have been missing some context here, no idea why they’re called that). When they catch an evil spirit, they exorcise it (obviously), but before that a lot of fighting is involved. Towards the end of the season, that fighting really seems to be inspired by The Matrix, as both sides have different supernatural abilities, usually involving telekinesis.
The main protagonist, So Mun (Jo Byung-gyu) is a high school student somewhat accidentally involved in the whole thing, and he becomes one of the counters. In time it is revealed that the main conspiracy plot is connected to the mysterious death of his parents, and his goal is to unravel this mystery. He is helped by Ga Mo-tak (Yoo Jun-sang), a former policeman, who was nearly killed because of the investigation of the said conspiracy, now seeks the truth as a counter.
Two supporting characters are counters Do Ha-na (Kim Se-jeong) and Choo Mae-ok (Yeom Hye-ran). Their backstories are barely explained in the series, and their arcs seemed like an afterthought. It is obviously difficult to make an ensemble cast series like that with equal time devoted to each character, so it must have been a choice of the creators to highlight two main male leads of the show. Nevertheless, in the end we barely learn about the past of two female leads: the show never really explains what happened to them, we get just some sort of vague flashbacks with no detailed explanation. So, in the end, the female leads have no motivation, nor agency in the entire show, they are there just as pure supports: could be easily cut out from the show with no real change to the overall plot.
Also, the choice of focus on a conspiracy plot is a curious one. As opposed to similar series from American networks like CW or SyFy, the main villains of the show are not supernatural beings, but corrupted politicians and businessmen. While the supernatural aspects eventually got entangled with the main conspiracy plot, the main arc revolves around So Mun and Ga Mo-tak bringing corrupted men to justice. Yeah, an amazingly original idea for a K-Drama . . .
Also, for some reason the creators decided to add a secondary arc about bullying in So Mun’s high school involving him and his two friends as victims (and one of the bullies is obviously the son of the main villain of the show). Again, this arc has literally no impact for the main plot and could have been easily removed from the show. It is entirely unnecessary and takes away the time which could have been devoted to fleshing out the female leads’ backstories.
I don’t know if this is somehow required that all K-Dramas have to deal with corruption, conspiracy, and bullying, but while they are definitely important problems, I am not sure if these are appropriate for a supernatural comedy like The Uncanny Counter, and definitely not necessary. Due to these creative choices the evil spirits in the show are just a gimmick, have no goals or motivations, are just antagonists who kill for the sake of killing. In the end, if the entire supernatural setting had been removed from the show, the main plot would end up being unchanged.
Apparently, Season 2 of the show is scheduled to be released some time in 2023. I hope that the creators will find a way to make the whole supernatural setting more integral for the plot in the new season of the series.
Don’t get me wrong, The Uncanny Encounter is still an entertaining and funny show: however, it fails to justify the supernatural aspect of the plot. I can contrast it with recent Hellbound on Netflix, where the whole supernatural arc is crucial for the plot and affects the lives of everyone in the show, forcing characters to make difficult choices. The Uncanny Encounter instead decides to focus on rules according to which counters are allowed to work (which, in the end, the characters in the show break with no consequences), as well as on the importance of teamwork in the secondary character development arc for So Mun who learns how to work with his teammates.
Unfortunately, as opposed to Hellbound (or CW Supernatural and similar shows) The Uncanny Encounter is not interested in world building, and pondering how the world where the supernatural exists would differ from ours. The main leads (as well as some of their antagonists) use their powers nearly openly, what would surely attract some attention, but the creators decided to ignore such problems. So, in sum, in a result we’re getting the show, which is certainly entertaining, but pretty shallow and unimaginative.
The Uncanny Counter on Wikipedia and MyDramaList
