Vagabond, Season 1 (Review)
Vagabond is one of the few cases I actually don’t recommend watching the show: mostly because at the moment it’s a waste of time. And yeah, it isn’t very good either.
Vagabond was released in 2019, and now, after more than three years after the release, we still don’t have any certain information about Season 2 (or, at least, I wasn’t able to find any). Right now, Season 1 has an incomplete story and ends on cliffhanger: so, unless you don’t mind being disappointed, I would skip this one.
In general, Vagabond is a political/spy thriller. The premise is quite simple: after a passenger plane crash (with over two hundred people dead), one of the bereaved family members, Cha Dal-gun (Lee Seung-gi), is launching his own investigation to reveal the truth behind the catastrophe. By doing so he encounters a multinational conspiracy reaching the highest echelons of the Korean government.
Cha Dal-gun is not a very well written character: he has barely any character development during the show, he is just bent on revenge and is constantly angry, literally shouting at anybody. He works as a professional stuntman. In the prologue to the show, he is shown in a Jackie Chan-like blooper reel, but this is not followed later and perhaps serves only to justify his exceptional fighting skills (and yeah, neither secret service agents nor professional hitmen, nobody is a match for him). In a result we have a very one-note character, and not particularly likable either.
In a lead female role, we have Bae Suzy as Go Hae-ri, an agent with NIS, Korean National Intelligence Service. This is the worst underuse of a talented actress I saw in K-Dramas as of late. Most of the time she serves as a sort of manic pixie dream girl for Cha Dal-gun: she assists him all the time, she calms him down, she explains everything he doesn’t know, and yeah, she “romantically” bumps into him all the time. She is also constantly berated by one of her bosses at NIS, Gi Tae-ung (Shin Sung-rok), perhaps only for viewers to feel sorry for her, because obviously the criticism is unfounded most of the time (or at least the show portrays it that way).
Then there are embarrassing scenes when she either because of being drunk or otherwise indisposed gets into “romantic” scenes with Cha Dal-gun, but it is never developed into fully fledged romance arc. In addition to that she also serves as a comic relief for the show. This is in stark contrast to the entirety of the series: this is not a comedy, 90% of characters behave seriously, all are very businesslike and competent people, only Go Hae-ri always runs into comedic situations. While the character of Go Hae-ri would be well in place in any K-Drama comedy (although as it is written now it would be still somewhat sexist), it sticks out as a sore thumb in Vagabond. A comparison with Anna, another thriller with Bae Suzy, shows how terribly underused she is in Vagabond: the role of Go Hae-ri criminally limits her performance, and doesn’t allow her to fully explore her acting skills.
(Light spoilers ahead)
And then, there is a plot. Oh boy, where do I even begin? There are two large military companies involved in the conspiracy which led to the crash of the passenger airplane: Dynamic Systems and John & Mark. Throughout the series the lead execs of both companies, Edward Park (Lee Geung-young) from Dynamic and Jessica Lee (Moon Jeong-hee) from John & Mark, play a blame game who is actually responsible for the crash. Then there are NIS officials and government officials, and most of them are corrupted in this or other way, involved in the plot, and being bribed by one or the other military companies. That includes the president, prime minister, some other ministers and governmental officials, and the head of NIS. I am not joking: literally almost everyone is involved in the conspiracy besides our main protagonists.
Throughout the Season 1 the conspiracy becomes really ridiculous, to the point that in one episode our main protagonists are in a car chase, pursued by corrupt NIS agents, professional hitmen hired by one of the companies, and the entire Seul police force (and they still succeed to avoid their pursuers). Therefore, the show often becomes unintentionally absurd and silly. Both main protagonists and their allies at NIS, as well as bad guys, switch sides several times during the show. Most antagonists betray each other during the show a couple of times. The plot is increasingly confusing, and certainly doesn’t really make sense, at least some of the time.
All people involved in the conspiracy are devious and duplicitous, as expected, but also cunning and always stay ahead of our protagonists, so Cha Dal-gun and Go Hae-ri and their allies are very often limited to reacting to villains’ plots. They usually succeed only because the other group of bad guys decides to help them. Lead female antagonists, Jessica Lee, and Edward Park’s assistant, Mickey (Ryu Won), are portrayed as experienced, competent, and deadly, in stark contrast to Go Hae-ri, as I noted above. There is also Lily (Park Ah-in), a highly trained assassin, written very stereotypically as a sort of Harley Quinn-like character, but still manages to be more interesting than Go Hae-ri.
We learn that Go Hae-ri only works as NIS agent to support her family, but the series breaks here one of the basic rules K-Dramas usually obey: show, don’t tell. We never meet Go Hae-ri’s family, creators never explore her motivations or struggles, so we lose an opportunity to add some depth to her character.
The series hints at some romantic interest between Go Hae-ri and Cha Dal-gun, but this is never really developed into full arc. I guess the writers decided that there has to be a romance but didn’t have time to write it? In the end, we’re led to believe that Go Hae-ri and Cha Dal-gun care for each other or like each other, but this was not earned, and not really necessary. It’s okay to risk your life for a “co-worker,” especially in a spy thriller, characters don’t have to be romantically involved, it’s okay to have a professional relationship between a man and a woman. The whole arc should’ve been either fully removed from the show, or it should’ve been developed into a real romance arc.
The show is entitled (a mild spoiler) after one of the cells within NIS allied with our protagonists, but I cannot help but wonder if this was a poor attempt at allusion to Bond franchise? (Because the name Vagabond doesn’t make sense in the context.) In general, the show seems to be indeed inspired by Bond and Bourne franchises: it has a lot of action, roof and car chases, rough fights, etc. Nevertheless, the creators of the show felt compelled to infuse as many K-Drama motifs as possible: conspiracy and corruption, comic relief characters, romance, etc. In a result we have a really disjointed attempt, a wasted opportunity to make truly engaging show.
Vagabond on Wikipedia and MyDramaList
