I'm Jessica, and this is ATC presents devak rambles, where a
couple of friends review Korean dramas.
And today, on a very special episode of season three, I have
my usual co-host, Rico with me. How are you?
Hey, I am back, baby. I'm excited.
I'm excited to be back. It's been a while.
My work schedule has kind of kept me away from being able to
review shows on a on a consistent basis.
Yeah, but I'm glad to be back. So this is gonna be fun.
I'm glad to have you back. I'm glad to have you back on a
very fun episode. I imagine we'll have a ton of
fun reviewing vinchenzo. Hey.
Yeah, we've been watching this. A really long time.
It feels like we've both been watching vinchenzo for like,
months. It is finally here.
We're finally done. We're going to review it.
Yes, there were times waiting for this episode to be recorded
that I had to like, go back and, like, refresh my memory on
certain things. So like, I had to like go online
as like, hold on, does this happen in this episode or that
episode and like, stuff like that.
So I'm excited, though. Yeah, I'm excited to have you
back. We're going to get started.
We're going to get. Started right after this because
if this is your first time listening, thank you so much for
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Curtis, Robin and Bailey. Yeah, that's right.
So I'm going to get started on reading the my drama list
synopsis for Vincenzo and then we're going to get going.
Mindrum Melissa Nosis reads at the age of 8, pachu Young went
to Italy after he was adopted. He is now an adult and has the
name of Vincenzo Cassano. He is a lawyer who works for the
Mafia as a conciliary because of a war between mafia groups.
He flees to South Korea and South Korea.
He gets involved with lawyer Hong Chau Young.
She is the type of attorney who will do anything to win a case.
Vincenzo Cassano falls in love with her.
He is also. He also achieves social justice
by his own way. Alright, so this show originally
aired from February to May 2021. It is firmly a pandemic show and
it was released almost simultaneously on Netflix.
So the international audience got to see it basically at the
same time as the Korean audience.
And that's where it got a lot of fame because it was in like the
top 10 for Netflix and stuff as it was airing.
Vincenzo is 20 episodes long. It's directed by a female
director, Kim Yuan. She's directed soundtrack number
one, also at Disney plus. Show the crown clown from 2019,
which we'll be covering later in the season.
Warm and cozy from 2015, and she's currently directing little
women from with Kim Goeun and yeah, a bunch of people.
A bunch of big names are in little women based on the Louisa
May Alcott. Book.
That's really cool, yeah. But it's supposed to be a
mystery thriller. So totally different tone than
be the changing the genre completely.
Yeah, absolutely. Vincenzo is written by a male
screenwriter, which is pretty rare in for Kdramas POC jibboom.
He wrote the fiery priest good manager blood from 2015, which I
do not recommend. I do not like blood.
He also wrote the Good Doctor from 2013 and if that name
sounds familiar. It was later licensed and turned
into an American series from ABC with Freddie Highmore.
So that is a export of Korea. Yes, it is.
Yes, Vincenzo Stars song junkie as Vincenzo Cassano, the title
character. We've seen him before from
descendants of the Sun Rigos. We have season one.
Descendants of the sun. That was a season.
He's awesome. Was that a season one or season
one? That's a season one, yes.
So swirl back in your podcast feed if you want to hear our
thoughts on descendants of the Sun from 2016, it's on.
Juki is basically a household name.
He's been in Arthal chronicles, the innocent man from 2012, I
think. My favorite Korean movie?
A werewolf boy as well. I say that like with a great
insult because sometimes Korean movies are like my internal
lists of favorite. These changes every so often,
but a werewolf boy holds a very high place in my heart.
The show also stars Dong Yoo bin as Hong Chi Yong, and she's been
in B melodramatic and save me from 2017.
She's basically a newcomer new face to the K drama world.
Yeah, haven't seen her really in much.
Tachyon as Jung Jung. Sorry, I'm already laughing
because of tachyon. Anyway, he plays Jang Junu and
he's been in Secret Royal Inspector and Joy save me from
2017. So him and Junior bin were in
the same drama together. Bring it on.
Ghost from 2016. Dream High from 2011 again.
Dream high circling around. I feel like every episode I
mentioned dream high, do you know?
Take on this. No, I'm not sure.
OK, that is OK tachyon is the rapper from the KPOP group, 2:00
PM. OK.
Does that ring?
Anyway? You've never seen anything from
two? I haven't, actually.
I gotta send you like a few music videos after this so you
can see like taking on an action at the peak of his career and
when that the peak of his career, but the peak of his
music career, so to speak. Gotcha.
We've got a few side characters of note.
I'll say. Kim Yoojin plays Chum Yoongi and
she's been in about 16 movies and a bunch of TV.
Like throw rock and you'll hit K drama that she's been in.
Extracurricular from 2020. Itaewon class from 2020 rookie.
Durango head Yong where stars then my secretary is loving the
moonlight, tears of heaven. Angel has so many, so many.
She's been in a lot of K dramas. We also have quantong young as
chairman Jang Hansel and he's been in big mouth from 2022.
That's where you might see him now.
He's starring in Big mouth, our beloved summer.
It's OK to not be OK. He was like a side character in
that so many kdramas as well. He's a common name, common face.
Alright, so all that out of the way, Rico.
What did you think of in Genzo? Before we do that, do you have a
question on your face? Yeah, because when you said he
was in big mouth, for me, big mouth is, it's a Netflix show.
It's an animated show from Netflix.
I don't think we're talking about the same thing, though.
No, it's a currently airing kdrama.
We're recording this in September of 2022, and Big Mouth
is currently airing. Gotcha.
Yeah. OK.
So. And new one or the show.
But anyway, OK, so this show Vincenzo.
I think that this is a very well done show.
I love the way the show looks. It has such a high production
value to it. I think that the acting
performances are very good throughout the entire show.
There's a couple of qualms I have where the show kind of
starts off like a oh, it's going to be like a mafia type of show,
but then the show kind of like diverts itself into more of like
a law drama, kind of like a sitcom almost.
In some ways. This is again, this is another
thing that I have about Korean shows, is that they like to
dabble in multiple types of genres in one show.
Yeah. And it kind of, you know, you're
in a very serious moment at one moment and then you hear like
the light fluttery music and then they're like flirting with
each other and it's like a romcom and it's like.
I it's so hard to put it like wrap your head around and stay
in the moment without being like, well, this show just
changed all of a sudden. With that said though, even with
the qualm that I have with that. I think that this is a very good
show. Um, it, it ranks a little higher
in my own personal the ones that we've done together here on on
the show, I think you're number one has consistently been
signal. Yes it has and it still is.
Not to say that this is bad or anything.
This I I would have to go back and look at my rankings.
It's probably somewhere in that maybe like 4 to 5 range,
somewhere in there out of the shows that we've done so kind of
high for me. I really enjoy the performance
by Song Junkie. Song junkie, yeah, he plays
Vincenzo. There is a seriousness to the
character that I do like that he brings.
Also, I do like when he does have interactions with Hong Chao
Young, who's played by Jean Xu bin, right?
Is that how you pronounce her real name?
Her real name? Jung.
Jobin. Jobin.
So their interactions together are really good.
I really enjoy them as a couple. The the things that happened
throughout the show, I think there's some very nice moments
of sweetness between them, but also them working together as
the show progresses. I think you see a good
established relationship between the two, so I really enjoy
their. Their chemistry, their
interactions and then the third character that I like a lot as
well is the. He is the I'm trying.
What is his name? But he's basically like the
brother who who's part of the Babble group.
But he's not evil. Yes.
OK, well, that's a spoiler, but yeah.
Chairman Jang Hansel, he's played by the last person on
this list, Kwak Dong Yeon. There we go.
Quack Don Young, he's the half brother and we'll kind of just
leave it at that, OK? That's it.
So so you like to these characters I really like the
most and I I found myself gravitating towards as I'm
watching this show. So overall I really had fun with
the show. I think it is a very good show
to watch. There's a couple moments that
stand out for me, but then there's a couple of moments that
I'm just like, uh, not sure if we needed either this plot line
or even to spend time here in this moment, but overall, a
pretty good show. How about you, Jessica?
Alright, so I had high expectations for this show
because everyone in their mom sings Vincenzo's praises.
It's a well regarded show that I happened to completely miss when
it was originally airing and I love song junkie like facts.
I came into this with high expectations in the first
episode, again, like you said, made me think it was going to be
a very high stakes, high intensity mafia show.
The Italy sequences were stunning.
I was blown away by that whole intro sequence.
And then I was like expecting that tone throughout the show.
That was not the case at all. There was so much more slapstick
comedy and generally light, ridiculous sequences in comedy
than I wanted. I was expecting and wanting a
darker tone. If they had stuck more to that
then I think I would have liked the show better, but it was
always teetering between genres, between.
This antihero dark law drama and this ridiculous light.
Comedy. Situational comedy.
Like you said you were like, oh, it's kind of like sitcom.
Yeah, it is. I was not as invested as other
people with the Gunga Guha Plaza.
Inhabitants I really. This is this is a main storyline
that I don't understand why it it played such a big role.
The Gunga Plaza residents were not why I was invested at all.
If you can call me being invested in vinchenzo, I think
that. They were just very distracting
to me. I didn't find them that funny at
times. I think towards the end of the
show they started to grow on me because they left some of the
comedy behind in favor of them becoming more coming more into
the fold of the vinchenzo machinations and their grand
plan. I just didn't like the.
The tone of the show, the pacing of the show, and when I say
pacing, I mean, why was it 20 episodes, more than an hour
apiece per episode? Another thing that I
consistently struggle with, and this is, you've known me on
this, yeah, but I struggled with this too, on this show.
I was very distraught when I consistently paused at the hour
mark, and I was like, there's fucking there's more time more.
What else can they possibly put in this episode?
I feel like they could have definitely trimmed down the
episodes, trimmed down the fat. Left some stuff on the cutting
room floor versus stuffing each episode to the brim with content
that I wasn't, you know, compelled by.
Would you say that this would have been better served as a 16
episode rather than the 2100% because there was enough to cut
out to drop it down to six? Oh yeah.
And get it really tight, you know, tight story.
Yeah. Yeah, that's that's where I kind
of struggle with is. A lot of time, at least this is
just for me personally. A lot of the times on the Korean
shows, there's a lot of different plot lines that just
don't really influence the end game of the A storyline.
So sometimes we spend too much time with the B and the C plot
that. You're just kind of waiting.
OK, we gotta get back to the main plot of the story, right?
I don't mind AB plot, but it cannot hog up too much time when
there's only so many episodes. There's only 20 episodes of a
show. You can't dedicate that much
time to the B and the CPLEX. That's just my opinion on that
part. No, I agree completely.
I don't think I was as positive on the main coupling of Hong
Chau. And then vinchenzo, as you were
OK, I. This is a hot take.
I don't think they had chemistry.
Ohh. OK, I think they were way better
as platonic partners and partners in crime than they were
romantic interests. OK, I got you.
I got you. Are you gonna advocate for them
during the rest of this episode? I'm not gonna like say here and
be like you're wrong. And this is.
I think I felt like they did have some chemistry.
But I'm not going to sit here that it's the best chemistry
that I've seen from any couple here at any point from any show
that we've watched. But I think at least.
For myself, I saw a little more chemistry than you did.
Most likely, yeah, I think they were best suited as just
partners in crime. Got it.
There were a couple of moments. I was like, OK, we're getting
there, it's warming up. But it wasn't this chemical
reaction, if you get my meaning, I got you.
Yeah. I got.
I don't know what else to say. I think the.
I love the way it was shot. Just like you said,
cinematography wise, really beautiful visuals.
I think that I was wanting more from the OST.
It wasn't working like I like working as in like it wasn't
doing its part right in the grand scheme of the show.
I think they relied heavily on classical music, which is
perfectly fine to me. I think they could have gone
even heavier on the classier, classier.
On the classical music and those needle drops which invoke a
different kind of tone and feeling.
I see what you're saying. Would you say that because we're
so used to in Korean shows, having like that pop element
being injected into the soundtracks?
Maybe that's something that was kind of missing from the show
because you're so used to it. I do feel like I'm used to it
and I'm wanting. That element in the show for
sure they did have score. And in particular there was one
emotional song that I have to find the track for it, but it
sounded just started just like great is thy faithfulness.
You know that old hymn? Yes.
Do you know that old hymn? So it literally was the same.
It started the same notes as great as thy faithfulness.
And every time it came on I was like great is I favorite is so
God my father just saying it in my head and then once it stops
with the melody, I was like. Got off it, you know stop
singing it. But it was very dead on and in
that respect it made me think it was very old sounding because
greatest I faithfulness. It's like hello old.
That's a that's an old song. Yeah that's an old him.
You are very not that. Anyway, I don't know what else
to say without going into spoilers, because I truly feel
like anything you say. Is kind of spoilery.
Yeah, yeah. Wait, let's talk about it.
Well, I don't think this is necessarily a spoiler, but
tachyon, what did you feel about his performance?
About Tech Young's performance. You feel about tech?
OK, so he is basically, he's an intern right, at the at the law
firm, yes, he starts as an intern at the law firm, right?
He starts there, but then we learn more about him.
I think that what I do like. How the show kind of treated him
first was like he's like just go with the flow like.
Happy go, lucky, whatever. But as the show goes and you see
the way they change that character, I think they do a
good job because the show needed like a true.
And I mean, I don't know how much we can say without spoiling
it, but like I got you, it needs an antagonist.
It needed it, needed it needed it, it needed it, and they
needed the change they needed to establish.
A big bad. And I put that in quotes just
because when you're dealing with a show where there's
implications of the mob or some type of corporation who's like
in control, whatever you're doing, you need to establish a
face to it almost and. I'm kind of glad that he's like
the one that they did that with because he brings.
A little bit of a presence, like, I love that it goes from.
You know, we don't really see him as a threat type of thing as
an audience member. And then it shifts and you
think, ohh, he's a major problem.
I thought they did a good job with it.
How about you? Did did you feel the same way or
differently? I was spoiled ohh no before I
watched the show because you know I'm deep in the enemy's
camp here and K drama territory deep in all over the deep in the
enemy's camp the UK drama editors do not sleep and I was
spoiled about Tachyon's character I.
I think people rank him. I'm just going to go out and say
I think people rank him as one of the best kdrama villains.
Hmm. OK, what would you say to that
claim? I don't know if I would consider
him like the best villain. I think he's a good villain, but
the best seems like a very strong title to assign to him.
I think so too. I think people might be grasping
a bit when they say he's the best villain.
I think that there are other villains in Kdrama that do a bit
better job that are a little more nuanced.
I feel like tech was chewing up scenery.
He was chewing up scenery, just noshing on it.
He was really cartoonish. Yeah, you can even say he was
cartoonish. Yeah.
Like, because it was OK. So maybe this is something that
I'm thinking of, but I think that a lot of times when we do
meet a villain in one of in a Korean show, they do kind of go
after like a lot of the cliches of what makes a villain a
villain. You know, they have to either be
yelling if they're doing that, or they have to look very
sinister and they have to like put on a face to do it.
Like they they go after the cliches.
So maybe there was enough. Differences between the way he
started to the way he ended that people maybe like where it see
like a character progression almost hmm, maybe that's how
people saw it. And so that's a little bit
different because a lot of times those villains are OneNote.
It's like I'm bad because I'm bad and I do bad things and
that's kind of it. There's no nuance 2 characters.
Sometimes I would like to dive into his psyche a bit when we
get to the spoiler section, but I honestly feel like.
People are very. Whistle word.
They're not blinded, but. Just maybe caught in the moment
by the reveal. Yeah, when they reveal text,
true nature, you're just like. Oh my God.
Like it's a it's A twist, you know, in the show.
What where is that from? Ohh you don't know where that's
from. So there's a.
Man, there's there was a show, a robot chicken that was on on
Cartoon Network and so they they did a whole thing about
Shyamalan, right? M Night Shyamalan.
And so like they would like do like a little thing and then
they would like do something and then Shyamalan would kind of
come out and be like what the twist?
And with that voice and everything, what the twist?
So anytime like A twist comes up in my head, I'm just like, what
A twist. OK, so I got it.
You gotta send me one of those videos.
I gotta send you one of those now.
I love to. The intro sequence of the
opening credit sequence for Vincenzo's got like a madman
meets James Bond meets House of Cards intro.
Good stuff, good stuff on it. We'll get to some fun facts
right now before we give our scores and jump into spoilers.
So we talked a little bit about the introduction of vinchenzo
the character in Italy. How did Song Junkie film in
Italy during COVID-19? He didn't.
All those scenes that were set
in Italy were done. Completely CGI, really.
All of them. I kid you not.
So junkie never stepped foot in Italy.
None of those people were there when he was acting.
He was acting in front of a blue screen the entire time.
Every single Italy scene. So what do you think of that?
So that you're, you're a stickler for CGI, stickler for
CGI. And in that sequence, they're
like moments where I guess maybe I thought the sky, they might
have wanted to make it look a certain way, but I didn't think
like the entire thing was CGI, the whole thing.
So they did a good job getting me on there.
I didn't think you got they got you.
Well, I gotta. I gotta give him props for being
able to act by himself pretty much.
Because he he's not really with them.
There's nobody there. There's no one there.
That's hilarious to me. Nice.
I'm so glad they got you on that.
They got me. They got me.
Yeah. Yeah, they really did.
That Netflix money coming through.
Some native Italian speakers have reviewed some junkies
Italian in Vincenzo because he speaks Italian a bunch of times
in the show, and they have said that although his pausing was
awkward, his pronunciation was mostly accurate and they
especially thought that his swearing in Italian was perfect.
Why is it that when it comes to cursing, everybody can be an
expert? Yeah, everyone's a native
speaker. Think.
Think about every person who doesn't know Spanish.
But you tell them a curse word. Yeah, they easily get it.
Every time. Every time.
So let's talk ratings. I mentioned the top ten in on
Netflix. The first episode reached a 7.7
rating, making it the fourth highest rated TV drama premiere.
The finale received 14.6% rating, making it the 11th
highest rated K drama in cable television history.
Really good. Yeah, that's really, really
good. Yeah, it is.
A shit ton of people watching. Gentle.
Yes, pretty much alright. So there's some fun facts.
More more fun facts, but we'll get into them.
For the spoiler section. What would you rate this show
out of five soju bottles? Out of five soju bottles, I am
going to give it a 3 1/2. Three social bottles, yes.
Alright, I'm gonna give it the same.
But I feel like I'm on the negative side and you're on the
positive side. I don't know why we have the
same soldier battle score, but. We'll get into it.
I get into it, I guess. Yeah, alright, we're going to
talk spoilers right after this. Hey, you wanna come in?
Alright, we're on the other side of spoilers for Vincenzo.
So if you have watched Vincenzo, keep listening.
If you don't care to be spoiled, then listen on.
All right, so episodes one and two.
I found them so boring after he lands in Korea.
Yeah. So the big thing for me is when
they start introducing these different plot threads that I
thought we were going to get, like a true mafia show.
And it doesn't feel that way after you land in Korea, right?
It kind of, you know what it kind of feels like.
It kind of feels like the show like bills itself with the first
trailer of the first part of the first episode.
Yes. And then bamboozles you.
Yes, into a different show, 100%.
I thought the Italy stuff was really cool, pure mafia, super
interesting. And then he gets to Korea and
it's like someone declawed a cat.
Thank you. Thank you, thank you.
Just like, what is this and then?
They, you know, they go ahead and they like just introduce
like this separate storyline about the building.
Yeah, that's one. There is a law case against
Babel and you think, oh, maybe this is just a side case.
No, this is going to be the main story case.
Yeah, that's the main storyline. It's against barble barble
barble. It's against Babbel
pharmaceuticals. And then you expand because
apparently that's a subsidiary Babble conglomerate.
Is the bad guy, the bad company that they're fighting against.
They introduce a bunch of tropes like he has mommy issues because
he was abandoned. As a child, you get the
abandonment trope. His mom gave him up for adoption
and she's now imprisoned for killing an abusive employer.
But that was a falsehood because she didn't kill the guy.
He was like a tribute to rape her.
It's like really dramatic. And the Babble fight.
The introduction of Chong. Hi.
Oh my God, what's your name? Tahong Lord.
What is her name? Really.
Hongyang? Yeah.
Chai Yong Hong. Or Hong when she gets in Hong
Chau Young when she gets introduced.
I'm not sold on her characterization because she is
kind of playing the villainous. Role where?
She's on the side of Babel. She's fighting with her dad.
I'm not interested, you know, I'm not interested at all in
anything that's happening. No, it's not until the end of
episode 3 when things finally start to pick up, OK.
They come in with a truck slamming into the building?
Yep. And killing a child's dad?
Yep. And it was the kick in the pants
the show needed because you. They had this epic montage
sequence after this truck crash where Taeyong is struggling to
cope, feeling guilty over being at odds with her father and his
morals. The media smear campaign against
him and the witness researcher was part of all that was
particularly upsetting because you, even though I wasn't, I
wasn't, didn't care about anything that was happening.
You knew that her dad was like a righteous lawyer.
He was, he was a good guy. He was a good guy.
And to see her just going through it, vinchenzo's in a
coma like it's like crazy. And I thought that was the
turning point in the show for it to actually starting start to be
more high stakes again. So after the first sequence, one
of my things about a show like this when you don't have as many
episodes is the show needs to propel in the first episode.
Yeah, it it can't. You can't wait until episode 3
to find the end of episode 3 to get the catalyst for the show,
because this is what gets people like different parts of the
story moving. It gets Chao Young and Vincenzo
closer together to start battling against.
Travel like it. It puts the kick in the pants to
start going that way. But it shouldn't be by episode
3, it should have been much sooner.
I agree. I agree completely.
Yeah. That truck scene though?
The truck was literally driven into the store.
Yep, driven, shattering the glass and turning over the
tables and spilling the bottles of rice wine and stuff.
They were hooked up to stunt wires, and then they were hauled
across the room to make it look like they were flying from the
impact of the truck crash. They didn't do it at the same
time though. They did it separately and then
I guess they pieced it together after the fact and post.
But I thought that was a really cool fun fact is that there was
no CGI for that truck. No, they they fully didn't.
Yeah. Awesome.
That's awesome. I, I, I enjoy a good practical
stunt. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Although that one, I would have guessed it was CGI.
Yeah. If you're gonna do that would be
the one that you would think would be CGI, not the entire
Italy sequence. Getting sequence.
So going back to this montage rehab like what?
In episode four they had this montage of the murder aftermath
and it was all set to Requiem K-626 AKA Mass 19 and D minor.
And it reminded me a bit. Of um.
Especially with the Oh my God, what's her name?
Choi mungi. That other evil attorney?
Yes, the woman attorney. The woman attorney, yes.
So ceremony. She is dancing in her office and
stuff during that whole sequence.
And it reminded me of both the Joker with the dancing on the
steps and the IT was like that simultaneous.
The whole like sequence plus her dancing, right.
We have Joker dancing on us. Plus the do you renounce Satan
scene from the Godfather? From the godfather?
Oh my God. It reminded me of the do you
renounce Satan scene? See it with the they cut back
and forth between like the people who are the victims and
the guy who's the woman who's pulling all the strings because
she's the one who said I want it all to happen on the same night.
You know it was. Actually really good editing and
I appreciated that scene a lot. They do a really good job with
it whenever whenever a scene like that happens where like it
does kind of make you think of like the Godfather scene, the,
you know, pronounced Satan scene.
Do you want Satan and all his works?
There's a lot of shows who do it, but one that did it, you
know within the last 10 years that I found to be fantastic was
like, tell me, have you ever seen, have you ever seen Modern
Family? No, no, I have not.
Just bits and pieces of fantastic one where they're at a
baby christening and everything and no stop.
And they do the whole sequence of like, do you renounce Satan
and his all his works. And it's Phil Dunphy like the
one the the dad who's always the fun one that you see like in all
the commercials and stuff. And he's the one he sends his
son to like do the works that need to be done.
Such a great thing. So if you ever watch Modern
Family. I think the episode is called
full hentzia because that's gonna be the name of the of
course. That's the baby's name.
Yeah. It's the baby between Sofia
Vergara's character and Albany guy.
Ohh, man, they had a baby. And so he wants to name it Joe
because he's, you know, he's a typical white guy and she's like
her mom wants to name it Fulgencio, like the 4th or
whatever. Anyway, OK, OK, back to begin to
vinchenzo. So Episode 4 ends with them
setting fire to the Babel farmhouse warehouse.
To what do you think of that? Bugs from spreading out?
Yes, I really. Great, great.
Great scene, great scene. Loved it.
And also like really to like put Babble like on their heels.
Like ohh shit, yes, it's not gonna be easy coming at these
two. And Vincenzo, you know he's
going to do things his own way. So yeah, I appreciate that.
I liked how they even messed with the sprinklers so they
wouldn't turn on so they wouldn't turn on.
Great job. They're like, why don't we have
like a sprinkler system? Why is nothing getting put out
and they've backtrack again? And you see them messing with
this regular system and shutting it off.
And I'm like, Oh my God, it's so great.
You see, finally the big bad shows up.
And it's tachyon. Yes, it's tech.
It's tech rolling up. Looking fierce, looking bad.
And he's the the man behind the curtain.
They finally, like we, get the reveal.
I just like how the scene is so put well, put together, and then
the culmination is a grand reveal, right?
Exactly, you know. So and then the final shot is of
all of our arsonists driving away looking at the inferno, and
they're playing pavarotti's rendition of Nessun dorma from
Turandot. And we get a translation of the
lyrics because Vinny says them, he says.
Set stars, set stars at dawn. I will win.
I will win.
And you're just like, ohh, like, you just feel like it's so such
momentum and drive and feel like moments like this.
Yeah. What really drives me on this
show. Yes.
Yeah. That scene felt a lot like the
Bellagio fountain scene for motions 11 to me.
Ah, yeah. It's very poetic.
Good call, good call. Look, a lot of nothing happens
between episodes 4 through 8. No, you.
You're telling me, yo, I'm like sitting there struggling.
Come on, let's, let's get into the meat of it.
Yes. Yeah.
And it's not happening. It's not happening.
We get a lot of back and forth with the tenants and you know,
their shenanigans and I don't care.
It's like, yeah. So I can't remember what episode
this happens in. Maybe we haven't gotten there
yet, but when? Maybe it's episode like 10
because we're about to get there, but when they come down
to like the aid of Vincenzo. Uh-huh.
And then, like, they do like, those showing what they were in,
like in their past. That's a lot like one of the
last episodes. Never mind.
Yeah, we'll talk about it later. We'll talk about, OK, well, in
episode 8, I had a big qualm here because the undercover
Homeland Security agent who's masquerading as the Italian
chef's apprentice in the building, he says in voiceover.
I finally realized why these people remained here and stood
their ground. They were inspired by Vincenzo's
strength and. Excellent leadership.
That means vinchenzo isn't a mafia.
He's not a mafia. He's Che Guevara.
So, OK, so because somebody shows leadership potential,
they're not mafia? Their Che Guevara.
That doesn't really many issues. I have so many.
I have so many issues with it. I just can't.
There's no way to. So I don't think that's the case
at all. Like, no, he's so wrong.
Like on so many lovely completely.
Because never do you feel like it is.
He's inspiring a people for like, a true revolution.
Not until later on. In the show.
You don't. Not to mention she Guevara's a
murderer. Well that too was killing his
own people. So yeah that's that's also very
true. There's that and and to say like
you know he shows good leadership quality so he can't
be mafia, that doesn't make sense either because most of the
time you show the good leadership and you become.
Part of the family. The head of the family.
Like, right. You have to be some sort of
charismatic person. Yeah, to lead a family.
I think that is a. That's a line that doesn't make
any sense. That doesn't make any sense.
No, that was like, ooh, so bad. Do some research on Chegg Obata
also, anyway. I think episode eight had some
really good moments where he's trying to seduce the bank
president who's like a closet homosexual.
Do you remember this part? I remember it very, very low,
yes, but yes. This scene of him riding the
horse. I lost it.
It was.
Suppose they knew what they were doing when they put some junkie
on the horse in that getup. Of course they knew what they
were doing. They knew exactly what they were
doing. They were catering to a specific
audience. And it was the same as, I don't
know, same fan services, maybe like a shower scene or something
and occasionally, yes. Or, you know, just a random
moment where like, they touched the arm and then it goes into
slow motion. They touch the arm and then say,
Oh yeah, they do touch. You're getting it.
It's, it's meant for something.
And actually, that bank president is the 2nd male lead
in this drama called our beloved summer, and he's tremendous in
that and he's very. Endearing in that, and I feel
really bad that he's so evil. And vinchenzo, he's really bad.
Like he what was his deal? He wasn't just like a closet
homosexual. He was actually kind of out and
he was killing guys that didn't want anything to do with him.
Like he would ask them out and then would just like beat them
up. And in spite, for spite.
They rejected him, right? They rejected him.
Yeah, that's that's not a great way to handle rejection.
It's crazy. So I like how he got his
comeuppance. Of course.
Of course they scare the shit out of him with the zombies.
The zombie prank. Yep.
Again, like this show, like, goes through different types of
tones. Like, there are moments where
things are getting really serious and then like, a zombie
prank. It's so out of left field
sometimes that you're just like, what am I watching?
And then, you know, it tries to get back into it once again, it
tries to get back into the Babble plot.
So yeah. So I think that there's a lot of
different weird, bizarre checkoff guns in the show, OK.
Just mentioned the zombies, we just mentioned the zombies.
So in the in an early episode, some of the tenants are learning
how to be zombies in like a kind of like a dance studio because
one of the tenants is a dancer and they're learning how to be
zombies. They later on in episode 89,
whatever, they all prank the gay bank president because he's got
this extreme zombie phobia. So, like, why?
You know, why introduce this weird zombie thing in an early
episode, right? And then they use it again, the
before tech is revealed to be the big bad.
Yeah. He punishes the chair like his
half brother on the ice rink, pelting him with ice hockey
pucks and beating him with a stick.
Right. Because there has to be.
That's his. That's his method, yeah.
But like, no, that's not what I thought, but that's not what I
thought at all. But he, the half brother uses
that method later on to punish like 3 executives after.
It's a little bit of ice rink hockey torture and it's the same
thing. Checkoffs.
High ice hockey tech goes full send murdering one of the
prosecutors with a hockey stick. And that I mean again.
You keep they keep harping on this weird checkoffs gun.
Like if we had it here, we have to have it here right for
foreshadowing moment that they could bring up later and then of
course here, Adam. That you have another ice hockey
thing where Vinnie ends up with the half brother on the ice
brother the face off with the Interpol agents.
That it's it's you know whatever help us out.
Like don't. Yeah.
Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
What did you think? I had a issue with this because
they had this in a few episodes where Vinny seems to have.
Also, I'm naming him. I'm nicknaming him Vinny, Vinny,
for obvious reasons. Anyway, Vinny seems to have
periodic nightmares and PTSD dreams about his past life as a
violent, as a violent member of a Mafia family, and they never
really returned to that. And they never deal with it.
No, they don't really deal with that.
And I found that to be disappointing because I would
have liked to see like that recall of his memories to play
out in a moment where you can see that his past is still
affecting him now, where you can see him composed on everything,
but that little moment can rear its ugly head.
But we don't really get that in the show.
We just. That it's more about
understanding where he came from, but not really who he is.
Ooh, that's that's the thing about like all those flashbacks
to me at least. And then on top of that kind of
related, there's this whole angle with his mother or.
I don't know, maybe I'm. I'm kind of misremembering this,
but like, it is his mother, but not they're not really like
referencing each other that way. Am I missing remembering the way
the mother interactions went? The mother interactions are?
He never outright says, like, you're my mom, right?
There we go. And she'd never outright says
I'm your mom, right? So, I mean, it's unspoken,
right? It's unspoken.
So I don't understand how that's supposed to give us.
Any indication of what the man he is today?
Because of that relationship. Because if at least you would
have told us or showed us that this really bothers him or this
really changed him in the past to become the person that he is
now, then I get that interaction between him and his mom.
Maybe it's an ice cold relationship and all that, but
the fact that we go to it a couple of times and we don't
really get. A as a reason why it's
referenced. And does it make him the man who
he is? Is that?
Is that the case? But more, it's just like, oh,
this is just another aspect of his life that doesn't really
have to do anything with. What's going on in the a story
at all? I think that they had not that
they had an opportunity, but they didn't take necessarily the
easy route with his trauma and his back story.
They like the mother. He never necessarily outright
blames her, although there is tension there.
And he does have stuff to work through because he's very
hesitant to get involved in her life.
In her case, yeah. But he knows that she needs him.
He's that she's helpless and innocent in her, you know, life
or whatever. And I think she does end up
saying why she gave up her son, right?
In like the one of the almost last episodes?
I think she does, yes. I just don't remember what it
was. Ohh, that's right.
She was dying of lung cancer in the late 80s and she had a bad
diagnosis or prognosis. And so she just gave up her son
for adoption with the intention of if she gets better, she'll
pick him up again, which is not how adoption works, but
whatever. That's not why you put your kid
in the system, but anyway. That was.
The signal for him to basically forgive her because she had a
good, good enough reason, I guess, to give him to give him
up, which, yeah, I mean kind of kind of a good reason.
Um, yeah. Impending death.
Yeah, that.
You know what? Not a bad reason.
That's not a bad reason to give him up.
But it is very sad. Just added to the melancholy of
the storyline. Melancholy.
The tech goes further and further into mania, I feel,
throughout the show. How did you feel about his
characterization and him being the villain, and just not just
his acting and portrayal, but like his motivations?
Um, I. I was.
I'll, I'll kick it off. So I was a little bit confused.
Because they paint him as this psycho.
They do great. He has killed multiple people,
taken souvenirs off the bodies. He's collecting watches from the
victims. And he seems kind of like a
serial killer, but not not really, because all of the
people that he killed, they offended him in some way.
Like he's got a very short fuse. Terrible temper.
Yeah, he does. I don't know.
He is kind of like a serial killer.
Ah, there's a vibe, there's a so there's a killer vibe to him.
I and the reason why he stayed hidden and wasn't the face of
the company and wasn't the true chairman.
He was like the shadow chairman was because he valued his
privacy and did not want to go down for any crimes that the
company did. I do not blame him.
That's smart. That's a smart move.
Keep yourself out of like, the corporate affairs.
But I think, OK, so here's what I do like, I do like that we
show a character who has a quick temper, who could go like zero
to 60. Immediately.
And I like that in a villain because of the fact that you
never know when the moment he's going to snap.
Yeah, I do like that. And it it does give us a threat,
and it gives us an impending threat whenever he's on screen
because you never know. He's unpredictable.
That could be the moment that he
killed someone, or it could be the moment.
Maybe he laughs it off and just moves it along.
And I like that. I love when there's a bit of a
chaos to a villain, right? Yeah.
And maybe it's just. So maybe it's just me having
this affinity for that type of character because I like like
the Joker so much and like Batman, because he is chaotic,
you never know how he's going to react to a situation.
So I'd like that energy from a villain.
So I found that to be something that I liked watching from him.
So now in terms of him, kind of like not being the front of the
company. But like still having kind of
control and being able to like really bully his half brother
and everything. Yeah, I think that was a good
dynamic as well, because then you have a sympathetic character
inside of the villain plot. Hmm gives us a way to be able to
be like ohh if something changes here that can change the the
whole outcome. And right he's a wild card.
He's a wild card. So and luckily for us that's
kind of what happens here. So.
Overall, I really like the portrayal of the character.
I'm not going to sit here and say the best villain, but I
still think it's an engaging villain and enjoyable villain to
watch. Here's I'll go out on a limb and
say if they had tightened up the tone and made it the dark mafia
thriller that they had promised us in the first sequence of the
show, that this villain would have worked a lot better because
they would have pared down some of the.
Ridiculousness. Some of the like screaming in
the car, kind of tantrums that he's throwing and really dialed
it into a polished strategist and a chaotic villain.
Yes, which we do get glimpses of throughout.
But because of the tone of the show and the way that they kind
of had him bouncing off the walls and having tantrums, the
tantrums really threw me. OK, so I will agree with you,
the tantrums are a little out there.
They're they're a little much we don't really need to like full
on thing. I think 1 tantrum is fine.
Oh, true, yeah. But multiple.
It starts to get into a little bit of overkill.
Then you don't. Yeah, really take the character
as seriously as you should, because he's constantly on a
tantrum. He's a murderer, he's a
murderer, he's a fiend. Like, he's dead.
He's a fiend. Yeah.
In episode nine, he kills the one of the prosecutors with a
hockey stick. You don't see it coming.
No, they don't see it coming. They don't.
And they kill off a witness who was trying to make a deal with
Babel and a handful of the victim.
The victims family, like they killed innocent people.
The ones that ended up in the in a van.
And they suffocated them, essentially crazy.
When as soon as that episode happened, I was like.
Damn, that's cold. Cold.
That's cold. Very cold.
Speaking of cold, we got a quote in episode 10.
Keep your heart cold. Revenge will go more smoothly
that way. Oh, oh, not a bad.
That's a good life. So in episode 10, we get a
Netflix hallway fight. With the laundromat Taylor going
apeshit on the on the hired thugs that they get.
It's a second round of hired thugs as the first round was
goofy, right? The second round are legitimate,
yeah. And he comes at them with a pair
of the shears. The shears, and just try and he
starts stabbing them with the fabric shears, bro, bro.
That was good. That was good.
That was a good sequence.
Just like those quick stabs. I'm just like, I know I'm
looking. And I'm just like, oh shit, he's
like really stabbing him. Yes, this is real.
Blood is being spilt. Finally.
Yeah, finally. But that same episode, the
tenants play the Mafia game on game.
Right. Oh, yeah.
I forgot. They have a bunch of references
to other K dramas and it's kind of a reunion.
So the wrestler, Beanie Man, as I called him, and my notes, he
calls one of the thugs who's in the travel agency.
They're sending people in hot air balloons across borders.
Do you remember, do you remember that?
Yes. Yes.
Yeah. That was the first round of
hired thugs. Thugs.
Then they become like travel agent, to quote UN quote.
He calls one of those thugs appoxee to ye wannabe which is a
reference to poxon Jens character in Itaewon class ohh
OK who has the same God awful hairstyle.
It's terrible. So that's if you had seen Ethan
one class, you would be like, Oh my God, he does look like
tuxedo. Yeah.
I would have been able to be like ohh yeah no totally makes
sense. No.
Then that thugs fires back that the Beanie guy looks like a
North Korean soldier. Bro, do you know who that guy
is? He's part of the cloud crew.
Crash landing on you. Yes.
Ohh. OK.
So that's OK. So that's a clear reference to
the other show. OK yeah it's a reference to.
Crash landing on you. So I really like when when stuff
like that happens in TV. Yeah.
Or just in movies where they reference another persons like
show that they did somewhere else.
That's always great. I love when they do that.
And there's actually two people from Crash landing on you.
Now that I think about it. There's the beanie guy.
OK, and the Homeland Security dude?
Yeah, he was also in crashing on you.
He was like the insurance agent who was desperately looking for
her because he didn't want her to.
He didn't want any harm to come to her, right?
You know, she gave him a lot of business and she was, he was
really grateful for her. So two Loy alum.
Yeah, two cloy alums. Yeah.
Nice. What do you think of episode 11?
They call him mafia corn salad. This is a gross mispronunciation
of conciliary. I mean, look, this show is just.
Going from town to town like I get if they're if they're doing
it like in in a way of just making fun of him type of way.
Yeah yeah. You know like I I get it.
You know they can do it that way.
But if they're not really making fun of them it's just that they
can't pronounce it type of thing then it's something else.
Then it's just like this is not great but if they're doing it I
thought it was funny but they kept doing it though they knew
what they were doing so no. Yeah.
But then yeah, so then it it felt they had the banner with
the corn salad. Yeah, as it kept going, I was
like, you know what? This is actually not a bad joke.
Ohh man so I didn't get this. The arms dealer slash lobbyist
who got the good Intel for tech in Italy?
Yes on vinchenzo. Vinchenzo captures them and and
he goes, the guy goes, I've been tortured by like, this is a
paraphrasing. He's like I've been tortured by
the ruffian, the ruffian, the Russian mafia, and all these
other major players. This isn't my first rodeo,
essentially is what the guy says to Vinny, and Vinny says there's
a limit to pain, but there's no limit to fear.
And he starts playing Russian roulette with him with a like a
revolver. Which you're telling me that a
few rounds of Russian roulette with the revolver is scaring
this guy shitless enough to for him to sing like a Canary?
I think it could scare anyone because there's a difference
between being tortured, right? I get being tortured is
terrible. So you bought it, you bought
this because I think the difference is that one.
Pull the trigger and you're dead.
Not tortured, you're dead. So there's a difference between
being tortured for information and you withholding versus, hey,
if you give me the information or you don't give me the
information, you're going to be dead.
That's a different, he was going nuts with the revolver though
because he was also doing like A2 faced thing.
Yeah, where he was spinning the, spinning the trigger the and
then pointing the gun at his own head.
Vinny was like gonna commit suicide crazy.
Crazy. Like like you said, we saw that.
We saw it in. We saw it in Dark, Man.
Yo, episode 12, they have this impressions guy.
They're dealing with someone at the old law firm.
Man, I forgot the name of the law firm, but anyway.
The evil law firm, right? And he's like, I want to get out
of this law firm, whatever they're dealing with and they
want info from him and they're like, why don't you give us
another impersonation impression of sunkyung?
Do you know that is? Ethan Kian.
And he does the voice exactly like him.
It's the guy from parasite. Ohh OK the husband with a really
deep voice. Yeah.
He does a spot on impression of
him from parasite. Gotcha.
And he kept he did like two or three times in the show did.
But I I didn't. I was hoping you would catch it.
Yeah I didn't catch it. Was hoping you would catch it.
That's on me. Yeah.
You someone is also from the
drama. Yeah.
You should have. He's also from the drama my Mr
So we're looking for sunken and your K dramas.
He's also from my mystery. Just in case you want to move.
This is funny. This is a.
The K drama the tech is watching on his TV.
You would never get this because you don't know who 2:00 PM is,
but he's watching a drama on the television.
The drama is completely made-up. It's not a real K drama, right?
It's his two bandmates from 2:00 PM's Chansung and Nickhun.
What's funny is Nick Hoon went on a podcast A while back and he
was talking about this this cameo that he made with Trent
Song and he was like, yeah, tech was like.
Ohh, come and do this, you know. Cameo for me and the show,
whatever they're like. Yeah, yeah, sure.
Anything for tech. So they go and they thought that
tech was going to be in the scene with them, or at least on
set. Never happened.
They just showed up to do their scene.
Tech was never there. Wow.
Which I found hysterical. That's pretty funny.
Definitely check out that. God, I think it was a dive
studios thing. Maybe it was the Eric Nam
podcasts where Nick couldn't came and talked about that
experience of going up with chainsaw man.
I found that hysterical that that's something I would do
where I'd be like, yeah man, come and come and do a cameo
scene for my show or whatever. And then I like don't show up.
Don't show up at all. That's really don't show up to
support your bandmates. Oh yeah, it's so good.
Episode 13. I really liked the pig blood.
Carrie. Ted talk.
Where they dump a bunch of pigs. Blood on tech.
That's good. Oh my God that was a good one.
That's a good one. I didn't like this.
This is when I started to lose it.
Episode 14. The piano teacher who's also got
a studio in Gunga Plaza, happens to be the programmer who
designed the vault. OK, so this is my problem with
the people. The tenants in this building,
they all have, like, these secret past lives where they're
all like, perfectly suited for what they need.
Like, they got the wrestler, they got this hacker.
That a former mixed martial artist thinking, yeah, like
conveniently all these people live in the same exact building.
And it it really drove me up the wall.
Like this cannot be true. This cannot be real.
And yet it is. Yep.
That was the that was a moment where I'm like, OK, the show is
going to. It's too convenient.
Yeah.
Hey, this one person who has never demonstrated any abilities
about this is a master at it. Yeah, so.
So this is something that I think a lot of people.
Have a problem with when they're watching something and then
something is introduced out of nowhere?
Yeah, in the middle of a story. I get that some people have a
problem when it starts off and people have like, this amazing
skill. That doesn't bother me because
you're at least showing me from the very beginning.
This person is skilled at this thing.
Whether you find it believable or not, it doesn't matter.
From the beginning they establish it.
But here. Episode.
What episode? 1414.
And now? Yeah, is 1.
We're gonna get ohh. By the way, she's a hacker like
that doesn't that doesn't compute.
But that doesn't compute. Alright.
But yeah, yeah, I found that each reveal, each reveal for the
incredibly adept Plaza tenants just gets more outrageous every
time. Silly.
And then, like, they do like that, like that plastering of
like, they show a picture of like, their past life type of
thing, which still like, that got to me.
Like I started. I kind of started laughing
because I was just like, you gotta be kidding me.
Yeah. So the guillotine file.
Ohh yeah, being another Mcguffin Mcguffin.
Yeah, that along with like a bunch of gold.
What's funny is that I think. Let me see.
Yeah, Gunga Plaza gum means gold in Korean.
There we go. So so Gold Plaza.
Ohh cool. Not on the nose at all.
Ohh man so ohh man let's talk
about chemistry right now. Because in episode 14 they go to
the museum under this whole undercover thing and they kiss
at the museum they do. And there's like this proposal
that they walked into. They had no idea that the couple
they were masquerading as were coming for a proposal.
What did you think of this whole scene?
Um, the scene, I mean worked for me.
It worked, it worked. I think it's good.
I think we need at the moment where they finally kissed.
So. Important for a show.
You know for me, like if you're going to have a, you know,
flirtation, romance between 2 characters.
Make sure you build it out and get to that moment where they
finally kiss, because they need to get there, they need to get
there. So I'm glad it's not one of
those things where they like wait till like the end of the
show. You need to know you need to
have that tension. That tension has to be there.
OK, I didn't feel much tension. Throughout the show.
But they did have that one scene where she was like, I think I'm,
I caught feelings for you, but I don't know.
And she was kind of drunk. And then she was like, let me
see if I have feelings for you. She gets up and hugs him.
And you can tell that he's caught feelings, yes?
And then she's like, Oh no, I was mistaken.
And it's just, you know. I didn't definitely didn't catch
feelings for you exactly. And that's a I found out funny.
It was funny. A funny sequence there, but you
know that it's gonna. Progress.
Kind of progress. Hmm.
So I thought ohh, go for it. No, no, go ahead.
Go right ahead. OK.
I was gonna talk about the pigeons.
Because. We we had episode 15, but OK.
A horde of angry pigeons assails the mafia assassins like
something out of a Hitchcock movie.
Yeah, that, and it's awful. I hated it.
It was awful. Yeah.
I thought we were going to get
past that without even talking about it.
Ohh. Uh, no, no.
Yeah no. Then we get a Lord the rings
reference from tech. He's I think he's talking about
the guillotine file. He says 1 ring to rule them all
my precious. Oh my God.
But yes he is talking about the guillotine file at that moment.
Yeah, doesn't really work. Righteous prosecutor that they
were teaming up with for a couple of episodes portrays
them. He was just after something big
enough to barter his way up the chain, you know, that was a
given. Yeah, they had this whole
analogy before where they're talking about is this apple
rotten if one side is fine and the other side is a little bit
rotten, is the whole apple rotten?
Talking about the prosecution service and the legal, you know,
system here in Korea and the guy was like, no, it's not rotten or
whatever. And they were just trying to
make a point. Like they can't trust him,
right? Because he's part of the
problem. He's in the prosecution service,
which is bought off by the Babel, so he ends up turning
turning bad. Not surprising at all.
No, no surprise.
I think the final four episodes are pretty good.
Yes, I was gonna say we can jump into the final four and the
finale sequence. Yeah, sequences of episodes.
Because tech kills his mom in episode 16.
They got some brute straight out of prison to stranglehold.
They're poor. The poor frail woman couldn't
fight back. She was dying of pancreatic
cancer. I mean, it was despicable.
And. Tech is shown dancing with the
lawyer Ajima, gloating and laughing like it's just like
terrible. Terrible person, really sinister
stuff. Speaking of the lawyer, Ajima.
I think that there was sexual tension between Technion and
Troy Mungi. The lawyer oh, what do you say
to that? Hmm.
I can kind of see it. I can kind of, you can kind of,
I can kind of see it. I was like, what is this?
What is this feeling between tech and the lawyer, hajima?
I'm just like, what is this here?
There was like a not just a camaraderie, but like kind of an
understanding because they're both dirty, they're both awful.
And it goes beyond him being her superior or her boss or
whatever. They kind of start to even the
playing field. Between them.
The, you know, distance between their positions and they kind of
see eye to eye and they start working together and their
scenes together start getting a little more intimate.
I feel like those, you know like I just OK, I was wondering if
that was just me thinking there was there was some tension in
the room. OK, I agree.
Episode 18 they introduced another major villain player
late in the game with the presidential candidates, right.
I hate. What was this?
Yeah, I hate when you introduce someone way too late in the
game. Yeah.
This is ridiculous. And this is what happened. 2
episodes left. Yo, dude, it's happened in other
shows where like, they. I think that's bad writing.
It's terrible, right? It's like, it's bad.
How do we introduce this plot point or whatever?
It's like, well, we can introduce it with these
characters we already have. Let's just bring someone new.
Doesn't make that. Goes to show that this could
have been cut down to 16 episodes.
Easy. Yes.
Another reason. Easy.
Yes. Yeah.
OK. Yeah.
We digress. Tech is in jail because Vinnie
backed him into a corner and he thought with for protection,
I'll just go in jail so Vinnie doesn't kill me.
He ends up walking right into a trap because that's what Benny
wanted, that's what he wanted. And it's really not until
episode 19 where we see the full might of the Vincenzo Cassano
family where it's revealed because we have another hallway
fight Ala Netflix the Plaza. Residents are all former
athletes of some kind, and they had applicable fighting skills.
MMA, Wrestling, and all this other stuff.
Just like, yeah, weightlifting, weightlifting, yeah, well, just
so many. Different magically having the
ability to. Everyone's a superhero.
I thought this was kind of like ohh, they're all superheroes.
Yeah, they're pretty much you. Avengers have assembled.
Yeah, bomb. That's the only thing that was
missing when they come down the hallway.
We should recut it with The Avengers theme.
Ohh man. Ohh.
That would be OK. So we're not we're not liking
it, but we'll take it. Episode 20, Chai Hong.
Chau Hong. Oh my God, I'm having such a
tough time remembering her name. Chai Young Cha young, OK, she
gets shot. And I thought, oh, they're going
to. I honestly thought for a second,
what do you think? They were going to kill her off
and there was like gonna be a. Bad ending for that romance and
for just that, that where you think they won.
And then at the end there was like that final retribution from
the villains. I thought they were going to do
it. I didn't see her dying, but I
did see her definitely getting hurt because she'd been
unscathed this whole time. Makes sense.
Yeah. Even Vinchenzo was in a coma
and, like, recovered. Yeah, perfectly fine.
But whatever. He got hurt.
The younger brother, the half brother actually died.
He's the one that dies. I thought that he would have,
wouldn't survive. I thought he might have
survived, but he outright died. I felt awful.
That was so emotional for me to see him go.
Yeah, that was because he was such an endearing character.
Like he turned out to be someone you could root for.
Exactly. And that that's the big deal, is
that he was the lone green growing out of a bad situation.
Corrupt. Yeah.
So atmosphere seeing that, not being rewarded.
Was a bit heartbreaking, for sure.
Yeah. Especially after they kind of
made it seem like he found a brother in Vinny and that Vinny
was a surrogate family. Yeah, for him.
Somebody. And that was terrible.
And yeah, work with and everything.
Yeah, that. That was someone who wasn't
gonna belittle him and abuse him and bully him.
Exactly. Make him think he was going to
die at all this stuff. He's just.
Yeah, that was a painful, brutal.
People lost for the show. Then we get a lot of off of off
things in this last episode because there is a giant
reckoning, reckoning which finally happens.
Bang Bang bang. The corrupt prosecutor who we
referred to prior, he gets his ass dumped off a roof.
The chief prosecutor, who's now the chief prosecutor, he was the
lawyer with glasses, that man. He got shanked on the steps of
the courthouse, bled all over the stone in front of the camera
crew that. Was there.
I mean it was very graphic. I found with like the blood,
like dripping down the steps and stuff.
I was like, Oh my God, they they really went after it in this
final episode of just like really just upping it up.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. They upped the ante a bit.
They did, yeah. And served it back finally to
the villains and the lawyer, Ojima.
What do you think of her? Comeuppance.
Because he. Kidnapped her.
Tighter to a chair. Barefoot.
Yep. He had already done something to
her feet. It looked like, yeah, there was
her barefoot. Yeah, there was something that
he did. She her.
She was already bleeding and in pain from her feet.
Then he said he was going to make her dance.
And I thought, Oh my God, what is he going to do?
Signature Vinny Pyro move. He lights her ass on fire.
Lights are on fire. Ohh.
And I was like. Well, how?
Well, if you think about back in the court case, he kind of lets
them like kind of. Get out of it like they win the
court case, right? But the people that he wants
specific retribution on, they don't get like the full
comeuppance of the law. They get to come up dance of
vinchenzo. Yes.
And that's what he really wanted.
He wanted them to suffer the way he he wanted them to suffer.
Yeah. And I love that aspect of the
show where he's repeatedly like if I wanted you dead, I would
have killed you. I would have killed you by now.
I would have killed you. I.
And what was his nickname? They said he said his nickname
was like Cat Gotham or something because he always plays with his
food like a cat does. Yeah.
But and that's what he was doing
the whole thing. You last few episodes.
Just toying with them, toying with them.
He wouldn't like. He would kill everyone around
them just to show like. I'm not going to kill you yet,
because you deserve something worse and stuff like that.
This is worse. Definitely worse.
Actually worse. The Olympic wrestler, the Beanie
Man, he got full on, stabbed in the chest.
Yes, he did. And while he was gasping for
breath, what does he do? He asked Vinnie to be the
godfather of his baby. Come on.
The godfather. Come on.
Come on, come on. Then he finally gets tech in a
Russian mafia torture device like something out of saw yeah
ohh the movie The movie franchise.
And tech starts begging, begging for his life or for him to just
shoot him. Yeah, and Vinny even takes his
watch as a trophy, takes tachyons watch as a trophy and
just walks off. He's like, yeah, every 5 minutes
this thing's going to start drilling into your body and
you're going to die a very painful death.
And I was like, whoa, he was messing around.
He wasn't messing around, dude. He wasn't messing around.
Yeah, I do like that. They show tech like the next day
and he looks really weak and bloodied up and there's this
crow there that starts pecking at his body.
Why did I think of the lighthouse?
Tell me why I thought of the lighthouse with Robert Pattinson
and Oh my God, what's his name? William dofo.
Oh my God. Yeah, yeah I can.
It's very Greek tragedy of them. Ohh.
I guess another thing it kind of reminds me of is when I well
this is like a Game of Thrones thing where.
Villain finally like gets his comeuppance and he's like tied
to a chair and he's already bloodied and everything from
like the battle in the war and as a last fu to him.
Like they release his hounds. And they're like, yeah, would
never like bite me then whatever.
It's like they haven't eaten watch days.
How loyal is that for going to really be?
And so then just before like they show the dog attack.
Like they cut away to Sophie Turner's reaction and she like
kind of like in disgust, kind of like turns, but then she like
turns back and watches it all like pleasure, like it.
Yeah, it's really good. Damn.
Well, one thing that I liked
about the show is that they did this more and more throughout
towards, especially in the last few episodes as they were kind
of taking a page out of the Ocean's 11 playbook where they
showed some of the planning, yes, but when it came to the
execution, they showed the final product, which was extraordinary
and shocking, and then backed up and showed you how they pulled
it off for real. I like when when movies and
shows do that. Show us the planning, then the
end result. Yeah.
And then go back and show us how the end result actually went
through. That's really, yeah, I love that
device as a way of like explaining a story.
That's a really good way of going about it.
Yeah, so they did that in the later episodes, especially um.
He gets out of Korea, he's got, you know, bounty on his head,
whatever, the governments after him.
And he ends up sneaking back into Korea after a year.
And he tells Chiung, Oh my God, if I get her name wrong.
One child. Yeah, it is triune.
You got it. OK he tells her that he took
over the family and he bought an island off Malta and he missed
her. And she ends up scoffing at
that, that she that he missed her.
And so to prove that he missed her, he kisses her and they
make. Out on the stairs and I have in
my notes. Love it.
No, it was a good.
Love that for them it was a good sequence.
Yes, yes. Yeah, it was good.
It was good. Now I don't know how to feel
about the final voiceover cuz he says he used three family
members from a different Mafia family as fertilizer for his
vineyard. He doesn't care about justice
since justice is weak and empty. If justice was merciless, then
he'd yield to it. He swears he's still a villain.
And the final line of the whole show is evil is prevalent and
vehement, which is delivered in Italian, right?
I don't mind him showing himself as, yeah, I am a villain, I
don't mind it right because at the end of the day, like he
still has like that mafia connection to him.
You know, he still has like that influence of mafia in him.
So yeah, I don't. I don't see a problem.
I thought that it would be a little.
I don't know. I thought it would be a mixed
tone, just like the rest of the show.
This went full dark, like this was the tone that I wanted
throughout the whole show. Like I wanted a fucking noir.
Yes. You know what I'm saying?
I know. That's what I wanted.
This wasn't, and it wasn't. OK.
This wasn't that. But the ending had a noir
ending, so to speak. It did, you know.
Yeah. And so I can understand it.
So if you look at the show bookend, so if you look at the
very beginning and the very end, and that is the only thing you
saw, you would assume that the show, the entire show was a
noir. And it doesn't really go that
way. Throughout the show, the show
changes into something completely different.
So I get the weird tonal shift and kind of like the
disappointment of the way it ends, like in that regard,
because they never. Completes its promise on what we
thought it would be. Hmm.
And then it rubs it in your face with the ending.
So I get it OK. But I liked it.
I liked it. I liked the show overall.
Anyway. Overall, I like the show.
I think it's a good show. I have come to the end of my
notes. What else did you have to say?
Ohh Cadillac product placement. Yep, evidently everyone in Korea
has catalogs, of course. Of course they do.
Also fun product placement with the Coco Copaco coffee tablets.
I particularly laughed when someone was like they wake me
up. Did they give you that from
coffee? Kopiko.
Kopiko is that they say they must have just like yeah ohh,
they wake you up. OK, Umm, terrible.
It feels like in Truman show when they're having an argument
and then she has like the commercial and he just goes
where? Who are you talking to?
That's literally how I feel when
the product placement is over. I that.
I defer to that in my head. I'm just like who are you
talking to? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Truman Show, who are you talking about?
That's a good one. Ohh man.
Alright, on the show itself, I don't think I have anything else
I do like. I mean everybody was dressed so
well throughout the show. I mean the main players and the
Boo rauru Rove suits that were on Vincenzo Sharps on Vincenzo.
Yeah, great stuff. Just great stuff.
We're doing the Italians like, yeah.
Just hand gesture. What is that?
What do you call that? Oh my God.
I don't know what the hand gesture, it's definitely it's
like the hand gesture that goes with like chef's kids, like it
goes with chef's kiss and yeah exactly.
Yeah. So that hand gesture, I mean, he
is Vincenzo Cassano. Yeah.
So it goes well with it. So, yeah, yeah, overall, good
show. Yeah, wish there was more noir.
Wish there was a little more serious tone throughout the
show. I don't mind injecting some
comedy, but not like at all these different weird levels
that it did. So yeah, so I think this shows
good. It's a good show.
Where would you rank it? Where did you say you would rank
it? Four or five?
I want to say like 4K5 on my cage dramas because there's
other ones that I watched thoroughly, but when I think
about them like, I lost a little bit.
For them you know. So this one I think I had a good
spot like #5, but I gotta look at the shows again because my
clear number one is signal. It is.
You love saying that. It was a great show.
You're like, Yep, I thought it was a great show.
So. But yeah, nice.
Alright, I think that's all we have for vinchenzo.
Yeah, I think we went through the show.
Pretty well. We gave it a thorough rundown.
Yes we did. It was.
Yeah. Yeah.
Anyway, I think we're just going to get out of here.
Rigo, please say a word to everyone who is wishing you well
and loves to hear you on the show.
Ohh. Yeah, of course.
So thank you to everyone who has supported the show who has asked
about me and me being off the show for such a long time.
Health was part of it, but also. My my job kind of keeps me away
from this part of this, from this part of the aspect of
always the critics. So again, much appreciated.
Thank you for all the support that you show Jessica on daybook
for showing us support on always a critic.
Overall it is something that it does not go unnoticed.
So thank you and we appreciate you guys.
Yes. All right.
Thanks, Rico. I'm so upset that this is pretty
much it for season 3 for you, but I'll be back for more next
week. As you all know, that's been our
show. I'm Jessica, and this has been
the ATC percent stepback rambles podcast.
Channeling. And shut up.
Oh damn, man. Don't know.
Vocal stand. Song.
Boy, if we die. Man, it's like a ghost.
OK. Stop.
Dance song. Nobody.
The same. It's a non demented.
Shut up. Shut up, man.
She lives. It is.
Send.