While there is nothing novel about the characterisations – an aloof, rich and arrogant male lead and his no-nonsense and hard-working female co-star – what the show does manage to do is to hit a sweet spot between viewers’ disdain of and fascination with the elite who rule society.
Flex X Cop: Ahn Bo-hyun, Park Ji-hyun in breezy procedural K-drama
Flex X Cop: Ahn Bo-hyun, Park Ji-hyun in breezy procedural K-drama
I-soo is the dashing hero with looks, money and skills to burn, who frequently outshines his veteran detective colleagues by relying on know-how and connections that only someone of his standing could have access to.
One early case involves a beautiful young woman found dead in the murky waters beside a yacht owned by a corporate heir. As the heir and his various family members crowd into the police station, one by one, I-soo offers a running commentary on who they are and what their motives might be.
The melodrama that ensues in the bullpen is amusing – one of the detectives even munches on popcorn while watching it unfold – but I-soo understands these people and he is ultimately the one who cracks the case, first when his knowledge of yachts yields a crucial clue and later when he figures out a parallel between the victim’s life and his own.
The dead woman was a secret, illegitimate heir, and this is the reason she was killed.
The narrative then takes a serious turn as we discover that I-soo is also an illegitimate son of his company chairman father, although his backstory isn’t delved into fully until later in the show.
This backstory humanises I-soo and allows viewers to identify more with him, which in turn makes it easier for us to experience his world vicariously.
That’s not to say that he ever becomes anything less than a fantastical hero. Among his many feats of derring-do are piloting a helicopter and hooking its landing skids through an escaping car, and rappelling out of a high-rise apartment window to catch a fleeing suspect several floors below.
After a few fun cases, one of which features a famous painter who winds up dead at his own exhibition, morbidly entitled “Invitation to the Death”, the cases begin to fall into a predictable pattern as they become increasingly connected to I-soo’s chaebol family and its secrets, while his father embarks on a presidential election campaign.
Like many recent Korean dramas, Flex X Cop also takes a hardline view of drugs, featuring several characters whose addictions render them violent and deeply unstable.
When an actress is found dead on a film set, I-soo’s junkie friend Kim Young-hwan (Choi Dong-goo), the film’s producer, is arrested as a suspect. Although I-soo eventually exonerates him, he immediately hands his friend back to the police over his use of illegal drugs.
7 of the best new Korean drama series to watch in March 2024
7 of the best new Korean drama series to watch in March 2024
By this point in the show, I-soo has become a model citizen who is praised by the press for his heroics and generosity. This new responsibility seems to compel him to report his friend, rather than help him battle his addiction in a less destructive way.
Aside from all the crime and chaebol dynamics, Flex X Cop also has time to tease Korean romcom tropes thanks to the evolving relationship between I-soo and Gang-hyun, who slowly develops a grudging respect for his unconventional but admittedly effective investigative techniques.
This relationship expands after I-soo moves back into his childhood home, which happens to be right beside the house where Gang-hyun lives with her mother and father, a legendary figure from the police violent crimes division whose career screeched to a halt thanks to a scandal.
As we head into the series’ final episodes, we are starting to get a little more into Gang-hyun’s story, which may help lend balance to the familiar narrative about a chaebol family and election dynamics that we know lies ahead.
Flex X Cop is streaming on Disney+.
