With its rotating roster of characters and dizzying series of twists, the creators of No Way Out: The Roulette could never be accused of taking the easy way out.
However, breathless though this punchy crime thriller undoubtedly is, the failure to follow through on story threads results in diminishing returns over the course of its eight episodes.
The plot thickens during the investigation when the attacker accidentally dies while being chased by cash-strapped Detective Baek Joong-sik (Cho Jin-woong, Signal), who finds the money and stashes it away for himself.
In the pandemonium that ensues, Joong-sik is assigned to Guk-ho’s protective detail, an assignment that no one on the force is keen to take on. While dealing with the shifty Guk-ho’s demands and hiding his new-found fortune from his colleagues, Joong-sik is soon tracked down by Chang-jae, who believes that the money rightfully belongs to him.
Following this exciting opening flurry, No Way Out: The Roulette expands its scope to include a number of other characters who come crawling out of the woodwork thanks to Guk-ho’s headline-grabbing infamy.
Each larger than life than the last, these characters chew up the screen while they are on it but do not have a lasting impact on the story and leave it as abruptly as they entered it.
Dong-ha is a promising young violinist who has an opportunity to study abroad, but the presence of his father and the effect it has on his poor mother prevents him from boarding the plane with a clear conscience.
As a not-quite corrupted youth, Dong-ha offers a refreshing contrast to the other amoral or villainous characters in the show.
When evidence appears linking the masked man to Joon-woo’s church, it is immediately obvious that he must be the man behind the mask. It is so telegraphed that you would be forgiven for expecting it to be a red herring, but this show moves a little too quickly for that kind of narrative subterfuge.
Joon-woo has a dark backstory and his twisted game turns out to be an elaborate act of revenge. Cackling and sneering like a madman when not pretending to be a good Christian in front of his congregation, his character leaves much to be desired.
Although never less than engaging and always easy to follow, thanks to a strong sense of spacing and the clear and crafty direction of filmmaker Choi Kook-hee (Default), in the end, No Way Out: The Roulette is not able to live up to its early promise.
The narrative is dynamic but lacks surprise, and the characters are largely performative caricatures. One or the other could be overcome, but not both, and the series steadily sinks under the weight of its superficial busyness.
As with many recent Korean streaming series, No Way Out: The Roulette makes a big effort to set up a second season, which as yet has not been confirmed.
No Way Out: The Roulette is streaming on Disney+.
