What Is the Story About?
Somebody follows app developer Sum after her pathbreaking creation of dating app ‘Somebody‘. Diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, she has difficulty communicating with other people. She is friends with Shaman Mok Won and cop Gi Eun.
A series of murders begin to take place involving the ‘somebody app’. Architectural designer Sung Yun-oh, a very attractive yet mysterious man develops a mutual liking towards Sum but still seems to hide something. Things begin to get complicated when Gi Eun herself faces a terrifying experience from the dating app and decides to investigate the murders with help of Mok Won.
Performances?
Kim Young-kwang is an exceptional performer. Even when the show drags itself with no interesting high moment, it’s his acting that drives audience interest. He brings the awkwardness, reclusiveness and mostly menacing Yun-oh to life. Kang Hae-lim gives a fairly competent performance as Kim Sum at times, while she misses the memo other times.
Analysis
Directed and co-written by Jung Ji-woo alongside Han Ji-wan, Somebody is a twisted love-story of two unusually usual recluses first and a serial crime thriller second. Safe to say, the film works as neither.
The initial two episodes quite does the job well in setting up the premise. We have an exceptionally nerdy soft-ware/app developer Kim Sum who launches a viral dating app ‘Somebody’.As much as the pros, her creation eventually starts rotting from within due to underlying cons. Rape cases, missing person cases, fraud, assault cases etc increase in large numbers with the dating app ‘Somebody’ at the centre of most crime cases.
Sum is a recluse diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome. Dissatisfied with the way her life has been turning out, she tries out ‘Somebody’ herself and meets architect Sung Yun-oh. The duo weirdly hit off due to similar personal disorders. This is when Sum’s best friend Gi Eun who is also a cop tries out Somebody app only to have a nightmare experience.
Kim Sum and Yun-oh get closer. This is when Gi Eun begins investigating the one who caused her distress on that fateful date with Shaman Mok Won. She seeks Sum’s help and ugly secrets unveil. What follows is a paper thin story stretching itself to no end. As long as the audience is kept in the dark for the first 3 episodes, there’s an element of curiosity that drives attention. But soon after you realise the story and screenplay is moving in circles.
The snail-paced narration also doesn’t help the show any better. Once you push yourselves to episode 6, you’re already exhausted with no capability to take anymore. So many parallel characters pop up here and there, but the audience could care for none. To be more precise, the audience could not even care about who, how, and why are the pivotal serial killers in the show the way they are, as it reaches the finale episode.
The music and editing of Somebody are also annoying to multiple degrees. A convincing main star-cast pulls a fiddling narrative closer, only for all efforts to blow down in vain. If the story was scissored to a four episode mini-series with a crisper editing, Somebody would’ve worked atleast as a drama. But, it rather ends up as neither a gripping drama, nor an exciting crime thriller.
In short, Somebody is a head-less, tail-less, and snail-paced series. A Shabbily written show, irredeemable in many ways with a luscious cast. Simply because the writers chose to write random scenes and cardboard cut-out characters whilst also inserting un-necessary non-linear narration, Somebody ends up as a frustrating 7+ hour experience.
Other Artists?
Kim Yong-ji as Im Mok-won and Kim Su-yeon as Yeong Gi-eun are the other important characters of Somebody besides the main leads. Both the actors have real good screen presence. Other supporting characters don’t have much screen-time to deserve a mention.
Music and Other Departments?
Somebody’s music mostly sticks out like a sore-thumb. Random edgy musical score and un-necessary songs not only does obstruct the pacing, but also pulls out an already disinterested viewer out of the story. However, Jung Ji-woo and Han Ji-wan’s screenplay remains the biggest culprit. A more refined screenplay and direction could have atleast not wronged the performers to this magnitude. Somebody’s camera work is so good.
Highlights?
Main Cast
Cinematography
Drawbacks?
Story
Screenplay
No high moments
Lack of Twists
Music
Duration
Did I Enjoy It?
Not Really
Will You Recommend It?
No
Somebody Series Review by Binged Bureau
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