Narco-Saint | review

screenshot from the official teaser

I came across another crime and thriller k-drama series that finally piqued my interest. Lately, my love for rom-com has lost its spark. Maybe for now since I haven't found a perfect drama to keep the spark alive, lol!

While scrolling on netflix, this drama caught my eyes. I especially find interest of the drama since Park Hae Soo is a familiar face. I have seen his series Prison Playbook and absolutely loved it. So another drama where he is a cast must be worth the binge too. Though it's not always the case, but the chances are high. And yes, it did not disappoint me.

screenshot from the official teaser

Narco-saints! The title is quite interesting too. The play of the words can tell so much of what this drama is all about.

The drama consists only of six episodes. A series with a thriller and crime theme and with a touch of action, 6 episodes is my standard. I am not into action series. One reason is the action scenes where gun fights and physical fights are too unrealistic and unrelatable. This drama has just a little of those scenes that I could brush it off and still enjoy those action scenes.

Narco-Saints showcases the life-threatening journey of Kang In-gu (Ha Jung-woo), a civilian businessman who has no choice but to cooperate with the secret operation of the National Intelligence Service to catch Jeon Yo-hwan (Hwang Jung-min), a South Korean drug lord who has taken control of Suriname. source

What fascinates me more about this series is that it is inspired by a true story though the characters and events were reimagined for dramatic purposes. They did a great job with the plot that kept me hooked and thrilled for the next episodes.

As I watched each episode, it felt like I was up for an adrenaline rushing adventure everytime. My heart pounded at every scene specifically in episode three when Kang In-gu started his mission of entering the world of narcotics, with the ultimate goal of capturing Jeon Yo-hwan. It was tense game of cat-and-mouse. As he faced the unimaginable danger of getting caught and failing the mission, the scenes were also getting more in tense and it was the case up until the last episode.

screenshot from the official teaser

The series showed how evil the world of narcotics is, taking control of a community and country through narco-politics, and using religion as front of their evil doing, thus referring to the title narco-saints with Jeon Yo-hwan posing as a pastor, a leader to a narco-cult he created. Though fiction, it's common knowledge that there is a truth to a certain extent to this narrative.

screenshot from the official teaser

I really enjoyed this series. I love the thrill of every scene this series brought to the table. So I am rating this series an 8.5/10.
I wish gun fight scenes will be more realistic. I just noticed that in action scenes, when there are gun fight scenes, it is always that, one shot is enough to kill the unsignificant characters while a flood of bullets can't even get a single bullet shot to the protagonists or other significant characters. I just thought these scenes are a bit ridiculous. Well, I guess that's how action dramas are. Thankfully, I don't get to see this kind of scene very often in this drama. It was only in the last episode during a car chase between Jeon Yo-hwan and Kang In-gu that I saw that kind of scene.

Have you watched this series? Did you enjoy it? What are you thoughts?

Happy weekend everyone!