beyond evil vs taxi driver (my review and comparison) [INCLUDES SPOILERS]

so i spent the last two weeks watching both of these dramas. and its crazy bc i went into taxi driver with high expectations because of its popularity and into beyond evil with no expectations because i just randomly stumbled upon it and watched 100% bc of shin hakyun, but i think beyond evil was a way better drama overall. i'll start with my general ratings:

Beyond Evil: 9/10

Taxi Driver: 7/10

taxi driver's biggest issue was plot holes and the lack of connecting previous plot points to character growth. I couldn't understand why they never focused on or had the prosecutor (hana) reflect on how she literally got 2 people killed and put people in danger by using them as "bait" on a case with no police back up more than once. this was something that beyond evil handled really well with personal guilt and lawful consequences juwon had to face for using someone as bait secretly which resulted in their death. also on the topic of consequences it was kinda meh that the rainbow transport team faced 0 consequences for the unlawful things they did. It felt like a complete 180 on kang hana's part after she spent the ENTIRE series hunting them down and talking down to them for unlawfully taking revenge, even after she used them to get back at her colleague's killer when she saw the prison they kept the abducted prisoners in. and then suddenly she just covers it all up, keeps working as a prosecutor, and joins them??? the end of beyond evil where even dongsik took responsibility and served time for his wrongdoing was way more satisfying.

taxi driver's nearly comical villains were also too over the top. i got that they were trying to show that some people will never be sorry for what they did and are just pure evil for no good reason, but literally every last villain became a caricature of that "pure evil" and then the concept of them being made to understand how they had hurt people wasn't even explored except for the one serial killer guy at the end? like what? the villains in beyond evil were far more believable because they had clear motivations for their actions and weren't just comic book villains with no semblance of humanity. this didn't make them sympathetic, but it made them human, which enhanced them as characters beyond the fodder the villains in taxi driver were.

overall i actually did like baek sungmi more as a final boss villain than han kihwan. but i appreciated the emotional strife han kihwan as the villain cause when there was rlly no emotional connation between sungmi and the other mcs of taxi driver.

feel free to share your own points on this. honestly i think taxi driver was a little over hyped and beyond evil a little underrated, but i generally enjoyed both dramas

Quote from taeric

This is so nice to see this thread since both Beyond evil and Taxi Driver became my favorite dramas of this year.

Let's not forget that Taxi Driver is based on a webtoon (didn't read it), so that's why the action might be rushed and there is no serious development in the characters and so many comical parts. As for the popularity, I think the ideas that they aborded helped to gain such big attention. Things like illegal p*rn distribution are not something that people see that often in dramas, actually, I never saw this idea in any others dramas even tho it's a real problem in SK, so the viewers felt great satisfaction to see how the oppressors are punished. It really struck an emotional chord.

The most annoying part of Taxi Driver was Hana's character, but it's understandable since she stuck with the law. But what is the point if they aren't punished? For me, the ending meant that the law failed.

Beyond evil, on the other hand, was more "mature" for me. Shin Ha-Kyun was amazing, he totally deserved to be the actor of the year! And thanks to this drama I started to like Yeo Jin-goo since this mature drama suits him better. The plot was amazing and well planned, but they also had the freedom to structure it from the beginning to the end, unlike Taxi Driver where they had to stick on some ideas from the webtoon. They presented the dark side of reality, with corruption, sadness, lack of affection, lack of humanity, friendships, overprotection behavior of parents, etc. Feel like TD focused on the oppressors, while BE on the victim's life. Dongsik portrayed very well the hardships of a human who can't move after losing someone dear and who blame himself.

Also, BE was richer in plot twists which makes it more interesting.

Overall, I liked both, but if I would have to pick one as a recommendation, I would choose Beyond Evil.

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good point about the relevant topics. i do think the topics taxi driver portrayed were rlly important things to discuss. i feel like they weren't handled the best way tho. bc with the sextape case in particular putting a big cooperation behind it kind of took away from the fact that just regular ass duded are driving the market irl and deserve to be exposed for that shitty behavior. most of the cases were like that where just something about it made it a little too fantastical and not grounded in reality. but i can see why people were overall satisfied with the representation of these cases.

Quote from taeric

Yeah, same. In reality, that kind of taxi doesn't exist, so I really wished to see how the police would handle this problem. I feel like the police didn't do anything notable for that case, without Doki they wouldn't discover the market.

Offtopic> I heard that even that story about the corporation was actually inspired by true events. Looks like the chairman forced the employees to act and dress in a certain way, which may show how employees accept anything just to keep their job. SK had a problem with jobs rights and it's really hard to find a job so they have to kiss their employers. It would have been an interesting topic to develop, but yeah,,,

yeah that type of corporate culture is kinda common in sk because of their seniority thing. not always that extreme but yeah. all the cases were based off of real things. i think they should have separated the sextape thing and the corporate abuse thing tho bc it was too much to cover in one case imo.

im not rlly sure if the message of this drama was supposed to be that the police/justice system is useless but thats pretty much what they showed lol.

Quote from seonhee

I was so amazed at Lee Dong Shik/Shin Ha Kyun's acting right from the first episode.

shin hakyun is honestly one of the best korean actors. i've been watching some of his movies and he's always been rlly good

Quote from seonhee

I don't think I have watched any of his dramas/movies before. So, it was really a pleasant surprise for me.

I'm so glad I randomly clicked into it and start watching.

I'll need to start searching for his dramas after I'm done with my current dramas. Lol

he actually also has a drama called less than evil that im planning to watch. only think is its like 30 smtg eps lol.

Quote from seonhee

30+ episodes? I'm not sure if I have the patience. Hahaha.

Can you please update me if it's good when u start watching it? Thanks!!

not sure if you even remember this but yeah, i dropped less than evil after 4 eps lol. its just...frustrating and doesnt make a lot of sense. not worth pushing through 30 eps

Quote from seonhee

Hahaha.. Thanks for the update! The storyline is that bad? Lol.

Sometimes it's such a waste when they have good actors but they get some bad writers and make the plot sucks.

yeah, its just so weird. shin hakyun deserved so much better than that he has other drama and movies tho so lol