“Living with no purpose was not that bad. But a question was thrown into my life. Now, I start my journey to find an answer.”
SBS’s Flex x Cop (2024), also known as “Chaebol x Detective” tells the story of an immature third generation chaebol who becomes a detective catching criminals, and a veteran detective who is workaholic and doesn’t go easy on someone with money and power. Despite not getting along well with each other at work, they become investigative partners solving crimes together.
Having seen two episodes thus far, here are some key points and insights about the drama:
Theme
SBS’s Flex x Cop (2024) is an action-crime drama with a touch of comedy and romance, which initially captivates with its swag theme in its first two episodes. Story and entertainment-wise, it is engaging, fast-paced, and no boring or dull scenes detected so far. The production also shows high quality content, including cinematography, visuals, and musical score.
Characters/Performances
Ahn Bo-hyun as Jin Isoo is a scene-stealing performer all throughout. He perfectly embodies the fun-loving, spoiled, and troublemaking chaebol son with his sense of humor, strong visuals (obviously he’s got the perfect height and muscular body), and capacity to act cool on the outside but broken on the inside. I’ve seen him portray various drama roles and it seems a character full of swag action truly suits him well.
In particular, he delivered excellence as Captain Do Bae-man in tvN’s Military Prosecutor Doberman (2022). However, his acting performance further elevates as Jin Isoo in SBS’s Flex x Cop (2024). I must say in advance that Ahn Bo-hyun is already serving one of the iconic or memorable drama characters of 2024.
Park Ji-hyun as the badass female detective, Lee Ganghyun, is also a stunner, showing remarkable transformation from a sly daughter of the head of Hyunsung Daily, Mo Hyeon Min, in JTBC’s Reborn Rich (2022).
In SBS’s Flex x Cop (2024), she draws attention with her action stunts and convincing performance as a strong character who leads a team of detectives in the violent crime investigative unit and doesn’t go easy on someone with money and power, including the troublemaking rich son turned cop.
Chemistry-wise, Ahn Bo-hyun and Park Ji-hyun have the visible onscreen connection as two cops who don’t get along well at work but nevertheless work together to chase culprits with their resources combined, thus providing viewers such tension that’s fun and worthwhile to watch.
Screenplay/Plotline
Flex x Cop (2024) is written by Kim Ba-Da who penned the Netflix action series, My Name (2021) and helmed by Kim Jae-hong who directed SBS’s psychological-thriller drama, Revenant (2023).
The narrative follows a troublemaking son named Jin Isoo (Ahn Bo-hyun) from a chaebol family who hates getting involved in his father’s business and rather, lives an easy, aimless life, hanging out with people and playing rescue games for fun.
Jin Isoo’s (Ahn Bo-hyun) life turns upside down when he unexpectedly gets entangled in an incident with a wanted criminal and soon finds himself reporting for duty as the newest cop in the violent crime investigation team. Despite the disapproval from his immediate police team and senior officer (Park Ji-hyun) due to his bad image and inexperience in the field, he proves them his capability to catch criminals by mobilizing his enormous wealth and personal connections.
With two episodes released so far, the two polar opposites deal with various interesting crimes differently. Lee Ganghyun (Park Ji-hyun) investigates based on her rich experience as a detective while Jin Isoo (Ahn Bo-hyun) who’s a newbie in the world of navigating crimes solves the case with his wit and social influence.
Meanwhile, the drama also highlights how the justice system including the police force easily compromises laws when the powerful or wealthy of the society gets the matter at hand. It’s not a new topic since a lot of Korean dramas have explored this idea already. However, what’s interesting to follow is how a spoiled and immature rich kid turned detective uses his influence to shed light on the injustice from the powerful and turn the nation upside down, I assume.
It’s also interesting to know how Ahn Bo-hyun’s character develops as he learns to take responsibility for his personal life as an adult and for the nation both as a citizen and a cop, with emerging tension between him and his father who is a chairman running for mayor in Seoul and his senior officer, Lee Ganghyun (Park Ji-hyun) who teaches him police duties the hard way.
Conclusion
If you like it fun and cool with swag characters and a dynamic duo, SBS’s Flex x Cop (2024) is the drama worth adding to your watch list! Thus far, it delivers one of the most entertaining Korean contents at the start of the year that captures attention well with its excellent execution and production overall.
Screenwriter: Kim Bada | Director: Kim Jae Hong | Original network: SBS | Available on: Disney+ | Images: SBS Drama
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