The Uncanny Counter

**_Deserving of high praises and top rating_** "The Uncanny Counter" (2020) Season 1 was a live-action adaptation of the webtoon ("digital Korean manhwa") entitled "Kyeongirowoon Somoon" (2018) by Jang Yi. It stars Jo Byung Kyoo, Yoo Joon Sang, Kim Se Jeong, and Yeom Hye Ran, as the Counters--people who hunts evil spirits. The multiple story arcs were well thought out and I was amazed with how these different stories perfectly fit together in the end which brought out the best in the characters and the moral lessons of the series. The casting and acting for the four lead characters were so good it was as the audience witnessed a true story. The music, overall production, editing, and directing, were all superb. The choreography in the fight scenes were not lacking and were not overdone, simply fitting for four ordinary individuals to do; otherwise it would have been unrealistic. Finally, and it is rare to see this in most Asian dramas, they ended the series properly leaving an option for a sequel or a new season. Stories should not be sealed--leaving no room for the audience to create their own continuation, which in turn also leaves no room for an official sequel. Since it was already announced that season 2 was given a green light, it further proved the importance of ending a series with room for the future. Well done. I will be waiting for season 2.

Sadly another series that starts with a reasonably good plot, interesting (if you are okay with them being way overexaggerated) characters and pretty good visual quailty. And then the annoying sides of the characters get even more overdrawn, and people are doing things "because of plot". At that point it just feels like *really* lazy writing when character A gets hurt in the middle of combat and character B drops everything and rushes there without actually doing anything helpful like first aid and completely looses sight of the enemy that is still around. Thus the enemy makes his escape, after technically being already defeated.