This K-Drama Thriller Pulls You Into the Hunt for a Cold-Blooded Serial Killer

Police procedurals are usually winners with TV and film audiences. Whether it is Luther, Insomnia, or Dexter, people simply seem obsessed with the idea of the darkness of humanity as well as what gifts and curses it takes to catch serial killers, and the darker, the better. Well, if you are one of these people, like me, and are looking for your next thriller to binge, look no further than Tell Me What You Saw.

This K-drama on Prime Video is a bloody tale that balances light and dark incredibly well, as rookie and experienced detectives hunt down a serial killer who was thought to be dead, only for his brand of murders to re-emerge. Whilst it is probably profiler Oh Hyun-jae (Jang Hyuk) who is the most interesting and best-portrayed character, Cha Soo-young's (Choi Soo-young) naive and endearing police officer is the perfect balance in this grim reality. All in all, you are certainly missing out if you don't watch this murder mystery.

What Is 'Tell Me What You Saw' About?

Tell Me What You Saw opens with a young girl standing in the rain, and we are told that an instant is one-seventy-fifths of a second. Therefore, it is a literal frame of reality, and the gift this young girl possesses is the ability to remember exactly that frame. This girl is our protagonist, Cha Soo-young, who grows up to be a countryside police officer desperate to make it as a detective in Korea's Metropolitan Investigation Unit.

Compare this to the introductions to protagonists in the aforementioned Luther and Insomnia, and there is automatically quite a shift. Both of those series introduce us to characters without hope; the only light in their lives is the satisfaction of catching bad guys, darkened by the mental scarring they then live with afterward, such as Al Pacino's character lacking sleep because of the evidence he planted on a suspect. Instead, Soo-young isn't scarred but given hope by the discovery of her abilities. Tell Me What You Saw therefore gives us less of a brutal opening, which leaves the door open for the horrifying images we are later presented with.

One night, a suitcase containing a dismembered body is found, and Soo-young is the first on the scene. Subsequently, a mint is found in the victim's mouth, which brings in the Metropolitan Investigation Unit team leader, Hwang Ha-young (Jin Seo-yeon), to investigate whether this murder was committed by "That Bastard" — the nickname of a supposedly deceased serial killer with the same calling card. It's a dramatic change of pace that shocks you into paying attention because, after being lulled into a false sense of security, we are immediately shown the depraved world Soo-young wishes to enter.

The final piece of this premise is Hyun-jae, a police profiler considered to be the best, but has become a recluse after his fiancée was killed by "That Bastard." Ha-young introduces Soo-young to Hyun-Jae, who mocks and belittles the young officer, and Soo-young begins to learn how to use her memory to best assist in the investigation. So, rather than the veteran being the main character, we see things from a rookie's perspective.

Soo-young Is the Perfect Bit of Light in this Dark, Grim World

Whilst Hyun-jae is the most fascinating character in Tell Me What You Saw, that doesn't mean Soo-young is any less necessary than he is. Hyun-jae is so good at his job and has lost so much that he is not only a recluse, but a cynic, and Hyuk's performance nails this with his unnerving expression. Similarly, team leader Ha-young is grim in her disposition, but the actress plays it far more badass than Hyuk's full-on depression. However, Soo-young gives us a character to which we can truly endear ourselves.

When we are first shown Soo-young as a police officer, she isn't chasing bad guys, but talking to a runaway goat. She claims calming the suspect down is the "first step" towards arrest, and watching her scramble to catch a little goat is the exact kind of light-hearted fun Tell Me What You Saw needs to keep the show watchable. Without her, the depressing world could overwhelm the viewer, but seeing this from Soo-young's perspective gives us a feeling that it is always getting better as she becomes more comfortable with the investigation. The actress' ability to balance her clear nervousness working in her dream job with her belief in her own skills, gives us a nuanced performance in this somewhat black world.

Tell Me What You Saw is certainly not for the fainthearted. It is a gory and horrific portrayal of the world and the killers that live within it, as well as displaying the haunting these people can do to their souls. However, this is what we want from such a thriller: to feel faced with the worst of humanity and hope our heroes will prevail without losing themselves along the way. Tell Me What You Saw succeeds in this tremendously.

Tell Me What You Saw is available to stream on Prime Video in the U.S.

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