Inspector Koo

December 1, 2021

Koo Kyeong-ie (Lee Young-ae) is a brilliant former insurance investigator now drinking herself into comfortable irrelevance. She encounters K (Kim Hye-jun) — a young woman who kills people as a hobby — and is immediately interested. The Gangnam insurance world she inhabited is established.

December 1, 2021

K's killings are shown from her perspective — methodical, invisible, genuinely recreational. The drama's tonal confidence — treating a serial killer with dark comedy — is established.

December 8, 2021

Kyeong-ie, piqued despite herself, begins investigating the deaths. Her methods are unconventional, her instincts are impeccable.

December 8, 2021

The connection between K's targets and insurance policies — the financial logic of the killings — emerges. Kyeong-ie's professional background becomes the drama's investigative engine.

December 15, 2021

Investigation sequences in the Seongbuk residential neighbourhood. Kyeong-ie moving through Seoul's quieter streets, following K's invisible trail.

December 15, 2021

A mysterious figure connected to K — called Santa — is identified. The drama's conspiracy layer deepens.

December 22, 2021

Kyeong-ie and K's cat-and-mouse game at its most balanced. Lee Young-ae and Kim Hye-jun's chemistry — comic, threatening, genuinely strange — is the drama's greatest pleasure.

December 22, 2021

K's origin — who she was before she started killing — is revealed. The drama treats this with neither excuse nor condemnation.

December 29, 2021

The insurance industry conspiracy that connects K's killings to powerful institutional players.

December 29, 2021

Kyeong-ie's personal tragedy — the event that sent her into semi-retirement — is fully revealed. Lee Young-ae's best scene of the series.

January 5, 2022

Kyeong-ie closes in on K and on the full conspiracy simultaneously. The drama's action sequences are more effective than expected.

January 5, 2022

The finale. Named best drama of 2021 by Korean critics; Lee Young-ae named actress of the year. A dark comedy thriller that was as formally inventive as it was entertaining.