Through the Darkness

Do you need to watch something REAL?

Look no further. How does it feel to be a detective? Through the 12 episodes you will travel with the best mind in this series.

The lead character is a Korean sherlock mind hunter who will take you through the thinking and the analysis which is what makes this series stand out from the other ones like mind hunter or many other crime thriller. You will be thinking about how they solve these cases without not much lead. But you see some brilliant deductive skills, behavioral analysis, quick wit thinking to capture, instinct and also come across great acting by both protagonist and antagonists.

Spend 12 to 13 hours of your life to enjoy this masterpiece.....

This series is about the establishment of a criminal profiling department within the police force. It shows the struggles the department faced in gaining acceptance within the force and the cases that they investigated which established their reputation. The teams star is an introvert with issues of his own but his brilliance is being able to enter the mind of killers and identify some of their traits. It is well acted by the full cast and the story mainly concentrates on serial killers and looking into what drives some of them. I find stories of this nature depressing as the murderers represented actually exist and random killing is so difficult to solve, therefore I am thankful people exist who can assist capture of them.

It's almost impossible to not compare the two shows to each other, as this basically feels like a Korean version of Mindhunter.

We get to see how the first "profilers" make an emergence in solving crimes, we get the old guard scoffing at these new "brainy" guys and their weird antics, we get the interviews with the serial killers to find out what makes them tick, and using all the intelligence they have garnered to catch new ones running amock.

Because of all the simmilarities, it's also impossible to not compare the two shows. And while "Those who read the Hearts of Evil" is an entertaining show as well on it's own, "Mindhunter" is the one which ends up on top in my opinion. And by seeing how one does it better, it also makes you notice how the other does it worse in certain aspects.

This is a more sensationalised version. There are more extreme coincidences, there are more crazed serial killers, there's more drama shown by the characters. While Mindhunter feels more like they want to show a realistic almost documentary like show, this one feels almost more like they wanted to make a stretched out Hollywood movie.

And there's nothing wrong with that. This was an entertaining time waster.

Many compared Through the Darkness to the US series Mindhunter. Though they share some elements, they are completely different shows. One focuses on the mind of serial killers. This one focuses on the psychology of profilers.

They could not have found a better actor to portray an empath. And they couldn't have written a better script to profile the empath archetype: quiet, introverted, loner with few social connections. It's downright eerie how well the empath type was depicted. This personality type takes every emotion they're exposed to onto themselves. If they're not careful, their burden will consume them.

By contrast, the serial killers' stories were deliberately made crass and vulgar to underscore the banality of evil.

If you're going into this with a 'Korean Mindhunter' mindset, you'll likely be disappointed, like so many other commenters. But if you like intense psychological exploration, this is the show for you.

'Those Who Reads the Hearts of Evil' approaches crime genre in fresher way. Rather than focusing on thriller of catching a crime and investing time in evil's point of view, it emphasizes more on how crimes affect mindset of those who pursue the evil 'after' criminals get caught. The director succeeds in fixating viewers to stay concentrated during long takes of interrogation, making it 'feel' brief and interesting. Sometimes interview with serial killers is hard to watch not because it it is boring but because it is intensely realistic. It is so shocking and nauseous that much evil can exist in one person.

Dramas and events in the series are roller-coaster and appalling throughout, but narrative and style remain calm, organized, and controlled. It is the main reason that audience can keep watching the show non-stop without getting tired or burdened. Great balance to make a show captivating and consistent at the same time.