THE WHIRLWIND, a Netflix produced K-drama, shows cutthroat politics at their highest levels in South Korea. The series begins with the murder attempt of sitting President Jang by his second in command, Prime Minister Park Dong-ho. The deputy Prime Minister, Jung Soo-jin, then sees her own calculated path to power. These two would be successors to the presidency try to keep each other out of power and ruin each other's political careers through lies, bribery, threats, blackmail, and lawfare, trying to form alliances with both public and private influencers, and the citizenry at large. It is definitely an unvarnished look at what is possible with people with great ambition who will stop at nothing to gain power. It also shows how efforts made to root out corruption can lead to more corruption. Many comparisons can be made to real life governments in many countries, including the United States, from what was depicted in this series.
Two glaring problems limited the message's effectiveness: First, the plot holes. Early on, when Park becomes acting President and learns of the threat Jung will become, he fires her as Prime Minister. Yet she retains access to her office, information and files, and continues to give orders to (former) subordinates. This enables her to continue her quest to remove Park from power. If a person were fired and removed from their position, they would no longer have this kind of access or power. Nor would she or any other single person be left alone (or with their assistant only) in a hospital room while the President was recovering from a near death experience. Any nation would provide tight security for their leader while he or she was recuperating.
Second, the monotone emotions displayed by every character became repetitive and boring. Their limited range only consisted of serious scowls by everyone, and then Jung's watering eyes at the hint of each impending crisis. Very few smiles, and only during flashbacks.
Those items aside, THE WHIRLWIND was a binge worthy, one season series.
