'Life on Mars' is a series that deals with horrible crimes especially against women. I surely understand that there will be some scenes that would make me uncomfortable. Lots of rape and killing scenes. However, the same scenes are repeated in multiple episodes, especially the most brutal parts as flashbacks. The close ups of panties or inner parts of the legs stand out. The director has no empathy towards the victims while the main characters show some respect for the dead. Jung-Hyo Lee should be ashamed that he treats female victims just as dead bodies.
Women are hit so many freaking times. Okay, I will try my best to put myself in the director's shoes. 'It's the 80s, and that's what happened in the 80s in Korea.' My answer is that I got it the first time Officer Yoon was slapped in the face. Officer Yoon, victims, and witnesses all get slapped at least once in every episode. More absurd things happen after they get hit. Not one character really cares or points out there's something wrong with it. They are just observers of women hitters, and the show goes on as if nothing happened. This is what Korea is like in the 2010s as well? The series is based on the 1980s, but the audience is living a life in the 2010s.
How Jung-Hyo Lee utilizes actresses in the series is disgusting. Officer Yoon solves almost all the cases, finding the most crucial clue and presenting impeccable research, not Han Tae-joo. She does not get the recognition she deserves IN the story or OFF the camera. As a character, she remains serving coffees to co-workers till the last episode. As an actress, she is used as a prop to 'explain' the details of the crime rather than to actually 'show' her doing police work or taking initiative. Director Lee loves to show the skin of actresses unnecessarily. In the last episode, when prosecutor Jung tries to get out of the media crowd, her blouse rips, and the camera zooms in her spaghetti sleeves and shoulders (again), and it's freaking creepy. Even without that particular scene, the high level of attention from the media is already delivered to the audience.
Is the series well-made if it does not have aforementioned problems? Not really. Plot organization is amateur. I stayed on watching till the episode because I wanted to know the ending of the present time of Han Tae-joo. The process of getting there is painful to watch. If this is how the police procedure worked in the 80s, South Korea would be a cesspool of crime by now. The plot development is crude and has many holes. The pacing is slow and elongated. 'Signal' wannabe, and it failed miserably.
