Murder-mystery thriller "Return" aims to show new genre drama
A mysterious murder is surrounded by ugly acts of adultery involving snobby chaebol offspring who justify every evil act they commit. A lawyer who is tasked with defending a prime suspect embarks on a legal battle only to face an uncomfortable truth.
SBS TV's new Wednesday-Thursday series "Return" delves into a grisly murder case, where lawyer Choi Ja-hye, played by actress Go Hyun-jung, gets to solving the perplexing case at the request of her law school friend whose husband is implicated.
At a press briefing Monday at SBS headquarters in western Seoul, Go said she was very impressed by how well her colleagues were prepared on set to show a new "genre drama."
The cast members' energy and preparedness, she said, would certainly set the new series apart from a sea of recent legal series aired on the network, such as "Whisper" and "Judge vs. Judge."
"There are so many TV dramas these days. I care more about how well-made our drama is than about other external factors like viewership ratings," Go said. "I think the drama is different from other legal series, particularly in that the actors come to the set armed with vast knowledge and understanding of the script and their characters. There is no room for cliche."
On top of the legal battle, the drama is also expected to show a complicated web of raw human emotions, from the lawyer's desperation to restore justice to the suspect's denial and fear to his accomplices' self-justification.
The judge-turned-lawyer Go is a single mother who lost her daughter due to a hitherto unknown tragic incident and tries to get justice for her daughter inside a courtroom. But she realizes the cold reality that a person can so easily get away with something by a legal loophole. Quitting her job as a judge, she becomes a popular TV host for a courtroom show.
Actor Lee Jin-wook takes the role of Dokgo Young, a detective who chases after the grisly murder case. He has prickly past relations with the lawyer after Choi's TV show treated him unfairly. Four actors -- Shin Sung-rok, Bong Tae-kyu, Yoon Jong-hun and Park Ki-woong, who plays the prime suspect -- form a kind of "axis of evil" who do everything to cover up the truth about the murder.
Shin, who also performed an evil character in the mega-hit series "My Love from the Star," said he is confident he can show a different type of villain with different sentiments.
"Each character is very unique and probably never seen before," he said.
The 32-episode drama is set to premier at 10 p.m. on Wednesday.
source: Yonhap News