OCN’s ‘Voice 2’ starts to gain popularity

“Sex crimes against children are punishable by 25 years or more in prison in the United States and by 20 years or more in France. South Korea has related regulations in its legal system, but the intensity of punishment fails to reflect the actual damage done to children.”

It felt a little abrupt, indeed. To see such captions in the middle of a TV drama, not a news show, was by no means something one would usually expect. Still, the caption above was exactly what revealed the true identity of OCN’s drama series “Voice 2.” It appears in the drama’s third episode that aired on Aug. 18, following a scene where a criminal who raped a minor and was arrested by the police says that he “will be released soon.” “I really wanted to touch upon the issue of determining the punishment level of sex crimes against children,” said Ma Jin-won, screenwriter of the series.

“Voice 2” is drawing viewers’ attention as a TV drama firmly rooted in its beliefs. The fourth episode lately aired garnered a viewership rating of 5.4 percent (according to Nielsen Korea), a notable growth compared to the first season of Voice that hit its personal best of 5.7 percent last year and another TV series “Life on Mars,” which preceded “Voice 2” on OCN, that recorded over 5 percent rating only in its last episode.

Also attracting viewers is the drama’s fast-paced story in which an imaginary group in the police called “Golden Time” resolves one case per episode. Voice 2 also features appealing characters including Kang Kwon-joo (Lee Ha-na), who tracks suspects using sounds at crime scenes, and Do Kang-woo (Lee Jin-wook), a psychopath detective who resembles the main character of the American TV series “Dexter.” With the cooperation of the police, the Special Weapons and Tactics team also made an appearance for a scene where they suppressed an attempted terrorist attack, making the drama even more realistic.

Yet, some say that it is often uncomfortable to watch excessive violence portrayed during the drama with the rating 15. Though blurred, scenes frequently appear that explicitly describe methods of brutal crimes. Director Lee Seung-yeong said that he “humbly accepts critical comments and will try to include scenes that can be possibly too violent only when they are absolutely needed.”


easy@donga.com