Kim Som (Kang Hae-rim) was diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome as a child. The girl from an early age knew how to program perfectly. In high school, Kim built an AI chatbot that later grew into the popular dating app Somebody with the help of an investor. Today, the developer holds the position of technical director of a successful company. Kim is lonely and doesn’t really know how to communicate with people. One day, a programmer corresponds with a strange guy Seung Yun-oh (Kim Yong-gwan). In a young man, Kim finds a kindred spirit – it seems that no one understands Sen either. At the same time, it becomes known about the murder of several girls. Before they died, the victims interacted with someone at Somebody. Perhaps the maniac uses several accounts. Kim suspects Sung of the crimes he has committed.
“Somebody” cannot boast of big names among the creators and actors. All episodes were directed by Jung Ji-woo (“Music Album” and “Silence”), who has never directed a series before. Perhaps the main star of the series is Kim Yong-kwang (“Wonderful Ghost”, “Your Wedding”, “Mission Possible”), who first became famous as a model, and then became a successful artist.
The Korean series can hardly be called a detective – the identity of the maniac is clear from the very first episode. From domestic projects, a similar scheme was used in Sarik Andreasyan’s Chikatilo. It is more interesting for Jung to trace the backstory of the killer and tell how the criminal was caught. The maniac revels in impunity and leaves one of the victims alive. Young Gi-young (Kim Soo-young) is a strong-willed girl paralyzed from the waist down, who manages to crawl to her car and return home without a wheelchair in the middle of the forest. The survivor begins the hunt for the maniac and gathers her friends as a support group. One of them is Somebody developer Kim Som.
The programmer is the most interesting character in the series. Kim wants to help her friend and realizes that a new acquaintance is doing wrong, but in all her life a girl with Asperger’s syndrome has never felt as comfortable as in the company of Seung. Everywhere Kim is a white crow. Maniac – a tall handsome man in huge glasses and with an eternal devilish smile on his lips – looks like a caricature. Any interlocutor at a meeting with Syon from the very first minutes will decide that the guy is plotting a crime. Kim and Sen are similar in otherness: while the maniac shreds another victim, the programmer googles how it is customary in society to react to this or that situation.
Jung Ji-woo comes up with a funny construct by pitting two sociopaths against each other. Two lonelinesses met, who hardly understand what love is, but definitely feel sympathy for each other. It turns out an explosive cocktail of many erotic scenes, awkward conversations and brutal murders. “Somebody” develops at a leisurely pace, so the episodes of the massacre look especially impressive. Chon can be accused of aestheticizing violence and wanting to shock the viewer. But fans of Asian extreme sports should be pleased with the project. There really is a lot of blood!
“Somebody” disappoints as a story about the investigation of a series of murders, but pleases with the psychological study of marginal characters. The series lacks rhythm, and the project sags in the middle of the season, but the spectacular ending leaves a positive impression.
