Netflix Korean drama Rugal, fast-moving and shot in the shadows, will appeal to psycho killers everywhere
- Based on a webcomic of the same name, it follows a former detective’s quest for vengeance, with some bionic action thrown in for good measure
- Plus, LA police procedural Bosch returns to Amazon Prime for its penultimate series and proves a worthy heir to Philip Marlowe
Had Steve Austin ever fancied decamping to East Asia, this is what he would have morphed into.
The Six Million Dollar Man (adjusted for inflation) would have become a big-investment blend of public servant and vigilante, put (back) together as part of a team of good guys (and girls) by a chief commissioner of police who recognises the need for an decidedly off-the-books crew to confront organised crime. When legal authorities tie one arm behind your back, you need to have one foot outside the law.
Which brings us to X-Men-flavoured K-drama Rugal (Netflix), based on the eponymous webcomic and another highly polished shop window for the considerable talents of TV World’s stunt performers.
Kang Ki-beom (Choi Jin-hyuk) is a detective who has been gruesomely disfigured by henchmen from a criminal empire. With his wife murdered in the same attack, Kang is left for dead, before being recruited by Seoul’s own Nick Fury – the chief commissioner – and given a couple of bionic body parts to assist his fight for private vengeance and public justice.
His elite teammates have their own bionic bits and pieces, all of which will be essential if the villains (you can tell they are seriously bad news because the leaders wear especially sharp suits) are to be taken down.
With series one now streaming (new episodes weekly), Kang and company have wasted no time in taking the fight to the bad guys, with the commissioner’s predictably good-looking human weapons racking up the body count as they go. Despite himself, Kang can’t help but circle around colleague Song Mi-na (Jeong Hye-in) as they play out a teasing tango of mutual attraction. He knows as well as we do that resistance is futile.
Fast-moving, shot half in the shadows, stuffed with semi-superheroes and unapologetically violent, Rugal is destined to become a firm favourite of psycho killers everywhere.
Bosch, Los Angeles’ crusading cop, is back for a sixth series
So to California, and whom better to fight the ever-losing battle to keep citizens safe than Harry Bosch, the lugubrious Los Angeles detective with limitless reserves of righteous indignation?
Now in its sixth series, Bosch (Amazon Prime, all episodes available) continues to uphold the virtues of the no-nonsense crusader cop, a lone ranger among a cadre of plodders. But not even Bosch (Titus Welliver) can do it all by himself.
Falling some way short of a superhero – no bionic body parts, no X-ray vision or flying suit of armour – he needs the assistance of The Wire alumni Jamie Hector and Lance Reddick, plus former Mrs Tom Cruise, Mimi Rogers.
Giri / Haji transplants Tokyo’s yakuza into London’s underworld
It is this grounding in reality that sets Bosch apart from most other police procedurals. Beyond the LAPD itself, the best person to ask about the authenticity of the show’s gripping storytelling and action would be Michael Connelly. The author of the novels on which Bosch is based, and an executive producer of the series, is also a former Los Angeles Times crime reporter, meaning we can trust him to tell it like it really is. So when this latest Bosch bonanza begins with the theft of a hospital’s radioactive caesium, by potential domestic terrorists, nothing about this overarching set-up seems implausible.
Bosch’s home turf and terse approach to small talk make him the natural heir to Philip Marlowe, which gives him much to live up to. And he will continue to do just that throughout this and the next, his seventh and final series. Enjoy him while he lasts.
