[HanCinema's Drama Review] "Pinocchio" Episode 18

We open up with the conversation between Dal-po and Cha-ok, emphasizing the latter's final sense of emotional frustration at having let herself get embroiled in such corruption. The end of the episode is...more or less the same thing, actually, although relatively little of the middle portions really have much to do with Cha-ok. "Pinocchio" appears to be stalling for time, given that at this point it shouldn't really take much for the storyline to resolve.

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There's also not much in the way of surprises. Beom-jo's fake act is fully confirmed here. In general the drama is establishing that pretty much all of the characters have teamed up to take down Ro-sa, and Ro-sa doesn't really do all that much to try and stop them. It's not like there's much she really can do- if Cha-ok herself is willing to turn evidence against Ro-sa, then it really is only a matter of time.

The attack is the only main source of action, and while I know it's nitpicky to keep going on about this, I don't understand how people keep getting access to the press buildings. Those places have security doors. "Pinocchio" itself even directly acknowledges this by at one point showing a character leap over one. The initial ploy I didn't really mind so much, it just gets kind of irritating when the drama contrives situations for Dal-po to physically rescue In-ha somehow.

Additionally, the whole plot thread in general is a bit of a hokey one, to the point I never really felt much of a serious threat. The guy managed to miss pretty much everyone anyway, when he should have at least managed to hit something. The main positive to come out of the whole situation is that we get to see Yoo-rae doing reporter stuff. That's apparently her purpose in the plot at this point- everyone else is so personally connected to the case at hand that Yoo-rae's the only one who can act like a normal reporter anymore.

The slack here largely ends up being taken by emotional conversations. Personally I've been more interested in the logical ethical aspects of "Pinocchio", so the heart-to-hearts and tears didn't really do that much for me. It is, once again, the drama's main virtue and flaw- while everything is spread out fairly evenly in terms of narrative emphasis, the lack of any significant focus on one particular area or character prevents anything from being truly heartrending. At least what's left over manages to be generally interesting, I guess.

Review by William Schwartz

"Pinocchio" is directed by Jo Soo-won and Sin Seung-woo, written by Park Hye-ryeon and features Lee Jong-suk, Park Shin-hye, Kim Young-kwang, Lee Yu-bi, Lee Pil-mo, Kang Shin-il and many more.

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