The K-Drama “Connection” Spoiler Review- One Of The Best 2024 Korean Dramas So Far

With the hit SBS drama “Connection” wrapping up its run, I’ve been itching to talk about it, so let us review the hit drama and discuss why I believe it has one of the best scripts of a 2024 kdrama.

The script

The first half of the year of 2024 has been quite honestly underwhelming. If there is ever a word that I can use to describe the kdrama landscape this year, it would be this word. I just felt it was uneventful. I don’t understand what’s going on with the industry, but there seem to be many issues. And the current K dramas we’re getting are just not as good as some of the outputs in the last couple of years.

To discuss this topic in more detail, it needs an entirely separate article of its own, but it boils down to a lot of different things and scenarios and situations and issues that the industry has as a whole.

In the midst of all of this, SBS comes out with this amazing drama that blows things out of the water and makes me feel like there are still K dramas that are worth watching.

This year I’ve been mostly taking a backseat and not watching as many kdramas as I used to because quite frankly, I decided that if K drama does not pull me in in the first couple of episodes, it’s not worth watching.

Ever since I’ve seen the first couple of episodes of Connection, I knew that I would like the drama. Thus, I decided to wait until the majority of the episode dropped, then resumed watching. And quite honestly, I really liked the choice I made. It would have been kind of torturing to wait each week for new episodes.

The script is penned by Lee Hyun who only has one other credit to his name.

“Connection” is easily one of the best-written Korean dramas of 2024 thus far. It’s even in my top five of this year. It’s been a while since I’ve seen a script that makes so much sense, for the most part, that’s written out very beautifully and has an entire story that’s been well thought out from beginning to end.

I write as a hobby, and even though it is a hobby for me, it’s still difficult to connect the dots the way this screenwriter does. It’s not easy to write scripts That are this connected and this intertwined together in such a clear, concise manner that you can keep intrigue for a long time, and keep people guessing without it becoming too absurd.

Often with such types of dramas, it’s very easy to let go of certain facts or to ignore others in order for the script to be as theatrical as possible, especially since we rely a lot on the topic of drugs and murder in this drama. Screenwriter Lee Hyun does not succumb for these pitfalls. In fact, he challenges the notion that you need to suspend disbelief to a massive degree in favor of theatrics for your drama to be shocking and worth watching.

and it couldn’t have been better.

The more I think about the script, the more I like it. I have not seen a Kdrama screenwriter has such a clear idea of what he wants to do and execute it this clearly in a while.

This is, in my opinion, the best Ji Sung drama in recent memory. He often does his job and has a great eye for projects, but some of the projects he picked do have their shortcomings when it comes to the script. However, with this one, I believe that it is one of his best K dramas and the best project he’s been in in recent memory as well.

Everything about this drama was perfect, from the writing to the directing to the editing and to the performances. It was top-notch and 100%. It’s not easy to find this in K-dramas these days, but “Connection” definitely was able to make this possible.

The sheer effort that must have gone to the script in order to make it as perfect as possible, and to make it as intriguing as possible while keeping the suspense is something to admire. This is not easy, but doable. This screenwriter proves its doable.

The characters

Another thing I loved was the characters. I just really love the way that every character was written. They do not strike me as 2D characters, and even the ones who are supporting characters or side characters end up having stories that feel so real.

There has been some criticism of Jeon Mi Do’s character, but I personally do not believe that the screenwriter intended for us to like her character that much, and its fine. I didn’t walk away liking her character and its fine, it didn’t matter to me in this case.

Although the screenwriter does keep it kind of ambiguous and unclear on the details of whether she receives bribes or not and to what degree that causes issues, I liked how realistic her character was. The screenwriter did not focus on making her character this righteous reporter who does everything by the book, but more so a woman who is squashed by certain circumstances beyond her control, leaning into making decisions that she would not have been proud of if she had been younger. Making certain decisions out of necessity. It does not mean that she is not to blame for the certain actions that she makes, but it sort of puts it into perspective why she’d make the decisions she made…. and that was amazing. That was amazing writing.

Jae-Kyeong is another amazing character too and Ji Sung brings him to life too [more on that later].

I personally liked the writing for the character named Sang-Eui who, in his mind, believes he’s doing all of this for Jun Seo but it an obsession. From our perspective, his character is absurd and definitely strikes me as somebody who was obsessed with him. However, in his mind, he believes he is justified in the way that he’s handling things. Ultimately, in his own way, he saw Jun Seo as his friend, and in his own way and belief, he thinks he did what he did to avenge him and he did end up killing Tae Jin, which was hella cool and justified in my opinion.

Jong-Soo’s reliance on drugs and his fear of disappointing his father, as well as his layered relationship with his father, is also beautifully written.

The performances

There have been already talks about how Ji Sung should be taking home the Daesang this year at SBS. You can depend on him to Always give you the best performances. He brings so much life into the character in the way that you can see him struggling with his addiction. It was beautifully and masterfully presented to us. I just cannot get enough of his acting. He is so amazing, he is a legend and he deserves to win the grand prize at the SBS Awards.

Mi Do did especially well too.

And in my opinion, this is the best and brightest performance by Kwon Yool yet. He’s such a hard worker but I feel he gets stuck in the roles he picks. This time, I was in awe of how well he enacted his character and how you can feel he has a lot of greed bubbling under the surface. Tae Jin was utterly ruthless. Kwon Yool gives off the impression of a calm guy with a calm aura and this was a nice challenge for him. He should definitely win the Best Supporting Actor award at the SBS Drama Awards this year. He deserves to win a lot of awards for this performance, he was on par with Ji Sung in his scenes, and its not easy to achieve that.

Everyone was simply amazing. A.M.A.Z.I.N.G.

 Conclusion

To those who have not seen “Connection,” you should. If you love these types of K dramas, you definitely should check it out. If you love any of the actors involved in this project, you should definitely check it out. I have a feeling that you will walk away being satisfied having watched this drama. This drama gets a 10 out of 10 from me.

Its simply amazing and so beautifully written. What a drama.

Have you guys seen the drama? did you like it?