Security Police - SP

I don't know why I was under the impression this show was a comedy. Because of my difficulty understanding how it could possibly be funny I put off watching this show for a while. However, after making my way through my 2007 "to see" list, I didn't have any other choices.

Synopsis: This is NOT a comedy. It's quite a serious drama about a man who is in the Security Police force (kind of like secret service, except with much less props) and who has heightened sensory awareness. He also has a tragic past that of course links to the main plot throughout the show. The series is not episodic, outside of the first episode, the arcs are each 3(-4) episodes long. The final arc is strangely delivered with a "0" episode giving a bit of back story before ?? joins the SP.

Storylines
1) One episode about protecting a female VIP - I think she's a Diet member. This episode only serves the purpose of giving the viewer a more detailed understanding of Inoue's special skills. There are also a couple of recurring bad-guy characters that make their debut in this episode.

2) The second story is about a group of ex-military "terrorists" taking control of a hospital (most important an ex-prime minster) for the purpose of conducting some sort of stock trade to make money. Some fun fighting scenes here. I guess this show could be classified in the action genre -- at least this arc is. I thought it was interesting that the last episode of this arc introduced us (albeit briefly) to the bad guys of the next arc. Interesting way to segue...

3) The next story (episodes 5-7) is about protecting a potential witness from being killed. He's a participant in some sort of financial/securities fraud. He's not a terribly sympathetic character, despite the fact that he spends much of the time crying. -- I think this might be becuase he's so unattractive. But we do get to "see" the 2 most attractive characters in the show -- his wife and daughter are constantly shown close up in a picture that he keeps near his bed. They are both really cute! I guess we are to assume the wife is with him b/c of his money. And the daughter reminds me of the cutest child actress I've seen in j-doramas, Mukaichi Mion. I was actually thinking about her before this storyline -- I wonder what she looks like now. I want to see her in more stuff! She's so kawaii!!! The story actually has an unresolved ending, which caused it to be the most interesting. Knowing that the hit men are still after the witness, the team is forced to abandon him b/c he's no longer being protected by the DA (equivalent) office.

4) The final story pulls it all together, this time the team is to protect the Prime Minister. We see a reappearance of the knife-wielding bad guy from the first episode and much more "action". *eh* The getting shot scenes were funny mainly b/c of how badly the scene was acted. At least we get some understanding of who is behind all of the plots...it is a nice lead-in to the special (which I haven't yet watched but will add when I do)

Overall: I was surprised that there were no attractive people in this series. I think this is the first dorama that I've watched in which none of the characters were much above average. However, this did not stop me from watching the entire series in one day. I clearly have too much time on my hands! This feat was made easier by the fact that each episode is shorter than a traditional drama. The first 4 minutes of each episode consists of a recap and the intro. And then the episode ends after 36minutes (instead of the normal 42). I don't know why I watched it all other than a curiosity around such a highly praised drama. I was under-whelmed.


Bonus Episode: Argh! It had so much recap that I just couldn't get through it. It went through every single story line in an attempt to find out whether or not Inoue was involved in the plot to assassinate the Prime Minister. I thought it was going to be a continuation from the last episode of the season when we find out who is really behind the coup -- and maybe they did discuss that somewhere in the special, but I just couldn't justify sitting through 1.5 hours for 1 hour of stuff that I had already seen. Maybe I'll get back to it later -- but that's doubtful.