Review of ‘Zombie Detective’ (좀비탐정)

Written by Dyami Millarson

A man wakes up without any recollection of what has happened and who he is. He finds himself on a pile of garbage in a dumping ground. He is shocked to find out he is a zombie. The story takes an unexpected twist when we see our zombie hero train to regain his human abilities, such as walking normally. He is basically undergoing his own recuperation programme.

The message is that one can achieve anything as long as one sets one’s mind to it and so eventually our zombie hero is able to develop the skills he needs to blend in with humans, or as he initially perceives it: protect himself and run away from those scary humans.

The recuperation is a very interesting detail from a story-telling arc perspective and watching how our zombie hero develops over the course of the first episode in the drama series is quite refreshing for the tired, old zombie genre.

The nameless zombie hero witnesses the murder of a detective who hands our hero the keys of his office before he passes away. Our zombie hero takes the place of the murdered detective by assuming his identity and continues his work throughout the series. This Korean drama is very entertaining to watch because the story is unusual and highly engaging.

I would say it is an excellent concept that has been introduced properly to its audience and the story captivates its audience by telling the unusual story of a Korean zombie who became a detective. In my opinion, this Korean drama is very likeable due to its story-telling arc as well as inspiring for aspiring fantasy writers who wish to come up with original ideas for tired genres.

13 comments

  1. From your description, the main character is not a classic zombie. He’s no longer dead once he recuperates. This is more like a case of resurrection. He seems to have become something like an alien who is impersonating the murdered detective.
    I like detective and police procedural series so I would probably like these programs.
    Has the series been put on DVD with English subtitles?

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  2. Sounds like something I’d enjoy watching. Have you watched the American TV show based on the graphic novel series “iZombie”? It’s also about a zombie who solves crimes.

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  3. That sounds like a really clever series/story premise.

    As a psychotherapeutic intervention, I used a Zombie to Human paradigm to help a high school student make sense of his social environment at school and asked questions to stimulate analysis of same like, “Can a zombie become human?” “Have any of the humans in your circle of friends become zombies?” “What are the defining zombie characteristics?” “Which traits would you say define the humans?” “What kept you from becoming a zombie?” “Which zombies would you like to see become human?” and so forth.

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