appConfigEntityId

bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

isVideo

articlePageQuery

article

articleSchemaContent

content

hooksArticlePageAdvertisementConfigArticle

appConfig

filter

json

liveArticle

Pierce Conran

This article contains mild spoilers.
Lead cast: Park Bo-gum, Kim So-hyun, Lee Sang-yi, Heo Sung-tae, Oh Jung-se
Latest Nielsen rating: 6.1 per cent
When it comes to creating mainstream entertainment, the place to start is usually looking at what elements have worked before – the more recent the better. Then you fit as many of these as possible into a story while still keeping it coherent.


While that may not sound too taxing, it is far easier said than done. The art of screen commerce is not in identifying popular narrative and thematic elements, but in the balance created between them.
This is where Good Boy, the athletes-turned-cops action-crime drama led by Park Bo-gum (When Life Gives You Tangerines) and Kim So-hyun (Love Alarm), has struggled to kick into gear.
The classic ingredients are all there. There is a tortured love triangle between a reserved young woman – retired star shooter Ji Han-na (Kim) – and two handsome, capable and good young men: former boxer Yoon Dong-ju (Park) and former fencer Kim Jong-hyeon (Lee Sang-yi, Bloodhounds).
There is a scrappy police unit made up of ex-athletes led by the avuncular Ko Man-sik (Heo Sung-tae, Squid Game).
There is a customs officer, Min Ju-yeong (Oh Jung-se, It’s Okay to Not Be Okay), who is also a drug lord, and a coterie of flashy drug-peddling gangsters.
You also have timeless themes, like fighting against injustice and persevering in the face of adversity.

Yet while Good Boy ticks all the requisite boxes of primetime entertainment, it struggles to effectively deliver on its promise thanks to a jumbled narrative that doesn’t allow the story to breathe.
In its first few episodes, the show chronicled the formation of the Special Criminal Investigation Team without giving us a proper sense of the characters who form it.
There is some enjoyment in seeing them join their athletic forces in the show’s first group action sequence, but their struggle to be recognised within the force fails to deliver the dramatic counterpoint the story is striving for, at least in the early innings.
Following several ups and downs during their fight with the Machiavellian drug lord Ju-yeong, the unit is finally disbanded early in episode 10.

Now that we’ve spent time with these characters and understand what drives them, the obligatory reset that follows carries a lot more weight. Not only do we want to see the band get together, we want to see how they do it.
Yet while this reset episode does feel like an improvement, it also underscores how lopsided the group dynamic is that the story pretends to present. Despite the ensemble of characters, this is really all about Park Bo-gum and his performance as the boyish and heroic rogue Dong-ju.
Not one for talking it out, Dong-ju can’t help but let his fists solve his problems, although this method generally leads to more problems. His anger with Ju-yeong is understandable, but rather than seek out evidence, he keeps showing up in front of him and punching him.
Ju-yeong doesn’t fight back on the spot, but Dong-ju’s loved ones tend to pay the price.
First, there is the death of his friend Lee Gyeong-il (Lee Jung-ha, Moving); then Gyeong-il’s mother Jung Mi-ja (Seo Jung-yeon, Good Partner), who was a sort of foster mother for the orphaned Dong-ju, winds up in a coma.

While Ju-yeong is a nasty piece of work, these events are triggered by Dong-ju’s hot-headed behaviour, antics that also keep getting his unit into hot water.
Despite his seeming character flaws, Dong-ju still gets to be the hero, showing up to save Han-na whenever she is in distress and even diving into the sea to save rival Jong-hyeon after he is shot on a boat.
He also goes to Ju-yeong at one point to offer himself for a beating to stop his team from being axed. This works, but only temporarily. A few episodes later, the team is disbanded anyway.
Since he has spent his life taking hits, Dong-ju is punch-drunk and has frequent nosebleeds and dizzy spells.

Team leader Man-sik keeps berating Dong-ju for his pugilistic ways, but he must also feel responsible for all that has transpired since he was the one who gave him boxing gloves in the first place when he took the teenage Dong-ju under his wing years earlier.
The team appears to be on the verge of getting back together as we stare down the final stretch of Good Boy. Hopefully, these final episodes will be less of a one-man show.
Good Boy is streaming on Prime Video.


Netflix K-drama Teach You a Lesson: corporal punishment for bullies in alarming school show

Disney+ K-drama Doctor on the Edge: Lee Jae-wook, Shin Ye-eun lead island medical romcom

K-drama Reborn Rookie: Lee Jun-young’s corporate body-swap fantasy hums with melodrama

HBO Max K-drama Fifties Professionals: Shin Ha-kyun action comedy revisits hits of old

Korean drama reviews

Prime Video K-drama Good Boy midseason recap: Park Bo-gum dominates action-crime drama

Park Bo-gum as former boxer Yoon Dong-ju in a still from K-drama Good Boy.

Park Bo-gum as former boxer Yoon Dong-ju in a still from Amazon Prime Korean drama Good Boy.

Kim So-hyun as retired star shooter Ji Han-na in a still from Good Boy.

Park Bo-gum as former boxer Yoon Dong-ju in a still from Good Boy.

Lee Sang-yi as former fencer Kim Jong-hyeon in a still from Good Boy.

Park Bo-gum (left) and Kim So-hyun in a still from Good Boy.

8 of the best new K-dramas to watch in July 2025, including Law and the City on Disney+

Moon Ga-young in a still from Law and the City, streaming on TvN and Disney+ from July 5. Photo: Disney+

The 10 best K-dramas of 2025 so far, from Squid Game 3 to When Life Gives You Tangerines

Lee Jung-jae as Sung Gi-hun in a still from Squid Game season 3. Photo: Noh Ju-han/Netflix

IU (front) and Park Bo-gum in a still from Netflix K-drama When Life Gives You Tangerines. Photo: Yoo Eun-mi/Netflix

Netflix K-drama Squid Game season 3: thrilling conclusion probes humanity’s dark depths

Lee Jung-jae as Seong Gi-hun in a still from Squid Game season 3. Photo: Noh Ju-han/Netflix

Kang Ha-neul in a still from Squid Game season 3. Photo: Noh Ju-han/Netflix

Lee Byung-hun in a still from Squid Game season 3. Photo: Noh Ju-han/Netflix

A still from Squid Game season 3. Photo: Noh Ju-han/Netflix

Wi Ha-joon in a still from Squid Game season 3. Photo: Noh Ju-han/Netflix

The 15 best school K-dramas of all time, from Dream High and Boys Over Flowers to Weak Hero Class 1 and Twenty-Five Twenty-One

Lee Min-ho (second from right) leads the cast of the megahit series “Boys Over Flowers”, set in a Korean high school.

Kim Tae-ri (left) and Nam Joo-hyuk in a still from “Twenty-Five, Twenty-One”, one of many popular Korean drama series set in high schools. Photo: Netflix

Lifestyle

K-drama

K-Pop

Entertainment

Culture

Film & TV

Park Bo-gum’s ex-boxer is still punching his way through this K-drama about athletes-turned-cops, but it feels too much of a one-man show


Park Bo-gum’s ex-boxer is still punching his way through this K-drama about athletes-turned-cops, but it feels too much of a one-man show.


Prime Video K-drama Good Boy midseason recap: Park Bo-gum dominates action-crime drama

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Park Bo-gum’s ex-boxer is still punching his way through this K-drama about athletes-turned-cops, but it feels too much of a one-man show

Park Bo-gum’s ex-boxer is still punching his way through this K-drama about athletes-turned-cops, but it feels too much of a one-man show