K-drama midseason recap: L. U. C. A.: The Beginning – strong action dragged down by thin drama and repetitive plotting
- While full of edge-of-your-seat thrills and pyrotechnics, L.U.C.A.: The Beginning has skimped on its story and finds itself repeating the same clichés
- What can we expect from the final four upcoming episodes?
This article contains spoilers of the show.
The first two weeks of L.U.C.A.: The Beginning gave us a lot of propulsive action as a group of villainous super soldiers and their mysterious cult backers gave chase to an electrified superhuman and a tough-as-nails detective. There was plenty of pyrotechnics, a lot of breathless running around and the occasional double-cross.
Though not the most original set-up, these episodes were reasonably entertaining and rarely slowed the pace. This propulsive momentum has carried through to the middle of the series, but with it has come a growing sense of boredom as the showrunners remain mired in the same clichés.
A tense game of cat and mouse can make for edge-of-your-seat thrills, but action and fighting alone aren’t enough to keep a story tight. Most episodes of L.U.C.A. have both kicked off and closed with a confrontation between electro-powered Ji-o (Kim Rae-won) and Yi-son (Kim Sung-oh), the leader of the gang of mercenaries after Ji-o.
The choreography is decent, the fidgety lighting suitably moody and both Kims give it their all, but the stakes never change. After a brief brawl, Ji-o overpowers Yi-son with one of his electric charges.