Before long Taek-rok is reinstated, his superior claiming that the less violent work of his new department will be better for him as he approaches retirement and may make it easier for him to get a promotion and go out on a captain’s pension.

This unit, whose office is right beside his old Violent Crimes unit – department members can look at each other through glass walls – for the most part handles minor cases. They also do community outreach work; Taek-rok is at his grumpiest when forced to wear a sign and sash warning against bullying outside a school.

Meanwhile, Taek-rok’s former partners Lee Seong-a (Kyung Soo-jin) and Song Kyung-chan (Lee Hak-joo) are assigned to a series of burglaries. They have had trouble catching the perps, but after a while it becomes clear that it may be the doing of juveniles.

This gives Taek-rok an opening to be involved in a real case again, though he sits out most of the physical action in episode one. No matter, as Seong-a and Kyung-chan have no trouble handling themselves in a fight, until Seong-a goes chasing a lead that Taek-rok sternly warns her not to.

She visits the office of gangster Woo Jang-ik (Ji Seung-hyun) which the juveniles attempted but failed to rob. She arrives at the door only to see smoke wisping out from under it. She turns on her heels and runs away, but not fast enough to escape a giant blast that blows out the entire floor.

Seong-a is taken to hospital, where she remains in a coma. Taek-rok had been trying to avoid what his intuition had been telling him is probably very dangerous, but surely his anger will push him to break through those reservations.

Taek-rok shares a deep bond with Seong-a who, in her youth, was a delinquent who seemed set to follow in her father’s criminal footsteps. She threw away his card when he tried to help, but Taek-rok never gave up on her.

This relationship is mirrored when one of the more reticent members of the juvenile burglary gang throws away Seong-a’s card, only to secretly pocket it later on.

Whatever this season’s grand case proves to be, it will almost certainly involve a redevelopment scheme and a candidate in the coming mayoral election, ads and news clips about which we see throughout the season opener.

As with last season, we can probably expect someone high up in the Geumo Police Department to be up to no good. It may be Ju-hyun or Detective Han (Kim Min-jae), who has now been promoted to team leader, or perhaps the new department chief, Choi Do-hyung (Jung Jin-young).

Whereas season one was more action-heavy and featured a clear struggle between Taek-rok and a mysterious antagonist, this new set of episodes is setting up a more systemic type of crime and corruption, which may prompt the ageing “Shadow Detective” to rely more on his wits.

This is a tantalising direction for the show to take, particularly as one of its best characters is the fictional port city of Geumo in which the action is set, a dreary and downtrodden place devoid of colour but filled with colourful villains.

“Town’s getting depressed,” utters Kyung-chan early on. Will Taek-rok put down his own pills and become the antidepressant the town needs?

Shadow Detective season 2 is streaming on Disney+.