The Good Detective

July 6, 2020

Veteran detective Kang Do-chang (Son Hyun-joo) operates from the Incheon Namdong precinct using whatever means he deems necessary. His new partner Oh Ji-hyeok (Jang Seung-jo) is principled, by the book, and immediately suspicious of Do-chang's methods.

July 6, 2020

Their first major case together in the Incheon precinct. Do-chang's methods close it; Ji-hyeok's principles are troubled by how.

July 13, 2020

The industrial and port areas of Incheon used for the drama's crime investigation sequences — the unglamorous urban geography of real Korean crime.

July 13, 2020

The case's connections to a larger criminal and institutional network emerge.

July 20, 2020

The history behind Do-chang's unorthodox methods — what he has seen, what he lost, what it cost — is revealed.

July 20, 2020

Do-chang and Ji-hyeok develop a genuine working partnership without either compromising their fundamental differences.

July 27, 2020

Prosecutorial attention on their case creates institutional pressure that complicates the investigation.

July 27, 2020

The case's full complexity at its midpoint. The drama's procedural precision is at its most satisfying.

August 3, 2020

Corruption within the Incheon institutional world — police and prosecution both — is mapped.

August 3, 2020

A moment where Do-chang must choose between his effective but questionable methods and Ji-hyeok's legitimate but slower ones.

August 10, 2020

An investigation in the Incheon industrial port area. The drama uses the location's authentic working-city character.

August 10, 2020

Do-chang and Ji-hyeok's full alliance against the corruption they have uncovered.

August 17, 2020

The corruption network's leadership is within reach.

August 24, 2020

The final evidence needed to close the case.

August 24, 2020

The finale. One of JTBC's most acclaimed crime dramas — praised for Son Hyun-joo's performance and for taking its Incheon setting seriously.