| Posters for tvN series "Vincenzo," left, and SBS series "Taxi Driver" / Courtesy of tvN and SBS |
By Lee Gyu-lee
Vigilante-style series are seeing popularity on the small screen, reaching peak viewership ratings over the weekend ― 16 percent for SBS's "Taxi Driver" and 12.3 percent for tvN's "Vincenzo."
The action series "Taxi Driver," which started with a 10.7 percent viewership April 9, saw its highest rating with the latest episode Saturday. It has been praised for offering a sense of catharsis through the dark hero characters' unconventional style of seeking vengeance against criminals.
The series follows a taxi company that runs an unusual service offering to take revenge on behalf of clients. Led by the owner Jang Sung-chul (Kim Eui-sung) and driver Kim Do-ki (Lee Je-hoon), a group of people with a distrust of the legal system, band together to take matters into their own hands.
When the clients who are victims of violence or injustice come to the company as a last resort, the group goes into action to seek justice, which oftentimes involves illegal acts such as hacking, theft, abduction and assault.
The content is based on the experiences of real-life victims, such as forced labor, school bullying and abuse in the workplace.
The series director Park Joon-woo noted that watching this series could scratch a viewer's itch for justice in a world that seems filled with crime.
"Many people feel that appropriate justice has not been served on many notorious criminals, like child rapist Cho Doo-soon's case," he said during a media conference for the show. "So we intended to deliver an encouraging message … through satisfying revenge stories."
| A scene from "Vincenzo" / Courtesy of tvN |
The comedy crime series "Vincenzo" also revolves around a dark hero, Vincenzo (Song Joong-ki) who is a Korean-Italian mafia lawyer.
The lead character, whose everyday business involves murder, is far from being a crusading justice-seeker. But when he travels to Korea on business to protect a derelict building and a hidden vault full of gold underneath it, his life changes.
A conglomerate, led by the crooked, sociopathic villain Ok Taec-yeon, tries to buy the building to tear it down. This leads Vincenzo to form an alliance with its tenants and eventually to seek justice against the illegal deeds committed by the conglomerate.
The cold-hearted Mafia consigliere uses his ruthless skills sparing no mercy for the bad guys, to take down the mastermind behind the notorious company.
The series started with a one-digit viewership rating Feb. 20, but it soon surged, reaching over 10 percent after just four episodes.