Mistress

This is going to be a short and to-the-point review for a short and to-the-point drama. I'm so glad I chose to pick up Mistress after installing the Viki app on my phone, because it's just enticing. Warning now, this isn't for the faint of heart, but for anyone craving a steamy murder mystery, this is perfect.

Se-yeon, Eun-soo, Hwa-young and Jung-won father in an abandoned warehouse. They have killed a man who tricked them all, and blame a scented candle for the turn of events. We see how this came to occur.

What makes Mistress work so well is the crisp editing and spooky music cues, which create a tense and suspenseful atmosphere. Often, the drama feels more like a carefully crafted noir film.

  There's something about the direction that makes me think the producers are impatient, like they are eager to cut the excess flesh off of scenes. Sometimes we cut back and forth between scenes too frequently, creating confusion, or a single scene lacks the transitions between actors and only the important moments are shown. It often works in the show's favor, but also makes Mistress difficult for a laid back viewer to keep up with.

  After all, the plot is always pressing forward, like a roller-coaster without any brakes. Being only twelve episodes long, with a rich and complex story to tell, Mistress packs more successive plot twisted in than I've seen in anything (or at least since W aired).

  I'd say the show could be a bit of a hit or miss when it comes to the main characters. Although they are all played by capable actresses (I'd heard that Han Ga-in wasn't particularly great before this, so I was pleasantly surprised to find I enjoyed her performance), I didn't particularly like them sometimes. Shin Hyun-bin's character, for example, felt emotionally disconnected from the weight or the story - since she always take up the role of detective in the narrative, therefore being crafty and intuitive and never part of the actual devastation around her.
  But they each had their moment. I'm especially good of Choi Hee-seo after her relatable portrayal of a woman with severe anxiety issues.

  One could convincingly sum up the drama as a somewhat dramatized worst-case scenario regarding the repercussions of infidelity. Its also a wonderfully two faced character study that demonstrates how far even the sweetest people can go if threatened and deceived. 

In conclusion, Mistress is a great thriller that's a little more mature than most of the things that the Korean drama scene usually has to offer, what with being a OCN drama. It's a great little summer horror story for the days where stereotypical love stories just won't do.