Last year I saw this coming out, and I thought to myself, "Ah, another action Netflix kdrama..." and never gave it a chance. Until recently I thought it was some mediocre action drama that I would not enjoy, like most action kdramas. Then I saw a review that was so enthusiastic about The Uncanny Counter, that I decided to give it a go on a random evening.
Oh boy, was that person right! This show was such a refreshing breath of air finally, a good action kdrama that I managed to finish. One that I LOVED. Honestly, might be the first one as well.

I don't even know where to start. There are many kdramas about Grim Reapers and the evil spirits etc. but The Uncanny Counter successfully fused the supernatural, with comedy, family-drama, action and politics. While watching I was sometimes worried about how the writers were going to continue with the story, because there were so many different starting points, from the evil spirits to the mayor and politics and all the personal problems of So Mun and the other Counters. But man, they told the story with such mastery, it was smooth af.
I liked that everything was kind of connected, but wasn't necessarily intertwined. Honestly, we had everything: comedy, a lot of heartful and sad moments, hype moments and moments of frustration. Even though towards the end it kind of dragged (really just a tiny bit, maybe I'm just sensitive) they always threw in something new. Like holy freak Son Ho Jun appeared I was so happy like AHH (they could've just not decided to kill him though like...). Sometimes I was really frustrated because nothing seemed to work out and maybe there were some parts where I was like "okay, but they could've done that...", but honestly it's completely forgivable.

Cho Byeong Kyu? Eh, hello? Why didn't I notice earlier that his acting is... amazing? Maybe because he always played smaller roles, but damn, he delivered. He did a wonderful job, especially bc this is his first main MAIN role. All the other Counters were so perfectly casted, the chemistry was perfect and their relationship adorable. Please, give me the second season already.
Shoutout to all the antagonists. The actors and actresses were INSANE (sometimes those scenes scared the heck out of me, like it's disgusting, bc in my head it was a comedic show...), especially Lee Hong Nae, he creeped the heck out of me, but in those more humane moments I could still feel his sadness and fear (even though I couldn't empathize ofc the story didn't allow me to, but his delivery was really good). He definitely stole the show.

I would rewatch this without a second thought. Yeah, it was that good. One thing I liked (and this might just be a very personal thing) is that we could feel with the characters, but it wasn't extremely relatable so that I'd bawl my eyes out. It was enough to make me teary eyed, but the things that happened were enough distanced (idk how to say it...) so that I wouldn't invest too much of my emotions into the characters and their sadness. In other words, it's a really good watch, where you could just stop and go about your daily life, without feeling like something is different... It's good entertainment, but nothing life-changing. And sometimes (or very often) this is just something that we need :)