Note: The drama waa completely shot back in 2019 and hence it demands the audience to watch itself in the pov of a 2019 Korean thriller drama. My review, in fact, is based on the same.

Chimera is a murder mystery plus investigative crime thriller with a major scenario in 2019 and a very minor frame of 1984 that connects to everything happening at present. Along with thriller, there are also a little of everything like: bromance, flirting if not romance, comedy, etc.

Chimera is a mythical character in Greek mythology, presented as a monstrous fire-breathing hybrid of 3 animal: a lion's head, a goat's body, and a snake's tail. The drama based on this creature, has its mysterious main culprit, burning people alive with fire, in ways that's difficult to decipher. 35 years following the serial murder incident, named Chimera Case, another series of chemical terrorism takes place in the city, which is similar to the previous and presumed to be related to it. The drama has 4 major characters at the center who are not only trying to solve both the cases, but also related to it immensely, in their subconscious. The story leads to one destination, catching the main culprit, Chimera and discover the underlying truth behind everything that has been happening aince the year 1984.

Cha Jae Hwan (Park Hae Soo), a junior detective at Joongsan Police Station, is a quick-witted and determined to his job. Lee Joong Yeop (Lee Hee Joon), neurosurgeon at Seoul, was adopted to America at a young age after a tragic incident to his family. Eugene Hathaway (Claudia Kim), an FBI profiler, was also adopted to England and demoted to Korea after committing a mistake. Kim Hyo Kyung (Cha Joo Young), newsroom ace at UBS news, is a steadfast journalist always after truth.

Some good actors in other major characters are: Nam Ki Ae as Cha Eun Soo (Jae Hwan's mother), Heo Jun Suk as Go Kwang Soo as the team leader of Chimera investigation unit, Woo Hyun as Bae Sung Kwan (Junso PS Chief), Lee Gi Young as Seo Hyun Tae (Seoryun Group Chairperson), Kim Ho Jung as Lee Hwa Jung (Seoryun Hospital Director), Kim Kwi Sun as Lee Min Ki (Hwa Jung's brother), etc.

Kim Do Hoon PD-nim has directed only 5 dramas including this, 2 of which are highly acclaimed and Chimera is in fact his comeback after a gap of 6 years (given that the drama was shot in 2019). This was obviously a bit difficult as his first thriller, hence the average execution of screenplay. The pacing is awfully slow, even for a 2019 thriller. The drama has that authentic OCN vibes, I gotta admit but somehow the screen-editing is a big drawback, along with the slow-paced progression. Cinematography was well handled as required by the dark theme of the script.

I haven't watched any other drama written by Lee Jin Mae Jakka-nim but she seems less experienced, both in terms of number of scripts and by quality of work. Chimera, in no way, is a bad script but I couldn't find the wow factor in the entire thing that would take me aback, except for the fire ignition techniques used by Chimera and explained by Eugene (haha), because chemistry interesting. If you summarize the overal plot and it's development, the story definitely seems very good but then it comes to screenwriting and it's organization and progression, it's preety average. The sequence of events and the way the plots are intertwined are surely intriguing but the timing and synchronization is poor. Given that the drama was shot in 2019 and we have come a long way in case of Korean thriller dramas, the initial plot and revelations are extremely predictable. If you're a K-thriller stan and has good intuition skills, you can definitely tell what's gonna happen next, thankfully it persists till the late phase of the 1st half. But again, the 2nd half almost runs out of substance, even though the revelations made in it were astonishing. The drama ends with more than one plotholes, at least 4 that I could realize; only one of which can be simply assumed whereas the other 3 needed to be answered. So here goes another minus point.

I don't have problems with slow-paced thrillers to be honest. So, if you're have patience and time to invest, you can easily finish it without fast-forwarding. The drama especially becomes slow after the 10th episode because almost everything is revealed to the audienceby then and all that's left is to disclose them in the drama, which has to be achieved by efforts from the main characters of the story.

There is only one OST that suits the mood and vibes of the drama and I wouldn't have any problem if there were no OST at all. "Dont go" by KLAZY is a eerie and intesnse track with softcore vocals and slowbeat instrumentals.

What I loved about the drama:
#1 Bromance: This is one of the best bromance for me. I am more into older actor bromancing on screen, ngl and this was totally my cup of tea. It felt like the writer didn't have any intention to introduce it at first but anyways, I am grateful they did. The interaction between Park Hae Soo and Lee Hee Joon was such an interesting thing to witness. Them working together to solve the mystery and also teasing each other at instances was fun. Loved the way both trusted the other and cared for each other in the drama, though this was indirectly shown.

#2 Even for 2019 drama, Chimera doesn't have any romance elements which was greatly included in thrillers back then. There were subtle flirting in very few instances but the scenes were supposedly funny.

#3 Again, acting is something you can't help but praise about. It's because the actors are already seasoned to the par, but even the most amazing actor sometimes fail to perform well depending on situations.

#4 The overal concept is fabulous; the way in which fire is used as a metaphor of resurrection, purification and justice, is quite intriguing. The execution couldn't be drawn well by the writer in terms of scriptwriting. Even so the way of revelations were underwhelming, and predictable I think the destination picture is good enough.

#5 The metaphorical portrayals of activities along with the quotes and dialogues used in the last episode were good and meaningful, loved it.

Despite the shabby plot development throughout the series, I actually loved the finale week. As everything had been revealed by the 14th episode, all that were left was how they deal with the present circumstances and wrap up the show, which was well handled. The ending consequences and their thrill was amazing and I enjoyed it.

I am actually indecisive to draw a conclusion for this drama. This is not bad but not good either, so let me put it as a moderately average drama. Some aspects were too good and others were too bad. Very unfortunate that it couldn't be aired in 2019 because of the asst. Director's scandal but even for that year, I don't see myself changing my decisions too much. I could have been awestruck by some of the elements for sure, so keeping that in mind and considering the year of production, this would definitely rate it at 8.0/10, most of whose credit goes to the acting line.