There’re dramas that take time to get hooked on. And then there’s Mouse, drama that doesn’t give you a minute to think and kidnaps you for the over twenty hour long journey. And if by the warning sign at the beginning saying that child actors were provided with counselling we weren’t sure how serious it would be, after first episode the seriousness of the situation will be most probably completely clear. So hold onto your pants, this is going to be a wild ride with no seatbelts.

I’ve honestly couldn’t believe how intense was this first episode. It had this feel of a stand alone movie. With proper ending of it I’d gladly watch it in this form.

The drama revolves around existence of “murderer gene” which assumes that science is able to find a specific gene that can be found only in psychopaths and, very rarely in absolute geniuses. In the first episode we’re introduced to dr. Daniel Lee, scientist, who claims that can detect this gene and proposes to the general assembly to test all foetuses and abort the ones that are diagnosed with potential psychopath gene. We’re also shown two women who’s unborn children are supposed to have this gene and those women and their children will be our main focus point here. After first episode there’s twenty year time jump, after which we’re meeting our main characters:
Jung Ba Reum, kind young police officer who seems innocent enough to risk his own life to save a bird
Kim Mu Chi, detective and serial killer survivor with very high motivation of catching serial killers to get revenge for his family
Sung Yo Han- unsympathetic doctor with all the psychopath’s red flags

And here we are, we have two kids diagnosed with psychopaths gene and two candidates that could’ve been them, now the question is, was the science right?

Seeing that this drama had 20 episodes I was wary at first. I don’t trust dramas that are more than 16 episodes long. More often they tend to be too slow and motives dragged just to fill the time. Not this one. From the beginning till the very end writers provided us with a true killing speed. Viewer has absolutely no time for rest and a moment of inattention may cause that we’ll simply miss an important part of the story. Theories about who’s killer and who’s not change basically every episode and writers do everything in their might to not give us a simple answer. Every now and then they’ll toss us a hint that usually is just a trick. Even when there’s a seemingly strong proof of someone’s guilt, I’ve automatically felt unease. I was sure that it’s not the whole story. There’s so many “whos and wheres” and nothing is shown in it’s entirely so even pretty obvious scenes make us question what is true and what is not.

This drama basically has couple of beginnings. There’s obviously first episode, the very beginning of the story.

Second beginning is a second episode, when we are introduced to the actual main characters.

Third beginning is around sixth and seventh episode, when the story get’s a 180 turn. There’s change of scope, change of perspective and another problem, is the person we’ve pointed to as a killer, really a killer, or were we wrong from the beginning. This makes this drama so multidimensional, that after finishing it, we look at the beginning of it as a completely different show. After those 20 episodes, I felt the same as after watching three seasons of standard western tv show.

But the thing is that at this point the drama starts from the beginning we can say. We relive previous events from new perspective. Once again the viewer doesn’t know who to trust, and the same for Ba Reum, he as well is not sure what is real and what is not. Because here begins a bit of a fantasy motive, even though the writers tried to wrap it in as much science and logical explanation it still felt a bit far fetched. And this would be my only criticism towards the story. I'll not say more to make this review spoiler free.

The fact that some events are shown from subjective perspective of one of the characters makes them extra confusing. Oftentimes it turns out that there’s another side to the story. That this person only saw half of the truth and there’s much more to the story. In times when the same event is shown from perspective of three characters or more, viewer doesn’t know if he can trust his own eyes.

The story doesn’t really slow down even for a bit. Even when it seems that all the motives has been explained and everything supposed to be clear there’s always additional “but” lurking around the corner. New evidence, new memory, new character that shows up with additional information that can change what we thought we already knew for sure. This drama is why I have trust issues because even till the very end I wasn’t sure if this really is a final explanation to all of the events.
This was absolutely amazing drama. From the beginning till the very end. Ba Reum’s character, so multidimentional, so complicated was shown perfectly. And here a big kudos to Lee Seung Gi, it’s really hard for me to say, but I think that this was the role of his life and my only hope is that he’ll prove me wrong and that he’ll do it very soon.

This drama was extraordinary. It was rough, difficult, heavy on a stomach, but it was one of a kind. Mouse just hits you in the head but you still want more. Because the truth, even though it might hurt, is the most important thing here.