‘Good Boy’ Episode 5 Review: Dong-ju’s Falling (Literally and Figuratively)

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There’s the metaphorical ‘breaking your back’ at work, and there’s ‘Good Boy’ Dong-ju (Park Bo-Gum) who literally breaks his bones on duty to stop primary antagonist Min Joo-Yeong (Oh Jung-se) from leaving the country!

Quick recap of ‘Good Boy’ Episode 4: Dong-ju and team work on tracking the smuggled car used in the hit-and-run that killed a customs officer, hoping to nail Min Joo-Yeong. In a comic twist, their boss Joo-Yeong (Heo Sung-tae) “borrows” the Police Commissioner’s fancy car as bait, successfully luring the car thieves. An action-packed, bloodied brawl with goons follows, and while several arrests are made, the key suspect is murdered before Jong-hyeon (Lee Sang-yi) can catch him. Still, the squad, Ji Han-na (Kim So-hyun) and Jae-Hong (Tae Won-Seok) included, trace the black car, inching closer to the truth. A high-speed chase and rooftop pursuit ends with Dong-ju leaping in front of Min Joo-Yeong’s car, injuring himself but cleverly arresting the smug villain for hitting a cop and speeding in a school zone.

Titled “Punch Drunk Love”, Episode 5 of ‘Good Boy’ starts with a comedic flashback to Dong-ju’s training days as an Olympic athlete, and how it was ‘love at first sight’ for him, when he saw Olympic shooter Ji Han-na, jogging on the same track as him. Although the primary focus in the present timeline remains on finding dirt on Min Joo-Yeong, the romance between Dong-ju and Han-na sees significant progression in this edition.

Oh Jung-se is impressively despicable as Min Joo-Yeong, playing the antagonist with chilling deadpan and smug certainty that he’s untouchable. His quiet arrogance makes him all the more infuriating, leaving viewers rooting for justice to catch up with him. The suspense builds around how high up his connection goes, and which powerful figure lets him treat even senior cops like lapdogs.

But oh well, since ‘Good Boy’ is supposed to 16 episodes long, this chapter also introduces a bunch of new villains, all of whom don’t seem as intimidatingly evil as Min Joo-Yeong, not even a new sinister character called ‘Drug Demon’, whose street cred as a vicious drug-lord is almost mythical. Remember Joo-Yeong’s wild meltdown during a stealth op in ‘Good Boy’ Episode 2 after accidentally ingesting a psychedelic candy? Turns out, the ‘Drug Demon’ is behind this new spiked candy flooding South Korean streets and is also connected to Min Joo-Yeong.

Episode 5 is thus a mish-mash of new criminal angles, fresh villains, and continued investigative efforts by Dong-ju and colleagues to solve the hit-and-run case. It’s not as fast-paced as the last edition and while Park Bo-Gum continues to be the show-stopper of this series with his onscreen charm, the chemistry between his character and Kim So-hyun’s Han-na isn’t very convincing. On paper their love story sounds super cute, but onscreen, the spark is quite thin. Also, at this point, one wonders what happened between Han-na and ex-boyfriend Jong-hyeon, because their chemistry is more intriguing.

Also, for a high-budget series like “Good Boy”, it’s disappointing to see the tired old trope of the lead pair “accidentally” falling onto each other for a romantic moment. Really? Must people literally fall to fall in love? And there was no need for the contrived moment, especially when Dong-ju is the kind of character who wears his heart on his sleeve and could just flirt openly to win Han-na over. Thankfully, it’s not all just accidental falling, and viewers do get some cutesy flirting in the latter half.

Overall, this was arguably the weakest episode of “Good Boy” so far, ending with an alarming scene that hints at a possible chronic illness for Dong-ju. Given his mounting injuries, a serious neurological issue wouldn’t be far-fetched. Still, the show remains entertaining, and it’ll be interesting to see where it goes next.

“Good Boy” is streaming on Prime Video.

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