History Series / Stranger

''Stranger'' is a 2017 16-episode Korean television series. Its Korean title is 비밀의 숲, translated as ''Secret Forest'' or ''Forest of Secrets''. Its leads are Cho Seung-woo as prosecutor Hwang Shi-mok, and Creator/BaeDoona (''Film/CloudAtlas'', ''Series/{{Sense 8}}'') as Detective Han Yeo-jin of the Seoul police.

''Stranger'' is a 2017 16-episode Korean television series. Its Korean title is 비밀의 숲, translated as ''Secret Forest'' or ''Forest of Secrets''.

Shi-mok promptly deduces that a cable repairman was at the scene and tears off in pursuit of the suspect, much to the bafflement of the detective called to the scene, Han Yeo-jin (Creator/BaeDoona of ''Film/CloudAtlas'' and ''{{Series/Sense8}}''). She chases after him as he chases after the cable guy, Kang Jin-sub, and they wind up arresting Kang, right after he sold some of Moo-sung's valuable to a pawn shop.

The story opens with Hwang Si-mok as a boy, being examined by doctors. He suffers from [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperesthesia hyperesthesia]], an extreme oversensitivity of the senses that often causes him debilitating pain, especially in response to sound. Doctors operate on him to relieve the condition, but they fear that the surgery may result in him either having wild mood swings or having few emotions at all. It turns out that it's the latter, as Si-mok, once a high-spirited boy, comes out of his surgery having a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reduced_affect_display reduced affect]] in which he seems to have few feelings about anything at all.

Cut forward 20 years or so. Si-mok still has blunted/absent emotions and a lack of empathy, and his surgery didn't even completely cure his hyperesthesia, as he's still highly sensitive to [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperacusis certain frequencies of sound]]. This has not stopped him from becoming a highly successful prosecutor. As the main story opens Si-mok is going to meet Park Moo-sung, an executive with a construction company, who apparently was going to reveal corruption in the Chief Prosecutor's office. It doesn't happen, because when Si-mok arrives he finds Park Moo-sung dead on the floor of his own home.

Si-mok promptly deduces that a cable repairman was at the scene and tears off in pursuit of the suspect, much to the bafflement of the detective called to the scene, Han Yeo-jin (Creator/BaeDoona of ''Film/CloudAtlas'' and ''{{Series/Sense8}}''). She chases after him as he chases after the cable guy, Kang Jin-sub, and they wind up arresting Kang, right after he sold some of Moo-sung's valuable to a pawn shop.

Kang is tried for murder by Eun-soo, a newbie prosecutor in Si-mok's office, who insists that he let her handle this as her first case. She gets a conviction but Si-mok soon suspects that Kang may be innocent after all. As it turns out, there is a trail of corruption that leads to another prosecutor, Dong-jae, and his (and Si-mok's) boss, the Deputy Chief Prosecutor, Lee Sang-joon.

A second season premiered in August 2020. In it, Si-mok investigates the accidental drowning of two young students on a lonely beach at night. He pins responsibility on a rich cad named Yong-ho who cut down the beach closure notification signs, but Yong-ho oulls some strings, and the case is dismissed...with the help of none other than prosecutor Kang Won-Cheol, Si-mok's supervisor from the first season. Meanwhile, Han Yeo-jin has been promoted to Senior Inspector, but, somewhat to her dissatisfaction, has been put in a unit that is in a power struggle with the prosecutors.

* AsYouKnow: When Lee Sang-joon suggests manipulating Eun-soo for the trial of the cable guy, Dong-jae tells the audience who she is by saying "Eun-soo? You mean the trainee in Si-mok's office?"

* ComfortingComforter: In episode 1-9 Eun-soo puts a sweater over Si-mok after she finds him asleep in the conference room. This is immediately subverted when she knocks over some files and wakes him up.

* DeskSweepOfRage: In episode 1-3 Sang-joon angrily seeps everything off his desk, after Si-mok extorts a promise to promote him to Deputy Chief after Sang-joon moves up to chief.

* DistantFinale: The ending of the last episode skips forward ten months to find Si-mok, who was dispatched to the coastal province of Namjae, being called back to Seoul to investigate the Prime Minister.
* DutchAngle: Used in episode 1-3 to dramatically frame Si-mok's distress as a high-pitched noise, apparently from his refrigerator, causes him to collapse to the ground in pain.
* FrameUp: Si-mok considers how the taxi driver's car, and its dashboard camera, was only parked in the alley because the taxi driver had received a complaint from a dissatisfied customer. He soon concludes that it was a deliberate effort to get the camera there in order to take a video, and that the murder of Moo-sung was a frame job. Yeo-jin quickly realizes that the frame might have been targeted at ''him'' and that it was sheer luck that the cable repairman arrived moments before Si-mok did.

* HandshakeRefusal: Si-mok's lack of social skills are underlined in episode 1-2 when Yeo-jin tries to formally introduce herself and he simply ignores her outstretched hand.
* HatesBeingTouched: Part of Si-mok's pathology. In episode 1-3 he recoils when the production assistant at the TV studio tries to put makeup on his face before an interview.

** A flashback in episode 1-2 shows a conference in a hotel room, where murder victim Moo-sung was present. Si-mok rides an elevator with a hot lady who strolled off towards Sang-joon's room. It turns out that she was a HighClassCallGirl, and that before his fall from grace one of Moo-sung's businesses was arranging for call girls for [=VIPs=] like Sang-joon. In fact, the anti-prostitution sting that Dong-jae is running is actually a ruse so that they can find the particular call girl who serviced Sang-joon. We later find out the hooker in question is named Min-ah, and later than that we find out that "Min-ah" was a fake identity and her real name is Ga-young.

* HiredToHuntYourself: One of the prosecutors on Si-mok's task force, Section Chief Yoon, turns out to be the guy who killed Moo-sung and attacked Ga-young.
* INeedAFreakingDrink: In episode 1-6 a hooker at the brothel lays out a bottle of liquor and glasses for Yeo-jin and Si-mok, in the belief that they're a couple looking to get kinky. Instead, they start hammering her with uncomfortable questions about giving away Min-ah's address to Dong-jae. The hooker throws them out and, after they leave, drinks straight from the bottle.
* InsufferableGenius: Si-mok's lack of empathy and social skills, combined with his brilliance as an investigator, make him this.

* AMinorKidroduction: The series opens with scenes showing a young Si-mok suffering hyperesthesia, then suffering from lack of affect after his surgery, before cutting to the present day.

** The first episode has Si-mok reliving a grim memory in which his mom grabbed him, when he was a boy, and screamed "Let's die together!". The memory is presented in washed-out color.
** Throughout the series, when Si-mok is remembering some prior event in the investigation, or someone is telling him about something that happened, the flashbacks are shown in similar desaturated pastels.

** In episode 1-2 Si-mok gets back into Moo-sung's house. The murder is shown onscreen in various different NecroCam scenarios as Si-mok runs through how it might have gone down. Disturbingly, he pictures himself as the killer each time. This is lampshaded when Yeo-jin comes into the room and stares wide-eyed as Si-mok, knife in hand, mimes stabbing someone.

* NoSocialSkills: After his surgery Si-mok was left with basically no social skills. He's thoughtlessly brusque and impolite, and tends to simply break off and walk away while others are talking to him. Yeo-jin is continually irritated when Si-mok goes zipping off to investigate something without telling her where he's going.

* OminousFog: The first scene of the second season has Si-mok driving down a lonely road that is thickly enveloped with fog at night. He winds up completely by chance pulling up to the scene of the drowning that is the big case of the second season. The scene is also symbolic of Si-mok penetrating the fog of corruption and dishonesty that has enveloped the prosecutors' office.
* OnceMoreWithClarity: A montage in episode 1-16 shows all the times where Sang-joon singled Si-mok out and drew attention to him; it turns out that Sang-joon was actually grooming Si-mok to carry on the fight against corruption. The montage also includes the scene where Sang-joon flatly states he'll never let Si-mok prosecute him in a courtroom--because Sang-joon was planning to kill himself all the time.

* RedemptionRejection: A dying Sang-joon, clutching Dong-jae's hand, gasps that it's not too late for Dong-jae to redeem himself. With literally his last words he begs Dong-jae not to follow the same path to corruption that he did. Dong-jae then goes to Si-mok and pleads for a second chance, which Si-mok gives him, hiring him back to the prosecutor's office. All that is undone in Dong-jae's last scene, where he's shown hiding in his office and making illicit phone calls to some crook, just like always.

* RooftopConfrontation: Sort of. The final confrontation between Sang-joon and Si-mok in the last episode doesn't technically take place on a roof. However it's on an upper floor of a tall building that is under construction and doesn't have any walls, so the dynamic is still the same.
* RunningGag: Yeo-jin's habit of sketching awful, crude pictures of people. In one episode a guest of Yeo-jin's sees the doodles pinned to her wall and presumes that Yeo-jin has a kid. In the last episode Yeo-jin presents Si-mok with a childlike doodle of him, and Si-mok flatly states that it looks nothing like him. (He still keeps it as a memento.)
* SequelHook: The first season ends with Si-mok being called back to Seoul to investigate the Prime Minister. Sure enough, a second season of ''Stranger'' aired in 2020.

* StringTheory: Si-mok has the standard whiteboard with names and photos and scribbled notes. In one episode he dramatically puts up a photo of Yeon-jae (Lee Sang-joon's wife) up on the board.
* SuperSenses: Si-mok's problem as a child; he was overly sensitive to all sorts of stimuli, which caused him much pain. He had surgery which mostly fixed this but left him with other problems.
* ThisIsReality: In episode 1-2, the video tech tells Si-mok that there's no EnhanceButton in RealLife, and the grainy image of someone opening the shades in Moo-sung's window is all they're going to get.

* UncomfortableElevatorMoment: Si-mok and his enemy Dong-jae wind up sharing an elevator in episode 1-6. Dong-jae frowns before standing in stiff discomfort for the rest of the ride. Si-mok, who is too much TheSpock to ever get uncomfortable, takes the opportunity to note the whiff of women's perfume from Dong-jae and the mask stuffed into his pocket, and wonder what he is up to. He then goes back to the brothel, where his nose tells him that the head prostitute is the person that Dong-jae just met.

* WhenSheSmiles: Gender-flipped. The very last scene of the first season has Si-mok, who is TheStoic / TheSpock looking at the silly little drawing of him by Yeo-jin, which he has pinned to his computer. He smiles happily, then the series ends.
* WritingIndentationClue: Si-mok does this with Eun-soo's notebook in episode 1-14, to figure out what she was writing. He sees the same 0 and 7 that Ga-young was mumbling about, but then he realizes that it's actually a D and a T...and this causes him to realize who the killer is.
* WhiteVoidRoom: In the first episode Si-mok is examined and interviewed in an all-white room that reinforces the sense of alienation and otherness that he has after his surgery.

A second season premiered in August 2020. In it, Si-mok investigates the accidental drowning of two young students on a lonely beach at night. He pins responsibility on a rich cad who cut down the beach closure notification signs, but the rich cad gets his father to pull strings, and the case is dismissed...with the help of none other than prosecutor Kang Won-Cheol, Si-mok's supervisor from the first season. Meanwhile, Han Yeo-jin has been promoted to Senior Inspector, but, somewhat to her dissatisfaction, has been put in a unit that is in a power struggle with the prosecutors.

Ominous fog tongyeong
Senior inspector , with jang geom
Lawyers oh ju seong

A second season is scheduled to premiere in August 2020.

''Stranger'' is a 2017 Korean television series. Its Korean title is 비밀의 숲, translated as ''Secret Forest'' or ''Forest of Secrets''.

* DisposableSexWorker: Min-ah, the HighClassCallGirl that Dong-jae was hunting for, presumably because she was used to blackmail Sang-joon. She's found murdered in episode 1-4. This is promptly subverted in the next episode when it turns out that she's still alive!

* NecroCam: In episode 1-2 Si-mok gets back into Moo-sung's house. The murder is shown onscreen in various different NecroCam scenarios as Si-mok runs through how it might have gone down. Disturbingly, he pictures himself as the killer each time. This is lampshaded when Yeo-jin comes into the room and stares wide-eyed as Si-mok, knife in hand, mimes stabbing someone.

* MonochromePast: The first episode has Si-mok reliving a grim memory in which his mom grabbed him, when he was a boy, and screamed "Let's die together!". The memory is presented in washed-out color.

** A flashback in episode 1-2 shows a conference in a hotel room, where murder victim Moo-sung was present. Si-mok rides an elevator with a hot lady who strolled off towards Sang-joon's room. It turns out that she was a HighClassCallGirl, and that before his fall from grace one of Moo-sung's businesses was arranging for call girls for [=VIPs=] like Sang-joon. In fact, the anti-prostitution sting that Dong-jae is running is actually a ruse so that they can find the particular call girl who serviced Sang-joon.
** A whole brothel full of high class call girls is the location where Dong-jae goes in episode 1-4 in an attempt to find Min-ah, the particular call girl who was with Sang-joon.

* DisposableSexWorker: Min-ah, the HighClassCallGirl that Dong-jae was hunting for, presumably because she was used to blackmail Sang-joon. She's found murdered in episode 1-4.

* HighClassCallGirl: A flashback in episode 1-2 shows a conference in a hotel room, where murder victim Moo-sung was present. Si-mok rides an elevator with a hot lady who strolled off towards Sang-joon's room. It turns out that she was a HighClassCallGirl, and that before his fall from grace one of Moo-sung's businesses was arranging for call girls for [=VIPs=] like Sang-joon. In fact, the anti-prostitution sting that Dong-jae is running is actually a ruse so that they can find the particular call girl who serviced Sang-joon.

* HandshakeRefusal: Si-mok's lack of social skills are underlined in episode 2 when Yeo-jin tries to formally introduce herself and he simply ignores her outstretched hand.

Kang is tried for murder by Eun-soo, a newbie prosecutor in Si-mok's office, who insists that he let her handle this as her first case. She gets a conviction but Si-mok soon suspects that Kang may be innocent after all. As it turns out, there is a trail of corruption that leads to another prosecutor, Dong-jae, and his (and Si-mok's) boss, the Deputy Chief Prosecutor.

* AsYouKnow: When the Deputy Chief suggests manipulating Eun-soo for the trial of the cable guy, Dong-jae tells the audience who she is by saying "Eun-soo? You mean the trainee in Si-mok's office?"

* HeKnowsTooMuch: The Deputy Chief says that now that Moo-sung is dead, he can't rat on them, because "Dead men tell no tales."

* NoSocialSkills: After his surgery Si-mok was left with basically no social skills. He's thoughtlessly brusque and impolite, and tends to simply break off and walk away while others are talking to him.

Si-mok promptly deduces that a cable repairman was at the scene and tears off in pursuit of the suspect, much to the bafflement of the detective called to the scene, Han Yeo-jin (Creator/BaeDoona of ''Film/CloudAtlas'' and ''{{Series/Sense8}}''). She chases after him as he chases after the cable guy, and they wind up arresting the cable guy, right after he sold some of Moo-sung's valuable to a pawn shop.

The cable guy is tried for murder by Eun-soo, a newbie prosecutor in Si-mok's office, who insists that he let her handle this as her first case. She gets a conviction but Si-mok soon suspects that the cable guy may be innocent after all. As it turns out, there is a trail of corruption that leads to another prosecutor, Dong-jae, and his (and Si-mok's) boss, the Deputy Chief Prosecutor.

* MonochromeFlashback: The first episode has Si-mok reliving a grim memory in which his mom grabbed him, when he was a boy, and screamed "Let's die together!". The memory is presented in washed-out color.