ENA's Monday-Tuesday drama "Scarecrow," which begins with the conclusion of "catching the real culprit" in the Hwaseong serial murder case, is being credited with opening a new chapter for well-made K-genre productions.
Despite the disadvantages of airing on a non-terrestrial channel and in a Monday-Tuesday slot, "Scarecrow" has continued its formidable rise, breaking its own viewership records with each episode. The 10th episode, which aired recently, recorded a peak per-minute rating of 8.8 percent, ranking first in its time slot. It is the highest performance for ENA since "Extraordinary Attorney Woo" (2022), the channel's biggest hit ever, and observers widely expect the show to soon break the elusive double-digit ratings barrier.
While director Bong Joon-ho's film "Memories of Murder" focused on the era's despair and pursuit of an uncaught suspect, "Scarecrow" begins from the point in 2019 when Lee Choon-jae was identified as the perpetrator through a separate case. From the outset, the drama makes the real culprit's existence explicit, then trains a microscope on the "30 years" that passed while the suspect remained at large and on the lives destroyed as a result. The series adds depth as a well-made genre piece by weaving together thriller tension built on twists upon twists with intricate human relationships entangled by a tragedy from the characters' school days.
"With the real culprit already caught, the show reconstructs the case densely while moving between reality and fiction," pop culture critic Kim Heon-sik said. "It is the most exemplary case of a genre work showing how real-life events should be handled."
Within a structure that weighs the historical particularity of the 1980s against a multilayered narrative, the key force driving the show's popularity is Park Hae-soo's standout performance. Drawing on his trademark bold charisma, Park embodies Detective Kang Tae-joo, a man wrenched by deeply human anguish in the face of the era's limits and misjudgments. He is not a hero burning simply with a sense of justice; the human side of him, crushed by guilt before innocent victims, evokes profound sympathy. Critics also say he heightened viewer immersion by giving three-dimensional expression to the relentless gaze pursuing the truth and the mixed emotions of anger and resentment within his "antagonistic symbiosis" with prosecutor Cha Si-young, played by Lee Hee-joon.
