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A man wakes up as a zombie with no memory of how he got there, although completely self-aware that he used to be human.  After witnessing a murder in the desolate mountain area where he woke up, he assumes the identity of the victim and becomes Kim Moo Young, a local private detective.  Using the detectives name and resources, he begins to investigate what happened to him, hoping to find a way to return to being human again.  Gong Sun Ji is an investigative journalist who becomes indebted to Moo Young and decides to work as his assistant to repay him, even though he adamantly tries to refuse her help. Now Moo Young must be careful so Sun Ji doesn’t find out that he isn’t even human.

Park Joo Hyun as Gong Sun Ji

Gong Sun Ji meets Moo Young through a misunderstanding, when she throws a helmet at him and puts him in the hospital.  When she realizes her mistake, she goes to him and proposes that rather than settling with money she doesn’t have, she work with him solving cases at his detective agency.  Moo Young tries to refuse, but Sun Ji insists.  As they work together, Sun Ji starts to realize that something is going on.  Using her investigative skills, she eventually discovers that he is a zombie.  But rather than scaring her, she promises to help him on his journey to try to become human again.  

Gong Sun Ji is persistant and nosy.  She has worked hard as an investigative reporter but it isn’t until she joins Moo Young’s detective agency that she really feels fulfilled in her work.  Park Joo Hyun does a good job of playing the well-meaning but impulsive female lead.  Though she handles the role fine, the character herself was a bit non-descript and not especially memorable.  She definitely paled in comparison to such a strong and entertaining male lead.

Tae Hang Ho and Lee Joong Ok as Lee Sung Rok and Wang Wey

Lee Sung Rok and Wang Wey are also private detectives.  They run the World King Agency, across the street from Moo Young’s office.  Their goal is to chase Moo Young out of the neighborhood, so they will be the only detectives.  But in the end, the two agencies combine efforts to solve the Santa Murder cases.

♥ Make-up and costuming

While many aspects of this drama were heavy on cheesiness, no expense was spared in realistic make-up and cool costumes. They did a great job in bringing the zombie characters to “life”.  And Moo Young’s clothing screamed 1940’s private detective.  It would have been easy to over-due the whole zombie look with jagged clothing and washed out skin tones, but they struck a nice balance here that doesn’t overreach.  

♥ Unique Genre

Let’s face it.  Few people would blend horror, comedy, and film noir.  But strangely, this one works, as long as you go into it with the right expectations.  Each element brings an unusual feel to the drama and the whole package is something different and interesting.  With so many dramas borrowing from the same themes and tropes, this one provides a fun change of pace.  

Rough Start

This drama starts out a bit slow.  Mostly, there is just a lot of set-up involved before they can get into the heart of the story.  But it did seem a little disjointed in the first couple episodes.  Once everything gets introduced, the shows settles into a more consistant rhythm.  As with many crime dramas, the beginning makes a lot more sense once you get to the end of it all, but it can make it hard to get into in the beginning.  

Story in a Story

Usually I love a story within a story as an extra layer of storytelling, but they didn’t really work for me this time.  The story scenes didn’t mesh well with the rest of the drama and never seemed to really fit in.  I feel like that screen time could have been used for other storylines or character development that would have enhanced the drama better.  

As is common with a lot of crime dramas these days, “Zombie Detective” ends by wrapping the cases up well but still leaving some crumbs of cliff-hangers in case someone decided to do a second season.  The gang works together to capture Noh Poong Shik, who has become a zombie himself, but Moo Young ends up having to kill him when he refuses to surrender.  With their final open cases settled, Moo Young decides to move into the mountains alone, where no one else will be in danger.  Fast forward 1 year.  Sun Ji has taken over Moo Young’s detective agency.  Tae Gyun has finally written a successful zombie movie and become famous.  And Sung Rok is fulfilling his dream of making World King Agency an international company by sending Wang Wey to open an office in China.  When Sun Ji receives an invitation to a Halloween costume party, she is hopeful that Moo Young will be there.  They finally meet and begin catching up and Moo Young asks her to help him find an American doctor who has invented a zombie cure.  Just then, a murder is discovered at the party and Sun Ji and Moo Young decide to work together to solve it.  In the final scene we see that Sung Rok, who was bitten by Poong Shik but seemed to be fine, might actually be a zombie now.  So will there be a season 2 where Moo Young and Sung Rok continue looking for a way to regain their humanity?  There is no official announcement yet, but you never know!