The Story
Mr. Temporary is a mystery drama. The plot involves a high school girl who is stabbed in her own apartment and her childhood friend is arrested for the crime. I’m not going to lie. I didn’t read anything about this drama before starting it, and after the beginning I thought it was a drama about a high school that was haunted by ghost. I guess in some ways that isn’t entirely untrue, but not in the Hotel del Luna kind of way.
The school board from the high school the students attend hires a big law firm to make sure the boy confesses and is sentenced quickly so the school will be out of the news and people will forget the bad publicity. A young lawyer at the firm is assigned the case, and originally intends to do exactly what he is told, but as he spends time with the suspect and starts to learn the facts of the case, he becomes determined to find out the truth. He ends up faking teaching credentials and posing as a temporary homeroom teacher, teaching law classes at the school. With the help of his teaching partner, the two begin to unravel the web of deceit that connects the students, teachers, and school board administers. .
The Characters
Mr. Temporary stars Yoon Gyun-Sang (Clean With a Passion For Now, Rebel: Thief Who Stole the People) as Gi Moo-Hyuk/Gi Kang Jae, the lawyer turned teacher who has taken it upon himself to investigate and solve the crime. He is known as the lawyer who will do anything to win. The ethics of how he wins is not as important as the winning itself. He gets assigned the case because his drive to succeed makes him easy to control. When he begins to see that the boy who was arrested was actually framed, he finds himself protecting him instead of burying the case and getting a full confession, as he’s been ordered. Especially once Soo-ah dies, the charge becomes murder, and Han-Soo throws himself from the hospital roof. He is fired and disgraced by his firm, and vows to get back his job and his honor.
Gi Kang-Jae’s transformation from a heartless, cutthroat lawyer to an insightful and compassionate teacher is one of the strongest elements of this drama. He is an anti-hero. Yoon Gyun-Sang is a reserved actor who fits this role well. By getting to know each of his students, and a little help from his fellow teacher and IT tech friend, he puts the pieces together and uncovers a bigger scandal than any of them would have expected. It did seem like a lot of the clues seemed to fall into their laps for random, unexplainable reasons.
Geum Sae Rok (The Fiery Priest, Paparazzi Girlfriend) is the homeroom teacher that has been there through everything. Ha So-Hyun is a bit naive when it comes to the situation at the school. The students have fooled her into believing they are all broken hearted over the death of Han Tae-Ra and they are all unaware of the things going on behind the closed doors of their institution. As a character, I found her to be a bit one dimensional. Her over-optimism is her only remarkable quality. Of course, as the truth unfolds, she is forced to come to terms with the reality of the situation, but we don’t see any meaningful change in who she is based on what she has learned and experienced. I guess it’s good that she hasn’t become jaded by the situation, but some maturity would make sense, given all they have seen.
The Students
While I didn’t find the students to be likeable, they did handle some difficult roles and kept the plot interesting. Yoo Beom-Jin is the behind-the-scenes manipulator for pretty much everything that happens at the school. He reminded me of Shin Seung-Ho’s character in Moments of 18 (If you haven’t seen my review of Moments of 18, please check it out here). At first glance he is the helpful student who is liked and trusted by everyone. But under the admirable mask is a cruel and selfish control-freak. He does a good job of making you like his character in the beginning, and then dislike him more and more as we see the truth. He played the cold and calculating teen perfectly.
We find out that he is the one who stabbed Soo-Ah, although it was his dad who made sure she died at the hospital. He discovers that his dad is having relationship with her, and decides her death is the only way the problem will go away. At first, I wondered if maybe Beom-Jin had feelings for Soo-Ah that had made him act on his anger, but in the end it seems like he wasn’t really capable of having feelings for anyone, and had acted totally out of selfish gain and fear of humiliation.
Han Tae-Ra’s character is one I pitied. Yes, she is snotty and self-important, but it’s caused more by ignorance than actual malice. She thinks she is powerful, but in reality she is controlled by her mother and Beom-Jin. Han So-Eun delivered a kind of emotional deperation that made this character more than your typical teenage mean girl.
Lee Gi-Hoon and Cha Hyun-Jung spend the whole series at least a few steps behind and frantically trying to keep up. They are in the unfortunate position of being insiders who are looked down on by the other insiders. They are the loners in the group, who unknowingly keep Beom-Jin and the school board on their toes.
The Ending
As if all the incidents leading up to the end are not tragic enough, the ending throws a few more into the mix. First of all, poor Tae-Ra finally admits to Beom-Ji that she knows he left the theater that day. What a time to try being honest! Beom-Ji pretends that it’s all fine, lures her to the rooftop of a building by promising a romantic date, and then pushes her off. Well, that escalated quickly! At the morgue, her mother falls apart and Beom-Ji is there acting like the grieving but supportive boyfriend. It was a little sickening, and while Tae-Ra obviously had her issues, I didn’t rejoice in her sad ending.
We finally get to see Moo-Hyuk back in the courtroom, where he obviously thrives. He manages to turn Beom-Ji and his father against each other, which results in getting a guilty verdict against his father. There is no concrete evidence to prove that Beom-Ji is guilty in a court of law, but Moo-Hyuk finds him after the trial and gets in his head, vowing that his guilt would be prison enough, as he lives in his own personal hell. That would have been a fitting enough ending to his story, but then we see Beom-Ji attacked while crossing the street. He is stabbed with a syringe, and the crowd gathers around to watch him die slowly and painfully. The identity of this black-clad assailant is never verified. I have seen fan theories that seem to suggest it was either Kim Han-Soo or Tae-Ra’s mother.
Han-Soo if freed from jail and, after making a full recovery, comes back to school. His classmates welcome him back tentatively, until Gi-Hoon and Ye-Ri both offer their support and agologies. At least someone got an okay ending out of this show.
And last but not least, our quirky anti-hero is back at the school, not as a teacher this time, but as their full-time legal adviser. The students and Miss Ha welcome him back, and he seems happy to be back in the comfort of the law. Was there ever any romantic spark between our two teachers? I could have sworn on saw a few. I guess now they will have time to explore that in a hopefully quieter and more peaceful school environment.
So what about you all? Did you enjoy it more than I did? Who do you think was Beom-Ji’s mystery attacker? Do you think the ending fit the rest of the story?
Should I Watch
I didn’t love this one. There wasn’t anything to hate about it, it just didn’t hold my interest very well. If you like the suspense drama style, you may enjoy it. There was definitely enough evil spread among the characters to keep you guessing who the actual suspect was. I guess I like to have some likeable characters to counteract all that evil, and they were lacking in this case. There is not even a hint of romance to be found, so if that is your thing than this is not for you. I also found it hard to relate to the arrogant students who have been raised in the lap of luxury and have no regard for others. They deserve some credit for taking on difficult themes, but I wish there had been more opportunities for some redemption. The beginning starts strong and there seems to be a lot of promise, but the story begins to drag toward the second half, and then the ending feels suddenly rushed. I gave this one a 6 out of 10 ramen.
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