# Stranger (2017)

> A brain-surgery-altered prosecutor with no empathy teams up with a police lieutenant to expose corruption in the Seoul prosecutors' office while hunting a serial killer.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/61760

## Facts

- Seasons: 2
- Episodes: 32
- Episode runtime: 68 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: crime, drama, mystery
- Created by: Lee Su-yeon, An Gil-ho, Yoo Je-won
- Network: tvN
- Cast: Cho Seung-woo, Bae Doona, Lee Jun-hyuk, Yoo Jae-myung, Jeon Hye-jin, Shin Hae-sun, Choi Mu-sung, Yoon Se-a
- TMDB rating: 8.4/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6461346/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: brisk
- Intensity: strong
- Complexity: dense
- Violence: moderate
- Tone: cold, cerebral, tense, morally bruised, bleak

## What critics say

Audiences broadly acclaim the series for its sharp, logic-driven prosecution plot and its layered corruption storyline, rating both seasons highly.

## Synopsis

Stranger (2017-2020) is a South Korean crime thriller series created by Lee Su-yeon, An Gil-ho, and Yoo Je-won for tvN. Prosecutor Hwang Si-mok (Cho Seung-woo), who underwent childhood brain surgery that left him devoid of emotion, is an upright but ostracized prosecutor who refuses bribes. Lieutenant Han Yeo-jin (Bae Doona) of the police becomes his uneasy partner after a stabbing victim draws them together. Their engine is a hunt through the Seoul prosecutors' office, where corruption is entrenched, and a serial murder case that keeps pointing back toward the powerful. Across two seasons and thirty-two episodes, the investigations feel layered and deliberate, each lead folding into a larger conspiracy with careful, unhurried tension. Seo Dong-jae (Lee Jun-hyuk) and Lee Chang-jun (Yoo Jae-myung) fill out the institutional web. The tone is cold, cerebral, and morally bruised, with a dread that settles over every bureaucratic meeting. Fans of The Wire and Korean prestige crime dramas will find resonance in its portrait of a system that protects itself.

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