# Awaken (2020)

> A special force leader untangles a murder mystery that leads back to a small town tragedy from 28 years earlier.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/94274

## Facts

- Seasons: 1
- Episodes: 16
- Episode runtime: 65 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: crime, drama, mystery
- Created by: So Jae-hyun
- Network: tvN
- Cast: Namkoong Min, Kim Seol-hyun, Lee Chung-ah, Yoon Sun-woo, Kim Chang-wan, Shin Jae-whi, Kim Won-hae, Lee Sin-young
- TMDB rating: 7.5/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13273550/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: brisk
- Intensity: moderate
- Complexity: dense
- Violence: moderate
- Tone: tense, brooding, suspenseful, grim, paranoid

## What critics say

Viewers praise its twisty murder mystery and lead performance, while finding the script uneven and the pacing sluggish in the middle.

## Synopsis

Awaken (2020-2021) is a South Korean crime mystery series created by So Jae-hyun for tvN, produced by Studio Dragon. Across sixteen hour-long episodes, special force leader Do Jung-woo (Namkoong Min) follows a cryptic murder case that seems to be tied to an incident buried for twenty-eight years in a small town. Working alongside Gong Hye-won (Kim Seol-hyun), he tracks coded messages from an unknown figure, and each new clue pushes the investigation toward uncomfortable memories and buried loyalties. The engine is a steady stream of suspect shifts, misleading evidence, and reveals that keep viewers guessing while the past bleeds into the present. The series is one continuous season rather than a case-of-the-week format, so each episode deepens the same puzzle. Its tone is tense and brooding, with a trauma-soaked atmosphere, grim imagery, and an emphasis on fractured memory. Its setting moves between a modern investigation and the quiet, resentful village where the original tragedy occurred. Fans of Signal, Broadchurch and Stranger Things will find resonance in its procedural mystery, its pull toward a community's hidden wounds, and its slow-building dread.

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- [Ghost (2012)](https://ember.film/tv/40898)
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- [I Remember You (2015)](https://ember.film/tv/55909)
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- [Healer (2014)](https://ember.film/tv/54946)

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