‘Military Prosecutor Doberman’ is a revenge-fuelled K-drama

Multiple genres of K-drama are now gaining popularity. Many military and legal dramas the South Korean entertainment industry created have been trendy, such as The Devil Judge, Crash Landing on You, etc. But combining military and legal genres along with action comedy? Military Prosecutor Doberman is undoubtedly a different approach admixing all these genres.

This K-drama has two protagonists - one of them is Do Bae-man, a teenager delinquent who willingly gets expelled from multiple high schools to get an exemption from military duties. He later becomes the only Korean to pass the bar exam without passing high school.

Still, he ironically opts to join the military and become a prosecutor after certain events. The other protagonist is Cha Woo-in, the new military prosecutor working under Bae-man with a mysterious past.

Turns out they have their different set of vendettas behind joining the military and becoming its judge and jury. Do Bae-man hates the military because of his childhood trauma of losing his military parents but still works to gain a name for himself and work under crooked lawyer Yong Moon-goo to do his bidding.

On the other hand, Cha Woo-in leads a double life - working as a military prosecutor during the day and a vigilante at night to strike revenge on powerful criminals who are responsible for her industrialist father’s death.

Her double life blurs the line between exercising military power and committing subversive acts of a vigilante. She seeks help from Do Bae-man in her revenge. As a strict but ambitious serviceperson, does he agree to help?

In the first part of the series, Noh Tae-Nam is shown as the primary antagonist who commits heinous crimes and calls the lawyer Yong to clean up his mess. Woo-in pursues him for revenge, but later in the show, he is not the real villain and can seek redemption. He hides his trauma and insecurities inflicted by his over-possessive megalomaniac mother, General Noh Hwa-young, turning out to be the primary antagonist.

Reluctantly joining the military, Noh Tae-nam becomes a constant target of bullying. Finally, he reveals his traumas and turns out to be sympathetic, showing that some villains can redeem themselves.

Bullying is a major societal problem in South Korea, and it’s shown here. Though Tae-nam is constantly bullied in the military, Pyun Sang-Ho is the only character to be sympathetic to him. But he is hazed more than Tae-nam and one day finally had it too much, stealing arms and causing a massacre in the military barracks; the most violent scenes of this lightly explored series.

Though the bullying problem is treated lightly in other K-dramas, in this series, it is handled seriously as it led to bigger issues and scandals in the military.

Military Prosecutor Doberman is a pleasing mishmash of legal and military drama genres. It has its lighthearted comedic elements and action sequences. Does Cha Woo-in finally get her revenge, and Do Bae-man meet his ambition? Sixteen episodes of this show have the answers.

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