Disney+ K-drama Crash: Lee Min-ki, Kwak Sun-young lead action comedy that keeps switching gears

Lee Min-ki as insurance investigator Cha Yeon-ho in a still from Crash.

• Crash follows the Traffic Crime Investigation office, led by Min So-hee (played by Kwak Sun-young), and insurance investigator Cha Yeon-ho (Lee Min-ki)
• After a shaky start, they team up to track down a serial killer who mows people down in his car for insurance payouts in this action comedy that lacks drive

Lead cast: Lee Min-ki, Kwak Sun-young, Heo Sung-tae

Latest Nielsen rating: 3 per cent

Attempting to emulate the charms of Taxi Driver, the action comedy Crash invites us to follow the exploits of TCI (Traffic Crime Investigation), a newly formed squad in the police department.

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Kwak Sun-young (Behind Every Star) plays Min So-hee, the leader of TCI, whose mission is to crack down on vehicular crime and which tries to stop criminals getting away with their crimes by using legal loopholes.

Those loopholes are the reason TCI was formed in the first place, by veteran detective Jung Chae-man (Heo Sung-tae, Squid Game), who continuously fights to justify the team's existence to the indifferent top brass who call the shots.

Also on the team are car expert Woo Dong-ki (Lee Ho-cheol) and martial arts practitioner Eo Hyun-kyung (Moon-hee).

Cha Yeon-ho (Lee Min-ki, My Liberation Notes) is not a member of the team. A mousy insurance investigator sorely lacking in social skills, he is blessed with prodigious mathematical ability, which helps him to visualise collisions and find his way to the truth when he investigates cases of potential car insurance fraud.

Yeon-ho first crosses paths with the TCI team when he is mistakenly rounded up while they are arresting a group of used-car scammers. He is quickly released when he reveals who he is and explains to So-hee that he is investigating a possible case of vehicular serial killing.

Initially, So-hee does not take his claim seriously, but that changes when she receives a call from her father, informing her that her grandmother has died in a hit-and-run accident.

She discovers that her grandmother may be the latest victim of the serial killer Yeon-ho is attempting to catch.

The TCI team begins to investigate four accidents caused by Jung Ho-kyu (Bae Yoo-ram, one of the Taxi Driver squad members), three of which resulted in fatalities and all of which netted him an insurance payout thanks to an unusual loophole in his insurance policy.

Yeon-ho also continues his investigation, but it takes time for the two sides to decide to unite in pursuit of their common goal.

Following the culmination of this case, Yeon-ho decides it is time to leave his insurance job and pursue his desire to become a policeman.

He soon joins TCI, but his lack of social skills and his inability to drive do not immediately endear him to his new teammates.

The TCI acronym will not be a familiar one to viewers and the same applies to other characters in the show.

During their first sting, the team proudly show off their badges before getting into a dust-up with criminals, but none of them have heard of the new police division, unlike storied institutions such as the CIA or FBI. The media and the rest of the police force show no interest in their exploits.

Lacking the grit of a homicide, violent crimes or narcotics division, TCI's team members are presented as underdogs who are forced to fight against a department that ridicules them as well as the criminals they chase down.

Crash is more notable for its reminders of the popular content it is trying to emulate than for the entertainment it offers.

Taxi Driver, the vigilante K-drama starring Lee Je-hoon, is the clearest model for the show, but Crash's opening scene, in which So-hee and Hyun-kyung go undercover to buy a used car from crooks, is a clear nod to the opening scene of Ryoo Seung-wan's hit film Veteran.

The series falls well short of either of those references - for a couple of crucial reasons. Its budget is on the low side for a prime-time Korean action series, meaning that the driving and fight set pieces, while plentiful, leave something to be desired.

What the show also lacks is bouncy humour. There's a hearty stab at jaunty camaraderie within the TCI team, but the script lacks the wit to sell the comedy or to properly integrate it into the action.

The show's aims also come off as a little unclear. Beyond entertainment, there is also an intention to educate Korean viewers about traffic regulations and car insurance details, particularly in the dry and lengthy public service announcements that close each episode, with different cast members addressing the audience each time.

This didactic approach, which can be sensed throughout the series, stands in stark contrast to the action-comedy aspirations of the show. Crash keeps switching gears when what it really needs is to stay in the fast lane.

Crash is streaming on Disney+.

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