Summary
It’s hard to keep your eyes away from Hellbound because the concept is so enticing and addictive.
This review of the Netflix K-Drama series Hellbound season 1 does not contain spoilers.
Read the ending explained of Hellbound.
As someone who has watched K-Drama for a while, and nearly every single original on Netflix, I had a slight smile on my face when critics were hailing Squid Game. Let’s be clear. Popular K-Drama is not rare at all, and, if you judge our website statistics, alongside the ratings we see from other outlets, the genre has been a secret dark horse for the streaming service for quite some time.
But now, the gloves are off, and with everyone’s attention on the “next big thing,” undoubtedly, every K-Drama series release on Netflix will be met with global awareness. Rise Hellbound, a series that meddles in the prospect of being sentenced to Hell in the most modern way possible.
Netflix’s Hellbound opens up with a man seemingly nervous sitting in a cafe; when the clock strikes 1:20 pm, a rumbling can be heard in the distance. Three monsters arrive and rip him apart before performing a ritual and leaving the man in ashes. In the media, Jung Jinsu (Chairman of “The New Truth”) claims that angels are being sent on earth to damn those who have sinned because God wants the world to be righteous. The story sets up biblical, fantasy-driven events to reel in the audience immediately.
On the sidelines is Detective Kyunghun, who is skeptical about this phenomenon. Hellbound proposes an initial story of faith versus truth, and it encapsulates it into an action-led, pulsating six chapters.
It’s hard to keep your eyes away from Hellbound because the concept is so enticing and addictive. Waiting with bated breath every time the self-professed angels arrive is a repeated event that doesn’t get boring. The violence is guiltily attractive, but the repeated consequences are so fast that the story does not remind you to breathe.
And this is coupled with the brilliant direction and visual attempts. Hellbound brings an original supernatural story, forcing viewers to question the validity of the claims that these cyclical events are from the command of God. Ensuring the story challenges the mind, then intrinsically unfolding fast-paced scenes, makes the K-Drama series a fully immersive experience. You are either embedded in the conspiracy or leaning towards religious angling.
While I wouldn’t rush to award accolades yet, Hellbound has the opportunity to become a competitor to Kingdom if it manages to tie up the story nicely. Of course, Kingdom is a once-in-a-generation achievement, but Hellbound has a modern, mythological, and religious approach that can keep viewers on their toes. Once the series reaches halfway, the story flips on its head, introducing a staggering plot point that changes the course of the story forever. This is what fantasy thrillers should be about. There should be a shock value and a reason to keep the viewer interested in the concept.
For its inaugural season, Hellbound hits the notes that make it a binge-worthy experience. Hopefully, it drums up the numbers to open up for a continuation.
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