Summary
Behind Your Touch puts comedy above romance to decent effect, but its gimmicky premise might not be able to sustain a full season.
This review of the Netflix K-Drama series Behind Your Touch Season 1 does not contain spoilers.
Romantic comedy is a go-to genre for Korean dramas, but it’s usually the romance that wins in the end. Behind Your Touch, a Netflix series ill-fatedly airing alongside Season 2 of The Uncanny Counter, finds some novelty in being a comedy first and foremost. But its gimmicky premise and slightly serialized feel might not be enough to sustain a full twelve-episode run.
There’s plenty to like for now, at least, and the show’s first four episodes do a good job of presenting a light, funny take on a played-out formula. How it’ll do long-term is anyone’s guess at this point, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
Behind Your Touch Season 1 review and plot summary
The premise is simple enough, if a little weird. It’s a buddy adventure between a psychometric veterinarian – psychometry being the supposed ability to discover facts about an event or person by touching inanimate objects associated with them – and a grumpy detective. Their personalities are classically mismatched, and small-town Mujin, South Korea is replete with minor crimes requiring the use of their specific individual talents.
The vet is Bong Ye-boon (Han Ji-min), who need only touch the behind of a human or an animal – yes, I know – in order to see their recent pasts. Detective Moon Jang-yeol (Lee Min-ki), who has been typically demoted to Mujin and isn’t thrilled about the rural setting, makes for an unlikely partner for Ye-boon.
You can say this for Behind Your Touch – it’s genuinely funny. Shows like this always burn the contrasting personalities of the leads for fuel, but Ye-boon’s powers paired with Hang-yeol’s general demeanor is a winning combination and helps to liven up a very traditional odd-couple dynamic.
And the actors sell it. There’s clearly more nuance to both leads than first appearances necessarily suggest, and the inclusion of subplots revolving around supporting characters promises to give them more drama to chew on as we go. Some of these details, such as the motives of an enigmatic local politician, are perhaps a little too overly familiar for their own good, but they do contribute to the show’s overall laidback and familiar vibe.
The big question, really, is whether any of this can sustain 16 hour-long episodes. That’s a hefty season and beyond the show’s mildly subversive focus on comedy rather than romance, I’m not sure there’s necessarily enough here to justify that kind of runtime. Time, though, will inevitably tell.
Is Behind Your Touch good or bad?
Behind Your Touch offers a smartly directed and decently well-written diversion, with a novel hook and a welcome focus on properly constructed comedy ahead of the usual romantic tropes. Director Kim Suk-Yoon and writer Lee Nam-Kyu do a commendable job of establishing the characters and premise and suggesting plentiful twists and turns ahead.
It’s going to be a big investment, though, and as yet it’s unknown whether there’s enough here to justify sixteen episodes. Laidback fare is refreshing, but not always suited to the long term.
Is Behind Your Touch worth watching?
Nevertheless, it’s hard not to recommend Behind Your Touch for K-Drama fans looking for a smart subversion of a well-worn genre, some strong comedy, and a potentially interesting small-town mystery plot. Just be mindful that there’s a lot more to come – perhaps hanging around and testing out the binge-watch potential might be a better idea than getting invested straight away.
What did you think of Behind Your Touch Season 1? Comment below.
You can watch this series with a subscription to Netflix.
