This article contains spoilers. 3/5 stars Lead cast: Jung Eun-ji, Lee Jung-eun, Choi Jin-hyuk Latest Nielsen rating: 11.7 per cent The narrative of the newly concluded K-drama hit Miss Night and Day in some ways called to mind Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic horror tale The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde .
However, despite their different appearances, Mi-jin and Sun are exactly the same person – their behaviour does not change. The show’s Jekyll and Hyde aspect was the seesawing between its lighter workplace drama, romantic comedy and family elements and its darker serial killer investigation tropes. In Stevenson’s classic horror fable, the gentle Jekyll’s sudden transformation starts off as manageable but later becomes chaotic, as the manic Hyde begins to take over.
Miss Night and Day introduced the mystery of a series of present-day murders and past disappearances early on. When Mi-jin was young, her beloved aunt Lim Sun – whose name she borrows for her alter ago – disappeared without a trace. For much of the series, this investigation took place on the sidelines, with the centrefield action squarely focused on the show’s lighter attributes.
However, there is a hint early on that Mi-jin’s transformation is connected to Lim Sun’s disappearance. Indeed, we soon learn that Mi-jin’s daytime alter ego looks the way her aunt would look were she alive today. Thus an escalation of the show’s serial killer investigation was inevitable.
However, just like Mr Hyde, once it took over the show was unable to keep it in check. The prominence of Sun’s senior colleagues at the Seohan District Prosecutors’ Office in the drama, even after she is promoted to become Ji-ung’s assistant and has limited contact with them, suggested that they would have a meaningful part to play in the story’s background mystery. Retired hospital director Baek Chul-kyu (Jung Jae-sung) joins their ranks after a few episodes, but he is so suspicious that he quickly sticks out as a red herring.
He goes so far as to kidnap Sun, and we soon learn that his wife was a victim of the killer. As the show’s central villain, Ok-hui’s actions lacked clear motivations. The story leans on a few tired tropes, including her exaggerated mental illness and drug addiction – she grows her own poppies – but fails to adequately connect her to the story.
The real draw of Miss Night and Day was always the romance, comedy, family and office high jinks. And on these points, it largely succeeds. Sticking to the tried-and-true K-drama formula, the chaste romance between Mi-jin and Ji-ung takes time to build, with the dating phase only beginning in episode 12.
But the long journey to get there is never a slog, thanks to the show’s novel romantic comedy twist. Ji-ung’s feelings grow for Mi-jin each time he bumps into her at night, only he has no idea that he has also been meeting her during the day as Sun. Meanwhile, from Mi-jin’s perspective, she has to be careful to keep her emotions in check, depending on which version of her is interacting with him.
After they finally get together, they exchange giddy texts to one another during the day. This gives Mi-jin unique insight into how her lovestruck boyfriend feels about her, since they are in the same office as they text one another, unbeknown to Ji-ung. Such moments, when the writers squeezed something new out of familiar and relatable scenarios, were when the show was at its best.
The grislier elements, which may not be relatable but were oh-so-familiar, were merely a distraction. If only Miss Night and Day could have kept its Mr Hyde under control. Miss Night and Day is streaming on Netflix.
.
