'Live': What's Behind the Work of Police Officers

'Live' series poster (Photo: IMDb)

Portraying the joys and sorrows of the Hongil Patrol Division members in their routines, Live voices a simple yet profound message that police officers are ordinary people.

Live revolves around each individual's professional and personal life within the Hongil Patrol Division, which comprises fourteen members of various ranks. Han Jung-O and Yeom Sang-Soo come from the same police academy, where a strict instructor, Oh Yang-Chon, trains them. Both live with their single mothers and previously had difficulty finding jobs. After they graduate from the academy, they decide to choose the patrol division and are stationed in Hongil, where they meet another first-year police, Song Hye-Ri. They then reunite with Oh Yang-Chon and find out that he is an accomplished detective from the Violent Crimes Division. Regrettably, Oh receives a demotion to the patrol division due to an unexpected incident. His wife, An Jang-Mi, is also a police officer in the Woman and Child Protection Division, and their household is on edge because of Oh negligence to his family.

Throughout the eighteen episodes, the audience can discover the stories of other police officers: the love triangle between Yeom Sang-Soo, Han Jung-O, and Choi Myung-Ho; the pessimism and concern of the sensitive older police officers, Ki Han-Sol and Lee Sam-Bo, about their declining performance and health; the presence of Eun Kyung-Mo in the middle of Oh Oh Yang-Chon and An Jang-Mi's susceptible household; Song Hye-ri's enviousness of Han Jung-O's achievements; the dispute between Kim Min-Seok, Ban Jong-Min, and Kang Nam-Il over who deserves to be sacrificed to endure suspension for a mistake, while the three have their respective urgent necessities; Han Jung-O's trauma from sexual assault in the past; and so forth.

Live definitely involves diverse criminal cases, but it emphasizes more on how police officers take action amid the obligatory to comply with the rules and the uproar of their own emotions, how they work together professionally without entangling personal affairs, how they set priorities between work and family, how they find a way out of joint problems, how they learn to understand when to give up or fight for something, and how they deal with themselves. This series points out that irrespectively of their work of maintaining order and upholding justice in society, they are ordinary people—part of society—who go through ups and downs in their everyday lives and have fear, even towards the criminals they face.

The writer of Live, Noh Hee-Kyung, revealed why this series highlights the day-to-day lives of police officers instead of the criminal cases: "The people who change the world are the majority, the ordinary people. It is not one hero, but the story of the common man that I tried to deal with. Through the drama, I wanted to convey hope to the society of today and the future.” She also reportedly penned this series script based on her interviews and consultations with real police officers, which she did for one year.

This series stars well-grounded actors, including Jung Yu-Mi, Lee Kwang-Soo, Bae Sung-Woo, Bae Jong-Ok, Sung Dong-Il, and Shin Dong-Wook. Directed by Kim Kyu-Tae, Live managed to open new perspectives for the audience regarding the lives of police officers behind their neat uniforms, threatening pistols, and courageous attitudes. Noh and Kim previously worked together on It's Okay, That's Love (2014), That Winter, The Wind Blows (2013), Padam Padam (2011), and Worlds Within (2008).

Live was aired on the Korean television channel tvN from March 9th to May 6th, 2018, and all episodes are now available on the streaming platform Netflix and iQIYI.