(TV SERIES) The First Responders Season 1 - A Series with Intelligent Combination of Rescue Mission and Mystery Solving

After promoted by my wife frequently as she believed I would have liked this South Korean series, I finally started watching it few days ago as the final episode released on Disney+ just before the end of the year. Without further ado, here's more on the series.

Brief Story Line

Story was set in the city of Taewon, South Korea where the police and fire brigade join forces to become the first responders on cases that required urgent and immediate response. Detective Jin Hogae (Kim Rae-won - Decibel, Love Story in Harvard TV series etc) was just transferred to the police station under Chief Baek (Seo Hyun-chul) and partnered with Sergeant Pil (Kang Ki-doong - Reborn Rich TV series etc). 

The people in the fire station such as the intelligent fire inspector Bong Do-jin (Son Ho-jun - The Light in Your Eyes TV series, Stellar etc) and Song Seol (Gong Seung-yeun - Bulgasal: Immortal Souls, Flower Crew: Joseon Marriage Agency TV series etc), the kind hearted paramedic were not too thrilled with the appearance of Hogae (nicknamed Jindo dog) as he seemed to only concern with catching criminals and did not care about the victim.

As the story progressed, we would be shown some incidents that would test the intelligence, cooperation and endurance of both stations in handling them. There was also one murder case from Hogae's past that involved the wealthy Ma Tae-hwa (Lee Do-yeop) which got him really worked up.

So what would happen to all of them? You can see for yourself in this series.

End of Brief Story Line

My wife really know me so well and she was right when she told me I would have liked this series as it turned out I did. This series started off as quite suspenseful with the case that required urgent response and quick thinking. And at first I thought it would be the standard one case per episode kind of series, but as it progressed, it was apparent that there was one large story arc that would be brought up at later stage. This was what made the series became more interesting as the link between one case and another was smoothly done that it felt like the whole season was actually a grand story telling. 

The cast were obviously the main attraction in this series with the well known and experienced Kim Rae-won as the lead cast together with the rising stars Son Ho-jun and Gong Seun-yeon. Their interaction and chemistry was quite well built from the start with some convincing characters development throughout the first season. The series would not have been interesting without the support of other cast. In general the ones I mentioned above performed their roles quite well. And aside from them, there were also other people who appeared frequently like Ji-woo (Hello, My Twenties! 2 TV series etc) as An-na the science team in the police station, Woo Mi-hwa (Emergency Declaration etc) as the fire station chief Go-soon, Son Ji-yoon as the forensic officer Yun Hoong and numerous guest stars.

Each episode had a duration of roughly 1 hour with 12 episodes overall. Of all those episodes, my favorite one was definitely the 5th as it was very suspenseful with time sensitive case, although it also had an illogical part on the criminal side, likely to provide a more dramatic effect. I also liked the final 2 episodes which provided real intensity plus a different kind of case. Some episodes also have cliffhanger ending that made me difficult to stop watching (I could imagine my wife feeling impatient to watch the subsequent episodes) with the season finale having the biggest of it all as we had to wait for the second season which was targeted to be released only in mid 2023.

The whole season had variety of cases that were intriguing with some mysteries required thorough investigation not only by the police but also by the fire station. There were also few dramatic stories usually the ones involving young children. I also liked the smart thinking of Hogae who showed how to reduce the suspect pool and lessen the time to identify them, which was somehow very logical. There were few rather humorous scenes but not so many that made this become a comedy. 

Overall this was an enjoyable series for me and I could understand why my wife loved it too. The story was interesting, the characters were engaging and the combination of mystery solving with the rescue of potential victims was well executed. The large story arc was captivating which made me eager to find out more and it even have some twists that I did not foresee before. So if you are looking for these kind of traits in a series, then you could give this a try. It's available on Disney+ streaming platform.

Mike's movie moments rating: 4 out of 5 stars