A tower crane collapses in the middle of a construction site, and it is up to our heroes to figure out why this accident occurred. Though the people in charge will lie to avoid responsibility, under the guidance of their new leader, the audit team will uncover the truth and make sure the corrupt get what they deserve.
EPISODES 1-2
The opening week for The Auditors acts as an introduction to the main cast, and the first to grace the screen is no-nonsense SHIN CHA-IL (Shin Ha-kyun). Crocodile tears and sob stories have no effect on our hero who only looks at facts, and his life’s mission is to catch all the rats gnawing holes inside companies. His latest target becomes JU Construction — a den of embezzlements and dishonest administrators — and currently, a power struggle between the president and vice president has divided the staff.
As a result of this family feud, JU Construction’s auditing team needs a new team leader, so President HWANG SE-WOONG (Jung Moon-sung) hires outside personnel in hopes of bolstering his side. This ruffles some feathers in the existing team, including the affable GU HAN-SOO (Lee Jung-ha), but when their first impression of Cha-il is one where he calls them all incompetent, it isn’t exactly surprising that no one likes the new leader. Well, except for the equally impersonal YOON SEO-JIN (Jo Ah-ram) who simply does her job regardless of who is in charge.
Cha-il overturns the department as soon as his tenure begins and orders a reinvestigation into the tower crane incident from last month. The official report blames high winds for the accident, but Cha-il suspects fraud. In order to reveal the true cause of this malfunction, Cha-il takes Han-soo to interview Foreman Bae, and our team leader’s hunch seems to be correct when the foreman runs away with his laptop as if desperate to hide something. He even falls from the third floor while evading Cha-il, but Han-soo remains blind to the foreman’s suspicious behavior and trusts his words that he did nothing wrong. However, when our heroes are attacked in the middle of the street by thugs who are after the laptop, Han-soo’s faith starts to waver.
With the evidence stolen, Cha-il confronts Executive Director Seo for interfering, and as the first episode ends, the show finally introduces the big bad: Vice President HWANG DAE-WOONG (Jin Gu). Half-brother to President Hwang, Dae-woong is the family’s black sheep and eternal headache. With the eldest bedridden in the hospital, the sudden promotions of the other brothers have created a tense and silent war within the company, and Executive Director Seo is firmly on Dae-woong’s side. Thus, the vice president sees Cha-il’s actions as a direct affront to his power and sets out to get him fired.
As it turns out, the laptop is actually in Han-soo’s possession (apparently, auditors need gas guns and tasers to protect themselves in this day and age). Using his skills as a hacker, he easily bypasses the password and discovers the double contracts revealing the bribes from the tower crane supplier. While Han-soo still holds some reservations about his new leader’s aggressive methods, in the face of concrete facts, he decides to trust Cha-il’s judgment and returns the laptop to his desk. Unfortunately, Han-soo runs into Dae-woong at the office, and the vice president swipes it before Cha-il can retrieve it.
Luckily, Cha-il is nearby when Han-soo calls him with an update, and he happens to see Dae-woong drive away with the laptop. He follows the vice president to a construction site, but Dae-woong isn’t the type of man to back down because of “witnesses.” Right in front of Cha-il, he burns the evidence and warns him to stop lest he be destroyed. Cha-il, though, is just as brazen as his opponent, and this little setback barely slows him down as he digs deeper into the case.
As our auditing team combs through the day the tower crane fell, a ton of questionable details pop up. The first red flag is the crane operator miraculously surviving a thirteen-story fall with only a broken leg, which leads to a strange five-hour gap between the time of the accident and the admittance of the operator into the ER. On top of that, Foreman Bae arrived at the hospital with muddy boots, and upon further inspection, the man he carried into the ER is different from the one he pulled out of the rubble. In truth, all these lies could be resolved with a confession from the foreman, but he disappeared without a trace, leaving our auditors in a bind.
After interviewing the field staff, Cha-il learns the identity of the real operator that day, and retracing the foreman’s route, he circles in on a reservoir along the road. Despite all the evidence that proves otherwise, Han-soo believes in the foreman’s good nature, and before Cha-il can report him to the police, he pleads with his team leader to check one more place: a small private hospital just across the lake.
For once, Han-soo’s intuition is correct, and they find the foreman with the unconscious crane operator. Feeling cornered, the foreman threatens to kill himself if they try to capture him, so Han-soo steps in to calm him down. His ability to connect with others proves useful in this moment as he reminds the foreman of his precious daughter, and we get a brief glimpse at what a future partnership may look like between the cold, calculating Cha-il and the warm, trusting Han-soo.
With one piece of the puzzle solved, Cha-il now has to prove Executive Director Seo’s connection to the accident and calls for a special audit. The tower crane supplier agrees to testify in front of the board, but anyone with an ounce of common sense can tell this is a trap. Thus, when the supplier goes back on his word, Cha-il barely bats an eye and instead stares at the doors.
While Dae-woong smirks in victory, Han-soo enters the room, and on his team leader’s command, he plays a recording between Foreman Bae and Executive Director Seo that contains the latter’s confession to all his criminal offenses. Cha-il recommends the immediate dismissal of the executive director, but his attacks don’t stop there. Turning to the vice president, he offers him two options: deny destroying evidence or admit his faults and apologize. If he chooses the former, Cha-il threatens to release security footage of that night, so Dae-woong has no choice but to bow his head in front of everyone. The first win goes to Cha-il by a landslide.
As the episode wraps up, the show reveals a last-minute twist: Seo-jin and Dae-woong know each other. However, this tidbit will have to wait since another case falls into the audit team’s lap, and Cha-il will have to demonstrate, once again, exactly why he’s the best at catching rats. JU Construction has a lot more problems than one corrupt director, and it will be up to our hero and his new crew to root them all out.
The Auditors is shaping up to be a fun show led by a capable protagonist and a motley assortment of characters. Cha-il is quite the charming hero, and Shin Ha-kyun is an absolute delight in this role. Though it is only the beginning, the show makes his motivations clear, and while others may misunderstand his actions, he really does care about people over numbers. He does this job to make sure innocent workers aren’t harmed for corporate greed, and in reality, he never crosses lines or breaks the law to achieve his goal. He simply stands unmoved by the pleas of liars, which makes his demeanor come across as heartless. Granted, he is a bit terse, especially when dealing with incompetence, but when Han-soo asks him questions, Cha-il usually answers them without any pretenses. What you see is what you get with Cha-il, but I’m sure there will be more secrets to the new team leader as the story progresses.
Though the show is billed as an office comedy, I thought it felt more like an office drama. There weren’t many comedic scenes — if any — but I didn’t mind the lack of jokes or laughs. In fact, sometimes the writing felt almost juvenile in places, and the overall case was relatively humdrum. That being said, there’s a fun energy to the show that I hope continues throughout its run, and rather than try to be clever or witty, the drama should embrace its light tone and zippy pace.
While I’m not entirely convinced by Lee Jung-ha’s portrayal of Han-soo yet (it feels too similar to his Moving performance), I see glimmers of growth, and I am enjoying the budding relationship between him and Cha-il. It’s nice to see Han-soo’s warmth start to rub off on Cha-il, and already, the show illustrates the influence they have on each other. Just as much as Han-soo needs to learn discernment, Cha-il could also learn from Han-soo’s empathetic approach because sometimes the sun is more powerful than the wind.