I really missed this wacky duo. And the abundance of mediocre cop mysteries of late only solidifies how good Mystery Queen was, and how much I’m looking forward to its second season on KBS. Choi Kang-hee and Kwon Sang-woo reprise their roles as the nosy ajumma who learned all her sleuthing from mystery novels and the homicide detective who reluctantly takes her on as his partner, and the second season is a true sequel that picks up after the cliffhanger that ended Season 1.
The first season’s posters were beautiful noir-themed ones set in the fall, so I chuckled when I saw that the second season’s poster is winter-set and entirely comical. The copy includes a pun on “season” and reads, “Their season has returned.”
The latest teaser shows our detective duo lying in bloody heaps while a killer approaches them, blood dripping from his hand. But then a news broadcast cuts in to say that some detectives are going so far as to lay traps to catch the killer, and then Choi Kang-hee and Kwon Sang-woo get up and stop playing dead, now that the jig is up.
The earlier teaser below has them bickering on their way to a crime scene, with Kwon Sang-woo refusing her entry as usual, and Choi Kang-hee pushing her way in anyway. Some things never change, and I like it that way. At the end of the first season, Choi Kang-hee’s character was well on her way to independence from her suffocating husband and in-laws, and Kwon Sang-woo’s mind was blown when a ghost from his past reentered his life. This season I’m hoping for a little romance on top of the slick mystery and feel-good comedy, because I’m greedy like that.
Supporting actors Park Byung-eun (Because This Life Is Our First) and Kim Hyun-sook (Rude Miss Young-ae) are returning this season, while Lee Da-hee (Mrs. Cop) and Oh Min-seok (The King Loves) are new additions to the cast. There’s been a PD change as well—PD Choi Yoon-seok (second PD on Chief Kim) will direct—but thankfully writer Lee Sung-min is returning to finish telling the original story. Good, because you really left us hanging there, you know.
Mystery Queen 2 airs in KBS’s Wednesday-Thursday slot following Black Knight and premieres February 21.
