My Name Is Gangnam (2024)

An ordinary young man accidentally kills someone, then keeps killing. The premise itself is dark, but the show layers it with dry comedy and a sharp chase narrative. The central asset is the clash between two actors — Choi Woo-shik and Son Suk-ku — and it’s that clash that makes the way genres shift between them so distinctive.

What it’s about — An Accidental Killer and a Detective

This is the story of Jang Nam-gil (Choi Woo-shik), an ordinary young man who becomes a serial killer after an accidental first murder, and of Detective Jeon Jin-han (Son Suk-ku), who pursues him with relentless obsession. Based on Lee Jang-gyu’s Naver webtoon, the full eight-episode run dropped on Netflix in February 2024. What sets this show apart is its deliberate blending of crime drama seriousness with black comedy. Even the murder scenes and chase sequences coexist in a tension with intentional exaggeration.

Direction — A Tone That Turns Shock into Absurdity

Director Lee Chang-hee effectively transplants the webtoon’s cartoonish exaggeration into the drama. Many of the killings are handled with absurdity rather than shock — and that choice defines the show’s tone. In the chase sequences, the rhythm of the two characters drawing closer and pulling apart is the engine that keeps the episodes moving. The overall pacing holds steady across all eight episodes, and the hooks that pull you into the next episode are well designed.

Performance & characters — The Clash of Choi Woo-shik and Son Suk-ku

Choi Woo-shik’s Jang Nam-gil is a difficult role: a killer who doesn’t read like a villain. He plays the character as a regular person who panics, gets confused, and somehow keeps surviving one crisis after another — maintaining an ordinary quality while expressing a subtly shifting interior. Son Suk-ku’s Jeon Jin-han is relentless and absurd, a detective who doesn’t care about means if the end is in sight. The chemistry between these two actors sustains the whole drama. Lee Hee-jun’s Oh Dong-min also carries an important narrative pillar.

What the work says — The Arbitrariness of Morality

What My Name Is Gangnam says through its genre blending ultimately comes down to the arbitrariness of morality. Jang Nam-gil kills bad people. The fact that his victims are mostly worse than he is is the device that pulls the viewer onto his side — and at the same time, the show doesn’t simply allow that comfort. The question of whether killing can ever be justified keeps slipping back and forth between comedy and thriller without landing on a clear answer. Among Korean genre dramas, very few intentionally sustain this level of moral ambiguity.

Ratings & reception

IMDb score is 7.1. TMDB score is 7.3. The show held a top spot in Netflix Korea’s content rankings during its run, and both domestic and international viewers praised the performances of Choi Woo-shik and Son Suk-ku.

What doesn’t quite work

The blend of black comedy and crime thriller is the show’s attraction, but there are moments where the two tones don’t fully fuse. In the back half especially, as the dramatic weight grows, there’s a feeling of collision with the comedy sensibility built up earlier. Eight episodes is also a tight container for this story — some subplots get resolved before they’ve developed enough to feel earned.

Verdict

Rating: ★4.0. Just watching the clash between Choi Woo-shik and Son Suk-ku is reason enough. The attempt to blend genres doesn’t completely succeed, but the attempt itself is fresh. For those wanting something absorbing and compact — eight episodes that pull you through — this delivers. The structure, where Jang Nam-gil increasingly justifies his own actions and Detective Jeon Jin-han keeps trying to dismantle that justification, is what drives the show’s tension. As the premise that he only kills bad people gradually wobbles, viewers find themselves looking back and wondering which side they were ever really on. Seeing how the webtoon source material’s fast pacing and cartoonish sensibility translate into the drama is one of the more interesting things about it. The short runtime makes it easy to get into and finish for both domestic and international viewers.

Recommended for

• People who enjoy black comedy and crime thriller simultaneously
• Fans of Choi Woo-shik and Son Suk-ku’s performances
• Viewers looking for Korean dramas with moral ambiguity