Busted! (Korean: 범인은 바로 너; lit. The Criminal Is You) is a South Korean web television program on Netflix premiering in May 2018. The series features variety show stars Yoo Jaesuk and Lee Kwangsoo; actors Ahn Jaewook and Park Minyoung, and singers Kim Jongmin, Oh Sehun, Kim Sejeong, and Lee Seunggi in a variety show drama that mixes both scripted and unscripted lines to make it the first variety show of its kind in Korea. The program is co-produced with SangSang, a Korean production company that is responsible for X-Man, Running Man, and Family Outing.
Yoo Jaesuk, a cowardly neighboorhood detective, is invited to a party by a mysterious man named M. Upon arrival, he learns that six other people were invited: Ahn Jaewook, a former agent; Kim Jongmin, an errand runner who does menial tasks such as collecting loans; Lee Kwangsoo, a clumsy unemployed man; Park Minyoung, a former flight attendant, Oh Sehun, a choreographer; and Yoo Yeonseok, a regular town resident. The party, hosted by M's boss known as K, turns out to be a murder game masquerade party, wherein they play roles in order to deduce the "killer" of a pre-planned situation. However, as soon as the game begins, M is shot by an unknown perpetrator, which turns the game into a real crime scene. Upon investigation, they discover that the murder and their existences are related to an operation called "Project D", headed by K.
This show provides examples of:
- The Ace: Minyoung.
- Action Girl: Minyoung and Sejeong, who do a lot more when compared to the other cast members.
- Agony of the Feet: Lee Yujin's art exhibition features a problem that the team has to solve while standing on acupuncture mats.
- The Alcoholic: Kwangsoo is revealed to be a really bad drunk, which bites him in the ass when he's framed for a murder he can't remember doing because he was too drunk the night before.
- Artificial Human: "Project D" turns out to be an experiment involving the seven members of the main cast, whose bodies contain chips that contain DNA of famous detectives.
- Assassin Outclassin': Minjae was planning to kill Seunggi after luring him out, but Seunggi turned the tables on him instead.
- Awesome, but Impractical: The Go-Pro cameras attached to Kwangsoo's backpack look cool, but these also get stuck and hit a lot of places. One of his cameras fall off in Season 2, because he hit the window while escaping K's vacation home while he was escaping.
- Badass Crew: The Genius Detectives Team. The main cast wants their reputation to be this as well, but it isn't working for them despite solving a lot of big cases.
- Badass in a Nice Suit: The Genius Detectives Team's first appearance have them in suits, while the main cast also has worn these in several occasions.
- The Bait: Minjae tries to raise suspicions on the Jonghoon, so that he would be accused of being the Flower Killer.
- Battle Couple: Season 2 has Yook Sungjae and Jin Seyeon.
- Big Brother Is Watching: Minjae watches the detectives infiltrate his house through CCTV cameras that are connected to his phone.
- Body Double: Charming and his apprentice look exactly alike, which allows his apprentice to take over as him for the magic show when he goes missing.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: Done in-universe during the "Curious Detective Show", where the cast are shuddering at the thought of the kidnapping of some IZ*ONE members, only to be reminded that it was just the plot for the show. Turns out it isn't just the show's plot.
- Butt-Monkey: Kwangsoo, Jongmin, and at times Jaesuk.
- Cassandra Truth: The theme for one of the missions was to escape connected rooms with the guidance of Minyoung, who acts as "Cassandra", but the other members are specifically instructed to not trust the words of "Cassandra".
- Celebrity Paradox: Despite the mention of a show called "Running Woman", EXO and Gugudan exist in the show's universe (though they aren't seen in-universe). Season 2 also has Sejeong mentioning that the "Curious Detective Show" should have invited I.O.I instead of IZ*ONE.
- Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: The other cast members call out Kwangsoo for having this kind of reputation, which he strongly denies even though he's shown it in the course of the series. He does it again, on a much larger scale, at the start of Season 2.
- Competition Freak: Sehun, big time. He uses up all of Kwangsoo's money because he wanted to be the one to get all stuffed Pororos out of the claw machine, and completely solved a Rubik's cube in 5 hours because he was frustrated that he didn't know how to.
- *Crack!* "Oh, My Back!": Jaewook and Jaesuk are prone to this, and it happens as early as the first episode of Season 1.
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The Danza: Almost all of the cast play roles with their characters having the same name as them, with some exceptions only arising whenever a character's given name or family name is central to the plot. - Damsel out of Distress: Most times, Minyoung and Sejeong are the ones who get themselves out of problems.Sehun: Sejeong, I promised to protect you.Sejeong: Forget it.
- Darker and Edgier: Season 1 has a very lighthearted tone, even in episodes involving murder investigations. Season 2, while still pretty funny, has a darker tone in some episodes, especially in the final two episodes which deliver a Downer Ending, with the deaths of several important characters that happen in them. Season 3 is even darker, with several episodes barely having any funny moments (though it at least wraps up the story with a Happy Ending).
- A Day in the Limelight: Some episode introductions in Season 1 are dedicated to exploring the personal lives of each member of the detective team.
- Designated Girl Fight: Minyoung and Sejeong versus the Genius Detectives' Wendy, and later Hani.
- Detective Mole: The detective team is wary of this happening because of Yoo Yeonseok and Yook Sungjae, but it later turns out that Lee Seunggi is one as well. There's also Kim Minjae for the Seoul Metropolitan Police.
- With all these examples, it's not surprising when the second half of Season 3 starts hinting that Minyoung may be behind the Hwalbindang (a Serial-Killer Killer organization). She isn't.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: The promotional poster features the seven main cast members, but Sejeong is replaced by Yeonseok in the first episode and does not appear until the second episode. Also, for some unknown reason, before the series aired, Netflix released teaser trailers featuring all cast members except Jongmin.
- The same happened in Season 2, where promotional materials heavily focused on Seunggi joining the team and Jaewook is nowhere to be found, but in the series proper Jaewook is a main character in all episodes while Seunggi appears after half of the season. This was due to issues in real life.note
- Easily Forgiven:
- Given how Yeonseok tried to put them in danger or even kill them in the first two episodes, the detective team welcomes him rather warmly upon their reunion.
- Kwangsoo's betrayal, despite being set up as a major plot point, is also brushed off easily, with the only thing that alludes to his disappearance is that the team was now looking for his replacement and that everyone is visibly annoyed at the mention of him. You'd think they would have investigated further knowing that he stole an important file and was initially treated as one of the suspects in killing their boss.
- Easily-Overheard Conversation: There's really no need to whisper in some situations, as everyone in the vicinity can hear.
- Enemy Mine: The detective team unexpectedly works with Yeonseok when they're threatened with a bomb.
- Everyone Is a Suspect: Pretty much what happens in all episodes. Suspicions even extend to members of the detective team itself, which, in some cases, has been proven to be true.
- Evil Versus Evil: The Flower Killer (a.k.a. Seunggi) versus his imitator in Season 2; the Flower Killer (again) versus the Hwalbindang organization in Season 3.
- Family-Friendly Firearms: Averted: the show features a lot of guns, knives, and other weapons that can be used for crime.
- Failure Hero: In Season 2 the detective team fails almost every investigation that they come across and miss vital pieces of evidence that point to the identity of K's killer, which is lampshaded by K's killer himself in the finale.
Seung-gi: You never disappoint. You haven't saved a single person.
- Faking the Dead: C, who was shot by Yoo Yeonseok in front of the detective team, actually survived. He is Killed Off for Real in Season 2.
- Though it wasn't his intention to fake his death, Jaesuk was presumed to be killed in the explosion of C's trailer.
- Fun with Foreign Languages: Some cases require a good amount of English proficiency, in which the detective team is thankful for having Minyoung by their side.
- Fun with Subtitles: Some of the show's laughter-inducing moments are the subtitles, which vary from Breaking the Fourth Wall to Lampshade Hanging.
- Funny Background Event: And some of these are replayed so that the audience is sure to catch it. Some are as minor as Sehun getting slapped by Sejeong's ponytail.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Jaesuk in the last episode of the first season, where he is involved in the trailer's explosion because he wanted to retrieve K's microchip. Though he gets better.
- In Season 2, there's the shaman of Guiyi Village, who turned herself in despite not being the culprit so that the girls, especially her daughter, would be kept safe from future harm... though it turns out, her sacrifice seemed to be of no help...
- In the Season 3 finale, both Minyoung (locked in a room with a bomb) and the other detectives (locked in another room with another bomb) have the option of letting the bomb in the other room explode and kill whoever is in it in order to save themselves. Instead, they work together to the end and ultimately let both timers reach zero at the same time, risking their own death - this turns out to be the right way to deactivate the bombs, letting everyone in both rooms survive.
- Hypocrite: Minyoung and Sejeong have their moments:
- In Season 1, they scold their male teammates for being charmed by the magician's assistant during their investigation. The following episode, when the detectives have to escort Yeonseok to prison, the two of them act very charmed themselves towards Yeonseok. Jaesuk points out the contradiction.
- In Season 2, they complain about how they can't trust the guys when their male teammates take part in a TV show alongside IZ*ONE without inviting them. Except Jaewook did try to contact Minyoung and Sejeong, but they didn't answer his call... because they were taking a case behind their teammates' backs.
- Intergenerational Friendship: Jaewook and Sehun, who frequently team up with each other to "bridge" their 23-year age gap.
- Internal Reveal: Averted, which is surprising since this is a staple in most Korean variety shows. The audience finds out the solutions, tricks, and clues at the same time that the cast members discover them.
- Karma Houdini:
- Seunggi, the Flower Killer, manages to escape justice twice, both in the last episode of Season 2 and in the Season 3 (and series) finale.
- Kim Hyeyoon, the killer in episode 4 of Season 3, reappears in the final episode and tells the detectives that she regretted her actions and that she will turn herself in to the police. However, the final scene indicates that Hyeyoon lied; not only that, it shows that she either became the new godmother in the Hwalbindang, or she was the real godmother all along and Lim Soohyang was just a Decoy Leader.
- Kinda Busy Here: In the last episode of Season 2, Jongmin calls the other members in hopes that they would help him solve his puzzle, but the other members are too busy solving to actually hold a conversation with him. Notably, Seunggi wasn't solving the puzzle, but was actually in the middle of planning Minjae's death.
- Like Brother and Sister: Sehun and Sejeong are called the "Se-Se Duo", and in the course of seasons 1 and 2, Sejeong has transitioned from calling Sehun "hyung" to the more familiar "oppa".
- Lured into a Trap: A lot of cases.
- The Load: The detective team notes that it's harder to clean up after Jaesuk's, Kwangsoo's, and Jongmin's messes than actually solving the cases.
- Mission Briefing: Present in the beginning of most episodes.
- Mysterious Watcher: Jaesuk becomes one in between Season 1 and 2, testing if the members weren't suspicious before coming into contact with them again.
- Pretty in Mink: Minyoung tends to wear a lot of clothes in this style, to the point that the other lampshade it by saying they're solving cases, not walking on a fashion show.
- Prison Episode: Episode 9 of Season 1 features the members being trapped in cells.
- Put on a Bus: Jaewook doesn't return for Season 3, and no in-universe explanation is given to his whereabouts. He basically becomes an Unperson in the series, as the other detectives don't even mention him or acknowledge his existence, as if he was never part of the team (Jaewook does appear in some photos in the credits for the Season 3 finale, but always out of focus).
- Also happens to Wendy, of the Genius Detective Team, who is missing when they reappear in Season 2.
- Serial-Killer Killer: The Hwalbindang organization in Season 3 is devoted to killing criminals (some of the Season 2 killers are Killed Offscreen by them). They go as far as targeting people who have the potential to become a criminal, even if the person actually has never committed a crime. Minyoung becomes a target after they find out she's in K's list of people with potential of becoming a criminal - ironically, all of the Hwalbindang members are also shown in that list.
- Show Within a Show: The "Curious Detective Show" hosted by Kim Hwan, which is a show wherein crime scenes are replicated to show the audience how said crimes took place.
- Sixth Ranger: Guests join the detective team in some episodes, namely Yook Sungjae, Hani, and Yoo Yeonseok.
- The End... Or Is It?: The detective team has a Happy Ending, escaping the Hwalbindang's trap, reinforcing their friendship and deciding to continue their work to investigate and arrest criminals. However, the final scene shows that the Hwalbindang is still active, with Hyeyoon being shown as the organization's new leader (or indicating that she was the real leader all along).
- The Smurfette Principle: Minyoung is the only female in the team until Sejeong joins in episode 2. Played straight with the Genius Detectives' team who only has Wendy, later replaced by Hani.
- Spell My Name With An S: Good thing the English subtitles are consistent with the name spellings, since Korean names can be romanized differently in English.
- The Rival: The Genius Detective Team.
- Time Bomb: Present in the last episode of Season 1. The last episode of Season 2 also presents a countdown, but it isn't for a bomb, but for the number of hours until the poison takes full effect. The last episode of Season 3 has two time bombs, and trying to defuse one bomb can cause the other bomb's timer to get closer to zero faster unless both bombs have all their wires cut at the same time.
- Time Skip: Season 2 is set a year after Season 1. Season 3 is set two years after Season 2.
- Took a Level in Badass: All the protagonists show improvements in their deductive skills in later seasons (yes, even Kwangsoo and Jongmin), but Sehun stands out: while he barely contributed to challenges involving logical thinking in Season 1, by Season 3 he repeatedly manages to solve puzzles that even The Ace Minyoung has difficulty figuring out.
- Verbed Title
- We Will Meet Again: Declated by Yoo Yeonseok at the end of episode 9.
- Women Are Delicate: Averted with Minyoung and Sejeong, who tackle cases head-on.
