The Buzz: ‘Vincenzo’ A Mixed Bag of Good Entertainment
Two important aspects that attribute to a TV show being good is cohesion and consistency. Cohesiveness comes from a clearly written story that understands its characters inside and out while following regular story beats. Consistency comes from episode to episode being just as viewable as the last one. When this happens, a show becomes not just enjoyable, but entertaining. Vincenzo maintains both of those aspects. There are elements of drama, comedy and action that play out in each episode consistently with character growth that allows viewers to get to know the large cast of characters better. Vincenzo is a good show that has the ability to have viewers coming back for a rewatch in the future.
The story follows Vincenzo Cassano (Song Joong-ki) who was adopted by a Mafia family in Italy and becomes the Consigliere (legal advisor) to this family. After his adopted father passes away, Cassano leaves Italy and decides to go back to his home country of South Korea to try to recover hidden gold in a rundown shopping center called the Geumga Plaza. When he gets there, he finds that the building is owned by a pharmaceutical company named Babel Group. Within this building there are eccentric independent business owners. One of the business owners, Hoo Yoo-chan (Yoo Jae-myung) runs a law firm that is in a heated court battle to uncover the misdeeds and corruption behind Babel Group. During the show, Cassano gets to know these business owners and finds out more about the dark past of Babel Group and decides to help Hong in his court battle against them. There are many twists and turns along the way, but it always feels new from one episode to the next. The series is directed by Kim Hui-won who has had a successful career directing other series like The Crowned Clown, a historical drama, and Crash Landing on You, a historical romance piece. His experience working in other genres is shown throughout the series. The show is written by Park Jae-bum who has been writing well liked television series in South Korea since 2013 and has a history of melding comedy and drama. With these two creative individuals working together, it is unsurprising to see the well put together show that they created.
Vincenzo does an excellent job of tapping into different genres for entertainment. Throughout the series, there are elements of comedy that are mostly seen by the few supporting cast members who really play up their performances like clowns. This is shown through their facial expressions and also how they fumble around on screen. Some characters are more like caricatures, one example being Chef Toto, (Kim Hyung-mook) an Italian restaurant owner in the building who acts comedically whenever Cassano tries his dishes. Vincenzo also has dramatic elements with characters being killed off in some episodes, gun shootouts and violent crime bosses that are definitely not played for laughs. During dramatic scenes there is complete seriousness from all the actors involved. This also ties into the third genre that fits into the series; action. Cassano gets into multiple group fights where he ultimately wins, these fights are well choreographed and the camera whips around to follow the action. While it does have aspects of comedy, drama and action it never over does any one aspect more than the other and by melding them together, the show creates its own voice. What really aids these genre shifts, is the music.
The series is filled with music ranging from more serious tones like a slow piano or strings for dramatic effect, to electronic music for more of an actiony feel during fight scenes. During more comedic scenes, the music is light and playful. Without the music in the background, there would be confusion on whether a scene should be played as comedic or for drama. It is a safe way to use music in any series, but it works well in Vincenzo to communicate what mood a certain scene is going for.
The only thing the show really doesn’t get right is the concept of time. This is no easy task, but it becomes extremely confusing trying to understand how much time has passed in between each scene. The writer Park Jae-bum seems to have written certain time stamps by having characters say things like, “The court date will be moved to a week from today”, “We met for the first time three days ago” and lastly, “Lets meet at 11 PM tonight”. There is no way to know how much time has passed unless a character says something. The show also seems to go on narrative tangents and then randomly goes back in time. One example of this was present in Episode 19. At the start of the episode, an antagonist is knocked out cold with a plank of wood. Separate from this, we watch the characters complete a certain task over a long period of time, what seems like days. This is depicted through a montage as we see different characters complete the task and also see them wearing different clothes. This change in clothing is an indication that time is passing. As the audience is under the impression that time has passed, we are then brought back to the man who was knocked out at the start of the episode waking up. Here, the narrative backtracks. When time is not properly depicted in either a TV show or movie it can be jarring, especially when a show is presented as being linear. Thankfully this is a small problem in Vincenzo that does not hurt the overall series.
Vincenzo is a good show that knows its audience and keeps every episode fresh and entertaining. It has twists throughout the series, usually happening within the middle part of an episode or within the last twenty minutes. These narrative twists don’t feel hammy and lead the series in interesting directions. Nothing is a straight course; the twists challenge the characters and allow for character development. With the bouncing between genres and mood, the show never becomes dull or boring. It is emotional at times, very funny at others and it has some well shot action sequences. Some television series are a one-time watch, but the best ones are something that can be returned to. They hold a special place for people who would like light entertainment and Vincenzo does just that. The series can be watched in its entirety on Netflix now. It is a mixed bag with all the right components of a good show that is not just worth a single watch, but plenty more in the future.