[REVIEW] SBS TV series “Athena” - Final Episode

SBS TV series “Athena” Mon-Tue 9:55 p.m.

SBS spy thriller "Athena" [SBS]

“Serving justice may sometimes come off as foolish and boring.” That was what the head of the National Anti-Terror Service (NTS) Kwon Yong-gwan (played by Yoo Dong-geun) said to Jung-woo (Jung Woo-sung) after demolishing Sohn Hyuk’s (Cha Seung-won) gang. Whether that be true or not in real life, that was certainly what drama "Athena" was -- foolish and boring. Continuous errors such as introducing the GBU-28 bomb as a missile or the agents indiscriminately shooting at each other without even the least amount of cover up or hiding, constantly prevented viewers from getting fully immersed with the story. But despite all this, the biggest problem of this drama was elsewhere.

The central flaw to this drama was that it believed it was showing a story of realizing justice. South Korea, North Korea and other countries, as well as terror organization Athena, all had different interest regarding the high-tech nuclear reactor. But instead of using it to portray a multi-layered epic that deals with the conflicting interests of these groups, the drama came up with a single principle that defines justice as serving the best interests of your country and all is simply either 'good' or 'evil.' The drama itself proved that this is not a matter of choice but of capability. In order to show that 'our' side is the 'good' side, the drama had to explain that this is an issue of having the right principles versus wrong principles. But “Athena,” which had no specific thoughts on that matter, turned main villain Sohn Hyuk not into an anti-hero with the wrong principles but a jealous guy stuck in the middle of a love triangle to barely maintain its facade of good versus evil throughout its episodes.

SBS spy thriller "Athena" [SBS]

The final episode of the drama where Jung-woo and Hye-in (Soo Ae) met again evoked nothing but an empty laughter, for the scene reflected what this drama was really all about - a story of conflicting love and jealousy between three people. If that was all there was to it, the drama has killed just too many people on its set and wasted too much money outside it. If there is one justice that “Athena” has shown us, it is that viewers no longer tolerate with excessive and meaningless abundance.

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