Adamas first impression: Ji Sung and Seo Ji-hye shine in an exhaustive premiere that tries too much at once

At first glance, it seems like Adamas is employing all the tricks from the crime-thriller textbook. Heavy rain? Check. Ominous music? Double check. Lonely and abandoned prison cells where people are sure to get murdered? Bring it on. In the first half of the premiere episode, the dialogues seem excessive and it feels like characters are given cue cards. Nevertheless after what seems like heavy exposition, the story has your attention, in parts at least. Adamas is the story of twin brothers, both played by Ji Sung. One is a wry crime novelist name Woo-shin, the other’s a wry prosecutor named Soo-hyun, and both haven’t quite recovered from the brutal murder of their stepfather at the hands of their biological father. We realise they are still hurting when insistent reporter Kim So-hee, who believes their father was framed, heads straight into the subject with prosecutor Soo-hyun (Ji Sung), and he obviously tells her to get out of his office. However, the seeds of doubt have been sown in his mind as evident from the number of times he reads the old case reports.

Clearly, if you thought that there’s only one mystery at hand, you’re entirely wrong. Adamas is ambitious as it builds up several mysteries simultaneously, almost giving cause for worry that the show might turn out rather chaotic, twisted and tangled later. It appears to be building up several intricate webs of deceit, power games and even a rabid infusion of politics, with the moral questioning of capital punishment thrown in. The show almost feels bloated with several plot points, and one can only hope that each storyline is handled in an engaging manner, and more importantly, add to the main premise. It would be rather distressing if all these threads lead nowhere.

While prosecutor Soo-hyun muses over Kim So-hee’s words, his brother Woo-shin (again Ji Sung) is having another adventure of his own—and he has some rather strange plans. On the face of it, he has a curious ghost-writing task to accomplish. He is writing the memoir of a rather dubious chairman named Kwon, who resides in a palatial mansion with several dedicated staff members and his frigid daughter-in-law Eun Hye-soo (Seo Ji-hye). Seo Ji-Hye’s cold, icy and cryptic behaviour is eerie and actually far more riveting than anything else in the show—now that’s a character whose backstory we want to know more about.

She plays her cards close to her heart and warns Woo-shin straight off that he has walked into dangerous territory and that he better pack his bags and leave. She doesn’t mince her words about the chairman, and just about stops short of calling him a murderer. Obviously, for the story to progress, he isn’t going to go anywhere and is more curious about the chairman and his deeds, or in this case, misdeeds. Almost everyone in the series seems fishy—probably to confuse the audience. Of course, there are clear villains who are crawling out of the woodwork by the end of the episode, but they might just be pawns or even distractions. Added to this curious mix is Heo Sung Tae’s Choi Tae-Song, an undercover cop who has his reasons for spying on the chairman. Woo-shin has dirt on Tae-song, and decides to strike an agreement with him, and his real motivation is revealed at the end of the episode: He wants Adamas, a diamond-tipped sword. We just don’t know why. We add this to the list of several things that we don’t know.

The premiere episode of Adamas was partly engaging. While the show seems to be struggling to find its flow, the first episode has set up some promising mysteries and characters. Hopefully, by the next episode the show is far more concise and less chaotic.

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