With an ocean of hit series on Netflix, based on the post-apocalyptic world and dystopian future, there are high expectations of watching something new, even on the same plinth. Netflix’s Black Knight kickstarted with a breeze of freshness and hope but turned out half-baked. The skoosh of Mad Max Fury Road can be felt throughout the scenes of road delivery and at refugee camps, although this Korean series on Netflix has miserably failed to establish such depth to its story.
Black Knight – The latest Korean series has 6 episodes with delicious flavours of mystery, suspense, action, thriller and sci-fi. And each flavour has been very well crafted by Kim Woo-bin, Esom, Jin Kyung, Song Seung-heon, Kang Yoo-seok. The Black Knight Netflix series is based on the webtoon “Taekbaegisa” by Lee Yoon-Kyun and later written and directed by Cho Ui-seok for Netflix World. The K-drama has been recently released on May 12, 2023, with an average length of 45 minutes for all 6 episodes.
Read more to know the reason for the consensus of ‘Black Knight’ reviews between the critics is there and the audience.
Black Knight Netflix – High Hopes Melting To Nothingness
Set in a dystopian future where 99% of the human population has been wiped out due to a comet crash into Earth. This turned the Korean peninsula into a Dessert where the living should envy the dead. No, they are not!
This happened 40 years ago and now the environment is completely disastrous with harmful elements and low concentrations of oxygen constituting air. Therefore, Cheonmyeong group’s chairman, Ryu Jae-jin and Grandpa invented an air core, which extracts oxygen from Oxyanion. The quintessential demand and supply of oxygen made the group rule everything in this new society, including the government, people’s lives and everything that matters. The company divided people into two different classes as per their status and the first-class people received QR codes, which made them eligible to receive all the Cheonmyeong benefits – home, purified air, food and security. Those who did not receive the QR code now live as refugees. But everyone can partake in the selection of a ‘Delivery Man’, a person who delivers clean oxygen, and food to the people with a QR code at their doorstep. But the existence of a “deliveryman” has also led to the problem of “hunters” (some of the refugees) that attack delivery men to satisfy their basic requirements of getting clean air. Some refugees are also turned into stark revolutionists and are dead against Cheonmyeong’s self-governing system.
Hero 5-8 Deliveryman & His Lost Inside Story
Our main protagonist in this latest Korean series on Netflix is Deliveryman 5-8, played by Kim Woo-bin, a legendary and strongest deliveryman who is known and admired by all. But this man has experienced more sweat in the past than others. He experienced a genocide nine years ago, led by now Cheonmyeong group’s Chairman and creator, Ryu Jae-jin. In Episode 3, a glimpse of what happened with 5-8 has shown, where he gives his gun to a woman, who later passes away. The emotion of 5-8 was heavy and has been captured after a while lets us hope for a more sympathetic person before this macabre.
Ergo, he dreams of a world without the Cheonmyeong group and works hard with his other loyal colleagues (deliverymen) to reach the goal of destroying the group while secretly helping refugees.
The inside story and 5-8’s reason to be stoic haven’t been conveyed properly in this tightly woven structure.
Tenuous Plot Of The Could-Be The Best Netflix Series of 2023
Netflix’s Korean sci-fi series skews a lot from the reality of what could happen after such an apocalypse. There are several questions which arose while watching the latest Netflix series – Black Knight. Let’s have a quick look:
- Grandpa is still struggling when it comes to vegetation and successful plant growth but somehow people are getting food. From where?
- There are no animals on the road, nor there is any farms or slaughterhouses in any of the scenes. Where are they getting salmon or steak?
- The houses allotted to the upper classes are seemingly enough to fit more beings. So, why there is such a mundane distribution? Moreover, larger space means more distribution of oxygen, which looks a little bit off the road in such a grave situation.
- Series or movies are made for entertainment purposes and hence, sometimes the show maker has to dodge the ‘reality’ aside to make it more thrilling. But even such perversions are decorated in a way by versatile show makers that make viewers want it to believe real. This high-octane-packed action thriller Korean series has sometimes failed to project such situations. At many stances, the cartoon-ish screenplay can be seen. For instance, the last action scene which takes place outside of the Core District; the massive shootings by the soldiers or army of Cheonmyeong group were vehemently dodged by easily seen and very much countable 5-8’s army.
- The persons with QR codes have amazing haircuts and looks. So, somehow the comet only destroyed ugly-looking people and did not even skoosh hairdressers and stylists.
Hillarious Mistakes Or A Precocious Bump?
- The colossal mistake, which magnetized my eyeballs again and again was 5-8 driving a truck with open windows while a cigarette dangling in one hand. And he does all this while delivering oxygen, a highly combustible element!!! WOW. Oh, I forgot, because sucking a cigarette feels so powerful and badass that it has to be there with every powerful character! Man, how are they extracting paper and making tobacco in this world?
- Grandpa has the blueprint of Air Core but never thought of making a prototype somehow for underprivileged acquaintances!?
- 5-8 casually electrocuting kids, dangling on his truck. Just for fun?
- There is electricity. Who is giving that? Wait, Cheonmyeong?
- How do people earn coins or money in this era? And how the government is managing currency this time? And what about waste management?
Apart from the counterintuitive, there is a Lynchian world inside Black Knight, which makes it a little above than average.
Villains or Just Humans? – Latest Series On Netflix
The society system after the apocalypse is a sad reflection of our current society. A cabal of cravat-wearing lackeys, who are protecting gated facilities that equip reliable oxygen supplies. The complete show is a mirror image of the same Lynchian society in, which we are residing. The sole power of industrialists and countable riff-raff policymakers and some paralyzed institutions that protect the same cannibalistic predators.
Knowing what you’re, makes it difficult to live with yourself. Ryu Jae-jin was suffering from the same moral dilemma when it comes to his son.
What kind of father he was when he didn’t have any information regarding his son’s well-being? And was Ryu Seok completely wrong to find the remedy for his ailment? In our modern world, the same treatments are given to people with no identity. Under long stretched Deserts, inside shallow rooms, such experiments prominently take place. Does the government know? Well, don’t you know?
Unsolved Mysteries May Irk The Viewers – Latest Korean Series On Netflix
A series is made to let the viewers taste the entangling emotions and grasp every thrilling commotion. But Black Knight has left out with many burning sides. Till the end, we are left clouded with several silver lines of hope due to the incomplete story behind our main protagonists and antagonists. It’s not only 5-8 I’m talking about, but also Grandpa, Ryu Jae-jin and Ryu Seok.
One needs to have a strong driven emotion and motive to massacre such a population after an apocalypse. The narrator never told us about Ryu Jae-jin’s decision of such prejudice and his contretemps with our sweet Grandpa.
Is Ryu Seok alive? If yes, then why did the show makers didn’t care to tease us with some post-credit scenes? After the staunching entry of 5-8…Black Knight Season 1, will there be Black Knight Season 2?
Verdict: Stream It Or Skip It?
Black Knight is a propulsive Sci-fi action thriller Korean series on Netflix at the right times. There will be times when you’d feel totally left out with action scenes totally shindig, far from any tinge of reality. The depth in character structure and a little bit more explanation of the situations is missing. The A-class acting, VFX and overall story have made Netflix Korean series- Black Knight worth watching and enjoying while baking cheesecake.
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