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Pierce Conran

This article contains spoilers.
2/5 stars
Lead cast: Kim Nam-gil, Lee Ha-nee, Kim Sung-kyun
Last Nielsen rating: 10.9 per cent
Ex-National Intelligence Service agent turned Catholic priest Kim Hae-il (Kim Nam-gil) continues his righteous fight for justice in season 2 of the manic action comedy The Fiery Priest as he seeks to eradicate a drug cartel and corruption in the Korean coastal metropolis of Busan.
As a man of the cloth who makes a habit of preaching with his fists rather than using words, Hae-il is a “bellator”, a clandestine, Vatican-appointed fighter for justice with a fictional title which appears to be derived from the Latin word warrior.


Speaking of Latin, this desperate-to-please follow-up season recalls a famous quote by the Roman poet Juvenal: “Give them bread and circuses, and they will never revolt.”
Offering superficial pleasures and boasting a flimsy narrative almost devoid of logic, the series is broadly about good triumphing over evil, with a trio of unconventional figures rising up to take down figures who threaten public safety.
These screen vigilantes have to go against the institutions they belong to in order to mete out justice.
Hae-il is far from your usual priest, spending more time in police precincts than church, and he is joined by Detective Goo Dae-young (Kim Sung-kyun) and Prosecutor Park Kyung-sun (Lee Ha-nee), both of whom act without the knowledge of their departments.

Beyond brawling and clandestine sleuthing, the trio go all the way to the highest halls of power to take down villains in a climactic court hearing at the National Assembly.
With corrupt assembly members putting up constant obstructions and our heroes presenting as evidence music videos insulting villainous prosecutor Nam Du-heon (Seo Hyun-woo), the hearing is already a shambles. It descends further into chaos when vengeful drug lord Kim Hong-sik (Sung Joon) breaks in with gun-toting goons.
A victim of unfortunate timing, this anarchic display seemed quite tame given that the show aired in the midst of South Korea’s gravest constitutional crisis in decades.
Days earlier, assembly members had had to climb over military barricades to get into the National Assembly following since-impeached President Yoon Suk-yul’s declaration of martial law in early December.
Pratfalls and pop-culture references were the order of the day in the first season of The Fiery Priest, but what was tongue-in-cheek fun then has, in season 2, become a raucous and childish display masquerading as prime-time entertainment.

The new season comes on strong, with long episodes filled to bursting with grimacing, caricatured characters. However, despite comprising only 12 episodes compared to the 20 of the first season, The Fiery Priest steadily loses steam the second time round.
As scenes become increasingly nonsensical and the jokes more desperate, the episodes get shorter – as if even the show’s creators are tiring of their own manic shtick.
There is no rhyme or reason for the sequence of events in the show, and it frequently contradicts itself. Hong-sik keeps coldbloodedly executing people in business meetings, each death immediately followed by an incongruous gag.
The series also uses any old excuse to move things along. In one major confrontation in episode 11, the heroes are saved by an utterly inane deus ex machina – a plane door falls from the sky.

Amid the manic humour, there is the occasional spark. Ko Martha (Heo Soon-mi), the mousy Busan church-goer and police officer who unexpectedly becomes the police chief of her precinct, consistently delivers some of the season’s best gags.
Meanwhile, returning series leads Kim Nam-gil, Lee Ha-nee and Kim Sung-kyun also score strong jokes from time to time, but they are largely at the mercy of the scripts they are working with. The rapid-fire jokes unleash a barrage of comic bullets, but only a few hit their mark.
Unsurprisingly, the show sets the stage for a continuation at the eleventh hour.
In the coda, Kyung-sun quits the prosecutor’s service to run for political office – another unfortunate parallel with prosecutor-turned-president Yoon – while Hae-il is visited by a priest who summons him to the Vatican during an end-credits sequence.

Given the muted reception in Korea, and the ratings, for season 2, a new season would seem unlikely under normal circumstances. However, the fact that SBS, the Korean broadcaster that produced the show, has just signed a content deal with Netflix significantly boosts the chances of one.
If Father Kim and his ragtag group of prancing vigilantes do make the jump to Netflix in a few years’ time, let’s hope their next outing will be less of a circus.
The Fiery Priest season 2 is streaming on Disney+.


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Kim Nam-gil in a still from The Fiery Priest season 2. Lee Ha-nee and Kim Sung-kyun co-star.

Kim Sung-kyun as Detective Goo Dae-young in a still from The Fiery Priest season 2.

Lee Ha-nee as Prosecutor Park Kyung-sun in a still from The Fiery Priest season 2.

Seo Hyun-woo as prosecutor Nam Du-heon in a still from The Fiery Priest season 2.

Kim Nam-gil in the title role in a still from The Fiery Priest season 2.

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The main characters from season 1 return in crime-fighting comedy sequel that is hit and miss, the jokes not making up for its inane story


The main characters from season 1 return in crime-fighting comedy sequel that is hit and miss, the jokes not making up for its inane story.


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An assessment or critique of a service, product or creative endeavour.  Film reviews, restaurant reviews, reviews of art exhibitions. (Eg. Crazy Rich Asians: an important film, yes, but a good one?)


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Review | Disney+ K-drama The Fiery Priest season 2 review: logic traded for childish pratfalls

The main characters from season 1 return in crime-fighting comedy sequel that is hit and miss, the jokes not making up for its inane story