Busted! and the Joy of the Unknown
Two episodes into my watching it, Netflix became a vehicle solely for Busted!. Two episodes in, I became another unwitting spokesperson for the manic detective experience, and I haven’t looked back. It’s a simple premise: seven recurring comics and actors coming together to solve a mystery-of-the-week over the runtime, and things ensue. Not a comedy, nor mystery, nor drama, nor game show, nor reality show, nor improv extravaganza. Experience. It is everything, and yet eludes description, thrives on unknown elements, and it is my favorite thing on Netflix right now.
Leading with familiar elements, there’s a plot! Kind of. There are detectives, and microchips, and intrigue, and mysteries, but as soon as you start to wrap into one of those elements, it’s whisked away for something else! Sometimes, those elements are touched on and quickly left behind; framing devices, motivation for our “detectives,” small elements. But other parts, you think it’s just throwaway filler as information somehow, inexplicably make a return later in the episode, later in the season. In each approximately hour-long episode, the various detectives dig into a mystery, and the smaller mysteries therein, that somehow all spiral around the larger mystery of the season. Busted! may not demand eidetic memory from its viewers, but it does reward the more sharp-eyed and active-listeners in its audience. The plot is there, less to serve as the primary motivator of the experience, more to tie the experience together. Busted! is a lot of things, but it’s not a simple variety show.
That plot, that ever-present-yet-so-easily-tossed-aside plot, is conveyed primarily through some scripted elements: characters delivering information verbally. Pretty straightforward, breaks a lot of “show don’t tell” rules, but that’s not what matters. The experience is in the improvisation. The joy of watching The Straight Man plot-conveyer have to interact with an increasingly-erratic and competitive cast of detectives is a joy to behold. Even so, especially in the later episodes of seasons, I find myself leaning in, invested more than ever as all the individual pieces from previous episodes start to click together. Revelations come to light. Stakes are higher. Failure is possible. It is, by no means, masterful storytelling. But as part of the whole experience, it feels gripping.
Yet, that pales in comparison to the improvised interactions between main cast members. The main cast are the ones constantly being thrown into these new situations, whether in social interactions or in puzzle-solving, so their improvisation is as genuine as it gets. They are solving problems and riddles at the same time the audience might be; they are piecing together the breadcrumbs of the week’s mysteries in sync with their viewers; they are actively celebrating an unexpected win, or a narrow escape, or a genuine blunder. They are improvising, but they are real. Most improvisation begins with a prompt before being replaced for the next game minutes later. Busted! gives the cast a prompt and holds onto it for the whole runtime: an hour for us, sometimes an entire day for the cast.
When I think back of what I’ve watched of Busted!, its most lasting element is its use of comedy, three ways: the spoken, the situational, and the physical. Verbally, just listening and watching as the detectives (and other characters) just go off on each other is a highlight of every episode: lamenting an overlooked clue, comparing them to a crab, the astonishment of someone’s skill at claw games, or just trying (or not) to hype their partners up for a challenge. Their reaction to their ongoing situation is as authentic as can be.
The situational comedy may not be what western sitcom fans are familiar with, but Busted! excels at its use of melodrama and absurdity. Everything, from treasure hunts to mythical vampires, is treated with the utmost respect from scripted characters. Detectives and audience alike reel in the wake of information and circumstance, even as a hunt for a murderer turns into a labyrinth of puzzle boxes. Sometimes, you can’t help but laugh at the absurdity of it all.
As old as comedy itself, Busted! shines in its physical comedy. It is simply what it is: whipped cream being blasted into a detective’s face; pelting them with water balloons in a narrow hallway; blindsiding them with a floor made entirely of acupressure spikes. It’s these moments that have caught me laughing the hardest, enjoying the detectives’ journey the most, because it allows the other elements to come out. Yes, watching detectives gets hit with water balloons is funny, but it’s even funnier knowing their situation: it’s because they messed up a challenge, and in order to not get hit, they need to figure out the trick and complete the challenge perfectly. But it’s even funnier yet for the verbal elements; the screams of shock and surprise as they’re drenched, but the shouts of protest and confusion, blaming their partner, begging God (or whoever) for an ounce of mercy. It all comes together in a form of comedy, hitting on all elements without overusing any of them.
Finally, what has kept me so invested in Busted! is the aforementioned Unknown of it all. Now, granted, I’ve been approaching the experience as an American viewer who has primarily consumed western media, and I recognize that insular perspective in a world of international art and artists. Bear with me.
I have no idea who these people are. They are famous in their own right in South Korea for plenty of reasons, but I’m not immersed in that culture. To me, they are a ragtag group of detectives just trying to solve their current mystery, hijinks and all. Between that and the improvisational nature of Busted!, it feels as though these are characters just being themselves, reacting to the world and the situations around them. I don’t know who they are outside of Busted!, so I fill in the blanks by viewing them as characters. The Unknown works to its own unique advantage as a viewer.
The puzzles are real, and the solutions are real. Neither are revealed to the audience before they are encountered or solved. They are both Unknown elements. By using those puzzles, viewers (especially first-time) get to tackle them with the detectives, making the Unknown a little less hazy with everyone’s efforts. Or, just as likely, viewers get the joy of watching the detectives overcome the mystery and the Unknown, happy to just be along for the ride. The Unknown, and the desire to make it Known, operates as the primary propeller for the experience.
Lastly, the greatest Unknown of Busted! (again, as an American viewer) is the language. The experience is all closed-captioned with English subtitles, but by their choice (or inability) to not dub over the Korean voices, I have to pay attention to know what’s going on. I need to be engaged in order to appreciate it. Too often, I catch myself zoning out while consuming other media; falling into a nap, scrolling blankly through Instagram, or doing other chores. Busted! is a rare, if not the only, exception to that. When it’s on, I have to be fully invested in the detectives’ adventures. Anything less, and I’ll miss a plot beat, or a quirky interaction between characters, or Jae-suk getting splashed point-blank with a water trap. The Unknown quality is what invests me the most in the experience, even if it’s out of necessity.
Busted! succeeds because of its familiar, universal qualities: story, however loose; short-form improvisation; comedy. But it excels in its use of the Unknown: mysteries and puzzles, long-form improvisation, and the sheer cultural divide between creator and consumer. In this case, at least. I can only hope that audiences in other places get as much a kick out of American programming as I have with Busted!
