The series aired on tvN on Wednesdays and Thursdays from March 3 to May 20, 2021.[2] It was ranked 3rd hottest drama for the first half of 2021 based on KT's online video service (OTT) Seezn,[3] and ranked 5th in tvN's all-time Wednesday and Thursday series (based on a paid platform integrated with cable, IPTV, and satellite/provided by Nielsen Korea).[4]
Background
Screenwriter Choi Ran was inspired by an elementary school murder case that occurred in Incheon, South Korea, in 2017.[5] During the murder trial, when asked about the most difficult thing the defendant is facing right now, the defendant responded, "The weather is nice, but it's the hardest for me not to see cherry blossoms.“[6] Seeing that the murderer felt no remorse or guilt, Ran developed the drama against this backdrop, as he wanted to see 'psychopath murderers feel the pain, reflect on their actions, and atone. Even if there's only a slight chance that they will feel empathy, they should understand their sins sincerely and feel remorse. That would be the best punishment and salvation for the psychopathic murderers.'[7]
Synopsis
The story follows detective Go Moo-chi (Lee Hee-joon)'s attempt to catch a psychopathic serial killer, after witnessing a horrific incident as a child and dealing with his demons from the trauma. Along with his rookie partner Jeong Ba-reum (Lee Seung-gi), he attempts to unearth the truth behind psychopathic behaviours and find answers about the genetic predispositions towards psychopathy — and how one might act on the knowledge in the event that such predispositions could be detected.
Cast
Main
Lee Seung-gi[8] as Jeong Ba-reum, a rookie police officer whose life changes after a confrontation with a psychopathic serial killer.[9]
Lee Hee-joon[10] as Ko Moo-chi, a detective who is willing to bend the rules to catch criminals.
Park Ju-hyun[12] as Oh Bong-yi, a confident and tough high school senior who lives with her grandmother and practices martial arts daily.[13]
Kyung Soo-jin[14] as Choi Hong-ju, a talented production director of a reality TV program known as "Sherlock Hong-ju" at channel OBN.
People around Jeong Ba-reum
Ba-reum's friends
Lee Seo-jun as Na Chi-guk, a new prison guard at Mujin Detention Center. He is best friends with Ba-reum since high school.
Woo Ji-hyun as Gu Dong-gu, a prison guard and Ba-reum and Chi Kook’s friend. He was in the same class with Ba-reum and Chi-guk at a private academy.
People around Ko Moo-chi
Kim Young-jae as Ko Moo-won, Moo-chi's elder brother. He is a priest temporarily housed in the basement of a church. When he was young, he was saved from being killed by a serial killer, but has become disabled since. He is isolated from his younger brother Ko Moo-chi.
Cheon Jeong-ha [ko] as Chi-guk's mother. This was the last drama role portrayed by Cheon before her death in 2021.[20]
Jin Seo-yeon
Ma Dong-seok
Kim Yo-han as a brain transplant patient (episode 20)[21]
Production
In April 2020, Lee Seung-gi and Choi Jin-hyuk were offered to star in the series.[22] In June, Lee Seung-gi was confirmed to play a rookie police officer.[23] On October 29, reports revealed that rapper P.O would star in the drama after he was spotted attending the script reading. A rep from the network confirmed, "It's true that P.O will be starring in the new drama 'Mouse'."[16]
Release
On July 1, 2021, Series Mania, an international festival dedicated to television series from around the world, announced the line-up for its 2021 Program taking place in Lille, France, between August 26 to September 2, 2021. The line-up included Mouse, where it will have its first French premiere in the international panorama category to be chaired by Florence Aubenas.[24][25] On July 28, 2021, it was announced that Mouse will be included in the "2021 K-format Virtual Screenings in the US” held by KOCCA.[26]
The drama broke the record for the highest viewership ratings among all tvN's Wed-Thur dramas in more than two years.[34] It also placed 1st in its time slot across all channels among the 20-49 age demographic.[35] The finale's real-time online viewership rate of TVING on the Korean network platform hit a record high of 90.6%.[36]
Mouse : South Korea viewers per episode (millions)
Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. There is more info on Phabricator and on MediaWiki.org.
Season
Episode number
Average
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
1
1.115
1.047
1.452
1.530
1.483
1.596
1.476
1.637
1.362
1.385
1.376
1.207
1.314
1.170
1.152
1.227
1.349
1.328
1.400
1.519
1.356
Source: Audience measurement performed nationwide by Nielsen Korea.[37]
In the table above, the blue numbers represent the lowest ratings and the red numbers represent the highest ratings.
This drama airs on a cable channel/pay TV which normally has a relatively smaller audience compared to free-to-air TV/public broadcasters (KBS, SBS, MBC and EBS).
^The episode on April 7, was not aired due to broadcast of re-election program.[39]
^"Mouse: Restart" consists of main cast interview, behind-the-scene clips, and a review of the first ten episodes.
^"Mouse: The Theatrical Cut" is a 140-minute long episode reviewing the story portrayed in the first 17 episodes in a chronological order.
^The special episode consists of main cast interview and unreleased footage.[40]
^"Mouse: The Predator" reveals the serial murder from the perspective of the Predator, in order to help the audience understand the hidden narrative, before entering the second part of the story. More than 80% of the content in spin-offs was not aired in the previous episodes. The spin-offs were first released on the online platform TVING at 16:00 (KST) on April 28th, followed by television broadcast.
References
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^Cho Hye-jin (February 3, 2021). "착한 순경 이승기X불량 형사 이희준, '마우스' 메인 포스터" [Good cop Lee Seung-gi x bad detective Lee Hee-jun, main poster of'Mouse']. Exsports News (in Korean). Naver. Archived from the original on February 3, 2021. Retrieved February 4, 2021.
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^Kim, Seonghyun (April 2, 2020). "이승기·최진혁 tvN '마우스' 투톱? 양측 "제안받고 논의 중"" [Lee Seung-gi and Choi Jin-hyuk tvN 'mouse' two-top? Both sides“ receiving proposals and discussing”]. YTN. Archived from the original on February 18, 2021. Retrieved December 17, 2020.
^Daehan Kim (June 2, 2020). "'마우스' 이승기, '바른 청년' 신입 순경 역으로 캐스팅 확정 [공식]" [Mouse' Lee Seung-ki confirmed to be cast as a new cop in 'The Right Young Man' [Official]]. Sports World. Archived from the original on January 30, 2021. Retrieved December 16, 2020.
^"2021 PROGRAM". Festival Séries Mania. Archived from the original on September 28, 2021. Retrieved July 5, 2021.
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^"마우스 OST Part.2" [Mouse OST Part.2]. Melon. Archived from the original on April 20, 2021. Retrieved March 18, 2021.
^"마우스 OST Part.3" [Mouse OST Part.3]. Melon. Archived from the original on April 16, 2021. Retrieved April 16, 2021.
^"마우스 OST Part.4" [Mouse OST Part.4]. Melon. Archived from the original on April 15, 2021. Retrieved April 16, 2021.
^"마우스 OST Part.5" [Mouse OST Part.5]. Melon. Archived from the original on April 28, 2021. Retrieved April 28, 2021.
^"마우스 OST Part.6" [Mouse OST Part.6]. Melon. Archived from the original on May 5, 2021. Retrieved May 5, 2021.
^"마우스 OST" [Mouse OST]. Melon. Archived from the original on May 13, 2021. Retrieved May 14, 2021.
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