Good Boy, an action police dramedy about a group of former Korean Olympians who become cops, was one of the most highly-anticipated K-dramas of the year. Starring Park Bo-gum (When Life Gives You Tangerines) as boxer Yoon Dong-ju and with the The Good Bad Mother director Shim Na-yeon behind the camera, the drama was poised to be one of 2025’s big hits.
While Good Boy has done well domestically on Korean broadcaster JTBC and internationally on Amazon Prime Video (where it has been in the streamer’s Global Top Ten for its entire run), narratively, the cop drama never quite found its rhythm. The series started its action intensity high, with explosions, fist fights, hit-and-run accidents, and department moles in the first episode, but didn’t have anywhere to go from there. The show revealed its main villain, corrupt customs officer Min Ju-yeong (Oh Jung-se) from the jump, robbing the detective work done by the Special Criminal Investigation Team (SCIT) of most of its suspense and other character backstories, such as the Olympic origins of the main characters, never paid off outside of the action scenes. The show’s central romance—between Dong-ju and former shooting prodigy Ji Han-na (Kim So-hyun)—felt more obligatory than inspired.
At 16 episodes, Good Boy spent most of its season in a redundant cat-and-mouse cycle that didn’t resolve itself until season’s end. But at least we got some killer fight sequences along the way. The show was at its best when it was letting Dong-ju, Han-na, and the rest of their team—including fencer Kim Jong-hyeon (Lee Sang-yi), wrestler Go Man-sik (Heo Sung-tae), and discus thrower Shin Jae-hong (Tae Won-seok)—use their very specific skillsets in elaborate, sometimes gloriously absurd fight sequences.
This was the case in the final episode, titled “We Are the Champions,” which sees the SCIT squad finally taking down Ju-yeong for good. Let’s break down the explosive ending of Good Boy.
