Taxi Driver Season 2 is breaking viewership records on SBS and streaming platforms.
Taxi Driver is a hit Korean drama that tells the story of a private taxi company called Rainbow Transport and its driver, Kim Do Ki (played by Lee Je Hoon), who seeks revenge on behalf of victims. The show’s unique concept of a “revenge agency” and its incorporation of real-life incidents in each episode have garnered attention and praise from viewers. The drama’s portrayal of satisfying retribution against serious criminal acts, often unpunished in real life, has struck a chord with audiences.
The show has recently garnered significant attention for an episode that drew parallels with the Burning Sun scandal, resulting in the show breaking its own ratings record. The episode dealt with the Burning Sun gate and surprised viewers with its detailed portrayal of the scandal. The story centered around a club named Black Sun and featured issues such as widespread drug distribution and various sexual crimes, which reminded viewers of the connection between Seungri and the Burning Sun scandal. The episode also featured an idol named Victor, who was involved in sexual crimes, with a name similar to Seungri’s English name, Victory. The episode drew even more attention as it coincided with Seungri’s release from prison.
The portrayal of WizDisk CEO Yang Jin Ho in Season 1 of Taxi Driver was shockingly accurate and became the most talked-about topic of the show. The drama depicted the CEO as abusive and threatening towards his employees, while also distributing footage of them that was illegally filmed. This was based on a real-life incident that caused a significant uproar in 2018 when it was featured on a TV documentary program. However, while the CEO faced fitting retribution in the drama, in reality, he was only sentenced to five years in prison. Additionally, it was revealed that his remarried wife is now managing the company he once ran.
Taxi Driver Season 2 was introduced as a story that aimed to dismantle the Nth Room case, which was the subject of Netflix documentary Cyber Hell: Exposing an Internet Horror. It depicts the takedown of a criminal group that lures young people into captivity and illegal gambling sites under the pretext of overseas employment. This case brings to mind incidents that took place in the Philippines in 2010 and Thailand in 2015. In 2010, a group that ran an illegal gaming site in the Philippines called in a developer and mercilessly beat and killed them for complaining about their outsourcing practices. Similarly, in 2015 in Thailand, a developer was subjected to repeated assaults and eventually murdered because they couldn’t meet the group’s demands.
The show featured episodes based on real-life incidents, including scams that targeted elderly people with burner phones, crimes committed by brokers who abused children and then gave them up for adoption, and religious cults that deceived physically sick people into donating all their belongings. These incidents had been reported previously in newspapers, and the episode about the religious cult received more attention in the media due to the release of Netflix documentary In the Name of God: A Holy Betrayal.
In season 1, there were episodes based on slavery on salt farms in Sinan County, voice phishing, illegal organ trade, and the Yoo Young Chul serial murder case. During the filming of the episode on the voice phishing case, where the perpetrators pretended to be officials at a public institution and swindled money, the actual criminal was caught and surprised the actors.
Meanwhile, Taxi Driver has only two episodes left.
