Bloodhounds: How Many Episodes Are There?
Netflix is home to many popular Korean dramas, most recently including action/crime series "Bloodhounds." Of course, in the wake of the massive overseas success of "Squid Game," international Netflix subscribers may be hungrier for quality Korean TV shows than ever before, making the fact that "Bloodhounds" cracked the streaming service's all-important Top 10 list altogether unsurprising.
"Bloodhounds" revolves around best friends Kim Geon-woo (Woo Do-hwan) and Hong Woo-jin (Lee Sang-yi), both of whom are trained boxers and former Marines. They offer their combined toughness to a morally upright moneylender named Choi Tae-ho (Huh Joon-ho) to help combat his criminal loan shark rival Kim Myeong-gil (Park Sung-woong).
The first season of "Bloodhounds" consists of eight episodes in total, each running roughly 60 minutes in length. Whether or not the show will return for more remains unclear for the time being. Its ending is by all appearances definitive, but, as always, a sizable viewership could serve as sufficient motivation to justify the production of an additional season or seasons. For now, though, "Bloodhounds" consists of eight episodes in its entirety.
Making the final two episodes of Bloodhounds Season 1 was a particularly difficult process
Central to the storyline of "Bloodhounds" Season 1 is its two protagonists' dynamic with Cha Hyun-joo, who's set to inherit Choi Tae-ho's moneylending business. Kim Sae-ron portrays Hyun-joo in the show's first six episodes, but is absent from its final two. Originally, Kim was a significant part of the show's conclusion, but the actor was charged with driving under the influence, leading Netflix to fire her midway into production. Series creator Jason Kim told The Korea Herald that they couldn't simply re-shoot around her because, by that point, the final two episodes' sets were already destroyed.
"Of course, it was an agonizing time for me, the actors and all of the other staff, because we had to shoot the scenes immediately after writing the story and practicing the scenes and action in between. The more time we spend rewriting, the more money we were wasting," he said.
As a result of this hectic change in plans, however, series leads Woo Do-hwan and Lee Sang-yi became closer with Kim while the three of them worked on the show's new ending. "I truly felt that actors and the producer together created this project," Lee told The Korea Herald.
That the eight episodes of "Bloodhounds" Season 1 tell a cohesive story despite the final two episodes' turbulent production, then, stands as testament to Woo, Lee, and Kim's collaborative efforts.