Robots are perfectly fine. They do lots of cool things. They can vacuum. They help build cars and other stuff. Some robots are even helping with medical procedures. This is all good stuff. There’s lots of robots on screen too from the droids in the “Star Wars” universe (mostly entertaining) to the invaders from outer space in Michael Bay’s “Transformers” franchise (less positive things to say about them) and the robots that look human like “The Terminator” or Data from “Star Trek: The Next Generation). [reviewer’s note: apologies for the list of references to Western fare]

Robots can be a contributing element for an entertainment production. When they are, it’s because they are usually imbued with human-like personalities. Sadly, the reverse works less effectively. Human characters meant to be more robotic in their personality rarely seem to engage viewers. This may seem like an odd introduction to a drama set in modern day South Korea with no sci-fi or fantasy or supernatural element but rather named after and with running references to Greek mythology. Before this all connects, a digression:

“Chimera” is a drama focused on a serial killer that uses incendiary traps to kill. A spree thirty-five years prior to the current timeline ended when a suspect was apprehended and committed suicide in police custody. A new string of deaths is now following the same patterns. That’s the show.

To its credit, this setup is surprisingly good. There is more than a bit of chemistry and science and it is presented in a way that the average onlooker can make sense of. It’s a different approach to creating a serial killer character. It also helps to physically separate the killer from the crimes so the entire scene can be captured without revealing the identity of the chimera killer too early. As characters become suspicious and then are discovered to be not bad guys or at least not The Bad Guy, the narrative nicely keeps springing action scenes and surprises at a regular clip. Had an equally accomplished cast of characters been participating in such a narrative, it would have been a terrific show.

There is one. Kim Su Hyun’s Eugene Hathaway, an FBI profiler that’s been shipped overseas, would have been the ideal character to lead “Chimera” and build the show around. She’s intellectual but also empathic. She excels in a high pressure environment. And Kim Su Hyun shows why she’s appeared in two of the biggest cinematic franchises on the planet (the MCU and Harry Potter).

But the show is instead built around Park Hae Soo’s Jae Hwan, a detective that is a maddeningly inconsistent character. At times, he is utterly befuddled at the worst possible time and finds the absolute worst thing to do. Other times, he is Mr. Cop Cliche: bristling with superiors when told what to do, playing the bad cop type in an interrogation and convinced that his half-baked hunch is all he needs to take down his target. Park Hae Soo does what he can, but with all the focus on him, it’s an impossible character to salvage.

The rest of the crew is where the robots come in:

The doctor - calculating
The special investigative team leader - grim
The lawyer - quiet
The police vet - subdued
The mother - withdrawn
The CEO - restrained
The CEO’s wife - buttoned up
The CEO’s wife’s brother - resolute
The closed circuit tv police officer - shy
The other police officers - so much the typical police character that they could be faceless

That’s the theme. One robotic character after another appears on screen and when they show up, they tend to be there for extended appearances. Granted, not every fictional character needs to be some wild carnival barking exuberant rainbow of personality, but the calculus should not be to take three monotones, put them on couches and let them mumble to each other for a good chunk of an episode. The collective ends up being a group that’s difficult to connect with so when cast members start getting picked off, it’s a shrug and an “oh well” and let’s move on.

It helps less that Woo Hyun appears with regularity in “Chimera”. Somehow this gentleman who, in person, might be the kindest and most charitable man in the hemisphere regularly gets work despite the fact that he is one of the top five most graceless actors in the industry and the only one of the five that didn’t get the work because his day job is as a successful idol.

Layer in some lame explosion special effects, conventional camera work, no interesting OST to speak of and a regular pattern of alternating stronger episodes with slower episodes and the production as a whole simply never gains more than a modicum of traction.

In a better vehicle, Park Hae Soo and Kim Su Hyun could be a phenomenal pair of actors. “Chimera” is not that show. Not recommended.