Intro: With a season-long villain, explosive action sequences, emotional character arcs, and a few surprising cameos, Taxi Driver season 2 earns a solid 4.5 out of 5 rating. This article contains spoilers, so proceed with caution.
4.5/5
Taxi Driver, the Korean vigilante action drama, has concluded its second season with a dramatic finale that sets up the show for its third season. The finale has earned the highest ratings of the series, which has led to SBS renewing the show for another season. Throughout season two, Kim Do-ki (Lee Je-hoon) and the Rainbow Taxi Company faced their toughest challenges yet, fighting off a range of episodic villains before going head-to-head with the Bishop (Park Ho-san), the leader of a vast criminal cabal.
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At the start of the season, the Rainbow Taxi Company welcomed a new driver, On Ha-joon (Shin Jae-ha), who had been sent by the Bishop to eliminate Do-ki. Ha-joon appeared to be a friendly and innocent addition to the team but was soon revealed to be a cold-blooded killer. Throughout the season, he repeatedly attempted to carry out his mission, including one occasion where he blew up Do-ki’s cab, narrowly missing his target.
Despite the Bishop being a formidable opponent who has the prison guards and prisoners under his control, he underestimates the emotional connection that Rainbow Taxi has with one another. This connection becomes their biggest strength when they reveal the truth about Ha-joon's past, which leads to his loyalty to the Bishop being questioned.
The season also introduced a range of colourful villains, including a conman who uses abducted children to help couples score flats in Korea’s real estate lottery, an alcoholic surgeon delegating dangerous and unnecessary operations to an unlicensed doctor, and a nightclub where women are drugged and offered up to high-paying VIPs.
Although humour is present throughout the show, it was not as prevalent as in the previous season due to the higher stakes involved in this season's storyline. The main appeal of the show remains the audience’s ability to live vicariously through the vigilante Rainbow Taxi team. However, at times, their schemes seem sloppy in execution, and their abilities to bypass obstacles are not always clear.
Despite this, the show’s popularity has allowed for cameos from other SBS shows. One Dollar Lawyer, played by Namgoong Min, made a reprise in a cameo appearance, offering Do-ki tips and splitting his one-dollar retainer with him. In the finale, the show introduced a new character, played by The Penthouse villain Kim So-yeon, who was the first driver of the Deluxe Taxi before Do-ki.
The show’s success is owed in part to its genial comic relief characters, Park Jin-eon (Bae Yoo-ram) and Choi Kyung-koo (Jang Hyuk-jin). These two mechanics provide humour that balances out the serious nature of the show.
Taxi Driver 2 has proven to be a hit for SBS, with its plot drawing on real-world issues such as police corruption and the Burning Sun scandal that occurred in South Korea in 2019. The season ended with the Rainbow Taxi Company going up against a seemingly insurmountable foe, setting up an exciting third season for fans to look forward to.
