Dramas like
The Whirlwind

Money and politics running through the same set of hands. Same world of chairmen, funds and favours, and the same pleasure in watching two people work one room from opposite ends, with corruption treated as mechanics rather than a moral. Difference: it waits until episode 7 for its hook, so the front half is setup where this one opens at full speed.

Slow start Episode 7, and it genuinely improves from there: the ratings climb through the back half and the last two hours are the best of the run.

The smartest script on the site and the coldest. A prosecutor and a police lieutenant taking apart a corruption structure with no romance and no sentiment anywhere in it, which is the nearest thing here to this show's tone. Difference: the theatre is a prosecution office rather than a cabinet, and the pace is deliberate instead of relentless.

Hooks early Episode 2, once the first autopsy contradicts the official story.

The same appetite for how Korean power was actually assembled. Sixteen episodes on a fixer and a bright young man building a state and a fortune out of the 1960s, with Song Kang Ho playing the operator. Difference: it is non-linear and it sags in the middle, so it asks for patience this show never does.

Slow start Episode 4, where the political machinery behind the partnership becomes visible.

Conspiracy as a big-budget machine, with the government at the centre of it. Fifteen hours of a genuinely great thriller about a state that lies, shot on location and paced hard. Difference: it is an action show with stunts and chases, and the last hour is a famous argument.

Hooks early Episode 1. The crash and the cover-up are both in motion immediately.

Rated modestly and written brilliantly, which is this show's exact problem too. Three sisters against a political dynasty and a slush fund, with the same taste for people who talk in threats disguised as courtesy. Difference: it is a family story first, and the style is heightened where this is procedural.

Hooks early Episode 1. The money goes missing inside the first hour and the show never slows down again.

Institutional process, filmed patiently, with no interest in flattering anybody. Both are shows about people doing difficult work inside a system that would rather they did not, and both trust you to keep up. Difference: the subject is criminal profiling, and the register is quiet study rather than a duel.

Hooks early Episode 2, once the first interview subject starts talking and the method becomes visible.