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From Breaking Bad to Narcos, most crime dramas operate under the same simple thesis — the only way to catch bad criminals is to be a bit bad yourself. These shows generally spend months combing their polished heroes into antiheroes and even occasionally villains to show that transformation. Netflix’s latest international acquisition, Bad Guys: Vile City, still believes in that basic premise, but it doesn’t have time for long-winded moral waxing. There are terrible people to catch, by God, and the prosecutors of Seowon City need to figure it out now.

Despite its frustratingly on-the-nose name, Bad Guys: Vile City is a very watchable and thrilling binge. Over its eight hourlong episodes, the series marries a criminal world as expansive and morally questionable as early seasons of Sons of Anarchy with the fast-paced momentum of a Shonda Rhimes show. The result can be a lot of fun. There’s really nothing too surprising about the format of Bad Guys: Vile City. The show predominantly follows No Jin-pyeong (Kim Mu-yeol), a rookie, by-the-books detective who tries to transfer to a desk job after witnessing the murder of his partner. Instead of an office refrigerator and a cushy 9-to-5, No gets reassigned to work with Woo Je-moon (Park Joong-hoon), a gruff detective on leave who seems to know everything about everyone. There’s nothing particularly innovative about this South Korean take on a police procedural, but all the parts of this genre series are constructed well. No’s bewilderment and too clean suit makes for an excellent guide into this dangerous criminal world, and Joong-hoon gives a great performance as a grizzled cop with a bone to pick.

However, the greatest element of Bad Guys: Vile City may actually be its primary bad guy — Jo Yeong-guk (Kim Hong-Fa). Yeong-guk isn’t just another drug or arms dealer. He’s a corrupt chairman who’s responsible for providing most of the jobs in Seowon. Because of his position of power and the many shady assassinations he’s responsible for, this puts the prosecutors’ office and the show as a whole in a difficult position. If Chairman Jo is locked up, thousands of already underprivileged people will lose their jobs and homes. However, if he’s allowed to roam free, more people will kill. Even as No and Woo’s team blindly attempt to capture Chairman Jo, that catch-22 is always looming above the series.

Bad Guys: Vile City, also called Nappeun Nyeoseokdeul: Akui Doshi, was released in South Korea in 2017 on OCN. Written and directed by Han Jung-hoon, the series is a spin-off of the 2014 award-winning police procedural Bad Guys. The original show ran for one season and followed another group of good guys who had to team up with criminals, this time to bring down a serial killer. Compared to its predecessor, the scope of Vile City is far more dense.

This isn’t to say that Bad Guys: Vile City is a perfect police drama. There’s only one female detective who has very few lines, and the rest of the show’s women are largely confined to playing victims or prostitutes. Also, the dialogue can be clunky, especially during the more monologue-heavy scenes. However, when the series wants to fight it can be a lot of fun to watch. The show’s action sequences are almost entirely dependent on hand-to-hand combat — a detail that’s weirdly relieving after watching so much American entertainment — but these scenes possess a grittiness that few shows really embrace. The action in Bad Guys: Vile City feels like street fighting in every sense of the word, and the show is better for it.

In the world of television’s many crime dramas, sometimes good people have to do bad things. If you’re craving an action-packed show that delivers on that premise without getting too high-minded, add Bad Guys: Vile City to your queue. You may even pick up some cool fight moves while you binge.

Stream Bad Guys: Vile City on Netflix