July 2023: Life is Hard

Jungkook in tiny at GMA 

I didn't finish as many series as I would have liked in July. But I did go see Jungkook sing on Good Morning America and start my long-awaited bathroom renovation.  So it was a productive month (haha) and here are two worthwhile shows I saw.  

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Misaeng: Incomplete Life

This is a well-known series that I had put off because the first 10 minutes of the first episode were confusing and off-putting. But once I got over that hump (it's a wholly out of context flashback), this first episode might among the most emotionally harrowing episodes of K-drama television. Without physical violence, we see a man's soul get crushed over and over for just existing. And it sets the tone for life as a company worker in Korea. 

Jang Geu-rae (Im Si-wan) was a successful baduk player who was planning to go pro but he had to quit. Now he's stuck in dead-end jobs with only a GED and no academic credentials or work experience. He ends up getting recommended for an internship and must compete with his academically over-achieving colleagues to try to get a permanent placement at the job. 

He makes it through round one but his colleagues get permanent offers whereas he is left a contract worker still having to prove himself. At first rivals, this group of former interns, Ahn Young-yi (Kang So-ra), Jang Baek-gi (Kang Ha-neul), Han Seok-yool (Byun Yo-han), end up getting closer as they each have reasons to prove themselves in this job. 

The show, which was wildly successful in Korea, shows the repetitive and soul-smashing humiliations these young workers are put through. But we also see how that abuse continues up the pecking order within the corporation. 

People are punished for being too bright and a threat to others. They are exploited by superiors with no justification except a tradition of hazing and an expectation that you need to take this kind of treatment to survive in this industry. No one is training or teaching them for fear they surpass them. So it is trial-by-fire with injustice after injustice stacking up. 

Through these characters, we see rampant sexism and misogyny, pregnancy discrimination, working moms struggling, and the challenges of being ethical in an unethical industry. 

I'd say this falls into the category of a coming-of-age drama, where these young professionals are acculturized into corporate life.  But we also see how their seniors have had their own struggles in the past so it's not just the young people who suffer in this system. 

One of the strengths of the show is seeing how each young person has to figure out the way to make this work for themselves. Used to being ultra-competitive, some need to learn how to collaborate and support one another. Others are rigid and need to understand flexibility. Geu-rae has spent a life learning game strategies and in a way this helps him adapt to this world that has an unknown set of rules he has to figure out. But it's a painful process filled with failure and setbacks. 

With a stellar cast, this is not an easy watch. The corporate system and fixed cultural hierarchies are awful and abusive. There's nothing humane about the way this company operates. But within the company, there are good people who do eventually reach out to these young people and offer them kindness in the face of all this. We want to cheer for their survival and success against all these odds.  

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Joseon Attorney- A Morality

The title didn't catch my attention so glad a friend recommended it. It's a Joseon-era dramedy about a cavalier traveling attorney who has a secret revenge plan he's trying to enact. 

Kang Han-soo (Woo Do-hwan) starts out as an obnoxious jerk who will take on challenging legal cases for all sorts of clients. But some of this is a front as he’s playing a long con to slowly knock out all the people who killed his parents and ruined his life. He finds help from a local woman Lee Yeon-joo (Bona) who assists the town innkeeper. Little does he know she is keeping a secret from him. She is the princess and the royal family is on his hit list. She realizes their fated connection after she has already fallen for him. Meanwhile, she has been long-promised to marry Yoo Ji-sun (Cha Hak-yeon) who has his own run-ins with Kang Han-soo. So a love triangle with complications comes into play. 

The show addresses the corrupt institutions around both the princess and the lawyer and the inciting incident is one of those drama moments that takes the show from playful to something deeper and ore meaningful. It's nice when the dramatic stakes feel worthy of that narrative shift and that is not always the case. 

A solid drama with a fun ensemble and a richer pay-off than may be expected from the lighter start.