4 Really Good K-dramas + 1 That Isn't

"Jinny's Kitchen" | "Divorce Attorney Shin" | "Taxi Driver" 1&2 | "Somebody"

Hey, guess what? Yesterday was the 2-month anniversary of my Substack! When I joined this community, I had promised that part of what I would be sharing were some K-drama reviews. And then I mostly ignored my own promise. 😬

So without further ado, here are my thoughts on some Korean shows I’ve watched. This post is a little longer than usual, so if you would prefer to read a particular review and skip the others, you may do so by clicking on the specific title(s) below, which will take you directly to the review you’re interested in:

Divorce Attorney Shin ☆☆☆
Jinny’s Kitchen ☆☆☆
Somebody ☆☆
Taxi Driver (Season 1) ☆☆☆
Taxi Driver (Season 2) ☆☆☆

A reminder about my reviews: As always, the ratings are based on a ☆☆☆☆ system and are based on my own personal tastes.

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JINNY’S KITCHEN ☆☆☆

I know. This isn’t a K-drama, per se, because it’s a reality series. The concept? A group of telegenic Korean celebrities run a custom-built snack bar in Bacalar, Mexico, for … one week. In its own way, it had all the elements of a fun K-drama minus any love triangles. Was there a 2nd male lead? Of course! As well as a 3rd and a 4th and so on. It shifted every few minutes, depending on who’s on screen — Park Seo-joon of “Itaewon Class,” “Parasite” actor Choi Woo-shik, BTS vocalist V, and the dimpled head of Jinny’s Kitchen, Lee Seo-jin (“Behind Every Star”).

The sole woman on the program is Jung Yu-mi, who was the female lead opposite Gong Yoo in the films “Train to Busan,” “The Crucible” (also know as “Silenced”), and “Kim Ji-young: Born 1982.”

Lee and Jung had appeared together in both seasons of “Youn’s Kitchen” — another food reality show that was set in Indonesia and Spain, with Park joining them in the second season.

Each episode essentially feels like a case of “Groundhog’s Day,” where the same thing that happened the previous afternoon occurs again. Lee worries if they’ll make enough money that day, chef Park and his intern V ponder about how much food they’ll have ready to go in case of a customer influx, Jung frets if she can make kimbap fast enough, and the bilingual Choi is the waiter who occasionally entertains guests by pointing out his colleagues’ fame.

There’s a bit of theatrical exaggeration from some of the customers, all of whom have signed releases to appear on the reality series. Some pontificate on the authenticness of what they’re eating (ㅋㅋ, it’s a corn dog, dude!) and others primp so they’ll look pretty when the show airs. In the final episode, a Korean family that resides in Mexico comes for a meal. The grandmother is overly polite, making effusive comments about the meal that no Korean halmoni in her right mind would find that special.

As someone who doesn’t like to see food wasted, I was disappointed that the crew didn’t make use of the hot dog tips that they cut off so the corn dogs would fit better into the fryer. Hello? They could’ve breaded and fried them and sold them as a fun appetizer!

Reality didn’t come into play with the open-air restaurant’s set up, which was super cute, but lacked essentials like … a door to prevent any potential thefts! But, again, this is a TV show where security guards and the production crew most likely kept tabs on the kitchen for that week-long duration.

Still, this series was so soothing to watch — in the same way that Rain’s “The Hungry and the Hairy” was.

Extra points for the cute doggo, Perro, who made his way to “Jinny’s Kitchen” everyday.

Airdates: Ten 90-minute episodes aired from February 24 to May 5, 2023 on Prime Video.

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DIVORCE ATTORNEY SHIN ☆☆☆

A trio of middle-aged male friends is at the center of this series. Sung-han (Cho Seung-woo) is a classical musician turned divorce attorney. Kim Sung-kyun plays his best friend Hyung-geun, who is reticent to give his wife — who is already pregnant with her new partner’s baby — a divorce. And Jeong-sik (Jung Moon-sung) runs a real estate business in a building owned by Sung-han.

The three are losers in the eyes of the neighborhood halmoni who runs a ramyun shop. She doesn’t hate them. Rather, she feels sorry for them, mainly because they are men with potential who have no significant others. But what they lack in popularity, they make up in their loyal friendship with each other. It was refreshing to watch a series where the focus was on men’s vulnerability.

Sung-han’s career change came after his younger sister died by suicide after losing guardianship of her only child. Married into a cold chaebol family, she lost everything after the divorce. And her having seeked psychiatric treatment while studying in the United States was used against her in the legal custody battle for the boy.

The way the series reveals certain key points, it’s not a spoiler to say that she did not choose to die. If anything, she wanted to live for the sake of her son. The villain is revealed early on, but one of the frustrating elements of this otherwise good series is the way it pits women against each other. Yes, the stepmother has some serious issues. But her wealthy milquetoast husband is almost worse by his lack of action. He didn’t take care of his first wife well enough. He allows his second wife to dictate what will happen to his biological son. And he does little to protect the emotional needs of his child.

Just about any man can impregnate a women. But not all of them will be good fathers. 

There are also subplots involving a revenge porn video that destroys a popular radio personality’s career and could jeopardize her own custody battle for the son she loves.

If I have to nitpick one element of the series, it happens early on in the first episode. Sung-han goes to talk to the young son of the DJ (played by Han Hye-jin) to see which parent he would prefer to live with. He’s not accompanied by a police officer or a social worker. He just goes to the school and takes the third grader (who he has never met before!) out for burgers and a chat.

Nooooooo! Stanger danger alert! This should never be normalized as A-OK in any society.

Airdates: Sixteen hour-long episodes aired from March 4 through April 23, 2023 on JTBC. I watched this K-drama on Netflix.

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TAXI DRIVER (season 1): Introducing Kim Do-Gi ☆☆☆

☆☆☆☆
Kim Do-Gi (played by Lee Je-Hoon)
Kang Ha-Na (played by Esom)
Jang Sung-Chul (played by Kim Eui-Sung)
Ahn Go-Eun (played by Pyo Ye-Jin)
↑Note: Korean names denote the surname followed by the given name.

“Taxi Driver” is a thrilling series in the vein of “The Equalizer,” “Profiler” and “The Pretender.” Rainbow Taxi Service driver by day and justice seeker by (mostly) night, Do-Gi and his team are funded by Sung-Chul, a philanthropist whose parents were murdered decades ago. Sung-Chun says he wants to rehabilitate the serial killers and rapists whose legal punishment doesn’t fit the crimes they committed. So, they capture them, place them in a squalid underground facility not fit for human beings, and — I don’t know what —keep them there until they die?

Ultimately, what this team is hoping for is that this kind of revenge will ensure that the victims’ loved ones have some peace of mind.

Of course, vigilante justice rarely works out well for anyone. Killing a murderer may seem like a good idea at the time, but many victims’ families have said it didn’t give them inner peace. What they really wanted was to hear the perpetrators apologize for their actions.

But for a TV series, revenge is a valid outlet for viewers to unleash their own pent-up anger in a safe environment.

As played by Lee Je-Hoon, Do-Gi is a soft-spoken former elite soldier who has a strong sense of right and wrong. He is seemingly indestructible, no matter how many men gang up to pummel him. Like a Timex watch, he keeps on ticking and, more often than not, bests his foes.

Kim Eui-Sung is so good at playing evil men (“Train to Busan,” “Mr. Sunshine,” “W“) that I kept wondering if his Sung-Chul would turn in a plot twist. (There is a great double cross in this series that I didn’t see coming — but isn’t Sung Chul.)

Some of the most compelling storylines deal with real-life issues that have plagued South Korea. Do-Gi’s young colleague Go-Eun (played by Pyo Ye-Jin) is a computer expert and hacker who is drawn into a case that involves her sister, Jung-Eun (Ryu Yi-Jae), who died by suicide after becoming a victim of molka. In Hangul, 몰카 is a portmanteau for 몰래 (hidden/unknowing) and 카메라 (camera). Hidden cameras in women’s public restrooms have become such an issue that there is a unit of the South Korean police to deal with this crime. In the “Taxi Driver” storyline, Jung-Eun’s boyfriend filmed the two of them having sex and uploaded it. The video became one of the most profitable porn videos and, in the process, made Jung-Eun’s life miserable.

In another story arc, a so-called “philanthropist” houses, feeds and employs mentally and physically disabled workers, preferring orphans who have no family to check in on them. In reality, he abuses them by forcing them to work long hours and beating them into submission. When a young woman is repeatedly raped and seeks help, the Rainbow Taxi Service crew comes to her aid. They also refunnel the company’s profits as compensation for all the workers who had never been paid.

One of the strongest cases involved high school bullying. A boy whose father died years ago and is raised by his hard-working deaf-mute mother is beaten to the point of needing crutches to walk. His revenge isn’t based on monetary compensation. He wants the boys torturing him (and other students) to get a taste of their own medicine. As a passive-aggressive substitute teacher, Do-Gi carries out the perfect plan to instill physical and emotional fear in them. Go-Eun is dubious about carrying out revenge on teenagers, but it’s pointed out that the psychological aspect of being bullied doesn’t disappear upon graduation. It remains with the person as they grow into adulthood.

If there is a foe (besides all the criminals, of course!) in this series, it’s Kang Ha-Na (played by Esom), a righteous prosecutor who is strong enough to stand up to her boss, but not convinced that she should stop the Rainbow Taxi Service from doing what she legally can’t get done. The showrunners did a great job of keeping her alliance in check, which made it exciting for viewers to wonder which direction her character would go.

The ending was strong and tied up loose ends, while leaving open the option for a followup second season, which is a rarity for K-Dramas.

Airdates: Sixteen hour-long episodes aired on SBS from April 9 to May 29, 2021. You may read my review of Season 2 here. (I watched both seasons on Viki.)

Spoiler Alert: The same serial killer murdered Do-Gi’s mother and Sung-Chul’s parents. The only person he loves is his son, who he hasn’t seen since the latter was a young child. Neither knows the other’s true identity. And the only remorse the murderer ever shows is after he learns that the prison guard he beat up (and would’ve killed if given the opportunity) is his own son.

After her assistant is murdered, Ha-Na turns to Do-Gi to get revenge on the killer. It was out of character for the straight and narrow attorney to go against the law for personal vengeance, but it also showed how people view things differently when a crime affects them personally.

Sung-Chul’s partnership with crime boss Baek Sung-Mi (Cha Ji-Yeon) seems conciliatory enough at first. She and her goons oversee the care (such as it is) of the imprisoned and he pays her a hefty fee to do so. But she eventually turns on Sung-Chul, freeing everyone, which endangers his entire team. As horrible as Sung-Mi is, I loved to hate her.

The final episode shows the Rainbow Taxi Service gang realizing that perhaps vengeance isn’t the right thing to do. And they prepare to turn themselves in. But, with the help of Ha-Na, they remain free. The final moments of the finale shows that the team has reunited and gone back to their old business of getting justice for victims. But this time around, they have Ha-Na fully on board.

© 2023 JAE-HA KIM | All Rights Reserved

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TAXI DRIVER (season 2) ☆☆☆

“Taxi Driver” is a thrilling series in the vein of “The Equalizer,” “Profiler” and “The Pretender.” Rainbow Taxi Service driver by day and justice seeker by (mostly) night, Do-gi (Lee Je-hoon) and his team are funded by Sung-chul (Kim Eui-sung), a philanthropist whose parents were murdered decades ago.

In the first season, Sung-chun says he wants to rehabilitate the serial killers and rapists whose legal punishment doesn’t fit the crimes they committed. So, they capture them, place them in a squalid underground facility not fit for human beings, and keep them there ... until they die? In this second season, they mete out justice, but without the vigilante confinement.

The series is adept at tackling inspired by real-life cases like the Burning Sun scandal, where privileged male clubgoers were given access to women to drug, rape, and share videos of the assaults.

Shin Jae-ha (“Crash Course in Romance”) joins the cast as a new taxi driver who’s overly interested in Do-gi. Is he going to join the Rainbow Scooby Gang and help victims get revenge? Or is he someone who’s not what he seems? Hmmmmm.

The strongest episodes are the ones dealing with humanity, such as the child trafficking theme that runs throughout this season. Unmarried pregnant women are forced to give up their newborn babies for adoption-by-paper-only scams, where the children are used to get better housing, but aren’t actually placed with families who’ll take care of them. Child abandonment and adoption are also used to explain why one of the characters turned out the way that they did. But to the show’s credit, their behavior is neither condoned or excused.

Fans of this series (like me!) will be happy to hear that Season 3 has already been confirmed.

Airdates: Sixteen hour-long episodes aired on SBS from February 17 to April 15, 2023. (I watched both seasons on Viki.)

🚨 SPOILER ALERT: Shin Jae-ha's On Ha-joon initially seems to be a welcome addition to the Rainbow Taxi Service. But we later find out that he is actually a wealthy criminal who has infiltrated Rainbow to bring down Do-gi and his team down. In a twist reminiscent of "Oldboy," Ha-joon was convinced by a cult that he, too, had been abandoned by his parents. But in reality, he had been kidnapped and his parents never stopped looking for him. When Ha-joon realizes that the man he had killed was his biological father — who was hoping to find his son — he kills the cult leader and, in the process, himself.  

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SOMEBODY ☆☆

A psychological thriller that was initially very promising, “Somebody” revolves around a serial killer (Kim Young-kwang) who uses a dating app to find his victims — and the app developer (Kang Hae-lim) who is drawn to him … even after figuring out his true identity.

I’m not sure why the writer made her character someone who is on the autism spectrum disorder. It felt like that was thrown in to explain her quirkiness, as if they have to rationalize why a coder has certain predilections. Do people with ASD have some idiosyncrasies? Sure. But are they inclined to be murderous or sympathizers of serial killers? Of course not.

One of her best friends is a disabled police officer reliant on a wheelchair. Matched with the serial killer on the dating app — and thinking he is also wheelchair-bound — she goes to meet him at an abandoned swimming pool. When he gets out of his chair and walks towards her, she rightfully freaks out. (Frankly, I freaked the eff out, too!) But he smooth talks her, they have sex, and — whether he’s upset because he was flaccid or because he’s just a sadist…or both — he hides her wheelchair and abandons her. By the time she manages to drag herself back to her car, she’s out for vengeance.

She eventually figures out who he is and agrees to meet him again … in an area with an ongoing demolition. She. Is. A. Police. Officer. Why is she making rookie mistakes and not even calling for backup? I get that she’s embarrassed and doesn’t want her colleagues to know that her one-night stand abused her, but why not tell her friends so they are aware of what’s going on?

You can tell this is a Netflix production because of the sex scenes with gratuitous nudity — which aren’t common traits in most of the K-dramas Westerners have fallen in love with.

Is “Somebody” a good series? I found it uneven and lacking, with characters I didn’t really care about. I thought this would be a series I would binge, but I had to force myself to get through it.

Airdates: Eight 50-minute episodes dropped on Netflix on November 18, 2022.

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© 2023 JAE-HA KIM | All Rights Reserved