"Agency" Takes On the Old Boys' Club

It also addresses the expectations placed on women at work and at home

☆☆☆☆
Go Ah-in (played by Lee Bo-young)
Kang Han-na (played by Son Na-eun)
↑Note: Korean names denote the surname followed by the given name.

"Agency" is a cut-throat look at a high-end advertising agency, where all the top players are vying to annihilate their competitors. While the premise isn't wholly unique, the show is well executed with a strong female lead and enough plot twists to keep viewers hitting the "next episode" button.

Go Ah-in (Lee Bo-young) is a self-made woman. She grew up with an abusive father and was left waiting for a mother who never returned. Unwanted and without the income to attend the elite university she was admitted to, she graduates from a non-SKY school — and this will be held against her by the old boys' club at work.

The thrust of the series pits Ah-in against Chang-su, who's played by Jo Sung-ha — an actor who excels at playing slimy characters. (You'll absolutely abhor him in "Save Me.") He will do everything to use her to get what he wants, and she knows this. The series ends as you would expect. But what happens in between is what really held my interest.

Ah-in is a highly functioning alcoholic and prescription drug abuser. Despite her doctor's advice not to mix the two, she does. It's her coping mechanism to deal with her unresolved childhood trauma. That she's self-destructive when it comes to herself is clear. But why isn't her psychiatrist addressing the issue? Why does she keep prescribing medication that she clearly knows is not being taken correctly? We see that she and Ah-in are friends. But that shouldn't preclude her responsibilities as a doctor. Psychiatric medication absolutely can help treat patients when dispensed properly, rather than like Pez. But the doctor also needs to get to the root of Ah-in's issues.

And not for nothing, but Ah-in obviously didn't want her colleagues to know about her private issues. But she basically carried a small pharmacy in her purse that was easily accessible to anyone. Why not invest in a makeup bag to be more discreet with her secret stash?

From this point on, there are some mild spoilers. (One of the bigger revelations will be at the Spoiler Alert below.)

"Agency" takes a brutal look at how class, money and connections are used to exclude some of the best workers. To them, Ah-in's talent is something only to be mildly concerned with because she's a woman ... because she has no proper family ... and because she's lacking in an elite education ... she can never reach the top echelon at the agency. That's their thinking anyhow.

Early on, they promote her to an executive position solely so that the chairman's daughter can be brought in. The reasoning is that they don't want to deal with accusations that the unqualified nepo baby got the position because she belongs to a chaebol family. Once Ah-in learns they are using her and plan to force her to resign in a year, the race begins to see who can out wit and out perform the other.

I had a love-hate relationship with the story arc involving Jo Eun-jung (Jeon Hye-jin) and her homelife. One of Ah-in's copywriters, she's talented and resourceful. But at home, her milquetoast husband and kindly mother-in-law aren't overly supportive of her career. When her kindergarten-age son complains that he's the only student whose mom works outside the home, they suggest that she is working super long hours. Instead of supporting her and saying something like, "Mom works hard, just like Dad," they capitulate to a young child's wishes.

This child actually needed a series of time outs. When he doesn't get his way, he locks his bedroom door. Excuse me? Why does a 5-year-old child even have a lock on his door? I'd be getting my Bobby-pin out and opening that door when he pulls that shit. Of course children's privacy should be respected. Parents should knock before entering and set up age-appropriate boundaries. But to lock your mother out because you don't get your way should result in a loss of privileges. And why does the father and grandmother not take his atrocious behavior seriously?

Feeling defeated — as if her only choice is to quit her job — Eun-jung calculates all the years she has invested into her education, as well as the decade she has already spent working. "I guess the only road to success is to stay single," she says to herself.

Which begs the question: Why is it predominantly the woman who is pressured to quit her job for the sake of the family? In South Korea, almost 43 percent of the women who left the workforce said they sacrificed their careers to raise children (according to the Korean Economic Daily).

When Eun-jung gets promoted at work, she can't even celebrate with her family, because she's too scared to tell them she didn't quit.

That said, I didn't care for the way Eun-jung treated her mother-in-law like a live-in cook/caretaker (who probably wasn't paid). In Episode 5, Eun-jung tells her to get her another bowl of rice because she's still hungry. Excuse me? Get off your butt and serve yourself.

Though I was prepared to dislike Kang Han-na — the nepo baby played by Son Na-eun — based on her early scenes as an entitled brat, her character grew on me because she showed growth throughout this K-drama. She could've coasted on her family ties (like her manipulative older brother) to get what she wanted. But Han-na was quick to catch on and wanted to work. In the end, she was the perfect ally for Ah-in.

Age discrepancy: I am begging K-drama creatives to stop casting similar(ish) aged actors to play mother and daughter. In "Doctor Cha," Kim Mi-kyung, 59, was cast to play the mother of Uhm Jun-hwa, 53. Just no. Each time they appeared together, they looked so similar in age that it was ridiculous to ask viewers to believe otherwise. The casting of Kim in "Agency," where she plays the mother of Lee Bo-young, is less jarring. Lee is 44. And, yes, she is a beautiful and glamorous 44. But even here, Kim simply does not look old enough to be her 엄마. I love Kim and enjoy her work. And I get that she's not a classic K-drama beauty. But she deserves better. Her continual casting in these matronly roles reminds me of something Kim Sun-young ("Reply 1988") recently said — that after playing a series of ajumma roles, that's all she's offered now. The actress, 47, said she doesn't mind playing ajummas, but would love the opportunity to play a more full dimensional middle-aged woman who could be a burglar, or a murderer, or anyone else other than someone's nosy mother.

Airdates: Sixteen episodes (ranging from 60- to 72-minutes each) aired from January 7 to February 26, 2023 on JTBC. I watched this on Netflix.

Spoiler Alert: Ah-in's mother left her alone, intending on coming back after she made enough money to pay rent. She wanted to take them both away from her violent husband. But while she was working at a restaurant, he tracked her down. So she ran away. She admits later to Ah-in that while she always loved  her, she at that point was more worried about herself than her own child. Honestly? I don't understand this part. I know she had been severely abused for years. But how do you leave a helpless child with him?

In the series finale, Chang-su thinks he has a gotcha moment when he tells everyone at work that Ah-in is on prescription medication. When several employees raise their hands and say that they are, too, he looks mortified that his revelation didn't affect Ah-in negatively.

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Articles I’ve had recently published

• The Rose: Inside the Korean Rock Group’s Biggest Year Yet (Rolling Stone)
• Adoptee Peter Thurnwald on His Return to South Korea (Chicago Tribune)
• The 100 Greatest Songs in the History of Korean Pop Music (Rolling Stone)
• XO, Kitty Tackles Adoption, Diaspora & Maintaining Korean Ties (K-Culture)
• Belinda Carlisle’s Return to Pop (Chicago Tribune)
• Agency Tackles The Old Boys' Club (K-Culture)
• ATEEZ Do It All for the Fans (Rolling Stone)

Upcoming work

• I have a Rolling Stone feature that should be out Monday morning (that I’m excited about sharing).
• And an upcoming Substack piece may be about the K-drama “Celebrity” and how it reflects on the manipulative influencer world and social media.

K-dramas I’m eagerly waiting for

• Uncanny Counter (season 2): July 29 release
• D.P. (season 2): August 27 release
• Doona!: October 23 release

Books I recommend

• The Apology by Jimin Han (fiction)
• A Living Remedy by Nicole Chung (memoir)

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