Drama Reviews - Itaewon Class (2020)

So the first drama I watched in 2020 was Itaewon Class! Started it on a whim because of the rave reviews and high ratings it got at the beginning.
Unfortunately, unlike many ppl who can work from home, I'm in "essential services" (trend word of the year haha) so I haven't actually had extra time to watch Netflix. Until my official leave, that is.
Anyway, Itaewon Class had an interesting premise and I heard about the variety of characters so I started it. The story is essentially about Park Saeroyi (Park Seojoon who just picks hit after hit) who lost everything in high school, went to jail, and comes out wanting to start a restaurant franchise to overtake the current number 1 restaurant franchise in korea, owned by his arch enemy.


I honestly LOVED the first few episodes when it was setting up the revenge. Revenge stories are just so easy to root for and one of my favourite books is The Count of Monte Cristo, the quintessential revenge story. Having Son Hyunjoo play Saeroyi's father is just cheating cos Son Hyunjoo is so good at playing the warm earnest ahjussi. I loved Park Saeroyi's socially awkward self with his newfound goal in life, and I loved his crush on SooAh (the pretty Nara, previously from kpop group Hello Venus, just one of the many girl groups ruined by Pledis). I thought their friendship was super cute and the sequence where he came out of jail and met her at Itaewon is probably my favourite scene of the whole show, set to the most uplifting OST, Gaho's Start.

And then where the show starts to go wrong is when they introduce the numerous time skips. The next time we meet them is SEVEN years later. You're telling me after 7 years, SooAh didn't date someone else at all??
Of course, the other horrible time skip near the end of the series where we just zoomed past their development to become super successful and suddenly he was this huge CEO and he suddenly fell for the female lead, Yi Seo. Throw in some kidnapping and gangs and it was too much.

Ah, the love triangle. I think your enjoyment of the show is almost directly related to who you rooted for. Unfortunately, I didn't like the female lead that much. She was childish, demanding, rude and hypocritical in my opinion. I know she was meant to be a 'sociopath' or whatever they labelled her as, but ASPD doesn't quite work that way, and it's not a switch you can turn on and off, since she clearly showed her ability to empathise subsequently. It just made her character so inconsistent to me. Kim Dami acted well, but I just didn't like how the character was written. A show is doomed when I root for the second female lead more than the female lead. I found SooAh interesting because her character is one that always went with the flow passively. She took whatever she saw handed to her, and never reached out to grab things nor change the situation (until the ending). She had her own moral compass, but was always so close to crossing the line. And I just felt that it mirrors what a lot of people will actually do in real life.
Also the scene where Saeroyi piggybacks her up to her house telling her to just do what she needs to do, and that bus confession scene, are obviously the 2 most romantic scenes in the show.

And the writers totally shortchanged the lead couple when they had Saeroyi profess his love for her while they were ON THE RUN FROM GANGSTERS, literally stopping on the road to hug, with Jang Geunwon chasing behind them. I was just like - this is ridiculous.

The chaebol family was fairly interesting, because Chairman Jang was so well portrayed by Yoo Jae Myung. The makeup artist deserves a bonus for being able to show his aging throughout the show! Pathetic Jang Geunwon was also very well acted by Ahn Bohyun - so fun to hate. Jang Geun Soo looked like a little boy playing in the adult world and I never thought of him as much of a threat, honestly.

One thing that I really have to credit the show for would be the obvious attempt at trying to be inclusive and portray the various groups of people marginalised in society now such as LGBT (Diamond Ma Hyunyi) and different races (Tony). It was certainly not the most subtle way (compared to say, Be Melodramatic's gay couple) but the attempt is much appreciated.

All in all, this drama had so much potential, but ultimately faltered in the writing of the female lead and the plot development. Nevertheless, it gave us a chart topper of an OST song with Gaho's Start, which makes you feel like you can achieve anything ever. Here's to hoping we all achieve our dreams like Saeroyi.