With Eyes East

One of the great ironies in my life is that I spend so much time on media criticism but have never successfully recommended anything to anyone. Well, there was that time a friend asked if he should take a date to either Renfield or The Super Mario Bros. Movie, and later thanked me profusely for the latter choice – myself having seen neither. I’d say I’ve also become calcified against recommendations, but there was no “become,” truthfully. For me, the science of picking a movie is so delicate and mood-based, a fast-closing window that, nine times out of ten, results in no movie being selected. How is external opinion supposed to factor into that sort of non-thinking? And so, the concept of the recommendation has retreated to an abstract use: “Would I recommend this, theoretically?” as part of the critical evaluation. It’s a question that’s surprisingly complicated with Undercover Miss Hong, being a pitch-perfect television show start to finish. I loved it, I thought about it a lot, but I struggle to identify concrete terms for the basis of a recommendation, assuming phrases like “It’s really good” don’t suffice. I asked this question last time, basically “How can perfection not be enough?” and with the show’s conclusion, I’ll try to answer. And for the record, it’s not because I feel, emotionally, that the show deserves the indignity of my criticism, but because it might be an interesting exercise. Might. … More K-Drama Report: Undercover Miss Hong, Part IV

Previously on “K-Drama Report: Undercover Miss Hong,” I noted that Lee Yong-gi’s actor Jang Do-ha previously starred with Park Shin-hye in The Judge from Hell, but didn’t know which character. To my surprise, he was Judge Bit-na’s first victim, whom she beat and tortured for twenty minutes straight. Going from that domestic abuser guy – recalcitrant, to the last – to happy-go-lucky Jang Do-ha, fawning over Hong Keum-bo… actually has a twisted sort of logic. It’s like, you know, she trained him. I’d also suggested that the show was twelve episodes long, so the revelation of its true form – sixteen episodes! – was jaw-dropping. After episode nine, it appeared the story was preparing for a climactic finish, when in reality, it was only pivoting – hard. We’ll have to do a little rewind back to that point, since it’s been a few weeks, but in the meantime, and on this eve of the weekend’s finale (for real this time), I just have to say that it’s been a pleasure. Undercover Miss Hong is extremely entertaining, and while it started out good, it’s only gotten better. The characters disarm with over-the-top comedy before revealing deeper, sympathetic layers; enough to bruise, not eviscerate, like my last experience with a K-drama. I’ve come to the edge of tears, which I didn’t expect. All the while, I’m desperate to see what Hong and the girls will do next, standing as they are against the skyscraping Hanmin monolith (monolithic Hanmin skyscraper?). Which reminds me: this is the rare K-drama where I do not “skip intro.” I love that main theme. … More K-Drama Report: Undercover Miss Hong, Part III

In a surprisingly literal way, Undercover Miss Hong is like candy. Its 1990s Seoul is made up of brightly-lit night exteriors and pastel office sets which look positively set-like. I mean, utterly unconvincing, as if all the harshness or potential frictions of “reality” were duly sanded away. The entire cast is gorgeous – the computer nerd Lee Yong-gi has his hair frizzed up to obscure actor Jang Do-ha’s boyish good looks (shucks, apparently, he was in The Judge from Hell, but I don’t remember) – and every expository punchline is delivered loudly, underscored by upbeat, triumphant music or upbeat, suspenseful music. This is the manner of a cartoon. Facial expressions are big and made bigger by crash zooms, body language is gesticulation and flailing. Cliffhangers are earth-shattering until their immediate, pat resolution next episode, like an old Republic serial. There’s an ease to the viewing, and most certainly a comfort. None of this description should be taken as negative criticism. It’s candy, after all. I don’t believe that the fireworks nature of the show comes at the expense of anything, like complexity, for example. The financial technobabble is persuasive, even set against the unpersuasive backdrops (which I privately enjoy because I love sets, when environments feel fully designed), and the unraveling mystery is a weave of character and plot and social commentary, with aha moments only raising the stakes. … More K-Drama Report: Undercover Miss Hong, Part II

I’m going to do something potentially dangerous here, which is to begin coverage of a K-drama after its first episode. Hold my hand as we embark – ew, clammy. My policy generally is to only write when I have something to say, because you only get one life and you can’t spend it writing hundreds or thousands of words on “meh.” The white-collar jury is still out on Undercover Miss Hong, so with this post, I wanted to talk about the first episode and how it functions as a first episode. In American television, we have “pilots,” a term that might’ve lately been broadened to simply mean “premiere,” but which used to be an internal document for a studio ahead of a full season order. The result, aside from hundreds or thousands of television shows never seeing the green light, was that TV shows from their second episode on might look and feel radically different. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is a good example, because its pilot was initially made for Showtime before being picked up by The CW, so edits were made for adult content. Of course, you have legendary stories like Game of Thrones and all its tinkering, and the pilot might even be redone if it’s raggedy enough, like It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. These days, I feel like quality control is more important (A-list actors probably don’t tolerate the dreaded “pilot season”). So, you wouldn’t have, like, a pilot for FX’s Shogun in quite the same way. That was meant to be a limited series regardless. Moral of the story: first episodes kind of suck. … More K-Drama Report: Undercover Miss Hong (2026)