YG Future Strategy Office

YG Future Strategy Office

3.5/10

YG Future Strategy Office

Genre:                                                Episodes: 8                                      Year: 2018

Comedy

Synopsis:

After a scandal, Seungri is sent to work in the YG Future Strategy Office as head of the department.

Cast:

Seungri (Seungri)

Kim Ga Eun (Kim Ga Eun)

Son Se Bin (Son Se Bin)

Park Chung Hwan (Park Chung Hwan)

Lee Byung Jae (Lee Byung Jae)

Lee Jai Jin (Lee Jai Jin)

General Thoughts:

This is a show that you will either really, really like, or really, really won't. Unfortunately I do fall into the latter category. There were a fair few things about the show that I thought were fun and done well, but ultimately I think it fell very short of what it could have been.

Kind of funny, but also kind of not

It was always going to be a bit of a risk, as the sort of humour presented was not humour I could see going over well with Korean audiences. And I was right- the show got panned pretty hard by its Korean audience. However, it also got a lot of good reviews form its international (Western) audience. It was the style of humour that poked fun at everyone (I mean literally everyone),

More YG artists quietly disliking Seungri. Give me something new.

and with that sot of comedy it’s very easy to pass the realm of being funny and start inadvertently offending people. I myself didn’t find the comedy too outrageous or offensive, my only problem is that it started feeling repetitive. There are only 8 episodes in the whole show, and I wasn’t even halfway in when I started thinking that all the episodes were starting to feel a bit the same. This is probably due to the fact that there were very few characters in the show, and almost none that you care about. Each episode basically showed a way in which the FSO messed up a project and how Seungri had to scramble to fix it, not knowing how little his fellow YG artists really thought of him. Which was funny for a time, but started to get old rather quickly. I’m a big fan of the mockumentary style, with the American show ‘Modern Family’ making me realise how hilarious this genre could be, and then loving K-Drama’s first real foray into the genre with ‘The Producers’. While I did enjoy that another K-Drama was having a crack at this style (as ‘The Producers’ ended up phasing the style out as the drama went on), it really felt like it wasn’t used to its full potential.

On a positive note, One made an appearance! And he is still ridiculously handsome.

Essentially all it was used for was showing a YG artist agreeing to do something for Seungri, and then having them comment that they don’t actually like Seungri/find him weird in their private interview. It was fun the first few times, but after that it was kinda unentertaining and I started hoping that the show would try something new. It didn’t.

I think YG's biggest secret is that most people actually do like Seungri

For the acting, everyone was on the same level where it felt like the focus was more on having fun than delivering an amazing acting performance- which works out just fine for this style of show. All the actors involved looked like they were having a great time goofing around, which did make the show feel more enjoyable. Despite the show making fun of Seungri and often commenting that no one liked him, it felt as though everyone involved was having a really great time doing this project with him. One thing I will praise this show for is that it didn’t take itself too seriously. It didn’t feel as though there was a strict script that everyone had to follow, and I’m almost positive that half the footage that made it into the show came from the artists’ ad-libs and goofing off. It added a sense of ‘realness’ to a show that was very over-the-top. I really liked the scenes where Seungri was obviously completely baffled and confused as to what was going on- such as when Park Bom made her cameo (he obviously didn’t know she was coming), because I can totally imagine how much fun they were all having planning the surprise and watching Seungri’s reaction. At the end of the day, this show just wasn’t one that I enjoyed very much, but there were parts to it that were funny, and I can see how it could be really enjoyable for some people.

What Was Great:

Self Deprecating Humour:

This is a type of humour that doesn’t really crop up in a lot of K-Dramas- most likely because viewers might take it the wrong way.

There's something endearing about people who can laugh at themselves

Not all the jokes were that funny, and for me there were a large chunk of them that feel flat, but I really enjoyed that this was a show that was just trying to be pure fun. It felt like bunch of mates getting together and filming a little show for their own enjoyment,

If you act like it doesn't bother you, people lose interest pretty quick

and taking the p*ss out of each other a bit. So rarely do you see artists and companies making light of their scandals, so it was actually kind of nice to see a whole bunch of people joking about them- because scandals can be pretty ridiculous sometimes. The show frequently mentioned Seungri’s 2012 bed scandal, and made allusions to the number of artists that have had drug scandals. While I’m sure there are a great number of people who found this insensitive, I appreciated that the show wasn’t scared to laugh about its own scandals. For me, it actually made the scandals seem less serious and less likely to be true- if they were really all that terrible, the artists themselves wouldn’t be able to laugh about it like this. The only scandal joke I didn’t really appreciate was making light of Jai Jin’s drunk driving, as while most sandals (sex, drugs etc.) are only self harming, drunk driving poses a risk to other people, so I was less thrilled when they joked about that.

What Wasn’t:

Where are the Cameos?:

One thing this drama boasted was a nice long list of cameos by YG artists. It’s why I tuned in (along with Seungri) and was probably a factor in drawing in other viewers. And while it didn’t lie about the cameos, they felt very short and not at all like they were used to their full potential.

I'm guessing YG wanted to keep those with squeaky clean images squeaky clean

I think Black Pink were on screen for a grand total of about 40 seconds. I was kind of expecting this show to be absolutely packed with cameos, so I couldn't help but be a bit disappointed when 85% of the screen time was dominated by the FSO team, leaving only about 15% for the cameos.

Recommend?

Look, if you’re a big fan of Seungri or YG you may want to give it a watch, otherwise you probably shouldn’t bother.

I do applaud the show for trying something new