Producers

Producers

8/10

Producers

Genre:                                   Episodes: 12                                   Year: 2015

Romance

Comedy

Mockumentary

Synopsis:

Baek Seung Chan has a crush on a KBS employee and decides to enter the same field of work as her. He enters the KBS entertainment division as a junior producer, where he is devastated to find his crush is involved with Ra Joon Mo, head producer of ‘2 Days & 1 Night’. Things worsen for Seung Chan as he begins having difficulties with Tak Ye Jin, head producer of ‘Music Bank’ and close friend of Ra Joon Mo. After Seung Chan is assigned to Joon Mo’s variety show as a junior producer, he meets popular singer Cindy, notorious for being stubborn and cold, who has agreed to join the program out of a growing interest in Baek Seung Chan.

Cast:

Kim Soo Hyun (Baek Seung Chan)

Gong Hyo Jin (Tak Ye Jin)

IU (Cindy)

Cha Tae Hyun (Ra Joon Mo)

 General Thoughts:

It’s a funny, endearing drama with funny, endearing characters. At first I was worried that much of the drama would be lost on me, as the only experience I really have with Korean Variety is 'Running Man', but I was happily surprised. The jokes presented in the drama are pretty universal and avoid being too ‘insider’. The humour and mockumentary style was helped along by tasteful cameos.

It's cute, and delightful, and emotional

The cast was delightful. As usual Kim Soo Hyun was magnificent, displaying his amazing acting abilities and embodying the awkward, honest man that is Baek Seung Chan. Gong Hyo Jin is wonderful as Tak Ye Jin- her straight-faced shamelessness and unwillingness to admit mistakes flowed effortlessly. But the real star of the cast is definitely Cha Tae Hyun.

All the pairings were adorable and plausible

So far I’ve only watched him in dramas where he is cast as a baddie, so it was marvellous to get a taste of his comedic flare (which I might add, is excellent). The main characters are just so real and believable- it’s hard not to become emotionally invested in their struggles. The lovelines flip-flop all over the place, which make the drama that much more compelling. Anyone could end up with anyone, and it would still make a satisfying conclusion. The mockumentary style of filming is unique and adds a great deal of humour- with scenes that directly oppose what our characters have said, right after they say it. Sadly though, this style seems to fall off the bandwagon a bit, and becomes a bit of an afterthought as the drama progresses.

What Was Great:

Earnest Maknae:

Kim Soo Hyun so perfectly fits the role of the hardworking junior with absolutely no social graces. His character, Baek Seung Chan, is developed nicely from the get go, with each scene seeming to add something new, no matter how small.

Kim Soo Hyun slays it in whatever role he plays

His inability to read sarcasm and his blissful obliviousness to social cues pair nicely with his childish pettiness, and make him a character that is a joy to watch on screen. He has wonderful relationships with the other main leads that continue to develop throughout the whole drama. The love-hate relationship with Ra Joon Mo is hilarious, as is his confused puppy-love relationship with Tak Ye Jin. The only fault in this character is that I wish they’d spent a little more time and effort developing Seung Chan’s relationship with Cindy. His sheer determination for Ye Jin and awkwardness towards everyone else wore a little thin towards the end, when I was really hoping his character would have a little burst of mature growth that propelled him from being a ‘boy’ character to a ‘man’ character.

So Many Lovelines:

At the risk of becoming vague and irritating, the show keeps our four main leads in an ever-tangled mess of feelings. And it works splendidly. All our characters seem to be looking lovingly at someone who is looking lovingly at someone else, but there are enough moments of semi-reciprocated feelings that we as viewers are never left feeling high and dry with no romance.

Lovelines...lovelines everywhere

The two love-triangles, or love-square, or whatever it is, is massively unpredictable. As the show progresses and our characters get even more developed, it’s easy to see the story swinging either way. And while I’m sure everyone has their own favourite pairing, the drama seems to quite easily avoid stepping on anyone’s toes, even as it ventures out and explores other love possibilities. All these lovelines really helped to mould Cindy into a relatable, pitiable character, while providing mass amounts of cute. At first I felt nothing for IU’s character, but the second the lovelines start getting messy- I got so many feels for Cindy, and basically loved everything about her.

Every girl's been here at least once

It’s absolutely heartbreaking to watch her loving someone who won’t even look at her, and the show really digs the knife in there by showing the similarities between Cindy and Seung Chan. Both of them are in unrequited loves, and neither knows what to do about it. Seung Chan bounces around like a puppy- doing everything and anything he can to make the girl he likes happy, while Cindy takes more of a backseat approach. She drops little hints now and then (which of course the socially incompetent Seung Chan totally overlooks) and continually sneaks peaks at him while waiting for him to notice her, even just a little. I wanted so badly for both of them to be happy, which basically destroyed my emotions, because those were two conflicting outcomes. I adore Joon Mo as well- his quiet, unacknowledged acts of kindness for Ye Jin when no one is looking are just unbearably sweet. It’s appealing to watch our four leads dance around this one underlying complication- do you potentially damage your relationship trying to change it, or do you stick with what you have? The twisted, tangled lovelines manage to provide both mass hilarity and mass feels.

♫Baby, can't you see-ee-ee...you belong with me-e-e, you belong with me♫

Just Plain Good Story:

While the lovelines did deliver the bulk of the story, all aspects of the plot were great. Behind the lovelines were a group of people struggling to figure out the world and make meaning in their lives.

What figuring out your life looks like

The continually developed friendships between our four main cast members were simply beautiful to watch, and it’s so easy to become invested in every aspect of their lives: work, friends, love. The plot is continuously moving forwards- while not always at a ripping pace, there is always some change in our characters, their views, or their situations.

Aww yeeeees

Kookie:

My main Korean heartthrob makes his acting debut! I went into this drama knowing that Kim Jong Kook was going to be making a couple of appearances, and I was tickled pink to see how much screen time he actually got. While I didn’t actually get the point of his character (except for adding in a few extra laughs), I thought he did an excellent job with his role, and hope to see him take on more acting in the future.

What Wasn’t:

Abandoning Style:

I really loved the mockumentary style. It added some dry wit and stark contrast humour into the series that is rarely seen in K-Dramas. I can understand why the people behind ‘Producers’ decided to drop the risky mockumentary style for a more conventional type of presentation, because if people in South Korea don’t appreciate it, the show won’t do well. However, the series was managing to score pretty high ratings even if its mockumentary spin was taking a bit of criticism, so I really wished they’d tried sticking it out for a bit longer.

I sincerely wish they'd kept this style throughout

Halt in Seung Chan’s Progress:

The drama started out looking like it was going to be about this young man’s development from a boy into a man. It was awkwardly humorous, but I didn’t mind at all when the show started to lean more towards the relationship dynamics rather than focusing solely on Beak Seung Chan.

Basically Seung Chan after any social interaction

Unfortunately, towards the end of the drama Kim Soo Hyun’s character just seemed to skid to a stop. Rather than making the gradual transition into wrapping the drama up, we had continued melancholy- with Seung Chan constantly trying to win Ye Jin over, and Ye Jin constantly having to let him down gently. While Seung Chan’s bleeding heart, overflowing tears, and boundless passion are simultaneously fascinating and heartbreaking to watch, it did get old. We’d seen it before, and frankly I was hoping we would get more of a look at how Seung Chan develops past this setback- how he reacts and responds after realising that pure effort cannot gain someone’s affections. These scenes became even more cringe worthy when compared to Cindy’s scenes. I felt far more compassion and sympathy for Cindy quietly ‘building up and tearing down her house’ on her own, than for Seung Chan trying to force his way into Ye Jin’s heart. It got to the point where it felt as though Ye Jin had expressed herself clearly (and repeatedly) but the young maknae still couldn’t let her move away from him and be happy with another man.

Son, just leave the woman alone

It also adds a bit of salt in the wound to see that each time he behaved in this mildly irritating, clingy way, Cindy (who rapidly became my favourite character) was left even more heartbroken and lonesome. Those scenes where Seung Chan rushed to Ye Jin and abandoned Cindy while she waited for him- not needing a man, but simply a friend- practically made me disintegrate into tears. Open your eyes foolish boy!

Re-watch?

Absolutely. I loved every moment of this drama, and became invested in all four of our main characters. The end was pleasing and satisfying, and I can’t wait to experience it all again.

So many feelings