[Drama Review] 'W' - Episode 1

MBC's latest drama 'W' aired Wednesday night, a series featuring the melodrama/romance/thriller/suspense genres jumbled all in one. So if you're looking for the mixture of all these genres in one drama, then 'W' may be just the right one for you!

The series follows female lead Oh Yeon Joo (played by Han Hyo Joo), an 'untalented'--or so she calls herself--cardiology resident at Myungsei University Medical Center. From what I can tell from the first episode, Yeon Joo is not the brightest crayon in the box...but she's got the enthusiasm, and she's quick on her feet as was displayed during the scene where she saves Kang Chul's life. Internally, I was screaming, "Bish, if you don't know what you're doing, then just leave the dying man be unless you wanna be pegged for a murderer!" Buuuut, of course things smoothed out in the end and our handsome male lead Kang Chul (played by Lee Jong Suk) was safe and sound. Folks, if you're not a medical professional, please don't bore a hole in a dying man's chest with a pen....

LJS aiming the shot straight at ladies' fluttering hearts.

And then we've got Kang Chul, this fictional story's fictional character who lives in an alternate webtoon universe that is very much formulated like the real world. 'W' introduces Kang Chul as a naturally gifted youth at the ISSF-sponsored 50-meter pistol. But in a tragic turn of events in which his family ends up murdered in cold blood, Chul falls to the darkest depths of despair, especially after he is accused of being the prime suspect in the case. Chul's family's murder marks one of the biggest mysteries in the drama, and it also serves as the basis for Chul decision to continue living despite having lost everything. He even overcomes his painful past to make a name for himself as a vaunting, playboy billionaire who now has another goal in mind: to find the mystery woman named Oh Yeon Joo because she "holds the key to the reason for his existence."

I don't know about you, but this particular scene made me wonder if Chul is one of those characters in a work of fiction who 'broke the fourth wall.' Chul might have declared Yeon Joo the key to his life because he knows that forcing Yeon Joo into his story will keep him alive long enough to solve the mystery of his family's murder: the sole reason for his existence. Because Yeon Joo's father, the creator/writer of 'W', was planning on killing him off, Chul could have made the first move by pulling the father into the webtoon 'verse and keeping him hostage there to continue his story.

Ermagherd...so much blood

But...then again, that wouldn't make that much sense either as Chul could just force the writer to 'fess up who the killer of his family is. Why go through all the trouble? Well, because then 'W' would be ultimately over, with the story's biggest mystery unraveled. So to continue his existence, Chul possibly used Yeon Joo as an ultimatum, coercing the writer to drag her into the story. That is why he insisted that he "find" Yeon Joo to keep her in the plot, lengthen his existence, and compel the writer to resolve his family's murder his way. We shall see how it plays out.

Obviously, there will be romance between Chul and Yeon Joo, but I don't know about a happy ending because Chul is ultimately a 2D figure in a webtoon world. A 2D character can't jump up and out of the pages and exist in a 3D world...and neither can a 3D character exist in a 2D world. Meh. I guess I'm nitpicking again but it could become a big problem later. Imagine telling all your friends that your boyfriend is a webtoon character...yeah....pretty awkward.

A fictional story within a fictional story.

And I don't know if it's just me but I found Han Hyo Joo's acting in certain scenes a tad over-exaggerated and over-the-top. Aren't doctors (or doctors-to-be in Yeon Joo's case) supposed to be calm and collected? She's the least calm and collected doctor I've ever seen; perhaps several more years in residency will fix that. The point is, Han Hyo Joo's acting regressed and not progressed in the drama. She plays yet another seemingly hapless and helpless K-drama female lead whose mannerisms are exaggerated almost to a horridly comical degree and hard to take seriously. Yes, she exhibited quick-thinking in that one scene where she saved Chul but in most others, she would fly into near-hysteria at the face of imminent threat/danger, and even in situations that can't even be considered life-threatening...or dangerous. A good example would be when she discovered that she's in her father's webtoon and literally freaked. Yeah, if I were her I'd be weirded out, too, especially after a series of baffling events, but I wouldn't be going all berserk and soooo keyed up. I really hope that this not the way Han Hyo Joo will be acting for the rest of the series.

HHJ: "My acting is great thank you very much! Why don't you give it a try?"

Me: "....It's not my job to act."

So yeah, aside from Han Hyo Joo's cringe acting, I thought the first episode engaging enough, with an unusual storyline and plenty of tension to hold viewers' attention. Of course, feel free to share your own thoughts on this drama.